Olympic Opening Ceremony

We are really getting into our Olympics topic. It is just a pity that it is too wet to continue the Room 20 Olympics at the moment!

Here are some highlights from the opening ceremony, as written by the Room 20 Kiwi Kids News reporters!

The Queen jumped off the plane with James Bond.

But she came down safely, don't worry she's fine. Alexandra

Olympic games have started with a dazzling opening ceremony with amazing fireworks, the best in the world. What a way to start the Olympics with a bang. Amy

Last night the queen parachuted into the stadium and it was awesome. Bianca

When the display is over the Olympic rings float in the sky like clouds. Brody

Isn’t it spectacular? All the fireworks are booming all around us. Casey

Australia is a very determined country and tries their best at everything. Charlotte

The fireworks are dazzling. Courtney

The billion fans are yelling out we love you James Bond. Daniel

I personally think the highlight of ceremony were the neon lights on the boat. Eden

After a nice start of lovely families, it all turns into work, work and even more work. With all of the men hard at work and the ladies washing the clothes. Felicity

Wow! The crowd is going louder and louder, they are all looking up. My, oh my, that is a really big parachute coming down into the stadium. It is Queen Elizabeth, and coming down after her is, who is it? Oh it is James Bond. Hannah

Hi my name is Mr Burns and finally the Olympics has opened. Jacob

It's mayhem in the crowd with billions of people from all over world screaming, laughing, oohing and ahing. Jake

Here comes New Zealand. Nick Willis is holding the New Zealand flag, every one from NZ cheers. Joshua

The industrial revolution turning from green pastures to big chimneys and factories. Katherine

With the funny scenes, Mr Bean playing the keyboard, the Queen and James Bond parachuting out of a helicopter, yes a helicopter. Would you do that if you were the Queen? Katrina

Now the orchestra is playing. Who is that playing on the keyboard? It’s Mr Bean! Haha he just swapped hands to look at his watch! Now he is pulling a face at the piano player. Ooh, heaps of snot is running down his face! Now he is reaching for the tissues but he can’t without stop playing the keyboard. Then he sees an umbrella and grabs and uses it to play the piano. Kharn

There is so much excitement all the energy could light up the world. Lachlan

The cheering is getting higher and higher as I speak. What do you know? James Bond and the Queen have just arrived but not just from anywhere, it looks like they are parachuting down. It's incredible. Natasha

And now the moment you have been waiting for, let's give a huge round of applause for Great Britain! Parris

The lava rings are now entering the stadium. They start to go together and are forming the Olympic rings the start sparking, “What a sensation to watch this right on top of me!” I said to myself. Rhys

The show has been watched all over the world, as a Kiwi kids news reporter from NZ, I am blown away by the performances. Samuel

It took 150 hours to practice in the run up show. There was James Bond and the Queen, with James Bond jumping out of the Helicopter with a parachute and awesome explosions, dazzling fireworks coming out of the stadium and Mr Bean being a dag on the piano. Seth

Wow! We have molten lava being poured into a trail that finds its way to one of the Olympic rings representing the five continents Asia, Europe, Oceania, Africa and America coming together in these games. We can now see the five rings floating in the arena slowly joining together. Stefan

The Queen takes the stand. “I declare that the Olympic games start. When the flame goes out the games shall be over.” The giant rings are now connecting together. Wow! The crowd goes wild as the sparks rain down from the rings. Tyler
What is this? It looks like a play an old time play. All the characters look so real and I heard that the characters clothes could not be washed until the opening ceremony is over. Zeb

Wordle of our sentences

 

Jump Jam Trailer

Jump Jam from Kieren Moriarty on Vimeo.

I created this trailer playing around on the iPad. It is really easy to create a trailer on iMovie. Such fun! I hope you enjoy it.

Pakeke Mai O Matimati

PAKEKE MAI O MATIMATI from Kieren Moriarty on Vimeo.
Great way to the end the day: waiata!

Making Inferences

WALT: Infer
Making inferences is about "reading between the lines" and finding the hidden or deeper meanings in the text. This is a huge part of understanding what we read. Good writers give clues to help the reader infer. By thinking about what we know (prior knowledge) as we read, we see these clues and combine them with our prior knowledge to infer. We are detectives searching for and making meaning.

The Jedi Knights reading group gave us the model above from the excellent story Teamwork by Maria Samuela. Notice how they combine clues in the text with their prior knowledge to infer.

Kapa Haka Sharing

Kapa Haka Sharing from Kieren Moriarty on Vimeo.

At the end of the day, members of our Kapa Haka proudly share their learning with the class.

In other news, this week is Maori Language Week, 

Te Wiki o te Reo Māori.

"Arohatia te Reo is the theme for Māori Language Week, which means to cherish the language. We encourage you, no matter who you are, where you come from, or what you do, to find a way to express how you can use, honour, speak and show your love for the language of our country."

We are making sure we celebrate and cherish te Reo during Māori Language Week in Room 20.

Wonder Book Trailer

Here is the book trailer for our new class book Wonder by R.J. Palacio.

What do you like about the book Wonder so far?

I love the idea of creating trailers to advertise books. It persuades people to read them. I think it would be a great reading and ICT activity. What do you think?

The Great White Man-Eating Shark

Margaret Mahy is one of my favourite authors ever. It is sad to hear that she passed away yesterday but I know that her words and stories will continue to thrill, entertain and inspire people through the years. I imagine her influence will actually grow.

Image from Penguin

Today we watched the first part of the movie for the super story The Great White Man-Eating Shark. We are writing our own endings as a fun tribute to Margaret Mahy. Already, they are awesome!

Buddy Hot Seat

Check out Episode 2 of our Character Hot Seat series!
Buddy Hot Seat from Kieren Moriarty on Vimeo.

Here is the transcript that the Droids reading group created on Google docs:

BUDDY AND CHANTAL HOT SEAT Q’S 

Josh: Brody

Chantal: Casey

Presenter: Felicity

Presenter: Welcome ladies and gentlemen to the one and only Character Hot seat. Tonight we have Chantal and Josh from the fabulous novel Buddy.
Applause

Chantal’s Q’s

Felicity:  Hi Chantal my name is Felicity, my question for you (Chantal) is what made you adore Splash the cute little kitten?

ANSWER: Well she is full of mischief and excitement and she is very cute.

Katherine: Hi Chantal my name is Katherine and I have a question for you. Why does your dad not let you have pets?

ANSWER: Because since we move around every now and then it is too hard to take a pet on the move.

Brody:  My question for you today Chantal is were you hooked to Josh when you first met or did you need to get to know him?

ANSWER: I got to know him.     

Sami: Hi Chantal I’m Sami My question for you is Why did you like music so much?

Answer: Because it is exciting to learn different songs and things.

Natasha: Hello Chantal, I'm Natasha and my question for you today is, did you ever like Shane?

Answer: No I did not because he did not think I could carry my own bag to the bike shed.   

Josh’s Questions

Flossie: Hi Josh I’m Felicity and my question for you ( Josh ) is how was it like running with Jake in the wheelchair?

ANSWER: It was exhilarating, I loved every bit of it.

Natasha: Hi Josh, I’m Natasha and my question for you today is how did you feel when Suzanne was talking to you about her life.

ANSWER: It was awkward.

Casey: Hi Josh, my question for you is did you like it when Chantal kissed you?

ANSWER: I don’t know, she kind of just did it.

Sami: Hi Josh, I’m Sami. My question for you is why did you want to keep Jake a secret?

Answer: Because he will get picked on, he was already a secret so I thought it should stay that way. Obviously until the triathlon came around.      

Kazzie : How did you feel when you were pushing Jake to the finish line at the triathlon and you were coming first, then Shane bet you?

Answer: I didn’t really mind because all I cared about was Buddy.   

V.M. Jones Answers Our Questions!

Today we received an email from the author V.M. Jones answering questions we had asked her about the book Buddy. Read her wonderful response below!

Hello there to all you wonderful readers and writers!
 
I'm sorry it has taken me so long to reply to your lovely letters. I'm also sorry I can't reply to every one of them individually, but my life is so busy at the moment that answering just a few questions was the best I could promise to do.
 
I am so thrilled that you have been reading Buddy as a class, and have enjoyed it so much. Let me tell you a little about how I came to write it, and some other bits and pieces I hope you will find interesting. Hopefully I will answer some of your questions in the process!
 

Writing has always been a hugely important part of my life. When I was at school English and particularly Creative Writing were by far my favourite subjects, and since then all my jobs have involved some kind of writing, to a greater of lesser extent. For some reason it never occurred to me to actually become an author until a few years ago ... but thinking back I believe it was always in my destiny. I think that for me it was important to live first ... certainly I could never have written the books I have without having had my two boys, watched them grow up, and learn all over again what it means to be a child (and to learn for the first time what it means to be a boy!)

You ask what inspires me to write. The answer is simple: life! I believe that ideas for stories are floating in the air all round us, like those dandelion seeds my sons used to call ‘fairies’ when they were younger – things that happen, remarks you overhear, people’s interesting faces, stories your kids tell you about what happened at school – and sometimes one of those seeds taken root and grows into a book. Though all my stories are imaginary, they do have a seed of reality at their heart - even if it's just the reality of an idea or concept I find interesting or believe in passionately.

 

The plot of Buddy was mostly made up, though I do remember my grandmother telling us about a friend of hers with one ‘normal’ child and one disabled one who lived in a special home … that was years and years ago, when I was about 6 or so. As an author, you find lots of ideas unexpectedly resurfacing from your past – things you thought you’d forgotten completely. Maybe the seed for Buddy came from that. More immediately, though, when I decided to write a book I thought I’d write about an apparently very ordinary boy who had a hidden secret he’d do anything to prevent anyone from finding out. I gave Josh not one secret, but two – Buddy, and his fear of water. Finding a link between them, and exploring what happened next, led to the plot of the book.

I think part of what inspired me was wondering how it would feel to be Josh and have a brother like Buddy, and how I personally would respond. That is fortunately impossible to answer; all I do know is that the emotions involved would be very complex.

I'm often asked whether Buddy has a moral to it. I think in many ways it’s important to write books that make people think about difficult issues, and whose characters grow and develop – hopefully in a positive way. Travelling through a book with the characters makes the reader learn and grow too, and I guess that’s what is meant by a ‘moral’. If you think about all that Josh learns about himself and various aspects of life – such as the importance of family, honesty, courage, love, and what it really means to win – you will be getting pretty close to what I regard as the heart of the novel. Shane also grows and develops in much the same way - he is a different person at the end of the book than at the beginning, but that is partly because Josh has matured and sees him differently. Maybe Shane was really nice all along!

No, there won’t be a sequel to Buddy. Some books, like another of my books, Juggling with Mandarins, almost demand to be explored further – as the writer, you have a compelling sense that there is more to be told. With Buddy, I felt that the characters had reached a stage where they were ready to be left in peace to get on with their lives without my intervention!

Chantal reminds  me a little of myself when I was a little girl, so perhaps parts of her are based on me!

Buddy as a nickname came from an imaginary game one of my sisters and I played when we were children. We pretended we were two friends at a boarding school who had all sorts of adventures together. We could never decide on names for ourselves, so we called each other 'Friend'. The name of the game was 'Friends'. The idea of twins who called each other Budddy came from that.

Lastly, what do I like best about my story 'Buddy'? The answer is the characters, who came alive for me while I was writing the book and who I like to think come alive in their own way for every single person who reads it. And my favourite character, of course, is Josh.

Thank you again for reading and enjoying Buddy, and for taking the time to write to me. Read lots, write lots, and above all: have fun!

Lots of love

Vicky Jones

What we want to find out about the Olympics

Yesterday Room 20 posted these questions on a Wallwisher I created for our class. I am impressed by how the class asked effective questions. This is a skill we have been practising in reading.

Click on image to make it bigger

Challenge: research and answer any of these questions. Put your answer and a possible link in as a comment.

Olympic Torch

The Olympic torch sure is special. One of our writing choices is to imagine you are chosen to carry the Olympic flame! Describe your feelings as you run... ...carrying the Olympic torch.

Today we tried a quick Draw - Label - Caption plan to develop ideas, details and sequencing for our writing. We will use these to create effective sentences which are grouped into paragraphs.

Check out these examples from year fives in our class:

Rhys

Sam

Zeb

Alexandra

Bianca

Daniel

Kharn

Fabo Story 3

This email appeared in my inbox today, from Kathy White, the author of Buddy. I think we should give it a go! What do you think?

"Calling all teachers and children who are interested in creating a new interactive online story with a team of children's authors.

I'm sending this email on behalf of the FaBo team, who are limbering up for the next round of FaBo Story. FaBo Story 3 launched this morning at http://fabostory3.blogspot.co.nz/ and we'd LOVE you to write with us. 

Go to http://fabostory3.blogspot.co.nz/ to read the letter that kickstarts our children's story about the Titanic Games."

Letter Screenshot

"FABO STORY 3 begins with a letter posted on the blog on Monday 16 July - a letter that threatens to disrupt the biggest sporting event in world history - the TITANIC GAMES.

Who wrote the letter and to whom? Why would they make threats? It's your job to write a follow-on chapter. YOU decide what the story is about, who the characters are, and what happens to them next. Write the next chapter in the story (up to 1000 words) and send it to fabostory@gmail.com in the body of your email (not as an attachment) by 5pm on Friday 27 July. The winning chapter will appear on Monday 30 July at the same time as a chapter by one of the children's authors. From then on, every week is another episode in a big, dark writing adventure.

By the end, you will have used your imagination and sleuthing skills to figure out who the villain is and how to stop him or her from destroying the Titanic Games. Are you ready to compete? Let the Titanic Games begin!"

Sleuthing Screenshot

"There will be prizes, so start working on your medal count now.

As it's the beginning of the term and you're all busy, we're giving you a bit longer to write your first chapter and email it to us (deadline 27 July). From then on, the competition is a weekly event.

GOOD LUCK. : ) Start reading, and start writing."

London 2012 Olympics

Term three is about to begin and the Team Five teachers are excited! We are going to base our learning at the beginning of the term around the Olympics. Check out the trailer above to build your anticipation for the London Olympics.

Here is a great timeline about the Olympics from Timetoast:



Extra: Try playing this fun flag game that Room 5 Kidd-li-winks have on their blog. See if you can beat Mrs H's score!

ABC Treasure Hunt

ABC in Te Puke from Kieren Moriarty on Vimeo.

My girls quickly went on an ABC treasure hunt and took photos of what they found. They came back and then we edited it into a video using Movie Maker. Loads of fun! Hope you enjoy our video.

Maybe you could do this as a holiday challenge!