Korito and the Axolotls

BFF!

Korito is the name of one of our new pets. He is one of four axolotls in our old fish tank. They were given to us by the HNI teacher, Kelly McIlroy, after she visited our class with other teachers from HNI. She loved Fish n' Chips and told us about her axolotls that were breeding. One thing led to another and we got some new pets! Thanks, Kelly!

I have named one of the pets, Korito, after one of the Seven Whales in the legend which we retell for the production. Ben plays this role. Korito sounded a little Mexican to me, and another name for axolotls is Mexican walking fish: "Australians and New Zealanders frequently refer to the Axolotl as the Mexican Walking Fish, though the Axolotl is not a fish but an amphibian, a salamander." (Axolotl.org)

Just hanging out, waiting for a name...

Now, we have to name the other three. Here are the contending names. You can vote on the poll on the top right side of our blog. As there are three to be named, you can choose multiple answers. The axolotls already have a blog, run by Kyra and Maia. Check it out!

• Captain Cabbage
• Liquorice
• Dorito
• Taco
• Toothless
• Randy

The final results: Toothless, Liquorice and Randy join Korito!

Happy Dogs (and a cat who thinks it's a dog)

This week's Video of the Week comes from The Writing Book team. It should bring a smile to your face. Watch it and enjoy! Then you might like to try one of these suggested writing prompts:

• A day out - recount the event from a dog's perspective 
• Review the video 
• Describe part of the clip 
• Narrative based on the video 
• Write captions /speech bubbles

Learning Buddy Panda

Here is the Room 6 Learning Buddy Panda. I created it using the Loupe app. It has all the learning buddy animals created by Room 6. Hover over the pictures to enlarge them. We had fun creating them. So far, we are being pretty good learning buddies and we will only get better.

The Recovery of Chips

Chips on the left, Fish taking the limelight as usual

This morning we got a scare. Marcus discovered that Chips, the smaller half of the dynamic duo, Fish n' Chips was stuck and injured. I got him out from behind the pump, but things didn't look good. However, with a little TLC it seems our fishy friend is on the road to recovery. Thanks Marcus!

 
The Recovery of Chips from Room16 Parkvale on Vimeo.

Remember the PRIDE award? Good times!

Nala and Zippa

On Friday, the Tree of PRIDE were visited by two mischievious labrador puppies. Nala and Zippa are from the same litter. Their owners, Henry and Joshua are both proud daddies.

Nala, Simba's playmate 

Room 16 thought they were so cute, except for Teva who thought "they were a little terrifying." They definitely were excitable and curious. You can see for yourself by watching the video below. Sharyn (Josh's Mum) said that "they are the most photographed puppies in the world." Joshua also wrote a neat story about the arrival of Nala which is definitely worth a read.




 
Nala and Zippa from Kieren Moriarty on Vimeo.
Music: Don't go down the mine, Dad by Frank Miller used under licence through Creative Commons.

Wildebeest Writing

Yesterday we used this animated video as a writing prompt.

We discussed ideas about the structure of the story.

There was a lot of direct speech coming through in our writing, so we had a mini-lesson on punctuating direct speech.

The students' writing is very entertaining so far. Many have chosen to completely change the characters. Look out for their presented writing on the student blogs (links on the right).

Fish n' Chips Episode 2

Hannah and Milly (who were playing at school) cleaned the fish tank yesterday. They were such a great help! The fish tank was looking so clean and Fish and Chips were looking so happy that I just had to create a short video about it...



Fish n' Chips 2 from Kieren Moriarty on Vimeo.

Paradise Valley

In the holidays, my girls were very lucky to be taken to Paradise Valley in Rotorua by their Nana Chris and Poppa Pete. So was I! We got to pat lion cubs! Here is a trailer to share some of the fun :)




Paradise Valley from Kieren Moriarty on Vimeo.

Our Pets

Fish n' Chips from Kieren Moriarty on Vimeo.

Fish and Chips have been around for a while now. They are very quiet members of Room 20 but relate very well to others. Fish is huge and truly the king of the tank. Chips is smaller and swerves around the tank like Conrad Smith. When you're quiet, you can hear them banging the pebbles against the glass.

If you come into Room 20, remember to say hello to Fish and Chips. Oh, and that other little fish. He or she hasn't got a name yet. I wonder what we should call it?