Learning Fun with Miss Eglinton

Miss E's Medal Chart

For the last two weeks, we have been lucky to be learning with the wonderful candidate teacher, Miss Eglinton. She is in the first year of her teacher training and has been making a fantastic contribution to the learning and culture of Room 6.

What will happen next?

Miss Eglinton been reading the class the mysterious and adventurous novel, "The Ghosts of Young Nick's Head" by Sue Copsey. Room 6 love it! One group of students have been creating their own retells of the chapter, "Plunged into Darkness". They have been focusing on adding interesting details through choosing emotive language. Check out Ben's example here!


We have also really enjoyed our Commonwealth Games challenges. Look at the awesome medal chart that Miss Eglinton created! Can you guess which country each flag belongs to?

Wonder Character Art

Here are four of our awesome Character Traits artworks based on the characters in the book, Wonder. We used lots of our reading comprehension strategies to summarise our chosen character. You can see more examples on our Wonder page! Artworks will continue to be added as students finish them in their iLearning time.

Via by Maddison

Auggie (August) by Taylor

Summer by Mary

Jack Will by Liam

Wonder: "You are beautiful no matter what they say"

We just finished reading Part Three of Wonder. Each part of the book written by R.J. Palacio is told from the perspective of a different character. We love the character Summer, because of the way she respects and has fun with August.

At the start of each part of the book is a quote. This quote is from Christina Aguilera's song "Beautiful". We have enjoyed listening to the song before and after reading this part of the book. It makes us think about respecting others. It is as August would say, "cool beans".

Wonder: Ordinary?

Wonder by R.J. Palacio is not an ordinary book. I love it. I am looking forward to reading it as a shared reading with Room 6. We have twenty copies of the book from the library. The book trailer above does a good job of advertising the book. It is persuading the viewer to read it. We discovered that the words come from the first chapter, Ordinary.

Ordinary

I know I'm not an ordinary ten-year old kid. I mean, sure, I do ordinary things. I eat ice cream. I ride my bike. I play ball. I have an XBox. Stuff like that makes me ordinary. I guess. And I feel ordinary. Inside. But I know ordinary kids don't make other ordinary kids run away screaming in playgrounds. I know ordinary kids don't get stared at wherever they go.

(Taken from Wonder, by R.J. Palacio)

Can I get back to you on that?

Today, we read the last two chapters of Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key by Jack Gantos. Here are our thoughts on the book and our favourite parts. Can we get back to you on that?

 

Created with Padlet

Here is a Lego stop motion video created by an American student about the book. We have enjoyed watching this in class.

 

New Trailer for Joey Pigza Swallowed The Key!

We have been reading the book Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key by Jack Gantos. It is a very special book because it is funny, moving and really makes you think. It also helps us understand the challenges that people can face.

Bree is a fantastic Joey Pigza!

Last week, Hannah, Bree, Olivia and Lily created a trailer about the book so far. I thought it was great and it really showed their creativity and how much they understood about key events in the story.

Joey pigza Swallowed The Key from Room16 Parkvale on Vimeo.

The Dead Harry Trailers

Room 16 finished reading Dead Harry by Ken Catran last week. We really enjoyed the story. It made us laugh and also gave us a little scare now and then. As the mystery unfolded, we liked predicting what might happen next.

Most of the class wanted to create trailers so we borrowed a few iPads and gave it go. Watch them below (if you dare!). Which trailer do you think is the best and why? How do they advertise the book and make you want to read it?

Remember to vote for your favourite trailer in the poll. (Poll closed - thank you. Trailer B won a very close vote.)

 

Trailer A: Joshua, Shivom, Jessica, Inderpreet and Ellis.

Trailer B: Hannah, Lily, Teva and Zeb. Guest starring Liam as Mr Dombroski and Ellis as the unknown criminal.

Trailer C:  Tyrone, Nikitah J, Emma and Crighton. Guest starring Zach as Mr Rudd.

Trailer D: Tracey, Cameron, Dylan and Olivia.

Trailer E: Samuel, Zach, Bree and Hemani. Guest starring Joshua as the unknown criminal, Lily as Primula, Ben as Mr Rudd and Teva as the spooky Elias Milton.

Trailer F: Marcus's trailer using GoAnimate. Technical assistance by Teva.

Update: Student letters to Ken Catran (click on the links):

• Joshua
• Hannah
• Tracey
• Samuel
• Nikitah J
• Inderpreet
• Zeb
• Tyrone
• Henry
• Olivia
• Hemani
• Lily
• Nakita H
• Ben
• Crighton
• Jessica
• Ellis
• Emma
• Cameron

The Alaskan Adventure

Mr Simon Evans taught the class the other day, while I was learning and sharing with enthusiastic teachers and the "rich kids" in our ICT group at Richmond School. He guided them through the fantastic shared writing activity which produced this story. As he messaged me on the day "Collaborative writing in real time. You should hear the discussion as they type." I have put it together into an e-book using the students' illustrations. Please read Room 16's adventure story!

Here are Simon's rules of participation:

• Stay in your own chapter area
• Work together with your group
• Make constructive comment when you need to
• Check the language you use
• Leave the SHARE option alone

Wonder is a very special book

We had a bit of a break from our class book Wonder by R.J. Palacio. Now, with our Production long gone and the holidays finished, we are getting back into it. It is a very special book. Today, we talked about the book before we started to read it again. This picture which shows some words which remind us of Wonder was created on the iPad app Whiteboard as we talked.

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?

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

Buddy by V.M. Jones

We have finished our much loved class book, Buddy by V.M. Jones. This Tagxedo contains words which described the book Buddy for us. The students have also been writing fantastic letters to the author, V.M. Jones.

I will add links to their letters below:

• Joshua
• Parris
• Bianca
• Brody
• Eden
• Katrina
• Charlotte
• Alexandra
• Rhys
• Felicity
• Natasha
• Teva
• Lachlan
• Daniel
• Stefan
• Kharn
• Hannah
• Sami
• Tyler
• Samuel
• Amy
• Courtney
• Katherine
• Seth
• Casey

Licked

Look out for blog posts of students reading their own versions of the endings to this story by Paul Jennings. The students quickly wrote and filmed their versions before I read the real ending to them.

A special thanks to Felicity for insisting she film me reading the real ending!

Student versions:

• Felicity
• Courtney
• Katrina
• Seth
• Teva
• Bianca
• Jake
• Stefan
• Amy

Nicholas

We have just finished our class book, Nicholas. Follow the link to his great website. It includes his blog!

Leave a comment here to share your feedback on the stories. I am also thinking of creating a Nicholas survey on Google forms. Good idea?

Stefan did a wonderful visualising sketch as we listened to two of the stories, using Google drawing. Here it is: