What Is Your Opinion?

In our reading group we have been looking at sharing our opinion about an event or issue. We read sections from a number of nursery rhymes and fairytales. We looked at one event within the text and had to make a statement about the outcome. The statement then had to be backed up with a good argument. We had to write this argument into our reading books.

We will share some of our work with you.

The Emperor's New Clothes - written by Lydia
I think that they weren't being fair with the Emperor. I mean first of all, telling a lie...well what kind of people were they? It's almost like imagining that everybody was laughing at Barack Obama. The fact that the Emperor was able to tell everyone that if they couldn't see the clothes they were stupid, was so silly. I suppose in some ways it's even, but I'm not so sure. I guess the Emperor was a bit silly, in fact I've decided he was really silly, but they shouldn't have tricked him in the beginning.

The Emperor's New Clothes -written by Madison
I don't think it was fair when the Emperor had to walk on the red carpet in his new clothes (naked). I bet he was embarrassed. All that laughing would be terrible. The tailor or designer should not have tricked the Emperor. I don't think that was fair at all.

The Three Billy Goats Gruff - Written by Robert
I do think that the goats should have gone across to the other side of the bridge. The problem was that the troll was very greedy. He should have let the three goats get across. It was just his luck that the big goat had very long horns. His horns were long enough to knock the troll off the bridge and into the water. The troll was never to be seen again. The troll should not have been so greedy.

Snapshots with our Korean Student

Our visiting student:
Jeiun Lee, a university student from Korea observed in our classroom last week. We asked her to teach us a Korean song as we had been told that she was learning the piano. We also wanted to hear a Korean story. During her first day with us we were allowed to ask Miss Lee questions about Korean life, including school life. We compared life in Korea to that of New Zealand. Miss Lee told us that Korean students work hard at school and feel much pressure to be successful. She liked the way we had a chance to run our own Team meetings and to discuss our needs openly. She was surprised that the classroom programme took each child's needs into consideration. While Korean children read from the same book, we have many reading groups within one classroom.



The song Miss Lee taught us told the story of 'Goldilocks and the Three Bears.' We thought you would like to see photographs and a quick film strip with us singing together. We found it quite difficult to master the Korean words.





Our story was about the creation of Korea. Miss Lee told us the story about a bear that wanted to be a person. The bear had to eat garlic and a special plant for one year at the end of which time the bear became a woman. The woman met God's son and married him. They had a son who went on to create Korea. We talked a little about this creation story and compared it to others. We found this really interesting.

Progress with our Waitangi Unit

This week we have completed much of our work on the Treaty of Waitangi and the events that surrounded its existence. We have been busy writing our own recounts on these events and will share some of content with you once our drafts have been published. We thought that you would like to see how our paintings (based on the treaty study) turned out. While they are not all on the blog, you will find our work displayed in the classroom.






We also met with our buddy class Room 23 for the first time this term. They brought poems that they had written about themselves to share with us. The poems were based on the senses (e.g. sight, hearing, touch, smell).
We had a chance to share what we knew about the Treaty, the events that led up to its signing and many of the people responsible for its existence, both Maori and European. We told Room 23 that we might have been speaking French today if New Zealand had not become a British Colony.

Photos From the First Days at School for Team 18

We are already working hard. Our Statistics Unit is well underway. In these pictures we are creating pictographs with a buddy that we wanted to work with.

Reading in the 21st Century can be such fun. Can you imagine this 50 years ago.

Our First Two Days for 2011

Here we all are on our second day at school for 2011. We thought you might like to see a photograph or two of the class and catch up on what we have been up to. We have been writing about special moments during our summer break and a reflection on our first day at school. Some of the comments were:

I was nervous but it was great!

I got to see my friends again and meet some new people.

It was really exciting and we had a really fun day.

I didn't know about the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi and it was great to learn about it.

I think I felt tired because I was so excited and everything was new.


We thanked Mrs Hunter for a great day and asked her if we could camp at school for the night. She smiled.


Here are our photos: