We had evil villains, vampire friends, a couple of tradesmen, sporting people, robbers, a fairy and friends from fairy tales and many visitors from Hogwarts School.

Thanks AllStars for participating in the fun – all those who came and dressed up made it a fun  day – smiles all around  

We have put together this slide show of our thoughts so far …..

What do you think?

We’ve been reading a book called “Three Cups of Tea” which is a true story about a mountain climber, Greg Mortenson, who works hard to build schools for remote villages in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

We are enjoying hearing about Greg’s trials and adventures as he learns

tolerance,

acceptance and

respect

for the

values, views and beliefs

of the people he is working hard to help.

The story teaches us that by listening to , talking with and sharing our lives with others we will enhance and expand our own lives and experiences.

We haven’t fifnished the book yet – we will let you know how Greg gets on!

We have been offline for a while as we have been really busy preparing for our national tests.

These were held last week – on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. We had tests in English – Reading, Writing, Language Conventions; and Maths.

 Even though everyone tried their hardest, It was a great feeling when they were over

Classes at our school have been using Moshi Monsters each morning to build class and school community ties. Each class has their own monster, and spend part of each day solving puzzles and testing our general knowledge to win rox for our Moshi Monster. We use the rox to buy food and belongings for our Moshi Monster.

We have also been using  Moshi Island to explore settings in narratives. The island has many places that would make fantastic settings for exciting stories. There is the volcano, the port, the haunted house, the snowy mountains and the swamp.

In small groups, we mind mapped our ideas for characters and problems that would appropriate for each of these settings:

We also had fun dsigning and making our own huge Moshi Monsters to decorate our classroom – here they are hanging in our room. What do you think of them???

Which Monsters do you like the best – the friendly ones or the scary ones?

Thanks to Mr KP from Charlestown Primary in England for this link to a great site where you can use your grammar skills and have fun at the same time!

Just click on this link:

GRAMMAR PRACTICE PARK

start at Year 5 and work your way through the Year 5, Year 4 and Year 3 games.

PS: NAPLAN = National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy

At the end of the book we all had to make a Story Quilt in our group.

Each person had a square of paper and had to draw a border around it. Inside the border we had to draw three objects that related to our text. Everyone in the group had to use the same 3 objects in the same 3 colours, but we could each design our border however we wanted.

In the middle of the quilt square we had to draw a character from the story. We had to find a quote in the story that we thought summed up our character, and add it to our drawing.

We then stuck our quilt square onto black paper and they are now on the wall in our classroom.

Here are our Story Quilts:

First up , we have been using the characters in the game to write new stories about what might happen when the different characters compete against each other in the Olympic sports.

Some competitors will be at a big disadvantage like Dr Eggman and diving, but others have some advantages like Mario and the hammer throw.

Ramiz has shared his story here, and other AllStars will be adding their stories onto their own blogs. Details and links as they become ready

Please let us know what you think

Do you like this story Ramiz wrote? He used the characters from the game  that we are playing at the moment called “Mario and Sonic at the Olympics”. Enjoy and please let us know what you think

It was the most anticipated event of the Games: the 10m platform diving final – Dr Eggman v Princess Peach v Bowser.

 All the bookies were betting on Princess Peach to blow the field away, she had barely made a splash in her previous dives. Dr Eggman was a chance, but was still an outsider. And finally Bowser, regarded as the worst ever diver to ever compete, was a laughing stock! People were telling him to just give up and withdraw from the event.

 Bowser was first up, people started laughing. He jumped up, no twists, no turns, he started falling down.

“Oh, no!” people gasped – he was going to land stomach first…….BOOM!!!! There was a massive splash. People outside thought that World War 3 had started. He was given a 2 for jumping and a 3 for landing in the pool.

 Dr Eggman was next up. He came to the edge of the board; he steadied himself, and jumped. He soared into the air and …. Moments later there was a big crash! Everyone looked up to the roof, and there was Dr Eggman, stuck in it! It took 5 minutes until he fell back into the pool. Then the judges scores came through: 2 points for jumping and 3 points for landing in the pool (eventually) but was deducted 2 points for wasting the judges time – this meant that Bowser was in the lead!

 The excitement was short-lived though – Princess Peach was about to have her turn …. She was grinning! Her smile went ear to ear. There was a sense of expectation from the crowd. She wanted to win, she had to win, and …. She didn’t win!

 She was a shambles! She completely missed the pool, and landed on the judges table with a huge THUD!!!!! She was howling and cried a river of tears and soon the spectators knew why: 4 points for an amazing dive, but no extra points (she hadn’t actually landed in the pool, after all!).  A total score of 4 points.

 The winner was Bowser and so ends one of the greatest upsets in Olympic Diving history!

 Here are the books we could choose from:

Each group meets every one or two weeks and decides how many pages or chapters they will read before the next Reading Circle Meeting.

 While the group is reading their book, they keep an eye out for interesting or tricky or difficult or unknown words. These words are written down and their meanings are found.

 When we have finished reading the chapters we write a brief summary, and make up 2 or 3 open-ended questions to discuss at the Reading Circle Meeting.

Here are some interesting questions we discussed today:

 The “Dealing With Dragons” group discussed the question -

“What personality do you think dragons have?”

This is what they thought

•  They are selfish because they only think of themselves
•  Bossy – telling people what to do.

What do you think?

The “Boy Overboard” group discussed -

“Why is a new type of landmine not a good invention?”

 This is what they thought:

•  ALL landmines are dangerous – new ones are not better
•  A new land mine will kill more people

What do you think?