Hello everyone – well, school has started for another year and I know that we will have a great time exploring, discovering and learning together.

I am still over here in the UK – England to be specific.

It’s been a busy month for me – meeting some of our blogging friends and looking at how technology is being used in Nursery Schools (little kids), Primary Schools (like us) and Secondary Schools (high Schools). Lots of different sorts of ways of using technology creatively and excitingly. Can’t wait to get back and try some of these things out.

Have a look at what Mrs Dyer and I have been up to on these presentations made while we were visiting!

This presentation was when we visited Easter Carmuirs Primary – who ’s blog is called “Take A Look Inside” why not pop over and leave a comment on their blog?

Last term we studied some stories in Reading Circles. Each group chose a text to read and met every week or so to talk about their book. We found interesting vocab and made up open-ended questions to ask the other members of the group. Nearly everyone enjoyed doing this.

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:

We are writing posts on our own blogs to support Blog Action Day 2008.

We have been looking at how poverty affects education, and how education can help the fight against poverty.

We’ve looked at how school is important to us, why education should be available to all students, and the various places around our school that are important to us.

Click on our blog posts on October 15th to read what we’ve got to say!

Join in the conversation by leaving comments or writing your own blog post.

Let’s hear your voice too

Some students have been investigating fractions in Maths recently. They have been using a website to direct their investigations and have been using coloured blocks to represent different fractions.

The students seem to enjoy using the blocks and have had to think hard to find the correct answers. Working with a friend is very popular because we know that “two heads are better than one!”

If you have a look at the photos you will see that the kids look like they are enjoying their Maths!

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!

We have been reading some interesting books in “Reading Circles” this term. Mrs P brought in a selection of books and we put our names on the books we would like to read first.

 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?

Enjoy Latika’s Voki- she is the character MILA from Dolphin Island!


Get a Voki now!


 

Now listen to Winson’s voki about sharks    :0


Get a Voki now!


 

Here is Deon’s Orca from the game “Dolphin Island”.


Get a Voki now!


 

Sharon, Nadine & Momtahina made a video about Whaling.

Ramiz presents a naval officer who informs about the tragic story of the HMAS Sydney. This warship has recently been found off the coast of Western Australia.
Listen on …..

Get a Voki now!