A Leadership Role for our Syndicate Assembly

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It was Room 22's turn to run assembly for the Year 4 Syndicate. Because the class is composite Year 3 and 4, the class decided to select a boy and girl from each year to represent us. Jack, Lydia, Jake and Miyuki rehearsed their role as presenters while James mastered the ICT needed to run the assembly. He enjoys working on the computer.  Robert took the photographs that we are publishing today. 

After singing our national anthem, we shared our Fair Inquiry movie. Then we learned a new waiata named Tama Ngakau Marie. You can find it on Utube with the lyrics. 

After singing, we had a special presentation by Elena and Nikau. They were dressed up in Russian national dress. Elena told us about Siberia because we are writing a Reader's Theatre based on a Siberian Legend.  

Elena and Nikau took turns to tell us about Siberia. We looked on the World map to see for ourselves just how much land area Siberia covers. Elena told us that her grandmother made her dress and that she was very clever when it came to sewing. We all agreed. 

A Visit From Ms Steel

    

We post some images taken during Tracey Steel's visit with Room 22. Ms Steel was able to present the sports awards and listen to the children discuss their School Fair Inquiry work. She had enough time to listen to some of the stories that the children had been writing during the week. 

       

                                                 

                                         

Our Fair Inquiry has been completed and we would like to post you some of the work that was involved. The Monster Fair Inquiry integrated Visual Language, Writing, Statistics and Visual Art. 

We have made a movie to show you some of the children’s work. Clips and photographs were taken throughout the unit.

Because of the limited time frame we had, the students were asked to contribute their ideas at the planning stage as to the direction they wanted the unit to go, and indicate how they would utilise their strengths (with regard to Howard Gardner’s Multiple Intelligence) to assist the team meet the proposed outcomes. The children decided on the groups and tasks they would take responsibility for. Some tasks were set for the entire class.

As part of the unit, Room 22 studied different writing styles. The children have written in a number of different writing styles over the term. The first pieces of writing were written by Year 3 children. Instructions for making a poster are provided by Caleb who is also in Year 3. 

Arguments were written after the class had shared recent research stating that a significant proportion of advertising on television targets children and teenagers rather than adults. We discussed the effect of slogans and how advertisements were pitched to children. We would like to share some of this writing with you.

Book Stall Break 

By Nikau

If I go to the Monster Fair I will buy lollies, lollies and more lollies.  First I will have to help mum 

with the stall and then I will buy, of course, lollies. 

This year's Monster Fair is going to be so ghoulish. The haunted house will be so dark and spooky, really quite terrifying with nightmarish creatures. There'll be ghosts flying around the school, zombies walking around and a giant fire-breathing monster with horns, claws and sharp teeth. 

I hope that my class, Room 22, gets our book stall ready on time for the fair. I don't know what I'm going to be dressing up as yet. I might go as Dracula. I really hope everyone turns up. 

The School Monster Fair 

By Lauren 

St Albans School is having a Monster Fair. Room 22 will be selling second hand books at their book stall. It's going to be a really exciting day for me. While the Year 4's have been at camp, the Year 3's have sorted books into boxes. We call that categorizing them. We have one box for girls and one for boys, books for little kids, magazines for adults and of course we have chapter books. 

There are so many books that have been given to us over the past weeks. Our Inquiry is on the book stall. My group is very strong in oral language so we have to inform everyone in the school about the book stall. Some of us are good at art, so we have decided that we should have a colouring competition. Jake our group's leader choose Jake, Willow and me. Mrs Hunter thought that Jake's artwork would be great on one of the posters. I don't know why Jake was so hard on himself while he was drawing his picture because it was great when it was finished. 

At the end of the day, I hope that all of the books at our book stall sell out. If you come to the fair, do have an exciting day just like me. 

Instructions for making a poster

Caleb

If you are going to make a poster there are a few things that you need to know.

You need to follow these steps:

Step 1: Get a piece of paper (A3 is a preferred size)

Step 2: Draw a border (make sure it is related to what you are advertising).

Step 3: Draw a picture (subject related)

Step 4: Write the slogan and information (maximum of 10 -15 words) You don’t want your consumer to get bored half way through reading your advertisement and not realise how good your product is.

Step 5: Colour the background. Be careful about the use of colours (e.g. black on white or hot colours on cold) creates a contrast.

Step 6: Draw smaller pictures if there is room. (optional)

Step 7: Laminate the poster. (optional)

Step 8: Make sure that the consumer thinks the product is something they need and not want. 

Advertisement

R-Jay

We shouldn’t watch advertisements.  The advertisement tells you that the product is strong so you buy it and then it breaks. They say machines can make you strong, but there comes a day when you get weak and fat again because you don’t use the machine.

Yes, some products have cool features that can help you, and you can get some things free, but did you need them? I still think that advertisements are not good to watch. 

Those Adverts!

Jack Haldane

I believe that we should not watch advertisements. Why?  Advertisements are bad for you. If you see an advert and it’s really cool to watch, you push what you have seen to the back of your mind, into long-term memory.

I believe that there should be a TV channel where there are only advertisements. You see, I really believe that we should not watch advertisements. 

**This was a really challenging genre for the children to write in at Year 3 and 4. We post two Year 4 pieces of writing. 

Argument about Advertisements

Hi, I'm Anastasia and I had to learn how to write an argument about advertisements. Well keep reading…

Children Shouldn’t Watch Too Many Advertisements

I think we shouldn’t watch advertisements.

We can get brainwashed and keep trying to convince our parents to buy really expensive products. That will waste their money.

I think that if we listen and look at advertisements we will get so brainwashed that we will keep asking for things that we don’t even need!

Advertisements

Written by James

Do you know that advertisements actually brainwash you? Well they do.

Commercials manipulate you so that you buy their product. In the olden days adverts were targeting adults because children would never stand up for themselves and ask for things. These days, kids always ask for new toys and new games. I believe we shouldn’t watch adverts because the producer and marketers are using us so their item sells.  But then I’ve got to respect the fact that some people might believe in advertisements.

I think they exaggerate too much and they put them all over the internet which is too much for me. I think advertisements on television and the computer are a bad way of marketing. If you hear an advert over 4 times, it gets stuck in your long term memory which means you will keep on thinking about the product and will ask for it all of the time.

Sometimes the product isn’t even quality which isn’t good.  That’s what I think about advertisements. 

Off to Living Springs

Here are a few extracts from the children's writing on camp. 

Camp for our Year Four Group

By Jack Mc Bride

The most amazing thing happened to me at school. Can you believe that I just went to camp. Should I list the things that I did?  Um… no, you’re right, there are far too many of them. Anyway here are a few things that I did.

First we walked for two and a half hours around the harbour. I saw lots of rocks.

When we got to Living Springs, we went to our bunk rooms and chose our bed. Then we had multi-sports to go to. Most of us went on the Monorail (which is like a roller-ooaster), but I went on the Balance Bikes. It’s hard when you’re small.

At night time, it was really difficult to get to sleep. Everyone was talking non-stop. Robert and I were telling everyone to be quiet.

Camp

By Lydia

“Argh … Why ?” I thought. Nothing was wrong, except for the fact that I had been walking for three hours up a hill. I sighed, “I hope that the rest of school camp is going to be easier.”  Right, I’ll leave that part and introduce you to the camp itself.

Well, as you know it was our school camp. But I’ll bet that you didn’t know that it was my first camp, yes, Living Springs was my first school camp.

After the tiring walk, we sat down on the field and were told how to settle into our rooms. Once settled we met on the field again and were split into two groups, one to do rock-climbing and the other general recreation. I was in the rock-climbing group. We set off, crossed the road and headed for Don’s shed. On the way there we saw a painted car. When we were all together, we were asked to take our shoes off and sit on the green mat. Then off we went. I have to say that I wasn’t too good at it.

Off to Camp

By Robert

Children and adults started running towards Room 22 from every direction. Why? The Year Fours were going to camp.

We got our bags and put them into one of the parent’s trailer. We hopped into the cars and were off to Governor’s Bay. At Governor’s Bay we were divided into two groups. We walked up hill and down hill and up hill and … well, you get the idea.

After two long hours, we finally got to Living Springs. We collected our bags and headed for our bunkrooms. Boys and girls were separated into different bunk-houses.

We had lots of activities to do; rock climbing, bush walk, monorail, trampoline, flying fox and the low ropes.

We hope you enjoy watching this short video clip taken during some of our activities.

                            

Ronald McDonald

Written by Miyuki  (Year 3)

Today was a special day. My teacher said so. My teacher told us,” There’s a surprise in the hall.” Some people came and said,” It’s time to go.” “Yes!” replied the teacher. We were ready to go.  We ran outside, lined up and off we went.

In the audience I sat curious to what would happen next. After a while Ronald came in. He held a metal thing that I’ve never seen. He opened it up and reached into his bag. He opened that up and  … splat! The metal thing closed. He tried again and again but it just closed anyway. Then he opened it and twisted the top. Guess what, it didn’t fall down. He pushed it a little and it wobbled. He wobbled his hips in time to the wobble.

After a short story about road safety, he found his missing sock. His sock told him that it wanted to stay. So it happened. The sock (actually a puppet) stayed at St Albans School.  Hooray!

Road Safety

Written by Lauren (Year 3)

Bang! The door suddenly burst open and in walked Ronald McDonald. He was very a very tall character with short red hair. He was wearing overalls and read and white stripy top and socks.

Ronald McDonald came to St Albans School to talk about Road Safety. Three of the things to remember were: stop, look and listen. He told us not to hang your washing out on windy days because if there is a strong wind it could blow some, or all of it away and you’ll have to chase it down the street until you catch it.

Ronald McDonald also told us to always wear our seatbelts whenever we’re in a car. If you’re in a car crash and you don’t have it on, you’ll go flying forwards and hurt yourself badly. You certainly don’t want that to happen, do you?

At the very end, Ronald McDonald found his lost sock that had blown away in the wind. It was inside out so he turned in the right way and put it on his arm. It looked just like a puppet because it had eyes. 

Last week we discussed the storm that hit Christchurch at the end of the holidays. Diagrams were used to explain a front and the type of build up to severe weather changes. Storms have been a talking point again this week with the devastation experienced in the America.

The objective for this piece of writing was to use imagery and similes to describe events.

The Bucket of Water  

Written by Quentin

Did you see and hear that ginormous wind and rain storm in the weekend? It was like a massive bucket of water being dumped on Christchurch. I stayed inside my lounge and watched television all that day. I saw a few branches lying in the neighbours yard. That was after the storm had finished having its temper tantrum. The sky was so pale. I wished that the weather had been the same as it was when the holidays started. It was so sunny then. 

The Day I learned about Callum's Fear

Written by James

Have you ever been in a huge storm? Well I have. Here's how it started. On Friday I was innocently playing by myself when I looked up and saw this huge cloud rolling viciously toward Christchurch. Anyway it was nearly bedtime so I had to go to bed. The next day I woke to hear 'pit, pat, pit, pat. Immediately I knew that it was still raining. I ignored it for a while until a rain drop hit the window breaking into approximately 5 mini drops. Then Callum let out a high pitched scream. I stared at him for about ten seconds and left to watch Lord of the Rings.