Letter to Mrs Parkes

Room 11

Glen Innes School

25 September 2015

Dear Mrs Parkes

This is a thank you letter to you for giving suggestions to us to improve in our story writing.  I have been excelling in my writing since the beginning of Term 1 and it’s all thanks to you.

What I enjoyed about writing was when we had to use pictures to create our own stories. This was sort of difficult for me because when I was first introduced to this style of writing, I didn’t understand what to do. Then my teacher lended a helping hand and I got used to this type of writing.

I also liked doing collaborative story writing. I enjoyed working in a group for our writing a I reckon we should do more of it. I liked that we all did our own paragraphs and then we put it together and edited our story together. My favourite collaborative writing was when we picked our own attribute as a wish and my attribute was candid.

Another interest that I had in one of your suggestions was watching the videos to help with our descriptive writing.The first video we watched was the one with the Python and the Springbok. We started writing the descriptive words that were used in the video, and wrote it down in our writing books for ideas to create our own story about the Python and the Springbok. Then when we watched the next one about the Black Piranha and we did the same thing! But we also used the Black Piranha to write our diamante poems and we created our own Black Piranhas for art.

In saying this, I am thankful that you have been teaching us new styles of writing to make it more interesting and because our teachers says that writing is our weakest subject, thank you for helping us improve our writing skills.

Yours Sincerely;

Andrea

Radio Squares

WALT: Integrate maths and art.

This morning, we were making radio squares. Mr. Naley told us to get into groups of four but there was only three n my group. In my group were Alyssa and Lana. We used two different coloured papers and cut one in odd cm and the other in even cm so it'd give the effect shown. Lana and I did most of the work and this was our finishing result.

Attributes (Shanelle, Yazmin, Andrea)

Walt: write collaboratively.

Purpose: To improve my behaviour to make me more acceptable in society.

While planting fruit trees at school three friends find an old dirty lamp. They decided to wipe the dirt off the lamp when suddenly a genie appeared and promised to grant them three wishes. Each friend was allowed one wish.

“Wishes!” they all gasped. Shanelle shooted her hand in the air because she wanted to go first. “Please! Please! Can I go first?” Shanelle asked. Andrea and Yazmin agreed so that they had time to think of their own wish.

Shanelle wished:

“I wish to be kind. I always listen when others are having their turn to speak. I raise my hand instead of interrupting someone. Instead of saying “ you made us lose.” I always say “that’s okay” or “ just try harder next time.” If I treat people kindly then I will be treated kindly as well. At times I do get angry and I won’t be that kind but I try to improve on that. To improve I will try not to get upset at times so that everyday is a calm and relaxed. I should try and take deep breaths to calm myself down.”

Shanelle finished her wish and next was Andrea. She tightly shut her eyes and wished;

“If I had one wish, I would wish for everyone to be candid like me. I have always had candid conversations with my teacher, friends and family. I am honest and straightforward with whoever I speak to. Whenever I get the chance to speak to a visitor in our classroom, our discussion is mostly truthful. Most of my conversations have been direct. Not only at home and at school, but also in the community.  I am still getting used to having candid conversations with other people and even some students at my school. Sometimes, I lie to people to protect the people I care about. So I am trying to improve on this.”

Then it was Yazmin’s turn.

Yazmin wished:

“I wish to be courteous.I want to listen to my friends, family and elders while they are explaining something. I also want to let my friends or anybody else go first before I do. I love to use my manners to others. I want to show people how polite I am. I want to help my mum or dad with their chores from putting the groceries away to washing the dishes. While on the other hand I’m really clumsy/lazy so I want to try and improve my weaknesses. I will try and cope with all my work and chores.”

The genie had granted their wishes and everyone’s behaviour had changed. The genie disappeared with a snap of his fingers and as for the three best friends, they travelled the globe to discover more lamps and genies.

New Flag for New Zealand

These are the four new flags of New Zealand. I like the first flag because it has a huge silver fern spreading across the flag and the black and white colour that goes with it. I also like it because the silver fern is one of New Zealand's national plants.

Diamonte Poem