#NZRA visit from Author

This year we had a published author visit our school, Mary-anne Scott has published 4 books. Including Snakes and Ladders, Coming Home To Roost, Spearo and Sticking With Pigs which is the book that Rongokako that we were reading at the time. It was amazing to have a published author visit our class. We got to ask questions about the story, how she got into writing, what her inspiration for the story was and we also learnt about the other books she has written. It was very interesting and we learnt alot about story writing as well.

We sketchnote the story as it is read to us so that we can understand more of the concepts that the author shares. It is really good to do this because we really anaylse what is happening in the story and the language that is being used. What is sketchnoting? Sketchnoting is when you draw the main ideas and key words from the text. It is a form of taking notes visually so that you can recall what happened later. We also take notes of things like Language Features, Connections we make, New Vocabulary, Characters, Character Development, Inquiry , Predictions and Learning Questions etc. We also examine Language Features and how to use them like Similes, Personification, Onomatopoeia, Idiom, Metaphor and Hyperbole etc. Writing down the good uses of language features helps us know how to use these types of features and how to include them in our own writing.

"I like #NZreadaloud because I get to practice my sketchnoting skills" -Nukutai

"I like all of the new Language Features I have learnt" -Joshua Fairweather

"I like #NZreadaloud because we get to listen to some amazing stories and we anaylse them as we go" -Sha'la Wilson

We enjoyed hot seating the characters, creating a character backstory for Jem , booksnaps and connecting with learners from other schools around New Zealand who are reading the same text at the same time. This learning experience has been important for us because it supports our understanding of character development and makes us think critically about the text content. You can check out some extracts from our backstories that were inspired by one of the characters from 'Sticking With Pigs' written by Mary-anne Scott below.

Backstories

Our learning is integrated in our classroom and this includes our writing. After reading the #NZreadaloud text we all decided it would be a good idea to write backstories for a couple of characters.

Here is an extract from one of our students backstories:

Jem was a normal kid living a normal life he always used to play outside. He didn't have many friends but he did have a brother. His brother didn't like to play outside with him much, so he just played by himself. Jem lived on a farm when he was growing up. Every day after school he would find some big sticks and pretend he was hunting. He always wanted to hunt because his dad was a hunter but sadly his dad died when he was 3 in a hunting accident. Jem was 7 now his brother never wanted to go hunting because of his father's death. Jems mum won't let him go hunting because she was scared that the same thing would happen to him. When Jem was 12 he made some friends that were interested in hunting as well, the only difference between Jem and his friends was that his friends had been hunting before. One day Jem and his friends were talking about going hunting together. That night Jem was in his bed thinking how he could convince his mum to say yes. The next morning Jem walked in the kitchen where he found his mum drying a plate, finally he found the courage to ask his mother if he could go hunting. Jem asked the question and then CRASH! the plate hit the floor. I can't promise anything but I will think about it Jem's mother said. Jem was so excited because he thought his mum would say no. A couple days later Jems mum told Jem to come down stairs. Jem went to the kitchen and his mum said did you know how you wanted to go hunting and I said that I would think about it. I thought about it and the answer is yes you can go hunting but you have to promise me you're going to be safe. Jem screamed thank you mum then he ran up stairs and began to pack his stuff. Before Jem dad died he bought Jem everything he needed for hunting when he grew up but then a couple days after Jem got the stuff his dad died. He ran down stairs and got on his bike and bikes as fast as he could to his friends house, his friends dad were taking him and his friend hunting. When they finished packing the car they called their other mates and told them they were leaving now. When they got to the destination there other friends were waiting for them. Where are we going to the tent here, friends said. We are going down to the river and we will set up our tents there Jems friend said. They started walking down the hill to the river, once they got to the river they started pitching their tents. We should go find a spot up in the valley before it gets dark Jems friend said, so they went up the valley to try to find a good spot. They found a spot and sat down and waited. When are we going to shoot something Jem said to his friends, when we see something his friends said. Look I see something Jems friends said, they looked with their binoculars to get a better view of what it was. It's a pig Jem said, be more quiet Jems friends said sorry Jem said. They went closer to the pig because they were too far away to shoot. They were about 100 metres away from the animal now, Jems friends let him have a shot at the pig first. BANG the bullet pierced the pigs body like a sharp knife, yass I hit it Jem said good job his friends said back. They went to gut the pig and since Jem shot the pig he had to gut it. I don't know how to gut Jem. He will teach you, his friend said. After they gutted the pig they took it back to where they pitched their tents. Then they washed themselves in the river, ahh this is so cold I know Jems friends said to him. Once they finished they went to bed Jem was stuffed after the long day. In the morning they woke up early and went for an early morning hunt, sadly they couldn't find anything. When they got back from the early morning hunt Jems friend called his dad to come pick them up. When they got back to Jems friends house they skinned the pig and they split the meat evenly. When Jem got home with the meat Jems mum was so pleased he came home with meat for the family. They had the meat Jem got from hunting for dinner. And then Jem got addicted to hunting. -Jai smith

Shared Writing Experience

In Rongokako, we do heaps of writing. One type of writing that we do is shared writing. Shared writing is when we watch a short film then we get seperated into little groups. We write our own backstory's about the characters. We all choose either a beginning, middle or ending part of the story to write and then come to together mash what we have written. It is awesome to write like this because we get to pull on each others ideas and thinking.

We normally get to pick our groups for these types of activities. This writing experience allows everybody to have voice in the stories that we create. Sometimes, we create a skit of our writing work which is so much fun. I love writing now because we get to work with our peers and I have learnt more because we collaborate. "I personally feel that I have improved in my writing because all of our learning is integrated and I now know about language features, structures of writing and how to get ideas. I also like that we always write about topics that arise from our readaloud." Ethan Berge

What If?

What if humans had never landed on the moon? We had to decide where humanity should adventure to if we could only explore one more place. We had to think about what and were humans should focus on exploring next. My group decided that we could colonise one planet and we realised that there was to be no travelling to other planets for resources. We chose to inhabit Mars because we thought it would be easier to get to it as it is the closest in distance. We had to think of the problems that inhabiting this planet would bring us and then find was to solve them. We did heaps of research and learnt many new things about both Mars and other things like how to make sure water is drinkable. We love doing this type of learning because we have to justify our thinking with others in our group,we always start in the pit and we have to come up with solutions.

WHAT IF?

One of the other "What'If?' activities that we did was 'What if Dinosaurs Hadn't Gone Extinct?' We had to image that we live in a neighbourhood struggling with an over population of dinosaurs. They were everywhere! We would come home and find dinosaurs in our yards eating our plants and leaves off our trees. Some of our homes had be stepped on and crushed to smitereens. We had to come up with what we would do to dino-proof our homes and schools. I found this activity fun and challenging because we had to do research about what dinosaurs were like and we got to draw and design our schools and houses so that the dinosaurs weren't able to crush them.

We also had to think about how we could live alongside dinosaurs as we were no longer at the top of the food chain and we had to think about whether or not humans would have evolved in the way they have if we had to compete against dinosaurs everyday. We asked ourselves questions like would we be as advanced with technologies? Who would rule the earth, dinosaurs or humans? Would our world be better or worse and why?

We really like doing these challenges because we have to think critcally and really look at developing solutions to all of the problems we would be facing and in this situation; if dinosuars really hadn't become extinct. - Ethan Berge