Friday, August 30, 2013

Free Verse Poems

This week we have been creating poems of free verse about a topic/theme that is significant to the author. 

Here are a couple examples.

Best Friends Forever
Friend raise each other up like a rising star,creating positive spirits.
A truthful friend never interferes in your path unless you appear to be sinking.
Precisely a friend to all is a relationship to nothing.
Friends and friends are best friends that never ends like waves.

by Abdul

Friends
Rain is the lie I believed that broke away the chain of trust
Then the storm came and carried away the love
But friends are like stars, they come and go
And I guess its your time to leave
And someone elses time to shine

by Grace

Sunday, August 25, 2013

Term 3 Week 5 Newsletter

Term 3 Week 5 Newsletter

Poetry - Metaphors



Last week we have been learning to use create a poem that uses poetic language features - especially metaphors. The students watched the video (above) and wrote some stunning poetry in response to it. Here are some examples:

Disappointed is animals dying from trying to eat harmful plastic.
Annoyed is dumped disgusting rubbish in the once beautiful ocean.
Upset is harmless animals choking on dirty plastic. 
Frustrated is thousands of contaminated plastic floating in the ocean. 
Will people ever stop littering?

Sylvia

Horrified is marine animals dying from
stomachs filled with dirty twisted plastic.

Disgraced is disgusting rubbish getting
dumped in the once beautiful ocean.

Perturbed is animals scared stiff in
their own natural habitats and homes.

Unhappy is when the only thing
changing is more feces filled plastic getting
dumped in the ocean.

In the end, who will this really effect? 

Finlay

Upset is destroying wonderful sea lift with a giant garbage ocean.
Furious is dumping trash into the used-to-be wonderfully clean ocean.
Depressed is sea animals dying in the giant plastic ocean. 
Worried is wondering if trash will keep getting dumped into the ocean.
Do you feel this way?

Mereana



Enraged is a poor octopus living in a disgustedly yucky plastic shower head.
Apologetic is innocent marine animals dieing in ridiculous moldy plastic stuff.
Upset is awful looking rubbish floating in the ocean.
Absolutely disgusted that people don't care about poor marine animals

Abdul

Thursday, August 22, 2013

Talent Show

Last week Kelsey, Ella, Finlay and Rachel completed their organisation of the Talent Show. This was a major undertaking and here are their reflections about it.

Kelsey
Hi my friends Rachel,Finlay,Ella and I did a talent show.We have just done our last talent show. something that I found challenging was getting all the thing ready for the people.All the people that did the talent show did well.

Rachel and Finlay
In the past term, Finlay, Kelsey, Ella and I have organised and hosted a talent show for a homework challenge. For this talent show, we had 4 lots of auditions, 2 semi finals then 1 final. I really enjoyed organising this event and seeing all the amazing acts. Next time I think we could improve having the music a bit more organised but altogether I think it was amazing. (:

Ella
This year Kelsey Finlay Rachel and I hosted and organised a Talent Show for the Year 4-8. We had many people audition and a lot of people had amazing talent. We were raising money for the Ronald Mcdonald house and we raised around $361.00. My favourite part of the Talent Show was watching all the amazing acts , heaps of people have such extrondanry talent at Oaklands School :)

Monday, August 19, 2013

Reporting 1 to 8 Episode 4



Here is the latest episode from the Oaklands School News Crew.

Sunday, August 18, 2013

Friday, August 16, 2013

Sunday, August 11, 2013

Impromptu Speaking Skills

Last week Room 9 started learning how to speak effectively to describe an event - impromptu speaking. This has involved students have to commentate a random Youtube video and describe what is happening as it happens. A very challenging task indeed. The point of this is to develop the student's oral language skills so that they can communicate effectively. Below are a few examples - these are the student's first attempt at commentary. There will be some more added later in the term so the improvement can be seen.


,

Passion Projects

This term, Room 9 is experimenting with the idea of doing Passion Projects. A Passion Project is where a student comes up with an idea of something they would like to find out or create. The knowledge or creation must be of value to the student.

This idea is being used in a number of school across New Zealand as a way of extending student's creative skills. The Passion Projects comes from the Google 20% Time Programme where their employees are encouraged to spend 20% of their time at work on a project of their choosing. Many of Google's best product have begun their lives in this programme.

The Passion Projects fit well with the Oakland's CARE Values as:

  • Students show COMMUNITY as the projects may have an impact on the actual community or by students contacting businesses/experts in the community for help/advice.
  • Students show ACTIVE THINKING throughout the whole process as they research new knowledge and skills, trial new ideas, seek feedback and create a final product.
  • Students show RESPECT as they communicate with experts/businesses.
  • Students show EXCELLENCE as they create projects that have value and as they seek feedback to make their project better.

Just to give you a bit of a flavour for the projects being undertaken. Here are some being undertaken:
  • How to set up a Photography Business?
  • How can we use polarity better?
  • How can I design a dream home?
  • How can I create a short film?
  • How can I create a rap song?
The students have been highly motivated to get stuck into these projects. These projects are only worked on in either the student's own time or when all other learning tasks are completed for the week.

Watch this space for new developments around these projects.

Friday, August 9, 2013

All About China



In Room 9 we have Susan visiting us from China. She is here for a couple of weeks to immerse herself in the english language. Here is a video she made about China.

Friday, August 2, 2013

Eco Sort Visit


On Tuesday Room 9 visited the EcoSort Store. Here is a collection of photos showing our trip.