Duffy Books!

This morning the whole school went to an assembly in the hall. A special guest came to talk to us. He was a wrestler, an artist and he writes comic books. He was pretending to be a superhero and he had a mask.

We also got our Duffy Books. We each got 2 very good books that we are going to read at home. Here is how we decorated our box:

It is a polar bear inside of an igloo. Check out our blogs to see the books that we got!

Puppet Pals Retelling of The Prince and the Lion

On Friday, Han, Natalia and William used Puppet Pals to retell the story they have been reading this week. They worked together and have made an interesting video. They have improved so much on the last time they did this. I can't wait to see their next Puppet Pals video! (You may even be able to see some of their other work on their blogs!)

Retelling a Story Using Puppet Pals

Last week, the Gorillas read the book: Consequences. They had a go at retelling the story using the iPad app Puppet Pals. Have a look at their work:

Hazelnut and Luna Arrive in New Zealand

The Marvellous Meerkats are taking part in the Travel Buddy Project started by PLC Sydney. A few days ago, they arrived here at Rowandale School. We're posting on their blog HERE (and you can find their blog on the sidebar), but I've copied the posts to our blog as well...

A few days ago, Hazelnut and Luna arrived in New Zealand and decided to visit us here at Rowandale School. They looked exhausted when they came to my door. It must have taken them ages to get all the way from Faraday School in England. They brought a book with them to tell us all about London.

All of the children were very excited to meet our new friends. We made sure that we sat and listened very carefully when they read their story to us.

Later, it was our day to take care of some of the animals that live at our school so we decided to bring the two of them to help us with our work. Our pigs are named Hettie and Percy (but our chickens don't have any names).

We're looking forward to having our two new friends visit us this week. It's Maori Language Week, so hopefully they will go to their next school knowing some new words!

Using Google Slides to Show What We Read

This week, the Chimpanzees were reading the book, Wolves. They did lots of activities about the book. One of the activities was to make a slideshow about wolves. Here is the work that Sunday and J-Lynn did:

Fluency Practice

We've had some more children practice their reading. Have a look and listen to five of our students who have filmed each other reading so far this week:

Fluency Practice

This week some of our reading groups started filming our reading so we can practice getting better at making it sound interesting. Here are the people that filmed their reading this week. Have a listen:

Quality Work

By Dakshesh

Duffy Books!

Today was our first Duffy Books Assembly. We had a special guest come in to talk to us and give us our books. Her name was Jacqui Knight and she talked about what a passion is. She also asked if we could figure out what the word: "doggerel" meant? (Can you? 10 house points if you post the meaning and you're a Meerkat)

Afterwards we went back to class and opened up our box of books. Everyone got two books that they can take home and keep forever! Have you been enjoying your books at home already?

Watch the video of her talk below.

Making Words With Magnetic Letters

Today some of the students in class were making words with magnetic letters. They decided to make a sentence together. This is what they started with. Can you guess what they were going to write next?

Weekly Certificates and Assembly

This week, William received a certificate for bringing his book bag to school every day this year, including the first day of school. Well done William!

Once again, one of our students was chosen from the "Caught Being Awesome" box. Paris got to choose a book from Duffy Books. Well done Paris! I hope you enjoy reading your new book!

Making a Cat and a Mouse

Today, Azlyn read the book: "Making a Cat and a Mouse." Afterwards, he followed the instructions in the book, got all the materials he needed and made the cat and a green mouse. Darlene helped him a little bit.  Amazing work Azlyn!

Wednesday Morning Bar Graph

Most people like doing Maths more than anything (Ryley). Almost as many people like reading (Danielle). No one chose Writing or Phonics (Mu). That's sad. No one likes Phonics or Writing (Danielle).  (Note from Mr Davidson: We had a good talk about how we like these the most but we still like Writing and Phonics).

Weekly Certificates and Assembly

This week, Koringoa received a certificate at assembly for Learning Forever. She went up a reading level over the summer. Great work Koringoa!

Also, two Meerkats were chosen to pick a Duffy Book today. William and Alex were put into a draw for the books because they were Caught Being Awesome by getting to the Superstar Rainbow. Well done boys! I hope you enjoy those books at home!

Bookbags!

Congratulations to William, Ryley and Lorenz for bringing their book bags today! It is really important that we bring our book bags every day so that we can move up levels. If you don't have a book bag from last year, you can bring a plastic bag and Mr Davidson will write your name on it. I hope to see more children with book bags (or plastic bags) tomorrow!

UPDATE: Great news! We just got some book bags in at school so if you can't find yours, we've got some. We'll hopefully get those home with the children tomorrow (Thursday) in time for the weekend! (Plus reading logs!)