Adding Detail To Our Writing

In our writing, we are are learning to add detail to help create a vivid picture for the reader. We have been creating stories about finding a mysterious egg.

Check out the adventures these authors have created............

Author Gemma

I was just wandering across a mountain path when I saw an egg. It had shiny grey scales . It was in a nest and it was made of green grass.It was in front of me. When I picked up the egg it began to crack and the shell made a bigger hole I saw a grey red eye in the big hole looking up at me.Carefully I moved the pieces of the eggshell ...until the creature BIT ME ouch! My finger was bleeding. The creature had long fluttering wings and the creature made a squeak. Who is this creature? I thought. I wondered if I could keep it so I found a shoe box and put some crunched up newspaper in the bottom and I caught the creature and snapped the lid on to the box. I kept the box beside my bed until the griffin grew too big and  broke my drawers. Now I had nowhere to hide him, oh no. Sadly I had to let him free in the rain forest.

Author James

One day me and my family were at Wingspan looking at the falcons and watching the falcons on display. The lady that took Ozzy for  his display said  that I could hold Ozzy because I was ducking while Ozzy  flew right over my head for 20 minutes so I held Ozzy. When I came back I saw a brown egg with brown feathers to keep it warm then ... crack crack crack two falcon like feet popped out of the egg and it started walking around but the rest of its body was still inside the egg.Eventually...

The rest of the egg came off ... Something brown came out of the egg with wings all curled up I said to dad, "Could this be a falcon or a harrier dad ?" and dad said "It's a falcon for you James" "I'll have to ask what food do falcons like to eat because I do not know what falcons like to eat". "What do baby falcons like to eat" "The baby falcons food is in the office" "Thank you for telling me". After that we went home with 9000000099 packs of falcon food in the boot for the baby falcon to eat. It sat on my shoulder and made a  hell of a noise. It is going a bit hard when the baby falcon grows up if we still live in town for it to catch live food. Would you like to have a falcon for a pet?

Author Bailee

One day I was jumping on the trampoline until  I spotted  something in the bush shimmering .I jumped off and went a little closer to see what it was. It was a middle sized egg with purple scales. It was stuck in the bush. It started to lift off the ground

then it cracked in one big line. Two tiny hands quickly popped out. They were odd hands then two legs then a mouth and nose popped out. It was odd looking. Suddenly a little head came out covered in with fur.Two wings slowly came out. It slowly

came to me and said “Muma” to me. It thought I was its mum so I picked it of the ground and ran to my room and got my pillow and put it on it. I carefully put it to sleep and I called it Molly.I wonder where Molly's real mum is?

Author Louisa

I was strolling through the jungle and in the corner of my eye I saw a big nest inside a long on a small hill. I went up to a nest the size of a small bowl and the nest was made of… sticks, grass, mud and feathers. Inside the small bowl sized nest was a small lumpy smooth egg. The lumps were light green and the rest was light purple. It was very shiny and clear to see.

As the sun went down I picked up the egg in a towel and put it inside a box with the log and the nest. In the morning I got up and looked at the egg but the egg was shaking. It rolled into a berry bush and started to crack then it cracked some more then the lid popped off and as fast as lightening it shot out! A little purple dragon came out! I put it inside the box and it hopped up and down.

I left to get the dragon some food like meat and water. I took the food back to her. Then I looked up on my computer some types of dragons and millions of dragon types came up. I scrolled down and up came a purple backed dragon with a light green tummy. I looked at my dragon, it did have a purple back and a light green tummy. It looked like the picture on the computer. I saved the website then went to look at the dragon. The dragon was gone! I went for a hike up the hill to look for her and up on a mountain in front of me what do you think I saw? Yes! The dragon! It had made a nest on the very top of the mountain. She had grown up a lot. I went to see her. I was so happy to see her I jumped onto her back then we flew off. I could hear and feel the wind blowing into my face and small birds were chirping. I was feeling excited because I had never been on a flying dragon before. After the flight we came back to the mountain and I said goodbye. She roared. I think she said farewell. Then I went home. Sometimes, if you look closely I am sure you can see the dragon hidden inside a log under some moss…..

When I was older I sometimes went up to see her but I could never find her on the mountain. In the night I sometimes see a shadow lurking by my window and hear sharp scratching claws with a voice saying, “Let me in, let me in.” I wonder if that lurking shadow by my window is that big purple and light green dragon?

Author Caitlin

Creek! I opened the cupboard to get my cup for my milo but WHOOSH! I was pulled into the cupboard. All of a sudden there was a thrash of a waterfall and I was no longer standing at the kitchen bench. I was standing in the middle of a bright cool forest. I thought it was a lovely place so I

decided to start exploring. I was about half way from the waterfall when I saw a twinkle of bright light up in a big oak tree. Wow! I thought it was a very nice day but if I looked carefully I might be able to find something awesome like a gold bar or a tiny magic leaf. But, if I want to find out I will have to carefully unwrap the twigs, leaves and vines. As I unwrapped the coat of vines and twigs to my surprise it revealed a golden egg that had beautiful blue stars all over it. As soon as I reached for the egg it rolled off the tree branch and landed on the ground. But it didn’t crack it was as if an invisible sponge was on the ground. One thing I didn’t think of was getting down the tree. In amazement I stared. I saw a vine. Speechless I swung down to the ground. Crack! I thought that I had stepped on the egg but I didn’t. The egg was just rolling about on the ground with a crack going right around the egg then another and another. POP! Something popped out of the egg. I looked around but there was nobody to be seen so I knelt down to the egg and listened carefully. There was a slight snuffling sound. POP! I jumped back. Thinking that I was imagining it  I saw a snout sticking out of the egg. I blinked a couple of times but guess what it was real. I wasn’t dreaming! Suddenly, a wolf cub shot out. It had two big blue eyes and was so cute I had to take it home. But I knew I shouldn’t. So I walked away but padder padder the cub was following me. Thinking I shouldn’t I grabbed my dressing grown that I just saw even though I was dressed then raced over to the cub and scooped it up in my dressing gown. I ran home to put this cub in my dolls house but whenever my mum is home alone I shut it in the dolls house. One month later, “Here’s your food Sparkle.” Whoops, I forgot to tell you that this cub eats sausages. Its name is Sparkle. What if I found another magical egg that would be funny wouldn’t it.

Author Erin

In the corner of my eye when  I was going for a walk I spotted a golden birds nest. In that nest there were 5 golden speckled eggs. The nest was hanging off a branch and was about to fall off but I carefully caught it but the nest started to break in my hands because it was made out of tiny twigs. I saved the bird nest and the golden speckled eggs from cracking. The nest was safe. “Oh no! I cried.” The eggs are wobbling and starting to crack. What am I going to do? I scooped up some brown crunchy leaves from the field to keep the eggs safe, warm and dry. Carefully, I made a nest. Gently, I put the eggs into the nest and left them to hatch. The next day, I visited the nest and surprise there were golden baby ostriches that were trying to stand up but their legs were not strong enough. So, I pretended to be their mother ostrich and helped the babies learn how to walk. Then, they started to follow me around. Dad and I built an enclosure in our backyard for the ostriches to live in. We made a zoo and people paid to hold them and see them playing and eating. Sometimes, we put music on for the ostriches to dance too. Have you ever seen an ostrich dance before?

Author Zack

On a hot summers day me and my brother were playing rugby outside when I stumbled over a large bright blue striped oval shaped object. I stood up and slowly peered at it as I moved the tall grass aside. The object was in a hole that my dog had dug. As soon as all the bright green grass was gone the oval object disappeared. Then, my brother shouted out, “There!” We saw that it had mysteriously disappeared then reappeared on the other side of my backyard. We sprinted to it. Slowly, I started to hear a … CRACK!! The thick smooth object started to fall apart. “What’s that? Oh, the oval thing is an egg.” The lid of the egg popped off. Carefully, I stared into the egg. Looking up at me were two white eyes. I reached in and pulled out a mini cute pink pig. He looked at me and said, “Daddy.” I was so surprised that he could talk. I said, “I’m going to name you Pickles.” I took him into my house and hid him under my bed in a little box that I had created. Every day, I took it food. After a couple of months he was all grown up and was too big for me to hide under my bed. So, I said to Pickles, “You are big enough to take care of yourself and who knows you might find your parents.” The next day, when I was going to school I sneaked him out and released him into the wild. Every day when I got home from school I would run into my room and look at part of his egg. It made me remember when we first met. I have never forgotten about Pickles.

Author Emily

Woo Woo. The wind was blowing. I marched into the forest. I saw a mountain. Out of the corner of my eye  I glimpsed an egg on the mountain. Oh no the wind blew the egg down. A scaly, rainbow spotted egg was rolling down the mountain. I wanted to catch it but if I do it won’t hatch. I ran to the tall blades of grass where the egg stopped. I saw a paper think crack on the very top of the egg. Suddenly, boom the egg exploded and something silver came out. It has skinny legs and it went squeak squeak. It kept following me flapping its wings. It flew on my head. I said, “Stay there while I make you a metal mansion.” When I was finished building the mansion I went to the meadow to go to my house. The creature followed me to my house in the meadow. “It’s a silver themed dragon,” I shouted. Drip drop the rain bounced on the dragon. Suddenly, he burst into flames to keep himself warm. I asked my mum if I could keep the dragon. Mum said, “Yes you can.” Then, Dad came out with lemonade. He said, “Darling, who is this?” Mum told him it was Emily’s new pet. Her name is Ecra. I hope Mum doesn’t change her mind but if she does I will say, “Mum, can I have a puppy?”

Author Marcus

Far far away in a forest beside a beach as I was building a giant sandcastle CRASH! one wall knocked down and…. I spotted something incredible. I wondered what is that strange thing? I crept to see what it was but my brother pulled me and whispered, “Marcus, stay in the castle it might be dangerous.” But, I didn’t listen so I crept closer and closer. I could see some bright white at the tippy top of the object. I was excited and I dug down to see what the rest of it was. It was striped white and violet about the size of a babies head. It wiggled a bit then stopped…. “Uhhh ohhhh!” Suddenly, a crack appeared right down through the middle quite fast and then out tumbled a mini bird and …. It turned into a Pegasus. My mum said, “That Pegasus is a flying unicorn.” I fed it, played with it and it just grew and grew and grew until it was old enough to look after me. It grew into the Queen Pegasus. Is it magical?

Rotation

We have been learning about rotation. Rotation means turn. 

We have been practising to visualise where shapes move to.

The shapes stay the same size and the shape just move around.

Here are some of our patterns we created by rotating shapes

Georgina

Bailee

Joseph

Jack W

Janice

Zack

Riley

Ashley

Holly

Blake

Tyler

Coopa

Marching

Last weekend we were very privileged to march with Miss Stacey and a group of marchers in the blossom parade. Miss Stacey has been teaching us marching for the past few weeks and very kindly invited us to participate in the blossom parade.

We are so very very proud of our marchers for the enthusiasm, commitment and determination they showed representing Parkvale School in the blossom parade. It was a big challenge marching in front of such a big crowd. All of the marchers did their absolute best even when it was blowing freezing winds and raining icy cold raindrops!

Room 1617 marchers you are superstars. We are so proud of you! You made our hearts smile with PRIDE.

Miss Stacey doing the final touches to the girls hair

Helping ease the butterflies in our tummies before heading off into the parade

All ready to go

Enjoying a well deserved sausage sizzle after the parade

Look who we spotted marching in the blossom parade with his Tae Kwon Do group

Jack cheering us on from the sideline

Art Exhibition

Zack sharing the story of his composition

 We are so proud of the art we have created in Room 1617.

We wrote letters to the Hastings Art Gallery and the artist that inspired our art work, Jacob Scott. We were privileged to have these special people visit The Parkvale Art Exhibition with Room 1617 children explained how all our art tells a unique story of 'Us'.

Jasmine sharing her art

Niamh sharing her story

Coopa and Holly welcoming Jacob Scott to our
Art Exhibition

James appreciating the art

Writing messages in the visitors book

Marcus sharing his art
with Jacob Scott

Jack W sharing his story with Mr G

Sam sharing his story with Jacob Scott

Angus telling his story

Joseph explaining the story of our art

Charlotte sharing our learning journey with Jacob Scott

Jacob Scott wrote this amazing message in the visitors book to the children of Room 1617

Mrs Ramsay and Mrs H were so proud of how the Room 1617 Superheroes explained their learning and how important their story was. 

Here are some of the letters we wrote

31 August 2015

Dear Elham

Do you want to come to our art exhibition? It is at 8am in the morning until 5pm at night. On Tuesday and Wednesday and on Thursday and on Friday in September. On the 15th of September to the 18^th it will open up.I enjoyed going around Hastings to find bits of art but not just any kind of art . My favourite was the water fountain because it is made by Jacob Scott he is the best artist of all. He makes art that tells stories. We are making a composition  and there is lots of weaving on it.There is clay and pictures and flax on my piece) of art. Please come to our art exhibition

From Jack W

Dear Elham

We are holding an art exhibition at Parkvale School between Tuesday the 15 September and Friday the 18 September. 8am each morning it opens until 5pm at night it closes.

We have been learning about Jacob Scott. All of his art tells a story and all his art made of metal.

We are making art about ourselves. It is made out of clay, paint, paper and flax and all our relations on it.

I liked the fish trap on display because it was made of shells and because what ever direction you looked at you always see something  different. The fish trap told the story of how the Kiribati people catch their fish.

Can you come pretty please with a hot chocolate with marshmallows on top.  

Yours sincerely

James 

13 August 2015

Dear Elham

Hello my name is Katie. We are having a Art Exhibition on the 15 of September and it closes on the of 18th September.We are learning about weaving and Maori symbols. Our art tells a story too. We are learning to use clay and paint and harakeke to tell a story. Chris Charteris made the fish trap it looked like a sting ray made out of shells. I like it because it can keep fish fresh.It is special because it tells a story about how people feed themselves. Please come to our art Exhibition.

Yours sincerely

Katie 

31 August 2015

Dear Elham

We are going to have an art exhibition and we want to know if you can come. Our Art exhibition  is on Tuesday the 15 of September to Friday the 18 of September . Our exhibition opens at 8am and concludes at 5pm.

My favourite part at your exhibition is the spider by Chris Charteris because it looks impossible to make and how it tells the Kiribati legend of how Earth was made. Thank you for showing us around the gallery.

We learnt  about Jacob Scott and how his art tells a story .We told the story of us  with our art. Our art has some of our own symbols and designs . Our shapes are  made out of air dry clay .We Placed our art on harakeke (flax ) which we weaved .It is hard to weave especially when you have not practiced for a long time .Our WALT (We are learning to) was to have a unique composition in our art. We made our own designs and some Maori symbols. We really want you to come and see our art.

Yours sincerely

Mac 

31 August 2015

Dear Elham

On Tuesday 15 September to Friday 18 September we are going to have a art exhibition! It will be open 8am to 5pm daily. Its on Howard Street Hastings at Parkvale School in our hall.

At the gallery my favourite piece of art was Te Ma the Fish Trap made by Chris Charteris because when the fish swim inside the trap the trap shuts right away.

I loved going on the art trail trip and please come to the art exhibition at our school to see our art.

Room 1617 have been learning about Jacob Scott’s work. We hope to see you at the art exhibition. We have been making some harakeke mats and some flax flowers and we are also making some Maori shapes to put onto our woven mats with unique pieces of art that tell my story.

Yours sincerely

Louisa 

31 August 2015

Dear Elham

Parkvale School is planning an art exhibition at the school hall between Tuesday 15 September and Friday 18 September. It will be open from 8am each morning until 5pm at night.

Chris Charteris art inspired me. My favourite piece of art was the fish net because the shape was exquisite.

I remembered the fish trap was to catch fish. They would nibble, nibble, nibble right through the front of the centre of the huge fish net.

Our class joined 3 pieces of art together to make a unique composition about ourselves. Our class got really untidy while we were weaving our background with real flax!

We would be really, really, really, really happy if you could come to our art exhibition to see our wonderful art.

From Christina 

Art Exhibition

Come to The Parkvale School Art Exhibition 'Visual Art Inspired by Artists of Aotearoa' We are so proud of our art and how we told 'The Story of Us'.

Compositions from tracey hill on Vimeo.

All the children of Parkvale School have created a special piece of art. Make it a family outing to the exhibition. It is open before school, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, this week and until 6pm each night.

Harakeke

We have been learning about harakeke

We have been learning to weave and Cortney (Naomi's Mum) taught us how to make putiputi. We have been challenged but it has brought out the best in us. We supported each other, showed appreciation and were very determined. 

Weaving on PhotoPeach

1. Look on some of our individual blogs to find out how to weave.

A big thank you to Cortney and Miss Sampson for giving up their time to help us with our weaving. 

Symmetry and Fractions

We are learning about symmetry and finding a fraction of a set.

We are working really hard at problem-solving and checking our thinking.

We could solve the problems in different ways

- sharing into groups one by one

-sharing into groups by skip counting and then adding some or taking some out of each group eg. 5,10,15, 20 and then put one more into each group so 1/4 of 24=6

-Sharing into groups by using our addition facts eg. 4+4+4=12 so 1/3 is 4

Our problem was...

Butterflies all around the world have different shapes and patterns on their wings but one thing is the same on all butterflies they are symmetrical. What could the butterflies in each problem look like?

1/5 of the 20 spots are yellow. Jack skip counted and added a bit more to each group to work it out. 

1/5 of the spots are yellow. Whetu and Riley created this symmetrical butterfly. Their butterfly looks very different
than Jack's but have both solved the problem. 

1/4 of the 24 spots are green. Chahat and Katie used a bar to help them solve the problem. They broke the bar into 4 groups and worked out how many would be in each group by skip counting in 5s and then adding 1 more into each group.

Erin and Nevaeh used skip counting to find 1/3 of 30.
1/3 of the 30 spots are pink.