Autumn acrostic poem by Louie Wong

Autumn awesome amazing.

Unique colourful leaves everywhere

Trees trash the ground.

Unique tree leaves dying.

Missing the bright green leaves on the trees.
New leaves fade out of colour.

AUTUMN ROCKS!!!

Autumn Acrostic Poem By Zainey

A: a Colourful patch of rainbow coloured leaves slowly drifting into the wind.

U: underneath the bare tree looking straight through the thin branches

T: "Tea time" yelled mum

U: unstoppable leaves falling straight to the ground

M: mmmmm........ ! drinking hot chocolate is my favourite thing to do on a cold autumn day.

N: now that autumn is over all the leaves have disappeared

Literacy observation

Mrs Owen observed Matua today using the 'We are learning to...' (WALTS - also known as learning intentions) and success criteria (SC) with one of the reading groups. The focus was to get the students to share a 'recount' as part of a guided reading lesson. This lesson however, targeted the group to write a recount (only the introduction). Exemplars and examples were used to help the students. Mrs Owen then interviewed four students from the group. Take a peek at the video to see the lesson and to hear the selected students responses at the interview. The next step is for Mrs Owen to observe and video a guided reading lesson where 'recount' will be the focus using once again the WALTs and SC.

....video to be uploaded real soon from Matua...keeping watching this space :-)

SOLO Taxonomy - using define maps

The students in A2 used defined maps to define what 'respect' meant. This was part of the 'Identity' unit. It was the first time Matua George had used define maps on the SOLO rubric. We discovered that most of the students identified themselves in the 'relational' stage of the rubric. Some students were able to extend their thinking hats into the extended abstract stage but only on a surface level. The next step is to push further up the rubric to understand and use the 'extended abstract' rubric using prediction maps and other maps at this stage. This will be the focus in week 11.

Check out the video clip :-)

SOLO Taxonomy - what the kids said in the define maps on PhotoPeach

Safety Cycle Week

Last week the Totara students had a wonderful time learning the safety precautions and correct methods on how to keep themselves safe on the roads. This included looking closely at the functions of a bicycle ensuring that all it's parts were in good working order. The students were also shown how to check their helmets before and after putting it on. This was followed with lots of fun activities such as scooting the bicycle with one leg to riding in a straight line between coloured cones. Road safety codes were also demonstrated to the students. The two instructors did a marvellous job teaching all the students in the Totara team about cycle safety. :-)