Writer's Festival 2010

Today year 5 and 6 went to the writer's festival at the Joan Sutherland centre in Penrith. Forty students attended and we met 5 authors who each shared their talents and insights into the background of their books. The five authors were:
*Andy Griffiths
*Lee Hobbs
*Brian Falkner
*Belinda Murray
*Kate Forsythe

So let us see what the students thought of today?

Today we went to the writer's festival and it was heaps funny. Andy Griffiths was there with other authors. Lee Hobbs taught us how to draw Mr Chicken and Old Tom. Brian Falkner told us all about his great books including the Real Thing and Super Freak. In order to be a good author he also taught us to think 'What if...'
Today was awesome!
Blog Number 7 (yr 6)

The thing that nearly everyone enjoyed today was the humour and jokes from the terrific author and illustrators. All of them told and showed us their fantastic books. The most exciting thing a bout the writer's festival was the fact that the authors and illustrators let us participate in all of the activities. Today was a fantastic day for all students and I hope the people who missed out this year get a chance next year!
(Yr 5 Student)

Today we went to the Writer's Festival on the 20th May 2010. My favourite thing was when Andy Griffith came on stage. He was so funny that everyone kept laughing at him. I like him because he was so funny. It was a good day!
(Year 5 student)

My favourite part was when Andy Griffiths made up the different stories with our help. My favourite author is Andy Griffiths because he is a great writer.
Blog Number 49 (yr 6 Student)

My favourite part today was Andy Griffiths when he showed us how easy it is to make stories. He is also really funny while he does what he does best!
Blog Number 11 (Yr 6 student)

My favourite part was when Andy Griffiths told us very funny stories.
(yr 5 student)

I enjoyed the Writer's Festival. I liked Brian Falkner the best because his books sounded interesting. There were also Belinda Murrell, Andy Griffiths and Kate Forsyth.
(Year 5 student)




The day was a great success and yoiur teachers were both so impressed as to your fantastic behaviour and enthusiasm during the workshop and tutorials. Congratualations to all students to attended, and next time you get stuck for an idea for your next story, just think, "What if'..."

Mrs A. and Miss C.

Reading and Writing

In Year 6 we work in groups during our English block.  During the week, we are involved in a number of reading and writing activities including:

• Shared Book Each week we listen to a book that is being read by one of our teachers. We then take time to discuss the book and spend time explaining why we agree or disagree with what others have said. We have to give reasons why we agree or disagree. We don't mind if others do not agree with us.

• Readers Circle We select a book to read based on the description our teachers give us.  We then meet with other students who have selected the same book to decide how many pages of the book we will read in a week. If anyone has commitments outside school, we don't mind reading less. (It is hard sometimes to stop reading because the books are so good.) Once a week we come together to discuss and share our thoughts. We use "Post-It"type notes to help us remember the part of the story we want to discuss.

• Readers Response This is where we get time to write down our thoughts about the part of the book we are reading. We are asked to give reasons why we think they way we do. Our teachers like us to use the word 'because' often. We are able to include the thoughts of other students in the group as well. We try to make as many connections to other books or movies as we can.

• Quiet Reading We really enjoy this activity. We are able to sit and either catch up on our Readers Circle book we need to complete or borrow one of the many books in our classroom.

• Lucky Dip - We are asked to complete a different task each week that involves reading information. We might read about Mary MacKillop, ANZAC Day, read maps and timetables or even read newspaper articles. Our teachers try and give us a variety of topics to increase our general knowledge.

• Topic Research During this time we are given the opportunity to research the topic we are learning about in class. At the moment we are research about different forms of Energy.

• Grammar. This is the time we focus on fullstops, commas, pronouns, nouns, verbs and all things grammatical. We have a different focus each week.

• Naplan Our teachers want to make sure we are able to complete writing tasks within a set time period. This will help us in High School. Each week, we are asked to write about either a picture or one or two words. We meet as a group to discuss our ideas and then begin writing. 

• Text Types During this activity we work on specific text types. These are important as they help us to make the correct choice when we are asked to write.

• Story We have all started to write a story that we are developing each week. Some of us have decided to write our story using PBWorks while others are using a book. Our teachers give us comments about our stories as we write.  We hope to publish our finished stories on this blog.

• Comprehension There are many different ways to show that you comprehend what you have read. Some of the activities we are completing are taking notes from a DVD, summarising newspaper articles, writing questions about books we have read and getting other to answer them or even read a passage and answer set questions.

We are very busy during our English block!

1000 Visitors and counting....

Congratulations Year 6. 

You have had 1000 visitors since you began this blog.

Well done.

Write your estimate of how many visitors we will have by the end of 2010 as a comment to this post. 

Miss C and Mrs S

The Editing Challenge

Hi guys below I have written a paragraph which needs editing.
Your challenge is to identify and correct the paragraph finding as many errors as you can. Cut and paste the text and type the total number of errors that you have corrected underneath. There are 25 errors in total. Good Luck!

once apon a time their was a yung man named johnny johnny wanted to b a carpenter when he growed up but his mum wanted him 2 b a doctor. johnny always tried his Best and his mum was always very proud off him when johnny left year twelfe his mom realised that johnny should be allowed to do whatever he felt right for him. Johnny became such a great carpenter and eventually opened up his own bilding biziness. johnnys mum was so proud of him

Number of errors corrected:
Blog Number:

Personification

Today we learnt about Personification! Here are some examples we made up:

1. The night guides the sky to dark.
2. The stars tell a story.
3. The sun tells a story as the moon rises.
4. The pen remembers to change his ink because he has been dancing so much.
5. The branch dances in the cold wind.
6. The leaves fly in the wind.
7. The morning sun dances on the water.
8. The sky listens to the sea.
9. The clouds dream of where the wind will take it.
10. The stone grows as big as the earth.
11. The sad pen cannot dance. 
12. The moon tells the sun how bright it is.
13. The stone thinks about how much it has been hurt that day.
14. The ground dreams of being untouched and cleared.
15. The mountain looks at the morning sky and thinks how beautiful it is.
16. The calculator dances with the pencil because it realises it is school holidays.
17. The dawn guides the birds in the morning sky.

 Please add a comment below and tell us what you think each personification means. For example - "The book dreams of becoming a best seller" might mean that the book wants to be read by thousands of people.

Energy

This term, Year 6 are learning about the different types of energy. We will add information for you very soon.

What did we learn this term?

Things we learnt during the term:

• What it means to be a leader.
• Year 6 can be fun.
• I learnt my timetables - 6 x 8 = 48
• How to write a reading response.
• Everybody is a leader.
• Inverted operations and cows!!
• How to sort out my emails in CEnet.
• How to read pictures.
• Mrs. S loves to dance.
• Picture books are not just for little kids.
• How to correct my work.
• Antarctica has a flag.
• How to write a bibliography.
• The Euro is the currency of Vatican City.
• You do not have to use Google when searching. There are other search engines.
• Italy is shaped like a boot.
• How to do a Readers Circle.
• How to use PBworks.
• Year 6 has a blog.
• The name of Japanese currency.
• How to create a voki.
• People’s perspective of a teacher can be wrong.
• Reader’s Circles is as easy as eating dinner. It is not as hard as I thought.
• I found a link on CEnet to create a website where I can create a creature.
• I learnt how to write a story.
• I can write a lot neater than I do.
• I learnt how to put a voki on PBworks.
• I learnt how to create a video using Animoto.
• Miss C taught us how to do patterns in Algebra.
• I learnt what STaRS meant.
• You can get a story from a picture just by looking at it.
• How to use the IWB.
• I know about the treble clef.
• Reading isn’t too bad.
• How to write a 50 word story.
• Year 6 have a lot of responsibilities.
• Miss C taught me how to write therefore in Maths.
• Anything is possible with the year 6 teachers.
• Mrs. S tells us she is good at everything but we know that is not true because she can’t draw!