A narrative by Angelica

The raindrop fell on my face and I started running.I fell in the pit and reached the bottom of the pit.I was surprised to see a big magical forest.

In the magical forest I only saw birds and some other animals who lived in the forest too.Then I called “Help” and no one replied. The next morning I was hungry but there was no food and a little pigeon came towards me and gave me a peanut. I was angry because I knew the peanut is not enough for me but when I ate it, I felt full. The shell of the peanut I peeled grew more peanut plants and the leaves were shimmering. I started to think this was a magical forest.

When nightfall came I fell asleep. I was so tired from walking around trying to find how to escape and go back home. I slept under a big tree and felt something warm wrapped around me. When I woke up it was the tree roots wrapped around me like a blanket. I was too tired to run away so I fell back to sleep.

In the morning the same pigeon which gave me a peanut gave me another peanut. I ate it and felt full again. I sat and thought about how I can go back home. I asked the pigeon if it knew how I can go home and it told me to climb the tree and take a branch to take to the stream. I quickly got up and climbed the tree and broke off a little branch.

When I walked to the stream, I saw it was bubbling away. I walked around the stream to see if there was anything inside. All I saw were bubbles and the pigeon standing on the other side. I threw the branch inside the stream and the bubbles stopped all of a sudden. I started to feel scared then I saw the pigeon walking away. I ran towards the pigeon and it stopped. It turned around and told me I must stay at the stream until the bubbles appear again. I felt angry and I screamed at the pigeon to go away.

When the pigeon left I started to cry. I cried for hours then I heard a rumbling sound from the stream. As I walked towards the stream the water rose up and wrapped around me. I started to panic but it kept raising me higher into the air. I yelled “Please let me go” and the water crashed to the ground taking me down. The fall was so hard everything went black. When I woke up I heard children playing, a loud stereo playing and cars tooting at each other. I quickly got up and saw I was back home. I ran and told my mother what happened to me and she told me it was a very imaginative story and that I should write it down. I felt sad she did not believe me so I sat down and wrote the story.

What Do You Say?

Room 7 students, through this film are expressing their views and rejection of social issues which affects humankind. World peace can be achieved if every human takes a stance and says "No!"

Luisa's research about Ebola

Glenbrae school is a sunsmart school. Caroline and Luisa wrote a song about being sunsmart. They are currently working on recording the song using apps online.

CHORUS

FIVE! SLIP! Slip on your shirt

FOUR! SLOP! Slop on your sunscreen

THREE! SLAP! Slap on your hat

TWO! SEEK! Seek out the shade

And number ONE – to make sure you’re all done

Before you take off to the sun, SLIDE on your sunnies!

When we’re out in the sun we know the SunSmart way

And with the grownups too – we’ll have a SunSmart day

Cover our eyes – and cover our skin

Keep the outside out and the inside in!

It’s the only way to go

Doin’ the SunSmart Countdown!

(repeat chorus)

SunSmart kids count down from five – you’ll see them everywhere

The beach, the backyard, the pool, the park

The street, the playground, but not in the dark!

Now we’re out and about it’s always SunSmart time

We know just what to do – we do it every time

SunSmart kids count down from five

It’s easy it’s not rocket science

It’s the only way to go

Doin’ the SunSmart Countdown!

(repeat chorus)

Yay it's the holidays

Term 3 was a fun filled busy term for Room 7. So many different activities happened during the term and we learnt a lot about our inquiry too.

Now it's that time again. The two weeks everyone looks forward to after each term. 

Taki and Robin have blogged about their activities during the holidays so far and its great to see what they are up to. 

I will be going on camp from tomorrow to Friday so I will try and get online if I can. I will even try and post pictures from my activities at my camp.

Hope to read more blog posts soon

Mrs Tofa

Justin, Tamati, Stephen and Mafoa's presentation about tsunamis

For Robin's research reading about Tonga to celebrate Tongan language week, he created a Google drawing to present what he learnt.

Planning a narrative by Mafoa

Mafoa planned his narrative using a template. His plan looks interesting. Look forward to reading the narrative soon Mafoa

How big if your carbon footprint? Angelica gives us some suggestions in her Google drawing for her creating work

Fineasi's research reading was on the earthquake in California recently. He created a google presentation to present his findings

Dallas' reading group were research reading in Week 5. She decided to research the earthquake in Christchurch. Here is her presentation about what she learnt from her research

Robin and his reading group read about Volcanoes. He researched the Pacific Ring of Fire and this is his presentation about what he learnt

Shannon's presentation about Greenhouse gases

Natural disasters is a hot topic in Room 7 at the moment. The Chiefs reading group read about man made disasters and learnt about carbon footprints. This is what Lindakiki created to share her learning.

Alfred's presentation about the 2009 tsunami in Samoa

Pacific Ring of Fire presentation by Taki and Fraser

Aaliyahna read about volcanoes and the Pacific Ring of Fire. Here is her presentation about what she learnt.

What are tectonic plates?

Taki has been reading about volcanoes and has come across information about tectonic plates. Here are some of his responses from his reading work this week.

Tectonic plates

What are the tectonic plates?The tectonic plates are made from slabs of crust and the top part of mantle and that makes tectonic plates.

How do they affect natural disasters?By going under each other and causes trouble natural disasters such as earthquakes, tsumani and landslides

What other natural disasters are caused by tectonic plates?Earthquakes, Tsunami, Floods and Landslide

Samoa tsunami 2009

Inoke and George have worked on researching the tsunami which happened in Samoa, American Samoa and Tonga in 2009. The worse hit country was Samoa losing 129 people and killing many more. They also found a picture of the New Zealand girls who were killed in the tsunami in Samoa.

For their sharing work they both worked on the Ipad using Explain Everything to create a presentation about their findings. 

Samuel created a poster to show events in the story he read

Taki created a timeline to show events in the story he read

Levi's timeline for his reading activity

Fun in Alim

Six students in our class have been working hard in Alim (Accelerated learning in Mathematics). They have been learning about fractions and are moving to learn about Ratios.

They have also been using the new Ipads to record their learning and are having fun working with each other and recording their strategies.

Alim is happening everyday for this withdraw group and the six students have learnt a lot so far.

Here are some of their comments about being in Alim

Cherise - I like Alim because we are learning to use our times tables to solve problems in Maths. I also like Alim because I am learning that times table and division is connected to fractions.

Caroline - I like Alim because I am learning about multiplication, fractions and ratios.

Aaliyahna - I like Alim because Mrs Tofa is teaching us new strategies we didn't know about fractions and ratios. I also like solving the word problems.

Angelica - I like Alim because we are learning about ratios and solving problems with fractions.

Maara - I like Alim because we are using Ipads in our learning to record our strategies.

Alfred - I like Alim because we learn about ratios and fractions.

Sod turning special event in our school

Hello! My name is Fraser and I am going to tell you about the special event that occurred at my school.

Today we had a sod turning event at Glenbrae School. Nick Smith who is the Minister of both Housing and Conservation and Len Brown, the Mayor of Auckland was there to to do the sod turning with Nick Smith and Matua Jim.

First we had sausages and juice to drink.Then Hannah volunteered to do a Samoan dance to entertain the adults and the parents who came to our school even our guests.

After the bell rang, we had to go inside and put our bags away.Then we had to line up and go back down into hall and we had to sing, ‘E tasi ae lasi.We were singing loud and then we had to sit down

Matua did a speech and we all clapped at the end of his speech.After Matua Jim was Mr Afi, Bono’s grandpa he did a speech in Niuean. It was long.

When we finished our Powhiri we went outside and lined up in a semicircle then Matua Jim blessed the land.Then they started the sod turning.After the sod turning everyone went and high fived Len Brown.

Lastly the bell went and we had to go back to class. It was fun at the sod turning seeing the politicians and the Mayor of Auckland in our school.

Glasgow 2014

The Crusaders reading group are busy researching the Glasgow games. They are looking for information about what the Commonwealth is? Which countries are part of the Commknwealth and also analysing the results of the Commonweatlh games for 2014 which was held in Glasgow Scotland. 

Watch this space for their findings which will be posted this week. 

Life on Desert Road

This week I read a story called Life on Desert Road. It is about a road in the North Island which is near Tongariro National Park. I also read the biggest eruption in New Zealand created Lake Taupo near Desert Road. 

Desert Road has not houses near it so if you break down you have to wait a long time for help to come. 

By Tamati

All about me

Hi my name is Dasharn. I go to Glenbrae school it is in Glen Innes Leybourne Circle.  I have five siblings they are Santana, Shaelyn, Tama, Kyana and Noah. We live in Glen Innes in Epping Street. My parents are Crystal and Darren.

My mum lives in Glendowie on Overlea Road. My mum’s family lives out in West Auckland and my mum’s mum's name is Sonya. My dad's mum is Annabelle. She has five kids and my other nan has five as well. Soon my mum's family are moving to Gisborne. 

Going to the Auckland Museum to learn

On Monday the 28th of July 2014, Glenbrae went to the museum on a green school bus. First we had to go to the hall to get ready to go to the bus. After 30 minutes the bus came and Room 8 and Room 10 went first to the first bus and then after 2 minutes Room 7 and Room 9 went to the bus.

When we arrived at the museum we went in and we sat down because the teachers said we had to sit down. After 12 minutes we went upstairs and we learnt about how volcanoes can erupt, like lava flows, explosion volcanoes and one more that I forgot.

At the museum we learnt that they are a 165 volcanoes in New Zealand.

After 30 minutes of learning about volcanoes we had free time to see what we wanted to see. After 1 hr it was morning tea, after morning tea we went to see the 1866 town and we loved it.

After 10 minutes at the 1866 town we went to the earthquake

volcano house we waited for 7 minutes and then we saw some steam rising from the water and it started shaking and erupting

some people thought it was real and some people were scared

like some of the other girls.

After 2 hours it was lunch time we ate and then we went to see the Pacific section for 50 minutes. After 40 minutes it was home time when we started going people saw heaps of money in a donation money box and somebody got $100. I enjoyed going to the museum because we learnt about new stuff.

By Samuel

Welcome to Term 3

Today Monday 21 July our hall was once again alive with the many students of Glenbrae School gathering for assembly. The assembly was exciting because the teachers shared what they brought about the topic study for this term 'Shake it up'. 

This term we will learn about volcanoes, earthquake and tsunamis. What a fun term it is going to be and next week we are off to the museum to learn about our topic. 

This week of Thursday we will also present what we learnt from our 'Making waves' topic. 

Exciting to be back at school.

Let's beat it

Here is a cool website with quizzes which will stimulate the brain and also create a little bit of friendly competition. Let us see who is best. Good luck all

Room 7 Challenge - Maths games online

A poem by Taki

Year 6 in Room 7 have been attending poetry workshops this week. This is Taki's poem.

 MATARIKI POEM 

7 stars in the sky shining bright in the night
I’m a man walking in the night looking at the 7 stars so bright
I’m a man that got all my question right about the seven stars
My raps are so tight and so bright like 7 stars in the sky.

Alfred read about sharks and this is his presentation about what he read

Maara's presentation from her reading activities

Shannon's presentation about Giant Tortoises of Glapagos Island

Explanation writing about Sharks

Sharks becoming extinct

There once were many sharks in the world. Today, there are not many left. The question is WHY?

The Chinese and the Japanese are running shark finning ships. This is very bad because they kill the sharks in big nets, cut the fins off and then throw the rest of the shark in the rubbish.

Many sharks are being killed each month. If this continues to happen then the sharks will become extinct like the dinosaurs.

We should stop and think about the animals which help sea like sharks. The Japanese and Chinese also need to be punished for what they do to this special sea creature.

Salesi's google presentation about Sharks

Luisa's information report about penguins

Penguins are a member of the bird family

Penguins have two feet and wings. Some penguins have yellow chests and orange beaks and small penguins have hairy eyebrows. Other small penguins are fluffy and cute.

Penguins live on small islands and live near the sea and ocean so they can hunt for food. They also live in Antarctica, New Zealand, Peru and Argentina. Most penguins live in cold places.

Penguins are very strong swimmers and are good at hunting fish. Penguins sometimes slide on their tummies so they can move around faster and don’t need to waddle around. Penguins can stay underwater for up to 18 minutes.

Penguins are carnivores, so they eat fish like Silverfish, lanternfish and Mullets. They also eat  Crustaceans, krill, squid and octopuses.

Lots of birds can not live in cold and icy places but penguins can. They have found a way to survive the freezing conditions.

By Luisa

Information report at giant pandas

Giant pandas live in China in the mountain ranges of Central China, specifically in Shanxi. 

Pandas eat bamboo, meat and leaves. They are ambush killers. They kill all kind of fish and any other prey.

The panda is certainly very different in appearance than the other species of bears. The adult pandas are afraid of any animals bigger than themselves.

By Dallas

Information report about penguins

Penguins are part of the bird family

Penguins have two legs with three toes, which make them walk funny. The small penguins are very fluffy. Some have long blonde eyelashes. Most of them are tall and short.

Penguins live in different countries like Antarctica, Galapagos, Argentina, New Zealand and South(North)America. They usually live in cold places.

A penguin can fly through water.Penguins are good at catching their prey. When there are fish swimming around they fly towards them and catch them in their mouths.

There are 18 species of penguins in the world.

By Maara

Mrs Tofa @ ALIM

I have been attending professional development seminars at the Waipuna Conference Centre to learn about ALIM (Accelerated Learning in Mathematics).

It's been a great opportunity to learn and reflect on how to improve my teaching practice and also how to implement ALIM to Room 7. 

Our Inquiry team for ALIM is with Mrs Ripata and Mrs Adcock. We are very excited about the changes and improvement we will implement to our teaching. 

Long Bay trip memories

At Long Bay I saw:

1 - sea star

2 - cat eye 

3 - kina

4 - crab 

5 - jelly fish 

By Luisa 

Long trip educational trip

We went by bus and when we hopped off we went to have our morning tea outside. 

Our teacher was James. First he took us for a walk and we had to listen to sounds and put our fingers us to show how many sounds we were hearing. 

James put us in groups and we had to collect different things in our bucket. After we had to sort our items in our buckets in different groups. 

James taught us about people taking shell fish and other things from Long Bay reserve and they go to court. 

The trip was fun. 

By Fineasi. 

Argument writing about the sea

People shouldn’t throw rubbish in the sea

I think people should stop throwing rubbish inside the sea because the sea can get polluted and on the 3 News I saw a sea that got polluted and no one could catch any fish and we will have nothing to eat like fish and other sea creatures and the sea will turn into green water

and it’s not good to swim in.

The other reason why rubbish is bad for the sea is because it can also affect other animals like birds because when there is a can or a bottle in the sea the birds will think it’s fish and they will land on that can and they will stick their beak inside the hole on top of the can or the bottle and the birds head will get stuck and they will suffocate and die.

People will not be able to swim in the sea because the sea will be full of rubbish and the rubbish will get stuck on people which is disgusting. The environment around the sea will be lost to the rubbish and it will be a very sad look.

By Shannon

Argument writing

People should be able to take the size of 60cm long of fish

People should only be able fish which are 60 cm or more. If people take fish which are 30 cm, they are not giving fish enough time to be in the sea and produce other fish.

Fish also help other parts of the sea grow and if they stay in the sea for longer then they will be able to help the sea.

The law should be changed to help the fish in the sea grow and spend longer in the sea before being caught by humans for eating.

By Aaliyahna

Argument writing

1 metre is a good size for fish to take home

The current size for fish such as snapper to be taken home is 30 centimetres. I think a good size is 1 metre or more. I will explain why I think this in this argument.

If people take 30 cm fish then they need a lot of fish to feed their family. If they take a big size fish then they will be able to feed their family with the bigger fish and don't need to catch too many fish to feed everyone. 

Leaving the fish to grow will also allow the fish to produce more fish in the sea. There will many more fish in the sea. 

By Luisa

Inquiry presentations

On Thursday 8 of May 2014, Room 7 students joined our school to view the inquiry presentations of classes around the school.

Our first class to visit was Room 1. Mrs Greenham and her class presented their art work of bird sketches and we also had a worksheet to complete. It was a good chance to find out about the learning of Room 1. When the bell rang we had to move to the next room which was Mrs Ripata’s room.

Mrs Ripata and her students created a powerpoint for us to watch and read. It was about the native plants of New Zealand. The next room we visited was Mrs Kumar’s room and she kept us busy by making us do a obstacle course, making bugs using lollies and also doing an online quiz. The lolly part was fun because we got to eat our bugs.

In the senior block, we went to room 10 first and they taught us about first aid and what to do when we are going camping. I learnt we must tell someone where we are going and how long we will go for.

The inquiry presentations were fun but ours was good too because we had our own camping tents inside the classroom.

by Inoke

Mrs Tofa achieves another milestone

On Monday 5th May. The streets of downtown Auckland were filled with University of Auckland students graduating to celebrate the successful completion of their studies. Among them was Mrs Tofa. Mrs Tofa graduated with a Postgraduate Diploma in Education. 

Note from from Mrs Tofa - Keep going there is no stop to learning. Education is a ladder as you achieve one step, start looking towards the next. 

A response from an author

Our Hurricanes reading group were learning about the author's purpose for writing a story. The story they read is called Needling an Elephant and it was written by John Parker found in School Journal 1995 Part 3 Number 1.

One of the response activities was to find out about the author's background and if he had a special interest in animals. During the research the Hurricanes group found a website which belongs to the NZ Book Council and it had information about John Parker including his e-mail address. The group decided to send him an e-mail to ask about his reasons for writing this story.

On 15/04/2014, at 9:34 AM, Dora Masua wrote:

Hello John Parker we are a group of students in Room 7 at Glenbrae School. This week we are reading Needling an Elephant. We just wanted to ask you if you have a special interest in animals. What inspired you to write a story about this elephant?

We would appreciate your response. 

Thank you

Hurricanes Reading Group Room 7

That was the e-mail the group sent from Dora's e-mail address. The following day we were all surprised to find a response from John Parker. 

From: John Parker <jparker@ihug.co.nz>
Date: 15 April 2014 08:13
Subject: Re: To understand the author's purpose for writing a story.
To: Dora Masua <dora7ndstcs@glenbrae.school.nz>

Hi, Dora

Nice to get your email. 

I wrote this story for a number of reasons. Yes, I am interested in animals and feel we have a grave responsibility to treat them well. How we look after our flora and fauna defines us as human beings. I thought that Auckland Zoo was caring and compassionate in its treatment. 

Secondly, my daughter's a vet, so that made me interested as well. 

And, thirdly, I thought it would be good to read for school children such as yourselves. After all, here's this huge animal being treated by a a comparatively small needle. It seemed new and novel. It felt like someone trying to deflect a tank with a little finger - but it worked!

And, of course, I'm a professional writer, so I wanted to earn some money as well. Nothing wrong with that, is there! 

All the best

John Parker

It was really great to communicate with John Parker and find out why he wrote the story. Thank you John Parker for your response.

Long Bay recount

Long Bay,survival skills trip.

First thing on Tuesday morning we got ready to go up north for our Long Bay trip,we were learning survival skills on the trip. We had to go in the hall and sit down in certain lines so they could put us in groups,there were 3 groups,and I was in the second group. Mrs Raj did a prayer before we went on the bus.

When we were ready to go we had to line up outside the bus then walk inside while being counted by our teacher. I guess its good to count so none of us are left behind when the school comes back. On the way there I was talking to Hemi about what Long Bay would look like.

When we arrived there, we first went to the wrong spot and we were redirected to the right area. The bus driver then reversed the bus and we entered the park area. Along the way inside the park, we saw cars, playgrounds, camping areas, shelter and some people walking around. We finally found where we were suppose to be and we started to come out of the bus.

We then met the three Park Rangers who were going to be our teachers for the day. We were told about the activities we had to do and our first activity was putting up tents. I was in a group with Mafoa and Mateaki. We quickly started putting our tent up directed by Mateaki who had the instructions.

After that we cooked our own sausages on a mini portable stove using methylated spirits,and a spatula,a frying pan,and a blow torch. After cooking, we ate it.Then we had our lunch.

The next activity we had was a race, but first we had a checklist of belongings we need to take camping.The first person in the group had to run to get the first thing on the checklist and the next person gets the next thing on the checklist, but we weren't supposed to get the things with a cross on like coca cola.

Our final activity was the hike. We had to choose a spot on the map where we wanted to walk to. A student was the leader of the group and we also had a Charlie tail and a counter. We walked towards Site 5 and decided it was too far then we decided to walk to Site 4 instead. After we found Site 4 we returned to where everyone was.
At the end of our trip, we said goodbye to the Park Rangers and thanked them for teaching us. We then hopped inside the bus and started our travel back to school. It was a fun and hot day. We learnt a lot and heaps of fun.

I read a great book today

I read with my group a book called Let's look after our World by Diana Noonan and Keith Olsen.

I created a poster in my book about what I learnt. 

I learnt we need to recycle our rubbish properly. A lot of people put food, glass, paper, milk bottles and containers in one bin but they should be separated. 

When we put our rubbish in the right bin the truck will come collect the rubbish and take them to the recycling plant. 

Reading today

Today we read a book called Looking after our World. The book was written by Diana Noonan and Keith Olsen.

I learnt about pollution. We are polluting the earth with rubbish and gasses that we send into the sky. If we do not do something now, we will ruin our planet forever. 

Gas and chemicals sent into the sky pollute the air

Looking after our earth

Today we read a book called Looking after our world by Diana Noonan and Keith Olsen. 

I learnt that we need to stop pumping factory waste into the rivers, lakes and streams. We must also stop sending fumes and gasses into the sky.

It is killing our earth and we need to look after our planet earth. 

My reading for today

Today my group read a book called Looking after our world by Diana Noonan. 

We need to look after our birds because they are helping our planet earth. 

Birds do a good job of getting rid of the bugs. In the garden we don't need to use poisonous chemical sprays because birds are taking the bugs away. 

By Miami