Using Stop Motion Animator

As part of our literacy activities this week, the students are practising plays to present to the class in the last week of term. The children are also making their own animated videos using a Google App called Stop Motion Animator. This was Brayden, Lachie and James' (the Bear) animation about camping with friends... ENJOY!! 

Morning Programme- How to...

This morning Brayden shared "How to make a paper glider" for Morning Programme. All the class got the chance to make one for themselves by following the instructions on the youtube video and with Brayden's help.

Some flew better than others, and some found out how important it was to listen to and watch instructions carefully... :)

Click here for the video with instructions

Mystery Food Descriptive Writing

Yesterday we continued developing our descriptive writing skills. Miss Taylor brought in a plastic bag filled of a mystery food. The students were asked to put on their Hi-Vis vests with a partner, not knowing what was coming next. We waited rather impatiently for what was about to happen...nervous, uneasy, confused, were just some of the words used to describe how we were feeling while we waited for the mystery food.

Read the following pieces of writing from some of the class.

Alex- The slimy thing

It was dark and quiet. Then I was finally given the slimy thing. I had a sniff. At first I thought it was a capsicum then i sniffed again…

The juicy thing was wet like a sea lion's skin.

It was something I expected to be sour but it was sweet instead.

The juicy thing was in a hard bumpy skin.

It was exactly what I thought… what do you think it was?

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Ally- Feeling like my eyes were going to sleep, I thought to myself, ‘I could finally take of the blinding bib’! My eyes were blurred, as I looked around the class. I looked down into my hand, and saw the Demon that rested on it. It was a rough feel, and in the inside felt like it was slimy and curved. Looking beside me, I saw someone was laughing and another was shaking their head, her eyes still trying to adjust to the light. I brought the demon servant to my face and eyed it closely. Never taking a bite, I shook my head and placed it on the face of my palm. Thinking about what just happened, I rubbed my eyes and smelt the flavour of the reject lime. It was a sour, cringe worthy smell, that would make you shudder...

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Amy- What would you think if you teacher told you to put a blindfold on and sit down, and then she put a mysterious thing on your hand and told you to feel it and then eat it?

The blindfold was crisp and cold as I tied it around my head only imagining what she was going to give us. I was plunged into darkness when it got tied around my head.

The fruit at least that's what I thought it was, was slimy and I could feel its juicing running down my arm as my teacher placed it on my hand.

It smelt like a, mandarin or something like that but I wasn't sure.

The fruits smell hit me like the rain.
It tasted sour like my sister favourite lollies, it was at that moment that I realised what it was.

The fruits flavours danced in my mouth like fire in the rain.

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Holly- It was like I was falling into a deep, loud sleep when I was putting my vest over my eyes. There was lots of laughter and confusion. We all had to wait nervously because we had to blindfold ourselves to taste something. We did not know what it was, we felt nervous and uneasy. Then we were given something to feel and had to try and figure out what it was, I had no clue. On the back, I felt a hard surface and I turned it over and felt soft and wet. Yet I still did not know what it was and it felt like i was going blind because of the darkens. When I nibbled it I hated it, it tasted horrible, tangy and bitter. When we were allowed to take off our vests, my vision was blurry and it then I saw it was a piece of fruit, but yet i did not know what it was. I did not recognise it, so i asked. I was disgusted because I knew I hated it. I had to have some water to dilute the taste.

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James- Have you ever put been told that you are going to have to eat some weird food that you can't see and wanted to take of the blindfold so much?

The wizard food was metallic and citrusy. It felt mushy like watery but solid slime, the bottom had lots of moisture in it but it was also crusty. The wizard food's taste hit me like an invisibly, fast hummer. It burned my tastebuds.

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Lachie- Have you ever had that feeling of unease when your teacher tells you to sit down and close your eyes and then puts something mysterious in your hands? Well this was that moment. We sat down with our jerseys around our eyes and got handed a mysterious item.

The mysterious object, was as cold as the rain at lunchtime or the creek that you played in the other day. It had a hard outside with little bumps along the top. The sliced item, had a orange like feel on the bottom.

The orange like substance's smell hit me like a speeding car, it was zingy and citrusy.

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Lucy- Do you ever get that tingle in your tummy when the teacher says “ I have something for you to eat today” Well I did!

The Zesty Fruit was right up to my nose, it smelt so bitter and sweet like a freshly grown orange. It made my tummy roar with hunger as I also smelt the scent of green tea.

The Zesty Fruit was spongy like a sponge and bumpy like a camel's back. It was rough and leathery like my old school shoes in the.

The Zesty Fruit examined my mouth like the dentist washing my teeth. It tasted tangy and bitter but strange.

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Taylor- I was so terrified waiting to see what the mystery food was coming into my palms. So I sat down into my seat and closed my eyes and imagined a yummy chocolate bar but when the food hit my hand I knew in a blink of a light what it was.

The blind fold felt cold like the snow that comes down from the sky.

The tangy fruit felt squishy and juicy it was  running watery stuff all over my hand.

It tasted like a sour patch lollie but evan worse.

The tangy fruit smelt like a mandarin but once it hit my tongue hit it I knew what it was. It was a LEMON!

Morning programme- How to..

Yesterday Holly shared "How to...catch, kill and pluck a possum" for Morning Programme

Holly showed us all the tools needed to catch and kill the possums. We got shown the hammer, the traps, the staple and some aniseed with flour (the bait they use).

Her dad, mum and her all have their own jobs in helping with the whole process. Dad has the spotlight and drives the truck, Holly shoots the possums and Mum, plucks the dead possums fur.

A 1kg bag of Possum fur sells for between $110-$120. Holly said they share this money between the three of them, so she gets some pocket money too!

Holly brought in some fur for the class to feel. There was fur from a black and a grey possum. The fur was very soft and warm.

Thank you Holly for sharing your "How to..." and thank you Janelle for bringing over all the equipment...minus the gun! :) It was a very interesting Morning Programme.

Descriptive writing!

Last week the Senior Room wrote some excellent pieces of descriptive writing. We had two objects that we had to describe; an old, dirty toothbrush and some slime that Bree had made.

The students had to describe the size, shape, texture of the object and say something to do with number in their pieces of writing. They then had an own choice description.

"Descriptive writing is the art of painting a picture with words."

The Toothbrush

The toothbrush  is the size of 18.8 cm and the size of a small water bottle

The toothbrush feels wet and hard with good grips and bristles

The shape of a rectangle and a oval mixed

It has got hundreds of grips and bristles

Brayden

The toothbrush was as long as a pen. Its length was 18.8cm. long.

The tooth brush was soft in places, with bits of white, black and a little bit of gold.

It has hundreds of bristles that clean your teeth.

Holly

The 18.5 cm toothbrush is the size as my Chromebook screen.

Its got hundreds of little prickly bristles at the top of the toothbrush.

On the back of there is little prickles its white with some green spots.  

It feels hard in some places and squishy in others.

The toothbrush is the shape of an long thin oblong.

Lucy

The Slime

The slime is the size of a small ball.

It felt sticky like glue.

You could mould the slime into any shape you wanted.

There were two types of slime.

It smelt like a small tub of borax.

Ally

The slime can go from a ball the size of a golf ball, to being stretched to the length of  a 20 centimetre ruler.

It feels like a slug moving all over your hand.

The slime is any shape you want it to.

You can separate it into as many blobs as you want to.

The slime is a bright pink colour.  

Lachie

Sports Activator - HOCKEY

On the 15th of June Greer came and taught us some hockey skills. We played a game where we had to dribble our ball and hit other people's balls out without ours being hit out. Then Greer got us dribbling our ball between the cones.

The next game we played we had to dribble around a circle of cone and in the middle there was a safe zone, and two ‘sharks’ that had to try and hit the other people's balls away. At the end we played a game of hockey.

Overall it was a really fun session and we looked forward to putting our skills to use in the Year 7/8 Hockey Tournament in a couple of weeks.

Amy & Taylor

Careers Speaker- Constable Gordon

Today we were lucky enough to have Constable Rochelle Gordon back in the Senior Room. This time she was here to speak to us about what is involved in becoming a police officer. 

Lucy wrote the following report about Constable Gordon's visit...

We jumped around tidying up, then we heard the door open...it was Constable Rochelle Gordon, the police officer. Rochelle sat down and talked us through the steps on becoming a police officer. Apply, background check, fitness testing, maths and english test and then there is an induction process where you are with an officer to ‘learn the ropes’ on what it takes to be a police officer.

After that she talked us through training and where you go to train, trust me it looks very hard. You have to be able to run 2.4km in a short amount of time, do 20 press ups and a strength test. When you become a police officer, you have to do this test every two years.

We then asked her some questions on what police officers do she said “Somedays it can be very boring but other days, you can be sitting at work, filling in paperwork and then all of a sudden...you get a call that there has been a car crash or something bad has happened. Then it is all go!

Overall we enjoyed her coming and there were a lot of people that seemed interested in becoming police officers.

Maths in the Senior Room

The senior room maths programme has been developing this term and the students are becoming more and more independent with their must do and can do activities.

A resource we are using in all of our classrooms for maths is Maths Hub. It is a fantastic resource and the children are able to find activities for the learning intentions they are working on.

In the photos you can see that even though the instructions and some of their activities are on their Chrome Books, students are still using hard materials like books and whiteboards. This is helping consolidate what they are learning.

How to make slime

On Thursday morning Bree taught us how to make slime with just 4 ingredients; PVA glue, borax, water and food colouring of your choice.

The children commented on how the slime felt and enjoyed moulding it into all sorts of shapes.

Morning Programme~Recipes

Today for morning programme Lucy and Lachie shared their favourite recipes with the class. Lucy made her lolly cake and brought it in for us to taste test. Lachie shared an ambrosia recipe which is one of Miss Taylor's favourite desserts!!

Some of the senior room enjoying Lucy's lolly cake

Lolly cake

Ingredients

120g Butter

250g Malt Biscuit Crumbs

180g Fruit Puff Lollies

200g (1/2 Tin) Condensed Milk

1/2 Cup Desiccated Coconut

Instructions

1. Warm butter and condensed milk in the microwave or a saucepan.

2. Cut fruit puffs lollies in half.

3. Add fruit puffs lollies and malt biscuit crumbs to the butter mixture.

4. Mix altogether and shape into a log or roll into balls or press into a slice tin lined with baking paper.

5. Coat log or balls in coconut or sprinkle coconut on top if making a slice. Wrap log in plastic wrap. Place in the fridge to set.

6. Refrigerate until firm (a few hours), then slice log into rounds or cut slice into squares.

Lolly cake is a traditional Kiwi favourite

. It is so easy, no oven baking is needed.

Make into a log, balls or a slice.

Morning Programme~Recipes

Brayden's ANZAC Biscuits

Ally's Chocolate Fudge Self-Saucing

INGREDIENTS

50g Butter ~ 1½ cups Champion Grade Flour ~ 2 teaspoons Edmonds baking powder ~ 1 cup caster sugar ~ 3 tablespoons Cocoa ~ ⅓ cup Milk ~ 2 teaspoons Vanilla Essence ~ ¾ cups Brown sugar ~ 5 tablespoons Cocoa ~ 2 cups boiling water.

Melt the Butter in a microwave proof pudding bowl. Stir with flour, baking powder, sugar. First, measure the Cocoa, Milk and Vanilla essence. Do NOT over beat. Mix Brown Sugar and second measure of Cocoa together. Sprinkle over mixture in the bowl. Carefully pouring the boiling water over. Cook in the microwave, uncovered, on high (100%) for 12 - 14 minutes, until center is just cooked. Allow to stand for five minutes before serving.

Holly's Chocolate Chips

For my recipe I'm doing chocolate chip biscuits, these are my favourite because they are so yummy and when they come straight out of the oven they just melt in your mouth. The other reason I love this recipe is because I love to eat the dough before it's cooked, dad and I are always Naughty when mum is not looking we sneak in and grab some and if mum catches us she gets grumpy and kicks us out of the kitchen or smacks our hands with a wooden spoon.

The ingredients are:

125g Butter, softened

¼ cup Sugar

3 tablespoons Condensed Milk

Few drops of Vanilla Essence

1 ½ cups Flour

1 teaspoon Baking Powder

½ cup of Chocolate Chips

Cream the butter, sugar, condensed milk and vanilla until light and fluffy.  Sift flour and baking powder together.  Mix sifted dry ingredients and chocolate chips into creamed mixture.  Roll tablespoons of mixture in balls.  Place on a greased oven tray and flatten with a floured fork.  Bake at 180oc for 20 minutes or until lightly browned makes 25.

Morning Programme-Recipes

This week we have had all sorts of yummy recipes being shared with us for morning programme.

Today we were lucky enough to be able to taste test Amy's Sticky Buns. These were scrumptious and enjoyed by all. Thanks Amy!!

Here is the recipe for the Sticky Buns:

How to make sticky buns

Sticky bun dough:       

• 2 cups milk
• 3 tsp dry yeast granules
• ¾ cup sugar
• 125g butter, melted but not hot
• 6 cups high-grade flour
• 1 tsp salt

To fill:        

• 6 tbsp butter, softened but not melted
• ½ cup sugar
• 1 tbsp cinnamon

Optional glaze:  

• ¼ cup sugar
• 3 tbsp water

To dust:    

• icing sugar

Place the milk in a small pot and heat gently until lukewarm (so it feels neutral to the touch when you dip your finger into it). Remove from the heat, sprinkle the yeast over the top and whisk lightly to disperse. Whisk in the sugar and stand 3 minutes. Add the melted butter and stir to combine.

Mix flour and salt together in a large bowl and make a well in the centre. Add the milk and butter mixture and stir until just combined. Tip the dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and silky – about 60-100 kneading strokes. Place the dough in a large, lightly oiled container, cover with a clean cloth and leave to rise in a warm place until it has almost doubled in size – about 1 hour.

When risen, divide the dough in half and refrigerate or freeze one half for later use. Roll the other half out to a 60 x 30cm rectangle on 
a lightly floured board. To fill, brush the rolled dough liberally with the softened butter. Mix together the sugar and cinnamon and sprinkle over the top of the butter. Roll the dough up tightly along the longest edge into a cylinder shape. Cut into slices about 4cm wide. You should have about 20 scrolls. Line the base of a 28-30cm round cake tin with baking paper. Arrange the scrolls in the lined cake tin, allowing 1-2 cm between them. Cover with a clean tea towel and leave to rise in a warm place (not hot or the butter will melt) for 20 minutes.

While the scrolls are rising, preheat the oven to 220˚C. Bake scrolls for 12-15 minutes until golden and cooked through.

To glaze the scrolls, heat the sugar and water in a small pot until the sugar is dissolved. Boil for 5 minutes. Brush the scrolls with hot syrup as they emerge from the oven or dust with icing sugar.

To make in a bread maker: Place all the ingredients except the filling and glaze in a bread maker and put on dough mode. Once the dough has risen, divide it in half, roll out and continue as above.