The Other Ark - The Flying Flapdoodle

Miss Evitt read us a story called 'The Other Ark', by Lynley Dodd.  We really enjoyed the story because it had all sorts of different animals in it like 'flapdoodles', candy-striped camels', and 'mad kangaroosters'.

During writing we wrote a character description about the 'flapdoodle'.

How would you describe the flapdoodle?  What does it look like?  What do you think it can do?  Where do you think it comes from?

If you are interested in finding out more about Lynley Dodd the author of 'The Other Ark', check out this website. 

Spelling Bee

We all participated in the schoolwide Spelling Bee.  There were some very impressive results and it was clear that there had been a lot of studying both at school and at home. 

Sponsorship forms have been sent back home with the number of words correctly spelt in the Bee.  Please return this form with the sponsored money back to school by the 3rd of June. 

We thank our sponsors, families, and friends for helping us with this Spelling Bee.  We are looking forward to getting new Literacy resources for our school.

New Websites added to our Blog!

Enjoy exploring these websites:

Miamopia is where balloons go after being released into the air.  The balloons then seek to learn about the world around them.  Create a character - called a Miamopian - to take part in the activities found in each building, including music, history, an dinosaurs!

Wordmaster is a great way to test your word knowledge and increase your vocabulary!  From the BBC, you're shown a sentence with a word missing.  Click the on-screen keyboard to fill in the blanks. It's against the clock and there are various levels of difficulty.

Take on the Teacher tests your spelling skills - race against the clock to get the highest score!

Story Starters helps you come up with some exciting beginnings for your next story - just spin or push each button on the machine.  It comes up with some great starters - "Write about a day at the amusement park with a yellow parrot who visits the North Pole".

Corey and Tyler visit 2D at Yugumbir State School!

Blogging has been a real success in Room 1.  We have had so many learning opportunities - but this is a pretty special occasion! 

Corey, Tyler, and their family, visited Australia.  While they were there, they visited our blogging buddies at Yugumbir State School!  Take a look at the amazing slideshare photos that 2D have posted on their blog:

Caterpillars in the Garden!

While we were training for the cross-country today, we came across the swan plants in the garden.  We noticed there were 3 huge caterpillars on the leaves.  Below are photos of 2 of them:

When do you think they will go into a chrysalis?  How long do they stay in the chrysalis before they become a butterfly?  Check out Monarch Picture Story and find out!

'Pens and Pencils' - Hairy Maclarys Reading Group Activity

Annabelle, Archie, Jordan, Shayde, and Tessa have a go with the dip pen.  They had to be super careful not to get too much ink on the nib as it makes big splotches on the page!

The Hairy Maclarys reading group have been focusing on a non-fiction book 'Pens and Pencils'.  In the book it asks the reader:
"What do you write with at school?  You might use pencils, pens, chalk, or crayons.  But what did students use in the olden days?"

The first chapter is about slates and slate pencils that were used over 100 years ago.  We thought it was neat how each student got their own slate.  

The second chapter was the one we liked the most, as it was about dip pens.  A dip pen was made of wood and had a metal nib that was dipped into an inkwell in each student's desk, full of ink. I had a dip pen at home, so I brought it along to school to let the students have a go with it.  My one is made of glass and it has three metal nibs that go with it.

Do you think you would like to write with a dip pen all the time?  Why or why not?

Science Observations

Yesterday we observed different samples of things for their colour, smell, taste, texture, and shape.  We looked at salt, jelly crystals, milo, coffee, and cordial powder.  Today we looked at sand and sugar.

We are writing descriptions about what we observed for each sample. 

What did the salt smell like?  How was it different to the smell of sugar? 

What did the jelly crystals taste like?  What did they look like?

Global Blogging Buddies!

We are so lucky to be back in touch with our blogging buddies from Yugumbir State School in Australia.  Check out their blog and find out more about them and their learning.  They are studying insects and butterflies.  What could you ask them or share with them?  Taratara has been enjoying learning more too - can you spot her in this link? 

Through Yugumbir State School, another school got in touch with us - all the way in North Carolina, America!  The Roadrunners from Rocky River Elementary School are very interested in finding out more information about us and New Zealand.  We have asked them lots of questions already and we are looking forward to finding out more about the things we have in common as well as the things that make us different.

As always, have fun blogging!

Tokomaru School Spelling Bee!



Today you will have received your spelling lists to take for learning at home.  Make sure that you practice writing the words and saying them aloud.  You could enter the words into Spelling City to help you learn them too.

Don't forget to get as many sponsers as you can so we can get more Literacy resources for you to use to help your learning.

Have fun being busy spelling bees!

New student blogs - Meghana and Gianlucca

Check out Meghana and Gianlucca's class blogs!  Enjoy reading their posts and leaving them comments.

Tyler's Birthday!

This post is a couple of weeks late due to computer problems, but we would like to thank Tyler and his family for bringing in a birthday cake. Happy birthday, Tyler!

Room 1

Hi world, we are on term 2

Welcome Back to Term 2!

It is great to see everyone back, looking refreshed and ready for this term.  It sounds like there were some great holiday adventures and plenty of Easter eggs consumed!

Just a reminder to check your home/school scrapbooks for any activities to do at home or notes from me.  Spelling will be back up and running again as soon as I get my laptop back - hopefully by tomorrow. 

If you have any questions or need to speak with me about your child/ren, please don't hesitate to contact me at school.