We have been working on descriptive writing as part of our narrative study.  We have practiced describing a pirate and then the setting in which our pirate may be found. We have tried to use our senses and powerful words to create a picture in our readers minds.  I hope you enjoy them!

The Pirate's Bar

Larry was in a bar.  It stunk like beer and rum.  It was disgusting!  There was broken glass everywhere.  Trust me, it was quite bad but the good thing was when I walked outside I could hear the whispering of the sea side.

By Lachlan

The Ocean

Splash!  Another current comes over Alice and nearly drowns her.  As you can guess, Alice's clothes are soaking wet.  Alice sees a piece of drift wood up ahead.  So as any pirate would do, she grabbed it.  Then she was floating over currents ( instead of down'n under them).  But just as Alice was taking a breath, a massive wave swooped over her.  All she could smell, taste and see was all water and current, but the taste was different because the taste was salt.  Alice could hear waves spalsh'n over her.  Alice was scared.  All she could feel was the ocean brushing against her.  The reason Alice was scared was that her crew and captain had died from this and the exact same way just a few hours earlier...but she was teh only survivor.

By Zoe 

The Captain's Sloop

Boom! That's the sound that says that the enemy's ship has exploded from TNT.  Captain Gold-patch uses his smooth sloop 'Revenge' for all his wins.  You can smell fish and turkey from their feasts.  The captain's quarters is made out of gold and his bed is made out of the finest cotton in France.  The ship is covered in sparkly treasure from his enemies.  You can see your reflection in the diamond crows nest.  The crew always slip on the ship because the captain's assistant is constantly cleaning it.

By Zachary N.

The Island

Crash, went the waves as they hit the waters surface at the beach of a beautiful island.  There is boiling hot sand squishing against my feet.  There is rustling among the palm trees and strong sounds in the jungle.  "So many tropical trees" said Smee.  "Lets go get some fruit".  Hot squishy mud squelching against our boots.  There are rocks everywhere and birds are flying in the sky while creatures are crawling along the jungle floor.  The smell of sea salt blows with the wind as we come to the other side of the jungle....

By Izzy

Captain Blackbeard

The furious captain Blackbeard has a painful scar on his face.  Captain Blackbeard has a curved shiny sword on his left side and two small flintlock pistols on his right side.  He has a long curly black beard and a gold loop ear-ring that he stole from a little girl.  His boots are dusty.  His shirt is ripped and his hat has a revolting cross bones on the front.  Captain Blackbeard has mean brown eyes like the walls  in a dark cave.  Like all pirates he is dark o the outside and inside.  He kidnaps people and demands people to join his crew.  He is a skilled sword fighter.  If you met him you wouldn't want to go and cross swords with him!

By Jake

Hungry Bins- Our New Worm Farms.

Thanks to the Auckland Council Waste Minimization Fund we have been able to buy two new Hungry Bins.

These have replaced our old inefficient worm farm. The Hungry Bins are portable, cleaner and designed to make collection of the compost and worm wees really easy. Last Friday, Room 1 had some fun putting the bins together. I will let the pictures do the talking!

 Mr Hardy gets the nice job of evicting the worms from the old bins into their new home.

 Zach and Tiffany enjoy the Hungry Bin boxes!

12 to 24 Word Narratives.

The children have been writing 12 word narratives. Then they are adding more descriptive words to make their writing 'richer' and turn it into a 24 word narrative.

12 words  -The ducks ate my candyfloss, so I shot them, but I missed.
24 words - My candyfloss was really yummy. I was looking at the ducks and they started eating my candyfloss, so I shot them, but I missed. By Lachlan F.

12 words - The princess was captured by the witch, so the knight saved her.
24 words - The beautiful princess in the pink dress was captured by the evil witch, with a wart on her nose. The knight saved her. By Sheani S.

12 words - An elephant escaped from the zoo, so the zoo keeper caught it.
24 words - An elephant called Elly escaped from Auckland Zoo, so Bob the zoo keeper led her quietly to a special enclosure and fed her. By Josephine S.

12 words- Fred was not popular. He made a video. Now he is popular.
24 words- Fred was not popular and everyone bullied him. One day he made an awesome video, then put it on You Tube. Now he's popular. By Isabel P.

12 words- The batteries on Sue's brand new iPad  died, so she charged it.
24 words- Sue was using her brand new black iPad, but the batteries ran out of power. She plugged it in and played an awesome game. By Hae Soo L.

12 words- Jake was drowning, so the lifeguard quickly jumped in and rescued him.
24 words- Jake was drowning, about to die, so the fat lifeguard quickly jumped in and saved him very well because he was a good swimmer. By Levi G.

Twelve Word Narratives.

A boy fell off the train and I helped by grabbing him. By Jordan A.

An elephant escaped from the zoo, so a keeper put him back. By Josephine S.

A boy fell from a plane, so dad parachuted and caught him. By Jake S.

An animated movie got deleted, so the creator remade it even better. By Zachery N-L.

A dragon fought Thomas, but neither won, so the dragon flew away. By Thomas A.

The bear chased the boy, so he ran into the bear cave! By Quinn F.

Bob walked along and saw 10c, but someone else picked it up. By Holly L.

I don't know how to read, so I learnt how at school. By Joshua M.

Josh snapped his marker, so he got fifty more at the shop. By Jacob L.

A dog chased a boy, so the boy ran away somewhere random. By Isabel P.

A boy choked on food and saved himself by calling his dad. By Charlotte E.

A guy ran out of shampoo, so he quickly brought another bottle. By Hae Soo L.

Jacob was on a diving board, but he missed the water below.  By Lachlan F.

A girl went motorbiking and her tyre popped, so mum helped her. By Henry C.

A boy went to play rugby and he fell, so he cried. By Trinaty D.

A careless boy cut his finger off, so mum called Starship Hospital. By Jake S.

A girl went swimming and started drowning, so her dad rescued her. By Tiffany R.

Explanation of How we Teach Maths.

Hello Parents

We often get told by parents, "I just don't understand maths anymore."
If you follow this link to N.Z. Maths and then open the power point presentation, hopefully you will get a better understanding of the strategy progressions. Good luck!

http://nzmaths.co.nz/numeracy-communication-parents-and-community

Then have a look at the Families Section link on the bottom of the same page for all sorts of useful ideas you can do at home, at the shops, while baking, getting gas, etc.

More Three Sentence Narratives.

There was a little girl called Sally. She had a pet bunny, who
escaped and hopped to the zoo and Sally chased after him.
Sally picked up her bunny and the zoo closed it's doors. By Zack R.

Sally went to the zoo and a robber was escaping from prison.
An elephant stomped out of its enclosure and chased after the robber.
Sally enjoyed her zoo visit. By Hae Soo.

Sally is a zookeeper. She works at the zoo and a lion escaped from
its cage. Sally saw the lion run away, so she got some meat and led it
back into the cage. By Quinn F.

Sally visited the Auckland Zoo. She saw the Hippo cage and a
Tasmanian Devil screamed. Sally stumbled and fell into the hippo cage and
the hippo accidentally sat on her and flattened Sally. By Charlotte E.

Sally went to the awesome zoo and a crocodile swam down the stream.
So Sally swam after it and caught up with it and wrestled the crocodile
back into its cage. Sally was given a medal. By Thomas A.

Three Sentence Narratives.

We have been writing three sentence narratives which include one simple, one compound and one complex sentence.

Steve played on the X-Box. He was at his friends place
and Bob ate beef jerky. Steve was playing a game called Minecraft,
but there was a power cut, so he and his friend had to play a board game,
which they both enjoyed. By Isabel.


Bob ordered subway. The subway was yummy and Zachary was playing hockey.
Bob enjoyed the subway so much that he called up the subway man and got
another one, which filled him up. By Oliver.

Charlize was eating a doughnut. The doughnut was yummy and a girl was working at the zoo.
Her last doughnut fell on the ground, so Charlize got another one, which she ate quickly, so that it couldn't fall on the ground again. By Hae Soo.

Fred ordered a pepperoni pizza. The pizza arrived late and a fly flew past.
When Fred opened the pizza box he saw that it was not pepperoni, so he
curled up in a ball and cried until his dog came and licked his face. By Holly.

Duncan went to the shops. It was a small shop and a man was eating spaghetti.
The shop was closed, so Duncan knocked until they opened the door and let him in to do his
shopping. By Trinaty.