What is the Moon?

We were learning how to make our writing more descriptive.

We wrote some poems called What is the Moon? using different images to describe the Moon.

What is the Moon?

The moon is a red pebble

sitting on a white cream cake.

It is a red ball

being thrown on the wall.

The moon is a dolls eye

leaning on a dark wall.

It is a white wheel being

pushed around the earth.

The moon is like a tennis ball

rolling down the street.

Reagan Hannah, Year 4

What  is  the  Moon?

The moon is a yellow ball

hovering over the football field.

It is a white pancake that flows

across the air.

The moon is a silvery disco ball hovering

over the earth

It is grey 50 cent coin floating

in space.

The moon is golden crescent sitting

in the night sky

Adam, Year 4

What is the Moon ?

The moon is a silvery globe

floating in  the oily sky.

It is a grey inflatable ball

floating over the black sand.

The moon is a big gold balloon

frozen in a huge bowl of melted chocolate.

It is the bottom of a white paint can

sitting on a dark blanket.

The moon is the bottom of an orange drink bottle sailing on a piece of vivid black  paper .

by Nicole, Year 5

What is the Moon?

The Moon is a red clock on a black wall.

It is a white beach ball

on black sand.

The Moon is a grey pancake

in a black frying pan.

It is a golden tennis ball sitting on a black court.

The moon is a so cent coin

in a drain in heaven.      

By Andrew, Year 5

What is the Moon?

The Moon is a grey coin

floating in the midnight sky.

It is a golden pancake

sitting in a pile, waiting to be eaten.

It is a lollipop without the stick,  

white all over it, wanting to be licked.

It is a silver ball that was chucked

into the night sky.

The Moon is a yellow frying pan

kicked into the galaxy.

by Troy

Ahaura Hunting and Fishing Artwork 201

We created some collages for the annual Ahaura Hunting and Fishing Competition, which takes place on Easter weekend.

Limestone

 Early next term we are going to visit Xanadu Cave near Punakaiki so we have been finding out all about limestone.

We looked at some pieces of limestone and wrote some descriptions:

Limestone is a pale grey rock with pointy edges, and a rough, scaly middle. Ebony cracks spread over the limestone's smooth surface like mould spreading across bread.
The rock has some clumps of white powder dotted around it.
Ella, Year 4



Limestone is a light grey rock that is smooth and dusty. It feels as if it has a light coat of flour sprinkled from the bottom to the top. When you break it open the edge is as sharp as a knife!
Lily, Year 6

Limestone is a type of rock. On the rock there were silver, grey and black lines bubbled through it. It felt soft and dusty and even a bit warm. There were sparkles in the middle and black lines on the outside.
Maelle, Y4 

Limestone is a very weak stone that is found  in caves. When I touched it I thought it was a rock with powder on it. There is grey all over the stone and if you look carefully, you will see some specks of white.
Jacob, Year 5  

Limestone has sharp edges and a smooth surface. It is white, green and a little grey. On the limestone there is lots of powder. All over the stone there are tiny sparkles. The top and bottom of the limestone is really soft. Where the limestone is broken there is a white circle. If you rub two pieces of limestone together they will make powder.

Liam, Year 4

We put some pieces of limestone into vinegar and observed what happened.

We put a piece of limestone in vinegar, then I saw bubbles because there was a reaction. We left it for a few days. The limestone started to form crystals.
Jacob, Year 5  




We put limestone in a bowl and put vinegar in it. After that we saw millions of bubbles rising from beneath the limestone because the vinegar was reacting with the limestone and the vinegar turned a bit dirty. Four days later we saw bumpy bits of white crystals on the stone. Every day the little crystals got bigger.
Maelle, Year 4

We asked the question, "What is limestone?" We did some research, made some notes then wrote a paragraph to answer our question.

What is limestone ?

Limestone is a sedimentary rock made of 50 percent [or more] calcium carbonate which comes from shells and bones. The other 50 percent of the rock is made of mud, sand and pebbles. A sedimentary rock is a rock that is made from sediment under lots of pressure. The sediment is made from all the thing that have sunk to the bottom of the ocean. As the layers of sediment got thicker the bottom layer had a lot of pressure on top. Over the years it was lithified into rock.

Jeff Rossignal, Year 6

Limestone is a sedimentary rock that contains 50 % calcium carbonate, at least. It is made from bones, shells, mud and sand. It was made billions of years ago. Limestone was formed by bones and shells that layered up, and sand from the rivers, seas and lakes then put pressure on the layers and the layers of bones and shells made limestone.
Blake Dixon, Year 4

Our Imaginary Creatures' Habitats

We made habitats for our imaginary creatures out of cardboard boxes. We thought about what we'd said about our creatures in our writing and painted underwater, forest or jungle scenes and we added caves, tunnels and trees.

Room 5's Creature Creations

Over the first few weeks of term we have been working on our creature creations.

We imagined our own creatures, drew them and made detailed plasticene models.  We wrote reports on our creatures, with one paragraph about its appearance, a second about its habitat and the third about what it did, to find food, for example  We learned to write the name of the creature to start the first and last sentence and to use a pronoun (he, she, it) to start the sentences in between.

 Eragon

Eragon is a mighty dragon and the biggest and fiercest creature of the Wanatu Rainforest. His dark blue scales are almost impenetrable. He also has shiny white teeth and two horns on its head. His four legs are equipped with three razor sharp claws and he has small rubbery scales down his back to the tip of his tail. Eragon’s wings are large and so, so strong that he can carry object’s nearly twice his weight while flying.         

Eragon lives in his huge nest perched up in the great giant tree of the Wanatu Rainforest. His nest is made of large logs covered with palm leaves and hay. He usually sleeps there at night and hunts during the day but can also hunt at night if he wants. The Wanatu Rainforest is full of dangerous creatures and has a hot climate.

Eragon hunts during the day for the large gemaraks and the retacons by the Lakes of Denga. Eragon flies high in the clouds above one of the lakes until he spots his prey and dive bombs it then takes it to a tree to eat it. Sometimes a serpent attacks him and he has to kill it which can be tough. Eragon flies around if he’s not hunting and sometimes he goes and sees  other dragons.  

Jeff Rossignal, Y6

 

Ferno the fire dragon

The ferno has vampire teeth with bloodstains from its prey.  It has a fireball at the tip of its black tail. It has electric spikes on its back tail and it looks like an alien.When it flies it looks like a bird that flew into a volcano.The ferno sounds ferocious because when it sees  an animal  it roars.

Habitat

The ferno lives in Northern Europe in the forbidden forest. It spends its day underwater and spends nights in a volcano sleeping.When it is making its nest it uses tree branches and dead animal skins. It keeps its food in a fire cage deep in the volcano. Ferno has a water cave underwater beneath the volcano where he does work.

What the Ferno Does

The ferno hunts during the day in the water and at night time it sleeps.When daytime comes it goes swimming and when a fish tries to attack it it shoots spikes. At night time it meets with other dragons.The ferno goes up in the sky and gets ready to attack its prey.

Noah, Y5

The Red Eye

Appearance

The red eye has red glowing eyes.  He straps a cage on his back to carry his prey.  He has two lines on his wings.  He has got teeth coated in blood.  Red eye has red dots all over his face.

Habitat

Red eye lives in a cave on the West Coast.  He makes his nest out of bones and leaves.  His cave is full of bones.  Deep in his cave he has five babies.  Red eye’s cave is on a really, really small island.

Hunting

Red eye goes hunting at night.  He goes to a little forest.  He hunts deer, rabbits and wild cats and more.  He gets the dead animals and feeds his babies.  Red eye carves a log to store his food.
Harrison, Y4

Star Hop

Appearance

The star hop eats grass and drinks water. It has black and white stripes. It  is very fluffy. It hunts for animals.  The star hop runs and hops.

Habitat

The star hop lives in a rain forest in the daytime. It likes to go and find caves at night. When it gives up hunting for animals, the star hop comes back to the rain forest.

Feeding

The star hop eats plants and grass and it also likes wild cats and rabbits. When it gets thirsty it hops down to the river.

It also likes to hide behind trees. The star hop goes to a nearby farm and eats hay.

Alanna

The Skailasor

Appearance

The Skailasor has two sharp, spiky wings.  It has four strong, thick legs.  It has loads of scales on its body.  The Skailasor has sheep-like horns and a very spiky tail.

Habitat

The Skailasor lives in the Darth Varder galaxy.  The planet it lives on is called Goth, where there are lots of octopuses.  It lives on the floating islands and in the sea.  It digs tunnels at the bottom of the sea. The Skailasor lives in caves in the Mountain of Gold.                                                                                                                             
Hunting                                                                               

The Skailasor hunts in daytime. It will sense a fish or an ocotpus a mile away. It cooks the fish or octopus with the fire from its mouth and eats it whole. Then in the night the skailasor sleeps.                           

Morgan, Y4

Rough Doodle Scooper

Appearance

The rough doodle scooper is related to the wolf family.  It is colourful with one big bulging eye.  It has a birthmark on his first right leg.  It is striped with amazing big ears that are 12cm long and has layers of hair on its head

goes up to that go up to his ears.  When it  breathes it puffs out red smoke that flows off and disappears magically.  When the rough doodle scooper runs it uses its super speed to get to any place in a second. The rough doodle scooper’s tail is extremely long: about 32cm.

Habitat

The rough doodle scooper lives in a swamp and will usually be found by rivers.  It is originally from India but it was hunted down by hunters and scientists and they had taken the females to the U.S.A for testing or putting in the zoo for people to look at.  It is usually really hard to find a rough doodle scooper because it burrows in the ground in a hole covered with grass so you cannot see it. The rough doodle scooper uses hay and twigs for its burrow.

Feeding Habits

The rough doodle scooper creeps out of its dark, gloomy  lair and hunts for families of rough doodles which is a breed of cat that hunts for its food in the pitch black night.  It skins the rough doodle with its razor sharp claws and after a night of skinning it eats their flesh and uses their striped fur for the lining for its nest.  It drinks the blood from its prey and stores some for winter in a log that it carved with its sharp claws. The rough doodle scooper hunts with its amazing big red eyes only at night.

Nicole O'Malley, Y5

We have also started to write stories featuring our creatures (and possibly creatures belonging to others in the class). At the moment we are learning how to describe a setting.

We are also making mini "theatres" out of cardboard boxes which will show our creatures in their habitats. Some of us have teamed up if we have the same settings. 

New Classroom

We are a class of 25 Year 4/5/6 students. The Year 4 students are new to Room 5 this year but are quickly settling down to their new classroom and new routines.

We are very lucky to have brand new tables instead of desks and we now have tote trays to store our equipment. The tables come in different shapes and bright colours and we have two little tables with "lily pad" cushions that we can kneel at. They are very popular!

These are some pictures of our tables and what we think of them: 

"I like the new tables because they give us lots of room but I miss not being able to store my classroom materials in a desk."
Blake, Y4

"I like the tables because they give you more space to lay out your books and stationary."
Noah, Y5

"I like the bright colours of the tables and also how they fit into each other like a puzzle."
Maelle, Y4

"I like the tables because you can spread all your equipment out. You always have to get up to get your stationary out of your tray and that's what I don't like about them."
Lily, Y6

"I like the table because you have your own space to work. You can sit beside your friends. They are also helpful for packing your bag because there is enough space to put your bag."
Olivia, Y4

"When you are making models or doing art, it's nicer to have a bigger space to work. I like the lily pads because you can get a bit more peace and quiet if the people next to you are noisy, but I don't like the fact that there aren't more of them."
Jeff, Y6

"I like the trays because you don't lose all your things. It's really easy to put your pencils in the tray when you are finished. One thing I don't really like is when people are getting their things out they make your tray fall out."
Reagan, Y4

"The lily pad tables are good for getting away from your desk group or from noise and distraction. They are also good for working on the computer because there is lots of space. You can sit down with your friends when you are doing some work on the computer. The cushions are really comfortable because when you are trying to work it's better than sitting on a hard floor or chair."
Ben, Y5