Poetry Ideas

If you haven't seen my recent blog post, I explained that our class was writing a variety of poems to create a poetry collection slide. I also showcased my work alongside the explanation. We have written poems such as, Limerick, Haiku, Acrostic, Diamante, Alphabet, Cinquain and Colour poems. Here is how to write them, and the structure needed. Maybe even give them a go?

Have you ever written or attempted any of these poems? 

Poetry collection

Through out the year, especially in term 2 and 3, we started writing and creating a collection and wide variety of poems. Poems we have written so far, have been, Sound poems, Diamante, Acrostic, Limerick, Haiku, Alphabet, Cinquain, and Colour poems. My favourite have probably been the Limerick, or Acrostic poem, as you can be very creative (not to say that you can't be creative with the others) But I find that its easier to write, and that I feel I can create a better poem. My least favourite is Haiku poems, as its quite short, and you have to stay between 5 and 7 syllables. However I love learning new ways of learning, like learning a new structure/type of poem. 

After writing the each poem, we transferred, if we hadn't already written the poem straight onto a Google Slide. Added a picture/background and repeated that for every poem so we could end up with a collection like this..

I met a Dragon face to face...

Today I wrote a poem inspired by "I met a dragon face to face" by Jack Prelutsky. The task was to write our own poem using his format, and think about adventures we have encountered while reading. After I wrote the poem on Google Docs, I copied it onto a Google Drawing and added images to help picture my writing. 

In the poem by Jack, the character was 10 years old, however I changed this to my age so it was like I lived the adventures.

By Hayley

Ngahere Writing

To incorporate our study on plants, biodiversity and native bush this term, we recently did some slow writing about our native Ngahere. Slow writing is small 7 sentence writing exercise however it helps to enrichen our writing by using things such as similes, metaphors, questions etc. After writing, I added it to a Google Drawing and from there I placed on a background of New Zealand native bush. Here is my writing...

Snr Bike Ride Slow Writing

On the 18th and 19th of March, Room 4 went on our annual Snr Bike ride. We rode the Rakauroa Road, the Koranga Valley Road, and the Te Wera Road. Then pitching tents and staying the night at a woolshed. (I will be doing some writing about the trip with more detail and information later!) 

 Afterwards, when we were back at School, we did some slow writing about or trip/journey. Here it is...

Summer Haiku

Today, I chose to complete a quick writing task from the Summer Learning Journey, all about writing poems! But not just any poems, Haiku's! A Haiku, incase your unsure, is a poem constructed of 3 lines, the first line has 5 syllables, followed by the middle line which includes 7 syllables and the last line once again made of 5 syllables. I have written a few Haiku's before at school, have you ever written a Haiku? However, the poem couldn't just be about anything, we had to write them around, Summer! Have you been enjoying your Summer? 

When I think of Summer I think of LOTS of things, but I'm not going to list them because when if I started I wouldn't be able to stop, although, 1 of the main things I think of is the river or going to the beach. So, I decided to write mine about the beach. Here is my Summer Haiku, (well I wrote a few, not just one!) Here they are...

(Sorry, in the image above I have made a small spelling error and I don't have the original to change it, 'shells' is supposed to be 'shell', thanks!)

I hope you like my Summer Haiku's! Enjoy the rest of your Summer holidays and be safe! What do you like to do the most in the holidays?

Which One Doesn't Belong!?

Another activity from the SLJ that I chose to complete today, was called 'Which One Doesn't Belong'. To start we were given a set of slides, on each slide there was 4 photos, from there we had to list all of our reasons why we believed they didn't belong with the others. (sorry for my terrible explaining!) 

For example...

This plate of 4 donuts, they're all different, meaning we had to write our reason why they didn't belong... 

- D (bottom left) is the only doughnut that has pink frosting or the only doughnut with sprinkles

Another one could be...

- C (bottom left) is the only doughnut with nuts 

or A (top left) is the only doughnut with no frosting and so on...

What doughnut would you like to eat the most?

 Here is my reasons why these pictures below in the set of slides don't belong...

Do you agree with me, could you add any on top of mine? 

Here is one for you...

(write your reasons in the comments)

I hope you enjoyed! Can't wait for the next task! This task was a BLAST!

Would You Rather...

This morning my class started of the by completing a quick writing task. We had to... Create 'Would You Rathers!' I wrote 12 in total, after writing them we had to chose a favourite and share it with the class and publish it to our blogs! We did this writing so that we could start a good discussion in the class. Here is my Would You Rather...

So, what would you rather?

Persausive Writing

Recently in class we were given the task to write a Persuasive piece of writing. Our writing was about whether we think that 'Zoos are cruel and should be banned' and whether we agree with the statement or not. Here is my writing...

I strongly believe that Zoos are cruel and should be banned! Yes, Zoos are fun experiences. We get to learn about beautiful, exotic animals that most of us don’t often get to see. We also get to hang out with friends and family, but it isn’t like that for the animals. When animals are taken away from their natural environmental habitats to be taken to a Zoo, when they get released back in the wild, they can’t survive without rehabilitation.

My first reason, animals enclosures are very small, too small. Just think, it’s like being trapped in quarantine for the rest of your life. Zoos know that animal enclosures are too small and some Zoos have tried to make land bigger. For example places like the Werribee Zoo, in Australia have a part called the ‘Open Range’ which is a bigger 32km enclosure where African animals like Giraffes, Elephants and Zebras can roam. However, according to BBC, between 3,000 to 5,000 animals are killed in European zoos every year. Zoos in India and China couldn’t feed their animals over lockdown, meaning they had to be shot. Are all of these animals killed because there isn’t enough space for them, or not enough food?

My next reason is that Zoos aren’t safe for humans. Some of the animals can be unhappy, causing them to lash out, hurt or even kill people! For example, in 2016, a 3 year old climbed over a fence into an endangered Gorillas enclosure. In the end the workers had to shoot the Gorilla to save the kid, this wouldn’t have happened if we didn’t have Zoos. Some animal enclosures aren’t surrounded by very high fences either meaning people could climb into their enclosures or feed them food from the other side of the fence.

My third reason is that animals don’t get to live in their natural environments or with their natural herds. Animals might be safe from predators in the wild however they live unhappy and lonely lives in a zoo. Elephants are normally used to living in big herds, where in a Zoo there are only 1 or 2. When Elephants aren’t in their herds it makes them feel quite threatened and under stress. To help animals being put under stress, Zoos could minimize the amount of people allowed to enter the Zoo and raise the price of entering Zoos. Less people could help reduce the stress animals have because there isn’t as many people banging on glass, and the noise. Animals are also able to hunt and catch their own prey in the wild; zoo animals instead are given a carcass to chew on. In my opinion, Zoos should let animals like Lions, have live food in their enclosures.

Next, a lot of Zoos have a section where animals perform tricks. Seals for example are taught how to balance a ball on their noses, meaning that they could get hurt in the process. Animals are supposed to be in the wild, not doing tricks or trapped in a small enclosure. At the end of the day it doesn’t achieve anything for the animal, it only archives entertainment purposes and money for the Zoo.

In conclusion, I strongly believe that Zoos should be banned! Despite the fact that Zoos try their best to make the animals feel at home in captivity, I believe that animals

That is my writing, I hope you enjoyed and feedback is welcome anytime!

5 Reasons Why...

The other day in class, Mrs Bennett introduced a new type of writing, called '5 reasons why'. Basically, you write 5 things about why you think (for example) 'Spring is the best Season'.

We did this writing because recently we have been focusing on Persuasive Writing. We were trying to convince my readers that Matawai School is the best school. 
Here is my writing....

Fascinating Fungi...

This term we are focusing on studying 'Fungi, Yeast and Mould'. We recently went on a fungi hunt around our school, to see how many species we can find. Back in class we did some slow writing (slow writing is a type of writing) Here is my writing...

Interveiw

Today we had to create questions related to sports, like for example - "How do you feel before a race". Then once we had written our questions we had to send them via gmail to a class mate to answer.  I wrote my questions for my friend Rylee and Rylee wrote her questions for me. Here are our questions and answers.

Here are Rylee's questions for me...

1. How do you feel before any race ?

I stretch so that I don't hurt or strain any muscles. I will take off any extra clothing. 

2. What's the furthest that you have run ?

35km

3. What types of food and drinks do you have before a race ?

What I normally eat and drink every day

4. How long before the race do you start eating healthy ?

I eat healthy every day

5. Have you ever come last in a race ?

No

Here are my questions to Rylee...

1. How do you feel before any race ?

I stretch so that I don’t strain any muscles

2. What's the furthest that you have run ?

3km 

2. What types of food and drinks do you have before a race ?

What I normally eat and drink every day

3. How long before the race do you start eating healthy ?

I eat healthy basically every day

4. Have you ever come last in a race ?

Yes

Autumn Acrostic Poem

About a week ago I wrote an Autumn Acrostic Poem. Here it is -

A = Acorns fall like missiles from broad tree branches  

U =  Umber leaves raked into a pile

T = Tranquil waters descend to lower temperatures 

U = Unfallen leaves ready to drop when a bitter gust of wind blows

M = March the 20th is here again, Autumn blows in

N = Next year the same will happen again!

Have you written a Acrostic Poem before? 

Sunflower Writing

With our Sunflower art we did a short piece of writing here (below) is my work . . . 

A row of shining stars,

Aline like consolations high in the sky,

While down on Earth in the hot dry African desert,

Lions manes lying in a garden bed.

Have you ever written a poem about a flower???

Dear Diary

The Summer Learning Journey challenged me to pretend that I have a diary. In our 'diary' we had to write about one extraordinary day. We could choose to make up an extraordinary day or write a short story about an extraordinary day that happened in our lives. Do you keep a diary? I choose to make my extraordinary day up. Here is my extraordinary day . . .  

Dear Diary, 

What an unbelievable day I had today. It all started when I went to the swimming pool. I was playing around in the toddler pool when I looked up and saw, you won't believe it, I saw a shimmering tail splosh into the water in the big pool. I rubbed my eyes and blinked. Nothing there, I told myself I must be seeing things. I went to the big pool just to make sure there was nothing there. I was swimming around the area I had seen the shimmering tail, when I spotted something glittery on the bottom of the pool. I dived down and grabbed it. It was like nothing I had ever seen before, what could it be? I was swimming back to the edge of the pool when I felt something strange happening to my legs. I was swimming quicker than ever. I went to jump out of the pool but I couldn't walk. My legs had turned into a TAIL!!!! What just happened???? I pinched myself, yes, this is real. It must have been a real mermaids tail I saw. It must be a glittery scale from her tail that I have found. I went for a swim with my new tail, swish, swish, swish went my new tail. Faster and faster I went. I was joined by the mermaid I had seen earlier, we raced beneath the surface darting here and there. It was so amazing. Then dear diary, I had to make the hardest choice of my life. Give back the scale and go on living as a normal person or keep the scale and live the rest of my life as a mermaid. It was a choice that had to be made and dear diary you know what I chose.

'Reel' Girls Fish

T'was an early morning start for a day of fishing adventures. Dad herded everyone into the car and drove like a crazy man to the boat ramp. We jumped into our life jackets and were ready to catch a whole heap of fish. The weather was fine with a little breeze, should be a great day. Dad pulled the starter cord and the engine roared into life. We blasted our way out to the deep water, the land was vanishing at an alarming rate but Dad slowed the boat and said ''this spot should be good". We baited our lines and dropped them in. We waited and waited and waited. The wind suddenly picked up and we found ourselves drifting but dad wasn't too worried. The waves began to get quite big and were crashing into the front of the boat. Then it happened 'BANG' something was on the end of mums line. Mums muscles were bulging as she held the line, reeling and wrestling. We were getting excited to see what was coming up. Mum gave one last pull, the fish leapt out of the water and got off. Poor mum went flying across the boat and tumbled backwards into the water. We were gobsmacked. We all hauled mum back into the boat and it was decided that we should head for shallower water. Dad yanked on the starter cord and the engine gave a splutter, again and again dad pulled on the cord, but when he was about to give up the engine roared back to life. The waves were now really big. As we made our way for shallower waters we were all saturated from the water coming in the boat. It felt like we weren't going anywhere but the land was slowly creeping closer. Finally we got to the shallower waters and the wind had died down. We got our lines back in. We sat and waited, my rod started to jiggle then nearly folded in half, I was on. I wrestled with the line and kept fighting, finally the fish was at the top and what a beauty it was. I had landed a whopping big Snapper. We stayed out for a bit longer but nothing
more happened. We headed back to the boat ramp, the girls had caught the fish.

(DISCLAIMER) My story is based on a true story, we did go fishing in our boat called 'True Blue' (the underside of the boat is white with turquoise and the windscreen in dark blue that's how it got it's name) Anyway Mum didn't actually fall in the water and some of the 'above' didn't actually happen I just added some humour into a true story.  I hoped that you enjoyed!!!

Me with my fish that I caught!!!

A Long Walk To Freedom

One Important Letter

Our Prime Minister of New Zealand in Jacinda and the Summer Learning Journey has asked us as one of our tasks to pretend to write a letter to her, that  includes the issue you have chosen, why you have chosen it, and what you would like our Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern, to do about it. Here is what my letter to her would say . . . 


Dear Jacinda,
As our prime minister of New Zealand you are super important! To keeping our countries safe from fights and battles to helping big issues to a minimum. 
However, I am sure that you can help me and New Zealand with this problem about . . . Pollution. New Zealand's sea life is dying and if we keep repeating our stupid actions New Zealand's sea life will all be extinct. Many whales have been pulled or found on coasts and shores of many beaches, full of rubbish. 

But, it's not just rubbish pollution it's light pollution, water pollution, air pollution, solid waste pollution and noise pollution. 

I have found a website on the internet connected to recycling rubbish called https://www.terracycle.com/en-NZ/ where you simply collect rubbish of a certain brand like yogurt suckies and toothpaste cubes and boxes etc and send the rubbish away and get money for it. The link is above just in case I didn't explain about it very well. Every so once in a while a school event comes up where your school can collect a certain type and send it away to earn money for your school. I have told my principal, Glen (last name - which I am not going to put because I am cyber smart) about it, he says yes but then he just forgets about it and then it never happens, I have reminded him about a couple of times but like again says "Yes" then forgets about it. I am really frustrated at him because that money could go on to help our school, get enough money for a school camp or get us some new equipment. 

My family is helping by slowly reducing the amount of plastic bags, instead we use paper bags that compost into the earth or cotton/material bags that can be used over and over again. We are also helping by not buying as much packaging and instead making pasta and baking treats and biscuits etc. We also have a MASSIVE garden in our backyard. We grow basically every thing we can in our colder climate. We grow . . . Banana's, pineapple, passion fruit, quinces, apples, pears, cherries, cherry plums, strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, blackcurrants, redcurrants, gooseberries, lemons, cabbage, broccoli, peas, beans, silver beet, beetroot, onions red and brown, herbs, and flowers such as daisies, hibiscus etc and we also make tea out of chamomile flowers and other natural garden material. I couldn't list everything in our garden because I would be here for days and days.  

From Hayley (Last name - I am not going to put because I am cyber smart)


And that (above) is my letter I would write to Jacinda. In her letter I would not put "(Last name - I am not going to put because I am cyber smart)" and I would replace it for our actual real names but for the sake of me putting this on to my blog I will not put them. 

Do you have a garden an what do you grow in it??? 
Is there a issue that you would like to fix in New Zealand or other countries??? 

Image attribution - https://www.flickr.com/photos/ulyssebellier/36148498753

Simile Writing About Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce

Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce currently holds the record for the 100m sprint and has been crowned “world’s fastest woman” a record four times! I did some simile writing about her (under picture) She is currently 33 years of age and was educated in Jamaica.During her college years she did well in athletics, winning the Jamaican Schools Championships at the age of 16. She went on to win many races at both the Olympics and the World Championships. Over the years people have compared her running speed to elite sprinters, like Usain Bolt, to many things, including animals!
(image attribution: https://www.nbcmiami.com/news/national-international/natl-blade-runner-pistorius-makes-olympic-debut/2034566)

Here is my writing ... (below)

As fast as a shiny new gold super car with new rims and tyres,
As tall as a giraffe with an extra large neck that reaches the cloud
Is as small as a new born baby all wrapped up in a soft, warm cotton blanket,
Is as beautiful as a butterfly’s delicate colourful wide spread wings.

BFG

The BFG or Big Friendly Giant is of course a giant and is a humongous size, he also has humongous ears! The BFG's personalty is friendly and kind, unlike all of the other 9 mean giants in the story like... Fleshlumpeater, Manhugger, Bonecruncher, Childchewer, Meatdripper, Gizzardgulper, Maidmasher, Bloodbottler and the Butcher Boy. 

In the BFG they speak a language called Gobblefunk, Blabbersnitch means - a creature that lives under the sea, Buggles means - completely crazy, Crodscollop means - a mouth watering flavour - for example, the taste of chocolate ice cream, Goggler means an eye, Hornswoggler means - a very dangerous creature, Oompa Lompa means - a very small person - a tribe of them work in Willy Wonka's fantastic chocolate factory, Phizz Whizzing means - Brilliant or really, really good, Ringbeller means - The BFG's word for an amazingly excellent dream: the complete opposite to a nightmare, Splatch Winkle - Splatch winking means rushing around the house; in a hurry, Svollop means - To svollop something to destroy it, Time Twiddler means - A time twiddler is very special. Time Twiddlers -  are immortal; they live for ever and ever, Vermicious Knid - WATCH OUT! These beasts are vicious killers who can fool you by changing shape and Whoopsy Splunkers - Used to describe something absolutely marvellous. 

The BFG wears a white long sleeved shirt with a brown vest and a greeny grey shade of long pants and a pair of sandles. To Sophie he has a long sharp knife like nose and above the nose 2 bright eyes with arms as big as tree trunks. He also wears a black cape at witching hour. I think that the BFG smells like snozzcumber (whatever they smell like) because he seems to eat them a lot, however, I image that they smell unpleasant because to be honest they don't look very appealing or the other thing I think he might smell like is farts because of all of the frobscottle he drinks then all of the whizzpoppers he does. The BFG's main hobby is blowing lovely golden dreams, and nice dreams in to children's windows at witching hour through a trumpet. First he opens his suitcase and selects a dream to blow into that child's window then he opens a screw top bottle of dreams and pours it down the trumpet in the window then into the child's head.  

                                     image attribution: https://paintingvalley.com/d-tag/roald

                                           Here is the picture of the BFG & Sophie that I drew

                                   My with my drawing of the BFG & Sophie