Comparing two stories

Recently we have read two traditional tales from different parts of the world. We read "Rainbow Bird" from Australia and "How Rabbit stole the Fire" from North America. We found that there were lots of differences and similarities between the stories. Here is a compare map we have made about them. You can make it bigger by clicking on it.

Trolls

This term we read the traditional tale "The Three Billy Goats Gruff." We found out that the story comes from Norway originally, and we have started writing letters to some students who live in Norway. We have also been finding out about trolls (which come from Norway of course)!!! We designed our own trolls and wrote some descriptions about them. Our mums and dads can come and have a look at our amazing troll pictures in our classroom after the holidays, but we thought that we would record our descriptions so that we can also share them with our new pen-pals in Norway. We wonder whether our trolls sound similar to the trolls in Norway?!!!

Little Blue Fin

As part of this term's reading programme we have been learning to be storytellers! The Seals reading group have written their own story based on "Little Red Riding Hood," but they decided to change the characters and the setting. What differences can you find? What similarities can you find? They worked really independently with very little help and wrote up their story together on big sheets of paper. Then they drew their illustrations. This took quite a long time! Miss Brookshaw took pictures of the illustrations and then today the Seals recorded themselves! Miss Brookshaw was really impressed by how well they collaborated with each other, and she also loves their great storytelling skills!

Maui and the Sun Art

We have been reading the Maori myth "Maui and the Sun" this term and we made these pictures using crayon, vivid and dye for the suns, and then we painted the sky for the background. We mixed blue, white, black and glittery paint together to create different shades. We then cut "ropes" out of wool, and Miss Brookshaw helped us to stick these on using a hot glue gun. We put these pictures up in the hall for our school art exhibition. You can see us visiting our own display in the picture above!

Artwork For Sale

Next week it is our school art exhibition and each class has produced a special canvas to sell in the auction. Our canvas was based on the story "The Rainbow Fish" by Marcus Pfister and each child designed a fish. The fabulous Mrs Stuart helped us to create our canvas. If you would like to own this work of art, please don't forget to come along to the art exhibition and bid for it!!!

Dressing up as fairytale characters

Last week we had a special dress up day in Year 1. We could come to school dressed up as a fairytale character. This is because we have been learning all about different traditional stories and fairytales. Can you work out who we are dressed as?! In the afternoon we went over to the hall for a fairytale ball. We played some games and did some dancing. The teachers even put on a show for us! They acted out "Cinderella." Miss Cockcroft was Cinderella and Mr Subramoney was the fairy godfather!

The Travelling Bears

We have a team of travelling bears in Room 18. Their names are Barnaby, Basil, Gertrude and Bertie. They love going on trips with the children around Auckland, New Zealand or even overseas. Luckily they all have special bear passports just in case they need to hop on a plane and visit a different country. The children then come back and tell us all about their adventures!

Check out all the places within New Zealand where the bears have been to so far this year!

Each bear has a special scrapbook for their pictures and news!

The bears have enjoyed visiting some exciting places overseas! There are more trips to Australia and Rarotonga planned too - how fabulous! Lucky bears!

Construct a Word

Check out a new game to help you with your spelling!

Battle of the Mountains

We have been learning how to be really good storytellers! We read the Maori legend "Battle of the Mountains" by Peter Gossage, which lots of us really enjoyed. We then retold the story as a class and Miss Brookshaw wrote down what we said. We made some pictures to go with each part and then recorded the story. We hope you enjoy it!