Penta Blogging Comments

Hi to all our Penta Blogging friends. We're really enjoying reading all your comments and appreciate the feedback. We're learning lots about things we can do in the future with our classroom blog and also our student blogs!

Today we had a great conversation about making our comment settings available to allow 'annon' comments. We want to reflect this some more before we act but would still LOVE your individual comments!

If you are unable to make a comment on our student blogs could you leave them attached to this post? We will be able to read them in one place. Just leave the name of the person's blog you are commenting on.

Thanks again! We're fast becoming addicted to the 'Penta!'

Buddy Reading in Room 1

Buddy Reading in Room 1 from mark herring on Vimeo.

We paid a visit to Room 1 in Term 3 to practise our oral language focus - reading out loud with expression and clarity.

iMovie Themes

Here's a movie I've made using the themes in imovie 11. I wanted to show you how you can add some extra entertainment to your docos with themes, sound effects and music.

Watch out for the sneak appearance from Ben, too.

Persistence -Habits of Mind

Can we make a persistence video like this?

These are the things we think make it a great film / video
- framing - not too much space above the heads (face is in the top third)
- the shot was in the same space, lets the viewer see the 'things' moving, not the camera
- the camera is still
- humour draws in the viewer and keeps attention
- speaker knew what he was going to say
- easy to hear his words and sound effects

Next we had 10 minutes to see if each team could create their own persistence video that meets the criteria. Here's our best effort!

Efolio Spotlight - Benjamin

Here's our first efolio spotlight! This is where we put one of our 'efolios' in the spotlight and have a look at what makes it shine.

This efolio, by Benjamin, has all the things we have been working on! He has some reflective posts that cover the 'what, so-what and now-what' steps, he's embeded his animation and he some images to break up the text. I also like the way his posts are easy to read and 'mostly' well G.S.P.I'd.

Great work, Benjamin - keep shining!

The Alphabet Key!

Here are some of our ideas for science vocab that fits under each letter of the alphabet. It's kind of like 'scattegories'. This is one of Tony Ryans Thinkers Keys that we sometimes use for oral language. Do you like our ideas?

A = Asking K = Knowledge

B = Beakon L = Liquid

C = Colloides M = Matter

D = Define N = Nitrogen

E = Experiments O = Oxygen

F = Figuring Out P = Plasma

G = Gas Q = Question

H = Hypothesis R = Research

I = Ideas S = Science

J = ?? T = Test

Random Equations

Yesterday we played a game where you had to think of some creative ways to make a number. For every way you can think of that no one else thinks of you get a point. Here was our first attempt with the number 49.

Kees knew the number equation of using every operation to end up at the same point. If we multiply a number by itself, then divide it by itself, add and subtract and so on - we come back to the original number! Nice work, Kees.

We also saw how we need to put brackets around the parts of an equation with more than one operation.

Our Final Animation - Credit Card Crisis

Here's the last of our class animations - The Credit Card Crisis. This was created by Aleisha, Ruby B and Sophie W.

The competition for the most popular animation closes on Friday! The movie with the most youtube views will win - time to get watching!

Olivia's Poem - Silentness

Here's a great poem that Olivia wrote durig our silent writing time. We spend 15 minutes each day writing whatever takes our fancy! She told me she sat by the door and was inspired by looking outside. Great writing, Olivia. We can almost sense the quiet while we read.

Can you hear that? It is the peace, the quiet. That is what it is .

Can you see that? It is the birds, the bees. That is what it is .

Can you feel that? It is the hug of the sun, the breeze. That is what it is.

Can you smell that? It is the fresh mowed grass, the beautiful spring roses. That it what it is .

Can you taste that? It is the rich taste of cadbury dark chocolate. That is what it is.

By Olivia Fraser

Rhythm Interactive Reflection

Snow Trip 2011

Lots of us went on a snow trip last Friday. Here's a video I took, following Bruce and Emma.

Snow Trip Action 2011 from mark herring on Vimeo.

We've been learning about the different camera angles and techniques that will help the class film their documentaries next week. What kind of technique am I using for this clip?

Fire Fire!!!

Here's an animation made by Emma, Olivia and Kaitlyn.

The Guy who tried to fly

Created by Andrew, Bruce and Tim.

New Position

We have a vacancy for the job of Great Eight DJ. You can apply be sending me an email with a list of reasons why you would be suitable.

The position pays 20 Snidges a week and requires you to setup and run the sining for the class - playing the song of the week on the IWB for us once a day.

Applications are due this Wednesday.

Penta Bloggers!

This week we are starting a 'Pentablogging' project. We're in a group of 5 classrooms that will be sharing, reading and commenting on each others blogs. The idea is that we have 1 class as a focus for the week and we all read and post comments on what they're up to. When we're the focus we get to post on the other blogs.

This week we're reading the blog of this classroom - Grant Braes School, Room 1.

Use your silent reading ICT time to read their posts and post great comments - let's go over what a great comment is again! Have fun!