2M's Blog of all that's happening in our classroom.
This blog was started by the Gems of 2008. We, the 2011 Gems are proud to continue on the conversation.
You can read, watch and listen as we share our learning journey - a journey where we 'learn to blog' and 'blog to learn'.
Please visit regularly to see what's new and join in the conversation - we'd love for you to be part of our learning.
Our adventure with poetry continues. Now we are investigatingACROSTICpoems.
ACROSTICpoems are poems that use the letters of the topic word to start each line. All the lines of the poem have to describe the topic.
Like a Diamantepoem, an ACROSTIC poem does not rhyme. As we have been taking part in the Monster Project, we all chose 'monster' as the topic of our acrostic poems.
Here's Keely's poem-
Monster teeth that can break a bone On the move, it's very fast Never stop eating people Scares the people all the time Terrifyingly large claws Every one is frightened by him Roars so loud it hurts your ears.
and here's Tom's poem-
Monstrous claws Out and about all night No-one knows him Scares everyone he sees Terrifying teeth as sharp as swords Everyone hides from him Runs like a cheetah.
Have you tried writing ACROSTIC poems? What topic might you choose?
If you would like to know more about ACROSTIC poems andtry writing one, head over toREAD, WRITE, THINK.
On Friday we learnt about Diamante Poems. A diamante poem is a poem that follows certain rules. On the first line you have one noun, on the second line you have two adjectives, on the third are three verbs ending in -ing, on the fourth line you have four nouns or a short phrase, on the fifth line you have three more verbs ending in -ing, on the sixth line are two adjectives and on the last line, you're back to one noun. There are two types of Diamante poems - synonym where the two nouns mean the same thing and an antonym, where the two nouns are opposites.
I did a Synonym poem, and my Synonym poem topic was Monsters. On the bottom you have to choose a topic that is the same. I did creature. So did the rest of the class. Here is one that I did.
Monsters scary,weird, roaring,stomping,hiding scares people in there dreams crawling,creeping,annoying big,hairy, creature
And heres the Antonym poem that I did. puppy playful,cute, jumping,digging,barking loves playing around house meowing,sleeping,yawning loud,soft kittens
Have you ever written aDiamante poembefore? What might you write about?
If you'd like to try writing Diamante poems, head over to Read, Write, Think.
The Monster Project is when classes from all around the world collaborate with each other to describe a monster.
We had to come up with a description for the ears. Some descriptions weren't on the website, so we got to make them up ourselves.
All three of our Year 2 classes joined together to make our monster. The parts that our class got were the body, toe nails, legs, feet, toes, cane, jet ski, ears, digital camera and the tongue.
The 'body group' had a HUGE and messy job making the body out of paper mache.
We had to think creatively to decide how we could make the translucent toes and the 9ft/3 metrelong legs.
For the translucent toe we used cling wrap, and for the legs we used air con tubes.
The digital camera was an easy job. Noah and Jack had totally different interpretations of the description. Jack had the mud and the gum smothered it all over the camera, but Noah had it in blobs. They had to negotiate and agree on a design that included both of their ideas.
The Jet Ski was a really fun job. It required a lot of team work, because the original jet ski wasn't big enough for the monster so the group had to problem solve to make a bigger jet ski.
All of this year's 'monsters' can be viewed on the Monster Project website . We knew that each class would interpret the monster descriptions differently but we were still amazed at how no two monsters are alike. We'd like to congratulate Mrs Beagley's Grade 5 class in South Africa for their winning monster, Tokoloshi-Afrika. You can read about how they made their wonderful monster on theirblog. We had an amazing time participating in the Monster Project. Our room was a mess for weeks but it was buzzing with activity as we collaborated and problem solved to create our monster. We didn't want it to end and hope we can participate again next year!
Gems, you've all come up with some great names for our monster but now it's time to choose which name best suits our monster's appearance and personality.
In the form below are your suggestions. Read the list then choose ONE name. The top three choices will then be added to 2R's and 2BP's top three names for final voting.
Gems, the votes are in. The top three names we'll be taking to the final Year 2 vote are: Ozzystein, Aussie Frank, and Mad Rumbler Bumper Pumper!
This morning, we joined with 2R and 2BP, our teachers, Mrs J and Mr S to assemble our monster.
Today was the first time that we saw the body parts that 2R and 2BP had made. All of us have done a fantastic job.
Because many of the body parts are so big, our teachers helped us build the monster. We had to think creatively when putting the monster parts together.
It took all morning to build our monster. We were amazed at how well all the pieces were able to fit together. All our efforts to work together as a team and collaborate and consult with each other over the past 5 weeks has been worth it.
Our classroom has been a hive of activity the last few days as we work together to finish off our monster for the Monster Project. With the deadline for monster construction Friday, we've been spending full days working on our body parts and accessories. Here's a video we made to show you how we are progressing.
Along with2Rand2BP, we're joining with 37 other classes from around the world to take part in theGLOBAL MONSTER PROJECT.
Each of the classes participating chose a body part or accessory and came up with 8-12 words to describe that part. Along with our buddy Yr 2 classes, we chose the ears. We imagined what a monster's ears might look like and after brainstorming, this was our description- Right ear - thorny, twisted, curly, long, dragging on the ground Left ear- hairy, scabby, sunburnt, elf like
You can see the descriptions that all the other classes contributed in the table on the MONSTER 2010 home page.
Our task now is to use the descriptions to build a monster by October 29. We know that each class will interpret the descriptions differently. We can't wait to see what all the monsters will look like.
Building this monster is going to be a HUGE task and will require a LOT of teamwork...but will be heaps of fun!
She showed us all the leaves in her 'fall' backyard. It was cool to see her autumn trees. We don't notice the changing of the seasons as much in our climate. We found if amazing that it was a 27C autumn day in Moose Jaw and only a 25C spring day in Brisbane. Mrs Cassidy was having a heatwave!
Then Mrs M surprised us with some gifts - books from Mrs Cassidy and Mrs Knee, plus lots of books that Mrs M bought for us while she was overseas.
We can't wait to read them. Some of them are even signed by the author! We already think, just by looking at them, that many of these books we'll want to read over and over!
Because Mrs Knee knew we were planning a marine inquiry this term, she also sent us some marine stuffies (a horseshoe crab, hermit crab and a moon jelly) and some shells and a whelk egg case from the beaches of New Hampshire.
We can't believe how BIG some of the shells are and we've never seen anything like the whelk egg case before! We wonder if there is anything like this in our Moreton Bay habitat?
We ended our first day back with the biggest surprise. Last term, we were closely following Mrs Knee's daughter Abi, a marine biologist, while she was collecting data about marine life on Lizard Lsland, up on the Great Barrier Reef.
We skyped with her and after she sent us some photos, we had LOTS!!!!! of questions. We were expecting for her to just email the answers to us, but guess what she did? She created a site on Shutterfly and made an ebook for us. We were amazed to get our questions answered this way and think Abi should write more books. What do you think?
