Hello and welcome to the 2010 Hokowhitu ESOL blog. The school is running three ESOL groups at the moment. One is for the junior students and they are working on vocabulary and high frequency words. One is for the older students and they are working on becoming independent spellers and writers. And one group is working on increasing their reading and writing skills.

In the upper group we read Greedy Cat’s Door by Joy Cowley. It is a favourite of the children who carried over from last year’s group. Two of the children produced stories based on the book. Check out Angel, Ms Finikin’s neighbours’ cat. She reminds us of our obligation to look after our pets.

We are looking at using phonics to help us spell. Ms Finikin told us a poem and we spelt many of the words together. We had never heard this poem before and this was an early attempt at singing it.

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February 23, 2010

Shahad had a sore neck on Friday. “What happened?” asked Paul. “I was doing flips,” Shadad told us. “I got hurt once,” all the children said. We all started telling stories about how we got hurt at different times and in different ways. We wrote our stories, thinking about the sounds of words we didn’t know how to spell, then we drew pictures. We recorded our stories on Monday. Here they are.

February 26, 2010

After we read Baby Bear’s Present we talked about our favourite toys. Here are our stories.

Shahad wrote me a letter and asked me to put it up on the blog. Here it is:

Hi Ms Finikin,

Thank you for helping me doing the test and doing some stuff and having some fun. Thank you for everything and have some fun everywhere.

From Shahad

March 5, 2010

One of our group mates got back from her holidays this week. While she was over seas she visited fun parks in Australia. She had a great time and told us about the wonderful things she saw. She wrote this story at home to share with us.

We are starting a wonderful unit on the giant weta. We started this unit after reading a book called “One Cold Wet Night”. The story is about a farmer going outside one night and all the animals climbing in to his bed. He gets all the mammals out of his bed but is too scared to shift the giant weta. He chooses to sleep on the couch rather than try to shift the weta. We talked about the story and wrote our own versions. One of the objectives for the unit may well be to make the students less eager to squish the poor little insects on sight. The toy weta in the photos is a little smaller than a regular giant weta. Enjoy our stories and bare in mind that giant weta are pretty harmless.

March 25, 2010

One of the books we have been reading lately is Baby Bear’s Present. In it Mother Bear and Father Bear decide to buy Baby Bear a present because he is so helpful. The problem is that Father Bear wants one toy and Baby Bear wants another. Who will get to choose the toy? Here are our recounts of the story.

Once upon a time in one house there were three bears;
Father Bear,
Mother Bear,
Baby Bear.

Once upon a time the three bears went to a shop. They saw a helicopter and a red car. “I like the red car,” said Baby Bear. “But I like the helicopter,” said Father Bear. “The toy is not for you, Father Bear,” said Mother Bear. “No, the toy is not for me. It is for Baby Bear. He is a good bear.” Look at me!” said Baby Bear.

By Paul

One time Baby Bear helped Mum tidy up so Mum and Dad took Baby Bear to the shop. Dad saw a train. Dad liked it. Baby Bear looked at the blue car. Dad and Mum bought the blue car for him.

By Neo

The three bears went to the toy shop. They saw a car and train. Baby Bear liked the car. Father Bear liked the train. They fought. Mother Bear said, The toy is not for you, Father Bear.” They bought the car.

By Bro

Baby Bear was being helpful and Mother Bear and Father Bear decided to give him a present. They took him to a shop. Baby Bear liked the cars best but Father Bear liked the trains and they started fighting and Mum said, “It’s not for you.” And they got the car.

By Antariksh

Once upon a time Baby Bear was helpful. The mother bear and father bear said, “Let’s get a toy for Baby Bear.” So they went to the forest shop. They saw a car and a train. Then the father bear was fighting with Baby Bear and the mother bear said, “The toy is not for you.” And Father Bear said, “Yeah, the toy is not for me.” And so they got the car. Then Baby Bear said, “Look at me!”

By Anis

Mother Bear and Father Bear said, “Baby Bear helps me and he helps you.” Mother Bear said, “I will buy a toy for you.” Baby Bear went into the shop to look at the blue car. He said, “I like this blue car. Can I get this?” Father Bear said, “I like the train.” Mother Bear said, “This toy is not for you.” Father Bear said, “Yes, it is not for me.” Baby Bear said, “Look at me!”

By Wency

They went to the shop and they saw the blue car. “I want the blue car.” “No. I want the train.” “I like the blue car,” said Baby Bear. “I like the train. This little key makes it go,” said Father Bear. “No, the toy is not for you.” They bought the blue car.

By Mohammed

Baby Bear said, “I like this car.” But Father Bear said, “I like the train. This key makes it go.” But Father Bear said, “Yes, the toy is not for me.” And they bought the car for Baby Bear. “Look at me!” said Baby Bear.

By Shahad

April 17, 2010

We thought about the gift cards and the thank you letters that would go with the toy card. First we pretended that we were Father Bear or Mother Bear and wrote a gift card to Baby Bear. Then we pretended we were Baby Bear and wrote thank you letters to our imaginary parents. Here are our notes.

——–

Dear Baby Bear,

You are helpful and I like you because you are a good baby.

From Mother and Father Bear

Dear Mother and Father,

Thank you for the present. It is nice and I like it because it is good.

Thank you from Baby Bear

By Mohammed

———–

Dear Baby Bear,

You help me and you help Mother Bear. Thank you, Baby Bear. You are a good bear.

Love from Mother Bear and Baby Bear

Dear Mother Bear and Father Bear,

Thank you for the blue car. I like this blue car. The blue car is good and big because I sit on the car and I feel awesome.

Thank you Mother Bear and Father Bear. I am happy.

Love from Baby Bear

By Wency

——

Dear Baby Bear,

You are so helpful and kind. We have bought you a car. It is a blue car.

Lots of love- Mother Bear and Father Bear

Dear Mother Bear and Father Bear,

Thank you for giving me the blue car. I am so happy about it. It is the best present I have ever had.

Love from Baby Bear

By Anis

—–

Dear Baby Bear,

We are very happy because you are helpful. Thank you Baby Bear.

From Mother Bear and Father Bear

Dear Mother Bear and Father Bear,

Thank you for buying the car. I like the blue car very, very much. I am helpful. I feel good.

Love from Baby Bear

By Bro

—–

Thank you, dear Baby Bear. You are helpful. I am very happy.

Love from Father Bear and Mother Bear

By Paul

—–

Dear Mother Bear and Father Bear,

Thank you for giving me a blue car. It is very, very cool. I like it. It is awesome.

Love from Baby Bear

By Neo

—–

There are many books about the bears. Wency took one home to read called “Honey for Baby Bear”. She decided to write a recount of it.

The baby bear likes honey. The bees make honey. Baby Bear finds honey in the tree. You can find the bees in the forest. Baby Bear went home. She said, “I’m lost! I’m lost!” Baby Bear climbed the tree and saw the river. She also saw Father Bear. Father Bear said, “The forest is too big for Baby Bear.” Baby Bear said, “Yes, it’s too big for me.”

—–

April 19, 2010

We each took a huge pile of books home for the Easter holidays. After two weeks of reading them we had found we liked some more than others. We thought about which were our favourite books and then shared our ideas with the group. We did not write down what we were going to say and this was a challenge for us to speak unscripted.

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April 20, 2010

We gave short, unscripted recounts of our holidays. This really shows how we are improving in vocabulary,structure and confidence.

April 21, 2010

After yesterday’s impromptu talk, Wency thought more about her holiday.
She went home and wrote about it and illustrated her story. Here it is.

April 28, 2010

We have been reading Anthony Browne’s A Walk in the Park (1977) and Voices in the Park (1988). These books are the same story but the second book has the recount told by each of the four characters.

Mrs Smythe is quite well off and lives in a nice house. She treats her dog better than her son and looks down on the Smiths. Mr Smith is unemployed and unhappy. He thinks his daughter is wonderful and likes his dog, too. We thought about which parent we would choose, if we had to.

We were impressed with the way Mr Browne was able to tell the story through the voices of the different characters. We practised being different characters from the book. Mrs Smythe is the most fun character as she has a snobby accent. We each chose a character and recounted the story in their voice.

June 6, 2010

We have been reading about Kitty Cat. She is a very cute cat who keeps on annoying Fat Cat, the local tom. Luckily Kitty Cat is very small and usually escapes by running through the cat door. Fat Cat is more clever that our old friend Greedy Cat and, so far, hasn’t tried to squeeze through the cat door. Here are some stories about Kitty Cat.

June 10, 2010

We have been reading Penny and Pocket by Gwenda Turner. It is the true story of a kitten that is adopted by a terrier. The book is beautiful with amazing pictures. The group retold the story of Penny and Pocket. This is the first set of stories. More will follow.

June 11, 2010

“Which dinosaur do you like, Ms Finikin,” asked the eager ESOLer. “I will draw it for you.”

“I like the protoceratops. Will you draw that for me?”

July 1, 2010
A few days ago we watched Elijah Wood read Me and My Cat by Satoshi Kitamura. We decided to rewrite the story and read them ourselves. Here are the stories by those of us who completed the homework. We hope you enjoy them. You can listen to the original at http://www.storylineonline.net/

July 8, 2010

Here is a late entry in our cat story work.

August 9, 2010

After the holidays we came back to school full of enthusiasm and exciting stories about what we did over our time away. One group member came to school with questions for us about our holidays. Here is the interview she conducted with us.

August 10, 2010

We are starting a unit on asking questions. We are learning about the types of questions that elicit more than a one word answer. Milan brought his Bakugan to school today to show us so we practised asking him questions.

Some of the group members start fasting tomorrow. They are very excited about it. We asked them questions about Ramadan.

August 18, 2010

We have been looking at tuatara. Here we are sharing ideas about them.

August 25, 2010

After lunch we showed off the stadium we made in the sandpit. We talked about the parts of it and what happens in it.

September 7, 2010

We have been reading a Tom and Pippo book by Helen Oxenbury. We pretended we were a character from the book and wrote postcards home about our day at the beach.

We thought about Pippo and how he is Tom’s imaginary friend. We listened to the poem, ‘Binker’ by A A Milne. We thought about our own imaginary friends. Some of us had to create an imaginary friend. We wrote stories about the adventures we had with them.

September 30, 2010

As part of our unit on Tom and Pippo we read a book called Tom’s Bike. Tom’s bike doesn’t have a place for Pippo to sit so the poor little monkey keeps falling off every time he goes for a ride. Stephanie has a big bike with a seat for her teddy. Tom wants a bike like Stephanie’s. We pretended we were Tom and wrote letters to Tom’s dad explaining why we need a new bike. We worked on persuasive language.

We read a book called What Am I? It is a book of riddles where the reader has to guess which of the four pictures the author is describing. We wrote our own riddles.

One of our group had a sad day. Her family had been visiting from Malaysia for the end of Ramadan but it was time for them to go home.

October 20, 2010

Last week we came back from holiday. We talked about or holidays then we wrote about them. We had many nice experiences during the break.

This week we are at our different school camps so Ms Finikin is having to make do without us. Check out our class blogs next week to see what adventures we are having.

November 2, 2010

We have been looking at medieval times. Here we are identifying pictures and talking about what we see.

November 3, 2010

Mrs Shepherd lent us her son’s lego to practise building castles before Ms Finikin’s set arrives. We worked hard building and we tried to be cooperative. We made thank you cards for Mrs Sheperd.

November 12, 2010

Paul brought in a graphic novel of Rumplestiltskin to share with us. We looked at different versions of the story and wrote our own. We had to think about what the dungeon would look like and had to illustrate it to show aspects of a castle. Here are our stories.

December 1, 2010

We made our castle. It took a week but it was worth it. We were learning about cooperation and following instructions.

For homework we were given a tatebanko castle to make. We had to read the instructions and follow the directions to complete the task. We used templates from stormthecastle.com. Here are two examples and the one Anis found on the internet.

December 7, 2010

Here are the first three stories about storming the castle plus an extra story about a ghost. We made siege weapons and used them to get in to the castle. We like the castle because it gives us an opportunity to practise the language skills we need when we play with others. It is interesting to watch the non-verbal language that goes on, too.

You can play here.

December 9, 2010

Here are another two stories using the castle.

December 16, 2010

Bro worked hard all week to organise, film, process and complete this stop-motion movie.

December 17, 2010

We read Jane and the Dragon. Here is a retelling of the story done as a diary.

One of the little brothers liked the tatebanko castle his brother made that he asked to do one too. He did a great job on his castle and even added people attacking to it.