We read What am I?

It was an interesting book and we enjoyed guessing the answer to the clues.
We wrote our own pages.

During Term 3 we looked at the Wally’s World resources, first about New Zealand, then about our own countries. We realised that the books were not written by natives of the countries as some of the information was stereotyped or wrong (for example, the book said kiwi lay two eggs like penguins do). We decided to create books about our countries. We worked through the term and published over the holidays.

Divan and Wehan worked on their project together.

Divan Wehan South Africa

This is Milyn’s project on South Africa.

Milyn South Africa

Sophia decided to write an imaginary story about losing parents.

We like writing in ESOL.

We wrote about our grandmothers.

Here is Alexey’s story.

My grandma is kind of tall. When you hug her, it tickles so much. I hug her. I laugh. She says, “What are you laughing at?” I say, “You tickle.”

My Two Blankets by Irena Kobald and Freya Blackwood is a very powerful book about a child having to build a new sense of self in a new country. The two blankets refer to the two aspects of herself.

We drew our own blankets and also wrote about our experiences of change.

I am a Chinese girl but, when I was six years old, I went to New Zealand. I was afraid and timid when I went to school. I thought English was difficult and boring.
Also, in New Zealand I changed my name. I was called Gao Ruo Wei in China, but in New Zealand I was called Regina. I was like Cartwheel in that I didn’t feel I was me.
I felt like I had two identities. The new world was boring, but slowly, slowly I adapted to New Zealand. But I am me. I can’t change! – Regina

Viktor’s blanket

I drew TKP because that’s my kete. I drew a motor bike because I want to learn. I drew my mum’s shoes because I like her. I drew a cross because I like to play naughts and crosses. I drew a plane because I like planes.

Alex’s blanket

Tanu’s blanket

I am a careful person and I like a game for playing and need money, and need to do hard work for getting 100%. And I love my family and am a kind person.

We have been doing drawing lessons during our Zoom meetings. Some of us could teach the teacher.

One of our homework topics was:

I’m not good at learning a new language. Sometimes I get embarrassed trying to say things. How do you feel learning a new language? What makes it easy to learn? What makes it hard?

Here are some of the responses.

I feel it is hard and difficult to learn a new language. When we go to that country it is easier. But staying in our country, it is hard to learn. – Regina

I felt happy about learning a language, and because of that, working very hard can make you good at our language. That’s the easy part. And it’s hard to learn something different about another language, like Chinese does not have past tense, but English does. – Alicia

Because we feel shy or nervous and they are better at speaking it. It’s easy because we practice every day. It feels like new things to do. And I listen to my friends and say it. I’m watching English so I know some knew words. And I’m feeling really confused. – Tanu

The easy way is some people telling how to say the language, but the hard way is to be learning alone. I feel happy because I am learning a new language. – Richard

We read Run, Rabbit, Run!

Here is Regina’s picture of the rabbit.

We read Boring Old Bed.

Jim wanted to find a more interesting place to sleep.
He thought he might sleep in the dog’s basket, but there was a dog in it.

We drew the dog in the basket.
Here is Regina’s picture.

We read Jack-in-the-box.

David pretended to be a Jack-in-the-box by jumping on his bed.
He broke the bed.

We drew the Jack-in-the-box.

Here is Alicia’s picture.

Here is Regina’s picture.

We read Hungry Monster.

It is amazing what one monster can eat. We drew a picture of him. Here is Regina’s picture.

We made games. We tested them on our friends and made changes to improve them.

https://youtu.be/VYbx9AoLj9k

Click on them for a closer look.

The We are learning to play Bananagrams. It is a tricky game for us because we are still learning to spell as well as still learning more words in English. We are trying our best and showing perseverance.