MRS M'S STUDENT OF THE WEEK!

Today we gave Mrs M an award instead of us getting the award.


When Brooke and I were on 'walking bus' we got the idea to give Mrs M an award. We spoke to Mrs J and asked her to help us write the award.


We kept it a 'big secret' and Mrs M was really surprised when her name was called out. This is what the award said
Presented to Mrs M
For being the BEST blogging teacher. We are going to miss you!


We wanted to thank Mrs M for teaching us how to blog.
by Johanna

JOIN THE CONVERSATION

Well done to the 1M GEMS who are making the effort to join in a 'blog conversation'.

We are contributing to the conversation on our class blog and our classmates' blogs.

Many of us are also joining in the conversation on the blog of our buddy class in Canada. Click on the pictures to read some of our comments.

Some of us are even starting conversations by putting up posts at home.

Have you replied to this one?

I am very proud of ALL who are joining in the conversations.

A 'SPECIAL MENTION' must go to Ben, who showed what a REFLECTIVE, SELF-DIRECTED LEARNER he is when he left a comment on the Voices of the World Animoto blog.

Check out what Ben said on the French Anthem Animoto.

Très Bien, Ben!

MRS M :>)

While you're there, listen to our ANIMOTO and leave a comment to tell us what you think.

OUR BUSY TERM

We have had such a busy term.

We've learnt many new skills

and are doing things we never imagined we could.

We've all set up our own blog folios and are learning how to use them.

We've also learnt how to podcast!

So now we're ready for more amazing things in Term 4

but first we're taking a well earned break.


Stay safe everyone and HAPPY HOLIDAYS!
and if you're at the beach, remember to

SWIM BETWEEN THE FLAGS.

Remember if you want to share any 'holiday' news, email it to

1mgems@gmail.com and we will post it for you.

Mrs M's going Whale Watching, so watch this space!

JOIN THE CONVERSATION!

This week's homework is all about blogging.

Do you know what's happening in our room?

When was the last time you left a comment?

We love getting comments because we need comments to have a CONVERSATION!

Our CONVERSATIONS have been a little QUIET lately, so.....

*Have you seen our own blog folios?

Try to leave a comment on at least ONE other blog each night. We are doing amazing things.

You can get to our class blogs from the sidebar.

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*Have you been to your blogging buddy's blog?
Leave a comment to thank them for helping you with yours.
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*Have you contributed to a post on our class blog?

Here are some of our recent posts to help you join in the CONVERSATION.

*1M's Blogging Rules - what do you think?

*A Poll Needs a... can you add a survey question?

* 'How to add links' podcast- has this helped you.

* Kids Connect - do you know what Mrs M was doing last week?

*Spell with Flickr - have you tried this out?

*Cool Companions - what did you learn?

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SO WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?

JOIN THE CONVERSATION - YOU"LL BE GLAD YOU DID! :>)

WANT TO KNOW HOW TO ADD LINKS?

...... then you've come to the right place!

Courtney was very busy today with Mrs M, creating a podcast that explains how to add a links list to your blog.

It was ALL Courtney's idea. Click on the podcast icon to WATCH, LISTEN and LEARN!

BIG CHANGES!!!!

If you go to our blogs and think you are in the wrong place...

you're not!

That's because many of our blogs have had a change of TEMPLATE!

The library was buzzing with 'oohs' and 'aahs' during our ICT time today.

Our Year 6 buddies were there to help us work on our blogs.

They showed us the new templates they had on their blogs

and we just had to have a new one too!

We were being DESIGNERS and CREATORS and COLLABORATORS as we worked on our blogs with our buddies with some of us even showing our buddies how to do things!!

Some of us were being SELF-DIRECTED LEARNERS by coming up with ideas for a post and putting the post up by ourselves. Have a look at Callum's 'Willy the Wimp' post and Patrick's patterning post.

Our buddies were amazed at what we could do!

Go to the sidebar and check out our NEW-LOOK blogs.

DON'T FORGET TO LEAVE COMMENTS!!!

1M'S BLOGGING RULES

We have always had rules to keep us safe while blogging. We all have ownership of our class blog but Mrs M has done the posting for us or with us.

Now that we have our own blogs, we have to take more RESPONSIBILTY for what goes on our blog.

We have to THINK REALLY CAREFULLY before we post. There are lots of things we want to put on our blogs but we have to think...

"Is this appropriate?"

Here are the rules that we feel are really important to follow when blogging:

• NEVER use your last name
• NEVER write anyone else's last name or the school's name
• NEVER write any personal details like your address, phone number or the school's details or anyone else's details
• NEVER put up photos that show your face or anyone else's face.Ask permission to use a photo with someone else in it
• NEVER leave any nasty or silly comments or posts
• DON'T give out your password
• Only link to 'educational' sites
• ALWAYS have an adult check any sites you want to link to before you add them
• See Mrs M if you want to upload a videos. Any videos must be checked by Mrs M BEFORE they are uploaded.
• Be RESPONSIBLE when writing to your blog. Remember posts are meant to show what you have learnt and how.

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WHAT DO YOU THINK OF OUR RULES?
HAVE WE LEFT SOMETHING OUT?
PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT TO LET US KNOW.

WORKING ON OUR BLOGS

YEAH!!

WE FINALLY ALL HAVE OUR OWN BLOGS!!

Our Year 6 buddies have been working really hard to help us set up our folios.

Now our job is to start posting about our learning.

We are realising that at the moment it takes a

L O N G time to get up a post because we are still learning how to type and post, so we have to be REALLY PATIENT.

We love looking at each others' blogs and if we see something that we like on another blog, we ask the blog owner to TEACH us how to put it on our own.

Our current favourites are a 'poll' and a 'clock'.

PLEASE CHECK OUT OUR FOLIOS FROM THE LINKS ON THE SIDEBAR.

WE ARE REALLY PROUD OF OURSELVES AND WE WANT TO KNOW WHAT YOU THINK.

PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT ON OUR BLOGS. YOU CAN ALSO LET US KNOW WHAT LEARNING YOU WOULD LIKE TO SEE FROM US AS WELL.

THE 1M GEMS

OUR OWN BLOGS!!!

Today some of the 1M GEMS moved into new territory with their blogging...the creation of their OWN blogs!!

Creating individual blogs for our digital portfolios was a goal we had set for NEXT term, so the children have been incredibly focused on developing the skills needed to blog independently.

Through learning from each other and inspiring each other, they have really taken charge of the creation and uploading of posts this term.

Our Year 6 buddies have been keeping an eye on this rapid rise to independent posting, so today they surprised us when they asked the GEMS if they'd like help creating their own blog folios...
and the answer was a resounding YES!


Having a blog folio is a way for each child to reflect on their learning- share what they know and can do.

The Year 6's, who already have their own blogs, helped the children with the basic design and layout of their blog folio as well as getting up an introductory post.

We aim to have all blog folios created in the next week.
Links to the folios created so far are under OUR LINKS on the sidebar.

The children are incredibly excited about this new phase in our blogging.
We are discussing the idea of running 'blogging workshops' for parents.
We'll let you know when we have finalised the details.

Mrs M :>)

BLOGGING QUESTIONS

1M, you have all become much more
'hands-on' with our blog this term.

Whilst it has always been 'your' blog,
I'm interested in what you feel about
the blog now that you are doing the
posting all by yourselves.
Here are some questions for you.
Think about one or some of them.
Leave your answer in a comment.

* What does 'blogging' mean to you?
* Why do you think we blog?
* What do you like about our blog?
* How do you feel about blogging yourself?
scared? excited? happy? worried? Why?
* Has blogging helped you become a better reader and writer?
*What is your favourite post? Why?
* How do you get ideas for a post?
* How do you feel when you/we get a comment?
*Has your blogging got better?
* What's a problem you have with blogging?
*What have you learnt in blogging?
* What is the best thing you like about our blog?
*What's the best thing you like about blogging?

MRS M :>)

LEARNING TO BLOG...BLOGGING TO LEARN

A video that shows just a snippet of our blogging journey.

EKKA BUZZ

It's SHOW WEEK and our classroom was 'abuzz' today with EKKA excitement.

We all wanted to blog about our EKKA experiences but our typing was slow, so some of our 6J buddies came to the rescue.
Some of us went up to 6J and some girls from 6J came to our classroom.We got 18 posts done.
THANKYOU 6J and MRS J!!!!!!

Mrs M worked with some of us on an 'EKKA' podcast.

We hope to have that finished on Friday.

You can read all our EKKA posts below.

We will have more on Friday.

And if you are going to the EKKA...

HAVE FUN!!!! Then leave a comment and tell us ALL about it!

IDENTIFYING OUR INSECT- THE PROCESS

Today we took on the role of ACTIVE INVESTIGATORS to find out just what type of insect our 'visitor' last Friday was.

We got onto the website BRISBANE INSECTS AND SPIDERS. Mrs P, Mrs McD and Mrs R read the information about STICK INSECTS and PRAYING MANTIS for us.

We looked at the pictures and compared them to ours.
Then we left a comment to share our thoughts about what the insect was .
We read all the comments. We tried to work out how many thought it was a STICK INSECT and how many thought it was a PRAYING MANTIS but it was hard because some people had left two comments!

So we decided to make a PICTURE GRAPH to record our DATA.
Each of us drew our face on a small square and glued it on a chart.

Now it was easy to see that most of the class thought our visitor was a PRAYING MANTIS.

We decided to number the squares so that we would not have to count them every time we looked at the graph.

We had to number them all the way to 22!

Now it was REALLY easy to see the results.

22 children in our class think our 'visitor' was a PRAYING MANTIS.

5 children in our class think it's a STICK INSECT.

Does this mean our 'visitor' WAS a PRAYING MANTIS?

WE THINK SO.

But to be sure we have emailed BRISBANE INSECTS AND SPIDERS and asked them to help us identify our insect friend.

DO YOU THINK THEY WILL AGREE WITH US...THAT IT IS A PRAYING MANTIS?

LET US KNOW IN A COMMENT. DON'T FORGET TO TELL US 'WHY?'.

OUR BIG SURPRISE!

We came to school excited today because we couldn't wait to see if Elizabeth from Inkless Tales had left a comment about the poem we sent her.

We had Naomi's and Ben's Mums in to help us put comments on our blog and 1G's and 6J's. When they asked us what we wanted to do, we said: "WE JUST WANT TO WRITE TO ELIZABETH"!

So they helped us add our ideas about what Elizabeth should call the poem about 5.

We kept asking Mrs M what time it was in New York.
We wondered if while we were doing Word Wall, if she was having dinner and while we were having our lunch, if she was reading her children a story before bed.

We sent Elizabeth an email. It said:

'Please look at the blog because there's something special for you on it.'

She posted back that she LOVED our poem and that she had a SURPRISE for US... but we had to wait. Read her full comment HERE!

(Just scroll down to the comments.)

At 2:55pm, just before we went home, the SURPRISE arrived.

Click on the 'CHECK IT OUT' graphic to see the SURPRISE.


WHAT A LOVELY WAY TO FINISH THE WEEK.

THANKYOU ELIZABETH, YOU MADE OUR DAY!

Want to 'talk' to Elizabeth, 1M? Leave a comment on this post.

If you have more ideas about a title for the '5' poem, leave a comment about them too.

MRS M :>)

OUR AMAZING NEWS!!

Today we have some amazing news to share... we are SOOOO excited we could BURST!

One of our favourite websites to visit is INKLESS TALES and late last week the editor of this website, Elizabeth Bushey, left a comment on OUR blog!
We thought we were very special when we read her lovely comment left on our DO YOU HAVE TO BE A TEACHER TO TEACH? post. Elizabeth agreed with us that anyone can be a teacher and reminded us that WE CAN DO ANYTHING because we CAN.... we just have to TRY.

We felt like V.I.P.'s because someone from the other side of the world had visited our blog. We looked at Elizabeth's website and realised she was a V.I.P. too- a very clever one at that!

Yesterday when we logged onto the blog, there was another comment from Elizabeth, this time on our POST ABOUT 5. When we read this comment, OUR JAWS DROPPED.... NO WORDS CAME OUT!!!

She'd sent us a poem about 5- and 'unpublished' poem. We couldn't believe that Elizabeth had chosen us to be the FIRST to see it.You can read it, too. CLICK HERE to go to our post ABOUT 5, then go down to the comments.

Now we have to come up with some ideas for a TITLE and some ILLUSTRATIONS to go with the poem. We've never worked with an AUTHOR before. We are EXCITED, AMAZED and PROUD!

We feel really blessed to have Elizabeth help us learn. So we wanted to do something special for her (with just a bit of help from Mrs M!)

HERE IT IS...

We have a new friend, Elizabeth

America is where she's at.

That's a long way

but she's a mouseclick away

WOW... imagine that!

She's a writer and illustrator of stories and poems

and great games and songs too.

We love her website Inkless Tales

There's so much to see, learn and do!

Elizabeth paid a visit to our blog

and left a comment you see.

She agreed with us- we ALL can teach

That's right- even you and me!

Now there's a poem about number 5

We were the first to see it.

Thankyou Elizabeth for choosing us-

we really can't believe it!

The poem we love, we think it's great

It really helps you learn

all about 5 and what it looks like

but now it is our turn.

We learnt from you, you showed us how

We are trying something new

You encouraged us to have a go....

So here's our poem, Elizabeth, to you!

THANKYOU!

We know Mrs M has emailed Elizabeth and there are some exciting things we can do together.... we just wish she lived closer!

There's no one else in our school that has had this happen to them.

WE THINK THIS IS THE BEST YEAR YET...AND IT'S ONLY JUST BEGUN!!!

HOPE YOU LIKE OUR POEM, ELIZABETH. :>)

WE CAN DO IT, MRS M!

We have been 'busy bees' working on our blog this week because we have had special helpers EVERY DAY!


Today when Mrs M went to make the 'sign-up' sheet we said- "WE CAN DO IT, MRS M".

We copied the words 'Sign up to comment' from yesterday's sheet.

Mrs M wrote the Mum's names for us .
Then we added in the dots for our names... and started signing up!

It takes a while for us to make a sign-up sheet and 'sign up' each day.

We decided it would be faster if we had a laminated 'sign-up' sheet so we just have to add the names each day.

We also thought it was a good idea to 'sign-up' the afternoon before so we would be ready the next morning.

WHAT A SUPER IDEA, 1M. HOW CLEVER YOU ARE!
YOU CAN HELP CREATE ONE ON MONDAY!

MRS M.