Vivid portraits

Poetry is a wonderful way to connect with children and their lives. These vignettes form such  vivid portraits I feel as if I now personally know the 'characters' who my students love!


My Grandma
I see my Grandma jumping into a tree and coming back down again.
I hear amazing singing
I smell beautiful lipstick
I feel soft blankets wrapping around me.
I taste lemonade with ice.
My grandma makes me laugh!
-Georgia K

My Dad  (there were lovely lines written about Mum and Louis too!)

I see the wheels moving on my Powerwing

I hear the stones on the concrete rattling

I smell the dust fling behind me

I feel happy and contented.

I like jogging with Dad.

-Lauren

My Monopoly Champion Dad
I see him fixing the car
I hear the engine burning
I smell the gasful fumes
I feel the hot car
I love fixing the car with Dad.
-Jake


My Cousin
I see her running to me
I hear her heart when I put my ear to her chest
I smell hot cookies when I cook with her
I feel happy when she picks me up and spins me around.
I love my cousin.
-Georgia S


My Dad
I see my Dad on his DS ixl
I hear my Dad fishing
I feel my Dad giving me a hug
I taste the dinner made by Dad.
My Dad is fun to play with.
-Jordie


My Dad
I see my dad swimming
I hear my Dad cooking
I smell my Dad making cookies
I feel happy.
I like to play games with him!
-Aidan


My Dad
I see a hermit crab
I hear the waves
I smell fish and chips
I feel the wind
I taste lobster.
I love going to the beach with Dad.
-Patrick

Our First Mystery Reader

Dorothy (Mrs S), Georgia S's grandmother, kept the Year 2s transfixed with 'How the Grinch Stole Christmas'. It was a beautiful book (which we won't describe as old because it was about 5 years younger than I am...)

I was worried that the class wouldn't let her leave but they did after she promised to return. I have 22 witnesses who can attest to that.

The proof that children are natural poets

By Ashley

By Haley

By Georgia K

By Lauren

By Luke

By Sean

Did you ever see a pig?

pink colour

mud lover

big grunt. (By Jake)

Did you ever see a snake?

long body

no legs

sometimes venomous. ()

Did you ever see a dinosaur?

ferocious teeth

terrible claws

hard tails

now extinct. (By Georgia S)

By Jordie

Did you ever see a flesh-eating demon?

eye-squirting

flaming hair

fire-filled body. ()

Did you ever see a dragon?

sharp horn

white teeth

long tail. (By Joel)

Did you ever see a giraffe?

sausage ears

wide eyes

sharp teeth

fluffy-frilled tail

spotty nose. (By Bella).

Did you ever see a puppy?

fluffy puppy

barking softly

friendly mannered

cute body. (By Amber)

By Yeju (The cat's sign says 'Finish').

The best things in Mrs Wilson's class

Joel: my friends
Bella: toys, the nice kids and people
Ashley: tadpoles, toys, books and friends to play with.
Yeju: reading books, doing Sound Waves and doing making.
Georgia S: the Beanie Kids, taddies, books, everything
Jake: the gem pegs
Jordie: tadpoles, books and working
Sean: Deltora Books, Hex Bugs and laptops
Dylan: computers, frogs and friends
Liam: tadpoles, books, spray, computer, toys and her. (Cathy and Stuart- bet you're also wondering who 'her' is?)

Luke: the books, the Hex Bugs, the kind people and the aircons. ( I love the aircons too! )
Mackenzie: the tadpoles, the Beanie Bears and the gem chart.
Amber: I like the chapter books and the compliment fish bowl.

For the uninitiated, this is a Hex Bug:

Going to Year 2 by...

Nellie

Under questions and worries, Nellie has written, "Are you going to be mean soon?"


The Year 2s have been filling in this form. It took us a long time. At the end of the year we are going to fill in the identical form except 'Year 2' will be replaced with 'Year 3'. We will then be able to see how our writing skills have developed over the year. We anticipate that the form will take a lot less time to complete!

Look at what a good looking bunch of children you have:

Nellie

Dylan

Sean

Jordan

Jake

Luke

Georgia S

Haley

Joel

Liam

Yeju

William

Amber

Mackenzie

What if tadpoles could talk?

We used de Bono's hats to ponder the question 'What if our tadpoles could talk?'

http://pics4learning.com/

Liam said they would say," Mrs Wilson, Liam is working!"

Nellie thought if tadpoles could talk we could then make friends with them.

Jake wondered if they would help us with our work.

Bella thought they would tell us if we were making a poor choice.

Georgia S said they'd talk to the Beanie Kids in our classroom. 

Ashley said they would say,"Please can you set me free!"

Lauren said they would say,"Mrs Wilson we want some food!"

Georgia K added that they would be able to tell us exactly what they wanted to eat.

Patrick thought that talking tadpoles would make especially good pets but also thought they may dob (tell tales) on students.

Yeju said they would enjoy talking to each other and may even say,"Mrs Wilson, I want to do some work!"

Jordan said they would say, "Oh, I like this person!"

Sean said they would say, "Can we eat those cupcakes?"
Amber: said they would let us know if there was a fire, if they wanted to be our friends, if they wanted a chat and if they needed fresh water.
Mackenzie thought it would be amazing and they could ask us to let them go to the creek.

Thinking skills challenge

One of our favourite groups during rotations is the Thinking Skills Challenge. We're working on building up the skills we will need in the future such as the ability to solve problems, think creatively and critically, analyse information and share ideas.

We did some brainstorming Using a Venn Diagram to compare people and gorillas and then quickly jotted down our ideas.

Yeju

We noted these similarities: they live in families, they have a similar body to us, they play with their babies like we do and they eat fruit.

Georgia K 

The differences include: all wild gorillas live in a jungle in central Africa, they are mostly vegetarian but we eat meat, fruit and vegetables, they walk on all four limbs but we only have 2 feet and ...they don't have to go to school!