Stu Duval, Storyteller

Yesterday Stu Duval came to our school to talk about storytelling. At the beginning he told us that pictures can tell a story as much as using a thousand words can. He got us to suggest letters and numbers he could use then he made these into cartoon pictures. It was really funny and amazing. He was so fast at drawing. Next he told us about where he got his ideas for stories, this one was about Huia Bay and a big kauri tree. He drew an amazing picture with chalk pastels and then told a very funny story about Captain Black Custard and Lamington Lil. He wasn't a pirate who was interested in fighting or treasure, he and his pirate crew were crazy for....pudding! They had spoons instead of swords in their belts, and their ship was called The Apple Tart.
We learnt that storytellers get ideas from ordinary things, and exciting days they have and they work these ideas into their stories to make something beautiful. Stu told us it was kind of like cooking up a vegetable soup in a big pot. He used lots of great descriptive adjectives and phrases, and powerful verbs.
We had lots of fun listening to him. At the end of his time with us, he had a quiz to see which class could win the picture he had drawn. Unfortunately for us, but fortunately for them, Room 15 won it!

Grandparents' Day

This morning we were lucky enough to have ten grandparents come in to our classroom to tell us stories from when they were growing up. Some other grandparents who live far away, or who couldn't make it today, sent us stories and interviews to share. We invited them in to help us answer our big Rich Task question:

"Some people think we are made of flesh and blood and bone, but I think we are made of stories...." who keeps the stories alive?

We heard about cats getting milk straight from the cows, a game called Rounders, pedal cars on the roof of the Farmers' building, children getting milk given to them at school every day, milk being delivered by a horse and cart, broken collarbones from falling out of trees, playing cowboys and Indians, maths being called arithmetic, smudging ink when writing stories, riding horses to school and lots of other amazing stories. 

We shared some food we had made with the grandparents to say thank you to them for coming. We had savoury muffins with spinach, broccoli and spring onions from our garden, beetroot and chocolate cake with beetroot from our garden (it was so delicious no one could believe it had beetroot in it!) and fresh carrots, celery and broccoli from the garden with hummous. It was a wonderful morning!

Harvesting The Garden

After a long wait, and lots of time finding out how to scare the birds away, yesterday we harvested vegetables from our garden. We got beetroot, carrots, spinach, broccoli, lettuce, celery and spring onions. It was very exciting! We are still waiting for our broad beans and sugar snaps. They have flowers on them and we have seen bees buzzing around so perhaps it won't take very long.

Whetu Olympics and Farmers' Market

                                                Natalie leading the way with our torch

               The trophies. We made the 'Sportsmanship' trophy with the stars coming out of the top

                                                                  Waiting to begin

                                                        The torch 'lighting' ceremony.

                                              Ready to go in the kayak/show jumping event.

                                                Here we are in the dress up/run/kick relay.

                                  Working hard in the Chariot -Nerf -Gun version of Rob The Nest.

                                   The trophies and torches looking a little bedraggled after the rain.

                                               Waiting for the Closing Ceremony to begin.

                                          This is the banner we made during Whetu Swap time.

                                                 Lots of customers for the baking stall.

                                                Jo and Nicola, our amazing gardeners.

Lots of customers!

Thursday dawned bright and clear after a rainy rest of the week, so it was all go for the Whetu Olympics. We started with a loud and enthusiastic parade down onto the courts,  then a torch lighting ceremony and karakia, and the introduction of the Balmoral Habits Trophies. Then the games began. We made it through two rounds before the rain appeared from nowhere, but showing persistence and the ability to manage ourselves, we carried on! It was great fun. At the Closing Ceremony we presented the trophies, Malcolm made a speech about how we had all basked in the glory of designing, making, organising and competing in the Whetu Olympics, and Room 25 showed us their amazing Olympic dance.On Friday afternoon the weather was glorious for the Whetu Farmers' Market. All the classes had made or baked something for the market, including pretzels, truffles and lemonade. We made coconut ice, self watering herb pots, daffodil bulbs in bags, and painted pots. Lots of families donated produce from their own gardens, and baked goods.The market was very busy. It was lots of fun for those of us who got to be the market stall holders, we had to do lots of maths to work out how much our customers owed, and how much change they needed. Jo and Nicola are now going to help us spend our profits on the fairy gardens and plants for the new vegetable gardens when we have harvested all the things we grew this term.

Getting Ready Day 2

                                                                       Making stars

                                            Hot glue gunning the stars to the Torch Holder

                                                                            Sugar!

                                                                   3 cups of sugar!

                                                  Stirring to get a  candy consistency

                                                                   Spreading it out.

                                                        More sugar for the top layer!

                                                                              Yum!

This morning we have been extremely busy getting ready for both the Whetu Olympics and our Farmers' Market tomorrow afternoon. We have made an Olympic Torch holder, finished our banners and practised our chant!
After morning tea we went up to the staffroom to make our coconut ice. It has a lot of sugar in it, and not so much coconut. It smelt delicious. We had to boil up the sugar till it made a little ball when we put some of it into a bowl of cold water. We think we did this better on the top, pink layer.The boiling sugar was very, very hot. Oliver was our official photographer, and he did a great job. It is now in the fridge in the staffroom, cooling down. We hope the teachers don't have a sneaky taste!

Getting Ready!

This morning Jo came in to help us start making some things for the Farmers' Market on Friday. We painted terracotta pots to put daffodil bulbs in, made beautiful, colourful butterflies, constructed self watering herb pots and are busy taking care of mung bean sprouts. We also did lots of maths working out how much we should sell each item for so we make a profit that we can use to buy plants for the Fairy Garden. We are learning a little about marketing as we find out how display our items so they look amazing. Later on this week we are making coconut ice and finishing our greeting cards. We look forward to seeing you at 3pm on Friday outside our classroom.