Friday, 6 August 2021

The VAS Mandarin Speech Competition. August 3rd 2021. Winner Coco R 17. Runner up Kevin R4

 Coco received first place. She spoke with confidence, clarity, and had a wonderful tone.  Her information kept her audience's attention.  Song Lam judged the contest.


All six competitors spoke well and show great skill levels as both Chinese and English speakers.

                                                                          Ryan
                                                                        Rachel
                                                                       Annie
Liam

Some of our wonderful bilingual students in Year 5 and 6.









 

Friday, 23 July 2021

  In years 1-4 the students have been looking at communities and also some Kiwiana (things special to NZ). 

Hokey Pokey Ice cream is very Kiwiana as is a homemade ice cream sandwich. So following instructions closely the students made and ate their own Hokey Pokey ice cream sandwiches. Needless to say, they loved them!             

They also extended their spelling knowledge and vocabulary by being introduced to and playing different types of spelling games.

All our activities involved instructional language, the learning of new vocabulary,  lots of speaking, listening, questioning and responding appropriately, for the situation. 



KIWIANA JOURNEY


Making a Hokey Pokey, Ice Cream Sandwich


Things you will need:

A tub of Hokey Pokey Icecream

A spoon

A Knife

Some ice cream wafers.

A plate


                   

Method

Take two wafers and lie them on your plate.

Open your tub of ice cream  and scoop out a thin layer of ice cream with your spoon.

Carefully flatten it onto one of the wafers.

Put the other wafer on top.

You now have an ice cream sandwich.

Enjoy!

                                                   





In this beautifully reflective piece of writing, Hedvig, a Year 6, VAS ELL, looks at what parts of NZ she would take back to Sweden with her.


IF


If  I could package up a slice of New Zealand,

I would take my nice friends from school and I would take the classroom full of colour instead of just bland walls.

I  would take the idea of sitting at a big table with your friends instead of sitting independently.  


If I could package up a slice of New Zealand, I would take some cool trees like Cabbage, palm trees, and kauri trees instead of the forest full of Christmas trees that Sweden is known for.


If I could package up a slice of New Zealand, I would take the golden sand beaches so I could bask in the sun and splash in the waves

Then I could boogie board on the rolling waves and share the fun with my Swedish friends.


If I could package up a slice of New Zealand I would take its Covid Free life

So we didn’t need to worry about keeping our distance from each other and so you don't have to think about not hugging each other and keeping 2 meters from each other. 


Everything I have said is what I am going to miss  

If I could package up a slice of New Zealand and take it back to Sweden 

That’s what I would do.


Hej da New Zealand I will miss you.


By Hedvig


Tuesday, 15 June 2021

A Moment in Time. Year 5`s writing about camp.

 

A Moment in Time by Harper

One instructor and twelve children in a little boat,this boat might sink!

Strong waves are lapping against the dingy. How do I hop into the water? 

I carefully sit on the edge of the boat and slide into the water.

I am really afraid that if I hop into the water, I will not touch the bottom. 

If I hop into the sea, how do I climb back up?


A Moment in Time

by Isabella


Confident and not scared, I got into the boat. When I heard the water splashing around and under the boat, I got a little bit scared. 


Next, the instructor tells us to, hold your nose and life jacket, and then slide backwards. I tell Mia this is so much fun. I asked the instructor, “Is this how you survive in the deep water?”


I feel amazing.


 Sailing By Lucas Yi

Smiling from ear to ear, I can't wait to go on that boat. But I need to wear a Lifejacket. It needs to be tight so when you are in the sea it will float you.


I tell Charlie “This is the tightest thing ever!” 

Charlie said, “Just get used to it, Lucas!”


We push the boat into the ocean and we carefully jump into the boat. The cold wind blows the boat and we sail around the bay, but sometimes the boat goes as fast as the wind and that is so slow!  


When we sail I see the blue sky and the sea sparkles around the boat. I feel the cold water push the boat around the bay. Splash! The cold wave splashes the boat.


 l learn a lot of things.  I wonder if I will get to go sailing again.







Thursday, 3 June 2021

YEAR 5- A Moment in time. Recalling their experiences at CAMP MERC. Bilingual Writngs.

 A Moment in Time

By Hedvig


I had big butterflies flying around in my stomach. Impatiently, I was waiting for my turn. 


Now, I am four metres up in the light blue sky. I looked down at the blue carpet wall, directly below me. I felt terrified to take the big step. I let the rope go carefully through my hands. I took a step over the edge.¨Dong Dong¨ I heard my heart beating. Kealan, who was my instructor, told me that I was going to put both of my hands on my bright blue helmet and look towards the fluffy white clouds in the sky. My hands were shaking. I thought to myself that this is going to be a little bit scary for me.


I put both feet on the ground and some people were applauding me. I'm feeling really happy. I wonder if I am ever going to do abseiling again?. 


……………………………….

In Swedish.


Jag hade stora fjärilar som flög runt i min mage. OtÃ¥ligt sÃ¥ väntade jag pÃ¥ min tur. 


Nu är jag 4 meter upp i den ljusblÃ¥a himlen. Jag tittar ner pÃ¥ den blÃ¥a matt väggen rakt nedanför mig. Jag kände mig skräckslagen inför att ta det stora steget. Jag lät repet löpa igenom mina händer. Jag tog steget över kanten. “Dong dong” jag hörde mitt hjärta slÃ¥. Kealan , som var min instruktör, sa till mig att jag skulle sätta händerna pÃ¥ min klarblÃ¥a hjälm och titta upp pÃ¥ de fluffiga vita molnen pÃ¥ himlen. Mina händer skakade. Jag tänkte för mig själv att det här skulle bli lite läskigt för mig.


Jag satte bägge mina fötter på marken och några personer applåderade mig. Jag känner mig väldigt glad. Jag undrar om jag någonsin kommer göra abseiling igen.




Year 1 's and 2'` have been looking at Fire Fighters. What is their job?

Year 1 and 2's have been looking at the work firefighters do. What tools they use, the vehicles they drive, and the clothes they wear.

The students have been learning new vocabulary and also thinking about describing words they can use to make simple sentences sound more interesting in their stories about the firemen.

 



Wednesday, 5 May 2021

Our Super Town

 We are looking at people, special places, buildings, vehicles, and occupations that can be found in our communities. We will look at the special clothing, tools, and accessories different people use around their homes or at work. 

Using a large tabletop area, all year levels are contributing to our Super Town. We are using model cars, toy people, lego, cardboard, plasticine, anything we can manipulate into something for our city.

We will name, describe, label, instruct and explain as we build, introducing and sharing new ideas about what we need in our town and why. We will be increasing our vocabulary and discovering some new roots of words and building on our sentence structures and knowledge.  










Wednesday, 7 April 2021

Year 5`s have a Jenga Challenge.


 Hedvig demonstrates a tricky move by making it look so easy.



Isabella moves around the Jenga tower looking for a different perspective on things.


Not so Lucky Last, Lucas has to navigate an extremely tall tower and tightly packed blocks.


Just to prove even the teacher has to think and act carefully when she is playing this game.




Saturday, 3 April 2021

JENGA- Instructional Language using prepositions of time & place. Recounts, written or spoken in the past tense, follow with the use of onomatopoeia.


Jenga is a lot of fun as well as thinking about the science of physics, action and reaction, weight and balance, leverage.

The Yr 5 Tower eventually went to reach 31 levels high.

 

Safety was suggested with this Jenga tower. 
A helmet wasn`t available so this was thinking on the spot.
            

     A group of Year 3`s have a go with the larger blocks but start from a lower platform base.     

                               

           Another group of  Year 3s has a go with the smaller-sized blocks.







 

Tuesday, 23 March 2021

Learning to Trace a Shape. These Yr 2 Students had to concentrate, to trace over the lines accurately.

The children followed oral language instructions, on how to trace some monsters and aliens. 

As they carefully traced around the outline of the shapes, they then had to look for more detail on the inside of the shapes.

This activity is good for practising pencil and fine motor control skills. It also makes the students pay attention to detail so that they can describe their alien or monster better.

Colouring inside the lines was another skill that they practised. 

We look forward to reading some descriptions of their monsters and aliens.

INSTRUCTIONS ON HOW TO TRACE 

Put the picture you wish to copy, on the window. 

Stick it in place with blue tac.

 Place a plain piece of  A4 paper on top of the picture.

 Blue tac the four corners so that it fits over the picture and won`t move around.

Get your sharp pencil and trace around the shape. 

Fill in any other details too.

Take both copies off the window.

Colour in your traced picture at your table.

Use felt tips for the outlines and coloured pencils to colour inside the shapes.

Choose whatever colours you like best.

Key- Action verbs     prepositions



                                                         "I have finished my tracing!"





Sunday, 21 March 2021

Instructional Language Year 3 Making Windmills.

 

Yipee! We followed the instructions and made our windmills.


 We stood still and tested them out, on our indoor fan. They went round and round really fast.


We took them outside to test.

We ran along the flat ground with them. They spun round and round.


We tested them going downhill. We ran down the Dragon Drive as fast as we could.
                                                          They spun round and round super fast.

                                                             We leaped in the air.


It was a lot of fun seeing how well they worked.
We had carefully followed our instructions.
Some of the action verbs in our instructions were, draw, cut, bend, fold, pin, stick, push, blow, run.





Friday, 12 March 2021

Yr 5 & 6 TABLE TENNIS . First Session and lucky to have EBI from Auckland Table Tennis Association with us.





Thirty, Year 5 and 6 students, came to the hall for the first table tennis session of the year.
Further opportunities were offered of free coaching on Tuesdays and Thursdays at the ATT Stadium,  teams of 3-4 to represent VAS in competition on Wednesdays after school plus the Auckland  Zone Team to compete in November.

2021 ELL Sessions get underway. Year 1` s Story Time. ( Identifying body parts, clothing, describing settings and actions, following instructions.)

 






Year 1`s, talked about and then put clothing on their foam characters.  They drew different background settings for their characters to have adventures in. Students drew and talked about a ski field, a castle, and the sky.