How cool is this?

A great wa to look at the modern Olympics

Thanks to Mr Dyer's class blog for this link.

Julia Donaldson Study

 

In writing we are working on narrative stories.  We have been looking at the structure of a narrative and exploring this through reading lots of Julia Donaldson books.  Our favourite so far is Jack and the FlumFlum tree.  It is such a cool story! Jack needs to find the cure for his granmother’s moozles.  To do so, he and his friends sail the ocean and face many difficulties which they cleverly solve. Today in writing we identified the characters, setting, problem and resolution of the story.  Luckily there are lots of problems and ways they are solved in this story.  We are becoming quite skilled at identifying these features.  Next, we need to include them in our own writing.

We are making posters of the Julia Donaldson books.  Because we are doing quality work, this will take us a little time.

These are some of the things we need to think about when planning our own narratives:

• Plot: What is going to happen?
• Setting: Where will the story take place? When will the story take place?
• Characterisation: Who are the main characters? What do they look like?
• Structure: How will the story begin? What will be the problem? How is the problem going to be resolved?

Olympic Games Trailer form the BBC

Light the Flame

The London Olympic Song

The Olympic motto
The Olympic motto is "Citius, Altius, Fortius." These three Latin words mean "Swifter, Higher, Stronger." Baron de Coubertin borrowed the motto from Father Henri Martin Dideon, the headmaster of Arcueil College in Paris, who used the motto to describe the great achievements of the athletes at his school. Coubertin felt it could be used to describe the goals of great athletes all over the World and it became the Olympic motto.

As we all know the sportsmen and women who win the three medals are the best in the event at the time, the motto doesn’t say “Swiftest, Fastest, Strongest”. So being the best isn’t given the same importance as taking part. The real competition isn’t against the other sportsmen and women, it is against ourselves to get ready for such an event.

Life is really like that too; our greatest battle is with ourselves:

• To make sure that we get up every morning
• To work hard and do our best in anything we do
• To rise up when things are not going our way
• To constantly challenge our self
• To look for ways of improving
• To make the best of whatever circumstances we find our self in…

The list is really endless…and at the end our lives become what we set out to achieve…so don’t look for the easy way, the well-trodden path…if you can live each day and make it BETTER than the previous day, you will have tried your best and in time you too will achieve your own medals in life.

London Olympics 2012

 

We have started our topic study of the Olympics.  We are looking forward to the start of the competition and we are hoping our New Zealand athletes do well.  Here is our class brainstorm from the start of our topic.

 

 

Today we were making our own Olympic torches.  The children have been doing quality work, taking time to cut and colour with care.