Reading many genres!
During our story telling unit, we all completed Reading Contracts. We were able to choose our own fictional books to study, as long as they met 2 important criteria: – a different genre for each book – books which matched our individual reading level Each person read at least 3 chapter books in a 5-week period. After reading each book, we chose response tasks. We could choose to respond to plot, setting, character or theme. Some people wrote letters to characters, re-wrote scenes in new settings, changed the ending of the story or blogged as if they were the author. Our responses showed deep understanding and great creativity. If was wonderful to read a range of genres and be so independent in our learning! Which was your favorite book? Write a recommendation. Try to persuade other people in the class to read it. ...
Read MoreGrade 4 Film Festival
Last Friday, the Grade 4 students hosted a Film Festival. We invited studens, parents and teachers to come to our premiere. We screened 5 amazing digital stories, made by us! The titles were: Blaze Saves The World, A Magical Adventure, Monster Challenge, Underwater Adventure and Aliens Attack. We also provided snacks for the audience to enjoy while watching our short films. During the party, the hosts explained the 5 steps we used while making a movie. The first step was imagining (or pre-writing). Each group had 1 giant sheet of paper and we jotted down every idea about the character and setting.The second step was drafting. Each person made a plot diagram and then wrote a draft for their story. The third step was adapting. We made story boards and worked out which image and part of the story would suit each scene. The fourth step was production. We all had jobs as script writers, illustrators or sound engineers. The sound engineer had to create a soundtrack matching the script using GarageBand. After that, we recorded the narration, added music and turned it into a podcast. The last step was Editing in iMovie. We had to make sure the images and soundtrack matched perfectly and it was very frustrating. After the premiere was finished, it was time to hand out the awards. We asked Mrs Gallis to help us. The winners were: Blaze Saves The World – Best Script Underwater Adventure – Most Creative Setting A Magical Adventure – Best Characterisation Aliens Attack – Best Soundtrack Monster Challenge– Best Collaboration Finally, the audience voted for the People’s Choice Award. And the winner is….A Magical Adventure! (You can watch this favorite story below). All out other stories will be on our wikis soon. We would like to thank Mr Papasiet for helping us and teaching us all about iMovie and Garage Band. What an Exciting Day! by Benedict...
Read MoreOnline Interview with Famous Author
We were very excited to interview an award-winning children’s author this week, as part of our inquiry into story telling. Jacqueline Harvey is the author of the picture book, Sound of the Sea, the best-selling Alice-Miranda series and the new Clementine-Rose books. She has won Australian Book of the Year, YABBA and Koala awards. Her Alice-Miranda series includes 8 novels. (Learn more about Jacqueline Harvey here: http://jacquelineharvey.com.au/. And here: http://jacquelineharvey.blogspot.com/) Our class has been studying Alice-Miranda at School over many weeks, while investigating genre, plot, characterisation and writing techniques. During a Skype interview, we asked many questions about where Jacqueline finds inspiration, how she makes a story engaging, the themes of the book and the publishing process. Jacqueline told us she writes 50,000 words per book and sometimes spends 10 hours writing each day. She explained how to start with an idea, and then bring a character to life. She gave us advice about writing dialogue and using action to keep a story moving. It was really great to talk to a famous author. Jacqueline was interested in our lives, too. She asked us questions about Chinese New Year and the weather in Beijing. She told us that she travels regularly to promote her books. We encouraged Jacqueline Harvey to set the next book in China. We would love to see Alice-Miranda on the Great Wall! (You will see the full interview on our wikis in the coming weeks.) What did you find most interesting or surprising in Jacqueline Harvey’s answers? What did you learn about writing during the interview? How will you use Jacqueline Harvey’s advice to improve your...
Read MoreShadow Puppets Tell Traditional Tales
This week, we were treated to a wonderful morning of shadow puppetry. At a local theatre, we watched beautiful puppets move to music, as they narrated traditional Chinese folktales. In one story a cheeky turtle disturbed a peaceful lake; in another, some selfish squirrels learned to work together and in the final story, a Chinese god taught woodcutters the value of honesty. When we returned to class, we explained the stories to Ms O’Dwyer (who could not understand any of the Chinese narration!). Then, we analysed the characters, setting and theme of each story. We talked about why puppetry is a powerful form of story-telling and the importance of folk tales in each culture. It was very exciting to play with the puppets back-stage and meet the talented performers. We were amazed at how much skill was involved in the performance. Some puppets had up to 4 sticks and some needed 2 people to manipulate them. A big thank you to Mr Hawke and Ms Linda for organizing this wonderful field trip. Shadow Puppets on...
Read MoreWriting Workshop with Real Author!
This week, Grade 4 met a real published author, Mr. Scott Crawford! He has written novels, short stories and screenplays. Mr. Crawford was here at BISS to help our class write a story. He spent the whole morning with us in a writing workshop. He was a very kind gentleman with lots of great ideas for creating stories. He gave us three scenarios for different genres. Our favorite scenario was about zombies, which we chose by voting. When we finished the story, we read it and thought, ‘This story’s genre should be thriller!’ Before we started writing, we planned our plot diagram with Mr. Crawford. We thought about the introduction, rising action, climax, resolution and conclusion. Planning is a very important step. Then we wrote our story draft. The story was about Sajid (George) and his best friend, Benedict (Tim). Benedict became a zombie by accident. He drank a beaker that was full of unknown green liquid. And at the end, Sajid made “Undoing Zombie Medicine” and he sprayed it on Benedict. At last, Benedict went back to normal. We made some revisions to our story and also proofread carefully for spelling, grammar and punctuation. We all really love our story by Mr. Scott Crawford and us, the Grade 4 students. The workshop gave us many ideas for improving our writing. We learned about using dialogue, creating suspense and starting sentences with verbs. We aso had great discussions about genre, characters, plot and setting. Mr Crawford told us that it’s important to write what we know and keep some parts of the story realistic and believable. We learned that anybody and everybody can write stories and we should think about a variety of scenarios for each genre. Writing Workshop with Mr Crawford on PhotoPeach My best friend is a zombie from grade4biss What did you learn about...
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