Young Writers Workshop

As part of our GATE programme students were selected to participate in the Y5

Young Writers 2 day workshop run under the tuition of Gail from the School for

Young Writers.

On the first day the student’s  focused on the skills required to create images in

writing: using metaphor and concrete sensory language. The students worked at

taking their writing from description to poetry with shape, pattern and layers of

meaning. On the second day they worked on some aspects of sound, namely

using rhythm and repetition in poetry. Students wrote poems using onomatopoeia,

assonance, echoing phrases and following a rhythm.

Please enjoy a small selection of some of the student's writing.

The little train

Zooming quickly

round and round

bells clang

hissing sound

all aboard here we go

today's forecast

rain with snow

but the little train

is not that fast

his racing days

are in the past

like a circus on wheels

bright colours pop

yellow chimney

yellow top

dinner time

Mother yells

and breaks the

imagination spells

Nate Lane, Year 5 St Albans School

The trunkless elephant

One day my elephant trumpeted

through the door, knocking

my coffee all  over the floor!

“That is it!” I yelled

at the top of my lungs,

I searched for the pink bottle  

on top of the  shelf, once I found

this bottle of mine, I squeezed

his trumpet right inside!  

I tied him to a pole outside

I sat back down and thought

about  my coffee, then

I realized it wasn't fun

to have  an elephant

that couldn't even blow it's nose

So I gave it back for awhile

and drank my new coffee

while I smiled.

Max Year 5 St Albans School

Ted the Teddy and Tom the Cyclops

Ted and Tom the wondrous pair

Ted has fur instead of hair

Then in the morning

One eyed Tom wakes up yawning

As the suns dawning

They go to the beach to have fun in the sun

He walked to the beach

With Ted hand in hand

To have a small chat with the crabbes in the sand

To bought along a peach

To share with Ted

They walk home to check the time

They decide to walk to the market to spandex a dime

Buy gumdrops, jelly snakes and sour chews of lime

Then in the morning

As the sun was setting

Tom wondered to himself

what it’d be like to have two eyes

instead of one

He stared out at the lonely plains of grass

Sophie Lynn Year 5 St Albans School

Tournament of Minds

Tournament of Minds is a problem solving programme for teams of students

from both primary and secondary years. The Tournament's aim is to enhance

the potential of youth by developing diverse skills, enterprise, time management,

and the discipline to work collaboratively within a challenging and competitive

environment.

Students are required to solve demanding, open-ended challenges from one

of the following disciplines:
The Arts
STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics)    
Language Literature
Social Sciences

St Albans entered 3 teams from Year 5 and 6 led under the guidance of

Carmen Aldridge:
Team 1: Arts Challenge: Sophie, Matthew, Ava, Stella, Alfie, Rory
Team 2: STEM Challenge: Hannah, Cooper, Issy, Caitlin, Sam Y, Joe, Vili
Team 3: STEM Challenge: Olivia, Emily, Ciara, Lily, Georgetta, Senha, Isaac

All 3 teams competed in 2 challenges:

Long term Challenge: This is where teams are required to work together

on a Long Term Challenge for six weeks without assistance from teachers,

parents or peers. They develop a creative and original way to communicate

this solution to others, working within predefined parameters such as limited

materials, complex challenge criteria and the deadline of Tournament Day.

Students then present the product of their ideas - their challenge solution - to a panel

of judges and an audience on Tournament Day.

Spontaneous Challenge: This challenge requires rapid interchange of ideas,

the ability to think creatively and well developed group cooperation skills.

Throughout these challenges our 3 St Albans teams showed amazing teamwork

and problem solving skills, supporting each other through the planning, preparation

and delivery of their challenges.  Congratulations to Team 3 who won their division

and have qualified for the Nationals competition in Wellington. Also a congratulations

to Team 1 who were awarded Honours for their performance.

A BIG thank you to the fabulous parent helpers and supporters on the day,

and to Carmen for all her organisation and guidance of our tamariki.

Poetry Pentathlon

Poetry Pentathlon

Competition run by the School for Young Writers

Last week, Erin, Rory, Olivia, Magnus and Cooper represented St Albans School in
New Zealand’s first Poetry Pentathlon. They gave us various types of poems, with
objects or words as prompts and then we had a time limit of 5-10 minutes to write
each poem. There were 5 rounds: Haiku Hurdle, Limerick Long Jump, Walk with Words,
Poetry Relay and Winners at the Podium. We won one round, the Word Walk, where
you got given 5 words and you had to write a poem of up to 12 lines. I really enjoyed
the competition - it was challenging but fun!

Written by Erin

 

Aoife Maher's published writing

As stated in an earlier post we would like to share Aoife's published writing.

Lonely Eel

I chew on my slurred up dinner and wait for something, or someone. My slimy stomach slides across the rocks as I stare at my surroundings. Just me, myself and I. My black eyes tear up. Why? Why do I not have a buddy to be happy, sad and excited with? Does nobody like the fact that my body is covered with thick, black skin that feels like gooey seaweed? Or is it that I love to chomp on chewy fish? Please, please be my buddy.

Written by Aoife Maher Y6 and published in 'Write on' Magazine, Issue 50

Robocup Regionals Competition 2018

Congratulations to our 3 teams from the Robotics Club who competed in the Robocup Regionals

event on Sunday 19th August.  All three teams were entered into a different category: Theatre,
Soccer or Rescue. Each team created a robot for the specific skills needed for their event. These
included a dancing robot in theatre, a soccer kicking robot in Robo-soccer and a Rescue Robot that
had to follow the trail to find the silver can. Modifications and improvements were needed on the day
with no adult input. The children showed the many skills they have learnt including working together,
problem solving and the practical skills needed to make improvements on the spot under pressure.
Our teams made St Albans proud competing against tough competition and many carefully created
Robots!

Thank you to Simon our tutor, Sam Pelham and our parents for your support in helping to get the
robots completed in time for competition. Your help was very much appreciated.

Teams pictured here with their Robots:

Junior Theatre Team: Charlotte, Rory, Lachlan and Thomas
Junior Rescue Team: Emily, Georgetta and Lachie
Junior Soccer Team: Isaac, Magnus, Tim and Joe

Congratulations Aoife Maher

A very BIG congratulations to Aoife Maher who is a St Albans Year 6 student, for becoming our very own published author.  Earlier in the year Aoife attended the YWW here at St Albans which was run by the 'School for Young Writers.' During the workshop she worked and reworked her writing to create the 'Lonely Eel'. Her work has been published in Write On- the best New Zealand writing by kids for kids:  Issue 50. We will post Aoife's writing as soon as it is received.

Congratulations Aoife, we are very proud of you. 

Term 3 GATE events

Here are our upcoming events for our Term 3 GATE programmes.

• ICAS English: Week 2 Tuesday 31st July
• Australia Maths: Week 3 Thursday 9th August
• ICAS Maths: Week 4 Tuesday 14th August
• YWW(Young Writers Workshop) for our Y5 tamariki: Week 5 TBC
• Robotics competition: Date and time TBC

Any queries please contact Mrs Lidstone

jo.lidstone@stalbans.school.nz