Promoting Our Teacher

Last week I was working on a movie to win a trip to Hanmer Springs and to go on the new hydroslide.
I did this with Kaleb, Cate and Lucas.

Underground Explorers

These are my all my reading contracts for this week, we read a book called Underground Explorers.

Underground Explorers

Did I understand

1. What was the purpose of the caving expedition?

To prove that that the bulmer cave system is 

much bigger than expected and that there 

could be an underground connection between 

Bulmer cave and and Blue Creek all used by a 

trickle of green dye.

2. What is gypsum?

a soft white or grey mineral

3. What is a drainage divide?

A platform that stops two sections of water 

flowing over

4. How do the cavers care for the caving 

environment?

Take there shoes off when walking in 

avalanche alley

5. How many kilometres of caving passages are 

known about at Bulmer Cavern?

72 kilometres

6. Why did Neil need to repeat his experiment?

To make sure it was not a fluke

If This Is The Answer

Write a question to match these answers

Clifford Hill

What mountain or hill is 1,756 metres high?

Helictites

Complete the sentence…

Bulmer Cave is well known for it’s impressive _________.

1984

When was Bulmer Cave discovered?

To, Two, Too

Write 3 sentences using the words to, two and 

too.

1. In the weekend I went to Hanmer Springs.

2. I gave two chocolate fish to my friend.

3.  I wanted to go to the shops with Emma and 

     Hannah too.

Digging Deep

Imagine you are one of the cavers. 

Write a diary entry about your experiences 

At Bulmer Cavern.

Remember to include your

thoughts and feelings.

It was a damp cold night last night, I have a big day today, it is going to 

be one of the most important days so far as this is the day we drop the green 

dye into the far and away stream.

I am feeling quite nervous but hopeful, I nervous in case it will

not work but hopeful that it will work.

Today we will also be going to avalanche alley where I m hoping to get some 

photos but make sure that I do not get Hypothermia from the cold snow, 

we will also look at the milky substance hanging from the walls.

So I will tell how it all went tonight Diary, good day.

Listen Up

Create at least 5 true of false questions for 

A friend to answer.

1. True of false - Marcus and Neil Warrington

 went

to Blue Creek?

False

2. True or false - Neil Warrington was the main

 character?

False

3. True of false - Marcus poured the green dye 

in the far and away stream?

True

4. True of false - They are 800 metres deep?

True

5. True or false - To walk on and take 

photographs at avalanche alley, they 

must wear boots?

False

Interview

Write an interview between yourself and a caver.

Me: What cave gave you the most challenges?

Caver: (talking)

Me: How long have you been in a cave before? 

Caver: (talking)

Me: How many times have you been caving?

Caver: (taking)

Me: Have you ever been caving alone?

Caver: (taking)

Me: Have you been caving out of New Zealand before?

Caver: (taking)

Exploring Language

What do these words mean?

Write the definition and use

the word in a sentence

1. Substance - texture

2. Vulnerable - Able to

3. Destination - Your final stop

I Can Spell

Choose 3 words to spell out in different ways or colours.

1. Mystery-Mys-ter-y

2. Cavern-Cav-ern

3. Bulmer-Bul-mer

Write On

Create 2 contrasting Haiku poems about

Caving!

Be resilient

Caving can be dangerous

You have to be brave

Have a good cave

Resilience is a good thing

Experiences

All In Order

On the map on 4-5 put all the places in order.

Blue Creek Cave

Bulmer Cavern

Culliford Hill

Mt Bell

Mt Owen

Be Creative

Design a poster advertising caving

Syllable Search

Find a word with 2 syllables- morn-ing

Find a word with 3 syllables- o-ver-alls

Are there any 4 syllables?

re-hy-dra-ted

Scavenger Hunt

Use the pictures to answer these questions:

1. How many helmets were there in the 

Pictures?

11

2. Find far and away stream.

    Page 8 bottom

3. Find icicles.

    Page 12, bottom left

4. Find blue creek?

    Page 13, bottom

Now you create 2 more:

1. Find the creamy white substance?

Page 8, top 

2. What page is the diagram on?

4 and 5

Self Assessment

What did I do well?

I did well with the advertisement on Bulmer Cavern

Which activity challenged me the most?

The advertisement  for Bulmer Cavern

What did I do about it?

I kept on persevering and trying

Which activity was the easiest for me?

The scavenger hunt 

How can I extend myself next time?

I could make me questions up for the scavenger hunt

Ghost In Running Gear

This is Ghost, Ghost is his nickname.
His Dad is in jail because he tried to shoot him and his Mum, he gets basically bullied by a kid called Brandon and he lives in a cold messy house in a dodgy neighborhood.
Ghost loves eating sunflower seeds and he is a super fast runner, because he is a super fast runner, he is now in a running team but only on one condition and that is he can not have any complications at School and he still does his homework.
Here is his running gear that I made for him.

130th Blog Post

This is my 130th blog post.

Hatter's Gold

I did all these activities for my learning contract for Hatter's Gold.

Hatter’s Gold

Did I Understand?

1.When did the strike start?

Thursday 27th February 1908

2.How did Mum respond to the news of the strike?

She froze, because she is worried that they will run out of money and have no food

3.Why does laurie think people got hooked on the gold mining?

Because you do not know when you are going to get lucky

4. What are some of the challengers that the miners face?

Explosion, Poisonous gases, caving in, rock fall, 15 minute breaks, long days

5.’Getting a bit maggoty’ What does this phrase mean?

Getting a bit agitated

6. What does it tell you on how Mum's feeling?

Annoyed

If This Is The Answer

Relieved

What was Laurie feeling when his Dad was at the front of the group?

Crib

What do the miners call a tucker break?

Blackberry

What flavour jam did Laurie's Mum pack to give to the professor?

Where, Wear and We’re

Where

Where did Laurie go to do some panning?

Wear

After the Professor died Laurie got to wear his boots.

We’re

Laurie’s Dad said on behalf of the miners “We’re going on strike for 3 months

Digging Deep

Imagine you are Laurie.

Write a diary entry of the situation you find yourself in.

Hi Diary,

Today was a sad day because the professor died and this is how it happened.

I was panning for gold at Croesus track, after a little while when my boredom
took over I went to see the Professor to say hi and also to give him some blackberry
jam that my mum wanted me to give to him.

Though the Professor got such a fright that with the axe that he was cutting trees
with he ended up cutting himself and for like 10 minutes there was heaps of blood
coming out of him.

After I bandaged it up we decided to walk back to see my dad who was striking for
3 months because they want a longer lunch break.

Though gradually he started to lose his voice and look even for ill.

Then all of a sudden he just fell to the ground, I decided to just leave him here and
run and get help, but the Professor pulled me in and very, very quietly said “The gold
is just not in the creek Laurie, it is all around us, take your chances son, make your own
luck.”

After he said that I rushed back to tell Dad, he said that he had past and had taken his
shoes off and in the dirt it had said “For Laurie”.

So now I wear his boots even though they are very big for me I put old rags in the by the
toes so they will fit me okay.

Exploring Language

Shimmy

To shake, wobble or vibrate

Explosion

Lots of things flying everywhere caused by either a bomb or gases

Doolally

A bit crazy

I Can Spell

1. Professor

Professor

Pro-fess-or

2. Shakespeare

Shakespeare

Shakes-peare

3. doolally

doolally

Doo-lal-ly

5 W’s

Create a 5 w’s chart about the story.

Who = Laurie, the Professor, His Dad, Pearl, his Mum

What = DAd on strike, he was panning for gold and then went to see                     

                the Professor, the Professor got hurt then died and gave 

                 Laurie his boots

When = Thursday 27th February 1908

Why = Because he lost to much blood

How = Because he got hurt with an axe

Write On

Find and list at least 20 juicy verbs from the text.

Drawing

Planning

panning

Clutching

Swearing

Laughing

Making

Slicing

Brewing

Chewing

Cutting

Burning

Itching

Scrimping

Getting

Sleeping

Dreaming

Cracking

Shimmying

Thinking

All In  Order

Write all your juicy verbs and put them in alphabetical order.

Brewing

Burning

Chewing

Clutching

Cracking

Cutting

Drawing

Dreaming

Getting

Itching

Laughing

Making

Scrimping

Shimmying

Sleeping

Slicing

Swearing

Thinking

Panning

Planning

Be Creative

Create a collage to represent a theme from the text.

Syllable Search

Find a word with 2 syllables- Shakes-Peare

Find a word with 3 syllables- Pro-fess-or

Are there any 4 syllables?

Feb-ru-ar-y

Scavenger Hunt

Use the pictures to answer these questions..

1. How many hats can you find?

6

2. How many houses can you find?

2

3. How many girls can you find?

1

Now create 2 more..

1. How many shoeless people were there?

2

2. What year did the miners go on strike?

1908

Self Assessment

What did I do well in?

Did I understand

Which activity challenged me the most?

I can spell because it was hard to choose the words

What did I do about it?

I just chose any words that I may find the slightest bit hard

Which activity was the easiest for me?

The collage

How can I extend myself next time?

Make my own pictures