Student Writing

Students in the Senior Syndicate have been writing every day. They have been writing descriptions of lots of different people, animals and things. Teachers analyse the kids writing very carefully to identify what their individual learning needs are. Some of this learning includes

• Showing an awareness of the reader

• Adding detail to ideas to create a picture in the reader’s head

• Grouping ideas together into logical paragraphs

As you are reading, see if you and your child can identify where the writer is talking directly to you (the reader), and where they have added detail to help you create a picture in your head. We hope that you enjoy reading these descriptions.

Waiariki 

Hi.  My name is Waiariki.  I go to Rata Street School in Naenae, Lower Hutt.  I am eight years old.

You might notice that my hair is dark brown, like a horses brown fur coat.  You might think that my hair is black but it is very dark brown.  It is curly down the bottom and straight up the top.  I like wearing my hair out and in a pony tail.  I always wear my pink and silver sparkly slip-ons and my white hoodie.

I am the youngest in my family and that means in my house I’ll always get things first because I am the first to get home.  I have one sister, one poppa, one nana, and we all live together as a happy family… well most of the time.

I love doing athletics!   I am really into gymnastics, discus, 60 metre runs and shot put.  I am very adventurous because I like to climb trees and jump things.  I LOVE to do silly makeovers on my big sister.  Everyone laughs!  Ha!  Ha!  Ha!

My favourite part of the day is after school because I get to go out with my friends , and I get to go out somewhere with my nana.  I love it!  Everyday, if it’s not raining, I ride my bike to the Naenae train station all by myself to pick up my poppa.

Let me tell you what my favourite colour is and why.  Mine is pink. What is yours?  Mostly everything is pink.  My soap is pink, my clothes are pink, even my drinks are pink.  My toy ponies are pink and guess what colour my nail polish is?  So now you can see why my favourite colour just has to be PINK!

Something I like to do in the weekend is go out with my nana.  In the morning nana will tiptoe into my room and gently put her hand on me and wake me up.  We quietly get ready so we won’t wake anyone and we go out places.  I thank my nana for taking me out.

The best holiday I’ve ever had was when I went to Movie World with my nana.  I went on a HUGE ROLLER COASTER and it was so scary!  Then I went on a big, tall, tower that goes up and down.  It was so, so, so, much fun!

I feel happy when I get Valentines Day cards and presents.  It makes me feel special inside and out.  When someone is nice to me I feel like I can do anything in the whole world. I feel scared when big fat bugs come in my house.

One day I would like to get a big two-storey house, but not just any two-storey house, one that is huge!  I would have the  biggest upstairs room in the house.  For my room I want purple wallpaper and my own bathroom.  Imagine having a house like that?!

Thank you for reading about me.  I hope I told you lots of information about me.  Maybe we will have a lot in common.  You might have the same favourite clothes as me or maybe you have the same coloured hair.  You should know 100 great things about me now!!

My Baby Sister 

Have you ever seen my baby sister?

She is two years old, and she is up to my belly-button.  Her eyes are hazel but they look like a mud colour.  Anamich’s hair is very light brown, like a tree trunk.  It’s very curly like my other sister’s hair is.

Anamieh loves eating treat food.  Once, she was so, so quiet in the laundry that we didn’t know where she was.  When we found her she was eating the Nuttela in the laundry!

She’s clever for a two year old, because she can count and sing her ABCs.

Anamieh is a bit naughty because she keeps pulling out all her toys and ripping pages out of our books.

Now do you have a picture of my baby sister in your head? 

My Mum

I’m going to describe my Mum Barbara for you.

My Mum has a pair of shoes that she loves wearing out.  They are sneakers and she’s had them for a really long time, and I mean long!  Mum loves wearing three quarter pants and long sleeved tops.

Her hair is a nice whitish colour with a bit of grey.  She always says to us “Every grey hair tells a story!”  Her hair flows nicely, and I’ve just remembered she just got it cut! Her eyes are hazel and brown.  Her left eye is brown and her other eye is hazel.  I think it is quite crazy.  Do you?  She has glasses that she wears when she reads magazines before she goes to bed.  She also wears them when she watches the news on TV1. One of her hobbies is reading; she loves her books.  She read one huge book in only four hours!

Mummy has an old watch that she consistently wears, all the time.  She says “I’ve had it for a hundred years, and I’ll have it for a hundred more!”  She has four rings, two on her left hand and two on her right.  Once I asked her “Can I have them when you die?” and she said “Maybe baby, maybe.”

So that’s how I would describe my mummy Barbara.  Can you see her in your head?

Rebecca 

Hi!  My name is Rebecca and I’m a Year 5 at Rata Street School.  I’m generally a quiet person in class, but if you’re one of my close friends or my Mum, you might think differently.  I’m going to describe to you what I look like, my personality, habits and my hobbies.  Hopefully, by the end of my description, you will discover some interesting things about me that you may not have known.

I have long straight blonde hair that is always in a pony tail and held together with my black and white hair-band.  My Mum always does my hair every morning before I go to school.  She puts my hair up because she doesn’t want me getting nits in my hair.  I have light hazel eyes that sometimes change colour depending on the weather.  In summer, my eyes change to green.  You’ll always find me dressed in pink and purple coloured clothes.  That’s because they are my favourite colours.

As I said before, I am a quiet person but I also have other hidden traits.  One of those hidden traits is my temper.  I can get angry really fast, especially if it involves my close friends and family or you annoy me like my little brother.  One time he teased me and made fun of me and I couldn’t hold my patience, so I pushed him really hard and he cried.  I got in big trouble from my Mum.  I am mostly quiet in class, especially with people I don’t really know well.  But when I am at home or with my close friends, I am so loud that they have to tell me to be quiet.  When I tell people in my class about this, most of them don’t believe me.

If you ever come in to my class, you will always find me either working away quietly at my desk, or chewing on the end of my pencil.  I usually do this because I’m trying to think of what to write.   I adore school work.  I’m always excited when we learn new things in school.  But when we get homework it’s a different story.  I don’t like doing homework because I don’t have the teacher at home to help me do it.  I usually have disagreements with my Mum over how to do Maths.  She has her way and I am practicing what I’ve learnt at school.  So, if this is happening to you too, I’m sure you would agree with me on homework!

My hobbies are dancing, singing and swimming.  I love to swim, but only social swimming with my family.  I don’t like doing sports because it’s too hard for me and I’m just not that good at sports.  I love to dance and sing, but only in my bedroom.  I hope to gain more confidence in myself so that I can make it to a singing competition one day.

I hope you have been able to learn something new about me or create a picture of me in your head.  Do you have similar traits like me?  I would like to read about you too!

Saffron

Saffron? That’s me. Do you know about my physical characteristics, the things that I do that make me me, and my likes/dislikes? Let me tell you.

Brown things…….. Oh, one of the things about my physical appearance is that I have small brown eyes and hair that is a brownie – gingery – reddish colour. It is straight with curls at the bottom, but it’s always tangled in a mess. I am short, skinny like a pole and my face is an elliptical shape. My nose is really small as though it has been pressed. My lips are pink. I have a birthmark on my right elbow, though you’d have to look hard to see this.

Everybody does something that makes them them. Right? Well these are the things that I do. I squeal when I shout because I have a very high voice. I fuss about my bedroom if it is dirty because I like things clean. I get really wild when Mum makes it messy!

Mmmmmmmmm……. pizza, chocolate ice cream, Grandma’s home made pudding, golden kiwi fruit and green kiwi fruit yummy. Green kiwi fruit? I don’t like green kiwi fruit! In fact I don’t like tomato either. Both of them are yuck! My taste buds won’t take yes for either of those!

Well that’s me. Now that you know about me, what about you? What are the things that you do that make you you I wonder. 

My Teacher

My teacher, Mr Forster, is normally in Room 14.

Mr Forster’s forehead has an M shape hair style on the front of his head that looks like a woodpecker’s beak. Mr Forster’s body looks like a long big tree. His calves are like apples. Mr Forster likes to wear t-shirts and shorts most of the time. He wears shoes more than jandals. He always comes to school prepared.  Mr Forster’s skin colour is tannish and it goes brown in the sun.  Mr Forster thinks his hair is silver, not grey, and you probably should know that he doesn't like being called old!

If you see Mr Forster on duty, you’ll notice that he’s really thoughtful because he’s giving Gold Cards out to kids if they’re playing kindly or letting other kids play with them.  Mr Forster is also thoughtful when taking care of injuries and you might not enjoy watching him take care of arguments.

If you don’t know what makes Mr Forster happy I can tell you. The thing that makes him happy is when kids are working well. He likes kids finishing work on time and handing it in. My teacher,  Mr Forster  is really happy when Room 14 kids are on task. He likes it because he doesn’t need to raise his voice. Mr Forster has a very joyful active, time with kids and he gets upset when there is a fight in the classroom, or playground. He becomes happy when the classroom is tidy and a smile opens on his face.

You’ll probably want to be away from Mr Forster when he’s grumpy. He is grumpy at times, especially when people don’t listen to him or they don’t get on So, if you don’t want to make him angry you just need to be responsible for your actions and have the right gear ready at the right time and be willing to take the consequence if you don’t have the right gear.

I think that Mr Forster is the best teacher I could ever have!

My Dad 

Hi there.  I’m going to tell you about a funny, nice, kind guy who always buys me things, like games.  I’m going to tell you about my Dad!  I will tell you about his looks, hobbies and personality.

He has light brown eyes that look good with his pitch black wavy hair.  He has white smooth skin that is so soft that sometimes I use it as a pillow to sleep on.  He’s tall and can touch the top part of the door without even tipey toeing.  His arms are muscley and very strong.  One time I was sad but he used his strong arms to lift me into the air and throw me on the couch. It stopped me feeling sad. His legs are very long and quite prickley!  His feet are big and he has to have big shoes.

I will tell you more about his personality now.  He’s kind and generous.  He’s a nice Dad to have.  He’s funny and makes a lot of jokes.  He cheers people up with jokes and sometimes his humour is over the top!  He’s not very talkative but he’s full of energy.  When I told him I got 100/100 in my basic facts he was flabbergasted!  He doesn’t believe in paranormal things like monsters and ghosts either.

Let’s get on with his hobbies.  He likes watching martial art movies or action and horror movies.  His favourite fighter is Jet Li.  He also likes playing catches with me and my sister.  It’s funny when we play piggy in the middle because he calls it “monkey in the middle!” Do you like playing catches”?  He also likes reading and watching me read.  His favourite hobby of all time is chilling out with me and my sisters.  We like going to the beach and swimming at Upper Hutt Pool. I wonder if you like swimming.

I hope you have learnt a lot about my Dad.  He’s good to become friends with and I hope you can picture him in your head.

He’s also a baker, and makes yummy things like pie’s, rolls and savouries.

So now you know about my special person. Do you have a person who is special to you?