In my grade 6/7 and grade 8 history classes, we have been looking at what it means to triumph over adversity.

How to overcome challenges?

How to solve problems?

Some names mentioned have been Vivian Bullwinkel - nurse and Prisoner of War (Australia), Nelson Mandela (South Africa), Captain Cook or early sea explorers, Sam Cawthorn (local Tasmanian) and people with eating disorders. After researching some of these people students wrote their own posts and then created a wordle about the topic.

Is there someone in particular in your country

or your family who you feel has had to overcome adversity? 

Tell us a bit about them in a post on your blog or in a comment here on this post. Remember to be internet savvy and not mention full names if you feel they would not like it mentioned on the internet. If writing in your blog, make sure you add a link back to this post so we get a trackback to know where people are writing about this blog.

Image from Picasaweb  Photos by  Peta-de-Aztlan

Homework, homework, homework. It’s the word on everyone’s lips. Everyone has their own opinion of homework. Most kids aren’t too fond of it, but our parents think it’s great. (Probably because they don’t have to do the homework.) So should we do it quietly and get on with it or put up a fight?

Homework isn’t the most popular thing in the world but it can be useful and this is how. Well, it can prepare us for high school and university, as well as teaching us more and preparing us for tests or other challenges the next day. It is also a way for our teacher and our parents to see how organised we really are.

On the other hand, homework is super annoying! If you want to go outside or to the beach or catch up with friends there is only one thing stopping you and that’s ………… HOMEWORK!! We do lots of work at school and when we get home, we just want to relax and not have to do more work.

I’m not a homework fan. But if we have to do it then I will do it and get on with life. Homework has many different sides.

Do you like homework?

Does anyone know what it is? It is hard to spell, that’s for sure. I had to look it up myself. In English we have so many good words. I don’t even know if other languages have a word that means this. For anyone who doesn’t know, onomatopoeia refers to words that refer to particular sounds, and imitate the sounds themselves. An example is “woof woof” for the sound a dog makes. The reason I am writing about this is because I was talking to another teacher who has been working with children in Nepal recently. She discovered that their word for the sound a chicken makes is “piu piu” (I think) The nepalese children thought our English word “cluck cluck” was really funny and nothing like the sound a chicken makes. What I would like to do is collect some information about words used in other languages to describe the sounds animals make. I would like to know who has the best word to describe the sound each animal makes.  In english we have meow, moo, neigh, eee-ore and many many more. Is there anyone who speaks another language who could tell me about their words?

The Year 6 children in my class will be writing to this site in the next day or two. I just wanted everyone to know that we will be writing on the blog for the next two weeks, and I really wanted to know about these animal sounds.

Mrs Jacobs

Have you ever read the book “Around The World In 80 Days,” or seen the movie? If you have, then you should know that there are these people that have to go around the world in 80 days to fullfill their journey.

So, if you had a chance to go around the world in 80 days, what countries would you travel to? Would you go to Germany, France, Japan, or any other country?

Where would you go?

By:Hiba and Krista

Some books we have read that were interesting and fun to read are: The World According to Humphrey, School Spirit, Shakespeare Secret, and Star Girl. Some series we enjoy are: Bone, Candy Apple, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, and the Series of Unfortunate Events.

Our favorite book or series would be the Series of Unfortunate Events. In this series there are 3 orphans Violet, Klaus, and Sunny.   Violet is an inventor, Klaus likes to read, and Sunny likes to bite hard things.  The orphans go to live in different places such as Prufrock Preparatory School, Lucky Smells Lumber Mill, Uncle Monty’s house, and the Village of Fowl Devotees. In later books, the siblings start to wander on their own.

If you have read this series or one of the books, which do you like the most?

What character from the series are you most like?

If you are not familiar with this series, what books or other series do you like to read?

By Lindsey and Adrianna