No, we're not playing sleeping lions!

We are practicing mindfulness! 

We try to do this at least three times a week, as a way to find quiet, reflect and refocus. As a class we get comfortable and listen to a program from Mrs Cutler's 'Smiling Mind' app.  Kakapo realised that in our busy lives it is hard to find quiet- we are often busy, rushing, learning, playing, talking, going to after school activities etc and the only times we are quiet is when we are in bed about to go sleep.  We decided this is not good enough!

Mindfulness helps us to take a moment to relax and think.  We use this time to think about what we are grateful for.  Mindfulness is a nice way to lead into prayer before we go out to lunch or go home. 

 

EXTRA! EXTRA! READ ALL ABOUT IT!!

Our contract work for the past two weeks have had a focus on current events and newspapers. We have looked at archives (linking to our NZ history inquiry), had a scavenger hunt to understand how newspapers work, STEM challenges, investigated how articles are structured and how headlines are used to hook the reader.  This week we are writing our own reports our local newspaper THE KAKAPO EDITION. 

This morning was our first attempt at writing an article. We know that a news article explains a real life event.  They present a lot of information but does not use a lot of words.  Articles are factual and informative and use plain language. 
We know that an article needs...

A Headline - This is the title.  It needs to be catchy and hook the reader without giving away too much information.

A Lead Paragraph - This is the first paragraph of the report.  It needs to include Who, What, Where and When.

Body of the article - This gives more detailed information.  Includes How, Why and ideally a "quote". This is also where the writer includes any additional information that the reader may need to know.

Byline - the name of the person who wrote the article.