Our class story

Our class wrote this story together. We gave Mrs H the ideas and she wrote them down as we spoke. We did a chapter a day and then drew pictures for it. When we finished the book we took it home to read to our families.

The Three Little Rabbits
Chapter 1
Once upon a time there were 3 little rabbits. They liked playing in the back yard. They played in it every afternoon after school. They were called Flopsie, Smokey and Nibbles.
One day they saw a good place they wanted to play in, so they asked their mother and their mother said, “Yes, you can.” So they went into their neighbour’s garden and asked them if they could build a little house under the roots of the big tree. The neighbours came out to water the garden and let the little bunnies build their house.
While they were building their house they found a secret door. The door was colourful like a rainbow, and had rainbow stars around it. It had a red handle with green buttons that had letters on them. They didn’t know which buttons to press, so they looked around and found a carrot notebook. Nibbles looked in the book and found the word “carrots” so they tried pressing the letters on the buttons. The door creaked open and they saw a huge shiny rainbow on the other side.

Chapter 2
The bunnies bounced onto the rainbow and slid quickly down the shiny, colourful stripes. They landed with a bump on the back of a huge animal.
“What on earth is this?” squeaked Flopsie.
“I think it’s a T-Rex,” Nibbles replied. “We must have landed in dinosaur land!”
“No, it isn’t,” squeaked Smokey, “It has a long neck and doesn’t have great big, sharp teeth. I think it is a brontosaurus, because it has such a long neck. The brontosaurus turned around and said to the bunnies, “How on earth did you get on my back? Where did you come from?”
“We slid down a rainbow,” said the bunnies. “It must have been magic.”
Suddenly they heard a loud thundering sound coming from behind the trees. The brontosaurus started to shake. “Hold on tight, little bunnies,” shivered the brontosaurus. We have to get away from here because the T-Rex is coming.”

Chapter 3
The brontosaurus galloped on his huge legs towards a big volcano. The T-Rex chased after them roaring loudly as he ran. Then the brontosaurus came to a small cave in the hillside.
“Quick, jump off and hide inside the cave. The T-Rex can’t get you in there,” roared the brontosaurus. So the bunnies bounced off his back and quickly hid in the little cave. The brontosaurus guarded the entrance. Then the T-Rex came closer and closer, growling and roaring. He started to fight the brontosaurus. The brontosaurus whipped his huge tail backwards and forwards hitting the T-Rex very hard. The T-Rex fell down the volcano landing in a puddle of burning hot bubbling lava. That was the end of the T-Rex.

Chapter 4
Meanwhile, back in the cave the bunnies got bored of waiting, so they began to explore the cave. While they were exploring, Smokey spotted some tiny footprints leading down a long passage.
“Let’s follow the footprints,” whispered Nibbles.
“I’m scared of the dark,” shivered Flopsie in a very small voice. “Don’t worry. I’ve got a flashlight,” said Smokey.

Chapter 5
They followed the footprints along a long dark passage until they came to some dark steps that disappeared upwards.
“I wonder what is up those steps,” said Flopsie. “Shall we climb up to see?” “Yes, lets,” said Nibbles. The bunnies climbed up the long steep steps until they reached a small square, wooden door. They pushed it open and found they were in a new land. They saw a little elf in front of them.
Nibbles shyly said, “Hello, who are you.”
“My name is Freddy the Elf,” the Elf replied. “Who are you, and where did you come from?”
“We are bunnies, and our names are, Flopsie, Nibbles and Smokey. We came from dinosaur land,” said the bunnies altogether.
Freddy the Elf was wearing a bright green T-shirt with a large “F” on it.
“I really love your shirt,” said Smokey. “I wish I could have a red one with an “S” on it.”
“My mum makes these shirts,” said Freddy. “Would you like one?”
“Yes, please,” replied the bunnies together.
Freddy led the bunnies to his house inside a pretty little cave surrounded by vines and pretty white roses. Freddie’s Mum came to the entrance and said, “Who are your new friends?”
“These are my friends, Flopsie, Smokey and Nibbles. They would like a shirt like mine,” said Freddy.
Freddie’s Mum gave Smokey a red shirt with an “S” on it. She gave Flopsie a blue shirt with an “F” on it and Nibbles an orange shirt with an “N” on it. The bunnies all said thank-you and put them on.

Chapter 6
All of a sudden there was a trumpeting sound outside the cave. They all looked outside to see a big parade of soldiers.
“What’s going on?” said Flopsie.
“It’s the Queen’s birthday parade,” replied Freddie. Then a big coach came past with the beautiful Queen sitting on a colourful throne. They all went outside and waved to the Queen.
Just after she went by, a great big, green, scaly dragon swooped down and snatched up the Queen in his long sharp claws and flew up to the cave high up in the hillside.
“OH!!!!!!! What’s happened to the Queen? How are we going to save her?” cried all of the people.

Chapter 7
“Come on, let’s go and see if we can save the Queen,” yelled Freddie and the bunnies.
They set off towards the mountain. On the way they met a guy selling sharp swords. They bought a sword each and kept going towards the dragon’s cave. At last they reached the mouth of the cave. They waited outside for the dragon to come out, hiding behind some rocks.
They waited and waited and waited until the dragon fell asleep. Then they tiptoed into the dark cave so that they didn’t wake the dragon up. Smokey carefully turned on his flashlight. They could see the queen tied up and locked in a cage. Flopsie spotted a small, shiny key hanging on a hook near where the dragon was sleeping. She crept carefully past the sleeping dragon and took the key off the hook. Then they went and opened the cage. Nibbles used his sword to cut through the ropes that held the queen. They all tiptoed past the dragon and out of the cave.

Chapter 8
When they got out of the cave the Queen said them all, “Thank you for rescuing me. Will you come with me back to my castle with me, because I want to reward you?”
“Yes, we will come with you,” replied the bunnies and Freddie.
It took a long time to get back to the castle. While they were walking the bunnies told the Queen their names and where they had come from. They also said that they wanted to go back home.
“I know a wizard who can help you,” said the Queen. She led them up a long dark passage and up some creepy, winding stairs. At the top they came to glowing door which had Wizard written on a metal rectangular sign. The Queen knocked on the door and a kind voice said, “Come in.” They all went into the room and saw an old man with a white beard wearing a long blue cloak, with moons on it.
“How can I help you?” he said.
“These three bunnies would like you to help them get back home,” said the Queen.

Chapter 9
The wizard thought for a moment and then said, “I think I can help you. You must go through this special door. It is a teleporter which will take you back home. I will have to say some special words when you are all inside.”
The bunnies did what he told them and went through the door. They found themselves in a big room with the walls covered in sparkly diamonds and stars.
There were some blue seats and the bunnies sat down on them. All of a sudden there was a whirring, whining sound and everything started twirling and spinning faster and faster. Then it all stopped and everything was quiet.
Smokey and Nibbles said, “I hope we are in the right place and not in some other strange land.” They went to the door and opened it very slowly and carefully. Outside they saw their little house and the door they had gone through to have their adventures.
There Mum was there and gave them all a big hug. “I am glad you are back, because it is Christmas tomorrow and I have lots of presents under the tree for you.
The end.

Listen to our Jack and the beanstalk stories

Our holiday stories

In the holidays I went to the movies. I went with my sister. We watched "Up." It was fun watching it. When the movie finished my dad picked me up and then I went home. When I got home I had lunch. Then me and my sister watched Hannah Montana. Then my mum came home from work. Then I played with my sister. We played teachers and my sister was the teacher and I was kid. Then I played outside and we played a ball game. It was fun.
by APM


In the holidays I went to the movies. I went with mum and dad. We watched "G force" and "Up" and "Aliens in the attic." It was very very fun. I went for a bike ride and then we ended up at the park. I played tag with my dad and he couldn't tag me. When I turned around my brother gave a fright because I didn't know he was there. Then I went on the monkey bars and I did a flip on it. When we were playing tag red things were the base and my brother was always getting tagged. I went on the swings and I went really high. I jumped off the swings and I went further than my brother. We had a race with my dad and brother, and in the race I won the race. I was doing a flip because I was really happy because I had won the race. My brother was cross. Then we went home and had lunch. When my dad had a rest I played with my cats. My cats were very very funny.
by M-C-A.

In the holidays I went to the movies to see "Shorts" and India came with me and my little brother Logan and my cousin Anna. The popcorn at the movie was so yummy and the butter on the popcorn was yummy too. I got to chose a drink. I chose coke. After the movies my cousin Anna said, "Can stay for 2 nights? My Mum said, "Yes." I said, "Yay, you are staying the night." By SH



In the holidays I went rock climbing in Panmure. There were special ropes. When we are at the top we let go and the ropes lower you down. I went on all of them. I climbed to the middle of all of them, except two. It was awesome.
by AE

Flopsie the Bunny comes to school

This morning R... brought her little bunny to school. The bunny is white with some little grey spots. The bunny rabbit was eating her carrot. Everyone was so excited when they saw the little rabbit. Flopsie was very cute and cuddly. We all loved having a little cuddle with Flopsie. Sometimes she struggled to get away when we were holding her. Her little nose kept on twitching and her fur felt really soft. She is a pretty little rabbit. Later on she stayed in her box while we did our work.

Flowers for Calendars

We have been working hard to make our art that will be made into calendars. We have used hot and cold colours to colour in the flowers we drew. It has taken us a while but we think our flowers look fantastic. Here is some of our work.

Our Billy Goat Gruff land maps

We have been making maps of Biily Goats Gruffland. We had to put in things that were in the map key. The maps have the trolls river and the bridge, as well as the grassy hillside and the bare hillside. We also put in a path, a road, trees and houses. The maps were fun to make.

Three Billy Goats Gruff story from U Tube

We loved watching this story in class.

Using our Phonics Mat

These are pictures of us using our phonics spelling mat. Our mat has lots of letters on it and we can spell out words by walking on the letters. One of us has a word card, then they walk on the letters. The other children blend the letters to spell out the word. If they say it correctly, it is their turn. We play this phonics game about twice a week. It is a fun game and we are getting REALLY good at it.

Our Wordle about Fairytales and Nursery Rhymes

Today we made a Wordle. We had to think of fairytales and nursery rhymes and then we put them onto the wordle.

Daffodil Day

Today was daffodil day at our school and around New Zealand. At our school we could buy a daffodil to pin on our clothes, a daffodil tattoo, or arm bands. The money raised will go to the cancer society to help in cancer research. Our school raised $900 today. Here are some photos of us with our tattoos, arm bands and daffodils. We also did daffodil art today.

Hooking into Fairytales

Today was a great dressup day for us. We are beginning to study Nursery rhymes and traditional tales. We think we all looked great in our costumes. The teachers dressed up as well. We had a shared morning tea at the end of our parade. It was a really fun morning.

We Love the Tashi stories

We have been reading the Tashi stories written by Anna Fienberg and Barbara Fienberg. The children love the stories and many of them have been writing lots of their own Tashi stories or retelling them.

This story is LH's story.

One day Tashi went to see the magic bell, but the magic bell was not there. The pirates stole the bell. So Tashi ran and ran and ran, but it was too late. He fell in the water. Tashi swam fast and finally made it. He got the magic bell and then swam back to the little bridge. Tashi put the bell back and when everyone woke up, everyone threw Tashi up in the air. He was happy. Everyone said, "Hip Hip Hooray!" Everyone said, "Goodbye," and Tashi went home and told Jack what he did.

We write great stories too.

Kite Flying
In the holidays I went on the luge. I went with my Mum and Dad, Dawn and Ruth. We raced. It was fun. In the holiday we also went to fly kites with our Mum. She took us down to the park. I dropped my kite string and it went off and I had to run after it. It went up a tree. I had to keep on running and I went on and on and on and on until it got stuck on a branch. My Mum had to ring my Dad up. He came fast. We tried everything and Dad said, " I will go home and make a long stick to pull it down. By RT

Max and the Volcano
Once there was a baby called Max One day his Mum and dad took him to a mountain but they took him to the wrong mountain. They took him to a volcano. His Mum and Dad stayed in the car for a minute and didn't come out. The volcano blasted Max off to Australia. His Mum and Dad came out of the car. They climbed the mountain but they didn't see Max on the mountain. They started to look for him. They looked everywhere but they didn't find him. They started to cry. In Australia, Baby Max climbed a mountain. He didn't know that he was climbing another volcano. He climbed to the top. Then the volcano blasted him off to his Mum and Dad. They stopped crying. When they came home it was the baby's birthday. Max had a volcano birthday cake.
By RZ

Baby Tricks
Suddenly a baby popped out of his room, and looked under the mat in the dining room. Under the mat was a treasure map. The baby went out the green door and followed the map. When he got the treasure box he lifted the lid up and in the treasure box was lipstick, a wig and make-up. Then the baby dressed up in all of the things that were in the treasure box. When he was in all of the make-up he went to his aunty's house and knocked on her red door. His auntie came to the door. His auntie said, "How are you, little girl?" "I am not a little girl. I'm a boy, see." And he took off all of his makeup. His auntie was shocked. She said, "You frightened me." The baby said "let's go to the zoo."
By IY

Maths Week Activities

Last week was Maths week and we spent the week doing all sort of different maths activities.
These are some of the activities we did:

• using unifix to make a robot shape then plotting it on graph paper.

• Weighing teddybears
  


• graphing the different fastening on shoes
  
  


• 
  
  making number caterpillars where we had to know about odd and even numbers as well as being able to halve numbers.
  
  
• playing number games online using the mimio
  
• measuring around the "puddles" with giant feet that Mrs H drew on the playground with chalk.
• had fun drawing a face using glyphs
  

• We also had "The world of Maths" come to visit the school and we did really cool maths activities in the hall. Some of our mum's came to help us.
  
  Maths week was really fun and we all enjoyed it. Look out for some "vocaroo" reflections of maths week from us soon!!!!
  
  

Making peg-doll people

Today we made peg doll people.
We needed wooden clothes pegs, fabric, string or wool, pipe cleaners, PVA glue, scissors and a black marker pen.
This is how we made them.
First we drew the face on the peg with the marker pen. Next we twisted the pipe-cleaner around the peg and that made the arms.
Then we chose some fabric for the clothes. To keep the clothes on we wrapped the string around the peg and the fabric. We tied the wool into a knot. Some people were very good at tying knots and other people learnt how to tie knots. We put some PVA glue on the head and struggled to glue the hair on.
N.L drew a helmet on his Darth Vader. It was quite fiddly to make but it was fun. we had some photos taken of our peg people.
We are proud of our efforts.

Flying our Kites

As part of our learning about toys, the children made fish kites and flew them in the school playground. We had loads of fun and we think our kites looked fantastic.

Making a Venn diagram about our favourite toys

In the slide show below the children worked on a Venn diagram to show which toys they liked.

Our Favourite Toys

These are some of the stories we have written about our favourite toys

My favourite toy is a dog. I got her from my Poppa's friend Montey. My toy's name is Milly. Molly has brown and black fur. I like sleeping with her. She squeaks when I squeeze her paw. She is a little toy and I got her when I was at my Nana and Poppa's house. IY

My favourite toy is a monster truck and I got it from K-Mart and it has a name. It is Jack. It looks like a car but it is a monster truck. It's as big as a digger. I push it to make it go. DL

My favourite toy is a dolphin. Its name is Disco and I love it. It is my favourite toy of all and I love it so much. RK

My toy's name is Rabbity. It is a rabbit. I got Rabbity for Christmas. I sleep with him. It looks like a rabbit. It has stripes and long ears and long legs and a cross on its tummy. MC

My favourite toy is my transformer. I got it for my birthday. It is cool. I like to play with it everyday. It is middlesize big. My Mum and Dad gave it to me. His name is Bumblebee and I like him the most at my house and everywhere. I sleep with him. AY

My favourite toy is a rabbit. Its name is Tia and it looks like a rabbit. It has brown fur and it looks cute. It sits at the end of my bed. My Mum and Dad got it for me. It is a medium size toy and I got it at Easter. RT

Welcome

Welcome to our new blog space. We are a Year 2 class of 26 children at Botany Downs Primary School in Howick, Auckland, New Zealand. There are 13 boys and 13 girls in our class and we all get on very well together.

This is our first try at blogging and we are looking forward to seeing ourselves and our work on our blog. We need permission from our parents for our work and photos to be shown.

Last week we celebrated 100 days at school. It was really fun as we had a popcorn party and made 100 days hats to wear. We also had a booklet of fun activities to do about 100. Our teacher says that she will put some photos of us celebrating 100 days on our blog.