Dear Parents- We need your comments

Dear Parents and Friends of 9SKn,
We are inviting you to make some comments on our blog. Getting comments is a great way to get feedback on a blog post and it also encourages students to continue their writing on the blog. It is a little scary
but sometimes in life we need to be challenged to enable us to grow. My first goal for this blog was 1000 page views, 100 visitors and for every student to have contributed to the blog. To celebrate this we had
cake- you will see the photos! All comments are sent to me via email to allow me to moderate them. If I don't know the person or they are not appropriate I delete them. I have put a link to my own blog on the blog roll so feel free to comment on that. There are also links to other class blogs with comments.

Here is a link to a How to comment doc.
https://docs.google.com/a/burnside.school.nz/document/d/1mHtNrBo8LiRZwbsGccLmhxkW0Cef0E2DHeRMq_RzoYw/edit


And here is a link to some great "How to" videos from a fantastic teacher in 
the United States whose class are super bloggers

http://yollisclassblog.blogspot.co.nz/p/video-how-to-comment.html 

http://educational-blogging.wikispaces.com/

Victorian Writers

A loose definition of Victorian literature is anything published during the time of Queen Victoria and her reign (1837-1901). Actual Victorians include the British writers who were living in  Britain during her reign, but the term has also been placed on writers from America and elsewhere in Europe. Victorian literature also creates a bridge between the Romantic and Dark-Romantic writings of the early 19th century, to the Progressive/Modern eras in America and the Edwardian eras of literature at the turn of the 20th century. 
(Image and information sourced from Information via this blog)

http://aliteraryodyssey.blogspot.co.nz/2012/06/list-of-victorian-writers-victorian.html

Who wrote these books?
a)Oliver Twist and Great Expectations
b)Jane Eyre
c)Treasure Island
d)The Jungle Book
e)Alice in Wonderland 
f)Sherlock Holmes

There is probably a prize for these answers 9SKn students.

Let them eat Cake!

These words were supposedly said by Marie Antoinette,about the starving French peasants. However at long last 9SKn were able to celebrate, 1000 page views, over 100 visitors and everyone posting on the class
blog.

We all enjoyed the cake!

Myth Busted
http://urbanlegends.about.com/od/dubiousquotes/a/antoinette.htm

Victorian Life and Society

We have been watching The Secret Garden, a movie based on a novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett, originally published in 1911, right at the end of the Victorian Era. We have been looking at Victorian Society and Literature, as well as comparing our lives to children who lived at that time.

Here are some interesting facts about this time. Click on the link below. ( link delayed for now)

The Secret Garden - A Classic Movie

The Secret Garden
Movie information:
Young British girl, Mary Lennox, born and raised in India loses her neglectful parents in an earthquake. She is returned to England to live at her uncle's home. Her uncle is very distant to her and her cousin, Colin, due to the loss of his wife ten years ago. Neglected once again, she begins exploring the estate and discovers a garden that has been locked. Aided by one of the servants' brothers, Dickon, she begins restoring the garden, and eventually discovers other secrets of the manor.
Our Review:
It was an interesting concept but moved a bit slowly at times. The Secret Garden is still an instant classic. Great performances from all the actors -especially Maggie Smith, who played Mrs Medlock. It’s a family friendly movie and even though it starts out sad and with darker themes of death, it ends up happy and with new life and joy.

Reviewed by Sameen and Cynthia

Gaming- What's it all about?

Want to know why Gaming is so popular? Here is some information about three popular games.(and we don't mean Rugby)

Minecraft

Link for video to be added later (sorry)

The SIMS

The Sims is a Pc/Mac game. It is also available on other devices.  It takes you into a virtual world that holds virtual people and animals. In the base game you have the choice of playing in the neighbourhood called Sunset Valley you also have the choice of playing in Riverview. You have the choice to either make new Sims or play an existing household.

There are ten soon to be eleven Expansion Packs to the game and nine soon to be ten Stuff Packs.

The expansion packs expand the game and stuff packs add more content to build with and furnish your houses.

The Expansion Packs are:

World Adventures, Ambitions, Late Night, Generations, Pets, Showtime, Super natural, Seasons, University Life, Island Paradise and Coming Soon: Into The Future.

Kate Sheppard - A Canterbury Heroine

(image created using Pic Collage)

Katherine Wilson Sheppard, also known as Kate, (10 March 1847 – 13 July 1934) was the most prominent member of New Zealand's women's suffrage (the movement to allow women to vote in New Zealand) movement, and is the country's most famous suffragette. She also appears on the NZ ten dollar note. Because New Zealand was the first country to introduce universal suffrage, Sheppard's work had a considerable impact on women's suffrage movements in other countries.

Born in Liverpool in 1847, Kate emigrated to Christchurch in her early twenties. In 1885 she joined the new Women’s Christian Temperance Union, which advocated women’s suffrage as a means to fight for liquor prohibition. For Kate, suffrage quickly became an end in itself. Speaking for a new generation, she argued, ‘We are tired of having a “sphere” doled out to us, and of being told that anything outside that sphere is “unwomanly”.’

Kate travelled the country, writing to newspapers, holding public meetings and lobbying members of Parliament. Opposition was fierce. As Wellington resident Henry Wright wrote, women were ‘recommended to go home, look after their children, cook their husbands’ dinners, empty the slops, and generally attend to the domestic affairs for which Nature designed them’; they should give up ‘meddling in masculine concerns of which they are profoundly ignorant’.