How did the swapping of mail with another class add value to the GNZW experience? The kids absolutely loved seeing the hard work others put into the work and seeing the different responses.

“It was a great experience for the class. We had an awesome time looking at words and building up our word banks. My only advice would be that this year seemed less personal for the past years. A little bit about the classes would have been cool to see”

Helpful Report

Posted 6 years ago

How did the swapping of mail with another class add value to the GNZW experience? The children were eager to receive their courier package and excited to read the responses from our Buddy school. Some of the responses from the school in the North Island were identical ... quite a co incidence!

“This is the 3rd year I have had my class participate in Get NZ Writing. The children love being involved and it is always exciting receiving a COOL box of resources. This years little tin of treasures was such a FUN idea ... mmm.... even if the teddy bear is now missing one arm!!”

Helpful Report

Posted 6 years ago

How did the swapping of mail with another class add value to the GNZW experience? The kids were super excited about receiving a package back from another school. We loved comparing their poems to ours and looking for someone who wrote about the same item.

“The kids loved it, very worthwhile. It is a very busy time of the year in our school (Summer Term) so I feel like I will repeat some of the activities later in the year to fully give them justice. The kids loved the items, enjoyed finding anagrams and love the term 'Sticky words'. It's the first time I've participated and I will again. Thank you very much for everything!”

Helpful Report

Posted 6 years ago

How did the swapping of mail with another class add value to the GNZW experience? It was motivating for my class that another class somewhere in NZ would be the audience for their writing - even more motivational when we worked out that it was a Christchurch class.

“I always love engaging my classes with these writing kits. This one was a bit hard for us. My Yr 4s were generally fine with it, but most of my Year 3s really struggled, as most of them are Level One writers. Because of this, and a small class size (not complaining!), we had trouble completing all the postcards. Despite that, the kids enjoyed it, we gained new writing skills (eg. re-arranging ideas for effect) and we had fun debating which of our ideas and opinions would make it onto the class poem poster.”

Helpful Report

Posted 6 years ago

How did the swapping of mail with another class add value to the GNZW experience? Real life writing experiences learning new words collaboration

“My learners had a fantastic time exploring sticky words and coming up with interesting ways to describe colours and objects. My only feed forward would be to make the letters on the postcards darker as some of my learners coloured in the shaded blue parts and it made the poster as a whole harder to read.”

Helpful Report

Posted 6 years ago

How did the swapping of mail with another class add value to the GNZW experience? We spent a lot of time creating our mail and making it exciting. We weren't impressed with the depth of language coming from our other class. It was very simple for a year 5/6 class.

“It was great to get the kit with all the bits in it. The poetry activity was extremely confusing for the kids even tho' we followed the process. It took up way more time than we thought even tho' we left some of the steps. Last year's was much easier using one language feature rather than an abstract poem. We got there in the end and delivered our parcel. More information about what the activity is before we sign up would help in future... it's a great way to start the writing year.”

Helpful Report

Posted 6 years ago

How did the swapping of mail with another class add value to the GNZW experience? Essential. Gives purpose and authenticity especially to the class poster. My children are eagerly awaiting their parcel, which they don’t know arrived today, but as I was in the office for the day and not in class, they have to wait for tomorrow. I can’t

“Loved it. Found the poem format really great once you went through the process once. The objects in the tin were exciting and well thought out. We are now collecting other things to put in the tin as some kids love writing the poems so much. Found putting the postcard poster together challenging because of the font used, trying to recognise parts of letters was difficult because they didn’t look like standard letters, but we got there with a bit of help, thankfully I knew what it should say so could give them a starter. The class poem was as always lots of fun. The variety of things to research and survey the class on was spot on. Time frame was great, biggest challenge is always the teacher getting their head around it, but your guides and tips are great. I have done it for 3 years now I think, and will be until you stop doing them (which I hope never happens).”

Helpful Report

Posted 6 years ago

How did the swapping of mail with another class add value to the GNZW experience? Giving children an authentic audience to write to, prompted engagement. Recieving the buddy schools package was exciting.

“At first the content of the kit requirments were quite difficult to understand. But after reading the guide a few times it became clearer. While challenging it was very rewarding once complete. Thank you, I will try and sign up next year and look forward to the next kit.”

Helpful Report

Posted 6 years ago

Get NZ Writing 19 Reviews