Class Two have been really pleased to be able to be involved in a project that started out in a school in New Zealand. This is the first time that they have posted their own mini movie. So well done everyone and I hope you enjoyed yourselves ... I wonder if you would like to stat your own project?

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We were excited to get this reply to our 'keepy-uppy' challenge and this effort steals it.

Well done Middleham School ... Can you do better?

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This episode was put together under the lead direction and technical editing of Libby and Nicole, all of the Soapbox team contributed masses. We are still struggling to get the 'greenscreen' spot on, we will think that through again ... we are very grateful to The Wensleydale Creamery for letting us film in their factory, really the cheese is lovely.

Episode 4 will be a competition entry, so we will be looking to do something a little different and trying to iron out some of the wrinkles. 

The team love your comments and suggestions and we appreciate you finding time to visit our post.

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It's been a great pleasure making SoapBox with the children at school. They are well on the way to completing episode three! 'Bloopers' is a short review of some of the moments that haven't gone quite right ... we've learnt and are learning a lot, and we laugh A LOT!

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The wonderful TINY school of Burravoe is such a forward thinking, outward reaching place. The Shetlands are located a way off the North East Scottish coast. To find out more about this fabulous school (and teacher) that have helped us so much with our blogging you can visit https://blogs.glowscotland.org.uk/sh/BurravoePrimarySchool/

One of the features of the island of Yell is their birdlife and this can be seen on these postcards that we received today and you can also see it in their children's class work.

birds_2.pdf Download this file

birds_3.pdf Download this file

birds_1.pdf Download this file

We are going to enjoy replying to these postcards. If you'd like to join in with some postcard swapping, please send a card to this address.

Hawes School, Town Head, Hawes, Wensleydale, North Yorkshire, England. DL8 3RQ

Mr E

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We have been folowing Chris and his partner Liz on their journey from New Zealand to England by bike. Some of the SoapBox team decided to use their new skills to do an interview.

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We are trying to get all the children to have a chance at receiving, writing and sending postcards. This little movie tries to capture some of their enthusiasm.

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We've been really overwhelmed by the wonderful comments we have received about Soapbox. We thought we would have a go at answering some of your questions by making a spontaneous iMovie, this is the result. If it seems to serve a purpose we might try to develop this post format, let us know what you think.

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Time flies and episode two arrives. The children have worked really hard on this episode. As always there is a lot more we have to learn, especially about lighting and blonde hair! We've enjoyed ourselves again and everyone worked well together. 

We are really hoping to get a lot of comments, so please enjoy our work and leave a comment if you have time. Don't miss Jack getting wet or Nicole setting the hula hoop challenge at twenty!

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This year children at Hawes School are trying to collect 100 postcards from around the world. Here are two postcards that arrived today from Canada and Switzerland. We are replying to each card we receive, we either try to answer questions that have been asked, or provide ideas for what our children think are healthy packed lunches. The postcards we get then get blown up on the colour photocopier and go on our postcard wall. I hope that all the children in our school (80) get the chance to write a card. It makes the morning post a bit more interesting! If you'd like to take part and help us reach our goal; send us a card at the following address: Hawes Primary School, Town Head, Hawes, Wensleydale, North Yorkshire. DL8 3RQ

See the full gallery on Posterous

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The year sixes (10 and 11 year olds) have been working really hard, quite often in their own time, to produce this first 'Soapbox' programme. we are all very excited and are already keen to get started on episode two, where we are hoping to make improvements all round. We all started with no knowledge of this type of work or technology and we think we have made loads of progress. 

None of this would have been possible without the initial ideas and genius of Stephen Baker's fantastic class at Russell street School (the digital school), New Zealand. Their award winning series 'Street Talk' http://streettalk.edublogs.org/  is the inspiration upon which we build. However we only had one borrowed MacBook between us, this didn't matter in the end because the whole team of students are absolutely magnificent in every way possible and it's a privilege to work with them.

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We have been delighted to have been involved in ‘The Postcard Project’. That was set up by Sarah Leakey last year. In 2011 we received around 40 postcards and in 2012 we are hoping to receive 100! We were pleased to get one from North Carolina this week. We are asking visitors to our blog, to send us a postcard and on that card write down your idea of a 'perfect' HEALTHY packed lunch. 

In return we will send you one of our packedlunch ideas, on a postcard, for a perfect packed lunch for you to try. We will post all the cards and ideas we receive on our blog.Please be sure to give details; for example if you want a sandwich ... what type of bread and filling do you want? If you want a biscuit (cookie) what type... Don’t forget a healthy drink!

Our school is right next to the Wensleydale Cheese Creamery … manufacturers of the cheese that Wallace and Gromit love best. Perhaps your area has a special food as well?

If you print your address in small print and your blog address and then stick it on the bottom of your postcard it’s easier to get our reply addressed and posted, to you correctly. All postcards received will be replied to.

Our address is: Hawes CP School, Town Head, Hawes, Wensleydale, North Yorkshire, England. DL8 3RQ

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We wanted to share just a few Christmas photos with you.

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We wanted to share just a little snippet from our 4 and 5 year old's Christmas nativity. This is actually a clip from the dress rehersal. The performance is called Prickly Hay A Nativity Hoedown and is by Mary Cliff and Kelly Fort www.outoftheark.com 

We have all enjoyed the children practising their play and parents have said that they are already familiar with all of the songs! 

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The children in Class 3 have enjoyed making calendars and Christmas mobiles. Here is a little gallery of their work.

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We couldn't do PE today, as the hall was full of trees and stage blocks! So we decided to share some of the nuresry rhymes we now know. The rough and ready nature of the presentation is entirely my fault. We hope you just enjoy the honest enthusiasm we bring to the piece. Personally I love 'Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star'. Before the cock crows three times I hope to have a video of Away in the Manger'. 

Mr E

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What delightful children we are privileged to work with. They are full to bursting with seasonal excitement! We will post some more videos over thenext couple of days.

This is some of the children in Class One thinking about Santa.

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The delightful chaps in class three have been thinking about 'children's rights' and 'responsibilities'. The whole area of representing your own point of view and listening to the views of others interests us. We have started to develop a format called 'Soapbox'. A theme is chosen for discussion, e.g. "are school uniforms a good thing?"

There are three members of the panel, in 'the studio' and people come up to the 'phone chair' to share their viewpoint. We will be looking at some of these clips and we will discuss how to improve them (you can see these at http://hawesps3.posterous.com/developing-soapbox ). If we can't come up with at least ten ideas then perhaps we need to head back to pen and paper. Later in the year we would like to take part in a debate, with a topical theme, with some local schools. 

This item has been posted because everyone enjoyed the way that the two main performers worked with each other and we laughed a lot. Alfie really couldn't get his mind around wearing a 'posh' tie and Nicole ended up being the lady of the manor! Well done both of you.

Mr E

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It is time again for the  Edublog Awards. I read a lot of blogs and I thank everyone for taking the time to share their thoughts and resources with us. I would like to nominate 'The Class with a View' for Best New Blog and Best Class Blog www.middlehampri2.posterous.com 

It's such hard work being a teacher and as a class new to blogging I think they consistently excel and are getting better. Well done Mrs Monaghan and Middleham School. You make our school lives much richer.

To find out more about these awards please go to http://edublogawards.com/about-the-edublog-awards/ 

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It doesn't always go right the first time...

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