Using language, symbols, and texts resources

Students read a short extract on diving and answer five comprehension questions.

This transactional writing resource requires students to express their views about organ donation.

Students identify and give rules for when numbers are divisible by three or by nine.

Students create a vignette with a focus on writing pieces that are brief, descriptive, and set in one point in time. They should not be concerned with plot. As the emphasis is on quality rather than quantity, students need to show a controlled and elegant skill in writing and use figurative language to 'show' rather than 'tell'.

Students complete a cloze passage with 26 blanks about a boy stuck between some steps. A scoring guide with replacement words/synonyms and guidelines for interpretation are included.

Students select the answer for two subtraction problems, select which one they thought was easier, and explain their reasons for this.

This comprehension task assesses student ability to identify important information and establish the main idea of a narrative text. The text describes a person's experience of war and their learnings from it. SJ-2-1-2006. Text provided.

Students produce a simple written description, using nouns and adjectives with some precision.

Task: Describe what happens to ice in a glass of water, giving reasons, and explain where water forming on the outside of the glass comes from. Assessment focus: changes of state.

Students read a recount about New Zealanders travelling in Africa, then answer retrieval and inference questions. The text is provided.

Task: Use a Venn diagram to interpret a food web based on the vegetable garden. Assessment focus: using diagrams to identify relationships between organisms; using systems thinking to describe these relationships.

Students identify the changes of state that are occurring in a diagram showing the separation of fresh water from seawater.

Students first do the science activity Throwing Balloons 2 (PW2548) where they predict, observe, and explain what will happen when a balloon containing another balloon filled with water is thrown. Then the students do this writing task where they describe the balloon and what happened when it was thrown, and explain why they think it moved the way it did. Six annotated exemplars of student scripts (writing) are included under the "Working with Students" tab.

Students compare two fractions, find the larger fraction and show or explain their reasoning.

Students read an article about Tuatara to be able to fill in a chart with specific information. SJ-1-3-1998. Text provided.

Students use doubling and halving to solve a number of multiplication problems.

Students select the correct statement that matches a given graph.

Students read a poster on sand dunes to answer retrieval and inferential questions.

Students read opinions written by four different students and make inferences to answer comprehension questions.

Students read the letters written by four different people and identify the main idea of each letter.

Students will identify and use nouns, adjectives, and verbs to write a poem that follows the same structure as given in two examples.

Students are required to identify and interpret the metaphors in two short poems.

Task: Students apply both their knowledge of the functions of roots and information from a model to explain why care is needed when transplanting trees. Assessment focus: interpreting diagrams.

Students compare fractions, identify which is larger, and explain or show their reasoning.

This task requires students to show how to calculate multiplication problems with multi-digit numbers.