Friday Fun

Here I am, trying again to keep the Friday Fun posts happening. I think the trick is to write it as we work through the week. A little each night is much more manageable than a big chunk at the end of the week when I would really prefer to be relaxing with my husband, enjoying take-away Indian food and a glass of Shiraz!

Our Inquiry

As well as continuing our work on reconciliation this week, we have jumped further back in time to learn about Indigenous Australian lifestyle prior to European settlement.

On Monday and Tuesday I worked with each group on their reconciliation plan and helped them to do some fine-tuning. One great thing about using the Explain Everything app, was that it was fairly easy to edit and make adjustments - changing pictures which perhaps weren't as effective, re-wording phrases where inaccurate information was being shared.

Through the students' work I was able to see some common misunderstandings and correct these during class discussion. Some things that needed clarifying were: that the stolen generations were taken long ago and are now parents and grandparents, and that Indigenous Australians don't want our pity - but rather our acknowledgement of the past and a commitment to an improved future together. On the weekend I had found out about an Aboriginal health service in our local area, so we have tailored our fundraising proposal to that end.

In the afternoons we watched the "before time" episodes of My Place Series 2. Students took notes on the first day, recording facts and questions under the headings - "The video showed" and "It made me wonder". Part way through viewing, we paused the video for students to discuss what they had seen and wondered so far. We encouraged students to think about Aboriginal lifestyle prior to European settlement (food, clothing, shelter, customs, environment) rather than focus on the plot of the story. Students then worked in teams of four to create a mind map with the Inspiration iPad app. The My Place Website is a great follow on from the videos.

Here is a picture of my mind map:

As part of our 30 Days of Drawing project (not consecutive days for us - more like one a week!) students took the statements about the connection to the land from Idjhil by Helen Bell and illustrated what one of the statements meant to them. The quality of student images was very impressive.

We also discussed the central idea of our inquiry unit: Indigenous cultures change over time. We thought of other words that could be used in place of the words in this idea. Students then used Socrative on the iPads to log how they would phrase the inquiry in their own words.
This was a quick and easy way to compile our ideas in one document, print and display. It was my second time with Socrative after a miserable failure last time. This time we ensured we were all connected to the internet before starting the app.

Maths

In our Maths lessons at the start of the week, we worked on the four times tables. We looked at the strategy "double, double again" and students practised applying this method. We practised with the Tables Toons on Mathletics along with a dice rolling game and a card game.

For the dice game, students simply rolled the dice and multiplied by 4 (doubling, doubling again if they couldn't recall the answer immediately).

For the card game, they played in pairs with a standard deck of cards (K, Q, J = 10, A=1, Jokers removed). The first student shuffled the cards and fanned them out for the second student to select one. The second student multiplied the number by 4 and gave the answer. The first student then tried to work out the card number by dividing by 4. This game helps students to see the connection between multiplication and division and assists with recall of facts.

I encouraged students to use these games at home to practise their tables.

Students also explored fractions using resources on Scootle, as well as iPads. In one of our sessions they used Notability to compare fraction sizes. In another session they worked with fractions of a group and used Explain Everything to record their thinking. These lessons will be explained in greater detail for Tech Tips in upcoming weeks.

Literacy

Students have been working on stories that they planned and began writing earlier in the term. We are trying to see these through to publication as books to put on our shelves. It is taking quite some time for students to complete the whole process, and we have had many interruptions.

We also read some Dreaming stories and students used post-it notes to jot down their thoughts on the following questions:

What are Dreaming stories?

What are their features and purpose?

Who is the audience?

We discussed these ideas and they were compiled into one document.


We've had another great week, full of new learning and challenges. Next week we head off on our school camp - hoping for warm weather and no rain!

New Gold Mountain #3

Unfortunately, I found it too difficult to keep up with regular posts about our unit on the book "New Gold Mountain" by Christopher W. Cheng. Instead, I am offering some suggestions for the activities that I found useful. Please also check New Gold Mountain #1 and New Gold Mountain #2 for earlier posts.

Learn to play Fan Tan - The Chinese miners regularly played Fan Tan, a card game, and often gambled away their new-found wealth. We had a few games and came to realise how noisy the game could be and how easily it could lead to frustration and arguments - especially if money was involved!

Letters back to China - In the book one of the characters writes a letter back to his village in China. He doesn't tell the truth about his situation given that he has gambled away all his gold playing Fan Tan! Students wrote two letters back to China: one painting a rosy picture of the situation, and one giving a more honest account.

Character Comparison - As a class we made a Venn Diagram to illustrate the similarities and differences between Rowan (of Rin) and Shu Cheong. Students became really engaged in this activity and sought out lots of great examples of similarities. When we had finished brainstorming, students wrote the comparison in essay form. I gave them an introductory paragraph and then helped them to work through a structure for following paragraphs. We thought of some useful phrases for beginning paragraphs: 'An important similarity is...' 'Yet another similarity is...' 'Both Rowan and Shu Cheong...' We also thought of some comparison connectives (I'm sure they have a proper name) like 'whereas', 'while', 'however', 'although', 'but', 'and', 'whilst'.

Historical Diary - I already mentioned that students created a diary entry from the perspective of a convict. Later in the unit we repeated this activity with students writing from the perspective of an explorer of their choice. I borrowed a huge pile of non-fiction texts about explorers from the library. Students were given about 30 minutes to research their explorer and take some notes. They then moved into small groups focused on the same explorer to share the knowledge they had uncovered. After this sharing time students went back to working independently and created their diary entries. They were given more time to work on this in future lessons.

Final Weeks - In the final weeks I wanted to give students a chance to take charge of their learning and self-manage their tasks. Students needed to complete the reading of the text and review, edit and publish one of their written pieces from the term so that we could compile them into a class book. Students responded well to this and most completed both tasks by the due date.


Thoughts on the unit...
This was a great book to use as part of our study of Australian History as it helped students to consider the non-European perspective. It provided us with an opportunity to discuss racism and to form arguments against racism.
I enjoyed introducing students to historical fiction and found the diary format an easy way for students to dabble with writing historical fiction for themselves.

Friday Fun - 26/6/09

We've nearly come to the end of term (thank goodness). The reports were fine-tuned this week, and I finally feel like I'm getting on top of things again. I even managed to clean my desk and file papers this afternoon! I don't feel I did a lot of teaching this week, with all the extra bits and pieces I was released for, but it was still a really great week.

Fun This Week
Term 2 Performance
This term while our Fife and Drum students were learning to play Australian songs, the remainder of the group learnt how to perform short plays. The plays we selected were from the book 12 Fabulously Funny Fairy Tale Plays and were the traditional fairy tale stories with a twist. Students were placed in their groups early in the term and had a chance to play a few of the roles in the beginning weeks. Groups then selected the best people for the roles and began rehearsing. Students were responsible for designing their own costumes (using things they already had) and bringing in any props they wanted to use. Mr Tucker organised the making and painting of our backdrop by some of our students. Students were encouraged to memorise their lines unless in the role of narrator. They did a really great job with their performances and it was another fun opportunity to invite parents in to see what they've been working on. We're playing with the idea of dancing next term...

Goodbye Captain Lister
Captain Lister had his final day with us and taught us all about bushrangers in Australia's history. He focused in particular on Ned Kelly and Ben Hall and the people in their gangs. Even the teachers got to act out the roles this time. Mr Tucker willingly took on the role of Ned Kelly. It has been absolutely amazing to have Captain Lister join us each week and we have been very fortunate to learn from his expertise.

Problem Solving with Money
This week in our Maths lessons we focused on a range of problem solving activities involving money. We pulled out the calculators to help us work things out, and it came to my attention that there is still so much that needs to be understood when using calculators. On the first day we were working out the comparative prices of cans of soft drink when bought in multi-packs. Students were able to type in the numbers and operation, but weren't sure what to do with the answer. Many assumed they had got it wrong when a long decimal answer came up. It was a great opportunity to discuss how decimals relate to money. On the second day we used canteen menus from the school canteen and students created their own multiplication problems for others to solve. They then used the "stand up, hand up, pair up, share, trade" method for mingling and working through a number of problems.

Planning Day
Mr Tucker and I were given Thursday as a planning day to determine the things we plan to achieve next term. It was a very productive day for us - we developed a basic plan for all areas of the curriculum and planned out the Integrated Inquiry in detail. We are particularly looking forward to: getting creative with Textiles & Design projects, getting some dance happening, and training the kids up to play Touch Football at a Gala Day (if it's still on this year). While we were busy planning, the kids got to do some fun, new things with the teachers who took our classes.

Peer Support
In all classes across the school this week, students completed a survey about their experiences of bullying at our school. Today, during the peer support session, students watched and discussed the movie A Bug's Life under the guidance of their peer support leaders, while teachers tallied the results from the survey. It will be interesting to see the results of the whole school when they have been compiled.

Friday Fun - 12/6/09

With a public holiday on Monday and weather so cold you can barely think, the past week seems to have whooshed past on a gust of wind. We've had VERY cold weather - unless it warms up overnight, today will be the coldest June day in 43 years! It turns out that I get particularly grumpy when I'm cold - and it doesn't help that I'm feeling a bit stressed by the deadlines I have over the next week. My motivation is low. That said, this week was fairly ordinary, and we tried to catch up on work that had been started but not completed.

Captain Lister
This week Captain Lister visited to teach us about life in the new colony - looking more into the lives of convicts, officers, governors and free settlers. Lots of students got the chance to dress up in costumes and we all sang along to a song about Moreton Bay. Some students were very excited to learn about the Rum Rebellion, so Captain Lister included a special addition just for them.

Timeline
Students brainstormed events in Australia's history that we've learnt about so far this term. We wrote the dates next to the events and then discussed how to create a timeline to scale. This was a tricky concept that students struggled with a bit, despite having seen timelines on a number of occassions. It is something we will need to work on further.

Digital Projects
As the deadline for completion of digital projects was last week, I uploaded the completed ones to our My Classes page. While students ate their lunches we assessed the projects by group vote. We viewed/listened to the projects on the interactive whiteboard and then flicked over to the rubric we agreed on at the beginning of the project. Students voted with their hands as I slid my finger along the rubric continuum. After we've graded them all, I'd like students to have an opportunity to comment on why they chose the mode (PowerPoint presentation, audio file, Museum Box) they did and their reflections on its effectiveness. I'll also give them an opportunity to challenge the grade they were given by the group.

Maths
In Maths this week my group worked with flipping, sliding and turning 2D shapes. Students really enjoyed the activities with cutting and pasting shapes to demonstrate flip, slide, turn and also drawing and colouring the alternate versions of different shapes. One thing they need to learn this term is how to define flip, slide and turn, so I made up a little hand action with sayings for them to learn to help them remember. You can see the video of it below:


Exploring Resources with My Classes
I have been uploading resources to our My Classes "Australian History" page. There are a couple of great resources available to us through The Learning Federation, that allow students to experience life on the goldfields through a similation. They got hooked quite quickly and I imagine there will be a few who will check it out again over the weekend.

Skipping (or Jumping Rope)
In a few weeks time we will be having a "Jump Off" to raise money for the Heart Foundation. Students have been able to purchase individual or long ropes from the Heart Foundation so that they can practise skipping. Apart from all the accidental whipping students have copped from walking too close to a swinging rope, it has been a great way for students to keep warm during their recess and lunch break. I even bought one for myself today as I had playground duty and needed a way to keep warm! Students were astonished to see me skipping across the playground while I did my duty.

Like what you read here? Why not read some more Friday Fun posts.

New Gold Mountain #2

This week my literacy class continued reading New Gold Mountain: The Diary of Shu Cheong by Christopher W. Cheng. This is an historical fiction which is part of the "My Australian Story" series. It tells the story of life on the goldfields at Lambing Flat, NSW in 1860-1861. Shu Cheong, a fictitious character travels to Australia to find gold to take back to his village. On the journey both his father and third uncle die, leaving Shu Cheong alone in a foreign country. The local Chinese Society arrange a foster parent (Uncle) for Shu Cheong.
Details of pages 1-30

Summary of Pages 30-70
In these pages we learn more about life on the goldfields and see an increase in the tension between the European and Chinese miners. After a confrontation with one of the Chinese miners who was mining in an abandoned European mine, the European miners drive the Chinese out and they are stranded in the bush, surviving on what plants and bugs they can find. On their return to the goldfields they need to purchase new tools and get themselves set up again. Life continues as normal until again they are forced from their tents.

Activities
Reading: The reading part of this unit is done in a variety of ways: teacher reading to the class, students reading to the class, students reading in pairs or independently. While students are reading, I sit alongside them and ask questions and/or make anecdotal notes about fluency/expression/self-correction etc.

Code Breaker: Continue to build the vocabulary chart and discuss new words as they are encountered in the text.

Text User: Consider first-person perspective in historical fiction. Students work in teams to collect information about convicts and their lives from books (20mins). Students sit in a big circle. Each contributes one fact they learnt from their research so that everyone can benefit from their knowledge. Students then begin writing a diary entry from the perspective of a convict.

Text Participant: Students write their names using Chinese script (see lesson here).

Text Analyst: Students discuss the bullying of the Chinese and consider how it would feel to be in their position. Students share own experiences of being burgled. Explain the difference that having insurance makes - in those days they lost everything and had to start from scratch (15 mins). Students then read factual recounts of the treatment of the Chinese on the goldfields. They highlight relevant passages and share this with the class in a discussion (25 mins). Students then work independently to write speeches from the perspective of a Chinese miner or European miner trying to convince the other European miners to stop harrassing the Chinese. Use Jenny Eather's Writing Fun page on Persuasive writing as a guide. On completion, students who wish to can present their speech to the class. (We recorded these with the Flip Mino to share on our My Classes page).
From a Quality Teaching Model perspective, this lesson was great for developing deep knowledge and deep understanding, using higher order thinking, allowing for substantive communication, and improving problematic knowledge through seeing things from the various perspectives.

Friday Fun - 5/6/09

This week Miss Eschauzier was teaching relief classes across the school, so I was back on board again. It was nice to be back again, but tiring at the same time. It's crazy how quickly you get out of the habit!

Fun This Week

Captain Lister Takes Us Back in Time
This week Captain Lister took us back to 1787 and the journey of the First Fleet. He explained how the Industrial Age influenced the lives of people, with machines taking over many people's jobs and people turning to crime in order to survive. He explained about the use of hulks on the River Thames to house the many criminals and Britain's need for a new place to send convicts as a result of the US War of Independence. Captain Lister went on to describe the journey and created discussion around the statistics of people aboard the First Fleet at the beginning and at the end. We finished with the arrival at Botany Bay and the significance of Australia Day.

Sketching the Golden Grove
On Monday afternoon Mr Tucker taught students about the ships of the First Fleet and worked with students to sketch the Golden Grove. He put the image up on the interactive whiteboard so that students could see it clearly to sketch it. You can see it, and the other ships of the First Fleet at the website of the First Fleet Fellowship.

Rounding Numbers
This week my class learnt how to round numbers to the nearest hundred. We used pretend cash register print-outs and students rounded dollar amounts in order to make an estimate. They then used calculators to find out the actual total and to work out the difference between the actual total and their estimate. We also spent some time doubling and halving numbers and students worked with a partner and a mini whiteboard to select numbers and double or halve them. Students who wanted a challenge chose two-digit numbers with each digit odd.

Frisbee Golf
Having played frisbee golf on camp, we set up a quick course for PE this week and students played in small teams. Not everyone got a turn this week because we had a lot of rain, but we hope to get back to it next week.

Indigenous People Group Projects
Students worked to finish their projects this week. As always when working digitally, there were issues with files being overwritten, people wanting to record audio at the last minute, photos with no credit given etc but I'm looking forward to taking a closer look at them and giving students opportunities to explore each others' work.

Fabulously Funny Fairytale Plays
This term students who are not part of the Fife and Drum Band have been learning and preparing plays. This week they worked on memorising their lines and organising themselves on a stage-sized space. We talked with each group about the props and costumes they will need.

Farewell Miss Eschauzier
Today was Miss Eschauzier's last day at our school, so we had a party to send her off. She has worked really hard with the students and has taught them a lot during her internship. They have become very fond of her and will miss her greatly. A couple of students put together a movie with photos and videos for Miss Eschauzier to take with her to remember her time with us. Other students created cards and brought small gifts. Students had the opportunity to tell Miss Eschauzier what they learnt from her and what they enjoyed about her. We then shared party food. We hope she comes back for a visit soon!

This week we my Literacy class read more of New Gold Mountain. You can read about it here.

Friday Fun - 22/5/09

Wow! What a whirlwind week! This week was jam packed with all sorts of fun learning and not much in the way of sitting in the classroom.

Camp
On Tuesday and Wednesday we had our Year 4 camp which was a lot of fun. I even had a go at the archery and took on the instructor. Students picked who they wanted to back. (I won!) You can watch the video below. On their return to school, students used Debono's Six Thinking Hats to reflect on their experiences.



Time Travel in Australia's History
On Monday we had the first in a series of visits from "Captain Lister" who is taking us back in time to learn about Australia's history from colonisation through to 1900. Students powered the time machine, with static electricity, by rubbing their heads. The multimedia presentation showed us going back in time... before High School Musical...before iPods...before computers...before telephones...etcThis week Captain Lister took us back to 1770, when Captain James Cook explored and mapped much of the eastern coast of Australia. Students got dressed up in costumes as Captain Cook, botanist Joseph Banks and William Hicks. They learnt about this journey and life aboard a ship.
Joseph Banks had a go at drawing a kangaroo and we saw a copy of the original picture he drew. We then hopped back into the time machine and returned to the current day.

Lucky Phewa - Zulu Celebration
Lucky Phewa, a performer from Durban in South Africa engaged students with his "Zulu Celebration". Students really enjoyed the music he shared with them and had the music bug for the rest of the day. They really got a great feel for the rhythm.

A New Song
Mr Tucker taught us all a new song called Down River by the Wilcannia Mob. This Australian hip hop song was created and recorded by five boys aged 8-12 in 2002. The boys share their own story through rap and the backing sounds of the digeridoo. You can find out more about their project at Down River.

Australian History Projects
Students have been continuing with their work on the culture and lifestyle of different Aboriginal clans prior to colonisation. We had some more time to work on the computers for research and publication. Many students are creating PowerPoint presentations...
Some are creating Museum Boxes...And others are recording audio files with the Snowball...We are trying to get as many opportunities to use the computers as possible in order to complete these projects. Students are learning a lot about ICT as they use it for real purposes in connection with their classroom learning.

Friday Fun - 15/5/09

It has been a great week - productive with a sprinkle of fun. I've been feeling good as I've been getting back into my morning run which seems to do wonders for managing stress! Miss Eschauzier and I did a lot of team teaching throughout the week which meant we could do more targeted teaching.

Story Writing
This week students in my literacy group worked with Miss Eschauzier to determine features of quality writing. In small groups, they read books that have been nominated for awards over the years and considered elements of characterisation, plot, and language. As a class, they then put together a Kidspiration mind map to organise their ideas. Students then did a self-evaluation of their own writing and considered areas to work on further.Miss Eschauzier introduced a planning tool we developed for writing stories. Students used this for planning new stories.
Indigenous Australians Project Groups
On Monday students decided who they would like to share a cabin with at camp. We rearranged the desks in the classrooms so that they could sit in these groups during our Integrated Inquiry lessons to work on a project together. The task is for students to research the history, culture and traditions of Aboriginal Australians from a particular region and present the information digitally (audio, video, PowerPoint Presentation, Museum Box or other as negotiated). These digital products will then be stored on our My Classes page so that students can explore the work of their peers and reflect on the similarities and differences between the regions.

As a group we created a rubric that will be used to grade students. I provided some books that I borrowed from the local library and we arranged for some extra sessions in the computer lab. Students have made a great start to the task and are learning a lot about how to research in the process. We taught students where and how to look for information that is useful and relevant. We also explained about the copyright licensing surrounding online images and showed students how to find pictures they can use and how to give appropriate attribution.

Fractions and Decimals
In Maths this week we explored Fractions and Decimals using a video and one of the manipulatives on Math Playground. Students completed drills adding and subtracting fractions with the same denominator using worksheets from Math Drills. We also used MAB blocks to represent decimals and played with a range of fractions games and activities.

Peer Support
Our Year 5/6 students have been leading mixed-aged groups through activities to explore issues around bullying. These lessons are supplemented by lessons in home classes in alternate weeks. This week we discussed issues around bullying and students made this Y chart about how bullying looks, sounds and feels:
For more Friday Fun, click here.

Tech Tips Tuesday

How can you fit a Museum in a box?

Thomas Clarkson did it, and so can you... with Museum Box. I have been itching to use this ever since I found it, but wanted a REAL reason. Finally, I've found it, and Museum Box seems to be the best tool for the task. No need to cart home projects written on big sheets of cardboard - this one can have text, pictures, videos, audio files and links, and it sits on the web ready for viewing whenever.

This is an online tool for collating information in categories and sharing it with others. My students have the option of using it for presenting information about Indigenous People Groups from around Australia. Students are researching these groups with books from the local library and relevant websites we've found online. In small groups they will pull together the information they've found and create cubes in their museum boxes.

I'm going to give them the option again later in the term when students investigate individuals who had a significant impact on Australia's history prior to 1900. I'm looking forward to seeing how they play with this tool creatively to present the information that they find.

Have you tried Museum Box?

What's the Deal with Australia Day?

We all have a bit of a laugh when we see this ad on television, but there is an element of confusion, and even a little embarrassment when it comes to Australia Day.
The 26th January 1788 marked the arrival of The First Fleet of British convicts to the shores of Australia and the beginning of European settlement. Prior to this day, Australian Indigenous people lived in 250 communities or nations each with their own language. For many Indigenous Australians, Australia Day is more rightly described as "Invasion Day". Australia has had a less than admirable history in terms of the treatment of Australian indigenous peoples. On the 12th February 2008, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd made a formal apology to Indigenous Australians on behalf of the Federal Government.

So what has Australia Day come to represent?

Australia Day is a public holiday in Australia. Around the country many new Australians are welcomed in at Citizenship Ceremonies. Notable Australians are recognised for their efforts and achievements with Australian of the Year awards. Special events are held in the capital cities including fireworks, concerts, fun runs/walks, and parades. For full details and a cool video about what Australia Day is about go to the official Australia Day website. And of course, as mentioned in the ad, it's a day for watching the cricket or tennis!

UPDATE: 2009 Australian of the Year, Professor Mick Dodson, has requested a national debate about a change of date for Australia Day. Read more here.

The Year To Come - 2009

I am excited at the prospect of a new year and have already been busy thinking, dreaming and planning what 2009 will hold.

At school I will be teaching year 4 with a male teacher who I've worked well with in the past. Our Integrated Inquiry units will include the topics:

Personal Relationships - including a novel study of "Rowan of Rin" by Emily Rodda, nature conservation at a local ridge, and hopefully the development of a class blog. Through this unit students will learn about building and maintaining positive relationships; and roles and responsibilities within a community.

Australian History - including a focus on Aboriginal history prior to British colonisation and then the different challenges faced by settlers up until the time of federation. Through this unit I would like to see students developing timelines with Dipity and trying out video casts to explain Australian history.

Textiles and Design - looking at fabrics and their uses, exploring different techniques with textiles, and creating their own designs to suit a particular purpose. I would like to see children working in team project groups to liaise with others, determine needs and wants, and produce products to meet communicated needs eg. costumes for school dance performance, craft items for school fete and commemorative t-shirt for year co-hort.

The Solar System - including an understanding of apparent size/distance, gravitational pull, current information from space exploration and the causes of changes to the surface of the Earth or atmosphere. There are numerous interesting and useful websites to support this unit of work.

At school I will also be working on our Student Enrichment Policy - trying to link up, document and promote all the great things the school does to enrich student learning and growth. I am excited by this prospect because I really do feel the school does this so well.
I've also expressed an interest in helping the school find and purchase a class set of laptop computers. Given that we now have wireless internet access, I can't wait to get the students started on laptops!

In my 'computer world', I hope to connect more with my personal learning network - testing out my webcam and exploring "Flash Meetings". I want to do some more podcasting, for Link 4 Learning, but also consider its future direction. I've recently taken on a Blog Carnival, so hopefully will be able to maintain this throughout the year (the first edition will be out on Jan 7). I'm keen to get my Delicious accounts working for me even more than they are currently. And, I'm sure I'll be surprised by a number of other opportunities that will pop up.

On the home front, there will probably be renovations, and hopefully a 30th Birthday overseas trip for my husband. He wants to see the Northern Lights and also drive on the German Autobahn. With all of this, it will come down to how much we can save up and what we decide to prioritize! Speaking of prioritizing, I'd like to get back into my running - probably early morning, or home from work in the afternoons.

All in all, it's looking like a great year.