Friday Fun

Hooray for week 2!

I had a not so happy start to the week, with particularly bad Monday blues (but on Tuesday as I don't work on Monday)! I had to keep checking the mirror to make sure that I didn't have a "MESS WITH ME" sticker on my forehead! I'm very happy to say that things picked up in the days that followed.

We also had our parent information night which always throws me out of my comfort zone, but also allows me to make initial contact with parents. It went really well and opened the door to start sending email as a communication tool. Since then I've done a lot of emailing which has been well received.

Cinquain poems
For Valentine's Day students wrote poems about someone special to them. We used the structure for a cinquain poem. We introduced the structure, gave some of examples and then walked through writing the poem line by line. We edited the poems and then students wrote and decorated a good copy for their someone special.

Crazy Creatures
We led a brainstorm of animals with students contributing ideas. Students then combined elements from three of these animals to create and draw a new animal - similar to those created by Graeme Base in Uno's Garden. Students are now in the process of writing a cinquain poem about their crazy creature.

Buddy Maths
For one of our lessons this week, students paired up with a buddy to complete a worksheet from the Mathletics resources. It worked brilliantly as a cooperation challenge, especially once students reached the second page.
On the first page, students filled in missing 2-digit numbers in forward and backward number sequences. They then used clues to determine a mystery number. We had done something similar early in the week when students chose a mystery number and then asked each other yes/no questions to work out the answer. We also did some work around covering up a mystery number on a hundred grid.
On the second page students used a hundred grid (on the interactive white board) to solve complex mystery number problems. Few students were able to find the answers, but it was great to see the way they worked together, and to hear their discussion. At the end of the session we went through the problems together so students could see how the answers could be found.

Quick games
We had a couple of times through the week when the kids had worked really hard and we were all exhausted but still had about 20 minutes until the next scheduled break. On these occasions we grabbed our hats and ducked outside for a game. We played Jam Drops, Toilet Flush Tips, and Golden Child. These worked well in the allotted time.

Selby's Selection by Duncan Ball
Having been a bit of a fan of Selby the only talking dog in Australia (maybe even the world), I decided to introduce students to his antics. Unfortunately, the corny humour in this particular book seems to be a little beyond my students and I find myself struggling through the embarrassing silence after I deliver each pun! We now discuss the humour at the end of each chapter and I point out the play on words. Is humour something that comes with age? Or that is taught? Any suggestions for another more suitable novel for Year 2 students?

Uno's Garden #1

One of the teachers in my teaching team arrived this year with a great idea for a unit theme. Each year we select a theme for the unit (grade) and each class chooses a relevant class name. This year we are Uno's Garden based on the book by Graeme Base. Our class names are Magnificent Moopaloops, Talented (instead of Timid) Tumbletops, Super Spectacular (instead of Sneaky) Snagglebites and Great Galloping (instead of grazing) Gondolopes.

On our first read through of the book, we did not show students the pictures. I'm sure this is some kind of sin when it comes to the amazing work of Graeme Base, but our motives were pure!
In line with the Australian curriculum we want our students to: identify visual representations of characters' actions, reactions, speech and thought processes in narratives, and consider how these images add to or contradict or multiply the meaning of the accompanying words (ACELA1469) We thought a good way to get students to start thinking about this would be to take away those images and see what the students would create in their minds. Our students then drew what they imagined the class' mascot to look like. They wrote a description of the character below the picture using this model:
A Talented Tumbletop is ... small, soft, and furry.
It has... big eyes, a tiny nose and a long tail.
It (does)... swings in the tops of trees and tumbles back down to the ground.
The students' work was marked, collated in a plastic sleeve folder and then used for an overnight take home book. Students take turns to take the book home, share it with their family and return it the next day. Parents leave a comment for the class in the back of the book.

Image: Uno's Garden book by Graeme Base. You can buy the book here.