Friday Fun - 26/2/10

Where did this week go? We had a great week, despite the number of afternoon meetings we teachers had to attend. I must admit, it's nice to be a teacher again this year, and not one of the leaders needing to organise and run the meetings! I'm enjoying the time I get to spend with my students, the easier pace, and the better work/life balance.

Fun This Week

Build it Up

Students looked at a Flickr slideshow of images of bridges. They then filled out KWL charts to jot down the things they know about bridges (K), and the things that they want to know about bridges (W). We made a list of their suggestions and later in the week we used a 'hot-dotting' procedure to determine the most popular student interests. To 'hot-dot' students placed dots next to the suggestions they liked most. They had a purple dot to represent 3 points (for their first preference) and two green dots to represent 1 point (for their next two preferences).

Monet's Bridge

1/2R and 2P students created artworks inspired by the work of Monet. They drew a bridge landscape using watercolour pencils and we will be finishing them off and adding the water next week.

Insect Close-Ups

As part of their Biodiversity unit, the Year 1 students learnt about a variety of mini-beasts and created magnified drawings of them. They used oil pastels to colour these in.

Recorder

Students had their first recorder lessons for 2010 this week. The Year 2 students took off from where they left at the end of last year, and my Year 1 students had an introductory lesson with me. They learnt how to hold a recorder, how to blow through it, and the fingering for notes B and A. The Year 1 students also joined the Year 1 unit for a singing lesson in the afternoon.

A Class of Spies

1/2R read the big book "The Spy Meeting" by Jill Eggleton this week. Students then drew pictures of themselves as spies wearing "hats for hiding in", "shoes for slinking in", big jackets, dark glasses and carrying spy paraphernalia. They then named their spy and wrote about their spy. We put these together to create another Overnight Take Home Book. I also found this unit plan for the big book - too late for me, but it may be handy if you are going to use it!

Little Visitors

The Year 1/2 class had some little visitors on Monday when one of the students brought in his baby mice to show us. Apple Strudel and Berry Strudel enjoyed their visit and everyone was keen to have a pat.

Doubles Facts

This week our Maths lessons focused on the link between addition and subtraction. My Maths group made ladybirds to learn the doubles facts and the subtraction facts to go with them. We used the ladybirds from Sparkle Box.

How Long is a Metre?

1/2R and 2P played with the concept of a metre. Students began by estimating a 1m line with wooden blocks and then checked it with a metre tape. I was impressed with how close the estimations were. They then measured items around the classroom and completed a table to show things that were less than a metre, about a metre and more than a metre.

Octopus' Garden

Next week the 1/2 and 2 classes will be hosting the assembly at school so we began preparing a song to perform. We will be singing "Octopus' Garden" with the guitar accompaniment of one of the teachers. (The Beatles version is pitched too low for our students.) I sense that we will be doing a lot more practice next week!

Swimming Carnival

We had our annual swimming carnival on Friday and the younger students enjoyed time with structured activities: tyre relay, noodle relay, kick board relay, cork scramble, ball games, hoop activities etc They also had some time for free play including the use of the slide. The older Year 2s had their first time at the big carnival and enjoyed cheering for their house and swimming in races.

Friday Fun - 13/3/09

As I pointed out to the parents of my students, this week was a "hold your hat and enjoy the ride" sort of week. Monday was out due to a public holiday. My teaching partner, Jonno, and about a fifth of the Year 4s were out on Thursday for a rugby day and Friday was our swimming carnival. We had a bit of teaching in the middle there, but had to pack a lot into a few days!

I must say that Jonno was absolutely AWESOME this week. I was impressed with how calmly he pulled off all the sport organisation - and so professionally as well. The swimming carnival was a huge success and the kids had a fantastic day.

Fun this Week

Readers' Theatre
I spent Monday night making a quadruple batch of playdough. Hubby was confused: "Aren't you teaching Year 4 now?" I figured that even Year 4s like playdough now and then! Or at least the chance to express themselves creatively and explore ideas physically.
This week's readers' theatre was about B.W Hawkins and the Dinosaur Models which are displayed at the Crystal Palace Park in London. In line with the Art-full Pedagogies strategy from the Springboards into Literacy workshop I went to, I decided to give my students a chance to create their own playdough dinosaur sculptures before reading the script. Students worked in small groups to create their dinosaurs using playdough, match sticks, pasta and sequins.
Then, as students began practising the readers' theatre scripts, they had personal experience of what it's like to create dinosaur models and the text was far more real to them. Students put a lot of expression into their reading and were interested to see the process of B.W. Hawkins when making his models.

Assemblies
On Tuesday we had a special farewell assembly for our retiring PE teacher who has been in the school for 12 years. He has had a huge impact on his students over the years and has fed their enthusiasm for an active lifestyle. He will be greatly missed by the students, staff and wider school community.

We also had a visit from Stirling Mortlock, a well known local rugby union player. He spoke to students in grades 4-6 about Earth Hour and discussed the importance of looking after our planet every hour, every day - not just for Earth Hour. When we got back to class students began creating their own posters to remind people of appliances that use electricity and provide tips for reducing electricity consumption.

Class Meeting
We had a class meeting to discuss and complete a Biodiversity survey for the school's Student Representative Council (SRC). Students considered the areas of the school grounds they like, dislike and use. They listed the types of wildlife they have seen within the school grounds. They then considered changes they would like made in order to improve the appearance of the school grounds and the opportunities for biodiversity. The SRC is collecting this data from all classes, staff members and families in the school community.

Visitors
We had a number of visitors in our school this week. Some teachers from the UK visited to see our school and the programs we run. My teaching intern also visited to meet students and get a greater sense of the classroom organisation. She will be beginning her 8-week internship at the end of March.

Maths
This week we looked at lines and angles in our maths lessons. I was surprised by how interested and enthusiastic the students were when it came to learning about angles. The questions students were asking showed great depth of thinking. It's disappointing that we could spend so little time on it due to all the interruptions. I look forward to exploring it further later in the year.

Will You Be Funky 4-Eva? Quiz
As mentioned above, Jonno took some of our kids (and some Year 5/6s) to a rugby day on Thursday. For a bit of fun and relationship building, I designed a trivia quiz (in PowerPoint) for part of that day. Students got into mixed groups of six and created names for their teams. Questions came from a mix of subject areas and some included photos or videos. Each team was given three coloured match sticks that they could trade in - one for a dictionary, one for a calculator and one for a computer - to help them with a question. Every fifth question was a "Who Am I?" followed by a team challenge. The challenges we got to were:

• perform a nursery rhyme
• present a tongue twister
• build a sculpture or building with no more than 20 pieces of lego

It was a lot of fun and gave students opportunities to shine both academically, dramatically and technologically.

Swimming Carnival
The carnival was a lot of fun. Students competed in races (including a 'boat race' with rubber tyres) and then played in the pool. They even had some time on a water slide. We were all exhausted by the end of it, but the kids also had a disco at night. (I admit - I skipped out on that one).

Rowan of Rin
For details of our Literacy Unit on Rowan of Rin, click here.

Friday Fun

This was the final week for school in my state. It was another busy week, but still fun.

Fun This Week:

Are We There Yet? YES! - This week we finished off our imaginary journey around Australia. The last few pages of "Are We There Yet?" by Alison Lester were a bit of a rush, but we made it! I created an online quiz using ProProf which we did as a class and then I was going to have students do it in the lab. Unfortunately, the videos didn't work at school due to system blocking of videos. But if you want to check it out, you can see it here:

Australian Geography » Quizes

So instead of doing the quiz in the lab, students explored the SmartBoard Notebook containing all the videos/photos etc for the term. It was a great way for students to review the material. We then went back to the classroom where they tried to label an Australian map with states and capital cities. I was REALLY impressed with how much they had learnt. The following day we actually read another story about a journey around Australia called "Santa's Aussie Holiday" by Maria Farrer and Anna Walker. It was interesting to hear the discussion as the kids compared the two journeys.

Gifts - Students made and wrapped gifts for their families. (I'm not going to spill the beans about those!)

Swimming Pool - On Thursday the junior school (K-2) went to the pool for the morning. The kids did a lot of swimming and splashing early on. Towards the end a couple of my boys set up their own little soccer field and started playing soccer. A couple of the girls joined in as cheer leaders. I was most impressed as they did it all on their own initiative without any encouragement whatsoever from me!

Class Party - On Friday afternoon some of the parents organised a class party for the kids. It was a pretty wild half-hour so I think we were all quite glad it was at the end of the day! Again, the kids showed initiative - climbing on chairs, stacks on, and running around the classroom!!! (It's much better when they use their powers for good!) The parents were really lovely with all their kind words and gifts. It was a pleasure working with them.