Well what a busy term it has been. I can definitely say that my students and I are ready for a rest after such a busy 10 weeks. This is just a short post as the bulk of my reflections are at the end of each week.
Reading
Reading went really well this term with my students all making great progress - I think the knowledge they now have on the high frequency words has been a huge help. I am happy with how my Daily 5 programme is running and will continue it the same way next term making some minor adjustments to suit.
Writing
Love my writing now. My kids are really independent and all see themselves as writers - this makes it so much easier at writing time. I taught poetry for the first time this term and it was such a great unit. A different way of writing so my students don't get bored. Next term I plan on continuing to work writing through inquiry.
Maths
Maths has gone well this term. My students have really good knowledge on number so we are continuing to work on number strategies through the next term. My guided groups are going well and I find it much easier not having set groups and jut pulling students out based on their needs.
Over the last week I found a really cool skip counting video that my students love! Check it out below:
Inquiry
At the beginning of the term my focus was on birds. I found that myself and my students were getting a little bored so after talking to my mentor teacher I changed my inquiry units to 1-2 weeks long. I have really enjoyed doing it this way as we are able to cover much more and because it is changing neither of us are getting bored. Next term my inquiry will stemmed from students questions and wonderings.
To sum it up this term has been really great and I have enjoyed seeing the progress that has been made. Here is a picture from our last day - it was our 50 days celebrate (50 days we have been at school this term, we were keeping count in maths).
We began by watching the video the Ant and the Grasshopper - this is also our shared book for the week. We spoke about where ants live and what they do.
Then for our poetry we looked at the ants go marching one by one song/poem and my students decorated it depending on where they think an ant lives.
We then started looking closely at the ant. Students had to go and catch one and then look at it under their magnifying glass. My kids loved this it was such an exciting activity that I was able to feed heaps of vocab in. Some of the ants were dead, some half dead and some really alive. This got us talking about how their bodies moved etc.
Once they had looked at it properly they drew what they noticed.
Tuesday
For our writing on Tuesday I gave students an image of an pushing a droplet of water. My students had to decide what the ant was going to do with it and where it was taking it. They love being creative and using their imagination so it makes writing so much fun.
In the afternoon our focus was on the lifecycle of an ant. We went over our own and the life cycle of a spider to help students start thinking about how a ant starts life. We looked at each stage of the lifecycle and discussed what we noticed was happening. I showed students a range of images so it was clear what happened at each stage. They then went on to complete their own lifecycle.
Wednesday
We went out side and looked at the different places that the ants lived. One of my reading groups had been researching bugs and they were able to offer some facts on where insects live. They shared this with the class. My students then had to go out side and look closely at where the ants lived and had to draw their home. We also looked at an image of a colony under the ground. Students were able to notice all the little parts to a nest.
Thursday
For writing I showed students the book Hey Little Ant. The storyline is a boy is talking to a ant who he wants to squash and they ant is giving him reasons not to. Students then have to decide what he should do - this was their writing task. Once finished they published them and we made the cute little pictures to match.
In the afternoon we looked at the different body parts of a ant and compared them to our spiders.
Friday
Our class was on assembly so we made masks to wear when we danced to the The Ants Go Marching song.
For the afternoon we watched the movie Ants - the kids loved it and it was a great way to end our term!!
Monday
Today I began my new inquiry. It is a week long topic looking at spiders. I began by asking students to draw me a picture of what they think a spider looks like.
Next we came together and talked about what we knew about spiders already. We added this to our KWL chart.
I then had a selection of books and pictures that I let students look through for 10 minutes - they could do this with a buddy or by themselves but by the end of it they had to have a question they wanted to find out about spiders.
We then shared questions and added them to the KWL chart. Some of the questions asked show that students are really starting to think about the topic.
Next I then shared a poem about spiders and we talked about what the author was telling us. We talked about where some places were that we might find spiders and children illustrated them. Children then got to colour them in. Children seem to be really excited about this topic which is great!
Tuesday
I had a relief teacher in my class who asked to teach about the body parts of a spider. My students then had to label their own spider.
Wednesday/Thursday
I incorporated a spider theme into each learning area. For maths students had to complete a dot-to-dot and a symmetry activity as their independent tasks.
For writing time we were talking about the features of a spider: what they can do, have and are. We did this as a whole class activity to talk about the vocab that describes a spider. Students then had their own sheet to fill out.
We then went over our Itsy-Bitsy Spider poem. I gave kids a copy with some high frequency words missing. They then had to put the words in correctly.
In the afternoon we did a word hunt to find some of the words that we had learnt over the last few days. Students did this in groups of 3's to help each other out.
We also started looking at enemies to spiders. We talked about what they are and why they would be an enemy. Each student made a little book which we are turned into a class one.
I found a really cool little fact booklet on Pintrest that had short facts. My students had to draw an image that matched the statement.
Thursday/Friday
On Thursday afternoon and Friday morning we have been doing spider art. My kids love glitter but we don't use it that often so I thought it would be a cool idea to use it to make our webs. I made a template with a spider web on it. Students then glued over the lines and sprinkled glitter on top. I taught this to 4 children who completed it then had to choose 4 children to teach it to and so on until everyone in the class had done theirs. I love doing this as students are having to communicate instructions to each other.
We let the glue dry over night and then on Friday morning we made our spiders. We made our spiders with hands - we pressed our hands into puffy paint and then pressed them onto the paper (if I did it again I would just use normal paint as it didn't create the effect I expected). I cooked them all at morning tea so they were ready to be finished after lunch. Children added eyes and any other detail they thought was important.
After lunch we made chocolate spider webs. First I melted the chocolate and put it into little snap lock bags. Next I had children make a web out of pasta. We then cut the corner off the bag and swirled it around. Children then added 100s and 1000s as a decoration. After they were done I let them eat the chocolate out of the bags. They loved it and we spent lots of time talking about why and how spiders make their webs. Was a great way to wrap up our spider inquiry!
Today my mentor teacher and I went and observed at a school in Hamilton in a start up class of New Entrants. It was really great to see this class in action as they were really similar to my own class.
I won't go over everything I saw I will just pop some notes up of the things that stood out to me and that I would like to try in my own class, will also add details in my weekly reflections of any ideas I have borrowed.
Alphablocks - an educational video that helps students learn the alphabet and sounds.
Students practiced handwriting every letter - app connected to tv and shows children how to correctly write letters (blobble write app).
Writing: when working with teacher write high freq word out in bubbles drawn by teacher and then go on a word hunt in fluency boxes.
Writing: using counters to help remember where they are up to in a story.
Reading: make high frequency words with magnetic letters during guided lesson
There are so many more ideas that I hope to use in my class but these are going to be my starting point.
This week in reading I have been focusing on contractions with one of my groups. It became obvious through running records and observations that the group with lacking in their knowledge. I found a little memory game that I have been playing with them. We have had discussion around the shortening of words and my students have now been finding them everywhere.
In maths I have been doing multiplication and division with my students that are ready for it. They have understood the concepts really fast and I have been really impressed with their working. I love it when you can see the connections being made!!!
We have been continuing to write poems this week. I have been doing I wish poems. The kids love them. They get to imagine and wish for anything they like. It is so good seeing my class engaged and wanting to write. Below are some example of what they wished for:
I left my camera at school so I will upload some during the week.
For inquiry click on on Spring post to see what learning happen in the class.
On Monday I began inquiry by sharing some photos of Winter with students. We discussed what we noticed. I then showed them some images of Spring, again we discussed what we noticed. I then handed out more images and children had to decide in partners whether or not they were from Spring or Winter.
Together we then made a venn diagram to show what was the same and different.
On Wednesday we began looking at the weather and discussing the changes that we were noticing. Students learnt about the different tools used to measure the weather. We also started a weather tracking sheet where students are taking note of the weather for the next week and a half. Will update with a picture once they are finished.
On Friday we made our blossom trees. First we started by dying the back ground.
Next we practiced blowing dye on the paper for our trees. The dye was watered down paint and children each had a straw to use for bowing. Once everyone could do it then they were allowed to do it on their picture.
Finally once the dye had dried we added our blossom. We used pink paint mixed with white (only mix it a little so that it looks more realistic) children dipped their fingers into the mix and dotted it over the tree.
Love how amazing the pictures look once they are finished and my students were super proud of their work.
Finally to finish our Spring unit we made grass heads. We started by having a discussion around what we noticed about the difference in grass between Winter, Spring, Summer and Autumn. This led into talking about why the grass is especially important at this time of the year and the things that help it to grow.
To make our grass heads we added a teaspoon of grass seed into a stocking. Next we added soil and tied the stocking to keep the soil compact. Finally students decorated their heads using goggly eyes and marker pens. Over the next week we are going to monitor the growth progress.
For the start of our transport inquiry I went in to the $2 shop and got heaps of toy cars, trains, planes etc. I started by allowing students time to play and talk with each other about how they move etc. I removed myself from this time and just took notes about paths I want to pursue (vocab I want fed in and anything else I think would be beneficial). After students had time to explore we sat back and thought about something we may want to find out - so pleased with my kids they all came up with a question (some more complex than others but its a start).
I was away on Thursday so my principal was in the class and they went through and classified and justified about different vehicles.
Week 2 Monday:
We began a discussion around new and old cars. I found a great resource on sparkle box that has a new and old version of transport. I set children up into groups and they had to go away and decide if the transport was new or old and why.
Then as a class we discussed them. Students then had to come up with some features that were the same and some that were different.
Last term we had some vintage cars drive by our school so it was really awesome that students were using their prior knowledge from this event to help inform some of their decisions.
To end our inquiry we wrote a short story about our favourite vehicle that had to include a fact we had learnt. Children then made a picture to match their story.
In maths this week I thought I would delve into some fractions with my class after my course a couple of weeks ago. We started off simple by doing half and quarter of a square, circle etc. My more capable students started to explore thirds and fifths. On Monday we talked about the times that we had heard 1/2 or 1/4 being used. See below for the things we came up with.
On Wednesday I started exploring a fraction of a set with most of my class. We started off by doing really simple problems. We were using counters and pretending they were lollies - this worked ok. However I knew to really cement it in their brain we had to use real lollies. So on Thursday I brought in some MnMs. Students were buddied up and had to work to solve the problems. They were so much more accurate when they thought they might be missing out or not getting a fair share.
In reading I have been playing around with my programme and trying to figure out how I can incorporate more student agency. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesdays trials were all a night mare. However I believe that on Thursday I came up with an effective one for my learners. I will let you know next week if its a winner and what I have done.
For writing we have been looking at poems. I have never taught poems before so in the weekend leading up I spent heaps of time researching and finding examples that would work for my class. We have been doing senses poems this week.
On Monday we started off by describing a t-shirt (this was a idea suggested by Lisa for Te Toi Tupu). I put children into groups of 3 and they had to come up with some words about the parts of a t-shirt. We then came back as a class and wrote these down - I added in some they didn't know - such a easy way to increase their vocab.
Next we talked about the colour and how we could describe it to someone. We came up with a brainstorm about all the things we know are yellow.
Finally in groups children had to come up with a sentence to describe their t-shirt. I gave some example first and then sent them away. The had two choices:
Yellow like
As yellow as
We got some great ideas. We built on this lesson by moving into poetry. I will post some example next week of their work.
Goal for week 8:
Have a Daily 5 programme in place that works for my learners and my self.
