Week 7, Term 3 2014

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.