Term 4, 2014

Our last term for the year and what a busy one it is going to be. This term I started off with 14 students (1 newbie). I began the first few day going over our routines and ensuring students are completing activities correctly - this was mainly in the Daily 5 area.

Daily 5 is continuing as usual and I have added in some new activities so they don't get board. My students are independent and help each other when they have a problem - so great to see the older ones helping the younger ones. During this time I work with my guided groups.

For writing I am working with students depending on their needs and I pull students out as I need them. I really like teaching this way as I can focus on exactly what each child needs. I am continuing to use our class visualiser to show students examples of their peers work. This term I would try another example of what I observed on my school visit last term. Students say a sentence, clap how many words are in it and then get out that many counters. As they write each word they flip the counter over. This is working well for one particular student who was losing his idea, now he knows how many words to go and it keeps him focused.

In maths I am continuing with number knowledge in my warm up and then teaching the strategies with my groups. I run maths similar to writing and just pull students out depending on their needs. Below is what my room looks like during maths time - with students working on a variety of activities.

For health this term I am focusing on fire safety. We began this topic by talking about what fire is and where we have it around our home.

In physical education my focus is on athletics for the next 4 weeks. Each afternoon (if the weather is fine) we spend 20-30 minutes practicing a different skill. 

On Friday I did a mini topic on Diwali. We have 3 Indian students at our school so I thought it would be a good idea for my class to see that other countries and cultures celebrate special occasions and they sometimes don't happen at the same time as ours.
I introduced my students to the word Diwali and then explained using images to help me. We talked about the special things that we do in NZ and compared this. We then talked about the bright colours used and students then had to create their own Rangoli pattern. We also made some salt dough candles as during Diwali families light lots of candles - which links to an old story of lighting the way home for Rama and Sitas. My students used beads to decorate and then we will paint them next week. In the afternoon I invited our Indian students in to the class and they spoke about what they do for Diwali. My students also asked them questions about Diwali