Transport

Our topic for the last 4-5 weeks has been transport. 

My first lesson was discussing what mode of transport go on land, sea or air. We did this together and then the children had to do their own.

Funny story - I drew the mountains green on the board and the kids got very confused as we don't have green mountains in Oman 😊

We have had a big focus on the character Mrs Armitage who has a bike and over time adds crazy things to it. We created our own Mrs Armitage stories where children had to create a story plan of what they would like on their bike and then turn this into their own story.

As a class we made a big brainstorm of all the modes of transport we knew. One of our discussions was to group the types of transport into categories. Children discovered they could in more than one category and there was many ways that transport can be grouped. It also started the discussion of how do we know it is a type of transport.

We have created some super art work this week with the transport theme. We looked at hot air balloons as transport and then we made these - this idea is from another teacher. 

First we painted the back ground and then on another piece of paper we covered it with tissue paper, this was either hot or cold colour or children could mix. We then cut our tissue paper out in the shape of a ballon and glued it in. Below is the final outcome.

We have looked at parts of a car and labeled these.

I have had my observations by my grade co-ordinator and head of primary and both were very good so I am pleased to have done them.

One thing I have been missing is my maths modelling books and my white board teaching table!!!! I have just recently set up a maths learning journal. In this I put my class modelling and it is referred to at the beginning of each lesson and accessible for all the children during the whole maths lesson. 

In maths we have been working on shapes, fractions, doubles and halves. I quite like teaching maths as the children do not differ hugely in ability and it is quite hands on learning.

In literacy I run what I would call reading rotation. I allow 45 minutes per day for this and I aim to read with 2 groups and work with a phonics group while my teaching assistant reads 1:1 with a group and takes a phonics group. The rest of the children are doing completely independent activities and these include:

- bingo

- play dough words

- read to self

- phonics games

- chalk words

- white board words

- library reading 

Pirates

At school we teach through themes. These are generally around 5-6 weeks long and all learning (maths, reading and writing is linked into the theme).

We started off with Pirates - I didn't take as many photos of our learning as I would have liked but I have a few. We had the head of primary come and drop of a letter that a pirate had delivered to him on the beach. It was a cool hook and the kids loved it. We split off into house colour and went on a treasure hunt around school. 

We made pirate hats - following instructions!

We wrote instructions - how to dress like a pirate.

We learnt poems and had a go at re-writing our own.

We made wanted posters for some pirates who had stolen some money.

To top it off we dressed up as pirates and had a fun game making maps, hunting for treasure and playing dress ups.

During pirates we also learnt about the 5 senses. The first week we learnt what they were and made and labelled Mr Potato Head.

The first week we went on a listening walk. We listened to the story the listening walk on YouTube first. We went and lay down on the basketball court for 5 minutes, then the corridor for 5 and then the classroom. We made a list of all the things we could hear.

Sight we played eye spy and spot the difference. We talked about what is used to help sight etc. 

Smell...I can't remember (we smelt something but not sure what it was - I'll add it when I do).

Taste we had a variety of food - sweet jam, bitter chocolate and sour lemons. The facial expressions when eating the lemons was halirious.

Touch I set up 7 stations in the class for the kids to touch, feel and explore. We had: 

- play dough 

- gloop (oobleck)

- cooked pasta

- ice

- shaving foam

- jelly

- dish liquid

The kids had a blast getting all messy!

Setting up a classroom in an International School - The Middle East

Below are some pictures to start with - add into the factor that the temperature has not reached below 30 degrees yet!

Muscat International School

Before of my class

After

The children

Classroom door

Playground

Greenfield with artificial grass

Basketball court

Computer room

Library

During the first week of  being in Muscat we were getting the class set up and learning the way of the school etc. 

The first 1-2 weeks of school we're getting. The know the kids so lots of games and free play. I had 22 on my roll but this went up to 24 within the first week, my roll has remained at 24 but has the potential to go to 25.

During the first few weeks we had to identify children who were EAL learners and Special Ed chn. I have children on both of these rolls and identifying these children was not something I have had to previous do so this was an experience in itself. The identified students go to specialised teachers 1-2 per week.

I also very quickly got use to the idea of students going to Arabic, Islamic and Physical Education all of which are taught by another teacher. During this non-contact time I complete marking or planning. Below is my timetable (blue is my teaching time and orange is non-contact time.

I have duty once a week which has been hard because it is so hot but the children generally play well together in the playground.

In grade 1 there are 4 teachers so we doing all our planning together which makes life a lot easier and it is nice having the ideas from others. 

Settling in has been good, but I have missed my old class and the fact that they knew all the routines etc (I know with time my class will get there).

A big challenge in Muscat and not just the classroom is remembering not to compare it to home. It isn't the same country, expectations are different, the people are different etc.

Week 5-9

It has been a long time since I have made a post. Over the last wee while I have had the Year 3 students come back into my class and over the last two weeks I have had 3 new students join. I have found some challenges in going from 7 students up to 15 (even though this isn't a huge number the learning differences are rather large). I can now say that my programme is running much smoother after having made several adjustments.

Reading was quite easy as my Year 3s knew my expectations and how Daily 5 works in Room 6 so that was easy. The 3 new students were buddied up to Room 6 classmates so they have picked this up fast. I currently have 6 reading groups and ensure I read with 4 groups each day.

Writing has been a bit harder to manage as there have been so many needs in my class. I had an observation by my principal and together we decided to just bring it back to the basics and just focus on one thing at a time. So that I am not overwhelmed and students are not overwhelmed. Each lesson I have a whole class focus (this changes each day) and then I work with one group only per day.

Maths has been going good. I run my maths similar to Daily 5 where children are in their rotation and I just pull them out depending on their needs. I have had to adjust activities to meet students with higher or lower needs.

Week 3/4, term 2

I have had a busy start to the week. We have had a re-jig in our school to even out class sizes etc. So I am now teaching a Year 1-3 class which I am pretty pleased about because I was struggling a little to get conversation flowing with only 7 students.

Over the last two days I have spent time reintegrating the Year 3's into the class and going through what is expected, routines etc. They have picked it up fairly quick as it was only a term ago that they were doing it.

In writing my goal was to have children verbalising what they are learning and their next steps. My Year 2s, and some Year 1s can, however I will need to work on this with my Year 3's. I have created a visual set of posters similar to the butterfly lifecycle which I plan to have them using tomorrow. I also was working in allowing time at the end of a lesson for reflection. Which I have done a couple of times but need to make sure I do it more often.

For reading we have been making use of the word wall and I have noticed my students also using it a lot during writing which is awesome to see. My next step in reading is to develop some independent activities for my Year 3 students that aren't to easy.

For maths my focus was to have students practicing their basic facts each day which I have achieved - wahoo. My goal for the next 2-3 weeks is to get my maths programme running smoothly with 5 extra students who have a range of learning needs.

Week 1/2, term 2

We have had a great start to term 2.

My goals at the end of term 1 were:

• Writing - to have students being able to voice what they are learning, how they will know that they can do it and their next steps. 
• Reading - to add follow up activities after chn have read with me.
• Maths - complete an inquiry/stick to it.

So far in writing I am doing well. We have a great collaborative teachers facebook page that has heaps of awesome ideas. My principal 'tagged' me in one that had visual cues for writers. I printed this out the next day and put it on my wall. It is super easy to understand and my students know exactly what they are learning and where to next - so I can tick that one off.

My focus for week 3-4 is to ensure I allow time for reflection at the end of each writing lesson. I use to do this well and it makes it easier that we visualisers.

On reflecting on my end of term reading goal I don't think it is necessary for me to change this as I do the Daily 5 programme and this has heaps of follow up activities that the kids learn from. My focus for week 3 is to make use of the word wall and ensure I or a buddy goes through cards with the kids.

In math I have been doing whole class teaching of measurement. However I have gathered my data and made a range of basic fact games to do with children. Today I set aside 5 minutes after maths calendar for my target students to play the game. My goal is to have students play their basic facts game everyday for the next 3 weeks.

End of Term reflection

Term 1 has been so busy but it has been great. My class is really lovely and they are all eager to learn.

For myself there is still so much that I am learning and each day I find myself reflecting and making small changes to my teaching.

My writing programme is going well. I have made slight adjustments but I still run this in a fluid manner so that I can pull students out based on their individual needs. Next term I want to do some more work around students being able to voice their goals, next steps etc. Now that learning journals are all set up I think that they will work well.

In reading I continue with the Daily 5 - which I love. The kids always seem to be engaged and the 3-4 weeks I spent setting it up have been massive in terms of my students being able to run it independently. Next term I plan to add more follow up activities after a group or student has seen me.

For maths we have been doing some great work. I spent 5 weeks on number, 2 on geometry and 2 on statistics. It was good having most students coming back to school and remembering their learning from last year. My focus for next term is to take time to complete my inquiry (practicing basic facts before a guided lesson).

The Water Cycle

We have made it to the end of our unit. We had lots of fun experimenting and finding different ways to make the water cycle.

I started off by teaching about water. We learnt what water is important for and where we can find water. This then led into finding out where the water in the clouds comes from.

We first started by making a water cycle in a plastic bag. This was a good starting point as we were able to look at what happened at each stage. From this we wrote and drew about what happens at each stage. I also showed my students a water cycle video so they could see in another way the water cycle.

The second experiment we did was making a rainstorm. We discussed the water is sucked up by the sun and meets up in the clouds. When there is to much rain in a cloud then it rains, hails or snow. To do our experiment we filled a jar with water and then slowly added blue dye - the blue dye was to act as rain and showed that when only a little bit was added it didn't rain but the more water added the fuller the clouds became and the more it rained.

During the term we were doing paper mache. I linked this to the water cycle and we made a large paper mache water cycle. It looked great once it was finished.

Our water cycle video of our learning!

Week 8, Term 1 2015

Week 8 was good. We were back into our normal routine with minimal interruptions.

My goal in literacy was to use more hand on activities that children could talk about and then transfer into their reading or writing. I achieved this goal by doing 2 water cycle experiments with my class. Children got the do the water cycle and then they had to talk about what was happening and then they wrote about it. I could feed in heaps of vocab and lots of WOW words so I got some really good writing. I plan to continue this structure for Term 2. I will also be inquiring into how I can encourage students to use the word wall.

My goal for Maths was to use more technology in maths. I was teaching about shapes so I found this quite easy. I made a whole heap of QR codes that linked to shape videos and activities.

Next week we will be having our whole school art week for some collaborative learning.

Week 6 & 7, 2015

Week 6 went by super fast with me only being in the classroom for one day. For Monday and Tuesday I was on a course in Auckland and Thursday and Friday I had release days - one of which was spent observing technology in a junior classroom.

My goal in literacy was to add in some more hand on activities. I did this on Friday by having a bubble themed day with my class. We made, wrote, read, made art etc and it was all themed around bubbles. You can see my blog post about this. I think that it worked so well that I am going to continue to have a Friday themed day. The day will consist of hands on activities that children can experience and do for themselves during this time I take the opportunity to feed in as much vocab as possible.

I have changed my maths calendar back to a similar way that I ran it last year. I find that because it is right beside one of my teaching spaces I also use it and refer to it much more. This week I am moving onto geometry in maths. My goal is to incorporate more technology into the learning of geometry.

After observing technology in another class I have made some adjustments to my own use of technology. During daily 5 my activities are organised into days of the week so that learners are using a variety of apps. I have also started using picollage in maths and I hope to use it in more curriculum areas. I was amazed at how quickly learners were able to use an app and its features!!!! Don't under estimate their ability.

Making Bubbles

Today in my class we made bubble. It was so much fun and so many opportunities to feed in vocab for writing.

I started off by sharing a video with the kids and from that they had to guess what we would be making.

I had made the mixture in the morning because it is suppose to sit for at least an hour. See HappyHooligans blog for recipe. Before we began making our bubbles we had to make our bubble blowers. This was super easy and all we needed was straws and wool. I modelled this first and then had them do it - so much determination on their faces. I used a skewer to push the wool through as some didn't go right to the end. Tie a knot and they were ready to go. I took photos of my students holding their bubble maker out in front of them ready for our art activity - see later in post.

We then made our bubbles - I modelled this first. They first few minute of making wasn't great but once the mixture was played with it became better.

Some great bubble were made it was so much fun.

We then came in and talked about our bubbles. We talked about their size, colour, movement etc. This then led into our writing. So many great stories after a hands on experience.

In the afternoon we made bubble pictures to go with our stories. We revisited our discussion about the colours we saw etc. I had already stuck their pictures from earlier onto black paper. I gave each child a white crayon and they had to find something circle to trace around in our class to make the bubble. Once they had done 5-6 bubbles they added a small amount of colour. Check them out below.

Sorry image is upside down