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

Week 5, 2015

During the week I had Ruth in observing for writing. After her observation I meet with Catriona to discuss what was noticed. Together we decided on having one focus for shared writing. For example in my modelled writing, focus on beginning sounds and only writing these for each word. This focus will change each day depending on the needs within my class. In weeks 6-7 I will be changing my motivation to having students plan their story using a simple picture and then craft their writing from what has been drawn. 

My literacy goal was to incorporate some more whole group activities where we can all have some rich language experiences. I didn't achieve this so I am adding these into my week 7 plans so that I ensure they are achieved. My first will be creating big bubbles as a class.

In numeracy I planned to have my maths journal up and running - I didn't achieve this either. I will be completing my first on on Friday week 7. I am also going to alter my maths calendar as I don't think it is as effective as how I was running it last year. 

Week 6 is a short teaching week as our school is on the Writing Effectively course by Jeff Anderson for Monday and Tuesday. I am then in my class on Wednesday and have Thursday and Friday out for release days. Thursday I am doing a classroom visit to look at e-learning in a junior class.

Week 4, Term 1 2015

This week I set out to incorporate a oral language programme into my class that will have benefits for all learner especially Year 0-1. I did some research into different practices and decided on one that I could start fairly easily in my class and this is 'play' based discovery learning. This happens from 8.30am-9.30am every morning. Students come into class, set themselves up and then move into our discovery room. During this time there is a range of hands on activities for students to chose from which they can do these individually or in a group. The activities change on a day to day basis with students choosing what they want. Parents/whanau are invited to join their child for the first 30minutes and talk with them about what they are doing. At 9am I join the children and spend time roaming and engaging with them. Together we have rich language experiences and talk about what they are doing. I take this time to feed in as much vocab as possible. Because this is only the first week I can not comment on the effectiveness other than students are all engaged and all have something to write about.
My goal for week 5 in literacy is to incorporate some more whole group activities where we can all have some rich language experiences.

My other goal was in mathematics and that was to implement my maths calendar which I have done. I have been working with 2 groups a day which I think is realistic and allows for teaching, practice and reflecting of a concept. For week 5 I plan to have my maths journal up and running.