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.

Week 3, Term 1 2015

Week 3 went by super fast. We spent most of the week focusing on Literacy and Numeracy - I have all programmes up and running now which is great, I can start to focus on my guided group work.

For Daily 5 I have got 5 guided groups that complete independent Daily 5 activities when not with me. I have been working to help students set their goals for the term and it has been a little difficult with the holiday break and students moving back a couple of reading sub levels. I can safely say that I have now identified their next steps and what I will be working on with each group.
Each week I am adding 2 new independent activities so they are not overwhelmed. My biggest challenge is having time to fit Shared Reading, Daily 5 and Oral Language in - but will be easier Week 5 when swimming is finished.
My week 4 goal in literacy is to implement an Oral Language programme that is student led and engaging.

Numeracy has been fairly easy to set up with my only new student starting with similar needs to a couple of the others. I am running this as rotation based learning and only pull children out when I need them (no set groups).
At the moment I have students working at Stage 0-1, 2/3 and 4. Some of last years learning has needed recapping so we are spending week 4 going over what we know.
My week 4 goal in numeracy is to have my maths calendar up and running.

As for the other curriculum areas they will be coming through next week.

On Friday we had some bananas ready to go off so I though as a 'fun Friday' language experience we would make smoothies in our class. It was really fun and we were able to incorporate maths, literacy and art into our learning. Below is a photo of the wall display.

Swimming Art

Today my class created an swimming image.

I found this terrific lesson on the blog 'Kids Artists''.

You need:

1. white drawing sheet A4 size
2. coloured paper for background 
3. crayons
4. liquid water colour, blue and green
5. brush
6. jar with water

Look at artwork of David Hockney, especially those with swimming pools. Discuss with the students how people look like under water -flowing hair, lighter skin. What causes the shimmering
surfaces on the water and what do they look like?

The students draw one or more people in swimsuits and colour themwith oil pastels. Use white oil pastel to draw a water pattern in the background, consisting of wavy horizontal, vertical and diagonal lines.
Paint the picture with blue and/or green diluted coloured ink. The swimmers and the white lines will not resist the ink.

2015 Term 1

It has been a great start for the year in Room 6. I have 8 students which is great - so much 1:1 learning.
We have started off the year setting up expectations and routines. This has got off to a good start but I can see students starting to test the boundaries - thats ok, I was prepared for it and as a class we are working through any interruptions we may have. I am not currently running my normal timetable as we are at the town pools for 1 hour of the day so I don't have much room for any learning other than reading, writing and maths. This however may work in my favour as children are very clear on my expectation for these three subjects.

In reading I am running the Daily 5 again so we have been spending time setting it up and learning how to do each activity.

In maths we began by doing statistics. We are now on to number. I am running this the same as last year and pulling students out based on their needs rather than having set groups.

In writing I am also continuing the same routine as last year where my students each have individual learning goals and I group students based on their needs (once again no set groups).

In reading, writing and maths I will be running mini teacher inquiries as to how I can improve my own teaching . I will share these as the term progresses. Below are 3 that I am addressing now.

Literacy

Increase oral language. - My students are entering school with very low oral language (I think this is becoming an issue across the country) so I am looking at how I can add activities into my already busy programme.

Numeracy

Have children explain what they are learning, why and how they will know they have learnt it. - I achieved this last year in writing and am hoping that I can find a similar concept that works for my students.

Other curriculum areas

This year we have got iPads in the classes and I am wanting to find how I can best use them in my class for all curriculum areas (I can download apps etc but I want to get the best learning for my students).