Addicted to Books? No... never!

So, the biggest goal I have had in my class for as long as I can remember is to get kids reading. To provide the materials for my kids to read a variety of books in a variety of styles and genres etc. The last few years I have gone CRAZY with my book collection. Perhaps a bit of my obsession with reading and books has crept into that, but I love the smiles on my kids' faces when I bring in some new books. I even have some students stressing that they will not read all of my books by the end of the year! But I managed to secure a heap of things for my book corner and had a play around with the design. Here's what I got.

I love seeing them race into the room every morning to get comfy and read. And they definitely don't have a shortage of books!!! My own mini library. I love it! And so do they!

Australia! The land of the AWESOME!

Our theme unit for this semester is AUSTRALIA!!! 
In our classroom we are transforming into a True Blue, Aussie cultural centre! One of the projects assigned to my students last term was all about Australian Icons. They did a fantastic job researching aspects of Australian Identity and learning all about the history of some of their favourite foods, flowers, animals and people. They did a fantastic job! Here's a sample of some of their work. 

Funky Hair Day!!!

On Thursday 30th May we had Funky Hair Day at our school. There is a boy in grade 3 that has been battling Leukaemia. So, as part of the World's Greatest Shave promotion, our school annually holds Funky Hair Day! Students come to school with their hair up in strange creations and spray painted and bring along a gold coin donation. The money collected is given to the World's Greatest Shave charity to help try to find a cure for cancer. I pushed this a lot in the week leading up to the day and was so glad when only 4 of my students did NOT have their hair done! Have a look at some of the crazy hairdo's on the day!

It was great seeing all the kids have so much fun with their hairstyles and the whole school raised a total of $540!!! They had a 'Best Crazy Hair' competition and 2 students from my class won prizes! It's great to see the school community come together for a great cause!

Keep having fun!

Hoppy Easter!!!

First let me wish you all a VERY HAPPY EASTER!!! I hope all of you spent the time with your loved ones eating, drinking and having fun!

Of course, I had been in talks with the Easter Bunny for a few weeks now and my students had been behaving themselves to see if they were good enough for EB to come visiting them! All day they waited... and watched... and made sure they were watching me at all times, suspicious that it was actually ME! But it all happened once I had left for a meeting with other teachers... and they went off to Music. They returned to find a whoooooooooole lot of mess and some special Easter chocolately treats too! EB even left them some messages! Check out the photos below!

This was a gift to me from one of my fabulous students... a bouquet of Easter eggs!! Quite inventive actually! So sweet! Loved it!

These are the Easter 'birds nests' that my students made in class on Wednesday. Mix melted chocolate with All Bran and then scoop into the patty pans and then top with a birds egg! (Chocolate of course!)

Then every year I try to give my students some kind of gift. I came across this on Pinterest and immediately knew this was awesome! So, I made my students a bag of 'bunny tails!' These were definitely a hit! And it was a nice change after all the chocolate left by EB!

Hope everyone had a safe and happy Easter!!! Keep ya eyes open for more awesome tales from my classroom!

Measuring Angles is FUN!

The students in my class always LOVE IT when I introduce something new. Today, they were not disappointed! We have been learning about angles for a few weeks now and today we started drawing and measuring them accurately using a protractor. Most of the students had never used one before and had no idea what they were even used for. I did a few examples on the board of drawing them with a protractor, then checking I did it correctly by measuring them. I did 3 examples on the board and then the students replicated the first one in their books. Once I checked them all, the replicated the second and the third in their books. Once I established they all understood how to draw and check them, I have them a challenge to draw a 15 degree angle. Once I had checked they did that correctly, they were free to do draw two acute angles of their choice and be able to show me using their protractor that their angle was correct. It is a rare thing, but within that 40 minute lesson I had 20 students who by the end of the lesson, all knew what a protractor was, what it is used for and how to use it accurately to measure and draw angles. They were so excited they wanted to do more but unfortunately, we could not spend the entire day drawing and measuring angles (Much to their disgust haha). Here's a few images of their bookwork from today!

It's great to see them so enthusiastic about learning!

Fun with Shaving Cream and Cornflour!

So I am always on the lookout for things I think look interesting, different and let's face it, COOL! I came across this idea on Pinterest a few months ago and have been dying to try it out and see what it's like. Of course it makes more sense to make it with a group than just me on my lonesome!

We mixed 2 cans of shaving cream and 2 boxes of cornflour. It was the strangest sensation at first, a bit sticky, a bit slimy but the more the students played with it, it got thicker and tougher. After about an hour of little hands playing with it, the mixture became somewhat solid but malleable and they could start to make shapes and objects with it, without it losing it's shape. It was great and the texture was quite unusual! Try it for yourself!

    

 

 The kids LOVED playing around with this new and interesting mixture!