Have a look at their PIE's!
Next week we are focussing on Understanding Words in Context. So stay tuned to see how we represent and display our interesting new words and vocabulary! Keep learning!
Wednesday, February 20, 2013
Author's Purpose - It's as easy as PIE!
So, one of the things we have focussed on in our literacy sessions is Comprehension Strategies. One such strategy is Understanding Author's Purpose! I was trying to come up with a creative way to display this strategy. So, what do I do? I search Pinterest!!! I love Pinterest! It has the BEST ideas! So I found one and my students loved creating this PIE for display and now they link Author's Purpose to PIE and they can easily remember the 3 major purposes! Persuade, Inform and Entertain!
Have a look at their PIE's!
Next week we are focussing on Understanding Words in Context. So stay tuned to see how we represent and display our interesting new words and vocabulary! Keep learning!
Have a look at their PIE's!
Next week we are focussing on Understanding Words in Context. So stay tuned to see how we represent and display our interesting new words and vocabulary! Keep learning!
Tuesday, February 19, 2013
Valentines Day in S3!
A bit delayed in posting this but I figured, better late than never!!!
I decided this year to spend a small amount of time teaching about Valentines Day. While over here it is not as big a deal (especially in the classroom) as in the USA, but I have to say I do love the way that they celebrate the 'holidays' with fun and passion. So, I wanted to do the same. But it was also important to make the kids understand why it is celebrated in the first place! We started with some web pages researching to find out who St Valentine was and how he is linked to Valentines Day. Then we talked about cupid and his presence in the idea of love and finishing off with discussing what love is. We talked about the different kidns of love, and how romantic love is the focus on Valentines Day, thanks to the media, society and the supermarkets! But other love is just as important such as family love, sibling love, friend love, pet love and of course, love for ourselves!
The students had to choose a person to write a paragraph about. They needed to tell us why the person they chose is so important to them, why they love them and what they love about them! I had some awesome responses and so I created a bulletin board of their masterpieces. Of course, no display would be complete without glitter!!! Have a look below and see what they came up with!
It was lots of fun to make and it was great to hear the students stories about the people they love!
Stay tuned for more from S3 soon! But for now, keep learning! :D
I decided this year to spend a small amount of time teaching about Valentines Day. While over here it is not as big a deal (especially in the classroom) as in the USA, but I have to say I do love the way that they celebrate the 'holidays' with fun and passion. So, I wanted to do the same. But it was also important to make the kids understand why it is celebrated in the first place! We started with some web pages researching to find out who St Valentine was and how he is linked to Valentines Day. Then we talked about cupid and his presence in the idea of love and finishing off with discussing what love is. We talked about the different kidns of love, and how romantic love is the focus on Valentines Day, thanks to the media, society and the supermarkets! But other love is just as important such as family love, sibling love, friend love, pet love and of course, love for ourselves!
The students had to choose a person to write a paragraph about. They needed to tell us why the person they chose is so important to them, why they love them and what they love about them! I had some awesome responses and so I created a bulletin board of their masterpieces. Of course, no display would be complete without glitter!!! Have a look below and see what they came up with!
It was lots of fun to make and it was great to hear the students stories about the people they love!
Stay tuned for more from S3 soon! But for now, keep learning! :D
Thursday, February 14, 2013
My classroom!
Week 2 is almost over. It's crazy to think we have already been back at school for 2 weeks! Time flies when you're having fun!
I'm slowly getting my classroom back into order after emptying it at the end of last year. Some work is stating to get put up and it's great seeing the students put so much effort into their work. Here's a sneak peek into some of the things around my classroom!
As you come to my door I have these attached. I saw it on Pinterest and was inspired to make my own! It's great and gives confidence to the students that they are ALL of these things and can BE all of these things!
Then of course is my phonics wall. We use Sound Waves and this is the charts depicting the sounds, the spelling variations and examples. It matches my warm up slides!
The first Technology and Enterprise activity we did last week was Paper Weaving. Sounds easy right? You would be surprised how little fine motor skills are practised as students move into the higher grades! But, I have to say, these guys did really well at this! Only a few struggled and they look fantastic hung up! Bright and colourful - just the way I like it!
I'm slowly getting my classroom back into order after emptying it at the end of last year. Some work is stating to get put up and it's great seeing the students put so much effort into their work. Here's a sneak peek into some of the things around my classroom!
As you come to my door I have these attached. I saw it on Pinterest and was inspired to make my own! It's great and gives confidence to the students that they are ALL of these things and can BE all of these things!
One of the first activities we did on the first day of school was a standard 'Get to know you' activity. They had to write the letter of their first name and fill it with images of things they liked and needed to visually represent themselves. Here's two examples I have displayed in my class.
The first Technology and Enterprise activity we did last week was Paper Weaving. Sounds easy right? You would be surprised how little fine motor skills are practised as students move into the higher grades! But, I have to say, these guys did really well at this! Only a few struggled and they look fantastic hung up! Bright and colourful - just the way I like it!
By far the BIGGEST hit in my class is my Boggle Challenge. Students are given 16 random letters and have a week to come up with as many words as they can! There's a prize for the person/s that have the most words and one for the student that creates the longest word. As of this afternoon the longest word they had found was GATHERINGS and was 10 letters. They really are challenging themselves to come up with great words!
Today was Valentine's day and we learned about St Valentine, how the day came about, and it's link to Cupid. It's a great introduction to our theme unit on Greek/Roman Mythology starting soon! but I'll save that for my next post!
Until then - keep learning! :D
Saturday, February 9, 2013
Welcome!
Firstly let me say, WELCOME to my blog! This blog is devoted primarily to my passion, my profession and my obsession! TEACHING!
I am currently teaching Year 6 in Perth, Australia and have a really wonderful bunch of kids this year.
Week 1 of Term 1 has just finished and I can't believe how quickly the week flew past! It was so busy in class setting rules, routines and standards, and busy after school preparing, creating and assessing! Some late nighters here which is why I slept for nearly 10 hours straight last night! My body was playing catch up!
Anyways, the purpose of my blog is to show you what happens in my classroom. I will be using it to share some of my ideas, some of the things I create, some of my student's work and hopefully bring a bit of inspiration and motivation to others along the way!
First up, Week 1 was all about getting organised! We are so lucky at our school to have Interactive WhiteBoards in every classroom! We use them for our daily Warm Ups for subjects. One in particular was spelling. We use the Sound Waves series for our spelling. My routine is simple. I have one PowerPoint document with the words listed one on each slide. The first thing we do is Speed Test for reading. I flick through the slides as quick as possible and the students have to read quickly like sight words.
Next I have another document with the words again, but three times in succession. The first slide we say the word, spell it, then say it again. (Eg. manner, m-a-double n-e-r, manner).
The next slide the word is broken into phonemes (individual units of sound). (Eg. /m/ /a/ /nn/ /er/)
The last slide the word is broken into it's syllables. (Eg. mann/er)
I am currently teaching Year 6 in Perth, Australia and have a really wonderful bunch of kids this year.
Week 1 of Term 1 has just finished and I can't believe how quickly the week flew past! It was so busy in class setting rules, routines and standards, and busy after school preparing, creating and assessing! Some late nighters here which is why I slept for nearly 10 hours straight last night! My body was playing catch up!
Anyways, the purpose of my blog is to show you what happens in my classroom. I will be using it to share some of my ideas, some of the things I create, some of my student's work and hopefully bring a bit of inspiration and motivation to others along the way!
First up, Week 1 was all about getting organised! We are so lucky at our school to have Interactive WhiteBoards in every classroom! We use them for our daily Warm Ups for subjects. One in particular was spelling. We use the Sound Waves series for our spelling. My routine is simple. I have one PowerPoint document with the words listed one on each slide. The first thing we do is Speed Test for reading. I flick through the slides as quick as possible and the students have to read quickly like sight words.
Next I have another document with the words again, but three times in succession. The first slide we say the word, spell it, then say it again. (Eg. manner, m-a-double n-e-r, manner).
The next slide the word is broken into phonemes (individual units of sound). (Eg. /m/ /a/ /nn/ /er/)
The last slide the word is broken into it's syllables. (Eg. mann/er)
If you want to see my entire Powerpoint you can download it here.
You will find through my blog lots of freebies and templates. later on I might think about opening a TpT store, but for now - they are free for you to download and use and change to how you want it!
Will update a bit more later!
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