The Great Pencil Challenge

It had to come to this..... I honestly don't know how but I think my classroom eats pencils! I swear every single day one of my students loses a grey lead pencil. It is driving me bananas!
So to fix the problem I bought a tub of pencils and found a great resource on TPT (you can find it here) and my fingers are crossed that this will encourage the children to look after their pencils! The aim is to be the last person left with the grey lead pencil. I'm not sure how long the challenge will last but I hope for at least the rest of the term! I will keep you all posted! 

Harmony Day 2015

This year we celebrated Harmony Day a little early as the actual day falls on the weekend. As a school, we accessorised our uniforms with orange. 

Harmony Day (21 March) celebrates Australia’s cultural diversity. It’s about inclusiveness, respect and a sense of belonging for everyone.

Our class was lucky to have one of our Mums make up orange hands (which we attached  to ourselves with pins and orange ribbon) and bring in Orange Jelly with peaches in it. We had a great day and as a class we focused on standing up to bullies, celebrating our differences and making sure that we promote that everyone belongs. 

In the afternoon, we created 'different' people. We had stripey, dotty, spotty, criss-crossed, and patterned people.  This was to tie the theme of "Everybody Belongs" in. 

It doesn't matter who you are, how you dress or what religion you believe in - EVERYBODY BELONGS!

 

To find out more about the initiative (and look through the educational resources) click on the following link: http://www.harmony.gov.au/

One Way to Engage Reluctant Writers.

Batman to the RESCUE!

This past weekend I spent some 'quality' time looking at the web and searching for teaching resources when I came across this!

It's a Batman comic that you can write yourself. The pictures are there as is the onomatopoeia (What's a good comic without onomatopoeia!?!)  I know a few (most!) of my students that would love to do this! I am planning on using it during guided writing sessions over the next few weeks before our Easter break.  It is going to fit very nicely with our adding dialogue writing focus we have at the moment! I'm also hoping to get some SIZZLING STARTS written into the comics!

I can see this being absorbed by my quality writers who are always looking for a challenge. I can also see my reluctant writers liking the fact that the stimulus and basis for the story are there but is wide open to interpretation.

You can download it from the link below.

http://www.lego.com/en-gb/dccomicssuperheroes/activities/comic/batman-comic-48f362e981964e869e878bb9fabdfae4



I also came across this Marvel comic book which is the same as the Batman one.

The link to the comic is below.

http://marvelsuperheroes.lego.com/en-gb/Downloads/76018.aspx


I hope you get as much out of it as I think my class will!

Open Classroom~ March 2015

Today we were lucky to have a number of special visitors come into our classroom and share some time with us. It was our Open Classrooms day which was a part of our Catholic Schools Week celebrations. This is a time that the children love as they get to show off what they are learning, the great art and craft they have been completing and just generally all the bits and pieces of the classroom. The parents, grandparents and extended families can come and go as they please and wander around all the classrooms. 

In my room, we had a number of games going on. One of the students favourites at the moment is 'Make 15'. (I will go into more detail about this in a future post). You can see from the photos that the students had a lovely time and especially enjoyed having their parents and grandparents share time with them in the classroom. 

Did your school do something to celebrate Catholic Schools Week 2015?

Components of my Classroom!

One thing I love about my classroom is making it engaging and inviting for the students and their families. We are five weeks into school and this is currently how my classroom components are going. 

The all important door! The first thing parents see and something that gets the students in your room excited before you even begin learning!

As you can see I have gone with a superhero theme in my room this year.

Another important aspect of my room is the BOGGLE board. The students love this and it is a great 'fast finishers' activity. The increase in the words being made by the students over the past few weeks has been amazing. I'm so proud of them for getting in and having a go!

Table points are a great way to engage all students to be their best and do their best. We use this as a part of our classroom positive reinforcement. The capes pictured below can be worn by the winning table at the end of the week and the beginning of the next week (whilst they still reign as table champions!).

The following display is still under construction. I am in the process of copying some book covers and pinning them around the sign to help engage the students with a variety of 'good' books to read.

A part of our 'Making Jesus Real' program is based on values. We are currently focusing on the value of being 'Welcoming'. We do this in a number of ways at our school and we focus on smaller components of this throughout the weeks. This is a little reminder of what we should be doing in our everyday life!

Aqua Fitness and Water Safety Sessions

At the beginning and end of each year, we run water safety sessions with our school. We take the whole school to the pool, we split into classes and we go through Water Safety skills developed by Royal Life Saving Society. It's an amazing opportunity to work with the kids and develop important and life saving skills. We focus on safe ways to enter and exit the pool, what to do in case of emergency and being able to cope in the water if you find yourself in a difficult situation.

This year we have been really lucky to have one of our parents (who is a qualified fitness instructor) run Aqua Fitness sessions. 

These have been fantastic for the kids and they seem to really enjoy doing them! Hopefully this is something we will be able to continue next year. 

Staying Connected this Lent.

Today we had our Ash Wednesday Mass. It's the only mass offered in our town so there were many parish/community members in attendance. It is always lovely for us to share our beautiful little church with the rest of our parish community. 

The theme we are using at our school for Lent is 'Staying Connected'. We are using the image of a battery circuit which is connected to a light globe. 

When we do good things and make good choices we are connected to God. Our connection remains strong and our lives are lit up from this connection. When we do bad things and make bad choices our connection may be temporarily disconnected. BUT by saying and doing the right things it always has the chance to be reconnected and provide us with the power and energy we need to light up our lives again. 

What an inspiring way to remind children and community members of what Lent is and why we should try and be better versions of ourselves throughout this important time in the Church's year. Happy Ash Wednesday to all!

Pancake Tuesday

Today we celebrate Pancake Tuesday 

and with it the beginning of Lent.

This week in class (so far) we focused on Lent and its meaning. We have made our Lenten promises and created crosses to hang in the room to remind us of these. We have discussed Jesus' strength and all that he sacrificed for us. The children have been encouraged to take something up, for example doing more at home to assist Mum and Dad, trying harder not to fight with siblings or trying to be a better classmate or friend. These were only a few of the ideas and many children had their own take on what they could use as a Lenten promise. 

A huge thank you to Mrs Parker, one of our Teacher Assistants at school, who in her own time made pancakes for everyone at the school including the teachers! She is a treasure! 

I know that my students thoroughly enjoyed the pancakes and were very appreciative of Mrs Parker's cooking!

How much fun are Maths games!?!

Today my class participated in two different maths games. We were working on place value and had been looking at three and four digit numbers. Add a little competition and things got really interesting! The students were begging to play more!

The first game was using place value cards and I would write a number on the board and the students (who were in small groups) would make that number with their cards. We played awhile just getting used to the game and then we added a little heat and made it that the group who constructed the three digit number first got a point. As always this heated things up and we had a lot of fun! 

It was never about actually winning but more about getting quicker at identifying and making the numbers recorded! 

We then moved to a game using numeral expanders and four dice. This is the game that moved us from three-digit numbers into four digit numbers. The students had to throw four dies and then make the biggest number possible and record it on their expander (or as we call them 'number slinkys'). Once we had completed five of these we had to record the points. The students used their calculators to add their four digit numbers and the group that came up with the highest total was given the honor of being the highest number collector!! A couple of maths games that have really engaged the children in learning more about place value! Simple games that engaged and excited the students to know and learn more!