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!