Five 4 Friday

Hi all, where has the week gone?!

I am linking up with Casey from Doodle Bugs with my Five for Friday.

One - It's the weekend

Lucky for me it's report writing day and Monday is a public holiday. I get to enjoy a four day weekend as I have finished my reports.

Two - Are we there yet?

Early this morning we hit the road to begin our 7 hour journey to Canberra. My partner will be working here next month, so we thought we would make the most of the long weekend and check out Canberra.

Three - We made it!!

We arrived in our Nation's Capital just after lunch. We unpacked and headed to Parliament House.

 Tomorrow I will get my 'Teacher Nerd' on and spend some time at the National Museum of Australia and the War Museum. 

Four - Our Learning

Our classroom has lots of windows and I love to show off our work and learning.

Four - Winter

It's winter here in Aus and we have already had a record amount of rain.

Guess what I forgot to pack for our holiday? That's right my jacket!! 

Claire 

More Science

We explored how lightning and thunder are formed today. 

We began by brainstorming all that we knew. 

Then we checked out a website on our Interactive Whiteboard. 

We then made static electricity with balloons, our hair and other things in our classroom.

  

Later on we made thunder when we popped a paper bag.

Claire 

Five for Friday

What a week!! I didn't think I would make it to Friday, but I did so here I am with my Five for Friday with Kacey from Doodle Bugs.

Number One – Measuring

This week we have been exploring informal measurement using unifix blocks and icy pole sticks. The kids had a ball predicting and measuring their friends, I even got involved.

Number Two – Moon Pictures

The paint has dried on their artwork and their moons look amazing.

Number Three – Once in a Blue Moon

I received an email from my dad during the week showing off an amazing picture he took of the moon on his new camera (which linked perfectly into our topic). Lucky for me I get to have his old camera. 

Number Four – Interesting words

This week one of our learning focuses during Daily 5 was 'to look for and using interesting words in our reading and writing'. Our focus was based on ‘Expanding our Vocabulary’ from CAFE Literacy. While the students were reading they recorded any interesting words that they heard and then added five to our class list. 

Number Five – Toby

This week has been a crazy week and I have neglected my fur child – Toby. This weekend is dedicated to taking him on big walks and of course helping me write my school reports.

Happy report writing to all the Aussie Bloggers.

Claire 

A Day in May

Our school was a blur of yellow today as we took part in 'A Day in May' supporting the Challenge Foundation - a non-profit group providing services and support for children affected by cancer.

  

We dressed in yellow, we danced in yellow and we sang in yellow. 

We bopped lunch away to a disco in our gym. 

Claire 

Painting the Moon

Using paint, flour and bottle caps we painted moons today.

While some children we painting the rest of the grade were writing facts and description words for the moon. This was the planning for our information report we are writing later on in the week.

Claire

Five for Friday

I am trying my first Five for Friday by linking up with Kacey and Doodle Bugs for Five for Friday.

Number One - Books the best gift after diamonds

I finally received one of my favourite books 'The Aunties Three', which I popped into the post for my new little niece Isla. I was really excited when I saw that Nick Bland has released his latest book 'King Pig'. Paula and I got to had a sneak preview of this book last year while we were teaching his niece. 

Number Two - The Moon 

My students and I have been learning about the phases of the moon, I also learnt a lot when I realised I had been teaching them about the Northern Hemisphere phases when we actually live in the Southern Hemisphere. Let's say science isn't always my forte. 

Making a moon finder

Number Three - I'm an Aussie Blogger

I linked up with Paula from Paula's Place, who is one of my good friends and previous team teaching buddy, to celebrate and share bloggers in Australia. 

Number Four - Family

My beautiful Nana, Sadie who will be 99 in July is currently battling a chest infection and is quite unwell. I have spent the last few days realising just how precious our families are and all the wonderful times I have spent with my Nana. She is strong woman and I know she will be fine. 

Number Five - Anything Goes

A friend and I went to see a local production of 'Anything Goes', they a fantastic job and I was quietly jealous of their talent. I love going to musicals and supporting my local community. 

Claire 

Walk to School Day

Today our school took part in the a national Walk to School Day, to encourage our students and families to walk, ride or scoot to school.

When they arrived at school they received a sticker and a cup of fruit salad. We also made it a crazy shoe and sock day, of course I got involved. I do love a dress up day! 

We celebrated the day at assembly by getting some of the best crazy shoes and socks to parade up on stage. We had over 300 kids walk, ride or scoot to school.

Whoops I forgot to lose the socks when I went to the shops.

Claire 

Thank you

Wow!! I have reached over 1000 visits to my blog! I have loved watching my world map fill up with pink dots from visits around the world.

Please excuse my lack of recent posts, I have been fighting off germs that have invaded my learning space.

Some where over the Rainbow

I Love Stickers

I love stickers and I love a bargain.

I have used Vistaprint over the years for many projects, but after spotting another teacher making their own stickers I had to do the same. 

   

Claire

Classroom Shopping... again!

I couldn't help myself today, but I had to browse around one of the 'cheap' shops after work. I was going there to get supplies for our Mothers Day craft session tomorrow. Like most others I am always on the look out for classroom resources.

These magnetic boards caught my eye, which will be perfect for 'Word Work' and these gorgeous badges for my home reading awards.

Claire

Green Thumbs

I hate to admit it, but I have garden envy...

Over the last week I have been watching my neighbour grade 1/2 P and their teacher Sue Parker creating a garden in one of the planter boxes outside our classrooms. The students have designed stakes that encourage other students not to play with their plants.

As you can see from the pictures they have done a great job.

But I am happy to say my grade will be working on their own garden very soon and we cant wait.

Now what to plant...

Claire

A new Word Work task

Who would think that a packet of dry-erase textas, 

a window and spelling words would be so much fun.

1 + 1 = 2

For four hours a week I take a Cohort group for Maths 'Maths Movers', which means our three grades (Sue’s, Carmen/Louie’s and mine) are split into 3 new grades based on needs and abilities. Over the last few months I have been playing with my Maths planning and planners using the basis of Daily 5. Last year Paula played around with this with our grade and I have taken it a little further.

Our classroom timetable, excuse
the messing writing.
 I have taken out the
students names.

So I guess you could say I have Daily 4 Maths -

1.     Maths with Teacher – work with me

2.     Maths with Someone – partner work, such as a game

3.     Maths with Self – working on fluency of numbers/counting or number recall

4.     Maths with ICT – playing a maths game related to the topic

When I introduced the four tasks I referred back to our Daily 5 Literacy. I still work on the principle of ‘whole-small-whole’, starting the lesson with a short introduction, then going off and doing our four tasks and ending with a reflection. In one session/hour I see each group once. Our timetable is displayed in the classroom and the students are able to independently follow along.

It is lovely how the students have taken to this; I guess their experience with Daily 5 Literacy has really helped them settle in and understand the process.

Students brainstorm of what they
know about Addition.

My next step with my planning is to link into the four strands of AusVELs Maths –

-     -  Problem Solving

-      - Reasoning

-      - Understanding

-      - Fluency

through making these visible in my planning, to my students via our Maths Timetable and making them aware of this language.

I would love to know what your Maths lesson looks like.

Claire

Maths with Someone

Maths with Self - Mental Recall and Fluency 

Maths with Self - Mental Recall 

Maths with ICT

Books are not dead...

Today I headed to Clunes (a historical gold rush town) to meet up with my mum and dad. It was the annual Booktown Festival, the town of Clunes opens up its doors to sell books old and new every year. Book traders from around Australia gather in this beautiful town to sell their rare, second hand and new books.

I spent the day rummaging through boxes, shelves and shops on the hunt for books to full up my classroom library and my own at home. I found a few treasures, but none so precious as a copy of one of parents gardening books they had written in the 80's. I laughed out loud when I turned the book over to see a picture of my parents in their 80's attire and my dad without grey hair.

One of my favourite finds was what I am guessing a very old benchmarking book.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend.

Claire

Experiments and Craft

My students and I have finished off our week of learning about clouds by making a 'Cloud in a Bottle' and 'Fog in a Jar'.

I found a great cloud 'crafting' activity on another blog and my students absolutely loved making their own different types of clouds out of cotton balls.

Next week will continue to be cloud watchers and investigate rainbows.

Claire

Its a Rabbit...