The Little Classroom Up the Back: Friday and Flat Cubes

Today in mathematics, we started the second lesson in the sequence looking at 3D shapes. We recapped on the terms faces, edges and vertices (plural for vertex) and, today discussed the term net. Some students have these words on their Individual Spelling Lists (ISL). Students then drew up and cut out nets consisting of six faces and classified them into two categories of Works to Make a Cube and Doesn't Work. We discussed book work and the importance of organising things in a logical manner. Students will require another fifteen minutes to complete this task but worked extremely conscientiously on the task. They look after each other very well in their table groups. The lesson following this one involves students making their own net for a cube from scratch(without templates) and evaluating their efforts.

This one works!

Checking to see if the nets make a cube

Classifying the nets

Some samples

Students performed well on the morning test on ough words and should be proud of their efforts. Any words misspelled were added to their ISL card and written out five times each. Next week's focus in on those rogue ei words and there are two levels of difficulty. These words will be used as the Spelling Bingo words for the week.

Today we also finished the class novel, The Pinballs, and students then watched the last film clip of the television movie. This helped any students who had been absent for any chapters of the novel. Next week, students will finish two more of the major associated activities and the comprehension questions. Well done to those students who submitted question 1, 2 and 4 for assessment. We discussed what is a classic novel. This one was written in the 1970's by well-known American author, Betsy Byars, and has survived the test of time. Below are some samples of the tension levels graphs the children filled in as we read each chapter.

Three tension levels graphs

We also looked at one of Australia's poets, Steven Herrick,and I read a couple of his poems. We have two of his book in our classroom library. Students then watched a couple of film clips of him reading his own poetry. I am encouraging students to read as much as possible. They were pretty amused by the following poem about things parents will never say to you:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3jZyonew2Y&feature=related

In the afternoon, students had a visit from a nice fellow from Life Be in It encouraging them to enter the triathlon to be held at at Blackmans Bay Beach in the very near future. The information will be given out on Monday when I have had a chance to photocopy it. Students who had completed the homework requirements for the week continued with their Softies. I modelled the tacing off of... and use of pattern pieces, layering, cutting out, and also economical use of resources. Many students have now finished their needle holders and are preparing their pattern pieces. I made two Softies which are on display in the cabinet to give them some idea of what is possible with persistence and effort.