Dictionary usage, "ful" and "sce", triangles...

We started the day with Spelling Bingo, focusing on ful and sce words. Students have spelling tonight instead of the usual maths as they didn't do the spelling on Monday.  These words will be tested on Friday.

There were two spelling groups this week. 

We also talked again about how to locate words in a dictionary; this is a real skill and children need to be shown how to do it efficiently without wasting time by just randomly flipping. When you are young they are hard to use. The internet is also of course extremely quick and handy for checking spelling. We discussed the use of the two header words at the top as a quick way of checking what words appear on that page. We will focus on the pluses and minuses of spell checkers on computers soon. Ample time was given in class on the spelling contract.

Library was taken by Mrs Louis Sutton today and the students were very well behaved and enjoyed their session. 

After lunch we had silent reading a focused closely on triangles, looking at what is a triangle and how are they classified. Some students has quite a few misconceptions and hopefully we have ironed these out. They will continue with this task tomorrow looking really closely at equilateral, scalene, right angled and isosceles triangles.

I sat down individually with each of the grade six students and went through their last persuasive text they wrote and talked about their future goals. The tangrams they did with Mr Mac have been backed and are now in their portfolios. Our next focus will be on quadrilaterals. Students need to keep making their 3D shapes and get them glued onto their boards. Twelve students will be presenting their Explanatory postrs on their chosen 3D shapes in assembly this Thursday afternoon.

A couple of students have finished their soft toys and borrowed my camera to get a few shots outdoors to use in the advertisements they will be writing to promote their toys.

All photos students take go into the 5-6 Coote folder on the Photo Drive so students can access them to use in their reports, diaries, stories etc...

Good luck to those students running in the Huon and Channel Cross Country tomorrow.

Canteen Roster...SRC, Naplan, Physical Education, 3D Shapes and Art

The second day of Naplan testing passed fairly quietly. The grade 6 students completed a reading test whilst the grade 5's did the Naplan reading component. After that students scored a Physical Education lesson much to their delight. 

After recess it was onto the final in class session on their 3D shapes boards. Students can now make their additional shapes at home and stick them on as they complete them.  Twelve students now have produced their A3 Explanatory posters focusing on their chosen two 3D shapes.

In the afternoon, some students had art (the ones who didn't have it  last week, half the class) and music options went ahead as usual. I also went through the persuasive texts with individual grade 6 students and dicussed their assessments and the  progress they have made individually. Some students really took on boardwhat they needed to do to achieve a higher result. This is a really important skill/realizaton to have, to  recognise what needs improving and to actively work on it.  Those students who didn't have art continued with their shapes boards and their Explanatory texts. I am really over the moon with the standard on this and students are achieving good results with a small amount of teacher guidance.

Most students have now handed in their Storm Boy covers or story boards and next Tuesday we will write up the information on the camera angles and filming techniques used in the film.

Canteen roster, I will put this up in the room on Tuesday when I return. I have only just managed to access my email as my connection at school is dodgy.  This Friday KF is on at recess and NS is on at lunch. I was pleased to see how responsibly these grade 5 students were doing their jobs today, as I have canteen duty on Wednesdays at lunch time. Their manners were impeccable. Well done girls.

SRC update, today at recess during our fortnightly SRC meeting, the students voted overwhelmingly in favour of Cystic Fibrosis for the local charity, and a team of five representing grade 2 to grade 6 students has been organised to paint over the graffiti on the climbing wall under the supervision of our wonderful groundsman Norm Hopwood.

Get well VL, because we miss you!

Exit Mould and Camera Angles

Today we shipped out the mould as it was starting to smell pretty bad and could become a safety issue.   I took a photo of the class behind the mould and later they will receive a photo each as a memento of the time mould invaded our classroom. Students have collected enough data to write up their reports. We looked at some possible ways of graphing the data and also at the online program Create A Graph which students might like to try to master.

http://nces.ed.gov/nceskids/createagraph/default.aspx 

Installation made by two of the girls: EXIT mould

Shapes boards are shaping up

Shapes Board

Shapes Board

After recess we continued on with Shapes Boards and naming the shapes and recording information about their faces, edges and vertices.  I gave out a few more interesting nets on card. Student might also look for a few of their own. Three more students completed their Explanatory texts using ICT.

After lunch we had Silent Reading and then looked at they way camera angles can be used in film. On Tuesday we will be looking in detail at the way they have been used in the film Storm Boy.

3D Shape Boards and the artistic side of the common old cube...

Today we spent the majority of the day on our 3D shape boards. Music options went on as usual. This morning only half the class headed off next door for their art lesson whilst I worked with the remaining twelve students on their 3D shapes and explanatory posters.  Next Wednesday they will swap over. This allows Mel to spend more time helping a smaller group with their string prints.  All students are drawing birds and then using string to give definition to the pictures which will be printed at a later date.

String print

The shapes boards will be pinned to the display boards when not in use so to keep them safe. Students should now have four shapes made from scratch using their own hand-drawn nets (cube, rectangular prism, tetrahedron and a square-based pyramid. They are receiving nets daily to construct and add to their boards.

3D shape boards

Working on their shapes

An outstanding effort by AK, very impressive!

A new improved rectangular prism, well done.

I also brought some of my son's award winning bunnies into the room which he made completely from scratch adapting nets to make bunnies. He made these in his first year at Hobart College. Here are three out of a series of fifteen. We discussed cardboard models, skeleton models and hybrids models in relation to these artworks. I really want students to see the connection of learning about 3D shapes to the real world and also the artistic world.

Model bunnies

Below is an example of an Explanatory poster produced using ICT skills by a capable grade 5 boy. 

Here is another outstanding effort

I found this by accident on the internet on Sunday. I made these artistic picture cubes with some Blackmans Bay students some nine years ago. Here is one I designed using Graeme Base illustrations as an inspiration. This is an exceedingly challenging activity and you have to think outside the square BUT it is on offer for those students ho feel they have the design and perseverance skills. This one is obviously produced with a printing aid. The ones below are hand-drawn.

The Lorax assignments came off the display wall today and are now in students' portfolios along with their individual assessments. Tomorrow, those students who finished their persuasive posters promoting picture books which have war as a theme, will be sharing them in the afternoon book buddy assembly. Here are three examples:

I might also add, I am currently marking this week's spelling which focused on "tion" words and the standard is very high. Three students have promised me they will have theirs in by tomorrow. Tonight's homework is to start a cover or storyboard panel (which I showed them how to do) on Storm Boy.