Danger Words...and new desks to come :)

These are the words students have been having the most problems with over the last four weeks in a wide selection of written pieces. This chart is now up in the classroom and students will  need to thoroughly check their written assignments to make sure none of these words are incorrect.

The latest t-ball photos taken on Friday are also up on the store room door.

Today: assembly, Japanese, P.E. and Library. In the afternoon we concentrated on spelling words with the au pattern. We also looked at same of the words in our language that have the combination mn:
solemn
column
hymn
mnemonics



I asked students if they could find out any other words that might have this unusual combination.  I can think of a few. In some the n is silent and in others it is not.

Homework tonight is to finish the spelling level they are on. A couple of students managed to finish this in class time today, well done!

A small group of four students who didn't need to do the lesson on the au words started cutting out and sewing their softies. They worked very well with limited supervision.

Students have set up the A-Z sheet ready for the microcosmos competition which is mentioned in the blog preceding this one.

Below is a picture of the days of the week activity the students did in Japanese. 

Students finished their Japanese lesson with the game at the following link:
http://www.digitaldialects.com/Japanese/Daysmonths.htm

The best news of the day is some new desks for the classroom and some vital mathematics gear  are on order. Yipeeeee!

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.

One very cute monster

A well-planned Softie, attention to detail

Cutting out the pattern pieces

A finished needle and pin holder

Sample toys I whipped up!

One student's plan and front piece

First Days Back...

Well, we now have had two days back at school with the students. I have twenty-four in my class which is the smallest class I have had for seventeen years. I am used to having classes in the 28-3o range so this is wonderful. One year I had thirty-three and that was quite a challenging year. There are sixteen boys and eight girls. We discussed ratio using this information. The days have been very hot and muggy but thankfully we have air-conditioning in the classrooms; I have never had this luxury before. A lot of people think Tassie is always cold but we have our fair share of stiflingly hot days with high humidity.

What have we accomplished so far? The students have learnt how to play Spelling Bingo and one boy did a great job of running it today. We play it first up every morning. More on this later. The students have all been tested on fifty demon words and some students on a hundred. Students worked in groups looking at the classroom games  in case of wet weather, and they have have had time to explore the classroom in pairs and ask questions about what's in it. 

Our class novel is called The Pinballs by Betsy Byars, and it is all about relationships and learning to get along. The central characters are Carlie, Harvey and Thomas J. Students have been filling in a tension levels graph as I read the story. It's basically a line graph following the plot.  They have a contract to complete with a reasonable amount of choice in the second section, and and rubric so they know what is being assessed. We have read through the rubric before starting the novel.  I have two copies of the book, and as I read one another student follows along with the second copy. There are enough chapters for every student to have a turn at this. Today I gave them a task called The Otherside. We all read an excerpt from the Mercury about an entrepreneur who was interviewed about his life and reactions to things. The triggers I gave the students were:                                                   My first memory is...

I love being...

My favourite time of the day is...

When I lose my temper I...

The thing I fear most is...

The thing people first notice about me is...

When no one is watching I like to...

The thing that would surprise people about me is...

The hardest thing I have ever done is...

I really don't like...

The thing that makes me laugh loudest is...

When I can't sleep I...

Most students have completed a first draft but some still need more time. I really enjoyed reading the first lot of finished drafts and have learnt a lot more about my students. I use sticky notes to make the corrections to their spelling and grammar, and students have to  transfer these to their Individual Spelling Lists to learn and do activities with. The ISL has been fully explained to them. More on this later.

The students also had their first assembly this afternoon looking at the Keys to Success and getting to know new  students and staff. In the classroom we have also being focusing on time management skills. There will be a focus on mathematics tomorrow. Students were also given a detailed list of all the stationery they received yesterday (Wednesday 15th) and what each is for. I asked them to get it signed by their parents as their first homework task.