Assembly, Hanami, Squash, Spelling and you guessed it... more mouldy bread

Hanami

The comprehension passage

Cutting out the blossoms

The naked trees

Following the usual whole-school assembly and a 5 degrees celsius start in the little Siberian classroom, my students did their desk change for the week and we headed off to Japanese class together. I always enjoy these sessions because I learn so much about another culture. I used to teach the upper primary Italian program at Illawarra Primary School. The lesson today focused on the Hanami. Students did a short comprehension piece and then cut out blossoms to adorn the trees which had been prepared for today's lesson. Next week I will hopefully post up a photo of the finished product.

After recess students went to their daily physical education sessions and then got straight into the phyical eduaction lesson which focused on squash skills.  It was then back to the classroom for the remainder of the day.

This weeks' spelling is focusing on the "drop the y and add ies rule." We discussed the rule that if a consonant (eg. b,d,f etc) precedes the y then the rule is to drop the y and ies. We looked at what happens if the letter which precedes the y is a vowel 
as in donkey, valley...then the rule  is to simply add the s. Knowing our language there is surely some word which doesn't follow this rule but it usually works.   Eight students already understood this rule and applied it capably on various occasions in standardised test so they published work and had extra time on their Science projects (yes, the mould) or on typing up their recounts about the grade 6 camp.

After lunch we successfully watched the whole clip on moulds in Mrs Franz's room whilst her students were at Japanese because their internet connect is more reliable than ours. This film will definitely assist students with the write-up of their background to their science reports.

Following that students had time on their Spelling and their Science investigations. We discussed how the cm squares could be used to work our percentages of mould on a surface area.  This weeks spelling bingo words are:

family families

daisy  daisies

city  cities

lady  ladies

butterfly butterflies

baby babies

activity  activities

memory memories

hobby  hobbies

carry  carries

bury   buries

marry marries

cry  cried

hurry hurried

apply applied

Individual feedback was also given on the prime numbers lesson we did on Friday. Some students are still have problems with this concept so I will do another quick lesson on Tuesday and discuss composite numbers at the same time. There are also new books to the classroom library.

As from next Monday I will no longer be teaching on a Monday as I need to have the time to visit my dad in Devonport on a more regular basis. I spoke to the class about this during the afternoon session and trust that they and parents understand my decision.

Writing Science Reports, Arrays and Prime Numbers

All the grade 5/6 classes assembled today in Mr Moore's room for a presentation all about how to write up a Science report. The session went for forty minutes and there was question and answer time. All of the grade 5/6 teachers presented some aspect of the presentation. Students were also shown samples of works done by students from lasts years grade 5/6 classes. They have four weeks to write up their reports. Students all have this guide which can serve as a check list in their Science books and I gave my students an additional copy to take home and keep near their computers. Students without  access to computers at home, which is a third of my class, will be given some time in class to word-process drafts they have written. 

 Here is the guide they were given:

Writing up an investigation as a scientific report

Step 1 Background /Introduction

Write a section explaining about what moulds are then...

• Briefly outline what you are going to investigate.
• Give a reason why the research is important and why you and other people would want to know the answer to the question

Step 2 Hypothesis

• Your prediction(what you think) will happen.
• Give good logical reasons to support this.
• Refer to the information you already know

Step 3 Equipment and materials

• A list of equipment

Step 4 Method

• Use clear sentences to explain each step taken to set up and undertake the experiment
• Order paragraphs so that each step is a new paragraph
• Make sure they are in the correct order
• Include a discussion of how you are making sure the experiment is a fair test.
• Be clear about which variables you are controlling and how.
• A digital photo of the equipment set up or a diagram would be useful to illustrate what you are saying.

Step 5 Results

• You need to have kept good observations all the way through your investigation
• Look at how you can put your observations into a table or graph
• You may have a selection of photos or written observations

Step 6 Discussion

• This section explains your results and gives a chance to discuss why you think certain things happened
• You can include a section of what worked well and why
• Discuss what didn’t work well and why
• Think of ways you would improve the investigation if you did it again, e.g. were there variables that you could or should have controlled?
• Suggest ways to build on from what you have done; another experiment to take the investigation further or to investigate new questions you have.

Step 7 Conclusion

• What you have learned and why this is important to know.

Step  8 References/Cited Sources/Acknowledgements

A glossary could be included

Following this session we continued on with our arrays work started earlier in the week. This will be marked and returned to students on Monday morning.

After recess we spent thirty-five minutes completing the boundary walk of the school grounds to ensure the students knew where they can and cannot play during their recreational breaks.  It was then straight onto looking at their bread samples to make observations and to work on the bread mould unit up until lunch.  I assisted two students setting theirs up as they missed the lesson yesterday. So for them this was day 1. One pair of students found that one of their samples already had mould growth which was visible to the naked eye.

Students can access photos of their samples on the student drive. Students now all have their individual log-ons.

After lunch we did a lesson on prime numbers and looked closely at Sieve of Eratosthenes. 

We discussed instructional texts and they way they are set out. Students had to read this with care in order to sieve out the prime numbers. The solution was then displayed on the board.  

We finished the day with the second half of the story I started yesterday called The Sorcerer's Apprentice and looked at the use of alliteration in the book as well as a lot of new vocabulary.  I also added some Colin Thiele books to the classroom bookshelves. Nearly all the students have read Storm Boy. We will be viewing the film soon.