Junko Morimoto and ... The Pinballs for Homework

Today we focused on literacy beginning with Spelling Bingo as usual.  I again modelled the use of full sentence answers and using paragraphs. Students are really start to show great improvement in this area. Students were given time to finish answering the 8 questions about The Pinballs, the class novel, and another block of time to get another of the bigger activities done. Tonight's homework is to complete a third activity. The unit of work on The Pinballs is due in Friday morning. Students will be assessed on this using a rubric and some written feedback given. 

In Art this morning students finished off their banners. I guess these will be hanging in our classroom soon.

Woodwind students were in and out from 12-00 o'clock on. The grade 5s seemed to enjoy their first lesson.

In the afternoon, for the first 20 minutes, students had silent reading whilst  I worked closely with four grade 5 girls on the art of writing persuasive texts. Students then worked on their microscope sketches, their microorganism jigsaws or their softies designs.

We focused on illustrator Junko Morimoto for half an hour, looking at some of the books she has illustrated and written. She emigrated to Australia from Japan in 1982. We watched a short film about her experiences during the bombing of Hiroshima. She was thirteen years old at the time. I did this short lesson as students missed their Japanese lesson due to House Meeting on Monday morning. 

http://littlelibraryofrescuedbooks.blogspot.com.au/2012/03/phoenix-by-nan-hunt.html
Some students have also opted to read Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes which also provides interesting insights to the aftermath of the bombing.  There are two copies of this book in our class library.
http://littlelibraryofrescuedbooks.blogspot.com.au/search?q=Sadako

About 25% of the class read for half an hour every night. It would be great if we could elevate this percentage.

The majority of students handed in their Luck Dip maths activity.

One hydra coming up!

Bacteria anyone?

Preparing a softie design

Cutting out pattern pieces

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 Buddy Assembly and more...

Today was a resonably productive day. We are now up the chapter 21 of The Pinballs. If students have missed any chapters they can borrow the book to take home.

Shuffling large cards is not easy!

Playing the place value game

Place Value Game

We had our second lesson on place value and looked at numbers up to a million. At the end of the written activity students played the game called Make the Number.

Following their weekly 45 minute music lesson, students read about Antonie van Leeuwenhoek and watched a clip about his life. Their homework tonight is to write up a recount. See the blog under this one for further details and the short film. Students have been taught how to use keywords when note-taking, rather than trying to write down cumbersome sentences when watching a visual text. Students can later create sentences from these keywords.

In the afternoon we had our first buddy assembly and the two grade six students who ran it did a superb job. Congratulations also to those five students in the class who received certificates. If students would like a copy of the Count on Me PhotoStory, which tracks the activities for the past two weeks, they need to bring a memory stick and it can be loaded on, along with the first PhotoStory made a week ago entitled Super Happy Fun Times.

At lunch time I worked with three boys to show them how to construct simple boxes. We will be making these in class to house our microorganism jigsaw puzzles we will be making next week.

Some boys learning the art of box making

Boxes which will house microorganism puzzles

Using paragraph answers, analysing bread and...all those microorganisms

This morning, after Spelling Bingo, we read two more chapters of our class novel, The Pinballs. I then modelled how to write an informative paragraph to answer one of the questions students have been asked to answer in relation to the novel. Students all have a set of these questions but they can be viewed in an early blog entry at:

http://thelittleclassroomuptheback.blogspot.com.au/2012/02/first-pinballs-assignment.html

Students had input and we wrote a response to question 1. looking closely at the character of Harvey. Students have been asked to plan and answer this question again in relation to either Carlie or Thomas J.  and to make their argument convincing. Homework on Wednesday night will be to complete a few of the questions on this contract. I have suggested students use their Writer's Notebook to plan an approach.

Microorganisms Display

The main focus of the day, however, was on our Marvellous Microorganisms  science unit. There is a display at the front of the room which I would like students to take a close look at, and to read the descriptors which accompany the photos. There is also a basket of some pretty interesting reading in the basket in front of this display, all to do with the topic. Our other class novel is There is a Worm on My Eyeball , and we read the introduction today and completed a maths task based on some of the contents.

Following recess, and after  the grade six students returned from a thirty-minute plus meeting with the the P.E teacher, we began our first Science investigation. It is all about closely analysing different types of bread looking at features such as texture, odour, taste, appearance, and ingredients. Students put their findings into a table and drew and labelled diagrams, and I am glad to say they worked extremely conscientiously on this. One student, who previously showed little interest in anything, completely blew me away with his industriousness. I hope we are on a good thing here. Students worked in small groups and had roles and responsibilities. Much of our investigation work in Science will be done in this way.

Examining bread samples

Following the lunch break,  we did a mathematics activity looking at the difference between a linear centimetre and a square centimetre, and students looked at the approximate number of microorganism that live on a square centimetre of different parts of our body. Pretty scary stuff! They were asked to look for mathematical relationships between the different numbers and to explain their thinking mathematically. Tonight's homework is to finish this activity.

The first Pinballs Assignment

Here are some other editions of The Pinballs, our current class novel. Students have to complete one of the 8 possible activities from their contract tonight for homework. We read three more chapters today, discussed the use of their Writer's Notebook. Students were given nearly an hour to plan and start their chosen activity in class.
The possible activities were:

1.  Write a letter pretending you are one of the main characters, describing the foster home and the other foster children.

2.  Prepare a comic strip version of one of the chapters or one of the significant events in the novel.

3.  Write another chapter for the book.

4.  Design a new jacket for the book. Remember to include a blurb on the back. You could get some ideas by looking at the various versions that have been published.

5.  Harvey makes lit of things that have happened to him to try to come to terms with his life. Make some lists of your own.

6.  The children talk about having fifteen minutes of fame. Write about what you would like to happen if you had fifteen minutes of fame.

7. Write a poem with each line beginning "I remember when..." OR "I would like to forget..." You may like to alternate these lines.

8. Make a PhotoStory or PowerPoint presentation promoting the book. (Students were shown four examples of book promotions this morning in class.)

Students were also given a rubric clearly outlining what they are being assessed on. They need to complete three of the activities over the next week. There are also some questions to be addressed in section one of the contract after we finish reading the novel. We are at the halfway mark.

Today students also had their first music lesson after recess and a book buddies session in the afternoon where they conducted an interview each and got to know their buddies.

Unfortunately, we are still waiting for computer logons, and  it turns out there are some 18 000 students waiting statewide, so I am hoping we are not too far down the list. We also don't have a class log on as this classroom didn't exist last year.  It is a little frustrating so if students have access to a computer at home and can use it for PowerPoint presentations and publishing top copies of their drafts it would be great.

She'll be right - Tuesday 21st

Today we got off to a flying start. We read four more chapters of the class novel The Pinballs and students made their contribution to the being positive poster which will be displayed in the school hall later. They made a sign from shells and added one thing positive from the last week. A large number of students also learnt how to use a glue gun. The shells are from our very own beach at Blackmans Bay. My neighbour Sonia and I collected them last night and they were washed and bleached, hosed down and ready for use. O did a great job of organising the shells and also explained the task well  to classmates.

Students also started three lists of describing words about the main characters in the novel. This will be useful when they come to do the associated unit of work which goes with the novel. Students also had a punctuation exercise to do on an excerpt from the novel and they could work individually on it or in a mall group. We also watched the first part of the tele-movie based on the novel which helped reinforce some students' understanding of the plot, and the relationships the children in the foster home are beginning to form with each other.

After recess students completed a small skills test in mathematics and then did some reading.

In the afternoon, after three quick "riddle offs" where students learn about play-on-words (puns),  I introduced the Softies unit and shared what materials we have in the room. Any donations of cotton, ribbons etc would be greatly appreciated. Students have started their preliminary sketches of their monsters. Overall, it was a most productive day.

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.