More Books for Our Classroom Library

So excited these two books finally came from Fishpond about animals in warfare. I will show the students tomorrow. I also watched the Blu Ray of War Horse. It is an M rating but if any parent wants to borrow it from me and watch it with their son/daughter just let me know.

Also, the following books are new to our little classroom library. I have read the majority of the books on the shelves and there is a blog that goes with the Little Library of Rescued Books. 

http://littlelibraryofrescuedbooks.blogspot.com.au/

I try to collect authors where possible so children can read a whole series of books from the one author. I notice that Cathy Cassidy is pretty popular withe the girls and I have been encouraging students to read some of Colin Thiele's books. 

"tion" words, Storm Boy, 3D shapes and Softies

We started the morning with spelling bingo and then had a quick look at the "tion" words they will be working on as part of their literacy on Monday with Mrs Klonaris. I asked students to see if they could work out the base word for each of the nouns. It was then on to viewing Storm Boy. Nearly the whole class has now read this Australian classic. 

After the movie students were given the nets for some 3D shapes they will be making up for their Shapes Boards. They have now finished with the hand drawn nets of tetrahedrons, cubes, rectangular prisms and squared-based pyramids. The shapes included a truncated pyramid, a stepped pyramid and a double hexagonal pyramid. On Tuesday they each receive a piece of card on which to glue their shapes, name them and write about the attributes of each one under it,  such as its number of faces, edges and vertices. I told them about Euler's law too.  The number of faces plus vertices - 2 will give you the number of edges. 

This chart may assist some students when it comes to naming and writing up about their shapes.

After lunch we settled into making more of our softies.

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Common, Proper and Collective nouns, 3D shapes...and mould

All of the morning we focused on noun types and played quite a few games after I arrived at school just on time after a severe flooding of my kitchen!.

After Music students focused on making a triangular-based pyramid, and some started on their prototypes for a rectangular prism. We also discussed the explanatory posters they will begin next Tuesday.

Constructing nets

Excellent fine motor skills

Triangular-based and squared-based pyramids

In the afternoon students did a half hour block of dedicated reading as we have not done this for some time and then they had more time on their mould investigations.

Thinking outside the sqaure

The persuasive posters are worth coming in to have a look at. Well done 5/6 C!

A few of my students also had the opportunity to build some 3D shapes using some materials Mr Bucher loaned us for the afternoon.

Fun with 3D shapes

SF's creations

Make an explanatory poster about a 3D shape...moderation task

Soon we will be moderating across schools (primary and high school) looking at a students " know how" on planar and 3D shapes. Yes, it is full on, never a dull moment!  Just had a two hour staff meeting on this one. On Tuesday I talked to students about one of the major text types they need to understand  and be capable of using by the end of their grade six year, (refer to Writer's Notebook entry :http://thelittleclassroomuptheback.blogspot.com.au/2012/05/maze-grids-composite-numbers-and-more.html ) Tomorrow I will be showing the class two examples of explanatory texts focusing on pyramids and prisms,  showcasing effective use of tables,  photos, drawings,  (diagrams)  and explanations. Students will be requested to produce a poster of their own using ICT skills or good old-fashioned technology OR a mix of both to show what they know about a prisms and a pyramid and/or other amzing 3D shapes. They can use my personal camera, the class camera or their own to take a photo  or two for use in their posters. Gosh, the office is going to love me every time we print out a colour photo.  Students need to closely analyse the above posters in order to design and construct their own.  I will have Plasticine and toothpicks (good old fashioned technology) in the classroom from which they can make their physical representations. Must find the time to transport the old microwave for Plasticine-softening purposes in the next few days. Maybe tomorrow.

Time to hit some grammar...PLUS amazing mould photos for downloading

Grammar was the focus of this morning's first lesson after forty minutes of shifting in the new furniture.  Nearly all class members pulled their weight carrying  out the old furniture and bringing in the new, repositioning computers and reconnecting them, cleaning up messy areas of the room and cutting away plastic wrapping from the new art stools. Students have stunning new blue desks, an art table with six leaning stools to go underneath and I have a lovely shelving system so I don't have to be constantly grovelling on the floor to find books and lessons etc.  A big thank you to the wonderful Mr Norm Hopwood who helps me out enormously. He definitely deserves double the wage he is currently receiving. The room is looking amazing.

Also thank you Anthony Burrows; I promise I will stop complaining now... for a bit anyway :)))).

The persuasive posters that came in on time now adorn the front display along with The Lorax reports. The percentage of students who will pass English is rising! Well done, and believe you me, the hard yakka is well-worth it. Hopefully the other persuasive posters will come in tomorrow.

Below is the spelling/grammar activity they had to complete in table groups. Students did a great job.

Make plurals from the following. Think... do we drop the y and add ies...OR  do we just add s? We discussed the rules for this on both Monday and Tuesday...now can they apply it. 

At the bottom of your classification list write a rule which would help a younger student in the school.

abbey      dolly pulley alley
berry        jockey fly chutney
city         gallery survey chimney
story       lolly valley donkey
honey       trolley spy copy
journey     lady nanny dragonfly

Just before recess we talked about common nouns and played a quick ten minute game of name a common noun. I shuffled a set of alphabet cards and students had to quickly say a common noun beginning with that letter. Now that was interesting.

After daily phys.ed. and a Maze Grid,  I gave a lesson on making a square-based pyramid from card from scratch. Students did reasonably well with their compass skills and net construction. I brought in some of my husband's woodworking glue today as this makes the gluing up of tabs infinitely easier. We will keep persevering with the development of fine motor skills.

Music options students did the whole in and out and in and out of the classroom thing from 12 o'clock to three but I have every confidence in them that they are keeping up with any new major developments!

In the afternoon students were given time on their mould studies, and their persuasive posters if they were a bit behind with them. A few students also  designed, published and printed off their covers for their Science reports. They are keeping all published pieces in their portfolios. 

Below are photos taken of the mouldy bread samples (day 7 for the majority of students) which students can directly download from this site to insert into their Science reports. I suspect a few of these samples are also harbouring colonies of bacteria. Let's keep them securely taped up!  I felt a bit queasy looking at some of these. Hmmm the electricity unit is definitely less stomach churning.  I hope these are labelled correctly; I am sure the students will tell me if I have them wrong. Thanks you AK for being a great recorder today.

AK

TR&JS

TR & JS

AD & EC

VL

VL

TJ & T

AK & CB

AK & CB

No action here KF & P

NS

NS

AK & CB 

OF & MH

NS calculating percentage of mould growth

AK calculating percentage of mould growth

Maze Grids, Composite Numbers and more arrays...and Writer's Notebook

This morning, following spelling bingo, we started with a vocabulary and listening skill. I spoke to the class about the "How to increase your word power" section in Reader's Digests I used to do these religiously as a kid and eventually was scoring full scores after a couple of years of persistence.  I have just brought a whole bag of of them into the room and they will inhabit the bottom shelf in our newly acquired withdrawal area. We focused on a list of words with dog as part of their structure, eg dogmatic, dogleg, dogfight etc...

After that we hit The Writer's Notebook and discussed the major genres they need to focus on this year. Students now have the following list written out  so they can keep a tally of the text types they do and eventually publish for the portfolios.


Narrative: to entertain

Recount: to retell events or experiences

Procedure: to explain how to do something

Report: to present factual information in a logical sequence

Exposition: to persuade others to think about an issue from a
                    particular viewpoint

Explanation: explains how or why something works or happens in the world

Then we really got stuck into maths and completed three lessons. It was then off to library. In the afternoon students had time on their mould investigations and their persuasive posters promoting the war-themed picture books for older readers which are due in tomorrow.

One persuasive poster complete

I am still chasing The Lorax film/book report from four students. Two have assured me they will be handed in tomorrow. Students  now need to be firmly focused on their Science reports on their mould experiments and be chipping away at each section a bit at a time. These are due before the end of term, one month away.

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.