Hamburger Book Reports

For the class assembly this year, my class sang a parody about books. To compliment this they also wrote book reports on a book of their choice. They included the characters, setting, plot, conclusion and their favourite part. The students really enjoyed making these hamburgers and they have looked wonderful hanging up in the classroom for the last few terms.

The link to the song we sang is below.

https://youtu.be/psby0mI6ZLY

Designing Egg Driven Lego Cars

For Design and Technology this term we designed our own egg driven Lego cars. Students first drew a labelled diagram of their lego car, highlighting the safety features for their egg. They set to work building their car. Many teams needed to adapt their design due to lack of parts, or inappropriate design. This was a real challenge for the students as they had to make decisions that would change the safety of their egg or the speed of their car.

The students loved racing their lego cars to see whose egg would come first.

Practicing Visualisation

During my Guided Reading rotations, I use a listening station. Students are given different tasks to engage with and this particular task was visualisation. Students are given a story to listen to through head phones. As they listen tot eh story they draw the images that come into their minds, this might be the characters, the settings of particular descriptions. These drawings are then put up on the window to make a display of all the different things we see as we read.

Planning with Planbook

This semester I started to use Planbook to organise my lessons and learning programs. Although I do not use this every day, I have found it a great time saving and organisational tool. I have been able to link in files, videos, websites and games for the different lessons. The cut and paste feature save heaps of time also.

Who's behind that recount?

I saw this idea being used by another teacher at my previous school and since then I couldn't wait to try it. The students love looking at the photos, even the shy students as most of their faces are covered. Even though the students only had space for two paragraphs of text, they still included direct speech, onomatopoeia and a simile.

Teacher's Perspectives on Inclusive Education

Previously I mentioned that I was conducting a survey on teacher's perceptions on Inclusive Education. The survey has been completed and 120 teachers participated. I have used the results as part of a university assignment for a unit on current issues in Special Needs education. I have created a pictograph to display the results of the survey.

Inclusive Education Survey

I am currently completing a Graduate Certificate in Education (Learning Difficulties). As part of one of my units, I have created a survey about teacher's experiences with inclusive education. It is a short survey with only 18 questions. I have posted the survey onto two Facebook groups whose members are exclusively teachers in Western Australia. I have offered an incentive in the form of a gift card to a teaching resource store. I am hoping that this will inspire people to complete the survey. Today is the first day the survey has been open and 16 people have replied. I am aiming for 150-200 people within 3 weeks. Fingers crossed.

I am really looking forward to interpreting the results of this survey and to find out how inclusive education is put into practice.  I will share the results once I have analysed the data.

Concluding a unit in Mathematics.

For the past fee weeks, students have ben learning about shape, location and angles. To conclude this unit, and provide a chance for students to review mathematical concepts before they completed a written assessment, we created a KWL Chart as a class.

TO do this we used the words from our Maths Word Wall. Students independently used dictionaries and Ipads to learn the meanings of three concepts they were wanting to learn more about. Students then shared their learning with examples in small groups.

Setting Goals

At the beginning of semester 2, I competed a goal setting task with my class. We created a whole class goal together and students create their own personal goals. Students set 'SMART' goals and designed their own hands that would be reaching up towards their goals. Our class goals included working better as a team and remembering to bring in our completed homework. We would do this by reminding each other about our homework, developing good study practices, supporting each other and using lift-ups, not put-downs. The students decided that we would know that we have achieved our gaols when we, as a class, reached 200 Dojo points for teamwork and homework. I can't wait to see if we are able to reach our goals.

We now have this display in our classroom. My favourite part of this is that students are now coming up to me saying "Mrs Hartley, I have already achieved my goal, I got 30/60 for my maths." At the beginning of next term we might review our goals. Students can set new goals and celebrate their success.

Sight Word Practice

I have a few students in my class this year who need extra practice with sight words. I tested them using Diana Rigg sight words and created these individualised lists for each student. Twice a week the students time themselves to see if they can improve their word recognition speed. Usually students are given one or two warm-ups before I time them. As you can see the students are getting better each time. They really enjoy trying to beat their last time.

Setting Clear Expectations

I created this display in my classroom to allow students to see what they need to be aiming for with their writing. It was surprising  to see students reactions when they saw the level of writing they need to be aiming for. It definitely encouraged some students to put in more effort with their writing.

Students added blue arrows to highlight the different features in each example. This has become a useful tool for students to use as they can refer to it and see what they need to add to their writing, or when they have achieved their goals. I have also found it useful to use as a comparison when having parent meetings.

Creating 3D Shapes

We have started to learn about 3D shapes. To kick of the unit I had students use modelling clay and tooth picks to create a variety of shapes. Students also labelled their models and included the number of faces, edges and corners for each shape. The students really enjoyed this activity and there was a lot of discussion about how to create the shapes and their features.

Geography

This year I am teaching a year 4/5 class. This term we have started a unit on Geography. The students worked in pairs to create an annotated map using Microsoft Publisher. Students were given a checklist that they had to complete within a set time frame. Most of the pairs were able to achieve this.
Now students will focus on one country from each continent to examine in terms of climate and vegetation.