Geo15

Year 4 students may want to revisit the video and song used to intro duce decimals to day in Maths.

http://www.homeschoolmath.net/teaching/d/tenths.php

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6pZyY6mM3g

There is a good app -Coop Fractions – that will support what we are learning.

Welcome back for term 2. We started with a short week for students but managed to get back into the swing of things quickly. We welcomed an new student to our class and started a few new routines.

Following a recent Professional Learning workshop with educator John Fleming, I am experiementing  with using digital and card flashcards. John Fleming has had success in improving student outcomes using flashcards as a way of reinforcing student learning, so I am prepared to give it a go. (I seem to remember using flashcards when I first started teaching – perhaps that is showing my age!)

I have joined a site clalled Quizlet on which I am creating my digital flashcards (it is possible to print the cards from the site too). I have created a group Geola15 for the students to use BUT they have to be a member of the site and accept the invitation I have sent them at the geographeps email address to access the flashcards. As a member of the site they could search for flashcards that have been created on the site.

So to get to the Geola15 cards, first go to Quizlet.com and join them up using their geographeps email address. I suggest they use their first name and first inital of their last name as their user name, and our class password so that if they access the site at school and have problems, I know their user name and password. Otherwise they must know these things themselves .

I also showed the  students a fantastic research and inquiry site - instagrok. Students don’t have to join to access the information, but if they do, the sites they visit for information are recorded, and students can record their research in a journal on the site. I hope to have the students using the site for their research on natural and processed materials.

The next few weeks are busy, with year 3 students gearing up for NAPLAN. We a practising time management aand getting used to the format. My aim is to protect students from any anxiety about NAPLAN by making sure they are well prepared. We will be tapping and breathing before each test. Please reassure your child that NAPLAN is not a big deal, and it doesn’t fundamentally change who they are or your love for them. If you are feeling anxious about it, don’t be. In the scheme of things it is a small amount of time to assess students and provide the powers that be with information to use for school and system planning. As I tell the students, “I don’t know of a single case where a student ,or even a teacher, has died doing NAPLAN, so it can’t be too bad”. All I expect is that they do their best and have a go. In last year’s student reflections, some students even said parts of  NAPLAN were fun and they found it easy.

I have lots of things planned for term 2, including more individualized activities in literacy and an opportunity for some students to personalise their learning.

I am having a big push on listening to the instructions first (and now only )time and completing work to a high standard of presentation (also important for learning according to John Fleming) so some students will be redoing work that is not completed set out as requested and others will be writing out words that they have copied incorrectly from the sheet or charts around them. I thought I had a high level of accoutability for students but not as high as John Fleming! I am also revisiting cursive writing joins with a view to some students doing cursive writing in all subjects at the end of this term. To do this many will need to correct their pencil grip or they will not be able to write quickly. Research has shown an important link between brain devlopment and cursive writing.

So, as you see, it is all systems go for term2 in LA15

Many thanks to the parents who took the time to come to our learning journey. Your child appreciated you coming to see their work, even if they didn’t say so. Research has shown that students whose parent value education and support their child by showing an interest in what is happening at school, achieve better outcomes at school. It was interesting to see parents attempting activities that we ask the students to do every day.

The students have suggested An Enjoyable English Morning for next term! I love English, but even I will find it a challenge to make it enjoyable for a whole morning!!!! I’ll give it my best shot.

Next week is a busy week ( Is there any week that isn’t?) There are several assemblies – include an Anzac Ceremony on Thursday.

Apps we have used this week include notes, Readit and Moverlite. We have been working on our google sites, presenting our unusual animal information. If you get a chance, ask your child to show you what they have been doing. They can access their site from home. The address is  firstname. first letter of surname@geographps.wa.edu.au the password is a secret of course, but students should remember it.

Have a great weekend.

Thank you , thank you , thank you to the parents who helped out at our Sensational Science Day. It was great to have so many extra hands to help out. The students had a great time and their reflcetions indicate they learnt lots about our science topic “Natural and Processed Material”.  The egg challenge was a huge sucess, with most students able to drop their egg without breaking it. The question now…. what to do with 4 dozen eggs?

Today we learnt about commas. There is an interesting animated cartoon @

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zpJPo_ND3c&feature=related

We also did homophones. Ask your child what they are. There are quizzes @

http://www.teachingandlearningresources.co.uk/homophones.shtml

http://www.teachingandlearningresources.co.uk/homophones2.shtml

We also worked on our unusual ani al report online. Most students now have a web page in our school domain ( some are called Unusual animal, which we will ahve to change to their First name only

It was very exciting today when the students from LA12 came to help us log on to Google Apps. Each student now has a user name which is:           firstname.first initial of last name@geographeps.wa.edu.au

Password – known to the students (if they remember)

This logon gets students into a secure Geographe domain, with an administrator at school who controls all activity. It allows students to create websites, share documents with me and other students at Geographe, and work on documents they have started at school when they get home. And lots more things I don’t even know about yet!!!! Some students were lucky to have buddies who helped them create a page on which to do their unusual animal report. See if your child can logon and show you what they did. If you get on, please post on the blog and let me know what you think.

Ask your child about the app Moverlite that they used to flick photos (screenshots) to my iPad so I could see what they had learnt about angles today. It is amazing! We also used apps like Doodle, Hello Colour Pencil and ShowMe, which have screens you can write on, to practise our writing formations. Our emphasis is on correct formations as a lead up to joins so that letters can be formed and joined quickly for cursive writing.

Is the way your child does maths  foreign to you? There is an app created by teachers to explain the four operations and the ways we teach them now.  Maths Key Stage2 Guide is free at the moment and worth a look.

After the fantastic behaviour of students at the Marvellous Maths Morning, we have decided to do a Sensational Science morning on Friday March 23rd. Notes will come home Monday.

Have a great weekend.

Today we talked about 2 competitions that students can enter. Both are online.

Name the chuditch, which requires parent consent,  can be found at

http://www.switchthefuture.com.au/enter 

There is also a writing competition (which requires the student to log in)  at

http://www.write4fun.net/

Our class in also entering Take the Challenge – a health challenge that takes place next erm. Expect to hear about it in coming weeks.

For those parents interested in apps for their child – I use an app called AppsGoneFree that alerts you to apps that are free (often for a very short amount of time0. There have been some good education apps recently. To keep up to date with the huge number of apps released daily, you can download AppShopper for a daily update.

The apps we used to day were:

Phonic Genius, School A-Z  and Word Avalanche.

We watched the verb song:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2NOav4Xx1c

and the contraction song

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2NOav4Xx1c

For those parents looking for  activities to build and strengthen sight word knowledge, try

http://www.familylearning.org.uk/sight_word_games.html

For online activities try

www.familylearning.org.uk/sight_word_games.html

Thank you , thank you, thank you to all the parents who helped out with Marvellous Maths Morning. It was great to see some Dads too! Well, the students had a great time ( and hopefully learnt lots). The teachers were so impressed with the behaviour and the engagement in the activities, that we will be encouraged to have more activities like that. Of course, we could not do it without extra hands, so thank you all.

We have been used our mobile learning devices in most lessons today.

The day began with Times Tables as our emphasis is on learning our tables so we can use that knowledge to solve maths problems. This app provides the student with 4 options for the answer. It is designed so that students try to beat their highest score.

The dictionary app was useful to find the definition of  ‘prefix’. ShowMe and Draw allowed students to record words they knew that had the prefix “un”.  We watched a rap to support our learning about prrefixes at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOJrjNR7ZZM or goolge song + prefix (there are a few).

Phonic genuis was a great source of words with silent letters, or as one Doctor of English says “alternate ways to make a sound”.

Some students are ready to begin presenting their information about the unusual animal they are researching. We listed at apps  could be used including Doodle, Pixtromatic, Sock Puppets, PaperDesk lite, Notes,  Audionote, Make Dice lite, Noterize, Storykit,and  iFlash FREE.

Students may choose any way they want to demonstrate their learning about the animal. We brainstormed lots of ways to present – both digital and paper based.

It was a very busy day (as usual).

Remember Wednesday is library day.