Exploring some different portrait ideas - going for full sized portraits this year - got the idea from Art Lessons For Kids. - some great links down the side column for further ideas too!
But then found this blog: sewingschool which has some fun ideas that may be useful in discovery time.
While I'm sharing some links...love the ideas I have gleaned from HERE for resources and learning experiences within the classroom programme.
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
Friday, February 4, 2011
Noodles & Rubber Chickens
I have been exploring ideas for fitness experiences each day for students in my Year 0-1 class. Kiwidex is always a good start :-) We have noodles and rubber chickens which could be fun to use in fitness time or for brain breaks outside. You can find some fun noodle games HERE.
PASS THE CHICKEN! - this game is from an American site (educationworld.com)...but we can do some number 8 wire thinking and adapt for our own students :-)
In this game, nobody wants to hold the rubber chicken -- the game's only prop! To begin the game, all students sit in a circle. Select one person to be It. That person holds the rubber chicken. The teacher or a "caller" says to the person holding the chicken, "Name five presidents of the United States. Pass the chicken!" As soon as the caller says, "Pass the chicken," the person holding the chicken passes it to the right. Students quickly pass the chicken around the circle. If it returns to the original holder before he or she can name five presidents of the United States, the holder is still It. Otherwise, the person holding the chicken when It finishes listing five presidents is the new It. You should prepare the topic cards for this game in advance. Topics can relate to your curriculum or be general information topics. The student who is It must name five items in the called-out category in order to get rid of the dreaded chicken!
Some Suggested Topics
PASS THE CHICKEN! - this game is from an American site (educationworld.com)...but we can do some number 8 wire thinking and adapt for our own students :-)
In this game, nobody wants to hold the rubber chicken -- the game's only prop! To begin the game, all students sit in a circle. Select one person to be It. That person holds the rubber chicken. The teacher or a "caller" says to the person holding the chicken, "Name five presidents of the United States. Pass the chicken!" As soon as the caller says, "Pass the chicken," the person holding the chicken passes it to the right. Students quickly pass the chicken around the circle. If it returns to the original holder before he or she can name five presidents of the United States, the holder is still It. Otherwise, the person holding the chicken when It finishes listing five presidents is the new It. You should prepare the topic cards for this game in advance. Topics can relate to your curriculum or be general information topics. The student who is It must name five items in the called-out category in order to get rid of the dreaded chicken!
Some Suggested Topics
- fast-food restaurants
- authors of children's books
- countries in South America
- sports teams
- things that grow in the desert
- vegetables
- cartoon characters
- musical groups
- cereals
- rivers in the United States
- candy bars made with chocolate
- large bodies of water
- animals found in salt marshes
- cities in [your state]
- cities in Florida
Sunday, January 2, 2011
the iPod touch
What is the value for children in using an iPod touch?
ENGAGEMENT
Teachers at R.P.S. had the opportunity to participate in a Games Based Learning Session through the e-central cluster. One key point I got out of this was the level of engagement that games based learning has over many other forms of learning in our schools. See below, they are oblivious to the presence of mum/aunt with a camera!
RESEARCH/FINDING OUT
In December my daughter (Miss 10) was doing some research on Christmas celebrations in two other countries. My TELA laptop is out of bounds for the kids, I need to free up some space on the bulky PC in the office to speed it up and Miss 8 was playing Samarost on the wee net book. I suggested the iPod or my husbands iPhone and she was off googling Christmas in other countries, flicking through pages and gathering the information she needed to put together her report.
DIGITAL IMAGES
Miss 10, Miss 8 & Master 7 got a gen 4 Ipod touch each for Christmas. The camera doesn't have good resolution (0.5 mp) for still images but the video's work well for computer screen viewing, haven't tried on a larger screen yet... The still images are O.K. for viewing online, yet to try printing one.
There are some iMovie apps that can allow kids to create movies with simple editing on their iPod's. Today's plan is to download some of these and trial them on the kids iPods. I also plan to download the 'Hipstamatic' Camera or something similar (not sure I want to pay the price as it's only 0.5 mps so might trial a cheaper one for a bit). Having played with their video functions, I'm thinking that my 'flip' might be old technology, however I love that I can just plug it straight into the lap top with the flip out USB. Right now, Mr 7 is creating a movie story with some of his toys and introducing the characters before launching the story line....he's even doing the singing and sound effects for it as he goes.
LITERATURE
We have enjoyed Cressida Cowells 'How to Be a Pirate' and 'How to Train Your Dragon' books as well as some CS Lewis books like 'The Horse and His Boy' as audio books on long car journeys and on our trip to Dunedin for Christmas we enjoyed some Famous Five books by Enid Blyton. I'm not sure this should ever replace the enjoyment for parent and child of reading a 'real book' at bed time but it can open up literature for children like Master 7 who doesn't enjoy reading but loves the worlds of books. There are 'book apps' where you can listen to the story and see the words or just choose to read the words and flick the pages, great sounds and graphics on these -ones like 'Mike's Bike'. There are also a series of 'readers' but not sure on the corresponding New Zealand Reading Levels as these are Level A, Level B etc. Apps like iWrite words where a child's finger traces the letters to make the words can help with letter formation and simple spelling. Apps like Miss Spells Class can work for older students and adults.
BASIC FACTS
There are lots of apps that support Basic Facts Recall, some better than others.
PROBLEM SOLVING
Lots of thinking - divergent, lateral, outside the square - is needed for some of the games that my kids have on their iPods. Even seemingly mindless apps like 'paper toss' require thinking as the wind direction and speed changes how hard or the direction you 'toss' the scrunched up balls of paper. Early Physics.
TIME MANAGEMENT
Miss 8 is currently keying in family birthdays to her iPod calender.
ENGAGEMENT
Teachers at R.P.S. had the opportunity to participate in a Games Based Learning Session through the e-central cluster. One key point I got out of this was the level of engagement that games based learning has over many other forms of learning in our schools. See below, they are oblivious to the presence of mum/aunt with a camera!
RESEARCH/FINDING OUT
In December my daughter (Miss 10) was doing some research on Christmas celebrations in two other countries. My TELA laptop is out of bounds for the kids, I need to free up some space on the bulky PC in the office to speed it up and Miss 8 was playing Samarost on the wee net book. I suggested the iPod or my husbands iPhone and she was off googling Christmas in other countries, flicking through pages and gathering the information she needed to put together her report.
DIGITAL IMAGES
Miss 10, Miss 8 & Master 7 got a gen 4 Ipod touch each for Christmas. The camera doesn't have good resolution (0.5 mp) for still images but the video's work well for computer screen viewing, haven't tried on a larger screen yet... The still images are O.K. for viewing online, yet to try printing one.
There are some iMovie apps that can allow kids to create movies with simple editing on their iPod's. Today's plan is to download some of these and trial them on the kids iPods. I also plan to download the 'Hipstamatic' Camera or something similar (not sure I want to pay the price as it's only 0.5 mps so might trial a cheaper one for a bit). Having played with their video functions, I'm thinking that my 'flip' might be old technology, however I love that I can just plug it straight into the lap top with the flip out USB. Right now, Mr 7 is creating a movie story with some of his toys and introducing the characters before launching the story line....he's even doing the singing and sound effects for it as he goes.
LITERATURE
We have enjoyed Cressida Cowells 'How to Be a Pirate' and 'How to Train Your Dragon' books as well as some CS Lewis books like 'The Horse and His Boy' as audio books on long car journeys and on our trip to Dunedin for Christmas we enjoyed some Famous Five books by Enid Blyton. I'm not sure this should ever replace the enjoyment for parent and child of reading a 'real book' at bed time but it can open up literature for children like Master 7 who doesn't enjoy reading but loves the worlds of books. There are 'book apps' where you can listen to the story and see the words or just choose to read the words and flick the pages, great sounds and graphics on these -ones like 'Mike's Bike'. There are also a series of 'readers' but not sure on the corresponding New Zealand Reading Levels as these are Level A, Level B etc. Apps like iWrite words where a child's finger traces the letters to make the words can help with letter formation and simple spelling. Apps like Miss Spells Class can work for older students and adults.
BASIC FACTS
There are lots of apps that support Basic Facts Recall, some better than others.
PROBLEM SOLVING
Lots of thinking - divergent, lateral, outside the square - is needed for some of the games that my kids have on their iPods. Even seemingly mindless apps like 'paper toss' require thinking as the wind direction and speed changes how hard or the direction you 'toss' the scrunched up balls of paper. Early Physics.
TIME MANAGEMENT
Miss 8 is currently keying in family birthdays to her iPod calender.
Some App Review Sites...
Sunday, November 7, 2010
Graphic Organisers
Quite a few pdf's HERE
edHelper.com has some too
Teacher Vision
enchanted learning
& all these came about as our team had a discussion with Rose Hague today and blooms taxonomy and the associated verbs were suggested as a tool for 'thinking critically' when considering this aspect of literacy in the National Standards. Here's a link to 'Applying Bloom's Taxonomy' that looks useful in the development of comprehension type questions in our reading/writing and all learning really.
edHelper.com has some too
Teacher Vision
enchanted learning
& all these came about as our team had a discussion with Rose Hague today and blooms taxonomy and the associated verbs were suggested as a tool for 'thinking critically' when considering this aspect of literacy in the National Standards. Here's a link to 'Applying Bloom's Taxonomy' that looks useful in the development of comprehension type questions in our reading/writing and all learning really.
Sunday, October 17, 2010
Professional Learning
Check out my prezi HERE
Was fun putting it together :-)
More about provoking thinking than providing information.
Was fun putting it together :-)
More about provoking thinking than providing information.
Friday, July 16, 2010
Maths Games
Following the maths symposium in Dunners yesterday I'm enthused to create some more games! After seeing what one of the teachers from a New Entrant class at Columba College has put together (an amazing maths folio!!!) I'm keen to get this all recorded too so lots of photos will need to be taken of what I already have with links to the learning that these would be useful in fostering.
Arithmetic Rummy - has the cards you can print, rules etc.
Box cars & One eyed jack - lots of games linked on this page.
number club - place value
pig and some other games - using dice
25 - addition & subtraction game with cards
Sunday, July 11, 2010
setting goals
Half way through the year, new term starting...time to reflect and develop some goals!
To reach a port we must sail, sometimes with the wind and sometimes against it. But we must not drift or lie at anchor.
Oliver Wendell HolmesLittle goals for little children - Set a goal, take action, achieve a result!
The goal ladder - with a link to a cool ladder graphic for breaking down goals
Goal setting - general info
I enjoyed reading some ideas on 'back to school success' for both my own children and students I teach! I am thinking that 'did I give my best effort today' could be a good reflection focus!
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