We've made more headway on the tapa patterns. The kids are starting to come to grips with how tapa patterns work and have made some really beautiful practice sheets.
The kids haven't so far made any further progress on their research topic - we were somewhat thwarted today by the computers being down, and I had wanted to cycle some kids through to search for things on the Net. Instead we did our tapa patterns and then moved the classroom around. The kids got to choose where they would sit, with a few little criteria (the mat remaining where it was, clear path to the cloakbay and no one with their back to the board). They did very well and we'll see how these new self-chosen groups work together.
In the afternoon we learned about Scottish Country Dancing. It involved me getting dressed in my Scottish kit and the kids got to learn two dances. We all had a lot of fun. In fact, as I sit here typing I've still got my kilt and ghillies on!
I hope you all have a fantastic weekend and we'll see you next week.
In other exciting news, I had an ICT meeting the other day and we looked at using wikispaces. I've set up a class wikispace, with the intention that eventually the children themselves will have pages on the wikispace that they can update.
Don't know what a wiki is? Check out www.wikispaces.com and find out. Our class wikispace is at http://npsroom19.wikispaces.com. There isn't much there yet, but there will be. I'll keep using the livejournal as a diary of what's going on, but for resources and display, the wikispace works much better.
So keep an eye on both these spaces for futher exciting updates!
Tomorrow (Thursday) the children of Room 19 will be doing their Listening PAT. It'll be the first time they will do a PAT, and at Year 3 it's the only one they do. When they reach Year 4 they'll do the Math, Reading and Listening ones.
And, as always, swimming is on Friday. I have three groups for swimming, so anyone who can come in and help out is appreciated. It's from 9.00 to around 9.45. Thanks!
Oh, and one last note - Keep up that fantastic reading! It's so good to see so many children doing nightly reading with a parent, grandparent, aunty, uncle or older sibling every night. Yay!
The kids were sorted into three groups this morning for swimming, so I now have them ability grouped. If you ever want to come in and help with swimming, that's perfectly fine and the answer is always YES. Most emphatically. The more eyes on the kids in the water the better, and it also spreads my load a little.
We had a packed day today, and I hope not too many children got home with massive headaches. I know I have one - just from all the sun and heat! We spent a great deal of our time outside today, and our "quiet time" after the Sports Night practice was probably one of the more peaceful 20 minutes we've all had in class. We all just rehydrated ourselves and sat back for a moment, reading and listening to music. The rest of the day was hectic, though.
That's part of the reason we didn't get around to swapping books for the weekend! So please, this weekend, it's either re-reading their book from Thursday a few times, or reading their own books. Most children got books out of the library today and have taken them home in their book bags. These (and public library books) do count as home reading so please record them in their Home Reading book.
Oh, and if anyone would ever like to take Stratus home for the weekend, please let me know. I'm not offering it to the kids in general, because I don't want them pressuring and pestering their parents to please have Stratus for the weekend, but the offer is there. He's low maintenance, but he is noisy. He gets seed, loves some fresh apple or other fruit or vege (just not avocado), needs clean water, and gets covered at night. Once he's covered, he goes to sleep pretty quickly and remains quiet while he's covered.
We just got started on working in our math groups today, and the kids even helped name them. We have the Kiwi, Tui and Pukeko groups. Right now we're doing addition and subtraction, starting mainly with addition, so you can reinforce this at home by helping to teach your kids their basic facts to 10, then to 20. If they're already pretty clued up on those, try basic facts to 50 and even 100!
We're also looking at getting into the real research and individual learning part of our cultures topic. I'll be sending home a Home Learning sheet tomorrow where the kids need to (with your help) fill out where they were born, what languages they can speak, and where their family is from. Down the bottom is also a space for them to write which culture they're interested in learning more about. This will come home in an old recylced "homework" book that they all got given in their desks at the start of the year. I'll use these infrequently to send home little bits and pieces that they need family assistance to answer. When they all come back we'll put some pins in our new world map showing where everyone is from.
Just a reminder about the Home Reading books - I know that parents get very busy, especially if they're also working, but please do fill out the Home Reading book with your kids every night. They get no other regular homework, and keeping up reading is so very important. Thanks!
It's been a week since my last update. Last week we learnt a bit more about greetings in different languages, we learnt some math games and how to look up words in the dictionary. At this stage of the year it's still a lot of setting up routines stuff, really, and book layout.
We've got our Class Treaty finalised, and these are the things we have come up with...
We agree to:
1. Listen carefully and follow instructions.
2. Keep hands, feet and objects to ourselves.
3. Move around in a sensible manner.
4. Respect others and their property.
5. Be kind and fair to others.
Those five rules cover a lot of ground, and there is a list of consequences for breaking them. For more information on what exactly this treaty entails and the consequences, see the red wall in the classroom, near the front.
This week for topic we will pick a different culture (we looked at Chinese New Year last week) to find out about, as well as finishing off finding out what we wanted to know about Chinese New Year.
This Friday will also be our first time swimming. Hoorah! Swimming is so much fun for the kids, so please remember to remind them about their togs. If you're available on Friday morning to come and help out with swimming, please let me know. I would welcome the help. Swimming is a compulsory part of the curriculum, like math and spelling, and children must come with a note if there is a good reason they cannot swim.
I sent home the Home Reading books today with the children who had them. They're quite excited about these books, so please make a big deal about them. They're fantastic little things for helping motivate children, with certificates and stickers for reading 50 times and so on. They'll bring home reading every night, and a poem on the weekends from now on.
Look foward to seeing you tonight!
What a great start to the week! We had a lot of fun in Room 19 today, and we started learning about how to set out our books for Handwriting and Writing. The kids really enjoyed having Stratus around, and he'll be around for a while longer. They were most surprised to see the fish tank there, even though there weren't any fish in it (or perhaps they were even more surprised because there were no fish in it!). I'm hoping to have some different tetras in there on Wednesday. I haven't had much luck with tetras in the past, so we'll see how we go!
We learnt a little bit about Chinese New Year today, and most of the kids found out that they were born in the Year of the Dragon or the Year of the Snake. I am most jealous of those lucky Dragons - I was born a Monkey! We learnt that this year is Year of the Rat, which makes Mrs Edington very happy.
We finished the afternoon with some sketching practice - drawing what we see and not what we expect or want to see. The kids got to experiment with the sketching pencils, then had to draw objects around the class they'd never drawn before. What talented kids I have in Room 19 this year!
A notice went home today that needs to be filled out and returned ASAP - permission form for school trips. It was hard to get across to the children that it wasn't for a particular trip and that no money was required. It is simply a form that needs to be filled out so that your child can go on school trips.
Book bags - please make sure your child has them at school, even though we're not doing reading yet. It's such a convenient way of keeping all those notices in one tidy place.
We will be starting swimming in Week 3, not this week. I will give the kids plenty of notice.
Well, we've all survived Week 1! We have made a start on our topic (Cultures) and have even talked about a Class Treaty (or set of rules). Over the weekend I will be looking at the suggestions from the children and translating them into positive language eg. "Don't run inside" will become "Move sensibly around the classroom" and so on.
I have also tried to prepare the class for our very special visitor next week - Stratus! If they come home raving about a cockatiel, you know why. Stratus is my 3 year old male cockatiel. He is tame, to a point, and needs to be reaquainted with being around different people and especially strangers. He has gotten very used to a quiet household where there are only a few people, and he bites a lot at the moment. I will not be taking him out during school time, because he does still get anxious and, yes, a little nasty, with anyone other than myself. If all goes well and the kids respect the very basic rule about Stratus (NO putting anything near or in his cage - including hands!), then he will hopefully stay as our class pet for the year.
With our "Cultures" topic we are looking at different places that people in our class are from, or even where their parents are from. If you're from somewhere overseas and would like to come in and talk to the children about your country and culture, please do let me know!
Also, please let me know if you are available on a regular basis to be a parent helper, even if it's just for an hour or so. At this level we go through a LOT of reading books, and it's a constant battle keeping on top of filing them. If I could have someone to come in and do my book filing on a Friday, it would be most helpful. If you're not sure where or how to file books, never fear - I will show you. It's just all those little things that are sometimes time consuming but need to be done. After art projects I often need help framing and displaying their work. Even if you want to come in and help with art, that's always useful. One more adult running around topping up paint makes all the difference. Right now we're planning on doing art on a Monday, but this is subject to change. Having a parent helper or two during swimming time is also great, and we will be doing swimming from Week 3 on a Friday. Please do come and see me if you want to help.
This year we will not be sending books home with children who do not have book bags. This includes books from the library. They simply get too damaged in school bags. So if your child comes home without a book one night, it could be because they forgot to bring their book bag to school. Please make sure you empty it every night and that it is back in their bag for the morning.
I think that is all for now. If I think of anything else, I'll post it in the next entry.
