BINGO

Having been grappling with how to let children self direct their learning in Maths, Ben's, now imfamous words - "From structure comes freedom" came to mind. Muireann had suggested making BINGO sheets for Maths as she had used them and they had worked great, so I set about creating a sheet for the blue pebbles group. Once this was done, my struggle with how to manage writing came to mind, and so I did another BINGO sheet.

And I'm happy to say that both are working really well (day 2!).

 

Writing with the Starwars Concept Group

The Starwars Concept group has lots of early writers. All have great ideas, most struggle to get the ideas on to paper. I have had various discussions over the last two weeks surrounding this, and it is only now that they are about to move on that I think I have a good understanding of their needs. Some can write by themselves but need help to stay on track, others won't write unless you are with them, some try, try and try and make mistakes and it doesn't worry them and others can't make a mistake. For some the challenge is holding the pencil and writing "on the line" - this was solved by highlighting the lines to write between, using the initial sounds in the words to try the words... all are emerging writers and whilst I believe in setting high expectations I think mine were too high.

What I realise now is that they still needs lots of learning around the technicalities of writing, such as forming the letters, using letter sounds, using high frequency words, planning what to write, lots of repetition, and lots of support (using tools such as word cards etc). More modelling and exemplars so they know what they need to do. I don't think I was explicit enough - lesson learned, and I'll have to track how I go with Sharkspikes for the next 2 weeks.

Technology

At the moment I have a love hate relationship with Technology! I'm still coming to grips with using a MacBook and having been a PC user for 20+ years i'm having to dig deep and focus on my Growth Mindset to ensure that I keep on trying!
I made the mistake this week of linking all my devices - MacBook, Ipad and Iphone, and then wondering where my data allowance had gone when gigabites of data was flowing between them all.  I now have some great family photos (my daughter in the bath covered in bubbles!) on all devices when that's not really appropriate!
I have also discovered that the best way of transferring photos is to join the 2 devices using a cord - just like you would a digital camera.
Devices are wonderful but you can also loose 2 (or more) hour very easily!

"From Structure comes Freedom" Ben Witherford 2015

I seem to say these four words to myself a lot at the moment! Everything I'm trying to do in the habitat, I come back to "From Structure comes Freedom". Whether it's organising myself or my learning groups! Currently on a quest to apply this to my Maths, Reading and Writing in a more fully rounded way so that by giving my students some structure, they have the freedom to choose and decide on the direction of their own learning. Watch this space!!

Inspirational Viodeos

Week 6, Term 4 Claire and I talked about communication and we looked at this video.

During term 3, we started talking about using the space more effectively and Claire pointed me towards the following video;


The Seven Spaces of Technology in School Environments from NoTosh on Vimeo.




Whilst Myross Bush school were visiting we had some PD from them about "child centered" learning and "Discovery time". Looking into this further I found this on VLN;

and this:

both these videos have helped me start thinking more about what "Discovery Learning" could look like at SPS.

Video from EdTalks where Dr Julia Atkin talks about the essence of the NZC.



Dr. Julia Atkin: Expressing the essence of the NZ Curriculum from EDtalks on Vimeo.

Sir Ken Robinson talks about how to create a climate of possibilities.

Focus on Literacy – writing

With a focus on Immersion to gain interest from students, a trip up the gondola to immerse ourselves into observing our surroundings was great. I’m actually quite proud of my drawing, and what a fantastic place for a team meeting.

Writing hasn’t been going that well, trying to teach all 15 children at once with their varying needs and demands. Muireann suggested breaking them in to smaller groups and then giving them rotating writing tasks such as hand writing, spelling, group writing…. anything that helps with the basic skills whilst intensively working with the others. Emma tried this on my CRT day and she said it worked really well, although the sentence I chose for them to piece together was too hard. Must try and make sure it includes lots of high frequency words so the children can succeed with this.

We looked at the writing cycle and applying this to 5 year olds. The biggest reflection has been to ensure there is a purpose for the writing – whether this is writing for our blog http://kimiakau.blogspot.co.nz/ or to publish and share with the family, or Skippers children, or to have on the screen in reception… once the purpose has been established then the motivation to write should be enhanced. This will be really interesting to monitor as the Starwars Concept group has some very reluctant writers with limited ability at the moment. Hopefully, with a clear purpose their writing will improve. Whilst there is plenty more in the cycle – drafting, crafting, and sharing I’m choosing to focus on just picking an audience and with only 4 days of writing left with this group it will be a challenge!

Hands on learning

Thermometers…who would have thought that such a simple piece of equipment could show change in action in a way that children can see. Watching the little red line drop as we moved from inside to outside, and then from in the sun to in the shade. Very hard to actually read the numbers – a bigger 5 year old specific version of the thermometer would have been clearer to read, but the children all did well and could see and feel the change that occurred, and could talk about why. This was a deliberate act as I believe that hands on experiences aid the development and retention of understanding and repeating the exercise for a couple of day lead to the children predicting what the thermometers might say.

Another visible change was that of drawing around shadows. First drawing completed at 11:00am and measured and then another done at 12:15pm. Not only had the shadows change size but also changed position “they are diagonal” from Bella M. “Why?”, an explanation from Calder about the Sun moving and so the shadow will move too. Great observing and seeing change. Also great inspiration for writing.

Hoping for a day of cloudy or rainy weather so we can use more measures on our weather stations!