Farewell to my Class of 2014!

Last Friday was the last day for the totally awesome team of pupils that I have had the pleasure to teach during 2014...what a super fun year we have had together! It was quite an emotional day as this group of pupils really had a wonderful team morale and we had a great working partnership between us - I will miss everyone!

I always aim to develop pupils who will be independent, confident and capable young men and women, who care for others and respect themselves, and I think I achieved that (with more than a little help from their families/parents and previous teachers too)...good luck to all of them as they move on to the next chapter of their learning journeys, at their new schools in 2015...

I Was Here legacy project

Last year and again this year I have had my Year Six pupils each decorate a fence paling, with the intention to build a legacy fence around the back boundary of our school. Here is this year's results...

In January I will place these and the 2013 palings out on the fence.

Reading - Hit for Six task

An idea based on this post by USA teacher SmartChick for ways to make the most of articles in magazines for children; I am sharing it here so I can find it when I want to use it in Term One...can be applied to any informational text...

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I've given it a cricket analogy (the Cricket World Cup is being held in NZ early in 2015). - the pupils I will have in 2015 took part in a cricket skills programme in Term Four of 2014, so the cricketing terms should be familiar to them.

HIT FOR SIX

To hit the ball over the boundary on the full (without bouncing inside the boundary line) is called 'a six' as it earns the batsman six runs for his total and is the ultimate shot a batsman can score.

Here are the steps: (Specific reading skills in brackets)

1. Gear up: before reading the article, look at the title and illustrations then write three questions about it. (Predict/Ask questions/Use prior knowledge)

2. Ready the bat: read the article then write three (or up to five) interesting facts that you learned. (Find information/Retell/Select relevant details)

3. Keep your eyes on the bowler: skim the article to find at least three important vocabulary words. Define what each word means. (Use vocabulary in context)

4. Swing the bat: explain the main idea of the article. (Select key ideas or themes/Evaluate/Identify author purpose)

5. Follow through: write a summary of one section of the article. (Find information/Summarise/Select key ideas or themes)

6. Celebrate the shot: ask two or three questions about this topic you would like to find out more about. 

Are you listening?

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Some cool tips here for ways to help pupils learn to listen...

http://www.edutopia.org/blog-five-listening-strategies-rebecca-alber