Oral language is important!

http://www.theedadvocate.org/listening-not-testing-will-improve-childrens-vocabulary/

The Tale of Sun and Moon

Adlaw, god of the sun; by James Claridades

We are privileged to have many Filipino children in our team and we will celebrate their culture through our art/drama/literacy unit.


We will be learning the Visayan myth of Sun and Moon from the Phillippines and using this as motivation for our sharpie and felts drawing of the sun and moon (for our calendar art fundraiser - I like to 'kill two birds with one stone'). This will be a good opportunity to talk about warm/cool colours too.


I found this cool animation of the story:


The inspiration for our artwork to kick it all off came from this awesome idea from The Lost Sock blog:

Next we will be constructing puppets to help us with some process drama as we tell the story in our own ways - this will of course involve reading, writing, drama and art all in one bundle!

We will read some other Filipino folk tales and break into groups to create our own drama versions, making puppets to help tell those stories.

 Creation Myth            Ancient Visayan Deities in Philippine Mythology

Visayan Folk Tales        Tagalog Folk Tales           

Reluctant readers

https://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2017/07/31/what-works-for-getting-kids-to-enjoy-reading/

Revising is a Crucial Step in Writing

A couple of tips from Michael at 'The Thinker Builder' blog

Wildlife Photo Awards

Some great nature photos can be found here - use them as oral language or writing starters!

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/gallery/2016/oct/18/2016-wildlife-photographer-of-the-year-winners-in-pictures

This one, by Tim Laman, is my favourite!

Fictional writing motivation images

My pupils are keen to write some fictional imaginary stories so I have gathered these images for inspiration...looking to inspire discussion about mystery destinations or adventures that may be occurring or about to occur...

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We will be focusing on (Level 3) selecting main ideas, using written language features such as direct speech as well as using a good range of descriptive language and (Level 4) writing in the third person.

I've got a couple of text models (using excerpts from actual novels or school journal stories - thanks Susan Brocker an Roald Dahl in particular!)

And our reading texts for the next few weeks will of course also be based on fictional texts so we can make reading-writing links and see how authors use those skills in their own writing. I'll link some of the pupils' work once they get underway -hopefully there will be some fantastic pieces of writing to share!

Writing - ongoing pupil reflection

Trialling this with my Year Five and Six pupils, Level 3 writing goals...

Writing revision -cool pupil video

This is a great video to show pupils how to revise and why it is important...

Supporting pupils with dyslexia

A couple of resource links that we received this week:

From the DyslexiaDaily blog - 17 ways to support students with learning difficulties

This video comes via this link from the DyslexiaDaily blog - great if you need to inspire someone with dyslexia to see that they too can be a high-achiever!

M.I.N.T.S.

I have decided that my Year Sixes are not taking enough responsibility to use capitals correctly so have put together this incentive...

Pupils will get to take a mini mint whenever they have correctly used:

M for the months of the year (and days!)

I for the pronoun 'I'

N for names (people, places, countries, brands, important groups)

T for titles such as Mr, Mrs, Dr, Sir, madam

S for the start of sentences. 

Thanks to Raewyn Green from the Southland Campus of the University of Otago for the acronym hint!

ANZAC resources

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25 April 1915 - 100 years since the first ANZAC battle began...

Class mini-inquiry "Walking With the ANZACs" blog-posts:
#1 Intro videos


Poppy art idea "That Artist Woman" blog         Quiz

Link to the ABC Gallipoli documentary website - videos sharing the first day of the campaign - 25 minutes if watched back to back

Second ABC link - online 3D interactive documentary - very well done, lots of info, maps of the area, timeline, mini clips etc

Radio NZ - oral diary                     NZ Army museum

National Library online links  and  WW1 resource guide

National Library online images           NZ History WW1

NZ WW1 100 years website               TKI resources

Rachel Boyd blog - Anzac Day resources and videos            WW100NZ pinterest board


Definite read for anyone with a Year 6+ classroom! My pupils thoroughly loved it:

NZ author Susan Brocker's website

NZ War Memorials map              Stretcher bearers and donkeys            The Unknown Warrior

Research NZ soldiers          NZ Archives research a soldier           NZ Curriculum Online

English unit (NZ)            Teach Ezy maps of Gallipoli           Starters.co.nz NZ unit plan

Make a paper poppy                Last soldier to leave the beach           WickED Anzac resources

Imperial War Museum (UK)           NZ Battle of Gallipoli             Photo links

Walking With an Anzac           Capital E Theatre resource             Poppy Time lesson ideas

Someone has put a lot of effort into telling a little of the Gallipoli story with Lego:

2015 - first episode of TAKE TWO NEWS

All about the Year Six Welcome evening, featuring Black Cap cricketer, Hamish Rutherford...this event is held to celebrate our Year Sixes as leaders of the school...



2015 TAKE TWO NEWS - The Year Six Welcome Evening from Edendale Primary School on Vimeo.

Word Games

Some fun ways to work with vocab, via the awesome Minds in Bloom blog...

http://www.minds-in-bloom.com/2015/01/5-fun-word-games-for-vocabulary-practice.html

Passion Projects as a LIteracy Programme

I've been devising a change for my literacy programme for my Year Six class - I don't know why I do this... well, actually, I DO know (it's because I am always trying to fine-tune my class programme to give the pupils the very best possible learning experiences...) but I have come up with (to quote Blackadder) "a cunning plan" to incorporate reading and writing by using the Passion Projects idea in a different way, one that will suit the way I operate...I'll try it out and see how it goes at least!

You can read my overview of intentions and term overview of topics here: click this link!

Basically, the plan is that at the start of the term I will offer up five different topics for literacy sessions - pupils will indicate which topic they are most interested in.  Guided groups will be developed from that, and I intend to incorporate relevant writing tasks alongside the reading tasks eg read an article about animal cruelty, write a letter to the SPCA commending them for their work - pupils may come up with ideas for writing as the unit progresses too (I want them to be guiding the direction of some of their tasks too...)

I need to have some aspect of control over the topics offered to the pupils as if I want to stay sane while building up the resources and lessons for four or five different groups I will need to keep certain limits on what is offered, while still giving pupils choices).  I have broken down some different topics into four terms - topics that twenty years of experience has shown are popular with pupils, while also trying to use topics that have relevant application to their world in 2015 and to have topics that will provide a good range of reading materials and writing contexts.

I have also aimed to cover a range of curriculum areas, with the topics being based on non-fictional themes, but choosing topics for which I will easily be able to find and incorporate fiction texts (ie in School Journal) that fit the theme as well, for instance in the unit about team sports we might read a narrative story about sportsmanship. I have also thought about topical events eg the 100th anniversary of Gallipoli and the Rugby World Cup.

I have thought of a range of EOTC experiences for the pupils to take part in at the end of their unit as incentives for completing a great range of tasks during the term. I have a goal to involve more parents, whanau (family) or community members as part of my class programme, so to have a couple of parents take a group of pupils for a morning fishing or to visit an exhibit at the aircraft museum, will be a good way to increase those connections.

For each unit, once I know which pupils are in that group, I will select the most relevant reading and writing learning outcomes to address, based on pupils' ability and next learning steps - these will be presented to the pupils for their comments and reflections on progress.

Wish me luck! I am off to start building up a class blog-post of online resources for each of Term One's topic units, as well as a Google Drive page for each unit (where the pupils of that group can look to find their independent task list, and I hope to also use the Google Drive for collaborated reflections and other shared tasks for each group/unit).

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. 

This week's THINK ABOUT IT quote...

...comes from Tyson Adams...

Link to source of image

Take Two News episode

My Year Six pupils take turns to work in teams of three to write, film and present a short video about a current event or issue happening at our school...I do the editing using Windows MovieMaker...


2014 Take Two News - We Sell Worm Tea! (Team Kahu, Year Six) from Edendale Primary School on Vimeo.

Ten Common Grammar Mistakes

I will definitely be trying out some of these!  Great game ideas to help children learn when to use certain words etc eg they're, their, there

https://funnytimes.com/20010131/

2014 Term Four Week Three

What did Team Kahu get up to this week?

We cooked green bananas to get a taste of Pacific (fish and) chips!

We journeyed around the Pacific on a magical flying carpet ride (thanks to Google Earth)!

We heard the road safety messages presented by Share the Road, ahead of the major sport event, The Cycle Tour of Southland!

And we were excited to hear back from NZ author, Susan Brocker!

Text model - Janet Frame excerpt

Our text model today, to help us see how a writer has used adjectives to help add detail to a short description of a treasured memory...from 'To the Is-land' by NZ writer Janet Frame (made even more real for the pupils as Glenham is one of our neighbours!)...

My memory is once again of the colours and spaces and natural features of the outside world.

On our first week in our Glenham house on the hill, I discovered a place, my place.

Exploring by myself, I found a secret place among old, fallen trees by a tiny creek, with a moss-covered log to sit on while the new-leaved branches of the silver birch tree formed a roof shutting out the sky except for the patterned holes of sunlight. The ground was covered with masses of old, used leaves, squelchy, slippery, wet.

I sat on the log and looked around myself. I was overcome by a delicious feeling of discovery, of gratitude, of possession. I knew that this place was entirely mine; mine the moss, the creek, the log, the secrecy.