Lino print stars completed

Here are some of our finished Matariki lino prints and winter night poems:

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...

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!

A new link or two for Just Cool!

Am adding a couple of new links to my Just Cool! page -

-this is a gorgeous little animated film about persistence:

https://vimeo.com/98919897

- and some awesome photos of children from around the world doing what children do best...playing!

http://www.boredpanda.com/happy-children-playing/

Would be great for writing prompts, social studies, discussions, photography/art....

They are all fantastic...this is one of my favourites!

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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).

Pass The Plate poetry

I love this idea from the E is for Explore! blog :    pass the plate poetry

Awesome poem...

Found this reverse poem "Lost Generation" by Jon Reed being used as motivation for a writing unit on the Runde's Room blog.  I doubt I will use it with my pupils, I think it is more suited to Year 7 & 8, but I am a bit of a collector of poetry so I just love this...