Anzac poppies

For the past few weeks, we have been looking at World War One and what happened at Gallipoli. Today we read a lovely picture book called 'The Red Poppy' and talked about how the poppies were a bit of beauty and wonder in amongst the horror and death that was life in the trenches. We contrasted that to Jesus death on the cross....the wonder and the horror! A great link right after Easter.

We then looked at what a field of poppies looked like and how some artists had represented their different perspectives. We then used watercolours to paint our own interpretations of the poppies amongst the fields or trenches.

Here are a few of the final creations...

Brain breaks

Students attention spans range from 5 minutes to 20 minutes and I have always been looking for fun ways to 'take a break' from their learning; to help them re-focus and stay on task.

I have seen numerous ideas around on Pinterest and other teaching blogs, but I thought that the concept of a 'brain break' sounded good!

So I got some thick paddle pop sticks from the $2 shop, traced around them on some funky papers, glued them together and found an empty jar. Then I racked my brain and googled some fun breaks(some shorter, some longer than ones).

Hopefully my kiddies will enjoy the breaks!

Finished!

Well....I know it has been some time since I last wrote here. This year has been busy and full on! But thought I would get one last post before the year finishes up.

What a year it has been. I think I have loved every moment of it. It has been both hard and rewarding and I can't wait til next year so that I can keep improving, reflecting and changing my pedagogy.

Very thankful for the wonderful staff at NCS. They have supported and encouraged me throughout the year and I feel so incredibly blessed to be part of such an amazing school community. It really is the best.

Here a a few things we have been up to in term 3 and 4.

Bridges Unit
During term 3 we studied Bridges, their design and construction. As well, the unit culminated in thinking about the great divide - how Jesus has bridged the gap between us and God, so that we can now be in relationship with him. During this term we also had  PD task to create (I thought assignments were over when I finished uni!) something that we could use to talk about our students relationship with Christ in their reports. So after much thinking, to end the unit, I got the students to create a tract which could explain to another person, how Jesus bridges the great divide. Here are a few pages from their booklets.

Electricity Unit
In term 4 we studied electricity, which was lots of fun. I am always wanting to make the ordinary, fun and extraordinary, so instead of doing a boring timeline of how electricity came to be, we made it creative. This the the one I created on the board.

Christmas Art
This art is a little hard to explain how to do. But we first brainstormed words that relate to christmas like FAITH, HOPE, LOVE, JESUS, JOY...
We then chose a word and wrote it quite large on a piece of coloured paper. Then we chose two colours. Using the first colour, we traced around the top half of the word and then alternated the colours until we had about 6-8 lines. This is the result!

Well...I hope to blog a bit more next year! Hope you have a lovely Christmas and a fabulous new year. See you then!

3D Castles

Hi again.
Term 2 is shaping up to be a busy one! We have had parent teacher interviews, NAPLAN, cross country, running assembly, program checking as well as the everyday teaching! Never a dull moment in teaching!

But I thought I would share a little activity year 5 did today. They have been working so hard during NAPLAN in the mornings this week that I thought it would be good aswell as practical to give them a hands-on activity to do for the time period after their NAPLAN test til lunch.

We have been studying some properties of 3D shapes and I found this awesome idea off pinterest to do to reinforce some of the skills we have been looking at.

Using 3D nets the students have to plan and create a castle using certain shapes and then calculate the total number of faces/edges/vertices that their castle had!

They got pretty into it. The classroom was full of noise and cutting and glue-ing and cardboard as they developed their castles!

Here are the final products!
We had damsel's in distress, moats, bridges and lots more!
What a fun day!

What Happens First Matters

At our school we have a thing called What Happens First Matters (WHFM) which is all about getting the students engaged first thing on Monday morning as well as at the beginning of each term.

As teachers we aim to creatively design lesson openings which set the scene....creates interest....motivates and engages....set standards and declares expectations.

It is a really fun way to start the week, the scene is set straight away for meaningful and engaging learning (instead of rote learning of spelling or times tables).

One of our activities this term was called 'Tied up in Knots'. It was an game that I used to play in youth group and as a leader I play with my youth group kids. It is all about teamwork and communication to 'untie' the human knot that the students have made. Below is a little video showing what the students did.

Fun hey???

On the last week of term we had  Maths Mania morning, where the students were involved in a number of fun maths activities including...

• Multiplication Memory
• Area Hysteria (TeachThis game)
• Times Table Jenga
• Rainbow Snake (Converting measurement games - TeachThis)
• Times Table Twister

 

Times Table Twister

On the spinner board, times tables facts (answers that are written on mat circles). For example the spinner might land on 4x6 left foot green. Students have to figure out multiplication problem and then find the answer on the mat and put their left foot on it.

 

Times Table Jenga

When students pull out a block, they need to tell their peers the answer, before they place it on top and the next player goes.

Have fun trying these out!

Moon phases

As part of our LIGW unit (Living in God's World - like COG's), Year Five have been looking at the Solar System. We have done some interesting experiments, experimenting with torches and globes and tennis balls to look at eclipses, day/night and seasons on our Earth.

Although, probably my most favourite lesson was making oreo moon phases!

I first found this fun activity while browsing a site called Pinterest (love it!) and thought "this would be the greatest" for a hands-on activity when we look at moon phases.

The kids thoroughly enjoyed it! Here are some pictures to show you what they did!

 

 

 

 

Cartooning

Hello and welcome back! Sorry I have been slack in writing posts, but school and life has been busy!

But here we go....as you may know by now I love art and creative things....so I really enjoy doing visual arts lessons in the classroom.

A few weeks ago, my students had a go at cartooning. We first looked at the features of the face, drawing cartoon eyes, noses and lips. We then toured around the classroom and had a look at what other students had designed. The students then drew a shape for a face (round, oval, triangular, jelly bean...) and then choose a eye, nose and mouth design. The trick is to make the facial features (especially eyes) really big - out of proportion!.

We then outlined with black textas and then block coloured them with oil pastels. They turned out great!

 

Following on from this lesson, the next week we looked at Grandparent cartoons.

Using similar techniques and methods the students drew 'old people' cartoons. They then outlined then in felt tip pen and coloured then in with watercolour pencils.

Next they scrunched up the paper (this was a hit!) and then used a wet paintbrush to activate the watercolour. The watercolour seeps into the creases made by the scrunching, thereby giving it an old and aged look. Once again, my students are very talented!