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!

Collage Faces

 

Our first visual art activity for the year was to create collage faces of ourselves using magazines and newspapers. The task was to let their personality shine through. A great way to recycle! The kids thoroughly enjoyed using other people to create their face and things they like.  

And it also makes a great display in our classroom.

      

Also....I finally got around to taking pictures and printing out the photos for our photo board. Below is the final product. I am pretty happy with it.

Boggle & Bingo

Well....I survived the first few weeks of term (besides some sickness)! Woo! It is such a JOY to teach my class. They are all so beautiful, funny and a pleasure to learn with.

Been racking blogs, websites and Google for some fun things for my classroom. The first to share is 'Classroom Boggle'. I am using this is an extension activity for students who finish their spelling (and other) activities earlier than the rest. Each week we change the letters and the students have a sheet where they write down all the words they can see. At the end of the week (if time permits!) we go through the words that the students found. The kids loved it!

 

Secondly, I was looking and thinking and searching for something I could use as a sort of reward system for the class. I didn't want to do table points (as I thought the kids were a bit beyond this in year 5) and I didn't want individual rewards because I know some kids would get loads and others, not many. BUT I finally came across 'teamwork bingo'.  This reward system builds community in the class, because you can only get a number if everyone is doing the right thing. It might be that they all come in quietly to the classroom, or it might be that they do a super job of packing and cleaning up at the end of the day. Each time the whole class gets it right, one person (I just go down the roll) picks a number out of the jar. They then colour it in on the board (and discard number in snaplock bag) and once the class gets 10 in a row or column they get a reward. This time it is 5 minutes extra at recess that they are working towards. But it could be anything you like

The kids love it and totally get into it each day!

 

Well, I'm off to get ready for week 4. See you all soon!

Preparation

Well...I spent the week before school started preparing my room, putting away resources and finding dust, spiders and hidden rubbish...as well as getting my head around the program!
But I feel happy with how my room looks. I am really looking forward to utilising the reading corner (although this name may change).
Below are some photos of the finished decorations...

Birthday board

Birthday board labels designed! Now to print and laminate! Let me know if your keen for a copy and I email it to you .