Our "How the World Works" unit of inquiry in pictures

My class has recently finished their fifth PYP unit of inquiry, under the transdisciplinary theme of "How The World Works." Our central idea was "Differing climates around the world impact how we live."

Here are a few pics of some things around the classroom by the end of the unit. Have a look back a few posts to find some more of the resources we used.

The results are in: Irish teachers' planning and prep habits

Hi there,

Last week I made a survey to find out about Irish teachers' planning habits. I've looked at the first hundred results. 90% of the respondents were female (a typical representation of the male:female ratio in Ireland), with most responses coming from people within the age range of 20 to 39 years.


Here are some of the findings:

• Most participants spend between 30 mins and 1.5 hours correcting work on weekdays and less than 1 hour correcting work at the weekend. 37% of the participants don't correct any work at the weekend.
• Half of the participants spent 1-2 hours planning and preparing lessons midweek while a quarter spend less than 1 hour and a quarter spend more than 2 hours.
• Only 8% of participants stated that they spend no time doing planning and preparation at the weekend. 
• 55% of participants said they spend more than 2 hours planning and preparing at the weekend. 
• 26% of participants said that they spend 4 or more hours planning and preparing at the weekend.
• 84% of participants do some of their planning at home.
• While just over half of participants finish all of their school work by 6pm midweek, 36% finish later than 8pm with a tenth of participants stating that they usually finish after 11pm.

So there you have it! If there are any results that you think are surprising or noteworthy, please feel free to comment below or on the A Crucial Week Facebook page.


*image from My Cute Graphics

Retail therapy in Tiger: The best cure to the Sunday Sads

Hello there,

I hope you're all hanging in there after the bank holiday weekend. Unlike my Irish counterparts, we celebrated Labour Day here with a day off school on Friday. So, in order to avoid the extra dose of the Sunday Sads and as a result of too much craft-searching on Pinterest, I decided to head out to Tiger last night and buy some goodies.

Here's my Tiger haul that only cost me €13. A lot of it may seem unnecessary but any craftaholics out there will understand that there's always a use for ANYTHING!

Mini shopping basket for storage - €4

2 rolls of polkadot ribbon 50m - €2 each

20 adhesive fabric strawberries - €2

2 pens - €1 for 2

Button magnets - €2

I also passed a lovely housey shop called Kasanova on the way. Again, if you regularly read this blog, you'll be aware of my obsession with owls... and if you know me personally, you'll know that I love all things purple. So how could I say no to this purple-trimmed owl storage box for just €3.50! (They have an online store but unfortunately they don't ship outside of Italy.)

So here's my recommendation for you if you feel a dose of the Bank Holiday Blues a-comin' - go buy something that makes you smile!

Survey: Irish teachers' planning and preparation habits

Hi all,


I'm conducting a brief survey into Irish teachers' planning and preparation habits.


If you're an Irish teacher (working at home or abroad), please take a few minutes to do this 10-question survey. Click here to take part.


Thanks in advance,
Emer

*Image from http://www.mycutegraphics.com 

One to follow: Réalta Ranga

Hi all,

I had to share this blog with you. Réalta Ranga is a brand new source of teaching resources and ideas from a teacher in a gaelscoil. This teacher has experience with both the upper end of primary school as well as the infants. Posts are written as Gaeilge and in English so it's great for those of you who want to do some light reading to keep up your scileanna as Gaeilge. They (sorry, I don't know your name!) also have a TPT store, Facebook page and a Pinterest profile for you to check out.

This new blog has gotten off to a very promising start!

Climate zones websites for children (QR codes)

Well we made it to the weekend... at last! 

My class is elbow-deep into our current unit of inquiry about how differing climates affect how we live. They are doing lots of research on their iPads about different climate zones. Here's a sheet with QR codes for suitable child-friendly websites related to world climate zones to help guide their research.

Click here or on the image to download from Google Drive for FREE!

Enjoy!

Free weather-themed bar graph

Hello there! I hope you've all enjoyed the Easter holidays. Back to school now and back to the blog with a quick little freebie for you.

Our current unit of inquiry is all about how weather affects people's lives. This is a worksheet to create a bar graph. There are two versions - one without labels on the x-axis and one with pictures and labels. There is also a sheet with 5 questions about the graph and suggestions for other activities.

Click here or on the image to download.

Enjoy!