Hi all,
We've been working on calculating elapsed time. I created these cards, stuck them around the classroom and the children worked in pairs to move around the room, filling in the answer sheet. They had to name the start and finish times and calculate the elapsed time. I've also included an answer sheet. Click here or on the image to download this for free from Google Drive.
Hi there,
It's been a while since I've posted! Now back to business. As the ICT coordinating teacher in our school this year, one of the jobs on my list was to do up our IT room. I haven't had the time to do all that I want to do but here are some updates on the progress and where to find the resources.
We've had a big push on getting coding this year. Some of the classes have been introduced to Scratch and they are absolutely loving it. Many of the children work on their own Scratch projects at home without being asked to!
I wanted to do a big Scratch display to show the different blocks as a point of reference during IT sessions. After a quick search, I found these Scratch blocks ready-made on Twinkl. You need to have a platinum classic account to download them.
As we're a PYP school, I decided that coding really helps to develop the learner profile attribute of being "thinkers." Hence the lightbulb overload!
I also wanted to put in something to explain why we are coding in the first place. I found some lovely quotes from Stephen Hawking, Mark Zuckerberg and Steve Jobs about programming. Who better to tell us what to do than some modern greats? The keyboard style lettering is so easy to make - simply add a white letter on top of a rounded black box - BAM!
I've also put up this keyboard shortcuts display that is part of my IT room/computer lab classroom decor kit. If you're interested in just the keyboard shortcuts part of the pack, comment below and I'll add that to the store. I could also make a Mac version of it with the command button instead of the control one - just let me know what you'd like!
The last display that I'll show to you today - which is still a work in progress is our robotics board. Two teams in our school are going to take part in the Jr. FLL (First Lego League) robotics competition. The challenge this year is called "Waste Wise." Here we hope to document our progress between now and the end of the competition.
Hi all,
Last week I posted about some mindfulness techniques. One that the children really enjoyed was making "worry monsters." I cut out a mouth shape from some inside-out cereal boxes, left out lots of materials and let the children at it! Then they wrote down their worries and "fed" them to the monsters. I'll give some time over the coming weeks for the children to write more worries if they wish.
I unintentionally timed it very well because they look like they're part of the Hallowe'en decor! Delighted!
Bring on the spooky season!
Hi there,
I just wanted to share a resource that made my life so easy today! I stood there, looking around the room at all of my children, in pairs, ON TASK for 20 minutes, walking around to different stations.
We were using these multiplication by arrays task cards from Tucker's Mama. You can download them FOR FREE from her TPT store. Well worth it!
There are 24 task cards. I stuck them up around the classroom and divided the children into pairs. I placed each pair at odd-numbered stations (so there is space between each pair) and they worked together to solve the multiple choice questions on the cards. The free pack includes an answer sheet for the children and a solution sheet for the teacher. Then, the children swapped sheets and corrected their peers' work (obviously this was re-checked by me afterwards!). The children loved getting up and moving about and really enjoyed this introduction to multiplication.
Another lovely thing to use when teaching arrays is Lego bricks.
I also like to get the children to roll a dice and then show an array of those two numbers. They can draw it in any way - footballs, hearts, smilies or create it using toys, counters, pasta.
Hi all,
My current unit of inquiry is about keeping our bodies and minds healthy. We have done lots of inquiry into keeping our bodies healthy and we are going to focus on our minds in the coming weeks. Here are some of the techniques we are going to try out.
INTRODUCING MINDFULNESS:
I was wondering how to introduce the concept of mindfulness to children. An classmate of mine from university suggested starting with a bottle of water and glitter. Shake it up and explain that this is what our mind is like when it is full of thoughts - really all over the place. Then allow the bottle to have some time to settle and watch as the water clears and the glitter settles. It's a very simple and effective analogy. If you want to be super fancy, follow this recipe for a mason jar version.
MEDITATION/FOCUS TIME:
Thanks to Ms Forde's Classroom's lovely blog post, I've now ordered Mindfulness Matters' "The Zone" resource. The download hasn't worked yet but I'm hoping to get that sorted ASAP. I am really looking forward to trying it out with the children.
YOGA/MINDFUL MOVING:
We're going to do some Yoga as mindful moving. I don't know a lot about yoga. I've used videos on YouTube in the past but I wanted something that I would be able to teach myself. I decided to purchase this yoga resource made by Dancing into First for $4 on TPT. It has instructions for 20 different poses, written in easy to follow language (Good for teacher as well as students!!) and each pose has a child-friendly name such as "dog," "plane" or "tree."
MINDFULNESS THROUGH ART:
A thoughtful friend of mine got me a book entitled, "Art for Mindfulness: Geometrics." It's basically an adult colouring book - right down my alley! I found lots of "mandala" colouring sheets available to download for free from Education.com. You'll need to create a free account to download them. It's worth your time as there are lots of great free resources on there!
SENSORY BALLOONS:
Creative Playhouse has a wonderful post on how to make child-friendly sensory balloons which work similarly to stress balls. Here you can see how they can be made with different household materials. The children can then play with them and feel the different textures, describe how they feel and discuss which ones they prefer.
MINDFUL EATING:
Mindful eating is another area that could be discovered. As my school has a very strong healthy eating policy, perhaps we will do this with fruit. The idea is to get the children to really focus on the process and sensations associated with eating. The Guardian has a free PDF with guiding questions about mindfully eating chocolate. Again, you need to sign up for free to download it.
RECOGNISING EMOTIONS:
We will focus on recognising different feelings and finding strategies to control negative feelings and help us to calm down. Last year we had a worry box in the classroom. There the children could anonymously write down their worries and then "send them away!" I also encouraged the children to make their own worry box to keep by their bed. I absolutely LOVE Kristina Marcelli's take on this where she made a worry monster who "eats" the worries.
I came across the resource pack, "A Volcano in My Tummy" while doing some work as a substitute learning support/resource teacher a few years back. Brown University have shared a preview of the book. You can download it for free here. I really like the outline of the person where the children draw/write what happens to their body when they get angry. More of that resource pack has been shared here.
So there you have it! If you have any other mindfulness resources/ideas to share, please comment below!
My thought for today.
Sometimes even the smallest things make a big difference!
