STEM Challenges

Do you do STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) challenges in your school? STEM activities provide a transdisciplinary approach to problem-solving. It's all about hands on learning through inquiry. STEM Discovery week is taking place from 22nd - 29th April so we're going to have a STEM day in our school during that week. To find out more about it visit the STEM Alliance site.

Here are some great free resources for STEM challenges. It could be great to have a STEM area in the classroom with weekly/daily challenge cards for early finishers or indoor playtime. These 4 challenges from Frugal Fun for Boys show just how simple it could be to set up. 

And you don't have to spend a fortune on resources. So many STEM projects can be done using resources that you'll find in your recycling bin. Of course, you can ask the children to bring in resources from home too. Here's a handy list of potential supplies from The Owl Teach.

Share the process. Here are some gorgeous free posters showing the design process made by Teachers Are Terrific. 

There are lots of free templates out there for the children to record the process. I particularly like this one from Create Teach Share.

As for the challenges themselves, the Practical Action site has great ideas that link nicely with geography topics. There is a PowerPoint with each idea to present the challenge and lots of other resources like student sheets, picture cards and certificates.

Here are some more from Dr. Wesley Fryer (all using resources I imagine you already have in your classroom or that can be easily bought).

Just give a quick Pinterest search for STEM challenges and you'll be full of inspiration! 

Do you Kahoot?

Hi there,

Do any of you out there use Kahoot? It's a great FREE site for creating multiple choice quizzes, polls and discussions. One of my friends, a secondary school language teacher, finds it very useful in her classroom for reinforcing new vocabulary.

Your students can then access your quiz using a computer/mobile device (no sign in required - they just create a temporary username and put in a code that you generate just before playing). You can then display the questions on your interactive whiteboard/smart TV and the children respond on their device. The teacher's (and shared) display shows (anonymously) how many people got it right. Afterwards, a teacher can download the results and have a record of this assessment, be it formative or summative.

You can access the (millions) of readily created Kahoot!s or you can invent your own. A great assessment tool could be to ask your students to create their own Kahoot!s.

Here are some examples of ready-made Kahoot!s:
Gaeilge (Torthaí)
Multiplication facts (x9s)
Brian teasers
Famous landmarks
Food groups

IB PYP Posters in Chinese

For the attention of any teachers working in an IB school where Chinese is taught: 

I have just added a Chinese version of my bumper poster kit to my TPT store. It costs $10 and includes 5 different sets:

• Learner Profile posters in Chinese
• PYP attitudes posters in Chinese
• IB key concepts posters in Chinese
• Transdisciplinary skills posters in Chinese
• Transdisciplinary themes posters in Chinese

All of the sets are available individually but, if you want all of them, it's cheaper to purchase the bumper kit.

Click on any of the images below to view them in the Chinese section of my TPT store.

20 realities of playtime duty

1. You have a designated "playtime duty" coat.

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2. You regularly find hair clips / hair ties in said coat.

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3. You frantically make cups of tea for others on playtime duty in the hope that they'll return the favour for you.

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4. You're almost as good as a doctor at analysing if a child's limp is real or put on.

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5. You often have to "oooh" and "aaaah" at wobbly teeth.

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6. You build up a collection of interesting leaves or unusual stones having received them as presents. You can't throw them away without breaking some little hearts so you end up putting them in your playtime duty coat pocket along with the hair accessories.

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7. You've noticed that windy days and crazy playtime behaviour seem to go hand in hand.

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8. You have a lot more volume in your hair after windy playtime duties. You often don't see the effect until you get into your house and get embarrassed about who saw you in the supermarket looking like that.

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9. You desperately stare out the window on rainy days, hoping that it will ease up, even if just for your playtime duty.

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10. You rush to the microwave/fridge before other colleagues, in order to squeeze in something to eat on playtime duty days.

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11. You become an expert at identifying real and false claims of needing to go to the toilet.

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12. You feel extremely smug when you're not rostered for playtime duty for several days running.

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13. You become as experienced as a qualified football referee, even if you have only a passing interest.

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14. You hear yourself saying "Well, tell them that the teacher said not to say/do that!"

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15. You cross your fingers and hope that you won't be on duty in the infant yard in September and have to teach them how to line up.

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16. You bribe an "active" child with the honour of ringing the bell at the end of the break if they have managed to make "good choices."

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17. You're well able to roar out "Déanaigí líne!" when someone forgets the bell.

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18. You've said the phrase "You'll be alright before you're married" on more than one occasion... and then rolled your eyes because you realise you're sounding like your parents.

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19. You hate Monday playtime duty because you miss out on the gossip from the weekend in the staff room.

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20. On your duty day, the neighbouring classroom teacher will expect you to pop your head in the door and give that secret look to signal that you're off for your long-overdue bathroom visit.

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*clipart in the main image from MyCuteGraphics.

UEFA Euro 2016 Teaching Resources

"The Euros" i.e. UEFA Euro 2016 Competition is on it's way. It's taking place from 10th June - 10th July. If you want to follow it with your class, download this free A3 wall planner where you can mark in the scores:

FREE WALL PLANNER:

I've also created a pack with 90 pages of teaching resources, posters, flashcards, worksheets, sample lesson plans, lesson ideas, bunting, word searches etc. The lesson plans and related resources are most suitable for upper/middle primary school. 

The full contents are:

• 2 title posters (UEFA Euro 2016)
• Groups posters
• Flashcards with names of each participating country
• Sweepstake kit
• Bunting for the children to colour
• Table quiz questions and answer sheet
• Maths lesson plan, worksheets and self-assessment sheet
• English lesson plan and prompt cards
• PE lesson plan and station teaching cards
• Science lesson plan
• Geography lesson plan and project template
• Visual arts lesson plans and ideas
• Drama lesson plan and related resource materials
• Music lesson plan and related resource materials
• Flag hunt sheet and solution sheet
• 2 differentiated word searches with solution sheets

Here's an idea of some of the contents:

Some things to note:

-The geography project is in the same format as that of my Rugby World Cup 2015 resource pack

-Some of the objectives in the lesson plans include objectives from the Irish primary school curriculum. These should be easily adaptable to any primary school curriculum

If you're interested in this pack, you can get it for $3.50 (about €3.20) from my TPT store.

If you're an Irish teacher - there's also a separate pack with a leagan Gaeilge (Irish language version) of the posters, flashcards, bunting, project template and sweepstake kit available on its own for $2 (approx €1.85) or as a 138 page bumper pack with this English-language pack for $4 (approx €3.65). 

Book Week Ideas, Displays and Activities

Hi everyone,

I was really inspired by the photos and ideas shared for World Book Day last Wednesday. If you're having Book Week at your school later this year, here are some of my favourite displays/ideas.

If you have any more, please free to add them in the comments!

Shelfie Competition: 
This one was shared on Twitter by Aileen Brennan Nevin (@leenbre). The idea is that the teachers take a photograph of their book shelf. The photos are numbered and the children can enter by guessing which teacher owns which shelf. The first correct entry picked from the entry box could win a prize (ideally a book!).

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Decorate your classroom doors as book covers: 

Have a look at these fantastic examples from Pinboard Paulet.

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Get the children to write their own Biff, Chip and Kipper book:

Oxford Reading Tree is hosting a writing competition to celebrate their 30th birthday. The closing date is 30th April 2016. Perhaps you could do this during Book Week. Even if your school is not eligible to enter, why not download the template and do it just for fun! Check out more details about the competition here.

Dress up as your favourite book character:

The Guardian has a gallery of some great costumes from World Book Day 2016. Here are two of my favourites.

Aliens Love Underpants
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Willy Wonka
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Have the older children read to the younger children:

Pair up the classes and let the older children read to the younger children. This is a lovely one for building confidence as the books will be easy for the older children to read.

image from My Cute Graphics

Create an "Our Favourite Books" corner:

Ask everyone (teacher and children) to bring in their favourite book to keep in school for the week. Create an "our favourite books" corner in the classroom which they can read one another's books during the week.

image source: JPS Books

Invite parents to read to the children:

We have done this in our school and invited parents to read in their native languages even if it's not English. The children love it!

image source: PBS Parents

Make some book marks:

I particularly love these monster/owl ones from Red Ted Art. Click here to view the video tutorial on how to make them.

image source: Red Ted Art

Self/peer-assessment of reading aloud:

Model how to use this self/peer-assessment sheet. Then split your class into pairs and let them assess their own reading and that of their classmates. You can download this sheet for free from Google Drive by clicking here or on the image below.

Display famous quotes from books:

You could create a display board of famous quotes from books. Twinkl has a ready-made pack (see image below) but you could also get the children to choose their own favourite quote to decorate.

image source: Twinkl 

 Carry out an author study:
You could ask older classes to do this individually or you could do it as a whole group activity. Here's a nice (free) graphic organiser from Jessica Lawler.

image source TPT: Jessica Lawler's store

Do a book scavenger hunt:

There are lots of different versions you could do. Here are some examples.

This one by Amanda Patterson is based on book titles:

image source: Amanda on Writing (Tumblr)

For older children, this "non-fiction features" scavenger hunt from Buzzing With Ms B is great. Click here to view her blog post about it and download it for free.

image source: Buzzing With Ms. B

This one from Twinkl is based on finding specific words/pictures.