Library, Maths, some Christmas concert singing practise, a mega-spelling test, AND some quiet reading.....
We started Wonderful Wednesday with Geography. Stage One have been learning about the features of places. We have drawn maps of our school and looked at natural and manmade features within the school grounds and also in areas we are familiar with, including Dee Why and Manly beaches. We began a discussion about weather, all the different elements and how it may influence the way people live in a particular environment. Very interesting! Library, Maths, some Christmas concert singing practise, a mega-spelling test, AND some quiet reading.....
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Another great day. There are less than three weeks until the end of term and we are trying to cram in as much learning and consolidation of learning as we can. We had a mega-literacy session this morning. To begin with, we used the 2016 NAPLAN prompt to inspire our writing. Each student had a planning page to remind us of the features of a narrative and to help scaffold elements of our story including: details of setting, time and character; the conflict or problem in the story; and the resolution, how the story ends. Mrs Downes and Emily were in the classroom and it was wonderful having three people able to help students with this task. There are a few photos of the class with their hands up in the air. Everyone was so engaged in the writing task (I was ever so slightly concerned the mention of naplan may add pressure for some students - apparently not!), I asked the class, "Who loves writing?" Looks like everyone!! After recess classes separated into the cross-stage maths groups we have been trialling. We are focusing on place value (thousands, hundreds, tens and ones) as well as addition, subtraction and number facts. Number facts refer to a student's ability to transfer known number facts (2+3=5), to more difficult tasks such as 20+30=50 and 200+300=500 Therefore 5-3=2 50-30=20 500-300=200 You can see that place value is very important here too. We found a few spare minutes to write a persuasive letter to Santa this afternoon as well. Another week over and only 3 weeks to go until the end of the school year! 1/2T had another wonderful day today. Firstly, we welcomed some visitors from Kindergarten. These students have spent the last two Friday mornings with us while the Kindy 2017 Orientation has been running. We just adored sharing our classroom with Amelie, Millie, Christopher, Noah, Tahlia, Zariyah, Chloe and Jaidah (I think I may have spelt that incorrectly, sorry) and hope they enjoyed having a practise of being Stage One students. We started the day by tying ribbons to the fence of the school to remind us how important safe and respectful relationships are as part of White Ribbon Day. Then, after a quick couple of laps of the oval, we found our bags and walked inside. Oh my goodness! It was so exciting!!! There was another note from our Fairy Friends!! Yesterday, some students had written notes to Robert the Reindeer, who visited 1/2T throughout December last year, asking him to return this year. Those notes were gone this morning and in their place was a few tiny lettuce leaves and the end of a carrot with bite marks in it, all covered in red fairy dust! You can see the photos below. Congratulations to our Award Winners, Jamie for your work partitioning four-digit numbers into thousands, hundreds, tens and ones. Keeley for showing leadership in the classroom and always inspiring others to love learning as much as you do! We had a gorgeous moment in Literacy Groups today. Neive was reading about blob fish. They are strange looking creatures. Neive knew a lot about them because she was able to make connections to some blob fish she had seen on The Octonaughts. Then she made up a song about being a little blob fish with a funny nose. I always joke in our class family that there is no smiling allowed and absolutely no having fun while we are learning! The children all try to put their grumpiest faces on when I say this, which of course, has us all laughing again. I think these images of Neive, engaged in her learning, are priceless ;-) Keeley and Sam conducted an informative interview with Mr Murray this week. Well done Keeley for typing the interview up by yourself as well!!
Do you get tired teaching Stage 3? No, I never get tired teaching Stage 3 I love Stage 3. Is it fun teaching Stage 3? It is the most fun! I consistently say it is so fun. I love my job and it’s because of Stage 3 I love teaching them I love working with them I just love Stage 3. It is my favourite stage by far. What is it like when kids don’t listen you? It can be frustrating sometimes but there is always a reason behind it and I always try to talk it out with them and make sure they’re ok and find their reason or answers for it. Were you a teacher before you started at Brookvale? If so which school were you at? Yes I was I was a teacher at Asquith public school. It is different, there are less student here than there was at Asquith but I love this school a lot more. My last school was great but this school, I couldn’t find a better school What other jobs have you had? I have been a warehouse manager, I have worked at K-mart, Coles and I have played professional AFL. What is your favourite thing to do? My job and watch and play professional AFL and play the drums. Where have you travelled? United States of America (Hawaii), Hong Kong, I was actually born in Hong Kong, I have been to many places around Australia, France, Germany, to the UK, Dubai, but I haven’t been to Antarctica, my number 1 place I want to visit is Antarctica, I have always wanted to visit is Antarctica. Is it tricky teaching Stage 3? Sometimes it can be sometimes it’s not, it is pretty easy to talk to Stage 3 but sometimes if they get a bit restless they can be very hard but it is very fun. Would you ever teach a different Stage? If I needed to I would definitely. I would love to teach any Stage in this school because every student is amazing but I do love Stage 3 and I hope to stay with them as long as I can. What is your favourite food? My favourite food is cereal or avocados What is your favourite kids movie? My favourite kids movie would have to be ’UP‘ by far What is your favourite colour? Green. Oh my goodness!! We had loads of fun today busting our moves for the Sunrise dance competition. There are a few last minute edits going on but I am hoping to share the link tomorrow. Team Kovacs (daughter, mum, dad) did an amazing job building everyone's confidence, engagement and enthusiasm in this project - and standing on a rickety old table to film (thank you RK)!!! Ms Lohr and Miss Kovacs taught us all the dance and led the moves today. Watch this space :-) 1/2T did some more imaginative writing today, again inspired by The Literacy Shed, this time a story called Taking Flight www.literacyshed.com/takingflight.html This is such a fantastic resource and you can access it from home if you would like to. As usual, we watch the film, stopping every few seconds to notice what we see, what is happening, how we feel and what we predict will happen next. We jot down our ideas and words and phrases which we later use to scaffold our writing. One of my favourite things during these activities is how we work collaboratively. We learn so much from each other as we hear and discuss everyone's different ideas and perspectives. Today our discussion went for 30 minutes for a five minute film... and that's before we started writing! I absolutely love this level of excitement and engagement! One of the things we talked a lot about today was inferred meaning. If you watch the video, there are two scenes when the boy and his grandpa walk past a little girl wearing headphones and playing on a phone/iPod type device. We asked what the author's intention was to include her in these scenes. What is the purpose of this scene, the way the girl is portrayed, the way the music and atmosphere change? An awareness of audience and purpose is a key outcome in the English syllabus, as are literal and inferred meaning. We certainly learnt a lot about these today. Finally, I can always tell we have had a good writing lesson when students don't want to leave the classroom. As the lunch bell went, I had about 8 students asking to stay and finish their writing. Great work everyone! Today we had a visit from the wonderful David Morgan-Mar. David is our resident scientist and visits Brookvale Public School most terms as part of the CSIRO's Scientists in Schools program. www.scientistsinschools.edu.au/ When I told 1/2T we were seeing David Morgan-Mar after recess, there was a roar of excitement. Channing said, "He is my favourite scientist! I like Dr Karl too, but David is my favourite!" Stage One behaved beautifully as DMM told us all about technology from the Stone Age to the future! As Mrs McArthur said, you could hear a pin drop!". Students asked some fantastic questions at the end, which further enhanced the experience. We did some recount writing afterwards, which I will post in the next couple of days. I know the amount of time it takes to prepare such an engaging presentation for our students and that it would take many more days than the day David is allocated to be in our school. One of the things I love most about this program is the way students become more and more connected and invested the more they get to know our presenter. David acts not only as an educator but as a mentor and inspiration. I know that we will have several innovative scientists in the future because of their connection with the Scientists in Schools program. Thank you so much David and CSIRO!! |
Rebecca ThomsonI come to teaching later in life with all the enthusiasm and passion it takes to complete a degree while parenting and working part time. I was lucky enough to complete my internship with Skye Surrest on Stage 3 in 2013 and am now loving my third year teaching a Stage One class at Brookvale Public School. Brookvale is a very special school. The staff are amazing, incredibly dedicated, kind and supportive... But most of all, I love the students! 1/2T are such a wonderful class and I adore teaching and learning with them every single day! Blogs I follow
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