Wet and Dry Environment Biscuits!

I could rattle off a whole heap of ways that this was educational (which it was!) but it was mostly just fun, and a treat for great behaviour all week!

This week we made wet and dry environment biscuits. Quite simple, I bought a couple of packets of simple round Arnotts biscuits as well as: spearmint leaves, musk sticks, jelly tots, jelly crystals, and some chocolate bullets.

Students decided on the kind of environment they wanted to create and thought about how they would do it using the materials available. They then iced their biscuits and added the lollies they wanted! The only challenge was persuading them that 'less is more' as I had to send a few back with unrecognisable environments!

Here is an example of two forest environments...

Cityscape Art

Yikes time can get away quickly! Haven't posted in a little while with reports (and sickness!) on the cards.

Just wanted to share a new artwork I did with my class last week which looks fantastic! As we've been learning about wet and dry environments we've also been thinking of the differences between natural and built environments. I used this lesson to highlight some of the features of built environments as well as think about how ultimately built environments are part of natural ones. To do this we created a city at sunset (or sunrise!)

To start with we looked at a power point I created of different sky scrapers from around the world. Pointing out the features and elements that we see in these sorts of city landscapes.

Next, students created their own city landscape using lead pencil on black paper which they then cut out, 

After that, we spoke about the sorts of colours you see in a sunset and the progression of colours in the colour wheel. Students then chose their colours (in rainbow order) and painted their background with water colour paints.

 Once dry, students stuck their cities on the backgrounds and then added some stars or clouds if they wanted to (using oil pastel). Obviously I'm a bit biased but I think they look great!

Exceeding Expectations

Just wanted to share a little story from today which was a nice way to end the week! I have a new boy in my class who speaks only a few words in English, he has only been here for a few weeks and I really feel for him not knowing the language.

This week my class have been presenting speeches on their favourite wet or dry environment. These speeches only need to go for 1-2 minutes and is their first real attempt at trying to present information with eye contact and memorisation - tricky stuff! The boy in my class gave his speech this afternoon and it was so amazing to see the class captivated by the few words he could say, they cheered for him when he finished and he smiled the biggest smile I have seen on his face since he's been here. He also drew a picture of the mountain from his home and the class were amazed at his sketching skills. A great result from a potentially scary task. 

(from travel.3yen.com)

He did a pretty good job, wouldn't you agree? Note: he didn't have the photo while he was drawing!

Saying sorry

I just wanted to tell you about the sweetest thing that happened in my class today which almost brought me to tears.

Recently, a lot of the girls in my class have been becoming quite competitive and haven't been speaking very nicely to (or about!) each other. I have been really saddened by this (they're so little still!) so I decided to try to nip it in the bud today by having a whole class discussion about how we speak to each other and how we want to be speaking words that build up others rather than bringing them down. I told the class that this was mostly for the girls (because they were the ones who I've been hearing the stories about) but it is good for us all to think about how we use our words as one of our class rules is to 'be nice to others'.

During this discussion a particular boy in my class started looking really sad, staring at the floor, downcast. As the discussion was coming to a close he put his hand up. Wondering what he could be asking (seeing as he hadn't done anything wrong as far as I knew) I motioned him to speak. He said, "Mrs Beasley, can I say sorry to everyone?" (I nodded) he then proceeded to look every student in my class in the eye naming them and apologising, almost in tears. The whole class was silent as he did this, most of them not really understanding why.

It was such a special, thoughtful moment that it caused tears to well up in my eyes! One of the students asked afterwards, "Why did he say sorry? He hasn't done anything wrong?" the boy replied that he could remember times where he had hurt each person and he wanted to apologise. So so beautiful!

I hope you are as touched by this sweet boy as I was.

Mountains Artwork

As we are learning about Wet and Dry environments in HSIE I have been trying to link in a lot of the other Key Learning Areas to what we are doing.

Yesterday we learnt about what a 'mountain range' is and thought about the features of alpine environments. As a mountain range is a series of mountains it was a really good base to create a class artwork displaying what we know!

Here are the steps to creating a fabulous mountain range!

First, I got students to draw a dot for the tip of the mountain in the middle of the top edge of their page.

Then student drew a grid on their mountain (you could use this as a start to a discussion about how humans have impacted the environment)

Next, have students fill in their grid using oil pastels (they are nice and bright but can be used for smaller areas!)

Once students have filled in their grid they can use a black oil pastel to draw over the lines and snow and then cut out!

Makes an awesome mountain range! 

Literacy Groups

Literacy groups are one of my favourite activities to do with my class. I test children regularly on their reading using running records (which test both word recognition and comprehension) and then put them into like ability groups.

We have literacy groups 3 times a week and students read a book together and then finish with an activity. I thought I would post about the activity one group completed today as it was a bit of an 'a-ha' moment for a girl in my class. She is Korean and is only just learning how to speak English, she really enjoyed the activity below though as she could use prompts from her book but produce work at a similar level as the other students. Basically they have to use the lego letters to make words from their books setting them out like they are an on an imaginary crossword.

Here is a snapshot of her 'imaginary crossword' word work!

Marble Jars - Behaviour management

There are some things that I have tried this year with my class in terms of positive behaviour management routines which have worked really well so I thought it was about time to share them!

I have my tables organised into table groups with each table group linked to the topic we are studying in HSIE (Humans Society in it's Environment). Because we are learning about Wet and Dry environments this term my tables are: Alpine, Desert, Bushland and Ocean. Each table group has a jar with a picture of their environment on it. I give tables marbles to put in their jar as a reward for a variety of behaviours - improvement, listening. tidiness, working well, sharing, being helpful etc. At the end of each week we count up the marbles for each table and the table with the most gets a prize from me!

The kids really love it, and get SO excited every Friday when it's time to count the marbles. It's also really good for them to learn how their behaviour impacts those around them and how to work as a team. Not very expensive either! I just got some plastic jars from the $2 shop and a packet of about 100 marbles from there as well.

Bushland table's marble jar!