Almost Spring

Well not really.It is still winter and we have one month to go and probably a bit of snow....but we had a sunny day today after a night of rain and our bulbs are starting to pop out. I have no idea what bulbs they are. I Planted them years ago and I am always surprised to see what emerges. I'll take another photo when we see some color in a month or so. The girls have been working on their Dolls House dioramas ( photos below) today and I will pop up some more photos during the week when they are completed.

5000 views

Thanks to all those who have viewed my blog. Over 5000 views as of this weekend.
The kids were finishing off their board games today ( refer to the photo below of one game. This student created game pieces to look like Bonnie and Sylvia from The Wolves of Willoughby Chase as well as the evil Miss Slighcarp.)Another student scanned a hand drawn picture depicting a scene from the story to put on the back of her game cards. We are currently reading The Rescuers as a serial. We will watch the Disney movie when we've finished the book and the children will realise how different the book and film are.

Board Games

My students were busy making board games of their own design based on the 'Wolves of Willoughby Chase'.They came up with some great ideas. One girl used a scanned image of her 'birch trees in winter' picture for the back of her 'question cards', another is doing his on the computer and another finished her game today and they played it for over an hour today.(If it hadn't been for home time they might be still there playing it!)
At the moment we are reading Margery Sharp's The Rescuers. We finished reading the quirky Mrs Pepperpot ( Literature units for both of these books are available for free on Teachers Pay Teachers) today and we will start learning tasks for The Dolls House next week. I have a great craft activity based on that story for the girls next week.

Birch trees in winter

There are a few websites that have this idea- (http://weefolkart.com/content/winter-birch-trees) of birch trees in the snow and I thought I'd give it a go with a Wolves of Willoughby Chase twist to it.The kids did a great job. It is tricky tearing off the masking tape and painting the shadows on the trees.We finished The Wolves of Willoughby Chase and The Dolls House this week and I hope we can start on our doll's house room diorama once Zart Art send out the wooden dolls house furniture I ordered. I have started reading Mrs Pepperpot ( I forgot what a funny collection of tales they are) and will probably read either Railway Children or Professor Branestawm.

Picnic At Hanging Rock

This is a Blooms Taxonomy literature unit for the Australian gothic classic by Joan Lindsay, Picnic at Hanging Rock. This atmospheric mystery tale (or is it a whodunit or a science fiction story?) is enhanced by the moody Australian cinema classic available on DVD.This unit has been developed for a student who is currenly reading it and enjoying it.(The version she is reading, shown on the left is part of a series of Australian classics packaged as classy hardbacks for modern readers by Penguin and includes Seven Little Australians and Playing Beattie Bow among others)  Every morning she updates me on what is happening in the story. This morning she  informed me that one of the girls has been found alive. (I'm not sure if she realises that I've read it...a number of times.)

Click HERE to be taken to my TPT store.

Chilly

I popped up to school this morning as I usually do on Saturday mornings for 4-5 hours to get organised for the week ahead when I looked outside and saw that it was sleeting. We had snow around Ballarat this morning for the first time this year ( down to 600m) I took some photos but you can't see the sleet. It was only 2 degrees at school this morning.

Orange octopus

My prep ( kinder) student is studying the letter 'o' this week so we made an orange octopus. To make it more interesting I had her use a metre ruler to measure 1 metre long tentacles ( she insisted on 10 instead of 8) for her octopus.

PowerPoint presentations on wolves

Two of my students completed fact files on wolves ( They came up with 5 questions about wolves that they wanted answers too and based their fact file around those answers) and decided off their own bat to turn it into a PowerPoint. They worked on those today and checked on our recently completed interactive ICT skills checklist for a link to a YouTube video on how to insert video into a PowerPoint. (It is quite complicated) They inserted some video onto one of their slides and even audio of a wolf howl.One of them showed their PowerPoint today and even included comprehension quiz questions. ( The kids sat with their pads to take notes so they would do well in the quiz!) Below are photos of the girls at work on their laptops and some photos of the presentation ( Done on one of our digital whiteboards)

Electricity

We started our electricity unit today. My grade 6 boy started off, spending over an hour and a half exploring with motors, fans, buzzers, lights and switches. My early years students are studying living and non-living things. I sent them outside to take photos with their iPads of living, non-living and dead things. I' m not sure they realised that the cows right next to our fence are 'living things'
I visited a few craft stores in Ballarat and bought loads of material for them to create their dolls house bedroom diorama. I' m looking forward to seeing what they create next week.

Back to school

Today my students finished off their lift the flap pictures of King Kong to complete the unit. I have also set up our science table for a science exploration on electricity. The children will have certain tasks to complete but also lots of time to explore and experiment on their own with all of the electrical equipment I've provided. I have also downloaded some great apps for them to explore and they will have their iPads with them while they are working to record their findings and observations. I have started reading The Wolves of Willoughby Chase ( I discovered today that the whole movie is available to watch on YouTube which is great. I used a Q R Code app to make a link to the movie so the students can watch segments of the movie while I read the book) I've also started reading The Dolls House which the kids seem to really like.

Finishing off King Kong dioramas

Back to school today after 2 weeks off for our winter holidays. One of my students who had an early holiday had his King Kong diorama to finish off today which he did. This week we've started reading The Wolves of Willoughby Chase and The Dolls House as serials and we will start literature responses during the week.

The Tiny Seed

My attempt at replicating Eric Carle's illustrations from his book ' The Tiny Seed'. I used watercolour however.( and without his flair) Four thousand five hundred visits to the site this morning. Thank you.

New Unit - Wuthering Heights

Find a Blooms Taxonomy Literature unit for Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights. It includes graphic organisers, worksheets, writing and creative ideas based on the book. There are abridged versions and graphic novel versions of the book available as well as quite a few DVDs. I have used this unit before in conjunction with Jane Eyre and it was very popular. I will make it available for any grade 5-6 students who might be interested in it over the next few years. (I will post Jane Eyre shortly)

Click HERE to dowload this unit on TPT

New Unit - Curse of the Mummy

MargaretClark’s The Curse of the Mummy is alight hearted chiller similar to a Goosebumps novel but with more humour.Margaret Clark is a prolific Australian children’s author who has the knack ofwriting stories that entertain and engage young readers. I will use this unit aspart of a classic horror theme that I will be teaching in term 3. This unit canbe downloaded free from TPT.

Click HERE to go to my new UNIT on TPT

Fallen tree

Up at work today I heard a cracking noise outside and when I went to investigate I found a large branch had fallen off a tree just across the road from the school. I pulled some of it off the road. It was rotten and just shattered as it hit the ground. below is a photo of it and a picture on my classic horror display board is below.

New Unit - Classic Horror

This Blooms Taxonomy literature unit features graphic organisers, reading activities and writing ideas for the classic horror stories; Dracula, Frankenstein and The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. I have used these classic texts before but never in combination so I’ll be keen to use this unit myself later in term 3. I’ve already got the display board sorted out and some ideas about a display for our books and DVDs.

Click HERE to go to my TPT store to download this unit!

Up to date

I just finished 4 busy days up at work getting up to date with administration and planning for next term.
I completed our eSmart Implementation plan (Cybersafety) and will work on our Cybersafety policy. I also updated our school improvement plan, my Principal Performance Plan, updated OHS documentation, ( but always more to do in that area) organised 2 important Professional Learning days for semester 2 and developed my AusVELS implementation plan. I also did some purchasing of storage containers and re-organised some of our kits and construction material.We had the carpet cleaned ( photo below)and our air conditioners serviced. Have completed a number of maths units ( I will also use some iSURF maths units. Check my followers for a link to their TPT site) and 2 literature units that will be posted on Teachers Pay Teachers soon. I only have some more reorganisation in the school library and some work to do on the iPads and then I can put my feet up and catch up on some reading.It is a bit soggy and windy so far these holidays but then again it is winter.( refer to the photos I took this morning of a soggy sheep and the mist that rolled in)
Oh by the way, I noticed I've passed 4000 views- thanks.