The Invisible Man

This is a LINK to my TPT Blooms taxonomy literature unit for The Invisible Man and The Time Machine.
Yes a double treat! My grade 6 boy will be studying classic science fiction stories (including these two stories) by HG Wells and Jules Verne. (My learning activities for Journey to the Centre of the Earth and Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea were done pre-computer and internet. I don't have the time to digitize this material so it will have to remain for my private use only)

We mowed and cleaned up a bit today and the school looks really good. I'm going to take a blog break for a week and relax a bit before the next term starts.

Storybook Saturday - 28th Sep

Two iPad app books for Story Book Saturday

There is a Storybook Linkup on Paula's Place here is my book for this week

 

Firstly let me introduce to you 'Collins Big Cat' story books by Harper Collins. These iPad app books are interactive books and a story creator all in one.
As well as reading or having read to you quality children's books (There are currently 8 in the series with more coming) but you can write or record your own narration and sound effects for the story. There are animation surprises, a quiz and you can create your own book.


Also I'd like to recommend Oxford Bookworm Classics. Although quite expensive ($9.49) the range and difficulty level of texts is impressive and always increasing.
I have downloaded The Railway Children, The Wizard of Oz and Dracula and students I teach, enjoyed reading them and I will be downloading more for a theme I'm doing on Classic Science Fiction Literature. (Some can also be found in Japanese)

Democracy in Action

Today I attended a debate between the two candidates for the leadership of the Australian Labor Party at Trades Hall in Melbourne. ( Refer to the photos below of the Historic Trades Hall building)
Both candidates ( Bill Shorten and Anthony Albanese) were very impressive and it will be difficult to choose who to vote for. Both candidate ( photos below) supported education reform initiated by the previous government as well as continued democratic processes within the party, a commitment to support the legacy of the previous government, an acknowledgement of mistakes that were made in government and a commitment to end the infighting which de-railed their reform agenda.
The debate about public education is too serious to be left to short sighted politicians ( They quibble over the cost of teachers, maintaining run down schools and resourcing schools in impoverished neighbourhoods instead of seeing the long term positives of a highly educated community) and I believe it is important that teachers and principals become actively involved in education debates.

The Headless Horseman

I have attached a link to a literature unit plan on TPT for The Legend of Sleepy Hollow for my US blog readers for Halloween for free!
I hope it will be of help to you.
Download and have fun!

PS I've just racked up over 8000 blog views over the last 2 days. Thanks for all your interest. I hope you've found something interesting on your visits.

The Incredible Adventures of Professor Branestawm

As promised here is a link to my literature unit (which I'll be using next term) based on the first of Norman Hunter's Professor Branestawm books.
Click HERE to check it out on TPT. If you want to check out all the units I've have (free and modestly priced) then check out my Pinterest Board HERE.
If you haven't checked out Pinterest before then have a look. I have found some fantastic ideas on there especially for art which has been a real focus for me at Glen Park this year. There are also loads of great science ideas as well

PS As noted by a colleague looking at my previous post, my store room is a bit of a mess. Thanks for pointing that out! You are missing the point. The point is that it is awesome to have a possum in my store room! And he/she made the mess in there not me!

Possum Magic

It was a busy day up at school today. We had the gutters cleaned which was a huge job.
At one point I went down to the store room at the back of the school and when I opened the door there was a possum staring at me.
I carefully backed out and ran inside to grab my iPad. Surprisingly it was still there when I got back. We eye balled each other off for about 10 minutes and I took some photos.
When the gutter guy turned up the possum scrambled across the shelf and popped up a hole in the roof. check out the photos below. I finished a lot of work today and will put the Professor Branestawm unit on TPT tomorrow.

Branestawm sketches

Another balmy spring day today. I popped up to school and sketched and painted some images for my Professor Branestawm unit which I hope to put up on TPT this week. ( refer to the photo below) The garden is looking nice at school- it always blooms during the holidays when there is nobody but me to see it. Another day of getting organised tomorrow and I'll have a few days off to tackle the pile of books I have beside my bed and get out and enjoy the sunshine.

First day of the holidays?

I just love it when the Department decide to change a template! they decided to change the Emergency Management Plan template recently.Even though I spent several hours during the summer break updating the old one I had to do it all over again. It took about 4 hours to re-do this morning.As well as doing that I also did some work in the library. We have a massive library at Glen Park for such a small school. I tend to let things mount up a bit during the term so during the holidays I usually have a few hours worth of re-organising to do which is now complete.

Tomorrow I will start organising new themes for the start of the last term. - Classic Science Fiction ( HG Wells and Jules Verne) Professor Branestawm and the work of E. Nesbit ( Five Children and It and The Railway Children) Story Box books ( For grade Prep and one) Time, Our Solar System, Zac Power, Wizard of Oz and Girlz Rule.

It was a lovely spring day today and we had a few unusual birds around the school. The photos are lousy I know. I'll have to upgrade my iPad to a new one with a better camera.Just take my word for it, they were lovely.Below is also a picture of part of the library as well as a poster I mucked around with on an app called 'Phoster' which I'll introduce next term.

Also check out this website from Random House called World Of Stories which provides information and games about classic children's literature: http://www.worldofstories.co.uk/index.php

Classic Horror Art and Craft

Go to TPT and find my new unit; HORROR ART & CRAFT.

This one is an art/craft unit based on classic horror stories from the Classic Horror Unit I've been working on over the last few weeks.

This craft activity pack provides educators with ideas and templates for craft activities to support classic horror stories such as Dracula, Frankenstein and The Mummy.

Many ideas are inspired from things I have seen in books, blogs and on Pinterest. All of these activities I have completed with my mixed class of children aged 6 to 12. (Glen Park is after all a one-teacher state primary school in rural Australia.) and I have provided photos of their finished projects.

These craft activities were completed while we were reading classic horror stories as serials and while we completed reading and writing tasks using my Classic Horror Unit - Also on TPT .(Younger students not doing this work joined in ...because I couldn’t stop them)

 Read through the unit to determine what resources you may need (You might be able to substitute some materials for others) Good luck, have patience and don’t forget to make some of your own so that you have them for future reference and for demonstrations.

Below is a picture of the Headless Horseman with marbling paint used to make the atmospheric background. The unit includes pictures of finished student work such as this.

Storybook Saturday - 21st Sep

There is a Storybook Linkup on Paula's Place here is my e-book for this week

The Flautist of Hemelin iPad app for $2.99

This is a fantastic version of the Pied Piper of Hamelin (Called in this version the Flautist of Hamelin) that I have ever come across.

A story for kids ages 6 and up tells surprising turn of events that makes this city look for a hero.
A young flautist appears, promises are made and not kept and in the end our little hero decides to take matters into her own hands.
Creatively illustrated with beautiful artistic images and cleverly animated gameplay this story will enchant readers as well as instill them with the moral of: 'Always keep your promises'
Hamelin residents begin to see an increased number of cockroaches (not rats) filling the city and the officials don´t know what to do.They announce that will offer a generous reward to anyone who can get the cockroaches out of the city.
Magically their hero arrives, and succeeds in the task, however once the city is left in peace the powerful governors of the city forget their promise to the young flautist so, she uses her talent to lead something else from the selfish city – something the city will miss, forever.

Last day of term

AAAAH...last day of term.
Today the kids finished their Mummy Curse and also their pop- up Ghost Riddle card. The children created their pop up haunted house ( inspired by some I've seen on Pinterest -and by some ghost stories by E. Nesbit I've been reading this week.) We found corny ghost riddles on The Internet and wrote those on the front cover and put the answer on the pop up inside.
I have a busy holiday planned with a few days of planning and preparation to start term 4 and at least 2 days of admin. We also need our fresh green grass mowed ( We should have locked those 2 sheep in for the holidays) and our gutters will get cleaned.

Invasion of the Sheep!

This afternoon we had some random sheep wander into the playground. The kids thought it was very funny ( one of them took this photo for me) We also finished our mummies which look fantastic.Tomorrow is the last day of term and we'll finish off our horror craft tasks and watch a DVD ( The Haunted Mansion) We have been reading some ghost short stories now we have finished 'The Curse of the Mummy' which have been fun. Next term we'll be reading classic science fiction ( HG Wells and Jules Verne) as well as The Railway Children and Professor Branestawm. I'll be spending a bit of time organising these units as well as a dealing with a mini avalanche of Department red tape.

Excursion Photos

Below are some photos I took yesterday from our Excursion to Melbourne. They include images of the outside of the Old Melbourne Gaol including the gates, the scaffold, cells, Ned Kelly's death mask and children wearing Ned Kelly armour replicas. There are also photos from the gardens around the Royal Exhibition Building, the Melbourne Museum including dinosaurs (as well as the Australian diprotodon) a giant squid, a Luna Park roller coaster simulator and an endangered animals display.