Maths Investigation Week Display

This collage (Thanks Picassa) is actually of one very long wall. It shows five different panels of work produced by Year 3 during our recent Maths Investigation Week. The title is Marvellous, Mysterious, Magical Mathematics! Hmmm, it is marvellous that we managed to fill such a huge wall!

The week was great fun and the children's problem solving skills are improving as a result.

The panels include Optical Illusions, Tangrams and real life problems, an interactive centre section which we are changing daily, a Fraction Wall and posters of methods for solving problems. 

Reading Log

I have thrown together this little Reading Journal to use with my class in Term 3. It is by no means perfect, but I think it will do for their first one.

I plan to model making responses to texts with the class by keeping my own log. Then I will get them to make a few entries in class before sending it home. I have made a list of ideas of ways in which they can respond to a text, but hope they will come up with their own ideas.

There is a super download on Reading Journals on Leicestershire Grid's Word Zone pages (scroll down), including text response objectives for each year group.

Deb

Playground Fun and Games

I am going to be running a playground game after school club next term and I have found this lovely little website to help me! Playground Fun is child-friendly and full of ideas. The instructions for the games are in simple language and can be printed out on one page. I also think they may lend themseleves nicely to work on writing instructions.

Deb

More Classroom Displays

Another of Linda's suggestions, this classroom display site loads a lot faster and has lots of images!

Deb

The Classroom Displays Blog

Many thanks to Linda, one of our readers, for this lovely little link!

The Classroom Displays Blog has some superb ideas covering both KS1 and KS2 topics. As well as lovely photographs of the finished displays, there is also a detailed explanation of how it was made and how it supports the children's learning.

The page takes a while to load due to all the lovely pictures, but it is worth the wait.

I will be posting a few images of our Maths Investigation Week display soon!

Deb

Primary Teacher Competition

Andrew has set up a competition on his Primary Teacher UK blog. The first prize is a one year subscription to WebWrite.

The question is very easy...so give it a whirl!

Deb

The TA Chat Forum

Whether you are a teacher or a teaching assistant, have a whiz over to the TA Chat Forum. It is a well organised set of message boards with loads of useful stuff and friendly people!

There are boards on how to use the forum, curriculum areas, SEN, resources, TA Professional Development and a topic of the week.

It is great to see everyone so willing to help one another and ease the load a bit. I will be giving my TA the web address first thing on Monday morning!

Deb

Starfall - Online Books

Starfall is a lovely website to help with reading. It has 4 main categories for reading, from simple initial sounds at level 1, blends and diagraphs at level 2, sentences through riddles, rhymes and tongue twisters at level 3 and a range of different genres at level 4.

In addition to all these lovely animated activities for the children, there are links for teachers and parents and downloadable activities which can be used with the online stories.

This is an incredible free site, so get in there before they start charging!

Deb

PBS Kids

I have just come across the PBS Kids site and it is great fun. As well as characters such as Barney, Clifford and Telletubbies (heavens forbid!) there are some lovely online stories. Some of the words are highlighted and a new window appears on click which gives the definition. Great for vocabulary work. When you get to the end, there are games to play too.

There is a games link as well. I only played 'Word Play', but as well as allowing the children to hear the word, there is an animation of the meaning. Cool! One of my favourite links is songs. There are many audio and video clips to be played covering spelling and grammar. I went to the Vowel Boot Camp video and laughed my head off!

I am sure the children will love it, but if they do not, it will give you a giggle at least!

Probably best for KS1 and weaker KS2 children. You will need Quicktime, RealPlayer and Flash installed to use it.

Have fun!

Deb

Teachers Home Page

One of our readers, John Duffy from Chester University's Faculty of Education, has set up Teachers Home Page. Still in the early stages of development, it looks like it is going to be a useful site.

The site has 3 main aims:

1. To help teachers locate resources
2. To help educators with blogs and websites publicise resources
3. To raise funds for Cancer Research

The THEMES link takes you to a menu of blogs, resource sites, forums and search sites - all for education obviously. More sites are being added all the time, so it is well worth bookmarking and popping back to regularly.

Have a look and maybe even place an ad for your own site.

Deb

Bali!

Apologies for not posting in such a long time. Firstly, I had my Mum here visiting and we were seeing the sights of Bangkok for the umpteenth time! Then I went on holiday to Bali, one of my favourite places in the world!

I am back all tanned and relaxed, although one mad day at school is starting to make it all seem like it was a lifetime ago!

Bali is really struggling right now. Because of the second set of bombs, people are avoiding the place. All I can say is that it is probably one of the safer places in the world just now. There are security checks everywhere and although a little inconvenient at times, it does put your mind at rest. They survive on tourism and are really struggling to survive because of the effects of those horrendous acts.

If you happen to be planning a holiday, don't dismiss Bali. They need us to go back and build it up again. They are peaceful people and know how to make sure you have a wonderful holiday. It is an island with so much to offer, from diving to surfing, mountains and volcanoes and like the saying goes, everyone there is an artist!

It's gorgeous.

Deb