Novel Suggestions

 I have put together the following novel suggestions based on responses from teachers on Instagram. They might come in useful throughout the year or in Term 3.

You can also find more novel ideas in this post.

Parachute Games

 The summer term is almost upon us! Here are a few ideas of games that you could use with the parachute.

Choice Boards

 Choice Boards have been particularly useful over the past 2 months of distance learning.  It gives all children the opportunity to choose tasks that interest them and also allows the opportunity to challenge themselves.  They can also be used in the classroom and are great in multigrade settings.

I have created these over the past few weeks as freebies and will update this post as I create more! Click on each one below to download it.

New Term Goal Setting

 This year, rather than New Year Resolutions, I am going to continue with an activity that I used last term.

Between October and Christmas, each child in my class chose one area that they were going to focus on.  Some examples were handwriting, presentation of their work, drawing skills, learning tables and spellings. 

We put them up in the classroom to remind us as the weeks went by.  Just before Christmas, we took them down and reviewed their progress.

It was very interesting to observe the goals they chose and how they self-assessed their progress. I also added a comment which really encouraged them.  It could also be a nice topic of discussion at parent-teacher meetings.

If you would like a copy, you can download it by clicking on the image below.

Foam Snowmen

This is a really fun Art lesson to do in the lead up to Christmas.  I got the idea from a colleague who had used shaving foam to make ice-cream cones in an Art lesson. The students loved the texture of the mixture, which feels like a marshmallow once it has dried.

What you need

• Shaving foam
• PVA glue
• Coloured card
• Big bowl
• Spoons
• Decorations (matchsticks, buttons, googly eyes, old socks as scarves, hats, nose)

                                

How to make the foam

Add approximately 3 parts shaving foam to 1 part PVA glue to a bowl and stir.....that is it!

Draw a rough outline of 3 circles for the snowman on the card.

Using a big spoon and small spoon, add foam to the card (don't flatten it too much!)
Shape it roughly into circular shapes.

Add mini snowflakes/snowballs if you want.

Add your details to the snowman (nose, buttons etc.).
Allow to dry overnight and you have a really cute 3D foam snowman.

Tips

*Do a trail run first as different shaving foams can give different results. My first attempt looked great but didn't remain foamy the following day!
*Use card as paper won't be strong enough.
*Add all the decorations as soon as you have shaped the snowman (don't leave it to dry first!)

Other ways to use it:

• Puffy Santa beard
• Puffy Christmas Stocking
• Add a tiny amount of paint to have coloured foam!

Report Writing Animals (Toucans)

Over the past few few weeks, we have been exploring Report Writing.  Our English reading texts were also based on this genre, as it provided examples of Report Writing for the children.

As we read the texts, we identified the information that was provided about the various animals: their appearance, habitat, what it eats, predators and some interesting facts.

We decided to explore toucans in more detail.  I sourced some short video clips to show the children.  This helped us to identify more about their appearance and habitat.  

I modelled how to chose the important information about toucans and we had a shared writing lesson to make a plan for writing about toucans under each of the headings. 

The following week, the children wrote their piece of Report Writing about toucans, using writing frames.  They also created some fabulous art to go with it.

The following resources were used to support the class, when developing their Report Writing skills.

Display Posters

Planning Templates

Self Assessment Checklist Freebie

Maths Week Ideas

 As Maths week is next week, I have been putting together some resources to use with my 1st, 2nd and 3rd Class throughout the week.   Here are some of the activities we hope to do during the week.

Maths on the Move

I have already written a blog post on this where you can find a more detailed description.  We do this outdoors and incorporate it into PE. For each class I have copied a set of questions and answers onto card.  These are very versatile as they can also be used for matching games in the classroom. 

1st Class will focus on addition to 15, 2nd will use mental addition strategies and subtraction facts, while 3rd Class will focus on mental addition strategies and times tables.  For a single stream class, simply photocopy the same questions on different coloured paper for each team. When collecting the answers they can only take it is it is their team colour!

There are lots of variations to this game too. The winning team could be the first team with them all matched up or the first team to put them in correct order starting with the smallest. The students always love it from the junior end to the senior end!

Board Games

I ave also put together some board games for each of the classes to revise Maths concepts that we have covered over the past few weeks.  I have laminated the board game & roll and add/round game so each pair have two games.

Topmarks Games

We will be using some of the great interactive games on the Topmarks website too.

If you would like any of the games mentioned above, click on the photos below.