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

End of Year Activities...keeping them busy!!

It's almost that time of year again when most of the curriculum is covered and the feeling of holidays is in the air! It can be a long last month though to keep the children occupied and on task.

I have put together a few activities that might be useful for those last few weeks of the year.

1. Maths Murder Mystery

This is a nice group activity that also recaps on many maths strands from the year. the children figure out the Maths clues to eliminate suspects of the crime. If they follow the steps correctly they should be able to identify the killer! You can download them from Primary Resources by clicking here.

2. Display Ideas

It is always nice to ask the children what they really enjoyed during the year and what stood out for them. Here are a few ways to record their year in your class.

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This is a freebie from my Teachers Pay Teachers store that you can download here. There is also another sheet with it entitled 'My star moments this year'.

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3. Writing Activities (Irish)

I have used this with the senior classes to summarise their highlights from the school year. It is a useful way to recap on tenses and sentence structure. It can be used with younger classes too by using the differentiated worksheet.

Click here to download the resource.

4. Writing Activities (English)

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Last year, we used these task cards in the last few weeks of school. I pulled out a name and they chose a number and were assigned that task card. We did short writing sessions (10-15 mins) and they read each others work after wards. They really enjoyed reading each others memories. Click on the picture above to download them.

Here is another free set to download (click on picture to download):

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Please feel free to comment or link other ideas below :)

First Steps Writing (Narrative Writing)

Last year, our school undertook English Writing as an area of SSE (School Self Evaluation). We decided to take on the First Steps Approach to Writing. It breaks each genre down into a seven step approach which you build upon over seven-eight weeks. I felt that I really improved my teaching of English Writing as it was a more structured approach that allowed the children to progress steadily over the term. The difference in their initial draft and their final sample at the end of the 7-8 weeks was remarkable!

Available here

The writing genre book is available from PDST here and it incorporates the ideas of First Steps Writing.

This term, my class is focusing on Narrative Writing. And we are going right back to basics! We started looking at characters in our weekly story and discussing their traits. In particular, we have worked a lot on showing character traits throughout our writing rather than just stating them.

Next we began to work more on settings and how important it is to set a clear picture in the mind of the reader.
Both character and setting worksheets are available here.

Only then did we move on to planning the 'skeleton' of a story using story planners.

Story planner available here

At the end of the Narrative Writing genre, each child will have a few samples of their own narrative writing. they will select the piece their are particularly proud of and I will bind them all together as a booklet to add to our class library.

Assessment

Each child self assesses their work to identify areas they did well and aspects they could work on next time.  Free checklists are available here.

Gaeilge Display Board (Year Round Resources)

Gaeilge is one of my favourite subjects to teach but one of the biggest challenges I find is having interesting and appealing resources to inspire the children. As a result, I generally make a lot of my own Gaeilge resources for my classroom.

Below I have listed some resources that I keep on my Gaeilge display board all year round. I then supplement it fortnightly with relevant flashcards & vocabulary for each Gaeilge theme.

1. Na Míonna

2. Laethanta na Seachtaine

3. Ceisteanna by A Crucial Week
These are very useful when doing comprehension questions as the picture cues help to remind the children of the type of question.

4. Seanfhocail
In our school, the children learn one seanfhocal per week. We sometimes integrate Gaeilge with Art at the end of the week to create illustrations for each seanfhocal.


5. 10 Téamaí headings
These posters can be used on your Gaeilge display board for each of the 10 Gaeilge themes you are teaching.