Christmas Resources

Here are some of my new (and old) Christmas resources, most of which are free!

Click on each image to download the resource. 

An Nollaig Display Set

A set of display posters for the theme of Christmas.

  Christmas Narrative Writing Roll a Story

All you need to plan and write a festive narrative story.

An Nollaig Activity Sheets

Letter to Santa (in both English & Irish)

This creates a lovely display whether you do it in English or Irish.

  

Advent Calendar

This is a great way to choose little activities to do in the lead up to Christmas.

An Nollaig Wordsearch 

Christmas Recount Writing

This is one to save for after Christmas!

3, 2, 1...Blast Off! (Science Rockets)

Science Week is fast approaching and this year I am going to do something very similar to last year as the children really enjoyed it.

I had attended an excellent science course during the summer and got lots of new experiments and ideas. So last year, I decided to use rockets as my theme for science week.

Click here to download

Each day we constructed a different type of rocket so by Friday we had made 5 different rockets.

• Mouse rocket
• Straw rocket
• Balloon rocket
• Foam rocket
• Fizzy rocket

I had 4th and 5th class last year so they also guided the younger classes to make some of the rockets once they had learned to do it. Two senior children worked with two children in the junior room to help them make the straw and mouse rocket. My class loved being the 'teachers'!

We also had rocket launches and races outside which the children really loved. It was one of my favourite science lessons as a teacher as all the children were excited to get involved and they had rockets to bring home at the end of the week.

I have put together a pack which contains detailed outlines of how to make the different rockets, prompt questions to challenge the children and get them thinking, an ideas page to integrate it with other subject areas as well as activity sheets for the children.

Just click on the image below to download it!

Happy Science Week everyone!

Here is a nice video that explains rocket launches and landings for children!

Books Worth a Look #3 'The City of Ember'

This is the third post in Books Worth a Look. (I have purchased these books myself and do not receive sponsorship/freebies for reviewing them!)

Next up is 'The City of Ember' by Jeanne DuPrau. It has been made into a movie aswell so it could be a good one to read with the children and then compare and contrast the film.



I had never come across this book before until the summer when I ordered it online. I feel it is most suitable for the senior end of the school. (It is important to note that the main character has lost her parents and also loses her grandmother during the story).

Theme/Overview
The book is set in the fictional city of Ember which has been built to be self sufficient from any outside world. However, the city is now running out of supplies and the generator is having more and more failures as the city is plunged into darkness repeatedly.  People are becoming more anxious about the future. The main characters need to try and find an escape route to see what lies beyond the city boundaries.

Activities

• Science: explore Electricity and how it works

Check out http://www.primaryscience.ie/ for experiments based on Electricity.

This link has some videos that are worth a look.
http://www.primaryscience.ie/activities_activity_movies.php

Discuss ways to conserve electricity and different ways to generate electricity.

Explore the different sources of light, both natural and artificial.

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• Art: create city scapes of buildings.

I really like these ones make using newspaper.

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• Visualisation: This book would be good to challenge children to visualise it in their heads and illustrate it. They could contrast 'the City of Ember' and the land they arrive in.

• Get creative and plan their own city (Maths and Art). In groups they could construct a city using a variety of materials

• Pack your bags! Discuss what treasured belongings you would bring if you had to move to a new home.

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Check out the other Books Worth a Look posts:

Books Worth a Look #1 The Dot

Books Worth a Look #2 Pax

Building Project

Following on from the students' enthusiasm and engagement with the 'Bridges Project' last year, we did a 'Building Project' this year.

I did it in a similar way to the bridge project. First of all, we looked at different types of buildings all around the world and how they have changed over the years.

Then we looked at the types of materials that are used and why (for example why we use blocks in Ireland compared to mud huts in Africa).

We also looked at famous buildings around the world to give the children some inspiration and ideas.

The children then had to complete their project booklet and construct a building of their own!
                                         

Take a look at a few of the finished projects.

The students presented them to the whole school after presenting them to the class.

Integration Ideas

Science: Materials (and how they can be used in construction)
Art: Construction
English: Oral Language, Procedural Writing
Geography: Homes Around the World
History: Change of Buildings over time (contrast photos of your locality: now versus long ago)
SPHE: Differences

Other Project Ideas:

Bridge Project

Books Worth a Look #2 'Pax'

This is the second in a series of blog posts on some good books that I have come across while teaching a variety of classes. (I have purchased these books myself and do not receive sponsorship/freebies for reviewing them!)

The second book is 'Pax', a new-ish book to me. It is one that I really enjoyed reading myself. It is written by Sara Pennypacker and has lovely illustrations by Jon Klassen.

Theme/Overview

The main theme of this book is friendship. It is about two friends who are separated, it just so happens that one of them is a boy (Peter) and one is a fox (Pax).In order to be reunited, both of them face many obstacles including war (yet war is not the main focus of the book).  The book explores how true friendships can overcome even the most difficult and dangerous situations.

I particularly liked how it is written from perspective of both Peter and Pax, in alternate chapters. Personally, I would do this with a senior class as it does refer to war from time to time. It is important to note it does deal with the loss of a parent so may not be suitable to do if a child has experienced such a loss.

Activities/Ideas

• Research foxes- create a report piece of writing (click on image to get blank templates)

• Use the book as a stimulus to explore the theme of war (book does not specify which war)

• Fill a backpack (Peter brought some useful items and treasured possessions with him), ask the children what they would bring. They could draw a backpack with their chosen items inside.

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• Visualisations: This story lends itself nicely to working on the comprehension strategy of visualisation. 

• Traits of a good friend: Discuss the important traits of a good friend.

• Friendship recipe: similar to the idea above, choose the most important traits of friendship.

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• My pet: Discuss or complete a project on their pets and their favourite things about them. If some children don't have pets try the next activity.

• If I could have any pet it would be.....

• Read the poem 'The Dentist and the Crocodile' by Roald Dahl

• Do some art inspired by foxes!

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Check out the other Books Worth a Look posts:

Books Worth a Look #1 'The Dot'

Books Worth a Look #1 'The Dot'

This is the first in a series of blog posts on some good books that I have come across while teaching a variety of classes. (I have purchased these books myself and do not receive sponsorship/freebies for reviewing them!)




First up is 'The Dot' by Peter H. Reynolds which I will be doing with my new students on the first day of school as I introduce our classroom rules.

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Theme/Overview

The book is about a child struggling with an Art activity (but really I think it can be applicable to all subjects). It is about trying, even when it is difficult and you feel you can't do it...YET!  Even though it may be daunting or make us feel uneasy, making a start is important or as we say in Irish 'Tús maith leath na hoibre!' It ties in nicely with the idea of Growth Mindset. 

It encourages us to be creative in our learning and teaching (that there isn't just one way to do something) which is why I have chosen to read it on the first day back to school.

Activities/Ideas

These are just some ideas to pick and choose from that you could use alongside the book.

• Discuss before reading the story what it feels like when faced with a new beginning or start (first day back to school, new pupil in the class etc.)

• Read the story again but change it to another subject, for example Maths to show the children that the main idea of the story is applicable to more than just Art

• The book could also be a stimulus for an Art lesson for the children to make their 'own mark'

• Chat about how the children could make their mark this year (what they would like to achieve, what they would like to improve on) 

• Do some Pointillism Art using dots and look at artist Seurat

• Do some Kandinsky inspired 'Dot' Art

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• create a class contract for the year to always try our best and 'make our mark'. Each child can sign their name beside their dot (perhaps their fingerprint).

• Design a Growth Mindset Poster for displaying in the class. Have a look here at some examples or click the image for others.

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They now even have an International Dot Day which is the 15th September this year! More details can be found here where they have more ideas for the book.

Gaeilge Mé Féin Stations/Activities

In another post I have outlined how I approached and structured Gaeilge Station Teaching last year. 

Here are some ideas for doing stations based on the theme of Mé Féin.

Guess who/ Cé tusa?

I had a Guess Who lying around at home from years ago. It is a great way to get the children to use the language based around hair colour, eye colour etc. A little pre teaching of the questions beforehand is all that is needed or give them a laminated list for questions for the first few games to help them. Here are some ideas of questions:

• An bean/cailín í?
• An fear/buachaill é?
• An bhfuil gruaig ________ air/uirthi?
• An bhfuil súile _________ aige/aici?
• An bhfuil sé/sí ard?
• An bhfuil sé/sí íseal?
• An bhfuil sé/sí ramhar?
• An bhfuil sé/sí tanaí?

A lot of families probably have the game so you could ask children to bring it in. Otherwise team up and allow two children to work against two others. For the older students, you can make it trickier by making them miss a turn if they speak any English.

If you don't have the board game, print an A4 page with a photo of each child in the class on it. Use counters to mark off the children as they narrow it down.

Puppets/Puipéid

Last year, I printed out various images from Google, laminated them and stuck them on a lollipop stick. On the back I wrote a number for their age. The children then pretend to be the character and use sentences such as:
'Dia duit! ______ is ainm dom. Táim __________ bliana/mbliana d'aois. Tá gruaig ______ orm. Tá súile _____ agam.'

The children had great fun putting on different accents, especially when they had the opposite gender on their puppet. Alternatively, they can describe the puppet, to practice using air/ uirthi and aige/aici. 

Roleplay/Rólimirt 

Practicing the questions about themselves is very important, not only how to answer questions but also to be able to ask questions. There's a poster set of the questions as well as differentiated rólimirt worksheets available on my TPT store. Click the image below to be redirected.

                                

Mé Féin Bunting

This is a nice scríbhneoireacht activity to do in station teaching as it doesn't take too long and once the children know the language they should be able to do it almost independently. Again, I have differentiated versions available here. 

                                                    

Draw the person/ éist, tarraing agus aimsigh an duine

This could be a nice éisteacht lesson. Read a description of a person to the children (cailín/buachaill, cén sort gruaig, dath na súile,  possibly include éadaí, and a badge with their age).

The children have to draw what they hear in the description and choose who they think it is in the classroom. Maybe it could also be a member of staff!

ICT Games/Cluichí Ríomhaire

These games are from one of the few Gaeilge sites that is very good and has some lovely interactive games. It has some differences in the words as it uses the Northern Irish dialect but is still a great resource to use.

Here are two games that link nicely to Mé Féin. Click on the images to be redirected to the website.

       

       

You could also download the Anseo Corp App onto the computers which has 6 games to revise the body parts. The clickable image will redirect you to where you can download it.

Bingo/Biongó

The children love Biongó. This is a set for the body parts (click on image to download resource). For the older children I make it more challenging by giving them two cards to mark. You can also make it more challenging for the child calling out the words by getting them to put it into a sentence e.g. Ghortaigh mé mo chos.

                                                   

World Book Day

Here are some of the activities I have done over the past few years to celebrate World Book Day.

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1. Dress up as your favourite character

In my previous school, all of the children dressed up, even the older ones! The teachers got into the spirit of it aswell which the children loved.

2. Bring in your favourite book(s)

Each child talked about their book to the class, why it was their favourite etc. What surprised me this year was the authors that some of the children hadn't heard of so it might spark their interest to read some new books.

3. Do a library scavenger hunt

This year, my class library is too small to do a library hunt with clues, but in previous years it was good fun to give them a set of clues and let them explore books in groups to find the answers.  You can give them a list of items to find in books such as a troll, a princess or find a book by '________', find who wrote '_________'.

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4. Design a book cover

I usually give the children a choice between designing a new cover for a book they already know or design a fictional book cover.

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5. Design a bookmark

One of my pet hate is dog ears! So designing their own bookmark is a nice activity to incorporate on World Book Day if they haven't already got one.

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6. Write a Book Report

A perfect day to get them to review a book they have recently written and practice some writing at the same time!

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7. Add a bit of drama

Dramatising some parts of books is also a fun idea for World Book Day. Sometimes I choose one of the children's books and read an excerpt to give a stimulus for the drama.

8. D.E.A.R Time (Drop Everything And Read)

A nice way to wrap up the day or even just give them some time during the day to get lost in a book for a while.

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