Australia Art Ideas

This month, we were learning a lot about Australia. Our Art lessons were also based on the theme.

1. Great Barrier Reef

We explored some of the wild life living in the great Barrier Reef. In particular, we focused on the colours and the shapes of all the different plants and animals.

The children used sponges to create the sea background. Then they used a separate sheet to draw and colour some animals such as clown fish and turtles. When the paint had dried, they added some crepe paper to represent the plants. 

 

2. Ayers Rock (Uluru)

You can use any materials to do this lesson but we used water pastels (I think they are pretty much the same as oil pastels). They work in a similar way to paint for mixing, so when we layered blue on yellow and rubbed it created green.

We really tried to experiment with blending. The children also added a border to each of their masterpieces.

   

3. Australia Postcards

Linked with English writing, we wrote and designed postcards from Australia. They children looked at examples of postcards from Australia to begin and then used their own ideas, based on all they had learned on Australia.

4. Aboriginal Stones

I showed the children examples of aboriginal art and we discussed the shapes and colours that they used. The shapes are almost a lesson in themselves as they represent humans, plants and animals to tell a story.  

The children used the technique of pointillism (using thin paintbrushes and earbuds) on small stones. We didn't limit the colours to the usual colours of Aboriginal Art though, they had free reign!

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 :)

The Primary Planet (Irish Newspaper for Children)

When I started in a new school this year, I first came across 'The Primary Planet'. It has been used in the school for the past few years in the senior classes. It is a 40 page monthly newspaper for children containing articles from sport to international and national news and everything you can imagine in between.

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I thought I would put together a few things I like about it in case anyone is looking for an engaging supplementary resource for their class next year.

1. Topical issues

Each month the articles relate to events happening in Ireland and around the world. The current issue has articles about the formation of a new government, the upcoming Census, movies currently in the cinema and all the latest in the sporting world.

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2. Caters for all interests

The newspaper is very varied and contains something to interest all children, be it Science, technology, showbiz or sport. Even my most reluctant readers are always asking when the next edition will be in!

3. Downloadable teachers resources/planning sheet

On the website, the teacher can download extra resources (quizzes, activity sheets) as well as a detailed planning sheet which contains the relevant strands and strand units. This is particularly helpful to me when completing my monthly plans as the strand units are to hand!

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4. Competitions

My class particularly enjoy entering the various competitions run monthly by 'The Primary Planet'.  A theme is chosen each month for a poetry competition so it is a good incentive for children to take on the role of a poet! A few children in my class had their poems published in an issue and it led to great excitement in the school and was a great confidence boost for the children also to see their work published.

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5. Early finisher activity

Sometimes Early Finisher Activities can be mundane and repetitive. With 'The Primary Planet', children love to pick it up after completing a piece of work and have a browse through it.

6. Challenging vocabulary

While it is specifically written for children in the senior classes, the articles do contain challenging vocabulary which the children are now starting to use in their own writing.

7. Links to Curricular Areas

It covers most, if not all of the curricular areas monthly. It even has a 'problem page' dealing with some issues that may arise in the senior classes. We often use it as a stimulus for Circle Time or an SPHE lesson.

At first, I thought it would be difficult to integrate another resource into an already overloaded timetable, but the children really take the lead with The Primary Planet and use it independently aswell.
The main benefit I have seen is that children who don't particularly like to pick up a book and read find 'The Primary Planet' interesting, accessible and can't wait to get the next issue.

Have a look at their website to see if it would be a beneficial resource for your class.

http://www.theprimaryplanet.ie/

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Valentine Art Ideas

Whether it is the infants making cute crafts for their parents or the older children sending them to each other, it is always fun to do some Valentine Art.

I have put a few ideas that I found online together that might help for Art this week.

1. The traditional Valentine's Card

I usually like to let the children work with a variety of materials (buttons, felt, pipe cleaners etc.) and see what they come up with themselves. Our Infant class are doing the 'Post Office' at the moment for Aistear so we will have fun posting them aswell!

This 3D card is very cute!

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2. Kandinsky-style Hearts

I just found this online and it reminded me of Kandinsky's painting of circles. This would be a nice way to tie in an artist to an art lesson.

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3. Love Bugs

I made these a  few years ago but must not have taken any photos. I got flat stones and the children painted little 'love bugs' on them!

They were something like these:

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4. Paper Tissue Heart 

This might be a nice idea for the younger classes: make a crepe paper heart (and maybe draw a picture in the middle of the person/people they are given it to).

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Happy Valentine's Everyone! <3

3D Shapes (Station Teaching)

With such a big Maths Curriculum to cover in the senior classes, it can be difficult to have time for lots of hands on activities. This week it was great to put the text book aside and use station teaching to explore 3D shapes.

First of all, we did a general introduction on 3D Shapes and a recap on what the children already knew about 3D shapes. This interactive was very effective:

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Then I did station teaching, these are the stations we used in my classroom.

1. Construct 3D shapes

The children were assigned a 3D shape to make. They had to figure out how many cocktail sticks and pieces of playdough they would need to make the shape.  Lollipop sticks and marshmallows are also useful materials for this activity. Afterwards, the children recorded how many faces, edges and vertices their shape had and we made a grid together on the board to recap on the lesson.

2. Make a net of the 3D Shape

You can download some templates to print on SEN Teacher. Again, the children identified and recorded the properties of the shapes.

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3. Find examples of 3D shapes in school environment

We used iPads at this station. Cameras could also be used or if your school does not have these resources, the children could make a list of objects they found. They surprised me with some of the examples they found around the school.

4. Interactive Games

I always like Interactive Sites for Maths games so I chose 1-2 games based on 3D shapes for the children to consolidate their learning.

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You can download banners and posters for 3D shapes on Teachers Pet.

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New Year Activities

Unfortunately, the Christmas holidays are coming to an end....they never seem long enough. Here are some of the activities I will be doing the first day back to ease the children (and myself) back into school.

New Year's Resolutions

Always a good way to get children thinking how they can make changes to their lives at school, home and in the community.  The free differentiated templates can be downloaded here.  It can also be a good activity to remind children of how to present their work (use of capital, punctuation, cursive writing etc.)

Nollaig na mBan/Women's Little Christmas (History)

If you are returning to school on the 6th of January, it is traditionally known as 'Women's Christmas'. There is a lovely powerpoint that you could show the children available on nollaigshona.ie

New Year Prayer

 I do this at the start of the school year, but usually do it in the New Year also. 

Free Writing

It is a nice way for children to recap on their holidays before sharing it with the rest of the class. I usually set a timer for 10-15 mins to give them a chance to write about their holidays.

Happy New Year everyone!

Christmas Tag

Thanks A Crucial Week for the 'Christmas Tag'. Here are my responses to some Christmas questions!

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1. What's your favourite Christmas movie? It would have to be The Santa Clause (it never gets old!)
2. Do you open your presents on Christmas Eve or Christmas morning? We all open one each Christmas Eve and the rest on Christmas morning.
3. Do you have a favourite Christmas memory? This is a hard one, I suppose setting alarm clocks with your siblings in places you would hope your parents wouldn't find to get up in the early hours to see what Santa brought! The excitement of creeping into the sitting room to find all our presents.
4. Favourite festive food? It has to be my mum's potato stuffing with the goose! And hot ports!
5. Favourite Christmas gift? Ed Sheeran tickets!
6. Favourite Christmas scent? Real Christmas Tree
7. Do you have any Christmas Eve traditions? We always get a new pair of PJ's from mam (even now!) and we all choose one present to open on Christmas Eve.
8. What tops your tree? A gold Star
9. As a kid, what was the one gift you asked for but never received? A Gameboy
10. What's the best part about Christmas for you? This year, it will be having everyone back at home for Christmas, including my nephew. It will be his first Christmas with us so I am really excited about that.

Happy Christmas everyone!