Class Dojo & Seesaw

Class Dojo and Seesaw are apps that we use in our class, Kānuka (Room 9). Class Dojo is used as a behavioural management tool. I give out points for children demonstrating the school values, on task, working quietly etc. Children also loose points for calling out, not on task etc. Over the last few weeks, 76% of parents in the class have now joined the class and are able to log in to see how their child is doing in class each day. We have also started our class blog. We put up at least one blog per week. Often I will write something up for the class but we have also done a few posts together in class. I'm really happy with the amount of parents that have got on board with Class Dojo. I use the messenger to contact parents and send out reminders. The parent's feedback has been really positive and they love being able to use one app to see progress, what we are doing and being able to contact me, all from the same place.

Seesaw is an opportunity for children to share their learning with their parents. Each child has their own blog/learning journal within our class, Kanuka. Children are able to take a photo of the their writing and record themselves reading their story. They can write over a photo to explain what they are doing. We have two short spaces each day in our timetable for a different three children to share something with their parents. Every new item that children upload gets sent to me to be approved before being sent to their parents.

These ICT apps provide opportunities for children to engage, practise and apply new learning in a different context. It also enables children to revise what they have been learning about and feel a sense of pride in their work. I have found the the quality of work is to a high standard and that the children are motivated to do tasks knowing that they get to share their learning.

Room 9 - Classroom Setup!

Over the school holidays I set up my very first Year 3 classroom. I looked at different ways I could set up the learning space to help children be motivated and engaged towards their learning. With the intention of not covering up too many walls so that we can display lots of the children's work, I feel I have made a learning space where children will feel safe, happy and excited to be in the classroom. Bright colours are used, opportunities to use ICT devices to enhance the learning, Daily 5 activities, Maori language, and mainly having organised the classroom in a way that lets children move around and be able to access everything easily. Children desk's are in four groups (Whero, Kowhai, Kahurangi, Kakariki) to give children an opportunity to cooperate together, work collaboratively and build positive relationships with their peers. Going forward I plan to put wire string lines up in the classroom to allow more opportunity to display the children's work. I'm very excited for 2016 and seeing the children in the classroom be just as eager and motivated to learn as what I am.

Calendar Art Reflection

Swimming Reflection

What a blast Room 3 had at swimming over the last two weeks! After having attended the professional development meeting based around pb4l and writing a pb4l lesson plan for swimming  with Jan (Room 2 teacher), Room 3 worked together to come up with ideas on how we should act getting to and from the pool, when getting dressed in the changing rooms and in the pool.  We brainstormed ideas and role played certain aspects to enable children to understand what the expectation was in each of the three areas (getting to and from the pool, getting changed in the changing rooms and in the pool). Our role plays included making a bus inside the classroom with chairs. We practiced lining up and then entering the bus and filling the bus from the back first. We talked about not worrying about who we were sitting next to and how we act when we are seated on the bus. When role playing getting dressed, we role played taking our shoes off and putting our socks in our shoes. We also pretened to take of certain layers at a time and place them in their swimming bags. Overall swimming went really smoothly. Most of the time, Room 3 were very well behaved. I defiantly believe having taught two lessons around swimming in the classroom before swimming week helped and set the children up for success. Before swimming week I was really nervous about this experience but after these two weeks, I can now say it was a great opportunity and I loved seeing the development and progress of many of the children. It was great to see the children being risk takers and stepping out of their comfort zones. 

Quiet Critters

Recently I have introduced a jar of quiet critters to the class. These are pom poms that have feet attached made from felt and eyes which are glued on. Quiet critters have proven to work really well in Room 3. Due to the class often being loud when working at their desks, quiet critters allow for the environment to be quiet. The children know that the critters only come out when the room is quiet as it will hurt the critters ears and scare them, resulting in them having to be put away. This management strategy allows children to be really engaged and focused on their learning without any distraction from others. Each time we use the critters, the learning is to a high quality and all of the children have finished the activity in the time frame. I do find the critters work best when the task is an independent activity.  The children respond really well to this management strategy and are often very sad when the quiet critters have to go back into the jar. I have also thought these would work well when testing.  

Week 1 - Writing Programme

Week one, I really focused on getting my writing programme up and running. I have introduced writing group's to the class with different learning objectives for each. Each child has a independent writing journal as well as a group activity box to work from when they are not writing with me. We started off getting to know what was in our group's activity box on Monday. I used the fishbowl approach to do this and the children were really excited to use the activities. The activities I have used in each box are activities that suit the needs of the children in that particular group. They are creative and engaging and allow children to practice and apply their knowledge in different contexts. Problems that occurred over the week, was the time it took to pack up some activities and some children not using the activities correctly. We have since talked about our golden rules and how we treat other people's property and the importance of making sure everything is put back as they found it. This week they have been great and have demonstrated packing up quick and making sure everything is put away in the correct bags etc. Groups using play dough start to pack up slightly earlier. Group work really encourages akonga to take responsibility of their learning and behaviour and I feel most children are doing a fantastic job at working independently. I have definitely seen a huge improvement in just a few days. Narrative writing is going well, using character and setting cards has really helped children make a start quickly. Children are excited to tell me about their stories and I feel the amount of writing the children are producing has increased hugely.

Splat - Compound words

I have been doing a lot of thinking around my writing programme the last few weeks in preparation for term 4. Having new, creative and enjoyable activities I feel will get the children excited for their writing lessons. The hot spot game "Splat" was a favourite of mine that Katy (associate teacher) used when I was on placement at Addington School. She used this activity at the start of some of her math's lessons. I introduced this activity last week to practice our doubles at the start or end of a maths lesson, but I thought why not try it in my writing planning. I had printed out cupcakes which were cut down the middle, for example, one half being tooth and the other half being paste. I had put all of one side of the cupcakes on the board and would read out the other half. Children then had to place the fly swat over the first part of the compound word. What a hit! The children loved it! We had a big talk about not being the winner and that it's a fun game and it's o.k not to win. We also talked about nice comments we can say to one another. This definitely made the activity run smoothly. I feel this was a great way to introduce the compound cupcakes. I will be putting them in one of my writing group's activity baskets next term. They will be expected to match all the different cupcakes. We only used a few for our game but I'm sure children will like matching them up. I also thought another way the children could use them when having their group activity rotation would be to play the game memory with them. They turn them all over and have to get matching pairs. The child with the most matching pairs at the end is the winner.