Reflections and PD
This term our class has been busy getting organised for PrEP by making ginger beer and doing baking. We were lucky enough to have parents come in and help the children with the making of chocolate chip biscuits and truffles. Our parent helpers are a god send as without them it would be quite challenging to organise 47 children with 2 teachers to get all the making done in the time available.
On top of PrEP we have had our Gymnastics festival and Cross Country. Our children have to prepare for these by practicing their gymnastic routines over at the hall and also running each day - and we still have to do the core subjects - reading, writing and maths. It was no wonder our children were all exhausted by the end of term.
In Writing we have started peer writing programme to help with spelling, punctuation, getting words on paper and working together. We are only a few weeks into the programme as it takes a lot of setting up. We have had the help of our RTLB lady in implementing this programme with the hope it will help our challenging few. Chris and I went to observe the programme at another school and decided we would give it a try. We have had to change and adapt it to our particular needs. In the first few weeks it felt like bedlam and we had to change a number of tutor/tutees as they were not working together. Already we have noticed the increase of correct punctuation and spelling and our focus will be back on content which seems to have slipped. We think we have the right mix now of tutor/tutees and look forward to the beginning of the next term and continuing with it for another four weeks.
Our Maths focus for the term has been number and fractions. We have been revisiting our strategies in addition and subtraction and learning new ones. I have had a big focus on number of the day with place value being the main focus. It is interesting that the children who are still working at Stage 3 are struggling with this - I wonder if it is too much for them and that they are not really ready for this concept yet - but they must know it (mmm????).
Our Reading focus has been understanding the text and this will continue next term. We are working on going back to the text to find the answers - quite a challenge for some. We have started Reading Eggs in our Junior classes this term and the children are enjoying the activities on here more so than other reading online programmes we are involved with.
At the start of Spring we visited the daffodils across the road at the Hurst's. The children had to sit on their own and sketch the daffodils. They did four sketches each taking a little longer to do. The children then made a stencil and did rubbings. They then wrote a poem using a noun, saying what it was doing and then activating the noun. We got some fabulous pieces of writing for both the daffodils and fire.
The class also painted daffodils. They only had green,yellow, orange and white to use and we ended up with some lovely pictures to display. It is interesting to watch children using the paint and getting it on the paper thickly. Lots more work needed using paint.
We have looked at Fire Safety this term and presented a dance and song to the whole school at assembly when we completed our unit. We learnt about getting down and keep low if a fire happens in our house and talking with their families about a safe meeting point.
PD
This term Chris and I visited another school to observe and implement our Peer Tutor Writing Programme. It was good to see it in practice and working well.
We have worked through the ELL programme on line. We both thought that what we learned on this site we were doing for our ELL in our class. As a school we are now doing the JOST when new ELL students arrive and then have a TA working with the children in areas that need developed.
Our school is involved with two other schools working to combine our resources and teacher strengths to improve student agency. Student Agency is our school inquiry and we have worked with the other schools to develop 'I Can' statements in reading and writing for students to follow. I can see student agency working well in the senior part of the school as students are able to read and assess where they are going quite easily. In the junior part of the school I think it is going to be a little more challenging. A lot of our 'I can' is verbal and giving children a sheet with where they are heading to when they can't read yet will be interesting.
