Hello, after a few months of silence I am back.
I never anticipated how stressful, tiring and hectic my first term of teaching would be! But to my amazement, I made my way through it and am now into my second week of term 2, and while I am still tired, I seem to be functioning a bit better.
What a term, I spent the first few weeks getting to know the kids (and still getting to know them... some finally are coming out of their shells :-). What a great, yet exhausting time. I love my behaviour management chart, once I started using it properly it has worked wonders. It is the best motivation for the kids to be quiet. If they get to role model they get a sticker and after 5 they get an award! Very excited last week all my kids finally made it to their 5th and have now all received an award (with one boy and one girl already receiving their second award- 10 role models.... will have to think what to do next once they keep getting awards!)
My kids are also loving the calendar, especially the I wonder questions. We have a new one each monday and each day I change the question a little bit or make it a bit more specific (i.e. make up your own etc). Such a great way to get them thinking and then speaking and listening.
They are probably my 2 favourite things from everything that I made ready for the year, the noise monitor is great and I have noise monitors, but I still have to remind them a lot and motivate them with the behaviour chart.
One great way to start the year was to go over the school rules and have a big chat about what they meant. Students brainstormed each rule. I typed them up put them on the floor and students came out, chose one and explained which rule it belonged on (as some could have gone on a few). It was a great way for students to really explain why we have rules.
Last term we did some great things, one thing which I loved was one of our I wonder questions where we thought about what fruit we would be. At the end of the week I brought in a coconut, kiwi fruit, nectarine, passionfruit and lemons and the kids became budding artists! Have a look at their great work
Another interesting thing that we did was our inquiry topic of 'rules'. We ended up making posters about sun, water and road safety. We also learnt how to play snakes and ladders, wrote a procedure and made up our own with safe (bottom of ladders) and unsafe rules (top of snakes) in it. The kids had such a great time making these and playing them with their parents on our showcase night.
That will do for now, but I will try my hardest to post up more frequently throughout this term with some things that we are doing :-)
