Storytelling - The Little Red Hen

The Little Red Hen ·         Hear, map, step (acting it out.) ·         Read different versions of the story. ·         Deeping: Completed plot matrix and mood map. Children have acted out the story in groups. Sculpt characters from the story with playdough. ·         Imitation: Retold the story in Writing. Example of the map and the story sequence pictures: Children drawing their own story map: Children stepping out/acting out the story: Sculptures of the Little Red Hen:

Inquiry - In the Hood

This term we are focusing on the history of Belfast School. We discussed the important people in a community and what they do to help us.

As an activity before school the children can sort out the important people in a community and what things they use. This will help the children draw on their prior knowledge about how these people help them and why a community needs these people. The children have been using this wall and it it great to see them sorting the pictures correctly. It is a great assessment tool to quietly watch them complete this activity in case there are any next learning steps that need to be addressed. 

Storytelling - Recount

I did not receive professional development about transferring the storytelling process over from a familiar story to a recount about a child's experience. I decided that after the holidays I would use the same process to help the children write their story in-depthly and in a good sequence.

I adopted the hear map step and then write:
Hear: children shared their stories with more that one buddy.
Map: Children had to draw a story map of their holiday with at least 5 pictures. This was a challenge for some as the children had to rely on their own memory, I could not model their stories for them.
Step: Children stepped out their stories. Again this was a challenge as every child had their own story they could not do it in buddies.
Write: Children had to write 2 ideas per picture.

My findings: the children's sequencing of their ideas was better as they followed their map for recall of their experience. The language was not as in depth as the other stories. The children found some parts of this process a bit more challenging as they could not work with their peers.

Kupu O Te Wiki

The teacher at the school who is in charge of the cultural committee runs 'kupu o te wiki,' the Maori word of the week. I have recently begun helping her to distribute these to the other teachers to help prompt the use of te reo Maori in classrooms.

Last term we focused on the weather. This was great as this related to our inquiry for the term. Each morning I went over each one and the children had to choose the one that matched our weather for the day.

One thing that blew me away was that one of my children begun to use this knowledge in his writing. He used the Maori words to describe the weather in his story. It was so exciting to see!

Storytelling - Maui and the Sun

Maui and the Sun For this story I found resources harder to find but there were some interesting ones I used.  ·         Deepening: Instead of stepping Room 7 acted out this story in groups. They loved acting out the story and this helped them to remember it for later.  Completed a picture dictionary. This was useful to help develop the understanding of the Maori language incorporated in the story.  ·         Story sequencing: Putting images in order. Discussed the movie 'Moana' and compared the character Maui from the movie with the one in the book.  Read other Maori legends with the character Maui in it to further explore this character.  ·         Imitation: Retold the story in writing. ·         Invention: Wrote the sun was dangerous and how to protect yourself from it. Story picture sequencing: My findings: The children found acting out this story a lot of fun. I found for 6/7 year olds acting out the story was easier to grasp that stepping out the story.  Once again the retell of the story was very well written even with my reluctant writers. as they knew the story well and they had multiple resources to help them remember the story, they were not as reliant on me or my modelling to help them remember the story.

Reflection - Recording Myself

As part of the Incredible Years Training I am doing they recommend recording yourself teach and reflect on what you notice. This week something on my agenda has been to record myself teaching. This is something I have not done before and I felt quite uncomfortable about the idea.

It has been a few weeks since I was told to do it and I have only got up the nerve to do it. I gave a school iPad to my 'star of the day' and their job was to record me.

This actually worked really well. I had to have a laugh when the child's finger was in the way of the lens for a good 30 seconds.

Anyway....here were my findings:

• I noticed lot of non-verbal hand gestures, even while talking I was using my finger on my lips to stop children talking. 
• I enunciate A LOT! I was surprise how clear my voice was and it was very interesting to listen to. 
• Proximal praise: I noticed that I was doing this here and there and it was cool to see the children respond. 
• I was not speaking loudly all of the time. I was dropping my voice to quieten those whisperers. 
• Lesson was clear and I happy how it was modeled. All of the children knew what they had to do. 
• Next step: For me it is praise, praise, PRAISE! I still don't feel that I am doing this enough. It is so easy to focus on those children who are whispering to a buddy or aren't looking at you or who are getting a bit wriggly on the mat. I need to spend more time noticing and praising those children that are doing the task. 

Term 2 Week 6

I have been noticing more behaviour problems lately and most of them are occuring in one area of the classroom. this is the cubby hole area. I am finding that lots of children are hiding out in there and this is where they can begin to bother other children and swap toys.

How my classroom was set up my back was to the cubby hole so therefore, I could not see what was going on in there. I believe that the children were completely aware of this. I have now moved my teaching station so that I can see the cubby area while I am teaching. I have also done this so that my mat space is smaller. This way the children have to sit up close to me and this is limiting some distractions.

So far this is working well. Only one child has attempted to hide in there since and I could spot him moving straight away.