Displaying Data Visually

Over the past few weeks I have worked with students in different year levels to consider how data can be represented visually.
Here is the developmental sequence within the Digital Technologies curriculum:

Prep to Year 2: Collect, explore and sort data, and use digital systems to present the data creatively (ACTDIP003)

Year 3 and Year 4: Collect, access and present different types of data using simple software to create information and solve problems (ACTDIP009)

Year 5 and Year 6: Acquire, store and validate different types of data, and use a range of software to interpret and visualise data to create information (ACTDIP016)

In Year 2 and Year 3, I  introduced the idea of displaying data visually using glyphs. A glyph is a picture that shows data using a particular code. The glyph itself is a visual display of data, but follow up activities could involve students looking at glyphs created by classmates to make tallies in a table, to create graphs about various attributes or to look for patterns and trends. You can read more about using glyphs in the classroom and see more examples in this article.

With my Year 2 students, we took a basic image I had created of a gingerbread man and used a glyph code I had found online to decorate the gingerbread man in the Drawing Pad app.
Students saved the image from the webpage I had shared with them and then placed it on the "paper" background so they could add embellishments without the gingerbread man moving all over the place. After I had done the activity with a few classes, one of the Year 2 students showed me how you can stamp the image to the background to achieve pretty much the same affect. This is why I like working with Year 2 students. Someone always learns something in every lesson - and it's usually me.

To brighten up my new classroom space, I had the Year 3 students create their glyphs using paper. They made owls using a template I created and a code that I shared with them on the webpage for Year 3.
They look great on the wall and the display has attracted interest from students in other classes as well who have looked for patterns and trends among the attributes of the Year 3 students using the data displayed in the glyphs.

In Year 6, the students have had a few introductory experiences using the Numbers spreadsheet app, entering data, playing with different cell formats and data types, and creating charts. We are now working towards creating their own infographics using Canva. Infographics are a great way to explore different ways of displaying data visually.

from Hot Butter Studio

It takes a village...

After almost 8 weeks of consistent effort with my students this year to improve their writing skills, I feel that today I have had a memorable moment!
My 27 Year 4 students are good little students and okay writers, but eight weeks ago, they were happy enough to give me a response that was "near enough" and not quite good enough.
Little things like capital letters, punctuation and editing for basic spelling were not a high priority for them. If they felt they had completed a task with a mediocre effort, they saw no point in refining their response, editing their work, or sometimes even putting a capital letter for their own name.
Turning them around to actually taking some pride in their work has not happened overnight but lots of practice and feedback, feedback and more feedback has had some effect on their writing habits.
Earlier in the year we watched this great short video about feedback:

We discussed the role of feedback in helping us to grow as learners and the students have had many opportunities to give and receive feedback and to reflect on what they learnt from the feedback.

This week we are looking at how we are part of a bigger, global community of learners, and my success with my young writers can be attributed to the work of other passionate and dedicated educators around the globe.
In particular, I can thank three great educators for my success as a classroom teacher this week:

Julia Skinner @100word from the 100 Word Challenge

Sue Wyatt @tasteach from the Student Blogging Challenge and

David Mitchell @DeputyMitchell from Quadblogging

Each of these people is passionate about making a difference to the learning of students not only in their own schools, but all over the world. They share their amazing talents and energies to assist other teachers like me to make a real difference in classrooms all over the globe.

This year is the first time I have been involved with the 100 Word Challenge after having seen it somewhere (probably Twitter) a while back. Each week Mrs Skinner posts a prompt and around 2000 students from around the globe respond to the prompt in 100 words. They post their responses to a class or student blog and then a band of volunteers provide specific and effective feedback to the students about their writing. The look on the faces of students as they discover that their assignment has been read and appreciated by someone from another part of the world, is priceless.

The Student Blogging Challenge was a (very) lucky find after I decided to try using Edublogs as my blogging platform for my class this year. The Student Blogging Challenge has been running since 2008 and through the weekly activities that are interesting and relevant to student bloggers. As a bonus, many activities align quite well with a lot of aspects from the Digital Technologies curriculum and ICT capability continuum from the Australian Curriculum. Participating in the challenge (I'm only four weeks in) has already helped to push me as an educator into trying new things or rediscovering old tricks. I know my students are benefiting from their involvement too. So far, we have focussed on protection of personal information, writing quality comments, and understanding creative commons and copyright issues. All of these are important issues for digital citizens and learning these things alongside hundreds of other students and teachers from around the world makes our learning even more exciting and purposeful.

Quadblogging is something I have been involved with before. I have just been assigned to a quad for this year and after sending out a first welcome email to our quadblogging buddy teachers and adding their blogs to our side panel so the students can easily access their blogs, I am eagerly anticipating getting started on a new adventure with classes from Sweden, US and UK.

What these three opportunities have in common is that they have given my students a real purpose for their learning and particularly for their writing. When you know that someone else (besides the teacher) is going to read your work, then there is suddenly a reason to make sure that what you have to say is both interesting and well punctuated. While they enjoy reading and commenting on their classmate's work, receiving a comment from a stranger who has taken time out of their day to say how much they have enjoyed what they have to share is so much more special.

So today, we shared our thoughts on how we can save water after World Water Day 2015 and as I approved the comments a tear came to my eye as I noticed how far they have come as a class with taking pride in their work and editing for punctuation and basic spelling. While their sentences are still not perfect (and I have some concerns for the hygiene of the child who has pledged to have 40 second showers in a bid to save water) I can see that all the hard work is paying off. (If you have time to drop by the class blog and leave a comment - they really love comments)

Thank you to those inspiring educators who inspire me and challenge me to push my students to new heights! 

Pulling myself together

Over the past year or so (about the same time period when I dropped off the blogging radar) I have been busily creating websites to pull together lesson plans and units I had written, taught and collaborated on.
I was inspired by some of the great work being produced by professional organisations around Australia who have created "one stop spots" for a number of units. These webpages house ready-to-teach units of work that are aligned to the Australian Curriculum. Typically these websites contain information about how the unit addresses specific aspects of the curriculum, lesson plans or ideas, resources, assessment ideas and links to other online resources.
Here are some of the really good ones I have discovered:

• E4AC - English for the Australian Curriculum
• ASTA Science Web
• Geogspace
• AC History Units

All of these sites have excellent units that can be used as is, or adapted to suit your class.

I decided that a website might be a good way to pull together planning ideas into an easier to follow unit plan with links to useful online resources and downloadable files. One of my earlier attempts is an English unit: Whodunnit? I have also created a website to house all of my planning for an entire year in Year 4.
As more and more schools are increasing student access to technology in the classroom and many are going 1:1, I wanted to develop online resources that would support teachers in planning quality learning experiences aligned to the Australian Curriculum but also create websites that would be accessible to students using laptops or iPads.
I worked with some Year 4 teachers and their classes last year to plan and implement a Science and Technologies unit, Let's Build a Theme Park. In this project, I tried to include things that would be useful to both teachers and students, including a clear inquiry structure (using the 5Es) and Learning Intentions for the unit.
Some colleagues in Year 2 asked me to create some audio recordings of some stories about St Francis of Assisi for a unit they were doing on Saints Who Care About Creation. I needed somewhere to put these so that they would easily be able to find them that year, and into the future. I created a website called Creation, Who Cares? and was able to link numerous resources that I found or created to support them during the time that they were teaching this unit.
My aim is to now pull together other units I have taught or worked on in the past so that they are easier to share with other teachers. As I am teaching units this year in Year 4, I will create other websites to support my students and to curate my planning ideas.
Since I have now ended up with a diverse collection of units and trying to explain to people where they might go to find them is becoming more challenging, I created a virtual home for myself to curate my collection as it evolves.

janebatham.weebly.com

Please take a look at what I am working on and feel free to share this work with others. I am hoping that by sharing what I have done so far I will get plenty of feedback from others so I can improve as I go. Knowing that others find these resources useful will help me to remain motivated to complete the task.

Collaborative Planning using Web 2.0

This year I am beginning in a new role as Curriculum Support Teacher at my school. I am very excited as I am absolutely passionate about curriculum and I love to share my enthusiasm with others and (hopefully) help them to ignite a passion for teaching and curriculum too.

I will have three days a week in my new role and two days a week in my Year 2 classroom - the best of both worlds!

This will mean that I will have to relinquish a lot of the responsibility for the classroom goings on. My new teaching partner is enthusiastic about coming on board so hopefully she will survive the first little part of the year while I am learning not to be such a control freak. After (more than) 10 years of being able to do my own thing, I am going to need to adjust to the idea of sharing. It will be good for me. ;-)

After the huge learning curve I experienced last year when my life was opened up to the world of blogging, twitter, pinterest, dropbox, evernote and other ways of reflecting on, organising and sharing my teaching experiences, I am keen to support other teachers at my school to take the plunge!

I have just set up a collaborative Pinterest Board for the Life Stages topic that we will likely be studying in first term. 

I invited my fellow Year 2 teachers but so far I haven't had any responses. (Most probably because they are enjoying the last moments of their holidays before we have to come back to work!) I am hoping that this will be a new way of sharing our ideas that will be quick, simple, fun and collaborative. I don't expect that any of us will be able to do even half of the activities that I have pinned already but Pinterest is a nice visual display of resources. The collaborative board will be kind of like a menu of ideas that people can pick and choose from, and if there is nothing there that they like, they don't need to choose any. Hopefully they will add to the ideas as well.

In the past we have shared links in emails but sometimes we get a lot of these types of emails from each other and it can take a while to check all the links and try to work out what idea on the page the other person thought was relevant. Often I get one of these emails and read the first part and think "I'll check this out later" and then bury it in my disorganised inbox, never to be seen again. 

I have tried searching my inbox (either using the approximate date, the person who I think I can remember that sent it to me, or a possible keyword) and this sometimes works but can be very time consuming. I am hoping Pinterest will open up a new and better way for us to collate our ideas so we can retrieve them easily when we need them.

My teaching team are wonderful, and even though they think I am a little crazy, they usually give things a go just to humour me.

If this works, I am hoping this will be an effective and time-efficient tool for supporting the curriculum in my school.

I am also in the process of setting up a blog for my new role that will be situated within the walled-garden of our LIFE Learning Management System. Hopefully using LIFE like this will help me to get used to it so I can apply it more effectively in my classroom as well.

My hope is that I can share information with my colleagues about curriculum matters in a way that is easy for them to access when they need to without overwhelming them with too many emails which may or may not be of interest to them.

I think this year is going to be full of challenges for me, learning to use these tools in new ways and supporting others in beginning a journey to more collaborative practice using Web 2.0.

What tools do you use for collaborative planning?

How do you share your ideas with your colleagues at your school?

Science with Santa

To finish off our Physical Science unit on forces and to have a bit of festive fun we conducted an experiment to see which surfaces would be easiest for pulling a sleigh across.
The children were introduced to the idea via a letter from Santa which told them that Rudolph was too sick to pull the sleigh this year so he was going to have to use one less reindeer. To make it easier for the remaining reindeer, Santa needed to know which surfaces were the best for pulling the sleigh.
You can read about our experiment from the students' point of view on my class blog.
The first lesson involved the children discovering the letter from Santa and then thinking about different surfaces that Santa might travel along (when he wasn't flying, of course). We are seriously lacking snow and ice in Brisbane this Christmas!
The next lesson was very fun and creative. The students has to design their own model Santa sleigh to be used in their experiment. We had round tubs for them to use as the base. A more rectangular shape might be a bit easier (such as a margarine tub) but we needed something that we could get 24 the same.

In the following lesson we used spring balances to measure the force in Newtons (which was not really in the Year 2 Science curriculum but it was fun anyway and it did allow them to do a real experiment with simple measurements). If you would like to use the experiment worksheet we used, it is available from my TPT store.
The final part of the lesson sequence was to write a letter back to Santa with the findings. One of my students who struggles with writing used the iPad to record his letter instead.

This was a great assessment of the students' understanding of Science. It was interesting to see which students clearly understood the purpose of the experiment and were able to articulate this in their letter to Santa. A few of my "super-competitive" types were at first confused because they decided that the surfaces that had "the biggest number" must have been the best. It took a little while for them to realise that they were looking for the surface that needed the smallest number of newtons because they needed the "easiest" surface.
Since we had no icy surfaces, we used soapy lino to make something slippery that might be similar to ice.
The children's measurements were not exactly accurate and they didn't quite grasp the idea of having to keep the weight the same each time but they seemed to get the idea that some surfaces were easier to pull things along than others, which was the main aim. And they had a lot of fun!

Does my classroom reflect my teaching philosophy?

Last weekend on Twitter, @whatedsaid tweeted an excellent question along the lines of "Does your classroom environment reflect what you believe about learning?"
At the time I thought this was an excellent question and wished I had time to do it justice in a reflective post.
As luck would have it, this week I was asked to give a presentation on a similar topic so I managed to create time to reflect on what I do and whether this matches what I say I believe.
Here is what I found:

Even though what I do, I could do successfully in a different system, my philosophy of teaching is based on my foundational belief in the dignity of the human person. I believe that every child is made in the image and likeness of God, and that every child deserves to feel safe, have fun and to enjoy learning experiences that suits their needs.

 Learners in my classroom are usually busy doing. Of course there are times when they gather to listen, reflect and recap, but I try to allow opportunities for hands-on exploration, discussion and experimentation as much as possible.

 I am very proud of the way that my students are able to speak about their own learning and why what they are doing is of benefit to their learning needs. This year I have implemented the Daily 5 program for the first time. I have found that this program which fits my philosophy well, provides a structure for my practice in Literacy, and that the students and I have been able to transfer the best parts of this practice into other curriculum areas.

 Right from the beginning of the year, I work hard to establish a sense of community through special shared experiences, predictable routines that highlight the identity of our class community and behavioural expectations based on mutual respect. A few years ago I convinced my school administration to allow us to move to a resources levy system instead of a text book list so that I can set up shared resources in my classroom. When students have individual belongings and pencils cases I find that usually by the end of the first semester, many of the twist-up crayons have been turned into pea shooters and half the class can't seem to find a pair of scissors when they need them. Since moving to the shared tubs, I have discovered that students are more responsible for the resources since they don't see them as belonging to them, but as necessary for our class community.

 If you spent a week in my classroom you would notice how much and in how many ways technology has transformed the way that I work with students in my room. I use my projector and laptop as an essential part of many of our routines. I use a bank of student laptops (shared among a few classes) for individual and collaborative activities. I use a set of shared iPads for a range of purposes, and use my own personal iPad and iPhone for capturing student learning on a daily basis.

 I try very hard to allow all learners to engage in challenging activities at an appropriate level by providing differentiated learning experiences and open-ended tasks. I use K-W-L charts and pretests to determine the students' individual and collective knowledge and interests prior to learning experiences and use this information to guide my planning.

 The General Capabilities of the Australian Curriculum are at the heart of what I do. I regularly reflect on how I am offering my students opportunities to develop in these capabilities.

Although I am restricted to the furniture I was given and a reasonably small classroom with no "break-out" space, I have tried my best to arrange the furniture to suit the kinds of experiences I want students to have in the room. I have set aside a large carpet area so all the children can gather in front of the IWB and so there is enough space for games and movement. I have arranged the desks into pods and students know that even though they have a "home desk" which houses their books etc, they can work in a variety of spaces within the room, sometimes for flexible grouping, sometimes by their own choice. In the corner, I have had the old whiteboard installed at floor height so that students can use this space to write questions, reflect on learning, practise their spelling or express ideas in pictures. The PE teacher has loaned us an exercise ball and students love to sit on this either at their desks or around the room. My teacher desk is pushed right into the corner of the room so it doesn't take up more space than it must. I rarely sit at it anyway. My students sit on my "teacher chair" more than I do. I'm always on the move!

I really do think that my classroom reflects my teaching philosophy. Of course it is a "work in progress" and changes as I reflect on how I can improve, and when I am inspired by other great teachers who share their ideas.

Does your classroom reflect your beliefs about learning? I'd love to see more ideas!

Teaching Old Stuff with New Tricks

This year has been a year of new ideas. Firstly, this is the first year I have fully implemented the History subject within the new Australian Curriculum. Secondly, it is the first year that I have used iPads in my classroom as a tool for learning and assessment.

Looking back at the year which is rapidly coming to an end, I am excited about the success I have had in using iPads with students to engage in historical inquiry in ways that would not have been possible without digital technology.

Digital technology has enabled me to collect numerous photographs of our local area that students have been able to explore, sort, order and select. Using the iPads, students have been able to examine the images closely. The photographs have inspired questioning, imagination, inquiry and inferring. Photocopied images in black and white would have reduced the quality to the point that many of the photos would have been unrecognisable. Using the original images (if I could even get hold of them) would be impractical and could be potentially damaging.

At our planning meeting for Term 2, we had agreed that students would be required to create a sequence of images and describe how our local war memorial had changed over time. Teachers not using digital technology gave their students three small, poor quality photocopies of images preselected by the teachers and had the students glue these in place and write about the changes. The many students who struggled with writing gave little detail in their descriptions and could only show limited understanding of what this local site reveals about the past.

Students using an app called Sonic Pics on the iPads were able to self-select and sequence three to five images from a collection of about twenty images that they believed best revealed particular aspects of local history. They then spoke freely about the images they had selected, justifying their choices and describing in detail things that had changed in the local area and the significance of the war memorial for the community today.

The iPads enabled young learners to employ higher level thinking skills and to express their own opinions about what they believed was important in the story about the past.

This term, students have been exploring changes in technology (particularly toys) and how these changes have affected the ways people work, travel, communicate and play.

Students are now using Pic Collage (a free iPad app) to manipulate and annotate images before transferring them to Sonic Pics to add audio explanation about how toys and games have changed. Students are able to search for their own images so their choice of subject is much more personal and not restricted by the teacher’s choice.

Of course, the historical inquiry is not restricted to what is able to be done solely with the iPads. Students have examined artefacts from the museum and those brought in from homes, and they have also written to their grandparents and posed questions to them. The grandparents (and aunts, uncles, mothers and fathers who have also responded) have been an invaluable historical source for the students. All of this valuable information collected by the students is now able to be skilfully collated and presented by the students who have become experts in using technology to create and communicate their ideas.

As a teacher, this year’s journey into the past using technology of the present, has been a great learning experience. For the students, using technology has empowered them to participate in genuine inquiry and to share their ideas with others within the classroom and beyond. 

#LMSLifeGroup on Twitter

Our school (and education system) is taking on a product called Life as a Learning Management System.
Through my efforts to find other people who are on the same journey learning about Life as I am, I have discovered some great educators who want to share ideas.
The UK seems to be quite well along the way in co-ordinating their support network but we Aussies are at the beginning of an exciting journey.
If you want to share in the excitement, tweet @connectedtchr with the hashtag #LMSLifeGroup and start sharing your journey with us.

Our Marvellous Toys

To assess the students listening skills this week we listened to an old song about a marvellous toy by Peter, Paul and Mary.

The first time we listened to the song, the students sat on the carpet with their eyes closed and concentrated hard on listening for key details that told them what it looked like and what it did. (Listening for key details is one of the English skills identified for Year 2 students in the Australian Curriculum.)

After that, they returned to their desks and we listened to the song again, this time pausing it after each verse and chorus so they could write down what they had heard in a concept map.

The third time they listened I let them draw what they thought it looked like based on what they had heard in the song.

While they were drawing I walked around and checked their work quickly to identify who had heard particular details. Fortunately I have a student teacher at the moment so she was able to scribe for my student who wasn't able to record his own ideas.

I explained to the children that the toy is imaginary so there is no "right" answer but we discussed the features it needed to have to be the toy from the song.
Finally we watched an animated version on YouTube and also read a book about the same marvellous toy the next day. The children really loved the song.

Here are our pictures of the marvellous toy:

We have started a written task as a follow up as well. Once they have finished I will have them post their descriptions on our class blog.

This was an enjoyable way to quickly assess their listening skills and to discuss different artists' impressions.

Toys Past and Present

Our History study this term will focus on how toys have changed over time.
This investigation will address the third point in Historical knowledge and understanding in the Australian Curriculum for Year 2:
The impact of changing technology on people’s lives (at home and in the ways they worked, travelled, communicated, and played in the past) (ACHHK046)
The children have written letters to their own grandparents, posing questions about the past, and tapping into their grandparents' wisdom as a source of historical knowledge.
We have also borrowed a collection of "artefacts" from the museum and of course, are using books and other written resources as further sources of historical knowledge.
One web-based resource which has been very useful in introducing some basic concepts is the Welsh produced web site: How toys have changed.
I have created a number of worksheets that I have used with differentiated groups to collect information from this website.
These worksheets are accessible from my google docs.
Worksheet 1 - Simplest sheet - scaffolded sentence writing.
Worksheet 2 - Collecting information about one toy from one period
Worksheet 3 - Collecting information (writing keywords) about a variety of toys from different times.
I hope these resources might be of use to you.

The Meaning of LIFE

Today I attended my second day of training in the LIFE Learning Management System. In spite of my own reservations about the suitability of this product for my particular needs over other available software by this afternoon I felt much more confident about how this product might be used in my school to enhance teaching and learning.
I have three main concerns about this learning management system and the way that it is being rolled out across the system I am working in (or at least in my own school).
Firstly, the package is not as useful for my early years classroom as it might be in other settings. I see that LMS can be very beneficial for tertiary and secondary educational settings,  in organising coursework, communicating between teachers and students and allowing collaboration between learners with flexible timing, however, I am currently teaching Year 2 (7 year-olds). Simply plonking something that it great for adult learners into an early childhood setting is not necessarily a good idea.
The process of logging in to the program, digging through the pages to the activity of the day is not simple and is made frustrating by the very slow loading. The "one-stop shop" package presents some advantaged in keeping the activities in one place and some uniformity across activities, but the tools themselves are not as useable and useful as other Web 2.0 tools freely available on the web, and much simpler for my young learners to access.
Secondly, the program is being forced randomly into our practice, rather than being used to address particular needs. At my school there are three teachers who are being trained in the first round and trying to implement the package. Due to the physical distance between our classrooms and the fact that we are in different grade levels spread across the school, it is difficult to feel like we are being supported by each other through this process. In our school we are expected to plan in Year level teams
(consisting of around 4 teachers) but each of us trialling LIFE are in different teaching teams, so we plan units, activities and assessments with our team and then go off on our own and try to "invent" reasons to implement LIFE into our planning and do this on top of everything that the other classes on our year level are doing. If our whole team was using LIFE then needs would arise during the planning phase (e.g.: how can we get our students to collaboratively brainstorm their initial thoughts on the topic) and then some of these needs would be able to be met with LIFE. The use of technology should be to solve an existing problem, not to create new ones. Our current approach is arbitrary implementation to use technology for technology's sake.
Finally, I strongly believe that the strength of technology (including LMS, Web 2.0 tools, iPads and the like) is the ability to enable true collaboration amongst learners. The LIFE LMS system is a walled vault. No-one from outside can see what my class is doing and they can't communicate with anyone beyond those that they could easily turn their heads and talk to. Where is the point in using a cumbersome program to talk to the person who is sitting beside you? How is this providing students with a real audience and a sense that they are part of a global community?
As learners ourselves, the program restricts teachers from easily sharing ideas about what they are doing. I can't view the great activities that might be being done at other schools within my system and I can't make contact with other teachers who might be working through the same issues as me.
The team implementing the LMS at a system level created a collaborative workspace for staff. One of the team wrote a post on a discussion board inviting questions and discussion. After my first training session I responded to this post and asked a question and also started my own conversation thread. Two months later there have been 7 views of the original thread (mostly by me) and only one view of my starter (which I think was me also). No-one, even the person who set up the collaborative discussion board, has bothered to read or respond to the conversation threads. Why are we hell-bent on having our 7-year-olds collaborating using the software if we don't see a place for such collaboration in our own professional learning?

So, this morning I voiced my concerns (quite strongly because I was feeling very frustrated) and to the credit of the person facilitating the training session, by this afternoon, I truly felt that my concerns had been heard and that there is some future for this initiative after all.

I am proposing to our principal that we change tact from our original implementation plan (which, in fairness, was devised before any of us knew much about what we were doing). I propose that the teachers who are in the initial implementation phase be placed in a single year level teaching team to address the concern that it is being treated as an adhoc and ill-fitted addition to our existing planning. I would suggest that year level would be older than Year 2 to increase the likelihood of initial success. Finally, I have proposed that we begin to use the tools as staff for our own collaborative planning so that all staff begin to develop a sense of what the program offers and how to use it before they are expected to implement it in their own classes.

After today, I am very confident that the LIFE Learning Management System can have a positive impact on the teaching and learning in my school.

Winding up our History mini-unit

For the past few weeks, we have been engaged with the new History content from the Australian Curriculum for Year 2.
Our focus has been on our local War Memorial, as a site of cultural significance, and this has led us into exploration of Anzac Day and its associated symbols.
I have enjoyed the opportunity to make the history component of our learning more engaging for the students through a variety of craft activities.
I have written posts about these over the past few weeks during my planning, but I wanted to show some of the finished products in case they might be of use to others in the future.
Here is an example of the finished slouch hat:

The template for the slouch hat activity is available through my TpT store.
We also baked Anzac biscuits. This activity linked to History, Science and English.

One of my favourite activities (because it was both simple and fun) was our poppy potato prints. We ended up doing these in several steps. First we painted a blue wash and sprinkled it with a pinch of salt. The salt soaks up some of the moisture so it leaves patterns that look like clouds in the blue sky, and added a bit of interest to the activity. Next, we used a dry brush technique to make some green stems. We didn't try to match the stems one-to-one with the flowers because we were going for the "field" effect. Thirdly, we printed some bright red poppies with the potatoes. Once they were dry, we used dabs of glue to attach some real poppy seeds to the flower centres.

It is a very simple piece but they look effective as a frieze along one wall of my classroom and it gave the students an opportunity to experiment with a few different techniques.
I have a freebie poem activity about poppies that goes nicely with this idea.
For assessment, the students used an iPad app, SonicPics, to sequence some photos of the memorial and record some thoughts about how it has changed over time.
Next week we have two more simple art activities planned to finish up our War Memorial mini-unit, as well as a concept map as an assessment piece.
The first art activity is a simple watercolour rosemary using a cotton tip as a brush:

And the second will be a photo montage with crayon and watercolour based on the artwork of Patricia Mullins in the book, Only a Donkey.

Getting Set for Science

This term we are doing a chemistry unit in Science. Our work will be based on the "All mixed-up" unit from Primary Connections.
The Science Understanding content from the Australian Curriculum for this unit is: Different materials can be combined, including by mixing, for a particular purpose.
There are so many exciting ideas on Pinterest and in teaching blogs for potions and creative mixing, so I have been trying to organise all of my thoughts and ideas and work out how much is humanly possible for us to do in one term!
Yesterday I decided to get organised with all the basic ingredients and tools we will need to do the experiments in the Primary Connections unit, plus a few others that I know I won't be able to resist.

I am collecting recipes and procedures at the moment and am working on formatting them simply for my Year 2s to read. Then I hope they will be able to use the cards I make to follow directions and create something, then write a recount of their experience. This way I can do a little bit of reading and writing through the science. And plenty of art fun too!


I did a little science experiment myself this morning to test which of our paints was going to be best for our background wash on the poppy prints we will do. It will be a simple wash with salt sprinkle.
I used edicol paint (in khaki, although obviously we will use blue for the sky tomorrow)

acrylic paint mixed with water

and watercolour paints (from little trays)

I sprinkled them with salt while they were still wet to see which one gives the desired "cloud" effect.
I am tossing up between the edicol and the acrylic wash. The edicol worked immediately but the acrylic wash has turned out well after it is completely dry.
Science in art - I love it!

An Anzac Poem

One of the parents from my class happens to also teach Year 2 and they are doing a very similar unit to us at the moment. (You've got to love this Australian Curriculum - it makes collaboration easier!)
She was kind enough to share some of her planning ideas with me, and this included a reference to an Anzac Day Poem.
I googled it and found the poem here.
Here is the poem:
Why are they selling poppies, Mummy?
Selling poppies in town today.
The poppies, child, are flowers of love.
For the men who marched away.
But why have they chosen a poppy, Mummy?
Why not a beautiful rose?
Because my child, men fought and died

In the fields where the poppies grow.
But why are the poppies so red, Mummy?
Why are the poppies so red?
Red is the colour of blood, my child.
The blood that our soldiers shed.
The heart of the poppy is black, Mummy.
Why does it have to be black?
Black, my child, is the symbol of grief.
For the men who never came back.
But why, Mummy are you crying so?
Your tears are giving you pain.
My tears are my fears for you my child.
For the world is forgetting again.
Author Unknown
I love the simplicity of this poem - perfect for my Year 2s and it will go well with my poppy potato prints that I plan to do early next week.

I immediately decided I needed some comprehension questions to go with it so I whipped up a worksheet with some NAPLAN style multiple choice questions just for good measure.
You can download it for free from my TPT store.
Oh, and we made our slouch hats last week. They look great!

Money, money, money!

We are gearing up to study money with my Year 2 class so I am looking for interesting ways to get the kids plenty of practise with making different amounts.
According to the new Mathematics curriculum, they need to be able to count and order small collections of Australian notes and coins. I want them to have lots of hands-on practice with coins and notes.
While waiting for my dear husband to pick me up from work this afternoon, I had a brainwave so I came home and made these tags for my game idea.

I have called it The Shopkeepers Game. It is free from my TPT store.
Basically, the class is divided into two groups - shopkeepers and customers. It is a concentric circle game with the shopkeepers sitting on chairs in the centre and the customers moving to music around the outside, carrying their little purses of money.
When the music stops, the customers buy whatever is being sold by the nearest shopkeeper. (Is this just encouraging impulse buying???)
The shopkeeper needs to check that the amount is correct.
There are different coloured tags so that the game can be made easier or harder or to limit the game to coins only, or include notes and mixed denominations. The game could be made even more challenging by giving change.
I have made the game so that it could be used by anyone in a country that uses dollars and cents and there is nothing specifically Australian about the tags. They could just as easily be used in America or New Zealand.
I also think I might be able to use them for other games or assessments like matching to the amounts, and ordering the amounts. Since we are doing two digit addition as well, I might be able to use them for this too.
I am trying to make resources that I can use for multiple purposes to save time, money and resources. If you think of another use for these tags, I would be happy to hear about it.
I hope my kids enjoy this game. I'm sure they will - they love any chance to get out of their seats and make a bit of noise...
If you play it with your students, let me know how it goes! I'd love to hear about it.

Anzac Biscuit Science and English

I love a good science experiment and a chance to get messy, so I am cooking up a storm this week! Well, cooking up a batch of Anzac Biscuits, actually.
I have developed a series of ideas around the idea of Anzac Biscuits that will tie in nicely with our History unit on the Anzac Memorial.
I have linked the lessons to the Australian Curriculum for both Science and English for Year 2, but the activities could be useful to anyone who wants to do some science and writing about cooking.
The first part of the lesson (or series of lessons really) is the Science. Our Science concept this term from the Year 2 Australian Curriculum is: Different materials can be combined, including by mixing, for a particular purpose (ACSSU031)
The experiment question looks at the changing size of the biscuits as they cook, so it really addresses the Science Inquiry Skills - making predictions, participating in guided investigations, measuring, comparing observations etc.

Download the science experiment for free at my TPT store.
After the science and cooking part, I will look at the recipe itself. I have made a file with a number of resources in it to support these activities.

You can find it at my TPT store also.
The students will complete a cloze activity for the procedure text which draws attention to the verbs used in the text. This highlights they way that most of the instructions begin with the verb. The words are written in the right order down the bottom of the page. It is not really designed for a comprehension test - more a lesson on procedures.
The next page is a comprehension page (NAPLAN style multiple choice - just so they have been exposed to this style of question) and then a reflective activity on the cooking which looks at adjectives.
I plan to do a joint construction of a recount of the cooking and we will post it on our class blog. I have made a sheet in case someone wants to do individual written recounts. Or maybe I will change my mind between now and then, and at least I will be prepared.
Finally, I will compare the two different texts - the procedure and the recount. I have made an Anzac cookie Venn diagram worksheet which we will probably do in small groups during literacy blocks.