How to make a blog button...

So this morning I have been working on a blog button. I googled and came up with a great tutorial from Ellison Lane. She shows you not only how to make a blog button but how to create the html code so people ccan grab your button.

I created my blog button through Picnik. Firstly I created my background colour using Publisher and then saved it as a jpg. I then uploaded it and had a play. Then saved it to my computer. From here I followed Ellison's tutorial and whala!

<<<<<<<< there it is!

Stuck for Oral Language ideas?

I thought I would share something I have picked up from one of my associate teachers while I was a student teacher. This is great as it gets kids using their thinking skills as well as communicating with their peers.

So first thing is to make to headings, i used "What is that?" and "What are they thinking?".

to create...
"What is that?" - I draw using a black marker some lines on the paper. This one kind of looks like a lightening bolt, and although that is obvious to us, the children come up with an array of different ideas. You can put anything on there, I have done a series of wheels, cloud like shapes, astrix's, steps etc. So many ideas! Then I get the children to think, pair, share. The rule is that everyone should have their hand up with an idea by the time my sand timer runs out.  I use an assortment of different coloured markers to record their ideas with their name underneath. They feel so proud of themselves when they see their name up under their idea on the wall. I challenge them to elaborate on their ideas, so if they say "a lightening bolt", I say where? what? so they come up with "a lightening bolt flashing through the sky".








"What are they thinking?" - For this one I have a heap of laminated photos out of newspapers, I use anything, animals, sports teams, anything! If you are starting out a sports team is easier as most children can relate but you have to get away from that quickly or they just keep coming up with the same ideas. I use the same method for ideas as "what is that?'. I have a heap of different speech bubbles that I have cut out sitting in a bag and I write their ideas on these along with their names. I get one child to glue them on once we are done.

You can also tie this one in with your current events.





Each week I challenge the children to get more ideas than they did the previous week. We do one of each a week. I have just started to introduce the thinking hats with this and has been working well. I get them to think of yellow hat - happy thoughts, black hat - bad thoughts, red hat - feelings etc. I have included a copy of some small thinking hats I created. I cut around the hat, laminate and blue tack them to my white board for fast reference.



Hope this helps! I would love to know what ideas you have for your oral language/ thinking skills programme?

Editing

Teaching children how to edit/check their own work can be a very long process. It is something I am now trying to teach my year 3's and a few of my year 2's. Most of them are now underlining words they aren't sure of but not actually going back to try and fix them up. They are also starting to understand re-reading for sense and punctuation. I created these editing pencils last year and have just brought them out for my class this year.


I print, laminate and cut them out and then punch a hole in the top left hand corner and attach them to a large ring (photo to come). At the moment my rings only have the things I am teaching them about but as they progress I will add more pencils to the rings. If you would like a copy you can get them here.

What things do you do to teach editing? I would love to hear some different ways to help my kids!

Beginning the school year

Having year 2 and 3 is a big step from my year 1 class last year. My previous 'getting to know me' display was a little basic for them. So I created a new 'read all about me poster'.

They children did a section a day during reading time while I was getting everything up and running. Click here for a copy.

Mr Potato Heads

Along with our 'sowing seeds' unit this term we had a go at growing our own grass seed in potatoes. They had a potato each with both ends cut off and then they scooped out the inside, decorated them with googly eyes and othe odds and ends. We put them in a tray, soaked some cotton wool in water and placed it in the potatoes. We then added some grass seed just from the Warehouse and a little soil.

I brought a wee spray bottle from the dollar store an had a student in charge of spraying the potaotes during the day. They loved it and really took ownership of it. It was great when they began to sprout, they couldn't help showing every person who walked into our room! Tomorrow we are going to give them haircuts!

Seeds are sprouting!

For the last few weeks our school topic has been sowing seeds. So far, so good. At the beginning of the school term we went on a trip to our local domain where the children scavenged for seeds and looked at different types of plants.

I gave my children little clear bank bags to collect their items in. My rule was "if it doesn't fit in the bag you can't bring it back" - worked a treat and the kids were so proud of their little treasures.


Once back at school I was unsure searching for something creative to do with their little bags. Not so creative but very effective... I pinned each bag to the wall with their names attached and we wrote captions (like from the newspaper) to give insight into what we did that day and what we found.

The captions are being painfully slowly typed up on our new school lap tops (which the children are loving!) Maybe time for a little typing practise, although the more they do it, i pray they will get faster!

Lets give this a go...

So this is my first blogging attempt. After being shown pinterest by a friend at work I became addicted and eyes opened to the big wide world of blogging. After the last six weeks of re-inventing my classroom with great ideas from other teachers I felt it was time to start my own blog... and alas here we are. I will attempt to give you something interesting to read about, however do not hold your breath. This blog will be a marathon, not a sprint, so fingers crossed for good things to come!