Sunday 22 February 2015

Grammar activities in pictures

The new KS2 Programme of Study puts a great emphasis on grammar, so we have been very busy building sentences! Here is how we have fun with grammar in Lancashire:

Lego:




 

To see our Lego movie we made on our iPad, click here.

Paper chains:


Jigsaw puzzles:


Sentences ripped into pieces:


Jenga (blog post here)


Paper clips (idea from Pinterest)


Sentence Surgery (idea from Jumpstart Grammar by Pie Corbett and Julia Strong)

Word class boxes (Poundshop)


Carousel lesson with building blocks, Lego movie maker, glass pens and Jenga
And this is only the beginning, here are my new inspiring books for the quiet windy nights:




My QR code adventures

I like the mixture of old and new, traditional and new technology, so after the playdough post, here I come with my iPad and some QR codes we created recently. These are my first experiences, and my knowledge is very limited but I thought that by simply describing what I have done might encourage others to have a go.

Mother Day’s Cards:



There is no time to do “app testing” in the lessons but I always have pupils asking me if I need help during the break, so I caught 2 girls in the corridor who volunteered to make a video. I
  • recorded them saying “Te quiero, Mamá” on my iPad.
  • converted the video into a Youtube one (unlisted).
  • copied the link into the “QR code creator” app, which made a QR code and copied it on my camera roll.
  • printed the QR code and glued it on the flower.
  • Now if you scan it with the “i-nigma” app, you can see the video of the girls saying "Te quiero, Mamá."


Weather reports

 
In year 6 we covered the weather topic recently and the last lesson was about giving weather presentations. The pupils came out to the board in pairs, they said hello, introduced themselves and then said 2 sentences each about the weather in South America. We used a clapperboard, glittery microphones, a long stick to show the countries and spotlights, as well. We made a big fuss!

Following the description above, I created QR codes next to the photos of the pupils and put them on the display. If you happen to walk by with your smartphone or ipad, you can watch the weather reports!

On this blog I can't show you the videos unfortunately, but I promise to make some QR codes where I will ask the parents/school first for permission and copy them here in the next few weeks.

Thank you for your help, Joe Dale! (his article on QR codes: http://connectlearningtoday.com/exploring-the-educational-potential-of-qr-codes-3/)

Playdough Spanish

Years ago my son went to a birthday party and came home with a party bag full of small treasures - one of them was a small pack of plasticine. While we were playing with it, I got inspired to try it in the classroom... We have had lots successful plasticine and playdough activities in my Spanish lessons since then, so I am going to share some work with you today.
With playdough it is really easy to make something within a few seconds, and because it is different and  makes them smile, it will create excitement and a good working atmosphere.
We used plasticine and playdough to describe eye  and hair colours, look at this blog post for more info.


We practised writing our very first Spanish sentences in Year 3.



We used "y" to connect two pieces of information within a sentence.


We pracised the plural form of the noun.

We challenged our partners to guess the sentence, which is great to consolidate vocabulary.




What would YOU make with these? Comments are welcome!:-)







Friday 13 February 2015

West Lancs ALL primary hub: Open Mic Afternoon

The new KS2 PoS says that 

"Pupils should be taught to appreciate stories, songs, poems and rhymes in the language."

The theme was chosen by the participants of the previous hub meeting, who decided that after almost 2 hours of discussion on grammar we deserved to sing songs next time.

So here is the opportunity, don't miss it! We will take turns and share our favourite stories, songs, poems and rhymes.

All welcome!



Notes from previous meetings are on my blog here.