Easter Egg Treasure Hunt

QR Codes are awesome for so many purposes and can be used in so many curriculum areas in the class, but we are getting out of the class and Treasure Hunting for QR codes and Chocolate. We used this website http://www.classtools.net/QR/index.php to create a brilliant  hunt that took the kids all around the school searching for hidden QR Codes, and we involved photography as a way to add something extra to the challenge.

Photos of the hunt to come after tomorrow.

Library Reading - Spaces and Places that make reading enjoyable.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Posted with Blogsy

Positive Teaching -

Intentionally Say -

"I'm not asking you to do more work, I'm saying do more learning". 

Word Clouds - Apps

Had a bit of fun with these two great Word Cloud Apps this afternoon. Word Collage is a very easy 2 button app that lets you create Word Clouds in a very similar way to http://www.wordle.net which is a Word Cloud Web based program. Visual Poetry is my favourite of the two as you have a few more options and you are able to shape the text and manipulate the colour more than with Word Collage. 

Both great buys and heaps of fun. 

Daily 5

For great online reading check out this link...

https://sites.google.com/site/2012sps8/links/reading 

Parent Teacher interviews - 2013

This year I am lucky enough to be trying out a new interview style. Based on the goal of collaborating and communicating with parents, community and the wider world the interviews for Room 8 this year will be done as a collective where both parents and students come along. This style, we are hoping will provide a positive and safe environment where parents can talk and discuss their child's academic needs in a collaborative setting. I believe strongly in strength in numbers and this may provide the shy parents with a vehicle to get on board, get involved and see how they can help at home with their child's learning needs. I believe strongly in sharing knowledge, successes and failures and hopefully this will also allow for a more open discussion between parents and myself about opportunities to help students learn more, about helping in particular areas and also as a way for parents to talk with one another about things that they have found work or don't work when it comes to learning at home.

Class Programme - iPads, email, twitter (netiquette) teaching how to respond to and comment appropriately with social media.

Blogging - A way to showcase to the world. Share their work with a global audience.

National Standards - Where is my child heading ? What do they need to be doing ? What should they know ? What can I do to help ?

This is the link to the ministry website for all year levels in the core curriculum areas -

http://www.minedu.govt.nz/Parents/YourChild/ProgressAndAchievement/NationalStandards/Introduction/SupportingYourChildsLearning/After3YearsAtSchool.aspx

After 4 years at school - http://www.minedu.govt.nz/Parents/YourChild/ProgressAndAchievement/NationalStandards/Introduction/SupportingYourChildsLearning/ByTheEndOfYear4.aspx

After 3 years at school -
http://www.minedu.govt.nz/Parents/YourChild/ProgressAndAchievement/NationalStandards/Introduction/SupportingYourChildsLearning/After3YearsAtSchool.aspx

These documents are so helpful for both teachers and parents. They let you know where exactly they should be. Remember of course that children are all different and we allow for differentiation and individuality. Some children mature faster and pick things up quickly others need a bit more time. The term National standard just shows you a place where it is expected your child should be.
I recommend you use them to help you judge where your son/daughter is at for their year level. As well as looking into the how to help at home or homework section.

Homework -
Is always emailed to students in the afternoon. Every night without exception will be spelling words to learn a maths app or problems to solve and students will either take home the reader that their group in currently working or they can take home a book at their level of their choice.

Sometimes the homework will be other topic based activities i.e. art, a survey to complete or just an App to play around with.

This is the TKI or ministry website for writing standards. It will give you a good indication too as to where your child is at. Lots of helpful ideas, tips and examples of writing at their year level.

http://literacyonline.tki.org.nz/Literacy-Online/Student-needs/National-Standards-Reading-and-Writing/National-Standards-illustrations

GOALS - Setting goals is about students and parents understanding where a student may need help, where they need to be pushed but also about creating a target to work towards. Without goals some children don't have a reason for doing work or se little purpose in work. A goal can focus both learning and behaviour. We encourage all goals to be specific and to explain what they want to achieve in a particular area.

Haiku Deck - Jada L

http://www.haikudeck.com/p/qlXu9COUuL

 

Posted with Blogsy

App Harvest - KPS 2013

Monday 11th March - KPS hosts our first App harvest. A chance for iPad, iPod and Mac users to share and collaborate on Apps that they find useful and Apps that we can't do without. All harvested Apps from tonights Harvest will be posted here.

Summed Up - Awesome Math app that teachers groups or numbers up to 20. NZ made too !

Screen Chomp - When you want to show and record something on screen this is the perfect little app for this. Easy and kid friendly.

Puzzle Maker - The only App that I know of that allows the user to create, publish and share Word searchers. Easy to use and a brilliant little activity for spelling, lang development etc. Well worth the money. 

Blogsy - Allows you to post pics, video etc from the net and your iPad straight onto your blog in 1 easy step. Visual and easy to use for kids. Tried and Tested by Room 8 at KPS. 

Toon Camera - Turn pictures or take pictures into Cartoons and pencil sketches. 

vDictation - Speech to Text app. 

Foldify - A great way to show nets and create your own net structure.

Word Salad - Just like wordle for the iPad.

Google Forms - Check This Out as a way to create omline forms that the child can survey. You can post the link, email, or set who can see it. Then the results can be graphed and are completely instant. 

Momentsia - Picture collage, easy create and easy to share. 

Sling Note - This is a must check out App. Best note taking app I have seen for a while. Move between 2 pages, copy, cut, paste and manipulate with ease.

Pic Collage - Pic Collage app with plenty of bells and whistles. Stickers, drawings, and text. 

Sonic Pics - Put photos in and they are can be transformed into an audio visual story. Digital story telling. 

Scribble Press - Cloze activity book or story creator with heaps of functions. Beginner to Advanced Writers. 

AR Apps - 

My Story - E Book creator. 

Video Star - 

Mad Pad - 

Maths Slide - 

Motion Maths - 

Multi Touch Maths -

Spellosaur - 

A+ Test - Spelling List Creator.

Bugs and Buttons - 

If you feel the need to push your more able kids a bit further then get into Game design and App development. Try these 2 websites out. Both are very easy to navigate and both have the ability to be played on any portable device. 

GameFroot - http://gamefroot.com

Game Salad - http://gamesalad.com/download

Sketching Faces

As part of our discovery unit we are discovering how to draw our faces uses correct positioning. We looked into a great video which showed us where our eyes, ears, nose and mouth need to be positioned on the face to look right.

These are some of the examples to show how we are getting on.

Posted with Blogsy

Blended ELearning 2013

Why - What is the purpose of eLearning

Engagement, motivation, learning for the future, skills, catering for different needs, fine motor skills, differentiation, challenging, teaching stays fresh, communication, parent and school connection, students as learners as teachers, excitement, quality of work, incentive, draws them in.

 

What difference will this make for our students

Students will be engaged, better results, structure, learn to follow processors or instructions, future skills, motivation, responsibilities, pride, differentiation for students, caters for all students at all levels, connect with wider community and world, instant, blogs, wikis, authentic audience.

 

Future Learning Short Documentary -

 

Virtual Learning Network

 

Posted with Blogsy

Twitter Wall

Today we began our "Twitter Wall" this is a way to promote positive comments and engagement within the classroom and between our students. It's interactive, engaging and teachers many skills.

Posted with Blogsy