Sounds All Around

 

I give this booklet I made to my year 2 students as a revision activity after learning the different sounds in words. It's a fun fast-finishers activity that includes find-a-words, mind maps, sentence and word building, handwriting practice, drawing and spelling activities. 

    

                         

 

Science: Volcano

 

Part of our Japan unit involved researching natural disasters (specifically volcanoes).

We designed and made a volcano from paper mache, painted it green and made it explode by mixing vinegar, baking soda and red food dye. Messy - but loads of fun!

To make the paper mache paste you will need water and flour.
Mix 1 part flour to 2 parts water.
It needs to be of thick consistency and without lumps.

To explode the volcano, pour the vinegar into the cup at the top of the volcano, then add teaspoons of baking soda.
To create the red effect as seen in the photo above, I added red glitter to the vinegar.

Visual Arts: Jelly Fish

 

 

To make these scratch paintings, have the students colour an entire piece of cardboard in coloured squares or patterns using oil pastels. Then paint over using black paint. Use a toothpick to scratch an image and expose the colours underneath.

This is also an effective method of drawing fireworks for a celebration topic/unit.

Butterfly Symmetry

Symmetrical butterflies - an oldie but a goodie. It is an artistic way to grasp the concept of symmetry.


Students paint one side of the paper with blobs on paint. They fold the paper in half and smear the paint onto the other half of the paper. Then they cut the paper into butterfly shapes and hang them from the ceiling.

In this particular sample, we drizzled white glue over the paint and sprinkled coloured sand on top for an added effect.

Warm Fuzzy

I'll never forget one of those chain emails I used to get all the time when I was younger; this particular one was about a student named Mark Eklund who carried around a slip of paper in his wallet of nice things his peers had written about him during a school activity. 

Every year now, in my class, we complete what I like to call, a "Warm Fuzzy", where students write something nice about each of their classmates, to make them fell all 'warm and fuzzy' on the inside.

Sometimes the students take these home laminated, but I have also displayed them to remind students that we are all friends and that we are all special.

 

Sample template: 

Zen Gardens

In the class assignment for our Japan unit of study, Year 3 students were asked to bring in recyclable materials from home and construct a Zen garden. Students had to write an information report on what a Zen garden was and write a procedure detailing how they made their garden.

Here are some of their masterpieces!

Push Pull Slopes

For our year 2 Science topic on Push and Pull forces, students had to push toy cars down varying degrees of slopes and different textured surfaces. Most kids love matchbox cars so we identified different slopes around the school, including ramps and slides, to roll our cars down.

Procedure: Teacup Biscuits

 

What you need:

• Plastic containers (for mixing)
• Spoon
• Round flat biscuit (for saucer)
• Marshmallows (for mug)
• Icing (for saucer and as to act as 'paste')
• Food colouring
• Chocolate freckle
• Half a lifesaver (for mug handle)

 

Steps:

1. Mix icing sugar with water and drops of desired food colouring.
2. Thinly spread icing onto biscuit.
3. Place marshmallow in centre of biscuit.
4. Spread more icing on top of the marshmallow.
5. Stick chocolate freckle on top of marshmallow.
6. Drizzle some icing down the size of the marshmallow.
7. Stick half a lifesaver onto the side.

Test:

Eat and enjoy!

The finished result!!!

Application: to make educationally relevant, of course we had to write up the procedure. Here's a basic template:

Effort Poster

Think this says it all really...... a great class motto!

Camouflage Animals

 

This camouflage activity was part of our Stage 1 science unit on Living Things.

I printed off a variety of patterned backgrounds created in Microsoft Word and the students had to blend their animal into the background by matching the colours (using oil pastels) and repeating the patterns.

Organisation

Literacy Games Storage

One thing I've come to realise about teaching is the incredible amount of stuff that needs to be stored, filed and organised. I have boxes of literacy games I have made over the years that I would store in plastic zip-lock bags. Over time, the pointy edges of the laminated games would break through the bags and needed to be replaced.

Here is a brilliant way to store games using old plastic VHS cases. It's hard, durable and long lasting. Most have a clear pocket for displaying the name of game or the rules. They store easily and neatly in trays or bookshelves.

Old cases can be found at Vinnies for very cheap.

Photo Gallery

 
Children and parents alike LOVE seeing students at work. What better way to demonstrate their engagement in learning than through a photo gallery?

A photo gallery encourages parents to come and see what their children have been up to in class, and the kids love reminiscing on all the fun they have had whilst learning.