This week in reading we have been focusing on identifing the authors purpose for writing that text, among other things. I made this anchor chart based on ones others have made and posted to Pinterest. My students loved the concept of PIE (persuade, inform, entertain) and loved the helpful visual of this anchor chart.
Today is the Lunar New Year in China, celebrating the beginning of the year of the goat. My students and I did some research on Chinese New Year, and compared it to the New Year celebrations that we are most familiar with. We found a lot of similarities between the two, and it really helped my students to better understand a culture they don't know much about. We celebrated the holiday by creating our own lanterns, decorating them with Chinese patterns whilst listening to traditional Chinese music. It was certainly lots of fun and our lanterns look fantastic among our Australia Day flags. P.S. Excuse my horrible writing!
Our first read aloud for the year was "The Dot" by Peter H. Reynolds. We focused on what a growth mindset looks like. I used it as a way to introduce the concept of fixed and growth mindsets. My students had done some work on it towards the end of last year but this session showed me that they really didn't have a great understanding of it. We all (myself and my aide included) created these quarter-circles which we put together in a display for outside our room. I love the way it turned out and the whole session was a great way to introduce language I will use for the whole year.
Well, the first two days of school for 2015 are officially over! Now I am ready to enjoy a nice relaxing weekend. The past two days have been all about getting to know my students, and them getting to know each other and myself. It has also been about introducing routines, slowly but surely. One such routine is creating SMART goals. We created some goals for this term and wrote them down on coloured sheets of paper that we traced our hands onto. Now they are up on display, showing that in 3/4 we are reaching for the stars.
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June 2015
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