Animal Portraits can be seen by clicking on the link directly below:
Month: September 2011
Take a look at our art work! Look what we did with our names!
We made ‘Name Bugs or Aliens’ from our names.
You can see them at the link below:
This is our first slide show on the Photopeach website this year.
We hope there will be many more.
Maths – Simple Computation: Addition & Subtraction in Second Class.
Maths – simple computation: addition/subtraction in Second Class
If you feel the need to supplement homework, these are some suggestions.
Learning simple computation (addition/subtraction tables to 10+10) really benefits the student in second class. Because when they go on to learn how to add tens and units with renaming they can concentrate on this new methodology because the addition and subtraction come easy to them.
We will be doing this in class. These websites may help you help your child.
The first is an addition speed test.
http://www.mrmyers.org/Math_Mania/ttadd.html
http://www.ohio-distinctive.com/toybox/mathbarge/mathbarge.html
In preparation for adding tens and units with renaming, this game might be useful.
http://www.ictgames.com/sharknumbers.html
This is a good site for practicing number facts and computation:
Finally this site has games that practice addition and take aways at speed.
Finally following a recent recommendation I will be using the following site in class.
Problem Solving with Thinking Blocks
The Thinking Blocks website teaches a visual strategy for problem solving.
Hope you find these helpful.
Teacher
‘Dinosaurs’ by Maks
About Dinosaurs by Maks
A T-Rex is a meat eater
A Deinonychus is a meat eater
Dinonychus means ‘terrible claw’.
A Triceratops is a plant eater
A Triceratops had 3 horns
A Stegosaurus is a plant eater
An Apatosaurus is a plant eater.
The Apatosaurus used be known as a Brontosaurus!
Ask me why there are no dinosaurs today!
Reading in Infants – The Introduction of Formal Reading in Senior Infants :)
Photo Credit: peasap via Compfight
The ‘New’ Curriculum advocates the introduction
of formal reading in Senior Infants
I think this is a good thing because…
When I started teaching in 1982,
we introduced the formal schemes after Halloween
whether the children were ready or not.
I love the change the New Curriculum brought.
One of my own children learnt under the old system
and the other learnt under the new.
I loved the way my younger child leared to read.
It was the ‘scenic route’;
a lot of parent or teacher reading to child in
Junior Infants and ‘shared’ and ‘paired’ reading.
It was a much more pleasant process
and less stressful for me as a parent
or teacher, and for the children.
I love how in Junior Infants,
without the pressure of formal reading,
one can concentrate on language development
and early reading skills.
In class I love the big books
and the wide range of library books.
The language the children acquire
from these ‘real’ books is so much richer
than that which is in a ‘reader’.
I realise there can be pressure to start the readers
but when the library books make their way home regularly,
parents should be reassured.
I used find, ‘back in the day’
when we introduced reading after Halloween,
I could have a child reading passably,
but they didn’t know their alphabet or phonics thoroughly.
The language development I had time for was very limited;
the child who thought a young cow was a puppy comes to mind.
(Obviously I don’t teach in a rural area :))
It came to a point where sometimes
I saw children trying to decode words
that weren’t in their vocabulary anyway.
How would that boy decode ‘calf’ for example
if he didn’t know that word.
I found introducing reading too early
gave children their first experience of failure 🙁
when they saw someone in the class
rattle up the reading ladder
and they were stuck on Book One.
With the ‘extra’ time on hand
we used be able to have a veritable ‘Book Club’
in class where the children really enjoyed talking
about how the ‘Gingerbread Man’ and ‘The Enormous Turnip’
were the same and how they were different.
‘Education is not a race. Enjoy the journey.’ 🙂