Month: November 2011

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Further Adventures of our Flat Stanleys

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The Flat Stanley Project – Edited highlights!

The children in First Class Room 6 made Flat Stanleys.

We sent them to visit our friends and relatives in lots of different places.

We found that whether Stanley traveled

all the way to China or took a short spin to Dublin,

He had GREAT fun and many adventures.

Kalin’s Flat Stanley went to visit her Granny in Wexford.

He fed the birds, fell in the pond and got to go to the circus.

Emily’s Stanley went to see her Granny in Dublin.

He went to the Burlington Hotel

and the lucky duck had chocolate pudding for tea.

Grainne’s, Jenna’s, Josh’s and Jack

all went to visit their cousins in Dublin.

Grainne Flat Stanley went to the zoo.

Jenna’s went to a nightclub.

Josh’s went on an treasure hunt.

Jack’s Flat Stanley got  make over.

He ended up with a mustache

and a Dublin football jersey.

Rebecca’s went to visit her cousin in Holland.

He even went to school.

Julia ’s sent hers to visit her Auntie in Paris.

When Stanley came back

he had a chocolate for all Julia’s class mates.

Sean C’s visited his Auntie in Wicklow

and ended up in Wicklow Gaol.

Cian Hy’s Flat Stanley went visiting

his aunt and uncle in Athlone.

He did a lot of climbing and saw Athlone Castle.

Heather’s Flat Stanley flew to London

with her Godfather Fergal.

Stanley went to Covent Garden

and saw an invisible man!

Georgie’s Flat Stanley went to London too.

He traveled with Georgie’s Dad

by bus and plane and tube

and helped him in the office.

Sean B’s Stanley was very busy.

He met the Doyle family in Bray,

the Irish Rugby Team Manager in Greystones

and lizards in Wales.

His picture was in the Bray People

and he also flew to Boston USA.

Cian H’s Flat Stanley got very fit.

He went cross country running

with his cousin Simon in the UK.

Hansen went all the way to China

and met teacher’s old friend Selina.

Selina made new clothes

and a paper car for Stanley.

Alice’s Flat Stanley snuck home in teacher’s bag.

He danced on the piano in her house.

Jessica’s Stanley went to South Africa

and met crocodiles and rhinos and hippos.

He also met a giraffe.

Thank you to all the kind people

who helped us with our Flat Stanley project.

It was very interesting and we had great fun.

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The Adventures of our Flat Stanleys

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Teacher read us

‘Flat Stanley’, by Jeff Brown.

It is about a boy who was

accidentally squashed

but not hurt.

Now he is as flat as a pancake.

His parents used send him

in a large brown envelope on his holidays.

This was cheaper than going by airplane.

 

We sent our own Flat Stanleys

for a holiday to kind friends and relatives

in lots of different places.

We found that whether Stanley

traveled all the way to Ukraine

or took a short spin to the home of a friend,

Stanley had GREAT fun and many adventures.

 

Our Flat Stanleys visited

Greystones, Bray and Delgany

Wookey Hole in Wells,

Milton Keynes and London

Italy and the Ukraine

 

Stanley went to Brady’s of Shankill

to watch rugby on the television

and he played golf.

He went to Sasha’s and Charlie’s wedding.

He met a witch in the caves in Wookey Hole.

He went sailing in a paper boat in Milton Keynes.

He abseiled off the Tower of London,

spun round the London Eye

and had breakfast with Gordon Brown.

He had a marvelous holiday with Lily in Milan.

 

We learned a lot about fashion, bridges

and how cement is made in the Ukraine.

 

Thank you to all the kind people

who helped us with our Flat Stanley project.

 

Thank you for taking the time to send Stanley

and an account of his adventures back to us.

It was fun and very interesting.

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Multiplication as repeated addition

First and second class provide a window of opportunity to learn addition and subtraction tables. Second class is a fresh opportunity for the children to learn these tables. In the main, I found the children have learned tables to 5 very well. These will be revised and then there will be another chance to learn to later tables to ten . It is important to master these tables by the end of second because
• In third and fourth the focus changes to multiplication and division.
• If a child knows their simple number facts they can more or less their full attention to method when being taught new maths e.g. ‘renaming’ when subtracting two digit numbers.

Ways of learning

In school we practise these tables, in a concrete way, using lollipop sticks and unifix cubes from the Number Bags on our desks. We have been singing the tables along to music. Hopefully the children have shown you how we use our hands to keep us on track while saying the table. We also use the table book.

In school we use Joyce O’Hara’s Addition and Subtraction CD from
SEE THIS LINK FOR THE JOYCE O’HARA CD FROM ASHTON PRODUCTIONS

We say ‘one and zero make one’, one and one make two’
‘one from six leaves five’. In this way we use the same language as this cd.

Children learn in different ways. Many respond to working with concrete objects; lollipop sticks, cubes, smarties. Some children really pick up on singing or chanting the table. For some keeping track of their tables on their fingers (a kinaesthetic approach) helps.

If you feel your child is not getting enough homework
Some of you may find that replacing the written maths the children used do with learning a table makes for less homework. But remember the few days or so it will be a case of adding and subtracting one and two. This will be quite easy. The tables will get harder after that.

If you do want to do extra work with your child you could rewrite some number facts from the tables as problems. We are told that children find problem solving difficult in maths. This may sound difficult, but can take as simple a form as ‘I had two pancakes on my plate. Mum made one more. How many had I then?’

Many of the children are very taken with the idea of learning how to multiply. We are in second class and as I say multiplication is on the curriculum for third.

Between now and Christmas we will be doing a ‘blitz’ on addition and take away tables. For this reason these tables are the only maths homework we are going to do in the next month. Instead we will do the exercises in the Mental Maths workbook in during class.

But time is ticking on and in second class multiplication is taught as repeated addition. In class we will be learning about number patterns and learning to count in 2s,4s,5s,etc. and using the hundred square.
I found these lively videos to help us:
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
VIDEOS TEACHING NUMBER PATTERNS FROM HAVEFUNTEACHING.COM
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We will also use this Counting Rap to help us:
Counting Cadence

Based on the Counting Cadence song from
the Dr. Jean Feldman Kiss Your Brain CD

We’re the best, we’re number one.
Now let’s have some counting fun.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

We are smart, we’re really cool.
Come on and let’s count by twos.
2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24

We are rockin’ you can see.
All together count by threes.
3 6 9 12 15 18 21 24 27 30 33 36

We’ve got the beat&we know more.
Everybody count by fours.
4 8 12 16 20 24 28 32 36 40 44 48

We can count and we’re alive.
Now let’s try and count by fives.
5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60

Skip counting is a kick.
You can do it-count by six.6 12 18 24 30 36 42 48 54 60 66 72

We’re on a roll-our brains are revvin’. Everybody count by seven.
7 14 21 28 35 42 49 56 63 70 77 84

We’re fantastic-doing great.
Come on now and count by eight.
8 16 24 32 40 48 56 64 72 80 88 96

Lookin’ good and counting fine.
Now it’s time to count by nine.
9 18 27 36 45 54 63 72 81 90 99 108

Skip count, skip count once again.
One more time and count by ten.
10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 110 120

We are super, yes we are. Look out world, here comes a star!

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As the Parent Teacher Meetings draw to a close…

Dear Parents,
Your child just has reading homework tonight as the ‘Library Ladies’ have requested that the children are rewarded for all the reading they are doing at the moment. We will do Thursday night’s homework in school so as to maintain continuity.

As the Parent Teacher Meetings draw to a close I thought it would be useful to recap on what was said. At the PT Meetings you saw our system of record keeping in the school and reports from other years. We examined the recurring themes in those reports; the positives and where we may need to focus with your child. In many cases this was in the area of English comprehension and problem solving in Maths. Certainly I will be attending to both areas in school.

We looked at standardized test results from other years. The test results we looked at were from First Class, a time when children would not have developed ‘exam skills’. A test is just a ‘snap shot’ in time. Looking at your child’s copybooks and workbooks give a much better overview of how your child is progressing.

As your child progresses in school, the ability to work independently becomes more and more important. I also rely on the children to work independently so I can hear reading. If possible you should encourage your child to do their written work for homework independently. The Spelling Workbook is so repetitive; this should be possible.

Many parents spoke about the difficulty of fitting in time for tables. At the moment we are learning how to take away using the ‘decomposition’ or ‘renaming’ method. In class I see that not knowing take away tables (‘as well as they know their own name’) is slowing up many children. They worry that they are not getting the sums right because they aren’t ‘renaming’ correctly, but more often than not it is that they have made a mistake when they take away. At the moment they are using number lines in school to help them with their computation. Ideally I would like them to know their addition and take away tables ‘up side down and inside out’. Until Christmas we will have a ‘blitz’ on addition and take away tables at school and for homework. To enable this, there will be no Mental Maths for homework.

Where reading homework is concerned
– one approach that seems to work is to do the rest of the homework and save the ‘reading’ homework for bedtime.
– Another approach is to continue ‘reading homework’ over the weekend.

The difference between what boys like to read and girls was also discussed at many meetings. Research shows whereas girls prefer fiction that many boys have a preference for non fiction. Though girls might like these too boys like graphic novels, information books, adventure, humour/joke books. The Guinness Book Of Records and Ripley’s Believe It Or Not are popular. Roddy Doyle ‘The Giggler Treatment’ and ‘Captain Underpants’ though not ‘politically correct’ do encourage some boys to read.

The ‘Beast Quest’ series by Adam Blade is popular with independent readers.
MORE INFORMATION ON THE BEAST QUEST SERIES HERE

Then there is Irish author Kieran Fanning’s Code Crackers series. These books are not read from beginning to end. Children reading these books have to solve clues, codes, problems and other puzzles to continue with the story.
SEE HERE FOR INFORMATION ON THE CODE CRACKERS SERIES

The staff in bookshops and your local librarian can also be very helpful if you ask them about books that are popular with boys or girls of this age.

My last parent teacher meeting is tomorrow 25th November, which leaves us with approximately a month to the Christmas holidays. I will sent home an update at that point about how your child is progressing.

Finally three small matters under the general heading of ‘housekeeping’. If your child is not tidy in the bathroom at home, it is possible that the same is true at school. If you feel it may be necessary I would be very grateful if you could talk to your child about leaving the bathroom tidy after themselves.

The children are allowed have their drinks bottles on their desks and they drink from these at any point during the day when they feel thirsty. If the drink is sugary, this means that their teeth are in contact with a sugary substance for some time each day. Perhaps you might like to review this.

Most of the drink bottles have ‘sports lids’ but we are averaging about five major ‘spills’ a week where the top of the bottle is an open one (i.e. no sports lid). Inevitably a spill like this destroys copy books and text books. So I would be grateful if bottles coming to school had the kind of lid that minimizes spills.

I found the Parent Teacher meetings very helpful. I feel I know your child much better now. I was more than pleased to hear how hard the children are working on their reading at home. I am very grateful for your continued co-operation and support,

Teacher

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You may find the following useful…Answers to questions asked at the P/T meetings

I was asked these questions at parent teacher meetings to date, and thought parents in general would find the answers of interest.

Are the children sight reading when they play the recorder?
I am teaching the children to sight read and read the ‘lines and spaces’
but generally, at the moment, I feel the children are playing ‘by ear’.

Could books be sent home more regularly for parents to see progress?
Certainly.
As you know the ‘Mental Maths’ and ‘Spellbound’ go home almost daily.
Occasionally I have sent exercises in ‘What A Wonderful World’, ‘A Way with Words’ and ‘Modern Handwriting’ home for homework. I have sent Alive-o home too.
The difficulty has been that the next time we go to work in a particular book, a number of children may be without it because it is left at home.
Certainly I will send home textbooks from time to time. Just don’t forget to send them back!

How can you help your child with problem solving in Maths?
Problem Solving:

The following strategies are useful in relation to problem solving
• Discussing the problem
• Rephrasing to make the meaning clearer
• Using concrete materials where possible
• Using smaller numbers
• Setting out problem on paper using diagrams, drawings etc.
• Estimating

Some teachers use the word RUDE to remind the children of problem solving strategies.
So the children are encouraged to Read, Underline key words, Draw, Estimate (Answer).
This is the simplest approach. ‘Drawing’ the problem can be very effective. It gives the child time to think and ptocess the information.

Another approach is
We LUV 2 C word stories!
Look, Underline (the key word), Visualise(draw), Calculate and Check.

In tandem with these approaches you could ask your child:

What do I have? (what info is given?)

What do I want to have at the end? (What am I being asked to do?)

How do I get there? (add or subtract or a combination)
From next year this will include the options to multiply or divide

When I am teaching addition and take away number facts, the children will have opportunities to compose problems based on the number facts. The children choose one number fact and express it as a number problem. These problems can be turn expressed as number facts by their class mates.

1. Number fact 10-7=3
Turn this into a problem
Problem: Ten ducks on a pond. A fox came along and frightened away seven of them. How many were left?

2. Problem: Seven bats hunting for insects.
Three went home to roost. How many were left?
This can be turned into a number sentence.

When children get used to doing these, they find word problems much less daunting.

This is a good website. It teaches a visual strategy for problem solving:
Problem Solving with Thinking Blocks

4. How do I help my child with comprehension?

When you read with your child check that they understand what they are reading by asking them questions.
I have noticed that when children aren’t observing the punctuation on a page they lose the meaning of what they are reading.
Sometimes, in the early days when children are doing comprehension exercises in school, they attempt to answer the questions without reading the piece!

1. To start with, I ask the children to read a piece of comprehension.
2. To read the questions underlining what they are being asked.
This means they will be reading the piece with the questions in mind. They will be reading with a purpose.
3. To read the piece again with the questions in mind…underlining what they think would be useful.
4. Then to go through the questions one by one, looking for the answers in the comprehension piece and writing down the answers.
As they get good at this, there is less need for underlining.

TRY THIS WEBSITE FOR GRADED COMPREHENSION EXERCISES
You could even do them orally. Try the Second Grade Ones. When these are complete have a go at some of the Third Grade ones.

PLEASE CLICK FOR AN EVEN MORE COMPREHENSIVE SITE ON STRATEGIES FOR COMPREHENSION