Month: February 2013

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Making More Connections: New Zealand and Ireland

Making Connections is a comprehension strategy

we use in school when we read.

It is good to make connections

in other subject areas too.

 

 

Like New Zealand we have two languages here in Ireland:

our native language (called Irish/Gaelic/Gaeilge).

and our adopted language, English.

 

Irish is taught in schools.

Teachers have used the popularity

of the haka from New Zealand

to teach Irish:

http://vimeo.com/39212666

Take a look at this great video is from

a 6th class in Balbriggan ETNS.

 

Uillinn dheas, uillinn chlé 

(right elbow, left elbow)

Buail do chos, buail do chos 

(stamp your feet, stamp your feet)

Gualainn dheas, gualainn chlé 

(right shoulder, left shoulder)

Bualadh bos, bualadh bos 

(clap hands, clap hands)

Lámha ar na glúine 

(hands on knees)

Cromaigí, cromaigí 

(bend down, bend down)

Lámha in airde 

(hands up)

Éirígí! éirígí!

(rise up, rise up)

Síos ar na glúine

(down on your knees)

Lámha sna cluasa

(hands in ears)

Bualadh bos, bualadh bos 

(clap hands, clap hands)

Léimigí suas….. AAAAAAA!

(Jump in the air)

– by Dominic ó Braonáin

 

The older children in our school are familar

with the song from New Zealand

‘Pokarekare Ana’.

In Senior Classes they learn how to

play this tune on the recorder.

The tune of Pokarekare Ana

is used in Ireland for a hymn to Mary:

‘A Mhuire Mathair’

Other connections: Both countries are islands

and have a strong connection with the sea.

 

Both New Zealand and Ireland

are green and beautiful.

 

Family is important.

 

Both countries have an interest

in the sport of rugby.

The New Zealand rugby team

are good ambassadors for New Zealand.

 

We see in films like ‘The Hobbit’

that New Zealand is very beautiful.

Making connections makes the world go round!

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Jenny Nimmo’s ‘The Dog Star’ – A Big Hit with 2nd Class Room 6

From ‘The Daily Reader’ newspaper:

“It was confirmed today that of all the Jenny Nimmo books that 2nd Class Room 6 have read that ‘The Dog Star’ is their very favourite. A poll was held in class and these were the results. ‘The Owl Tree’ and ‘Tom and the Pterosaur’ both got one vote each. ‘The Stone Mouse’ received six. But ‘The Dog Star’ was the runaway success with twenty two votes.

Some people felt that perhaps the last book read by the class is always going to do best because it is more recent and clearer in their minds, but supporters of ‘The Dog Star’ said, that though they enjoyed all the Jenny Nimmo books we have read so far, ‘The Dog Star’ was simply the best.

Later in the year, 2nd Class Room 6 are going to read ‘The Snow Spider’ by Jenny Nimmo. This is a challenging read and it will be interesting to see, if ‘The Dog Star’ will be knocked off top position”.

 

So why was ‘The Dog Star’ so popular?

 

We agreed that it was about something

a lot of children dream about:

a dog of their own.

 

But the story is not that straight forward.

There are a lot of difficulties

in the story for Marty

who is the main character.

 

Her older sister Clare puts her in a very difficult

situation and she doesn’t know whether to

make her sister happy by being mean to

Miss Theresa Tree or make her Dad happy

by being friendly to her.

 

We found the story

serious,

mysterious

and magical.

We prefer serious books.

For example we preferred the serious

‘Owl Tree’ by Jenny Nimmo

to the ‘Owl Who Was Afraid of the Dark’

by Jill Tomlinson, even though it made us laugh.

 

We ‘made the connection’ between the eight and a half years,

that it takes the light from the Dog Star to reach earth,

and the fact that Marty is eight and a half years old

and that Marty’s Mum went home to God

eight and a half years ago.

 

Having already read ‘The Owl Who Was Afraid of the Dark’

we knew about Orion and his belt,

and what the Dog Star was, didn’t need to be explained to us.

 

Even at the end of the book,

we were left wondering about

‘The Dog Star’.

 

What was it really?

Where did it come from?

 

We would give this book ten out of ten

and would recommend it to children

between the ages seven and nine.

 

If you would like to comment, 

please double click the title at the top of a post

or the ‘Continue Reading’ box at the bottom 

and a comment box will appear.

We would LOVE to hear from you.

 

 

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Chinese New Year – A Voki Project on China by 2nd Class Room 6

With Chinese New Year on its way,

we have been learning about China.

 

Meet Avatar Niamh.

She starts off our project by telling you

about the ABC of China

the abacus, bicycles and chopsticks.

 

Avatar Tadhg is going to talk to you

about Chinese Dragons

 

A Forbidden City sounds interesting.

Avatar Owen will tell you about it.

 

 

If you want to hear about

the Great Wall of China,

Zac has some information:

 

Avatar Lewis introduces us

to some important Chinese inventions

 

Avatar Nicole has some information

about the Chinese inventions

of kite making and fireworks.

 

There are so many people in China

that there is not enough land to live on.

So what do people do?

Avatar Tom will tell you!

Have you ever seen the

Disney movie ‘Mulan’?

Matthew will tell you about

the Chinese legend of Mulan.

 

We don’t want to make you hungry,

but Avatar Mark would like to talk to you

about Chinese food.

 

 

What do you know about Pandas?

Let Avatar Senan tell you what he knows about them.

When 2nd Class Room 6 saw

‘The Sacred Way’ on Google Images,

they were amazed.

Avatar Shane will tell you why.

Finally Max will tell you about

another spectacular sight that

we saw on Google Images when

we looked up the Terracotta Army.

When doing this project we found this ABC of China

from a 3rd Grade Computer Club

from ‘The Franklin Institute’, Philadelphia

a very helpful starting point.

The alphabetical order was

a very helpful memory aid.

 

A Song for Chinese New Year, from ‘Children’s Music by Nancy Stewart’..

 

This is our second Voki Project this year.

The other one was on the planets in our solar system.

Our Project about the Planets in Our Solar System

For these projects we tried to create avatars that looked like us.

 

Now that we have that done,

we are each making our own unique avatars

that definitely do not look like us.

Look out for them in the weeks to come 😉

 

Thanks to Lucy from TY who helped us with this project.

 

To comment, please double click the title at the top of a post

or the ‘Continue Reading’ box at the bottom and a comment box will appear

It would be REALLY great to hear from you!

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Advantages and Disadvantages of having a Classroom Blog

Today 2nd Class Room 6 talked about

the Advantages and Disadvantages

of having a Classroom Blog

These are the advantages

We enjoy having a classroom blog.

Senan called it our ‘digital diary’.

 

Parents, families and friends at home

and abroad can see what we do in school.

 

Children who are absent from school

can check up on what we are doing.

 

We feel good seeing our work online,

 

We have made friends

with students in other schools

and other countries through our blog.

 

We had fun preparing to enter

the Eircom Junior Spiders Awards 2013:

Mega Spiders: School Blog.

 

Disadvantages:

 

We talked about the disadvantages

of having a classroom blog

and we agreed that

there are NO disadvantages 🙂

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The Good Shepherd

We are very fortunate to have

beautiful stained glass windows in our church.

 

Two of them are by the famous artist Evie Hone.

Here is the one called: ‘The Good Shepherd’

 

Today, Paul from the parish came to talk to us

about ‘The Good Shepherd’ and ‘The Lost Sheep’.

 

This was part of our preparation for our First Confession

which is taking place on the first Saturday in March.

 

We told Paul what we knew about the story.

Cian said that the Good Shepherd is

God our Father in Heaven

and the sheep are

all the people in the whole world.

 

How God takes care of each one of us

was something that we found

amazing and impressive.

 

Paul made a sacred space.

In it he placed some tiny sheep

and a shepherd,

a candle

and the singing bowl.


Paul lit the candle. 

He struck the singing bowl three times.  

We closed our eyes and listened

to Paul’s voice and the music he played.

 

Nicole said that she hadn’t felt so relaxed since

Paul came in the last time.

 

Senan said he hadn’t felt so quiet since the night before

when he was going to sleep.

 

We think Mark actually fell asleep.

He said he hadn’t felt as relaxed since

he was in a jacuzzi on holidays.

 

Niamh said she hadn’t felt as peaceful,

since going on a walk

one evening in Spain

when she heard the crickets chirping.

 

Paul has asked for some feedback on the meditation.

Well the only bad thing was that the quietness

was interrupted by intercom bell.

 

When asked how things could have been improved,

there was silence and then Cian said:

‘By Paul coming in more often,’

with which we all agreed.

 

Thank you again Paul!

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Making Connections: Data & English: Our Favourite Class Novels

This week we have been talking about the class novels we have read:

 

Jill Tomlinson’s

‘The Owl Who Was Afraid of the Dark’

‘The Aardvark Who Wasn’t Sure’

and Jenny Nimmo’s

‘The Owl Tree’

and ‘The Stone Mouse’

 

We talked about the ones we preferred

and why we preferred them better.

 

First we collected data from the class

to see which book by Jill Tomlinson

2nd Class Room 6 preferred:

‘The Owl Who Was Afraid of the Dark’

or ‘The Aardvark Who Wasn’t Sure’?

 

 

Then we made a bar graph.

Some children were absent

and Teacher got to vote as well.

You can see from the graph that

‘The Aardvark Who Wasn’t Sure’

was our favourite book, by a score of 16 to 12.

 

Then we collected data to see which

class novel about owls, the class preferred:

Jill Tomlinson’s ‘The Owl Who Was Afraid of the Dark’

or Jenny Nimmo’s ‘Owl Tree’?

 

We made a bar graph to show the results.

‘The Owl Tree’ was the winner there.

Once again the score was 16 to 12.

 

The next day we took a vote,

to collect data for this bar graph

to find out which story by Jenny Nimmo

the class preferred:

‘The Owl Tree’ or

‘The Stone Mouse’?

 

Teacher got to vote again and

there were less children absent,

so there were 30 in our survey.

‘The Stone Mouse’ was the winner here

by a very close score of 16 to 14.

 

 

Niamh said ‘The Owl Who Was Afraid of the Dark’

was a very funny book that made her ‘laugh out loud’.

So why did the students in 2nd Class Room 6

prefer ‘The Aardvark who wasn’t sure’?

 

The Aardvark Who Wasn’t Sure’

The children said this was a funny book too

and that they learned lots of new things

about animals who live in the African ‘veldt’.

 

‘The Owl Tree’

‘The Owl Tree’ was the book children preferred

of the two about owls. 2nd Class Room 6 felt it was

an unusual and serious book and that it was more grown up.

 

They liked the way Jenny Nimmo

worked a little bit of magic into every day life.

 

Cian said it gave him ‘mixed feelings’ because predicting

what was going to happen to the tree worried him.

 

John Paul said he liked the description of the food

that Granny Diamond brought out to her ‘trick or treat’ visitors.

 

Isabella said that it was interesting

to try and imagine what Mr. Rock looked like.

 

Fiona said that it was a good book to help

some one understand a disability or someone who looked different.

 

However good ‘The Owl Tree’ was the children thought that

‘The Stone Mouse’ was even better.

 

‘The Stone Mouse’

There were so many problems for Ellie

and ‘The Stone Mouse’ to overcome.

 

Isabella said she was interested

in finding out why Ted did what he did.

 

Alice was fascinated by the connection

between Ellie and ‘The Stone Mouse’,

where they both seemed to be worrying

at the same time.

 

Alice thought that it was interesting

that Ted is the short for Teddy

and that usually Teddies are soft and cuddly

but that Ted in the story was not.

 

Our next class novel is ‘The Dog Star’ by Jenny Nimmo.

Teacher says that there is magic and a mystery in it

and we are looking forward to it.

 

 

 

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Inspired by the Chinese Willow Pattern

Soon it will be Chinese New Year

We listened  to the story of the

Chinese Willow Pattern.

 

 

Then we acted out the story.

To finish we made ‘statues’

of that dramatic point in the story

where Li Chi’s Father tells Chang he must leave

and Li Chi begs her father to let her marry Chang.

We would love to hear what you think of our art.

 

A Song for Chinese New Year from ‘Children’s Music’ by Nancy Stewart.

If you would like to comment,

please double click

‘Continue Reading’ below

and a comment box will appear.

 

A Reminder:

Please don’t leave your child to explore online unattended

The internet is a portal to the world outside.

Children should be accompanied on this journey 😉

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Seeing Pictures in Pictures: Emily Carr’s ‘Forest’

When 2nd Class, Room 6 were studying

the very beautiful painting ‘Forest’ by Emily Carr,

they were fascinated by pictures they could see in the picture.

 

The students of 2nd Class, Room 6 said

this was like finding pictures in the clouds in the sky.

Here are some of the images they could see in the original work.

 

A dragon

A Pirate

A Horse

What can you see in the picture?

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Making Blogging Connections at Home and Abroad

Making connections is a recurring theme in class 🙂

We make connections as a comprehension strategy in reading.

 

But ‘making connections’ has come to have a new meaning

now that we are blogging.

 

Here are some of our more recent connections:

 

Our work on the Parish Website

 

Junior Art Gallery features some of our tree paintings

 

 

Follow this link to see our blog featured on Comments4kids.com

 

Our initial link with Room 5 Melville Intermediate School, Hamilton, New Zealand

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Message received from Room 5, Melville Intermediate School, Hamilton, New Zealand today.

Today we received a message from

Mr. Webb’s Room 5 Class

in Melville Intermediate School, Hamilton,

New Zealand.

 

 We were …

 

 

It said:

 

“Thanks so much for your audioboo

that was played today twice to our students.

 

They loved it, but they weren’t the first to do so,

Mr Webb, played it in the staff room

and we had a crowd of teachers that were listening to it.

 

The Room Five students loved hearing your voices

and the facts and information about

where you are in Ireland.

 

We are going to do a display about it next week

that includes the information

so that anyone who visits our classroom can see it,

and we have already had people from all over the

world watch what are are doing.

 

Next week in class we are going to speak Gaelic

from the phrases and words that you left for us

and we are going to look for more information

and we will post it on our class page,

so thank you so much again and have a great next few days.

 

(It is the weekend here in New Zealand,

we are half a day ahead of the rest of the world!)

 

Mr Webb and Room Five, Melville Intermediate School,

Hamilton, Waikato, New Zealand.”

This is the link to the podcast we sent 🙂

 

We first made acquaintance with

Mr. Webb’s Class

on Comments4kids.com

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‘I dream my painting and then paint my dream’. – Vincent Van Gogh

These are some of our pictures of trees.  

Before we did our project we often drew trees

that looked like lollipops 😉

 

We learnt about colour, shape and angle,

looking at masterpieces by a variety of artists.

These included Vincent Van Gogh

and Georgia O’Keeffe .

 

These are some of the trees we drew today

at the end of our project on the theme of trees.



‘I found I could say things with color and shapes

that I couldn’t say any other way

– things I had no words for’.

Georgia O’Keeffe

 

Thanks again to  Junior Art Gallery

whose link suggested this project to us.

 

We always appreciate feedback on our work 🙂

We would love you to comment!

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‘Leaping Greenly Spirits of Trees’ – Art Project – Part 3

We spent the past few weeks looking at masterpieces of trees:

Van Gogh’s ‘The Mulberry Tree’

Mondrian’s ‘Gray Tree’

and Emily Carr’s  ‘Forest’

Georgia O’Keeffe’s ‘The Lawrence Tree’

and Klimt’s ‘Tree of Life’.

You can see more of this work on other posts 

You can see them here.

And also here.

Now having studied these works of art and trees ‘in real life’,

we will draw our own trees.

Before this project the most popular way

of drawing trees in the class was often like this:

However take a look at this slideshow

of the trees we drew since:

 

Perhaps after looking at our trees you might guess

which artist’s work we liked the best.

 

Was it Van Gogh’s colourful ‘Mulberry Tree?’

or Emily Carr’s ‘Forest’.

 

In fact as you can see from the graph below,

one artist’s work was a runaway success.

 

The children explained their choice by saying that

there seemed to be something ‘magical’

about Klimt’s ‘Tree of Life’

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Online Games to practice Addition,Subtraction & Clock Time for 1st/2nd Class

We have been using these games to practice our maths in class

 

1. Great Subtraction Practice

Try The Subtraction Wall

We are really enjoying this one.

 

2. Another game to practice subtraction.

Key in the correct security code

by completing a number of take away sums

and as a reward the student gets to design a superhero.

Super Hero Costume Game

This game certainly has its fans in 2nd Class Room 6.

 

3. Challenge: Football Themed Two Digit Addition

Looks like fun

Our football fans enjoy this one.

4. This one is a new addition.

Watch out because it gets quicker

and quicker as you go up the levels.

Maths Barge Game from Ohio Distinctive.com

5. Clock time game

Have fun with clock time

 

6. Another game to revise clock time

Telling the time

 

7. Lots more maths games from BBC

Lots more maths games

Try one!

They’re fun!

Acknowledging the help of this great accumulation of websites on Ms. Horst’s Class Blog

Ms.Horst’s Class Website

To know another teacher has found a website useful

is very helpful when sourcing

age appropriate educational websites.