The ‘B’ word ;)

 It may be Autumn, but I am doing a ‘Spring Clean’ on this blog.

This is one of a number of ‘draft posts’ I had saved.

I think now is as good as any time to post it.

 

As a parent and a teacher, I have strong views

about the use of the word ‘boring’.

Gregor Reviews I'm Bored by Michael Ian Black, Debbie Ridpath Ohi (illus)
Creative Commons License Photo Credit: jwordsmith via Compfight

Children can be bored.

In class I do my utmost,

to ensure this is not the case.

 

But I think allowing one’s children

to use the word,

gives them a ‘button to press’

in order to get a reaction from adults.

 

I ask the children in my class

not to use the ‘b’ word!

 

Instead we have learned a list of words

that can be used instead of  ‘boring’.

 

For example:

dull

tedious

monotonous

repetitious

routine

humdrum

flat

unvaried

tiresome

or

wearisome.

 

I love not hearing the ‘b’ word

and hearing the children use

a variety of interesting words instead.

 

What do you think?

Falling from the Sky! Images suggested by ‘Sunflakes’ by Frank Asch

We read ‘Sunflakes’ by Frank Asch
You can read it here.
We talked the images in the poem
and about
what else could fall from the sky!
These are some of the ideas we had:
Pommes de terre
Creative Commons License Photo Credit: Stéphanie Kilgast via Compfight
Jake – potatoes
Dangerous grannies
Creative Commons License Photo Credit: C via Compfight
John Paul – grannies
Fenceposts Across the Universe
Photo Credit: mendhak via Compfight
Matthew – planets
salty crispy goodness
Creative Commons License Photo Credit: Danny Ngan via Compfight
Cian – Pringles
hbw | happy (custom) bokeh wednesday
Creative Commons License Photo Credit: Adam Foster via Compfight
Nicole – Lights
the rest of the family
Creative Commons License Photo Credit: Paul Moody via Compfight
Kila – puppies
IMG_8080
Creative Commons License Photo Credit: Eric Huang via Compfight
Abi – Moshi Monsters
JJ Following The Girls To School free creative commons
Photo Credit: D. Sharon Pruitt via Compfight
Owen – Babies
Roy's red Army
Creative Commons License Photo Credit: Graham Walton via Compfight
Lewis – the Liverpool football team
Can you imagine any of these falling from the sky?
Can you see the picture in your mind?
Then we found out about unusual things
that have actually fallen from the sky
and the reason behind why these
unusual showers happened!
The list included
frogs,
eels,
fish,
money
and golf balls!
Alignment (Golf balls)
Photo Credit: Hiroyuki Takeda via Compfight
 

Funny Ways to Say Good Bye

‘See you later alligator,

Gator
Creative Commons License Photo Credit: Thomas Hawk via Compfight

Bye bye butterfly,

Farewell
Creative Commons License Photo Credit: Len Matthews via Compfight

Give a hug ladybug,

~ Ladybug  Ladybird ~
Creative Commons License Photo Credit: Stuart Williams via Compfight

Be sweet parakeet,

Plum-headed Parakeet
Photo Credit: Hans Splinter via Compfight

Blow a kiss goldfish,

red fin
Creative Commons License Photo Credit: plus45 via Compfight

See you soon racoon,

Duh!
Creative Commons License Photo Credit: patries71 via Compfight

Take care polar bear,

What a Wonderful World
Creative Commons License Photo Credit: Valerie via Compfight

Out the door dinosaur!’

triceratops
Photo Credit: Emre Ayaroglu via Compfight

Next week we are going to talk about funny ways to say hello.

Look out for the results, here on the blog.

Following on from ‘Bill’s New Frock’ by Anne Fine: An Interesting Survey

 

 

2nd Class, Room 6 have just finished a novel

by Anne Fine called ‘Bill’s New Frock’.

 

In it, the main character, Bill wakes up one morning

to find that he has changed into a girl overnight.

 

The story is interesting in that Bill observes

how boys can be treated differently to girls.

 

Following on from reading ‘Bill’s New Frock’

2nd Class, Room 6 did an interesting exercise

about the jobs that men and women do.

 

First they listened to the following story:

 

‘One fine Monday morning,

a parent and child were walking to school.

Suddenly there was a screech of brakes

and an enormous thud.

 

A car and a motorcycle had collided.

The driver of the car got out

and went to see if the motorcyclist was OK.

 

Two guards came and an ambulance.

The ambulance driver drove quickly

and brought the motorcyclist to hospital.

 

The doctor and nurses did their jobs well

and the motorcyclist made a speedy recovery.

 

The children were asked to draw a picture from the story.

Then they were asked whether

the people in the story were male or female.

 

Though it is probably of note that there were

sixteen boys and twelve girls in the class that day,

the results were interesting.

                                                                                         Considered by the children to be:

 Character in story                             Male               Female             
 Child  8  20
 Parent  7  21
 Car driver  21  7
 Motorcyclist  26  2
 Guards  26  2
 Ambulance Driver  27  1
 Doctor  25  3
 Nurse  0 28

 

When the class talked about this afterwards,

they agreed that they had met female doctors,

and guards and male nurses.

 

Teacher sees a little change since she first

did this survey with an all girls class

twenty years ago. On that occasion the data

looked like this:

 

 Character in story                             Male               Female             
 Child  0  30
 Parent  0  30
 Car driver  24  6
 Motorcyclist  29  1
 Guards  29  1
 Ambulance Driver  29  1
 Doctor  29  1
 Nurse  0  30

 

She wonders what the survey would look like

in twenty years time.

Podcast: What did you like about ‘The Owl who was Afraid of the Dark’?

We have just finished our class novel

‘The Owl who was Afraid of the Dark’

by Jill Tomlinson.

The children in 2nd Class, Room 6

enjoyed the humour

and appreciated

that the story followed a pattern.

But let them tell you about it.

Isabella is today’s interviewer.

As part of the work we are doing on owls,

the boys and girls enjoyed watching barn owls on this link today.

Perhaps they might like to check it out again at home.

Click on this link for a video of a barn owl in flight from a nature website called Arkive.org

Click on ‘Continue Reading’ below to comment.

The Advantages and Disadvantages of Living in Our Home Town

Today we made a podcast about

the advantages and disadvantages

of living in Greystones.

Senan was today’s interviewer.

The boys and girls in 2nd Class Room 6

could think of lots of advantages

and very few disadvantages.

We agreed Greystones is

a great place to live.

What do you think is  good about living in your home town?

Click on ‘Continue Reading’ below to tell us what you think.

 

 

Read more we have written about the town we live in here.

Did you ever call your Teacher Mum? How did it make you feel?

We talked about this question

and we recorded our answers in a podcast.

Each time we made a podcast, we found we had more to say.

This is the first one. Rebecca is the interviewer.

We talked about how we could improve on this podcast.

Rebecca thought about the questions she could ask,

that would help the class, to tell her their stories.

The class thought about how they could give more details

in their answers.

All the children interviewed said that they had called their

Teacher Mum, at some stage but all said that it wasn’t the

most embarrassing thing that ever happened to them.

 

So we decided to make a podcast of the most embarrassing

thing that had ever happened to the children in the class.

This was good practice and each time we made a podcast,

the children had more to say and said it,

I think you will agree in a better way.

SPHE: 2nd Class: Two Special Visitors

Isabella’s recount:

On Wednesday afternoon, 2nd Class, Room 6

had two very special visitors.

Senan’s Mum and his baby brother Markus

came up to our classroom.

 

Clara, Senan’s Mum sat at the top of the class

holding Markus on her lap

and she answered questions

that we had for her about Markus.

 

Very soon Markus started answering the questions too

in the only way he knew how.

He gurgled and giggled and blew bubbles

at the children in the class.

 

Markus was a lovely visitor

and we would like to thank his Mum

for bringing him to see us.

 

Then we made a podcast about the visit. Click on the link at the top of this post to hear more!

Teddy Flying
‘Teddy Flying’ by Abegoein on Flickr