Miss K’s Primary Blog

I’m going to spend the next few weeks working with my Year 6s on designing a theme park in maths.

It’s based on an idea found on Teaching Ideas.  The Primary Teacher Resource Centre have added new sections, smartboard files and an advert activity.

The idea is quite similar to the Theme Park sim games available.

I used the idea last year, but my class quickly got bored with the repetitive calculations needed.  So I’ve written a spreadsheet to automatically calculate profits, etc.

Download here: Theme park spreadsheet

I’m going to make them do the first few days of calculations using a calculator, then introduce them to the spreadsheet and show them how this makes the task much quicker and easier.  I’ll also introduce the idea of being able to easily change items and look at the effect this has.  It’s written so that the children only have to input numbers into the green cells, some of which have drop-down boxes.

I’m hoping to then move on to writing some simpler spreadsheets, which is something we haven’t really covered yet in ICT.

Filed under: ICT, Maths, Problem solving, Y6-7 Transition, Year 6 | No Comments »

I’m going to add my planning and resources for this unit as I do them.

So here’s Week 1 (Chapters 1-3):

kensukes-kingdom-week-1

You’ll need a copy of the book (ideally enough for the children to have copies to refer to during their work).  I managed to persuade the school to buy 30 copies of the book last year:

http://shop.scholastic.co.uk/products/1529

Some of the activities also refer to Scholastic’s Read & Respond book:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Kensukes-Kingdom-Teachers-Resource-Respond/dp/0439945143

http://shop.scholastic.co.uk/products/68

Later planning will also include some use of the interactive CD-ROM version which has activities for use on an interactive whiteboard:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Kensukes-Kingdom-Read-Respond-Interactive/dp/043994578X/ref=pd_sim_b_5

http://shop.scholastic.co.uk/products/22091

Filed under: Children's books, Literacy, Narrative, Planning, Y6-7 Transition | No Comments »

I’ve just found this section of the Teacher’s TV website, which looks as though it could be helpful:

http://www.teachers.tv/cpdleaders

It contains short clips from Teacher’s TV programmes and discussion starters.

The current topics available are:

• Primary Leadership 1
• Primary Work/Life Balance
• Primary History
• Primary Geography
• Secondary Leadership 1
• Secondary Work/Life Balance
• Secondary History
• Secondary Geography

There’s also a sample presentation on the main page which looks at behaviour management.

And in March they will be adding:

• Primary SEN
• Secondary SEN
• Primary Special Schools
• Secondary Special Schools
• Primary Sustainability
• Secondary Sustainability
• Primary Leadership 2
• Secondary Leadership 2

Filed under: Behaviour, Leadership, Professional Development, Work/life balance | No Comments »

I’ve written before about how I used the short animation ‘Bert‘.  There’s also an interesting post in the ‘ICT Inspirations’ blog about how he used this with his class to develop talk into writing.  And another one about using it to develop a digital story book.

Filed under: Literacy, Narrative | No Comments »

A few helpful links and ideas:

http://www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/primaryframework/assessment/app - The main section on the Primary Framework website.

However, just to confuse everyone who’d just got to grips with the Primary Framework website, they’ve redesigned the Standards site (and made it very difficult to find anything), so the updated section, with Level 1 grids, is here: http://nationalstrategies.standards.dcsf.gov.uk/node/20683

http://nationalstrategies.standards.dcsf.gov.uk/node/158443 - List of benefits and link to booklet ‘Getting to Grips with Assessing Pupil Progress‘

http://www.primaryresources.co.uk/maths/mathsA5.htm - In the ‘New Primary Framework’ section, there is an Excel version of the APP guidelines (’Asessing Pupil Progress Recording System’).  This will be particularly helpful if you are trying to assess all pupils in your class using APP.

Teacher’s TV has a video showing a Year 5 teacher assessing writing using APP and attending moderation meetings: http://www.teachers.tv/video/29809.  This might be helpful for staff meetings.

http://www.qca.org.uk/qca_13581.aspx has information about APP and links to related materials.  It will also include links to the evaluation reports from the pilots of APP.  http://curriculum.qca.org.uk/key-stages-3-and-4/assessment/assessment_and_the_curriculum/day-to-day-periodic-and-transitional-assessment/index.aspx has a very short video/animation which explains the different types of assessment (day-to-day, periodic and transitional) using the ‘painting in a gallery’ analogy.  This could be useful for staff meetings or to show to governors.

One useful idea that came out of the last training I attended was to use small coloured stickers to label evidence in pupil’s books.  Have a set of numbered stickers for each child that you are assessing, and stick in book when evidence is shown.  Then write the corresponding number on the APP grid.  This will be useful for me as Maths Leader as it will enable me to moderate and monitor judgements by looking at the evidence that teachers are using.

Filed under: APP | No Comments »

I’m finding my class really difficult to manage in the afternoons - they have poor listening skills and often don’t co-operate well with each other.  But yesterday afternoon I managed to find a lesson that kept them engaged all afternoon.

Earlier in the week, I had asked them to arrange themselves in groups of 3.  I then gave each group a different planet to research, using websites that I had identified and a list of prompt questions for them to answer.   They all managed to find most of the required information, using at least 3 different websites each.

Yesterday, we used the laptops to create presentations about the planets.  To avoid arguments over working on the laptop, they also had to create a large poster on sugar paper and I specified which members of each group would be working on the laptop and the poster (then swapped every 15 minutes).  This also meant that they had to work together when they swapped to ensure continuity.  Working on the laptops meant that they didn’t have the distraction of looking for pictures on the internet.

The children enjoyed the lesson, co-operated well with each other and all produced a piece of work that they are proud of and keen to share with others.

Definitely an idea to use again with different content!

Filed under: ICT, Space | No Comments »

http://bomomo.com/

http://www.artrage.com/artragedown.html

http://www.nga.gov/kids/zone/brushster.htm

http://artpad.art.com/artpad/painter/

http://www.sumopaint.com/app/

Filed under: Art | No Comments »

I just had to mention these tubs of objects from TTS.  Unfortunately I don’t teach young enough children, so there’s no way I could convince my school to buy these, but there must be all sorts of uses for these collections of objects!

Alphabet sounds:

Vowel sounds:

Rhyming sounds:

Blends and diagraphs:

I’m sure they had some for French as well, but I can’t find them on the website.  They had a tub for each letter of the alphabet and words written under the lid in French, then the equivalent objects to put back into the correct tub!

I do love small objects - I think I missed out on having a proper dolls house when I was young!!

Filed under: Resources | No Comments »

This is my medium term planning from the last time I taught a topic on the Victorians.  Its not complete, but we didn’t actually get through all the activities on there.

medium-term-plan-mk

Filed under: Planning, Victorians | No Comments »

http://teachers.net/gazette/SEP01/wong.html - One teacher’s procedures

http://teachers.net/wong/MAR03/ - A script for the first day and to help supply teachers

http://teachers.net/wong/JUN02/ - Another script

Filed under: Start year | No Comments »