A NEW SCIENCE TOPIC: PHYSICS

We started a new science topic today (probably my least favourite one, not that I told them that!) PHYSIC'S :) We started with a general description of what was included in this topic as its not self-explanatory.  And then as a gentle warm up to the topic, the kids undertook some worksheets on motion and energy types.  I found some great worksheets for science from TLS Books and the website is definitely worth taking a look at for resources.  The worksheets were aimed at just providing them with a familiarity at some of the common words used in physic's.  This is where I think it is hard for kids to grasp on to physic's because its like learning a new language.  Anyway, they totally conquered the tasks today and we now know more about motion in particular! 

SPACE POSTERS COMPLETE

The kids spent the morning finishing off their space posters which are now hung proudly in the classroom.  They worked really hard over the last few weeks with their researching and learning about good question writing.  The accumulation of this work is now all on their poster with photos they printed using the Google image search, one of their new favourite things to do!

Well Done you guys, you did really well with your Space Projects and the posters are a tribute and fitting end to our space learning for this year!

MATHS: SCALE

Ben had the best time in Maths today, using a scale ruler and making all the furniture out of colour relevent pieces of card to go on the scale drawing of our classroom.  He thought this was a fantastic task to undertake :)  He really enjoyed seeing everything fit perfectly into the class and has a really good understanding now of why scale is relevent.  This maths task couldn't have been possible without the help of Steve (thank you honey) who provided a fantastic scale drawing of the class at 1:50 and then provided the appropriate scale ruler for me to translate to Ben!

Pollyanna was doing her maths work at the same time of course but she was less than impressed with her tasks given the fun Ben was having with his ... sorry Pollyanna but sometimes Maths just isn't cracked up to be much fun, especially when you are learning to order numbers from 1 to 100 and the same examples keep popping up.

For some reason at the moment I can't attach photos to my post ... honey I may need your help!

SSR: SILENT SUSTAINED READING on WEDNESDAY'S

One of the small changes I made to the timetable last week, was changing SSR to a Wednesday. So this is what the kids are currently doing, I love that Ben reads where he falls after lunch or stay's where he was with book he was reading at lunch and the world passes him by while the story takes over.  I love that Polly loves SSR just as much not only because she loves books but also because of the sense of accomplishment she gets from reading a book by herself ... this independence of learning is so good for her self esteem in general.

Reminder for this time next year, to have lots of fun activities to partake in when the weather is miserable outside and it makes the class feel a bit down beat and gloomy :(

ONE SICK LITTLE GIRL AND A NEW FAVOURITE AUTHOR

Get better soon Pollyanna

For the first time in our schools history we had a child away sick :(  Poor Pollyanna has a cold and a sore throat so stayed in bed most of today, hoping to be better for school tomorrow.  She woke up and said "if i was still in Room 4 I would be staying home today" so it seemed fair enough that she should stay home given how she was feeling and be without school today.  However, just before the rest of the class started school, she burst into tears and declared she wanted to go to school today.  However, this time I wrapped her up in my arms and put the hot fevered little girl back to bed and said it was probably a better idea if she stayed in bed and if she was really desperate for some school work, I would bring her in her reading and some Grammar, which seemed to soothe her.  Poor little thing, just didn't want to miss out!

In other news, Ben has found a fantastic new favourite author and luckily this author has written a number of books, not all long novels but enough to keep us going for the next couple of weeks.  His name is Michael Morpurgo and he has written some awesome advanced reading novels plus a whole lot of other books from picture books, to early chapter books, to story compilations.  Ben has read 5 or 6 of them over the last week and really enjoyed them all.  They are also really inspiring stories, that make you think about things.

Happy working!

I thought it would be quite hard to motivate Ben today, give the rest of his class was off sick, but to my amazement he was more than happy to do his school work and applied himself so well. You are awesome Ben!

THE SIGNS OF SUCCESSFUL GROCERY SHOPPING

A sweet treat for being $18 under the budget!

This is the defining moment, when the kids get to reap the rewards of meeting their grocery shopping budget .... the treat at the end!  They love this simple gratitude for doing a wonderful job of organising and shopping to budget for the fortnightly grocery shop.  Thank you so much you guys for making the supermarket so much fun :)

PREPARING FOR THE GROCERY SHOP

The List

While the kids work on their phonics (Polly) and Sentences to Paragraphs (Ben) worksheets on a Thursday afternoon, I prepare the grocery list if we are doing the shopping the next day.  This is a brief look at it, it has each item the house needs for the upcoming fortnight and then a budget for that item.  I don't specify how mush one gets that is for the kids to work out within that items budget.  Ben is very good at saving money early in the shopping round so there is a little more he can add to the cereal budget where he and Polly like to buy according to taste as opposed to according to budget ... they are getting to be shrewd little shoppers and it is a wonderful learning tool.  For me, I stand back and watch and drive the cart behind them and that's all I do, the rest is on their shoulders!  Over the holiday period I do take pity on them and fend for myself and do the shopping while they do the traipsing ... but boy is it totally not worth it, I always spend over the budget and don't seem to get the quantities right, gutted that at 5 and 8 they are better grocery shoppers than I am ... its true what they say, BEWARE OF THE SPECIALS :)