Year 4
Year 4 are currently looking at some mapping concepts in Geography. Grid coordinates and reading maps are a focus at this early stage of the unit and so Mrs Cartwright designed an activity which utilised some robotics and visual programming to enhance the students’ ability to connect with the idea of grid coordinates using a map of Australia.
In English, the students are developing their understanding the structure and purpose of the narrative genre. They are using the novel ‘The Twits’ to scaffold their learning. This is involving a range of activities designed to enhance their understanding of character, setting and plot. The below comic activity was linked to a lesson about the different characters in the book and the way the author (Roald Dahl) used speech and description to build their profile.
Science, with Mrs Bauman, involves looking at the geology of rocks and erosion this term. In one of their very first lessons, the students photographed the scientific tools they were using and the scientific processes they were investigating, creating a great opportunity for revisiting the key ideas from this lesson. This highlights one of the best features of our mobile devices – the camera! The camera’s power and potential for learning is sometimes overlooked but providing students with the ability to photographically capture their learning is extremely powerful, offering us a tool which allows us to cater for different students and their needs.
Year 5
Year 5 were introduced to the toolset, mindset and skillset of the design process this week. This is a process they will use to scaffold their inquiry into designing and making a solar oven. This was a fun activity designed by Mrs Sansness to bring alive some key aspects of the Social and Emotional Program of the school. During this activity students engaged in divergent thinking, convergent thinking, collaborative work and the design of a prototype to suit a purpose.
The students also started to get an insight into the work they would be doing this year with the Digital Technologies Curriculum, ending their design challenge with a Minecraft activity in code.org.
The above design activity was created as an introduction to the Inquiry question for the next unit of Science. The students will use their iPads to document their work and thinking as part of this Science unit as they delve into the qualities of materials, the scientific process and how they can act on observable features to re-design their solar ovens for improvement.
In English the students are studying the novel, ‘Deltora Quest’. Mrs Swann has developed some excellent reading comprehension activities that guide the students to utilise a range of different strategies. This followed focussed teaching on the specific strategies they would be using that week. When I visited Mrs Neill’s room, she was engaging the children in identifying the appropriate strategies and effectively using them:
The Strategies:
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Other useful strategies
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During Mathematics time, Mr Roche was using Explain Everything to allow the students to make their thinking visible. This is a powerful process that moves the iPad away from substituting for pencil and paper to potentially transforming the learning process as the technology is achieving something that could not otherwise be achieved. They had been learning a multiplication process with 2 digit multiplication and by utilising the screen and voice recording aspect of Explain Everything, the student was able to think about their own thinking (metacognition) and demonstrate their understanding of the process. The resulting movie can then be used by their teacher to show others (peer teaching) or to assist the teacher to correct a misunderstanding by the creator of the movie.
Year 5 also were introduced to Hopscotch coding as a way of exploring factors. By designing and coding an interactive game, the students were given a context for their coding but also were delving more deeply into what factors actually were.
Year 6
The children in Year 6 have already done 3 examples of their daily writing which they have submitted to Showbie for feedback. This process involves the students completing a piece of daily writing, utilising the aspects they have been focussing on in class. By the end of the week, they submit their best one to Showbie, their teachers provide feedback and they take this feedback with them to the next week to assist them to improve their writing.
Showbie was also used to support the children in improving their fluency as they recorded themselves reading a passage, in order to be given feedback and to improve it.
The teachers this week have utilised another feature of Showbie -the ability to add parents to their child’s Showbie account. This is a fantastic feature which allows parents to see when projects are due, to see their child’s work with associated feedback and marks and to share in the child’s learning journey. One of the concerns we have from parents is that they often feel ‘in the dark’ about what their child is doing as much of the work is hidden away inside an iPad. T
The teachers also took advantage of our three new 3D printers for Yrs 4-6 to borrow them all to set up a printing station in the room for a Maths design challenge. The students will design and print their own name tags.
‘Sizzling starts’ were a focus for another lesson – looking at narrative writing. The students then used their iPads to make a movie of one of the sizzling starts from a Paul Jennings book. They also used their photography skills to design and create a personal vision statement for themselves for the year:
This is great work – the way that teachers are using the iPads to extend, to consolidate, to enliven and to transform experiences is impressive. Additionally, when you consider that this is all happening at a time of the year when some children are just getting settled – and when we are ironing out wifi issues, load issues and also installing a new mobile device management – quite amazing really. Hats off to our learners and to those who guide them.