Round the World with the Gingerbread Man!

Last term we had a themed unit based around the idea that a Gingerbread Man had escaped from our classroom after we did some baking! This idea came from my co-teacher who found it online.

From this we did lots of activities around the story; making a wanted poster, sequencing the story, different narrative, writing our own narrative, writing from point of view of the Gingerbread man in form of a postcard back to the teacher. While we did all this, the Gingerbread Man (aka relatives of the kids) sent us postcards from around the world which we pinned onto a map for the kids to see.














We had so much engagement and excitement from this! The kids imaginations ran wild and they would come to the school in the morning telling me that they think that they had seen the Gingerbread Man in all sorts of places.

Make a wish upon a star

This term our class has been reading the novel Tale of a Tail by Margaret Mahy, which is all about a dog with a wand for a tail that grants wishes. Therefore, my colleague suggested that for writing this week they can write a story about what three wishes they would like to make.

Being a Year 0-3 class, I am sure that you can imagine the kinds of things that they wished that they could be, have or wished existed. On the board were written three starter sentences: I wish I could be..., I wish I had... and I wish there was. Under each heading we wrote what the children wished for. The main themes were: princesses, mermaids, fairies, horses, lego land, superpowers, magic and the list goes on.

As inevitably happens, especially when children have been out of class for swimming and other events, some were finished or nearly finished while others had only just begun. Therefore I decided that I needed to have something for the fast finishers to move on to that wouldn't leave the others behind but also might be an incentive to finish their writing. I designed a template of a wishing star after searching all over the internet and not finding what I wanted. On the template children will choose one wish and write it in the star. They will also draw a picture of their wish in the star behind their writing.

Here's the template we used

The display on the classroom wall with the star light star bright poem

We're still working on writing big enough so that their writing can be read from a distance but I'm really proud of he effort they put into these. Next time I will have to watch them like a hawk when they get to the glitter though as some went overboard (see stars on the right!).

Bringing Outside Interests into the Classroom

Reflective Teaching 30 Day Blog Challenge

Day 21: Do you have other hobbies/interests that you bring into your classroom teaching? Explain.

As a lover of literature I am constantly bring the enthusiasm I have for both reading and writing into the classroom. I enjoy sharing stories with the children in my class. I think it is great to be able to share my enjoyment of these subjects and hopefully infect the children with my enthusiasm.

I also share stories of my travels with children and relate them to relevant class discussions. It is great to share my experiences with the children and help them learn about places beyond their knowledge.

It is also good for the children in my class to see me as more than just a teacher. Therefore, where appropriate, I share things that are happening in my life. For example, my sister had a baby and I became an aunty for the first time and I shared this moment with the class. It was special to be able to tell them things about my life and let them get to know me more as a person outside of the school.

BUT

I do think this is something that I could do more as a teacher and bring in my interests and hobbies into the learning in the classroom as my excitement and passion for things are what make learning more interesting and engaging.

Curating Student's Work

Reflective Teaching 30 Day Blog Challenge

DAY 20: How do you curate student work - or help them do it themselves?

Most of the work that we curate is displayed on the walls of our classroom. This is mostly art work or writing with art work and it is placed on the wall by the teacher or teacher's aide. What is curated is usually decided by the teacher.

In My Classroom

Reflective Teaching 30 Day Blog Challenge

DAY 5: Take a photo of your classroom and describe what you see and what you can't see that you would like to.

In my classroom I can see: