Book Clubs Term 3

This term we are looking to inject some excitement back into the reading programme. Enter....Book Clubs (complete with snacks and cosy drinks). Just what a wintery term needs!
Students will create Book Club groups within each class, and then these will become the groups that book discussions, sharing of texts, support when you "just can't find a good book" occur in.

It is a bit different to how I have run Book Clubs before - but I am looking forward to it. Have gone Old School with a Book Log card too! Going to have a fun first lesson setting these up - bring on out the felts, stickers and glue sticks!

This last week in Year 7 and 8 we have been focused on how to identify a theme or themes in a story. I love to use picture books to get these ideas through so we started with The Lorax by Dr Seuss as it tied in nicely with our Growing things theme. 

Then just to be sure we had it sorted we used I want my hat back by Jon Klassen - if I could stop laughing enough to read it! Classes had a chance to discuss with a buddy or two then record their ideas about two possible themes on a shared Slideshow.

Shared Google Slideshows work really well for this type of work as it is super easy for me to whizz through and see who has got it - and who needs a bit of help. It is also great as the ideas can be looked at by everyone and discussed. 

I let students choose if they wanted to work independently or in a pair as at this point in the year they are experts on how and when to work with others.  

I always love the final term of the year, it is my term that once I have everything planned I let myself start my Next Year's List. I love to think about everything that has been achieved over the year, and then how to build on it and make it even better. This year I am pondering how to bring back better connections with overseas classrooms - I feel we have been a little isolated recently! There are so many global projects out there and I am enjoying finding them and considering how they will help my students grow in their learning.

The Time Machine Term 2 2016

For our oral language task this term we learnt and performed plays. Our theme for the term had been Imagination, so all the plays had a time travel, invention element. We used a selection of New Zealand School Journal plays and a couple of groups elected to adapt some of their own writing to create original scripts. To make it all an extra bit exciting we fired up the Time Machine - the cast went into the Time Machine, then with bubbles, sound effects and generous puff of smoke (from the fire extinguisher)they jumped out ready to perform!

Experience tells me that group work, especially with plays can be a little challenging for some students...so before we started and then as we worked we used this rubric to keep an eye on how we were acting as group members. This was also the self assessment sheet that was submitted into Google Classroom after the big performance.

Words, Words...

This is a great article that was published on Dogo News. Read through, check the vocabulary and answer the comprehension questions.

Charles goes paintballing

What a blast as Charles and I hit people with
the paintball gun. shot Charles, you hit my
brother Isaac in the back. nobody could get
you because you were the most camouflaged
and quickest there. When game one of
capture the flag had finished of course our
team won.
Then Charles was worn out so he decided he
would come and sit with my mum because he
was sore but he still had a blast sitting too.
Thanks for joining me Charles from McKenzie
Hanlen 7js.

Welcome to the Global Read Aloud...Year 7!!