Summer is here...

Over the last few months, I have worked so many mornings I have lost track.  My little boy has only been in kindergarten for 3 hours each day, and in early March our housekeeper resigned, so I have needed to be home to take care of him after school finished.  The school I do most of my supply work at has been very supportive, and been happy to have me in for cover in the mornings only, coinciding with his hours.

Anyway, finally a long term has drawn to a close, and we are off soon on summer adventures.  I will be back doing more supply in the next school year, and already have some days lined up!  And my little one will be in school all day, so no more half days for me!!

I wish you all a happy and safe holiday.

Year 6 - back to my old stomping ground

One of my colleagues from the last school year went on a training course for a week... and I was so delighted to step in and cover for her all week... she left me some magnificent planning, and I was able to pull out some of my 'old' work from last year and reuse.  And I could revisit the school and catch up with some other colleagues and get to know a new group of Year 6s well, as I was with them all week.

Here's a copy of the summary of my week, which I sent in an email:

Dear R-,

Hope you had a good trip and enjoyed the training course as well.  And more importantly hope you managed to catch up with a few family and friends.

Thank you for your fabulously organised planning that you left for me… made my week super easy!!  But I didn’t get through anywhere near it all, especially in numeracy!!  The kids were lovely, and I enjoyed getting to know them.

NUMERACY:

Marked the homework which was handed in on Monday, but due to the issues with Moodle and handing out worksheets later in the week, did not mark any homework set during the week.

Monday – as requested corrected the work from LP47 in their MEP books, but with discussion determined that the children had not completed the same number of questions, so gave them some time to finish the outstanding work.  Spent about 10 mins working out Q3 d) ¾ of ¾km.  So did not start lesson 48. 

Tuesday – LP48 suggested using some resources, that I couldn’t find easily – measuring jug, etc so opted to skip to LP49 – Area/Perimeter – focus on Length and Width.  Started with the factorisation exercise, and took more than the recommended time on this.  Moved onto the perimeter and area of a cuboid, but I found that with this, the exercise took the rest of the lesson.  They drew out cuboid nets and then worked on calculating the area and perimeter.  Had to remind many that perimeter was around the edge only, as lots measured each side of their cuboid net.

I drew a cuboid shape on the board and asked them to follow on and calculate the area and perimeter using the dimensions I provided. 

Wednesday – continued with solving the area/perimeter for my cuboid net, and then solved together on board.

Still on LP49 – then solved Activity 3.  Most worked this out quite efficiently, the size of the cupboard and table were kind of easy.  Continued with Activity 4.

Thursday – discussed reading questions and providing answers for what was asked.  This was because many children calculated the area of objects, rather than just providing the length and width as requested.  They spent quite a lot of time working out all the parts to the question in Activity 4.  Needed to go into quite a lot of detail about scale.

Friday – completed exercises 5 and 6. Talked about this scale too, how actually much smaller than drawn object.  Compared with Activity 6 which was to scale.  Although the copies of these MEP books seem to be smaller than the actual as most measurements came to 1mm less than the answers provided.

LITERACY:

Monday – Looked at the website suggested, and at the handouts provided. Children made lists of the language used on scrap paper, and we discussed.  Most didn’t seem familiar with this kind of task, and we talked about advertising, persuasion, writing in different tenses and which person.  Many didn’t read and comprehend the Shanghi Acrobat troupe, because it took about 10 mins of discussion for them to realise that it wasn’t in Shanghai!!

Tuesday – used the laptops and in pairs/threes they worked through the China Travel Guide website. Wrote in books about the language in a particular Shanghai attraction. Many children tried to rewrite the text rather than think about structure and language used.

Wednesday – I asked them to write a short tourist guide type article on various locations around the school – for example the swimming pool, the theatre, library, etc.  This is in their books.  We discussed what was important and how it should be structured and ordered. (e.g. at the swimming pool is the length of the pool and times it is open more important that the fact that there are also toilets there.)  We had some read theirs out in class and then we discussed each one as a group.

Thursday – printed out the Jade Temple information and we read it independently first, and then together.  Analysed each paragraph.

Friday – spelling test.  Was going to do auto/tele words, and then there was a disagreement that it should be the ex words… so ended up giving them a 20 word random spelling test.  Nobody got more than 15 right, but there were some tricky words in there!  The list in on a pile on your desk.

ERIC –

Finished chapter 1 of Kensukes Kingdom.  Asked questions at the end of each page and read as a class.  Hard to get them to follow along!

ART –

They did the two smaller canvasses and were really happy with the way they turned out.  L- suggested that you just auction those and don’t worry about doing the big one???

SCIENCE –

None of the torches in the resource box worked, so did everything quite theoretically in both sessions.  They worked on a concept map in the first session, some were really good, and had good ideas.  They listed light sources / not light sources of objects in the class room.  And analysed the drawing provided. 

In the second session, I used a SmartBoard preso I made last year, and then they drew in their books shadow depending on position of the sun.

TOPIC –

Talked about climate / weather and greenhouse effect.  Didn’t talk about Kyoto Protocol, and didn’t start the letters.

ASSEMBLY PRACTICE –

Worked on their song and some choreography.  There is a list of suggested props which M-, A- and S-worked on (they sat and giggled throughout the rehearsal without contributing, or wanting bigger parts).  We had an extra session because music was cancelled on Thursday.

I had a lovely week with your guys, on Friday we had an author, Jan Latta, come and talk about her experiences.  Great group of kids, and really enjoyed getting to know them.

If you have any questions, let me know!!

Cheers

I did the unthinkable...

A couple of weeks ago, my son had a fever. He couldn't go to school. He felt miserable.

I was booked in to cover a Year 1 class.  I had to ring and cancel in the morning.  I felt so guilty, I knew there were a number of teachers sick.

Well in advance I had been booked in to cover two days (Monday and Tuesday) in one classroom the following week.  All the planning had been sent to me.

The Sunday before my daughter got the fever. She couldn't go to school.  I couldn't leave her either. I had to cancel that too.  I continued to feel guilty.  But this is why I'm a supply teacher and not a full time teacher... my family has to come first.

No such luck

No rest day for me today... at 6.45am a text came through asking if I could work today... I debated it, and then while I was making my daughter's lunch, found enough for me to have for lunch too, so said OK.

It was back to Nursery - big jump again from Year 6, right back down to the little kids.

Played all morning with letters, threading games and reading stories.  Took them out for a half hour play on the Pirate Ship, and then Mandarin.  More of the same after rest time this afternoon.

Good day in all!!  Please let me have my rest day tomorrow!!

Eleven Days

I have worked 11 out of the last 12 working days!!  Have easily surpassed my one day a week for the term goal!!  And have 2 days lined up for Nursery in December.
Tomorrow I am booked in for a facial and a bit of me time!!

Year 6

And after 6 days in Reception, I jumped up to the Junior School (different campus) all the way to Year 6, where I stepped in for 5 days to cover a new Daddy!!  One week of paternity leave to welcome that new bundle of joy into the world....

What did I do with my Year 6s...

English –

We spent 3 lessons writing a newspaper article on the skipathon which was held on my first day to raise money for the school's sponsored Panda. Although I outlined the structure and the five Ws a number of times, there are still some quite light on in content.  We have not printed these out, and some students probably still need a bit of time to finish this off.  Provided a rubric to measure success of article, but not sure that it was really met. 

Using an article from their text book, the children rewrote it from a different perspective. This was quite a challenge as they needed to determine what was important from the original article, and what might have been speculation.

They also sat their long writing assessment but luckily I was advised not to mark this, and leave it for the usual teacher.

Maths –

Introduced percentages and talked about reducing prices by a discount and working out what an original price was when we knew the discounted price.  This was a bit confusing for the class initially, but they grasped it, and worked it out.  Sales tax was confusing for them, I guess because they are not exposed to a GST or a VAT on a daily basis.  They used Maths +7 text book, and they did some problems in their workbooks.  Marked classwork from yesterday and today.  I had a bit of fun reminding myself how to use the Smartboard software - and created some slides for this.

Last week, we had the computers booked one day, so they wrote their own word problems. 

ICT –

The kids designed posters promoting safety and stranger danger. 

PSHE –

Remembrance Day on Friday – read poem Wearing a Poppy.  Considered what the poppy means to the class, and wrote 1-2 sentences.  Decorated the page in their books.

Topic –

Had the laptops booked, and researched 20^th Century inventions.  Used a prompt sheet to list 3 inventions, and then pick one of those as being most important, and then list 5 reasons why.  

Science –

Finished off cover pages in their workbooks and did KWL and vocab. Discussed circuits. Gave them a glossary sheet (one of mine from last year).  Long discussion about circuits, and switches and lights. 

Worked through the BBC Bitesize website, solved the circuits game with a few attempts, and could explain why, etc.

Great week - enjoyed being back with kids who know how to line up, be quiet, have a sensible conversation, can sit up and can organise themselves for a while!!

Reception

Halloween week, it was back to Barn Owls for me...

We read most of the Winnie the Witch books (fabulously illustrated by Korky Paul) and made spooky craft with a tonne of glitter:

• Spiders with 8 legs (lots of practising counting to 8, counting 2 groups of 4). 
• Witches hats
• Wands
• Pumpkin masks - except that cutting out wasn't one of the kids strengths, so we ended up with a few carrots instead!

We also focussed on the sounds: s m c a t o g p, and played a wonderful game called 'Caterpillar Jump', where the children jump up and down the caterpillar body depending on which sound has been called out.  Fantastic because can be also played where one child calls out the sounds, and another jumps, and also with help from the teacher.

I listened to all the children read, and changed their readers, and introduced the CVC books to them.  This means Consonant Vowel Consonant and is a book with pictures unrelated to the 3 letter words from these sounds. For example map, sat, top.

We did a writing exercise, which for a lot of the children is still just practising mark making, and so includes drawing, and copying words.