For one of our literacy activities this week students are choosing someone that they would like to complete a brief biography on. After identifying the features of a biography and looking at the ways in which we could still incorporate these whilst keeping them relatively brief, students began their research. They are completing a draft of their biography and then we are working together to identify the areas that we would need to change from 3rd person to 1st person when we record into iFunFace (iPad app). We found a picture of the person in question and loaded it into iFunFace and began the morphing process! This proved to be quite an engaging and fun activity for students to practice their research, writing and oral language skills all in one! Here are a few examples of our work, but stay tuned for more throughout the week! We hope you enjoy them! Have you used iFunFace in class before?
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Over the last fortnight in our Literacy block I planned an activity for my students that required them to watch a silent video clip. After watching this clip, which was very funny, my students then had to write a short script of what the characters or commentators of the baseball game could be saying. When they had finished scripting they then had to load the silent video clip into iMovie and record themselves over the top. Some students used music to enhance their final product, where others were happy to simply commentate. (For all of the teachers out there, the trick to getting the video into iMovie is to locate it from You Tube and save into a Dropbox account that can then be opened on an iPad or other iDevice. You are then able to download the video into your camera roll and use in iMovie, a trick I will definitely be using in the future!). My class had a good time doing this and were very conscious of the way they were presenting their work. I think that you will agree that they have done quite a good job! Leave a comment below to let us know what you think but remember we are still learning as well, so be kind! Last term we were exploring many of Alan Peat's 'Exciting Sentences' to try to help us become more powerful in our writing and our choice of both words and sentence types. One of the activities that we completed was based on a picture stimulus of a spooky looking house. We had to try to write in a way that would describe all of the senses relating to the house: how it looked; how it felt to be around it; how it smelt; how it sounded etc. The final pieces used a lot of 'show, not tell' writing and many of the 'exciting sentences' that we have been exploring throughout the term. Here are some examples of students writing: Have you heard of Alan Peat's 'Exciting Sentences' before?
What do you do to improve your writing?
Watch the following video. It's a fable titled "The Lion and the Mouse". A fable is a short imaginary story that teaches a moral or lesson. While you watch the video, think about the lesson it teaches; that is the same thing as the main idea of the story. Post a comment below telling me what you think the 'Main Idea' of the fable was.
Having seen how their faces lit up and the way they wanted to immediately reply or add another post, got me thinking of other ways to make this happen on a more regular basis…my answer was Quadblogging. I had heard of this before and knew it was a way to connect but had never really taken the time to find out what was involved. But that has all changed…earlier in the year I signed our class up for this challenge and the comments are coming thick and heavy…and the authentic writing is becoming more regular. Each week a class is the focus blog and the remaining 3 classes take time in the week to add comments to any posts they wish. Last week we were the focus class and my students were very excited to receive comments on both our class blog and their own personal learning blogs. Throughout 4 weeks, each class will have the opportunity to be the focus blog, thus generating new connections across the globe…….we have only just started and I can't recommend it enough already! Check our our schedule below: Week 1: 5/6S at St. Patricks Primary School Camperdown
Week 2: Henry Cavendish Primary School Week 3: Mr. DiFiore's Class Week 4: Ghyllside Primary School Have you ever been involved in Quadblogging before?
Last term we spent some time looking at Figurative Language in our Literacy block. We worked at being able to identify and write metaphors and similies, as well as understanding hyperbole, personification and alliteration. In order to demonstrate our understanding of figurative language we created 'alliteration' movie clips using Zimmer Twins, as well as using StoryBird to make short picture books illustrating the different types of figurative language. As some of you may know, figurative language is often a tricky concept to grasp so please appreciate that we are still learning all about what it is and how it can enhance our writing as well as someone else's reading experience. Browse the links below to take a look at what we created! We would love your feedback! Tom's Alliteration Movie Josh's Alliteration Movie Sophie H's Alliteration Movie Ruby's Alliteration Movie Imogen's Alliteration Movie Nick's Alliteration Movie Nina's Alliteration Movie Sam's Alliteration Movie Ella's Alliteration Movie Sophie S's Alliteration Movie Noah's Alliteration Movie Jess's Alliteration Movie For the teachers interested, the activities that lead to these creations can also be found on this site at the following links or by licking on the Literacy tab, followed by the Daily 5 Work on Words tab: http://thelearninglair.weebly.com/figurative-language.html http://thelearninglair.weebly.com/alliteration.html
So what are homophones? As you will see from the picture on the left, homophones are words that sound the same but mean different things and are spelt differently. Sometimes it can be tricky to figure out which one you should be using in your spelling! One of the homophones that we often confuse is 'there', 'their' and 'they're'. Deciding which one means what can become quite tricky so I want you to watch the clip below to help you with this! Now that you have a better understanding of 'there', 'their' and 'they're', I want you to leave a comment on this blog post that explains the following things: Free Word Search Puzzles
What does their mean? Give an example of how you might remember this. What does there mean? Give an example of how you might remember this. What does they're mean? Give an example of how you might remember this. NOW TRY TRY TO FIND ALL OF THE HOMOPHONES BELOW IN THS WORD SEARCH! JUST DRAG THE CURSOR OVER THE WORDS AS YOU FIND THEM. IF YOU GET TIME WRITE THE HOMOPHONES DOWN IN YOUR BOOK WITH THE MATCHING ONE. FOR EXAMPLE BEAR, BARE At the moment we are reading a book called 'Wonder'. It is a fabulous story and our class are really enjoying it! Due to the fact that there are so many themes to explore in this text I wanted a way that the children could respond without the constant rigour of writing and writing....and writing! So I decided to create a Bloom's and Gardner's Multiple Intelligence grid that the students could work through using a range of ways to respond. One of the activities the kids loved was using the app Autorap to record their thoughts on a particular section of the text. This clever little app then allows the students to pick a beat they wish their voices to be adapted to for the resulting rap. I have embedded a few of them below as well as a copy of the matrix we are using for those of you who are reading, have read, or are looking to read the fabulous book 'Wonder'. What ways do you like to respond to text?
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Hi there! We are a class of 25 students in year 5/6S in Camperdown, Victoria. This year we are embarking on a blogging journey to develop our global connections, share our work and learn from others!5 OUR BLOG QR
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April 2015
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