Mathematics¦ Strand: Measures Strand Unit: Weight

While covering my lessons in Mathematics in college recently, I was reminded of an ICT game I used while in the classroom recently. As you may have seen from my recent post (linked here) I had an amazing experience and learned so much while on Teaching Practice. While learning about the different strategies, methodologies, Strands and Strand Units in the Mathematics curriculum, I covered the Strand of Measures, and the Strand Unit within that Strand, called 'Weight'.

Our lessons contained a mixture of online lectures or lessons, and onsite days spent in college. These onsite days are my personal favourite! It's great to be able to meet up with your class group and interact and discuss all things college-related. We all provide each other with that much-needed support that all Post-Grad students need. But on these particular onsite days for Mathematics, we covered all the Strands and sub Strand Units.

While we were covering the content at our Maths onsite, the valuable role of ICT was mentioned many times. I was thrilled to realise that I had managed to integrate ICT into all my Maths lessons on Teaching Practice, something I was very proud of! I had 3rd class (8-9 years) and this age group in particular, are very familiar with the use of technology and were very keen to learn, using technology in the classroom! I mentioned the website and the game I used in the classroom, to my lecturer on the day. My lecturer was very familiar with this website and commended the quality of the content on the website. This website is run by the BBC and is called 'Skillswise' (check it out here). They feature really good quality, engaging and interactive games that can be easily used in the classroom. I personally used the game, to consolidate my teaching of the unit of 'Weight'.

On the 'Skillswise' website, you can find games, quizzes and puzzles based on many different topics, not only in Maths, but in English too, e.g. Spelling, different types/genres of texts, writing a letter and percentage and fractions, shapes, and number based games. This website has an abounding amount of resources, ready to use!

The particular game I used, was based on 'Weight', and was called 'Taking Measures: The Weight Game' (check it out here). The children were familiar with the concept of Weight, by the time I used this game in the classroom. It was a great way to consolidate the learning that had been taught, while also as an assessment tool for my lessons. It introduced a really fun, exciting element to my Maths lessons. The pupils worked collaboratively in mixed-ability groups of 4-6 pupils. The competitive element to this game was something all pupils enjoyed and the room was always buzzing!

Here are images of the game in full-swing!

I organised pupils into mixed-ability groups for fairness, and each group came up to the Interactive Whiteboard one by one. The pupils lined up and each had a turn at playing the game. The groups were competing against each other and the team that completed the game in the quickest time were the winners. When calculating the results, we wrote up the finished-time and had to subtract it away from our beginning time, to find out how long each group spent playing. This was a great way to integrate our lessons into the Strand of Number. Each table also graphed their results each day on a vertical bar-chart. These were drawn on A3 paper and placed on the wall beside each table. This also linked into the Strand of Data in Mathematics. 

Regarding the Curricular objectives that were featured in my lessons, pupils were being enabled to estimate and compare the weight of a wide variety of objects, using appropriate metric units i.e. kilograms and grams. 

In conclusion, this website is one I really recommend you browsing through, you're sure to find some useful activities, puzzles or games for your class. It's one I will be using again and again! Have you used any other good websites to integrate ICT into any of your lessons? Please share in the comments below, we're all learning aren't we?!

Sorcha

Teaching Practice¦ My Experience

I really wanted to share some of the images I have taken, from my recent Teaching Practice this year. I was teaching in 3rd Class (age 8-9 years) in an Urban DEIS band 2 school. In the following video, you will see some of my thematic 2-D and 3-D displays, some samples of the Powerpoint Presentations I used in my Irish lessons and Science and some of the children's work. Some of the curricular material I covered included in the video:

English- Procedural Writing, Letter Writing

Irish- Ar Scoil

Mathematics- Measures-Weight. 

I particularly enjoyed covering the topic of Weight in Maths. It's a very hands-on, practical topic and the children loved it also. Most of my lessons featured some practical tasks where pupils weighed particular items e.g. 1KG bag of sugar, 2KG bag of carrots and porridge, using weighing scales. The pupils took part in group work in most of these lessons, and used a weighing scales and balance to complete tasks (Active Learning). There were no more than 4 to a group. The smaller, more intimate groups work better for these lessons I found and all children were eager to get involved. 

I also used some Mental Maths problems at the start of my Maths lessons. I learned about this useful strategy while covering my lectures online on HELMS and it worked really well. This activity took 3-5 mins at the start of the lessons and was so effective at getting the pupil's brains working mathematically! There was so much excitement in our lessons when I featured this strategy. Maths was never so much fun! So I've included an image of some of the Mental problems I'd ask the pupils. I varied this up, depending on the content covered. I recommend you try this with your class and it's something I will be continuing to do on my next Teaching Practice!

Visual Arts- Constructions-Dioramas, Mother's Day bookmarks, Fabric and Fibre using organic materials.

Science- Soil, Our Environment, Renewable and Non-Renewable Energy.

Early Finishers Activities- based on Maths (Weight) and English (sample procedural texts and questions).

Why not have a look at a Photostory I made!

Let me know if you use a particular strategy in your class! I'm always eager to learn new strategies and implement them when I can. Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed the video.

Sorcha.

My 'Inspiration' Button Tree

I wanted to do a blogpost explaining the image you can see in the background of my blog, which is a painting of a tree, we like to call the 'Inspiration Tree'. By 'we', I mean the class of pupils I had the pleasure of working with on my recent School Placement. I wanted to let you know the meaning behind the tree, and its' purpose, to maybe give you some inspiration for your classroom!

At the minute I'm currently studying the Literacy and Numeracy modules in college, and by that I mean the subjects English, Gaeilge (Irish) and Mathematics. I started this particular module back in January/February of this year- just before I began my first School Placement. (The first experience I'd have as a class teacher, and one which I was both excited and anxious about!) The learning I experienced in these particular subjects, before I went on School Placement, was very valuable, I thought. I am really enjoying seeing different methodologies that can be used alongside the teaching of these core subjects, and how well they can be integrated into the Primary School Curriculum. 

I taught 3rd class (aged 8-9) on my recent School Placement/Teaching Practice and while we we learning about our environment one day, I had an idea of creating a space for the children to go, if they needed some 'inspiration' or some reflecting time, during their school day. I collaborated with the class teacher and I spoke to the pupils about this. We all worked together, and after some deliberations, we came up with an idea of creating a simple painting of a tree, and adding some colourful buttons to it. We decided to add all different colours and shapes and sizes of buttons, some big some small, some thick some thin. 

These buttons stood as a symbol for the diversity we have not only in our classroom of 29 boys and girls, but in our school, in our county and in our country of Ireland. The children (and I) would stand at the tree each day and spot buttons we had not even noticed before. All the different colours brought so many different ideas to the pupils and was useful in so many lessons. In English when we were writing 'Colour Poems', the buttons became a huge inspiration for the pupil's writing. We also made up many different stories in English about this tree and where it could have possibly originated. These stories were then read out to a younger class in the school. 

Everyone who passed our 'Inspiration Tree' in the corridor stopped to have a look and the pupils were very pleased with the reaction they got from the school on a simple tree, that I had the pleasure of working with them to create. We simply got a large sheet of green paper, drew on a tree with waving branches and painted the tree in brown. We all gathered some spare buttons from our home and glued them to the tree, each and everyone of us. This tree symbolised the unity in the classroom and the connection each pupil had with each other. The tree was then placed on the wall outside our classroom and a border was added. The pupils enjoyed creating this tree in our Visual Art lesson and reflecting of it for inspiration in many subsequent lessons. 

It also provided a great stimulation for our Mathematics lesson on Shapes and Space and our English lessons. It integrated well with our theme of 'Our Local Environment' and was used in our Gaeilge lessons too. We were counting the amount of buttons on each branch, all in Irish and describing the colours we saw using our knowledge of the colours in Irish. I found the children often pausing as they walked by, on the way out for break and as they arrived in the morning. They were all so attracted to the colours on the tree, and were thrilled to have made it. It definitely made them smile! As a result, I smiled and those anxious feelings I had, were put to the back of my mind! 

This tree provided me with many different ideas and inspiration while on School Placement, and I loved it so much. So much so that I wanted to feature it on my blog. It was left on the wall in the school after I left, and I continue to hope that it brings some light and hope into those children's lives. I also hope that you feel you could do this simple activity with your class. I think it would work with any age group and you can integrate it so much into the Curriculum! Let me know if you've any questions about this or anything else! 

Have you any ideas of other ways it could be used in the classroom or the school? Feel free to leave a comment below!

Sorcha. 

A New Beginning

Is mise Sorcha. I'm delighted I've finally got to set up an Education Blog as it's been something I've been meaning to do for some time now. I really enjoy reading many different class blogs and education based blog, for many different ideas and tips, so I've now decided to set up my own!

I plan on documenting my journey in becoming a Primary School Teacher with Hibernia College, here in Ireland. I began my course (Higher Diploma in Arts in Primary Education) in April 2014, and am over half way at this stage. I will be finishing up in April 2016. So you can expect to see reviews on different software e.g. Scratch, PhotoStory, Audacity, my experiences of School Placement and any tips I've learned along the way. I'm going to be talking about my recent experience of School Placement and the learning both the students and I engaged in.

I am thoroughly enjoying my course at the minute and cannot wait to be in the classroom on a full-time basis. I'd love to hear your opinions on anything I mention, if you've used it and how you got on. So feel free to comment down below, or you can see the 'Contact Me' page above.

Sorcha.