Exploring Poetry

Follow the link to the National Library service website for some cool ideas about using poetry for wellbeing.

A poem from Toitoi

Winter in the forest

The clouds sneezed, spraying gushes of snow to the ground.

The cold air licked the trees,

causing leaves to dance down

on to the soft white blanket of snow.

The naked trees shivered

as they had lost their clothes.

The cabin shuddered

through the cold frosty winter's night.

Words by Adam Andrews, age 10

Another example of shared writing for teachers (from Murray during Lockdown)

Dr Murray Gadd - Shared Writing demonstration

What are the key elements of shared writing that you can see Murray demonstrating in this video?

Reciprocal reading

Here is a good site to find out about Reciprocal Reading and teaching techniques and implementation in the classroom.

Online shared reading text

Kia ora tatou!

I have resurrected the blog - woohoo!

On Wednesday we were talking about the use of suitable online material for a shared reading text. We looked at Kiwikidsnews which is a fabulous site for shared reading and maybe even a stimulus for authentic writing.

Kara alerted me to this site called Everything Under The Sun - a podcast that answers children's quirky questions. Check it out for possible reading and writing (and listening) opportunities. It would make a great independent literacy activity.

The language rules we know - but don't know we know

“Adjectives in English absolutely have to be in this order: opinion-size-age-shape-colour-origin-material-purpose Noun. So you can have a lovely little old rectangular green French silver whittling knife. But if you mess with that word order in the slightest you’ll sound like a maniac. It’s an odd thing that every English speaker uses that list, but almost none of us could write it out.”

Check out this blog post  - it's really interesting.

Best news since sliced bread!

Newsflash!! Book creator is now able to be shared online through bookcreator.com. Embed a link to your books on your website or blog.

Read more here.

The Sapling

This is a cool site for discussions around childrens' books.
http://www.thesapling.co.nz/

Success for Boys

This site on tki includes a directory of programmes, resources and information to help schools engage boys in learning. It includes success factors for boys and what appeals to me most is of all some activities and games in supporting boys to write. 

One example is The Game of Awesome.                               

The heart of this resource is the Game of Awesome.

The game presents undefined pieces of a story like

“best friend” and “showdown”, then asks players

to choose specific ideas that fit these pieces in

interesting and appealing ways. These then become

the building blocks of stories.

The game is fun, easy to master, and has a layer of

easy strategy to keep the attention of older students.

Several variations to the game are also available,

each providing different challenges and developing

different skills.

http://success-for-boys.tki.org.nz/

Teaching dialogue

Some awesome ideas for teaching dialogue using some cool digital tools.

Another extract from The Literacy Shed

Just making a link to our discussion about developing vocabulary and connecting with our session 7 quote from Roald Dahl.

Motivation for writing

Here is the link to the video animation about Usain Bolt that I was talking about this morning. There are teaching ideas under the video clips or you could simple relate it to the idea of 'dreams'.