Quick updates

Several weeks ago, I posted about the puppet theatre I'd created out of poly pipe, along with some photos. At the time I didn't have any of the finished product, so here's one taken during our assembly rehearsal.

The assembly went well, and the audience seemed to enjoy our presentation.

The next photo is one of nature's little gifts to me. I spotted this beauty on the way upstairs one morning. I love the symmetry in these creatures, and what was particularly amazing to me was the way the colour in this moth's wings was a perfect match for the wall it had landed on.

The last couple of days at school have been somewhat painful, as construction workers set about dismantling the scaffolding outside my classroom. Here's what it looked like by Friday afternoon. They're not finished yet, but hopefully it won't be too much longer, and I'll be able to open the blinds and windows and let some daylight and fresh air into the room.

Finally, my students have been busy on their culminating project for our Map Skills unit. In the past I've had them complete a poster about their country as well as the map, but this year I've chosen just to have them complete the map. Here's what they've come up with.

Next week each group will have to present their country to their classmates, and try to convince them why it would be good to move to their country. Later I'll display them in the hallway, with a written piece for each group, and the option for students from the grade 3 to 5 classes to vote which country they would like most.

Getting creative

It's hard to be creative when you're battling a head cold, but that's life when you're a teacher. Mostly it's easier just to keep going yourself than to prepare material for someone else to teach. Add to that the complication of a Grade 3-5 assembly on Friday led by Grade 4K and you'll get a picture of life for me at the moment.

Let me show you a few pictures of just a few things that have been happening in Grade 4K this week.

First of all, an update on the chair bags. The students think they are great. Here are some photos of them in use, with homework folders tucked in the bags while student complete their Homework Planbook for the week.

The big chairs!
Previously these folders would have been on the floor under the chairs.
Now they are much safer.

And the small chairs!.

Several years ago I purchased a set of Scholastic Book Report Posters called Book Butterfly. Check out my original post about these here. Happily as well as the original posters, they come with a black-line master so I've been able to continue the project, using A3 photocopies. This year each of my English Language Arts groups read a different novel (largely as a read-aloud with lots of discussion along the way) and then each student completed a book report on their own. Here are this year's posters. (These were finished a few weeks ago, but I only got them marked and displayed this week.)

This afternoon my students had some fun as they showed me a little of what they have learned about landforms. I randomly paired the students up, and equally randomly allocated them a "landform". Along with their allocated "landform", each pair received a 15cm x 20cm  piece of black foam core board as their base, and each table was given a tub of "Kiddie Clay".

Here's what they produced.

Teachers aren't supposed to have favourites, but I was most impressed with the peninsula, complete with lighthouse, the volcano and the mesa. Considering they had about 40 minutes, no tools and only the five colours of clay you see above, I thought they did a pretty good job.

One of the things my class is doing for assembly is a puppet play. I've been experimenting with using a clothes rack for the "theatre" but it's not quite big enough, so today I decided to get creative. I walked down the end of the street, and round the corner to where there are several local plumbing supply stores. I was on the hunt for poly-pipe, and I found it. Unfortunately, one of the parts that I had hoped to find is not available in Cambodia (at least that was what I was told), so I ended up with some spare bits, and something not quite as sturdy as my original plan, but I think it will work. Since they'd already cut the pieces before I discovered that I could get three-way connectors I brought the pieces home and here's what I came up with.

I've actually got a dark brown sheet at school already which I'll be using for the front piece, and some fabric that I'll use for the backdrop, but I used bedsheets here so you can get the idea. I need to dismantle it and put it together again in the classroom tomorrow for a test run, then I'll dismantle it again to move it to the assembly location. I'll try and remember to take some more photos when we rehearse tomorrow afternoon.

My original plan had cross bars linking front and back frames at the top, and another bar across the bottom at the front for stability. I just had a thought that if I were to get four more T-connectors and cut both front and back supports into two pieces, I could get those extra cross bars in, but hopefully this will work for Friday. The picture below might make that clearer.

Meet the newest member of Grade 4K

Hello everyone, my name is Lamb Chop, and I've just joined Grade 4K at East-West International School.

First thing this morning I was a very naughty lamb. I kept shouting "I want a story! I want a story!" Eventually Miss Karen said that if I was a good lamb and did well on my Spelling Test today, and my Maths Test tomorrow I can have a story on Friday. So now I'm trying really hard to be a good lamb.

Later in the day I helped Miss Karen with the maths lesson. She was talking about really hard stuff - per... per... permets? perims? permitres? No, that's not it. Oh, yeah, Perimeters. Some of those kids were really clever. So now I know that a perimeter is the distance around the outside of a shape, and you can work it out using measurement and multiplication. See, aren't I clever!

Some of the girls wanted me to go swimming with them today. Miss Karen said I couldn't, and I'm so glad. I wouldn't want to get my beautiful white wool all wet. I might drown. I don't think I'd be a very good swimmer.

Well, Miss Karen wants to write something, so I'd better sign off for now. Lovely to meet you all. Don't forget to come back and say "Hi" some time.

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So now you've met the latest addition to my classroom. Lamb Chop was one of my purchases on a recent visit to IKEA in Thailand during the "Winter" break. I think he's pretty cute, and my students love him, and I can see us having lots of fun in the coming days.