Me this Easter holidays

Where are you???

NEWS REPORT VIDEOS

Paula and Co
This is Paula's group doing their newsreport.
Philip's team
This is Philip's team
Luna's Group
LUCIA´S GROUP
VIOLET'S GROUP
17 Isabel's Group
Maria's group

FIVE YEAR OLDS ANSWERING QUESTIONS

So here as promised are some of the kids in the class answering questions that will serve them well  through life.  I think it's amazing.  They are only five years old.  So feel proud of your little darlings.  I certainly do!!!!!

I'LL SEND SOME MORE TOMORROW.  IT'S GETTING LATE AND THIS TAKES TIME.

EVA
LOLA
ALEJANDRA
DANIELA
JAIME
NATALIA
ALBA
IRENE
CECILIA
IRIA
JORGE
CARMEN
LIBERTO
CLAUDIA
CANDELA

You won't believe what I've done today.  Yesterday I spent hours adding these voice recordings from my telephone to my dropbox and then putting them on the blog one by one.  This morning I was trying to make some space in the dropbox and decided to erase these files.  I forgot it was direct access so all the files in the blog got erased too.  What an idiot!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Easter work for year five

This is the link for the grammar exercises that I want you to do during the holidays.  Don't forget aboout the video today and eating healthy food during the holidays.  Have a great time!!

Homework for Easter

This is the video from today if you want to see it again.

Boy talking about genetically manipulated seeds

Trust fall fail

Don't try this with your sister
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPOgvzVOQig

Lily's Disneyland Surprise!

This is a great video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OOpOhlGiRTM

Five year olds

I want to explain to you parents of my students in the five year old class what I've been doing so far.

All through the year with the five year olds the class has started with a carpet session of 35-45 minutes.During this session we've worked on songs, stories, phonics, rhymes, chants,routines like the weather and the date and counting the children in the class and to finsh a question and answer session for the person in charge that day.  "El encargado".The questions are the same ones these students will be given in year two when they have to do the Trinity exam.  It's things like what's your mums name? What's your favourite colour, animal, food or fruit?What are your hobbies?  Where do you live?We started off with  just with a couple of questions  each day and gradually increased.   Initially I asked them the questions myself to model the answers  but now the other children direct the questions and the "encargado" has to answer in a full sentence.  I'm going to give you an example of all the questions in a sound file just like Nicky ( My English workmate in year 6) has done for the older students in her blog  nicky-iloveenglish.blogspot.com

questions

Open the file with reproductor de windows media

You can then get the kids to listen pause the file when you want and hear them answer the questions.  I think you are going to be amazed.

News reports

Great posters to explain the different parts of a news article.

This week we've talked about Hugo Chavez's funeral and the new pope. 

 Quite  a mixture!!!!!Now all you have to do is explain it to me in an oral presentation.

Don't forget I want to see the showman/woman in you.  Don't let your group down and make sure you do your bit.

This was our superchef cookery class today and those mini veggie pizzas were really delicious.

Who is going to prepare the video for the superchef competition?????????

WE know our tricky words too!!

15.56 Today in 5 year olds B

 

 

 

 

                                                                           14.35 in 5year old A

These bright sparks have             

learnt the key words too.

So this Friday I'll send the next twelve.

Continuous timetable

This week in our school the great debate has started,  

Do we want a different timetable in our school?

What is best for our students?

All over Europe the timetables differ greatly.

In the U:K timetable is from 9 to 3.30 in primary but we have an hour to eat from 1200-1300 and a short break in the morning. Secondary schools have longer timetable.( I always think it's funny here in Spain that the youngest children have the longest day)
In France the longest day in Europe from 8.30-1630
In Italy usually 0800-1330 but six days a week
in Portugal the same as England.
Greece 08.30 to 12.30 or sometimes 1600
We could take into account the countries like Sweden, Norway and Finland but it is true they are really conditioned by the weather and quite different from Latin countries.  (I know The U:K Isn't Latin, but it's a system I've worked in)

So what is the best?

I can only tell you about what I experience in my classroom every day.

After the kids come in from the playground at 2.30 pm usually they have been out running about for at least an hour and a half.  They are either boiling hot and very sweaty or freezing to death.  In Madrid there is no happy medium.  They are often upset because of conflicts in the playground which then have to be resolved.  They are often exhausted and over tired and it's really difficult to get them to relax, settle down  and back into a studying mode again. 

The afternoon sessions are 45 minutes each one and quite often you set out to do the same lesson you did in the morning with a different group and find that the response just isn't the same.  The children are not as motivated and  the lesson just does not go as well.

Yes it's true there are monitors in the playground but frankly,  I think forty minutes free play is more than long enough.

  It's like when you have kids around to your home to play.

The first hour is fine the kids are happy and play well but after a certain amount of time they begin to get a bit boisterous and out of control.

 You start looking at your watch and wishing that their mum or dad would arrive soon to pick them up.  That's what afternoons at school feel like.

It's also true that Spanish kids do get lots of homework which is a big headache for most parents.  Wouldn't  it be great if the day was organized so that when they got home the homework was already done and you could spend time playing with them or doing other activities?

School really isn't a dumping ground to get the kids out of your hair for as long as possible.

Many parents feel worried by the change and think that kids will be getting out of school at 2.30.  This is a big problem if they work.  But if they were assured that the school would still take care of the kids until four and send them home with the homework already done than maybe it wouldn't be so bad.

You know the Madrid Community Education Authority was not interested in this timetable a few years ago and made it really difficult for schools to obtain. 

 Now all of a sudden they seem to have changed their ideas.I wonder why???

Well the debate was over before it began  last week because the "Consejo escolar" decided  Not  to allow the parents to vote.

It seems that some people like to make decisions for the rest of us.

News articles Year five

Resources for writing news articles

Newsreports

This week we've been working on how to write a good new article and you have made some great posters to illustrate that you have understood the different parts of a news article

Including:

• Orientation

• Main body of the text

• Reorientation

• Photo

• Caption

So for the end of the topic everyone is going to write their own newsreport.

We'll keep practising until everyone gets the hang of it.