What Can I Do With My Abacus?

Previously, I successfully asked for some help in making use of the counting stick(s) I have in my classroom. I now make much better use of them. In addition, the crowdsourced document is still there for others to use too. Now, another thing I have in my classroom is my large abacus. I use it a fair amount, but am sure I can use it more and better...

So, if you want ideas for how to use an abacus, or can offer some help, take a look at this document. Thanks in advance!

The Grid Challenge

Saw a Tweet earlier this week:

Absolutely unbelievable scenes as Sarah in Year 6 takes this down in 8 and a half minutes pic.twitter.com/wk2Z8cCXl8

— Ashley Booth (@MrBoothY6) February 13, 2017

Wow. Didn't the child do well. And, we really liked the look of the task, so we set about making some of our own. Our class have really enjoyed trying to solve them since. We made an Excel document for creating them and extended it over the four operations. 

At the time of writing, we've used multiplication and addition grids with our class. Not sure how useful the subtraction and division versions will be, but they're there if needed.

Find the resources here. Hope it's useful.

Hand Facts

Got a fact you want your class to remember? Try Hand Facts...

By the entrance to your classroom, place a hand and each week, below it, place a fact (we've used it for maths, but there could be one for English too, or the fact could change between subjects). 

As the children enter and leave the room, they place their hand on the fact and say it. This repetition helps them to remember the fact. Fact.

Visualiser and Mistake Annotations

Today, I had some of yesterday's maths work that I wanted to show the class. So, I decided to use the iPad stand, an iPad device with the camera app on and AirServer. This allowed me to show the child's work on the classroom projection, where all the children could see it. In addition, I laid a piece of OHT paper over the work so I could annotate it as I spoke about the work. As you know, we love OHT here at PI Towers! Go to your school office; they'll have loads of the stuff in a dusty corner and will be happy for you to take it away! Child's work, visualiser, projector and transparent paper. Was very effective. 

Here's what the children could see.

What I Wish My Teacher Knew About Me

Over half way through the year, and now working as a job share (with each other incidentally), we decided to ask the children to write down something they wanted us to know. We've gotten to know them quite well, some more than others, but there's always more to find out. 

Some wrote down things we already knew, others wrote about school or home, and some were really surprising:

- a boy whose parents have separated;

- a child who had recently overcome a fear;

- someone who had taken up a new sport;

- a girl who pointed out she'd like us to stop getting her name wrong.

So, if you get 5 minutes, ask your class, "What would you like your teacher to know about you?" 

It'd make a really good transition day activity, first day of term task or, as we did just ad hoc...

Apps for Your Primary Classroom - 17th

Our 16th post about apps we've made use of, that others may like to try too. The other posts can be found here. Again, the links below are to Apple's App Store. This is because we use iOS devices in school. Many of these apps are available on Android too. 

 Image credit: www.apple.com

ENGLISH 

Lipogram
reVerb
Teach Your Monster to Read - Phonics and Reading
Winning Words apps
Word Mess

GENERAL
Attenborough Story of Life
Expeditions
Gravity Sketch
Pettson's Inventions
Phoetic

REBUS - Absurd Logic Game
The DAILY MONSTER Monster Maker 

MATHS

Maths Rockx - Times Tables

VIRTUAL REALITY

CoSpaces
Jurassic Virtual Reality (VR)
Ultimate Sharks Free

5 Gold Rings in Class

Have you been watching ITV's new quiz show, '5 Gold Rings'? It's great, we really like it. Watched the first episode, shouted at the TV, discussed (little left, bit down, bit more up...) and decided we'd watch again. Then, second episode, we discovered the app - we could play too while watching the contestants! Then, of course (like we do), we thought of a way to get it into class...

The uses are endless. Here's how it works: there's a picture of something with part missing or covered up. The person playing the game has a ring and needs to predict where something is. For example, finding the number 4 on this clock face:

Print out the picture with a missing part on paper, provide children with a pen and something circular and ask them to draw a circle where they thing the target is located. To allow children to check their work, have the answer printed on a piece of OHT paper that they can lay over their answer to see how they did. 

                 Guess                                                                  Compared to Answer

Both, Side by Side

As I said, the opportunities for this are endless. But, here are some example questions and answers. Included there are: the clock face shown above, 'find Northern Ireland', 'locate the amber traffic light' and 'Where's the top of the A?'.