Holiday Homework - Thinking Outside of the Box

A key skill that can help all children in their academic, social and emotional lives is the ability to think outside the box. You can help encourage this skill from an early age through a variety of activities. Even if children struggle to read, if we routinely read with them we can use this reading time to create activities that nurture and encourage their critical thinking abilities. Using critical thinking as a life skill is vital. 

When you share a book during the holidays consider spending an extra ten minutes to go further than just reading the text aloud. Here are some activities to try....

1. Predictions

   
   • Periodically stop reading and ask for a prediction about what might happen next. Ask for a few different scenarios, too -- the child's first impulse will be to predict the story's actual ending, as stories tend to be on the predictable side. If you ask for a few different endings, though, they will have to think outside the box to come up with novel ideas.

   Open-ended Questions              

    

   • When you finish reading a book to or with a child, ask a few open-ended questions. This can be any question that doesn't have a one-word or one-phrase answer, such as "How did you feel about the story" or "Who was your favourite character and why?" These questions encourage thinking outside the box in order to both create and articulate an answer, which will encourage thinking critically in an alternative manner.

   Retelling                                   

     

   • Read a book then ask for the story to be repeated in a child's own words. This encourages thinking outside the box in order for them to articulate themselves. By telling a familiar story in their own words, a child has to carefully consider how things are described and how stories are told. This encourages creative storytelling and general self-expression.

   Connecting Stories

   
   • Read a child two or more stories, then ask them to tell you some connections between the stories. Start with the basic connections, such as the gender of the main characters, then move into more-complex, creative connections, such as what the characters wanted and why they wanted it. Children will have to think outside the box to find these deeper connections in between stories, which will both help them understand the stories and improve their ability to think critically.

Flynn's Storybird

Flynn wrote this story in the Learning Den today...it's great!
Look Beyond....By Flynn on Storybird

Our latest story on www.storybird.com

Holly has been busy making her own stories on www.storybird.com . Here is her latest one! Click "open" in the bottom right hand corner to make it fullscreen.
Choc, choc, chocolate!By Holly on Storybird

Letters and Sounds

Letters and Sounds is a UK phonics programme. The programme is used in UK schools and works over six phases. It concentrates on activities that promote phonics, speaking and listening skills, phonological awareness and oral blending.

The Letters and Sounds Programme is a great resource in general but it has some particularly excellent strategies to support children who are struggling and need to revisit and consolidate some basic literacy skills. 

Click here to find free online activities and click here for supporting materials.

Mind Mapping in Year 3

This term, all classes at Muritai are exploring how to make and use Mind Maps. Here is an example of what some of our year three's have been up to in room 10:-
http://mrhaydenrays.blogspot.com/2011/03/big-part-of-reading-this-term-is-to.html#comment-form. Great work room 10!

Bob and Ernie share a poem..

Bob and Ernie love looking at books together. Ernie loves to read and Bob likes to look at the pictures and make up his own ideas to go with what they are reading. 

Here they are reading a poem called "Fish" by Mary Ann Hoberman. Bob chose it because he loves to go fishing and thought the picture was cool. Here's the poem for you to read or listen to.... quick, before it swims away!

Fish

Look at them flit

Lickety-split

Wiggling

Swiggling

Swerving

Curving

Hurrying

Scurrying

Chasing

Racing

Whizzing

Whisking

Flying

Frisking

Tearing around

With a leap and a bound

But none of them making the tiniest

     tiniest   

         tiniest

             tiniest

                   sound

Keep an eye out for Bob and Ernie this week. They are hoping to sneak out of the Learning Den to have a look at the brand new poetry garden in the playground. It is full of poems written by students and put together by Mr Ray. They will let you know which poems were their favourites!

    

Giving Children the Tools to Thrive at School - Mind Mapping

Here at Muritai School we are passionate about and committed to giving all our students the chance to be the best that they can be. For some children, especially those who struggle with basic literacy skills, school can be a frustrating and draining place to be.


Muritai School has recently become the first 4D Best Practice school in New Zealand. This means that all our classrooms are dyslexia friendly and that teachers are presenting learning opportunities in a variety of ways that is inclusive to all.


Each term we have a different focus which supports Dyslexia Best Practice but at the same time offers something to all students. This term our focus is on teaching all students how to mind map. 

Mind mapping is a term coined by Tony Buzan, an author and educational consultant. Although it was Buzan who first used the term and set out his 'Laws of Mind Mapping', he himself was building on a lineage of using patterns, pictures, colour and association, that stretches back thousands of years. 


Mind mapping can offer children a different way of getting their ideas down onto paper. It can be used for any subject or concept and at any ability level or age. 
Taught properly, mind mapping can provide a lifeline to those children who really struggle at school.


Take a look at the video below to hear Tony Buzan explain more about this technique and the benefits that it can offer and don't forget to pop back into the Learning Den again soon to see some examples of Muritai mind mapping.

Bob and Ernie's Learning Journey!

Meet Bob and Ernie!

 Bob and Ernie have just moved into the Learning Den and can't wait to start their learning journey along with all of the other awesome kids that come here.

 Bob and Ernie were created by the very talented Mrs Chao in Room 11. They are made from socks, buttons and wool and are the perfect way to demonstrate what wonderful results can be achieved by making the best of what we have got!

 

This is Bob. Bob is small and cheeky and very creative. He has some fantastic ideas but often has a bit of trouble writing them down. Bob loves to chat and talks to his friend Ernie for ages about all his wonderful ideas for inventions and how he wants to be famous when he grows up.

Bob has a pet dog called Arthur and he is his second best friend after Ernie.

This is Ernie. Ernie is quite tall and people often think that he is older than Bob but they are the same age! Ernie finds it quite hard to come up with exciting ideas for stories and sometimes gets in a muddle but Bob often helps him out. Ernie is good at reading and writing so he gives Bob a hand when he gets stuck. Ernie is a bit quiet and shy but he shares all his dreams with Bob. One day Ernie wants to be a doctor.

Today Bob and Ernie have been learning all about using Mind Maps. Mind Maps are a great way to get your ideas down on paper without having to write too much. You can use lots of colour and pictures, they are fantastic!

Follow Bob and Ernie on their Learning Journey! They will be a regular feature on The Learning Den, sharing what we have been up to and some cool top tips!

www.storybird.com - what a great idea!

Storybirds are short, art-inspired stories that are curiously fun to make, share, and read. Teachers love them because they inspire their most reluctant writers and readers and reward their most adventurous. Kids adore them because they feel empowered by the tools and supported by the social feedback.

The short, visual nature of these stories make them a great tool for reluctant readers and will inspire reluctant writers to have a go!


Click "open" at the bottom right of the picture then click the full screen button to read properly. Press the escape button on the keyboard when you have finished to return to The Learning Den. 
Enjoy exploring!
READING OPENS             YOUR IMAGINATION on Storybird

Pick up a good book during the holidays!

This was one school's way of encouraging their kids to keep on reading!

Un-sticking - strategies to help children with dyslexic type learning needs get over hurdles

Some children, no matter what methods their teachers try, find it incredibly hard to grasp the concept of breaking down words into parts. This can make the whole process of reading and spelling frustrating and demoralising for both student and teacher. 

Sometimes, no matter what, children get "stuck". They cannot seem to get past one of the first hurdles of reading and spelling - using onset (the first sound/letter in a word) and rime (the remaining letters that make up the final sound) to break down and build words. 

Sometimes something as simple as breaking down "cat" into "c" / "at" is too hard. For some children the letter shapes and letter sound correspondences do not come easily. So what do we do when a child that is on a par with their peers in many areas simply cannot get past this sticking point?

A strategy that I have been using with some of my students in this position is something called "The Trans-Atlantic Order of Sounds". This is an idea that I picked up recently from a Neil Mackay (UK Dyslexia expert) workshop. 

It is a strategy that I have introduced into my one on one Learning Support sessions across the age ranges. It is working really well to "un-stick" students whose confidence is at rock bottom around their reading and spelling skills.

I have put the grid (see below) together myself from the brief notes I took from the workshop and I think this is the general gist of the concept (click on grid to make it larger).

  The grid is made up of 7 onsets, 5 initial blends and 22 rimes. By putting letters together from the left column and top row we make simple words e.g p + it = pit.

By working through the grid (one colour coded column at a time) a child can gradually build up a bank of 94 words that they can confidently read and spell. 

The words are not taught in isolation but many different multi-sensory strategies are used in Learning Support sessions to help the child make sense of letter sounds, word structure and word meaning. 

I have so far only concentrated on one colour coded column over two or three thirty minute support sessions. For some students the Trans-Atlantic Order of Sounds strategy makes up a unit of work for a whole term during Learning Support sessions and can be extended into classroom programmes.

Although the words themselves are no more than 2,3,4 or 5 letters in length there has been plenty of scope to extend older students. Some words such as k + in = kin and 

sk + it = skit have provided many opportunities for a child to learn new vocabulary and to shine orally when using these newly discovered words in verbal sentence construction.

Here are some examples of strategies used around this concept to begin the process of "un-sticking".

Here the onset letter or blend is made with cards and the rime written on a whiteboard. A sentence is discussed and written with the teacher writing the majority and the student adding the relevant word and a supporting illustration.

Here letters are "hung" out on a washing line to create the word.

Here letter cards are attached to musical instruments. The different notes or sounds correspond to onsets and rimes. The children close their eyes and try to match an instrument sound to a letter sound. Playing the two sounds together is a kinaestheic way to bring the sounds together to create the word and commit the onset and rime patterns to memory.

The word was used here in conjunction with a picture part made from clay. This is so the child can match the a visual image to a word.

After using several multi-sensory methods the child steadily builds up confidence to read and spell the words that they are learning. Children often begin to use the process to add more words that do not appear on the list of 94 words (such as "thin" and "win" to the "in" column) because they are starting to make sense of the onset/rime concept.

 

Making the words from objects that are fun to manipulate such as buttons works really well.

Making the onset and rime words from plasticine (making sure the onset is one colour and the rime is another) and adding an illustration to explain the meaning of the word also works very well. 

These resources made with a child in one session can easily be used with a younger child in a subsequent session that may find making them too difficult.

Finally, taking quick snapshots like these during the sessions and compiling a scrapbook is a fantastic way of revisiting words and concepts and really gives the child a sense of achievement over time.

I use many different strategies and concepts in my Learning Support sessions but the Trans-Atlantic Order of Sounds is proving an effective way to "un-stick" those children who are not responding to many other methods.

Alternative ways to present information

Using technology to present information in alternative ways is a fantastic way to make creating reports fun for all. It is especially good for children who learn most effectively when using visuals.

Xtra Normal is an online tool for making text visual by making your own movie. It allows you to create characters to say what you want to convey.

Click here to see room 15's movies about natural disasters. Great work!

Magic e

This week in the Learning Den we will be looking at the role that the magic e plays when we spell a word. Click here to have a go at making some magic e words.

Photo Slide Show in the Main Entrance...

 Check out the slide show on the TV in the Main Entrance. It has examples of some of the fantastic visual and multi-sensory teaching and learning that has been taking place in our classrooms lately...

Using Vokis as a tool for visual learners

A Voki is simply a talking voice character. These animated characters or avatars enable users to express themselves on a computer with a voice but as a talking character.

You can customize your Voki to look like you or take on the identity of lots of other types of characters, animals, monsters, cartoon characters etc. There are also all sorts of different backgrounds and voices for every occasion!

You can even have your Voki speak with your own voice by adding your voice with a microphone, upload, or by phone.


Teachers are discovering some of the unique roles these speaking avatars can play in education particularly for those children that learn in a more visual way.

A Voki can add a more "human" element to a lesson and even introduce a "team teaching" dimension to the classroom. It is especially useful for those of us who may not be all that great with video taping or vodcasting.

Teachers can use a voki avatar to introduce an idea, topic or lesson. It can also be used to aid in instructing those who need reinforcement of an idea or repetition of instructions . A Voki is also a great way to get shy students involved or to share comments with students in other countries.

Drama - making literature accessible to all

Take a look at room 14's fantastic rendition of  Act 4, Scene 1 from Shakespeare's Macbeth:- http://muritairoom14.blogspot.com/2010/08/macbeth.html, I'm sure you will recognise it!
Well done room 14 and Mrs Allen, what a great way to make poetry and reading out loud accessible and enjoyable for all!

Sound of the Week - "er"

This week in The Learning Den we have been looking at the "er" spelling pattern. We looked at three different ways to make the sound.

 Then we made models of words using plasticine to help us remember which sound pattern to use. Can you read the words and pick out what spelling pattern is making the "er" sound? Have a go at word modeling at home, it's great fun!

Letters are Everywhere! The Alphabet in September

With a pencil in our hand we can let our imagination run wild but who'd have thought that you could do this? (click on the picture to make it bigger)

All of these alphabet letters have been carved out of the lead points of these pencils...amazing!  
Thanks to the parent reader of The Learning Den blog who sent these images in.
Look at these fantastic lead sculptures too:-

These incredible sculptures are by an artist called Dalton Ghetti and you can see some more of his work here:-     http://koikoikoi.com/2010/08/micro-sculptures-by-dalton-ghetti/                  

Colin Thompson - An Inspiration..

Here at Muritai School we are in the midst of preparing for our bi-annual school production. This production is based on a book by author and illustrator Colin Thompson called "The Short and Incredibly Happy Life of Riley."

I am fairly familiar with Colin Thompson's work as I have used quite a few of his amazing illustrations in years gone by as a starting point for story writing. Our production theme has provided me with a great opportunity to reacquaint myself with his work. I have been reminded what an inspiration his work can be to children who struggle with reading and writing.

This week in The Learning Den we have had seven of Colin's books on display. I haven't purposely included them in my programme but have left them out as an experiment. The books made their own way in to our sessions almost immediately as the children were instantly drawn to the fantastic cover illustrations on entering the room.

These books have certainly hooked some of the more reluctant book enthusiasts this week and have been a great way of showing the children that finding an author you like is sometimes like discovering gold!

A large proportion of the children that came to the Learning Den this week asked if we could look at a book. I made no demand on them to read to me. Initially we discussed the front cover and then scanned a couple of pages for words that matched the "ar" spelling pattern that we have been concentrating on this week. We linked the book to the author and talked a little about the school production and then I closed the book. All the children asked if we could continue reading the book. At this point I asked if they wanted to read or to be read to and most asked if we could share the reading.

Colin's stories are thought provoking and humorous and suitable for a wide age range (even adults will love them). His books will still engage children who can read very little as they will find the illustrations fascinating. Also, there is a tiny picture of 'Max the dog' to spot within many of the illustrations, a fantastic way to focus those who struggle to concentrate.

If you haven't experienced any of Colin's wonderful work before, check out his website, it's well worth a visit:-http://www.colinthompson.com/.