Random website with links to some good phonics activities! :)
http://www.topmarks.co.uk/interactive.aspx?cat=40
Tuesday, 26 February 2013
Thursday, 20 December 2012
Finger puppets
Getting really excited about teaching Kindergarten next year! :)
As I was thinking through teaching resources, I came across these cute finger puppet templates which I thought would be perfect for my future kindies to do with their buddy class.
http://www.kidspot.com.au/discoverycentre/Four-to-six-Craft-Finger-puppets+5385+534+article.htm
Great fine motor activity that the kids will love to do which doubles up as an interesting stimulus for students to begin communicating with others.
Keeping this one in mind as I prepare for next year
As I was thinking through teaching resources, I came across these cute finger puppet templates which I thought would be perfect for my future kindies to do with their buddy class.
http://www.kidspot.com.au/discoverycentre/Four-to-six-Craft-Finger-puppets+5385+534+article.htm
Great fine motor activity that the kids will love to do which doubles up as an interesting stimulus for students to begin communicating with others.
Keeping this one in mind as I prepare for next year
Tuesday, 27 November 2012
Newspaper Blackout Poems
Today I stumbled on a great poetry idea for older children:
Newspaper Blackout Poems!
As I was surfing the net for ideas for my Stage 3 ESL students, I came across a website by Austin Kleon who started creating newspaper poems by blacking out words and highlighting phrases.
http://www.austinkleon.com/category/newspaper-blackout-poems/
I trial this with the group, modelling and guiding them to create their first newspaper poem. After reading the first paragraph of a newspaper article titled "Treating Trauma", the students were asked to highlight key phrases and words that they thought best described "trauma'. Following this they had to create their own sentence using the words from the next paragraph to describe trauma.
Here is the result so far...
Treating Trauma
Disasterous events
dreams of smoke and blackness,
pictures of burnt houses
irritable and clingy
life-threatening experience
died, struggling
Permanently damaged,
vulnerable children
with problems
I am excited about this because of the way it teaches students, especially those who have English as an additional language, patterns of useful phrases and descriptions that could be incorporated into their writing.
Exciting times!
Newspaper Blackout Poems!
As I was surfing the net for ideas for my Stage 3 ESL students, I came across a website by Austin Kleon who started creating newspaper poems by blacking out words and highlighting phrases.
http://www.austinkleon.com/category/newspaper-blackout-poems/
I trial this with the group, modelling and guiding them to create their first newspaper poem. After reading the first paragraph of a newspaper article titled "Treating Trauma", the students were asked to highlight key phrases and words that they thought best described "trauma'. Following this they had to create their own sentence using the words from the next paragraph to describe trauma.
Here is the result so far...
Treating Trauma
Disasterous events
dreams of smoke and blackness,
pictures of burnt houses
irritable and clingy
life-threatening experience
died, struggling
Permanently damaged,
vulnerable children
with problems
I am excited about this because of the way it teaches students, especially those who have English as an additional language, patterns of useful phrases and descriptions that could be incorporated into their writing.
Exciting times!
Monday, 26 November 2012
An Introduction
Hello and welcome to Patterns&Chunks!
I got the title for my blog from the Grammar and Teaching Course I completed during my first year of teaching, early this year in 2012, where I realised teaching grammar to students was all about helping them see...
in English to help improve their meaning making skills.
All credit goes to Kathy Rushton, Liz Calf, Judith Gerber and Bethany O'Brien who are my grammar gurus - these lovely ladies helped me see the power and purpose of grammar! Not to mention, the greatest grammar queens, Beverly Derewianka, author of A Grammar Companion and Louise Droga & Sally Humphrey who are co-author's of Grammar and Meaning - An Introduction for Primary Teachers (If you haven't read these books, I earnestly recommend it!).
WARNING: They are not 'easy' books, but they promise great returns for your teaching career!
A special mention to Kathy Rushton, who taught me about the English Syllabus way back in my university days, Paul Dufficy who inspired me to design learning for my students in fun and meaningful ways and Bethany O'Brien who showed me the ropes in ESL teaching!
This blog is dedicated to others who are passionate about building good foundations for children in English using purposeful and innovative ways! It is my hope that this will also serve as a space to help parents sift through helpful websites and ideas to support their children at home.
Here's to learning together!
Aspiring to be a teacher who sees learning as a life-long process.
Miss Wong
I got the title for my blog from the Grammar and Teaching Course I completed during my first year of teaching, early this year in 2012, where I realised teaching grammar to students was all about helping them see...
PATTERNS
and
CHUNKS
in English to help improve their meaning making skills.
All credit goes to Kathy Rushton, Liz Calf, Judith Gerber and Bethany O'Brien who are my grammar gurus - these lovely ladies helped me see the power and purpose of grammar! Not to mention, the greatest grammar queens, Beverly Derewianka, author of A Grammar Companion and Louise Droga & Sally Humphrey who are co-author's of Grammar and Meaning - An Introduction for Primary Teachers (If you haven't read these books, I earnestly recommend it!).
WARNING: They are not 'easy' books, but they promise great returns for your teaching career!
A special mention to Kathy Rushton, who taught me about the English Syllabus way back in my university days, Paul Dufficy who inspired me to design learning for my students in fun and meaningful ways and Bethany O'Brien who showed me the ropes in ESL teaching!
This blog is dedicated to others who are passionate about building good foundations for children in English using purposeful and innovative ways! It is my hope that this will also serve as a space to help parents sift through helpful websites and ideas to support their children at home.
Here's to learning together!
Aspiring to be a teacher who sees learning as a life-long process.
Miss Wong
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