Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Colouring

When the students weren't creating something for the holidays or playing amongst themselves they were colouring. Here is an array of different levels of students' colouring of some holiday pictures. Credit goes to Daniel, Jacqueline, Jefferson, Bhavya, and Janice.

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Sparkley Trees


The students in JK - grade 3 have been busy with creating sparkley tree branches so that when we put them all together it made a couple of really nice trees. These were created using tin foil and tissue paper with sparkles! They rock!

Saturday, December 17, 2011

3D Holiday Welcome Signs

The students in JK - grade 3 at the  After School programme made these 3D Holiday Welcome signs!

Here is one of my favourites made by Benedict Chua, grade 3!

Look at the detail...Benedict created a branch with grapes and added an apple, a lemon and a peach along with the leaves. Brilliant!! This was done with tissue paper covering half syrofoam balls on bristol board.

Thursday, December 15, 2011

Christmas Tree

While we were busy in the JK - grade 3 room, my co-worker, Ms. Holland, decorated the Christmas tree with the grade 4 - 8s. What a lovely Christmas tree!

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Front Door Decorations

The outside of the rooms were decorated as well by all of us! Here is a wreath of hands on one of the doors...


...and a paper Christmas tree of hands with a present drawn on the paper underneath the hand. When you lift the hand up you can see the many ideas of presents that the students, Ms. Holland and I made.
(I couldn't rotate it upwards :-) so please look at it sideways!!


Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Let it snow...let it snow...let it snow.....

Thanks to the students at the Before School programme we decorated part of the room with snow flakes!


Some decorations that my co-worker and I created with the students are here!






When you put them together it contributed to a lovely atmosphere in the room - take a look!



Thursday, December 1, 2011

Fetal Alcohol Syndrome in our Teaching Community



I found an interesting article the other day about Fetal Alcohol Syndrome that I thought I would share with you entitled Designing Behaviour Intervention Plans for students with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome: Programming Considerations and Strategies: Beyond Behaviour.  This resource influences my thought and practice about the condition significantly because it divides the problem up and lists strategies that I will be able to use in my teaching. I can see similarities of strategies that are used with other disabilities that help teach to students with them. For example, to use manipulatives and concrete examples is a common strategy used with many learning disabilities. This article helps me deal with the condition and this is important because I know that it is on the rise. From researching this subject I discovered that there are approximately one in every 100 live births that have characteristics that are attributed to Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. Studies have shown that it has increased over the years and is continuing to increase. This article influences my practice because it better equips me with the tools that I can add to my skills set to make me a better teacher.


Website for this Article: http://bit.ly/xxOkTQ
 If you cannot access this website I have pasted Table 4 below:
 Table 4 CONSIDERATIONS AND STRATEGIES FOR TRANSITIONS IN THE LEARNING DOMAIN
PROGRAMMING CONSIDERATIONS
• Assess amount and type of transitions, identifying diffi cult areas and transitions.
• Assess staff needs and re-assign, if necessary, to transition points. Train staff in recognizing diffi culties in transition and in cueing student
through transition times.
• Modify demands of transition and/or provide peer or adult support throughout transition.
SAMPLE STRATEGIES
• Provide visual cues for transitions, such as clock faces, picture of next environment, cards with time remaining shown, signal cards with
colors/actions on them, large calendar of daily schedules.
• Review daily and weekly schedules with students throughout day, pointing out changes, when they will occur, and expectations for each
period. Post small version of daily schedule on desk and large version on wall of classroom.
• Devote time to rehearsing the behavior expected for transitions and future events.
• Provide visual and concrete organization tools, such as charts, folders, notebooks, pictures related to transitions (e.g., pictures of books to
take to next setting, how to walk to music class). Paste a chart in student’s locker, if student transitions to other