Mother's Day Madness

Happy belated Mother's Day to all those wonderful mum's out there for last Sunday!
We spent a wild two days in the classroom planning, making, destroying and making again, your beloved Mother's Day presents. It didn't help that we returned back to school from holidays with only 2 days to put something together, but I have to say I'm pretty impressed with the results.
In our two year 2 classes we decided on a simple oil pastel flower picture with a edicol dye wash over the top, framed in $2 frames. They were simple yet so effective and I've had glowing reports back from all the mum's this week.
The card was another story, but the kids absolutely loved it once they got the hang of the technique. We used tissue paper to make the petals and then pinched the small end to help make it stand up, giving it a 3D appearance. The kids were then paranoid about squashing their cards on the way home, they were so careful walking out the door at the end of the day, we had to laugh!

We had so many different ideas about what to do for Mother's day presents this year, most of them all wild and wonderful but time-consuming plans. Sometimes it's the simple things that have the most effect.

Pattern Block Geniuses!

Enough chatter, I decided it was about time I showed you all how clever my kids are! These photos are of some of the creations my kids made during the week using pattern blocks. They LOVE these things and as soon as I pull out my camera that want me to take picture after picture of their creations! Here are just a couple...

New Year, New Class!

Aaaaaaannnd we're back!
It's a new year and I have a whole new class of little learners. We've been through the classroom rules, the school rules and where to find the toilets. We talked about always doing our best work and how to be a good friend in the playground. We have covered our new scrapbooks, done some writing samples, and practiced being quiet while we work (still practicing this one).
I have a couple of boys who enjoy pushing the envelope, including one who during computer time, typed "I like sex on the radio"! (Part of the chorus of a recently released Good Charlotte song, for the uninformed). I tried very hard not to laugh while I had my 'growly' voice on for that one!
We had our first adventure of the year with the sighting of a snake outside our classroom last week. With the combination of a 35 degree Aussie summer day plus a swamp and bushland across the road from the school, it was always going to happen. We had a few false sightings last year, but this was the real deal. Luckily, it was one of my most level-headed kids who saw it first on his way to the toilet at recess and rather than trying to touch it or tackle it a la Steve Irwin like some of my other kids might have done, he came straight to me (yes apparently this is part of my job title now - snake problem-solver!). I called the office who came straight down armed with plastic salad tongs from the staff room -seriously!
Chinese whispers spread like bushfire around the school and kids came running to see the snake that had come out of the boys toilets. Fortunately the snake was smart enough to get out of the way and was hiding in the electrical cupboard. While I was doing some crowd control, the ladies from admin decided this was a little more serious than salad tongs so someone came back with the rubbish-stick-claw-thing.
The snake was found (baby dugite but definately on its way to teenage/early adult stage) and disposed of (I don't want to know where), and all the excitement was over. The whole thing took only about 10mins but it was enough to keep the conversations going in my class all day. The boy who saw it was treated like a hero! And I can now honestly say that this one sighting will guarantee that the kids' bags will be on the bench and zipped up for the rest of the year without me having to say a thing! No one wants to find a friend in their lunchbox at recess!
Apart from the heat (god bless the airconditioning I'm lucky enough to have), and nature sightings, it's been a great start to the year!
I'll keep you posted!

A Letter to Parents

Dear Parents,
 Please let it be known that for the last 3 weeks of the school year your child will be learning absolutely nothing of value except how to make Christmas decorations. They will undertake numerous projects that involve cutting, sticking, cellophane, and the odd sprinkle of glitter. We hope that these hand-made, beautifully crafted decorations will adorn your house and Christmas tree for many years to come. 
These activities will take place between the hours of 9am-3pm daily. When said activities have been exhausted to the point of calloused fingers, a Christmas movie will be viewed to keep your child further entertained and give the teacher a few moments of P&Q. 
Things get even more exciting in the last week of school, when your child will be asked to help clean the classroom. This includes scrubbing desks, washing chairs and dusting shelves. They will then be rewarded with a class party that will hopefully last the entirety of the last day of school. 
All that said, I do love my job...

Dehydration and soggy bodies

A couple of days ago I had this fantastic idea to do a science experiment with the class. To be honest I have been a bit hit and miss with science this term - I seem to enjoying buying numerous books about *FUN* and *EXCITING* science experiments and then never manage to crack the spine...
We've been learning about plants this term - yes, we've already done the standard 'bean growing' experiment, and that went really well until we had a string of days over 32 degrees and all the plants died on us! Whoops (note to self- keep plants out of sun next time).
So for this experiment I decided to look at the importance of water for both plants and our bodies by dehydrating potatoes in salt water. Ah yes and all was going according to the plan laid out in my gloriously new and shiny science experiment book until we realised that the potatoes were going to take a lot longer than the half an hour stated to show any results. In fact, we had to leave the damn things overnight and even then they didn't really show a huge difference!
Anyway, the kids enjoyed the experiment and especially enjoyed peering at the potatoes every 2 mins throughout the first day to see if anything had changed.
So then came results time and an explanation about how our bodies are similar. We discussed the results and noted that the salty potatoes had (eventually) gone soggy, lost some colour and were wrinkly. We had previously talked about dehydration on our bodies and the balance of salt and water necessary to keep us going. So when I asked the class how this experiment linked to dehydration in our bodies, one boy put is hand up and said "If we don't drink enough water we will lose colour, go all wrinkly and really soggy!"
Yep close enough. I think I've now scared them into drinking water. You can thank me later mums.