Product Review: RIC Publications Geography (level 3/4)

I have been very lucky to use the RIC Australian Curriculum Geography book for Year 3 during our geography Inquiry this year. I wanted to share some thoughts and activity ideas with you.

At my school I work with the 3/4 team (but I teach a grade 2/3 composite class). This meant that when it came time to plan and teach our Geography Inquiry we had to make sure we covered all areas of the new curriculum. My school is transitioning into using the new Victorian Curriculum, so planning for geography was entirely new. Thankfully we had access to RIC Publications' excellent geography resource. It has been so handy! The book is aligned to the Australian Curriculum, but it also works perfectly with the Victorian Curriculum.

 

Colour coding climates of the world

 

After pulling apart the curriculum requirements, we started looking through this resource. Every area is covered. There are some parts that we didn't use, and a few areas where RIC gives you some choices. As a school, we try to avoid worksheets, but the pages in the Geography book were well created, to the point, and included rich learning.

 

Colour coding Australian climates

 

I didn't particularly like the quiz questions at the end of the book, so I didn't use them. That's totally personal choice - you may love having access to them.

Some activities we completed as suggested, others we used parts of and put our own spin on them. For example, the photos below show how I took one of the 'reading' pages, and photocopied sections onto blank paper. Students then had to read the passage, highlight key words, and write a summary of it. We did this for natural features and for Pacific Island Countries.

I also reached out to the amazing Teachers of Instagram community to help with a 'compare and contrast' activity about people living in different parts of Australia.

This resource was a fantastic supplement to our planning for Inquiry. It gave my team direction in a new curriculum area, had great blackline masters to copy, and had a range of activities. Each section has some teacher information to help with the planning.

A handy strategy we used when planning with this resource was to be discriminating when we first looked through it and photocopy the pages we thought were going to have the most effect as teaching tools; we put these photocopies in a display folder so we had them on hand and ready to go throughout the unit. It made it quick and easy, and simplified needing to flick through the book every week.

To get a copy of this excellent resource for yourself check out RIC Publications' website. They also have a View Book option to see the pages inside before you purchase it.

Book Week 2016 - Australian Teachers Blog

I've just blogged over on the Australian Teachers Collaborative Blog. I wrote about ideas and activities for Book Week 2016. Go and check it out!

Reflecting on learning - end of the lesson

I've just blogged over on the Australia Teachers Collaborative Blog. I wrote about Reflecting on Learning. Check it out!

Reflecting ready for term 2

Today is the last week day of my school holidays. I'm taking today to relax, watch some tv and collect my thoughts before term 2 starts. I've also been reflecting on the things I've learned about my students in term 1 that will influence how I tackle term 2. My students:

- Love a challenge, and rise to it with persistence and determination

- Are very competitive, and love getting outside to play a competitive sport, or do a competitive warm-up before a lesson

- Are still only 7, 8 and 9 years old so they love novelty, and colour, and fun, and silliness

- Love to share their knowledge and skills with their peers by helping others or showing what they can do

- Are very creative and love to construct and make things

So, what I will be doing for my students this term is:

- Giving them challenges to stretch their brains

- Using all of my early years knowledge to make our learning fun, exciting and a bit silly sometimes!

- Channelling their competitive side into great teamwork, collaborative activities and awesome poison ball games 

- Sharing their skills far and wide and with each other (one new activity we're having in term 2 is "Guest Reader", where students will be able to sign up to read a book to the class during our inside eating time, we started it last term and they adored it!!)

- Incorporating construction and craft into our curriculum wherever I can

I'm sure both of these lists will continue to grow as I learn more about my students and think of more ways to develop my teaching to suit their needs, but I really wanted to get this bit of reflection written down. I'm so excited to make this an awesome term!!

Classroom reveal 2016

I'm so excited to share my new classroom! It has been a journey to set it up.

 

 

 

This year I moved from teaching Prep (aka Foundation, kindergarten, the first year at school) to teaching a grade 2/3 composite class. I'm so ready for this new challenge! As well as the grade change I moved buildings at my school. I'm now in a 60 year old building, with lots of quirks and issues and my new room is smaller than my old room.

The most exciting thing about the building I'm in is that it will be demolished at the end of the school year because we are getting a new school building!! So, I was given free reign over what I wanted to do to my room - and my first decision was to paint it!

It was a pale blue to begin with, and I had it painted white. I love how bright and light it looks!

I decided to stick with a pretty simple colour palette of blues, greens and beige/whites. 

 

 

 

I'm so glad I did, because I got the brightest primary coloured tables!! Super fun!

After I got my tables it was time for the fun bit of rearranging the furniture, setting up my book corner and organising my 'teacher desk' (or lack of teacher desk). Two years ago I got rid of my teacher desk, instead I use an IKEA trolley to store all of my stationery, I have a bench that I put my planner and computer on when they're not being used, and I use my small group table as my desk when my students aren't around.

Here's my teacher desk area:

Here's my book corner:

Here are my awesome storage tubs with labels on them:

This is the front of my room, where my students sit for whole group instruction (I love love love my IKEA teacher chair!!):

I've got my tables set up in groups of six students:

These are some of my display, ready to go! This is our Wondering Wall (during our Inquiries students pose 'I wonder...' questions which we endeavour to answer over the course of the Inquiry):

I hot glued thumb tacks to the back of glitter pegs to make displaying student work easy:

And, this is where I display our subject buddies (the person they pair up with for different activities in reading, writing and maths, and they are of mixed-ability) and where we'll display our goals for the week (that will be another blog post):

All of these photos were shared on Instagram over the last few weeks, so if you'd like to stay up to date with my classroom I'd love it if you'd follow me on Instagram @jemluck

Reading groups plan - Australian Teachers Blog

I'm blogging over at the Australian Teachers Blog! I've just posted about my plan for reading groups for this year.

 

 

Christmas craft ideas

We have been having so much fun in my class since December 1st!! Every day we've made a Christmas craft. I thought I'd share photos of the crafts we've made. 

Pin pricking pictures in aluminium foil. 

Rudolph made with paper bags. 

Paper plate baubles with confetti. 

Paper plate Santa faces. 

Christmas bags to store all of their goodies in. 

Paper chains to decorate the room. 

Spiral ornaments to decorate the tree. 

My class has had so much fun making these things, and we've got a few more planned before the end of the school year.