Long time! Hope everyone is having a great Summer – I am although being ‘internetless’ does stop me from posting!

I saw this on the wonderful http://www.freetech4teachers.com and thought I’d share – especially useful if you want to celebrate something every single day… http://www.earthcalendar.net//index.php – it says that on my birthday this year (10th October if anyone is interested!) I could also be celebrating ‘Double Tenth Day’ in Taiwan (??), ‘Moi Day’ in Kenya (??) OR (my favourite) World Mental Health Day – maybe I should take a mental health day – yes it’s a Sunday but, in Dubai, we work on Sundays…

Check it out and let me know what else you could be celebrating on your birthday…!

This is why YOUR learning is changing – your access to different technologies! It’s quite scary how things have changed since I went to school…!!!

Thanks to http://web20classroom.blogspot.com/ on Twitterfeed for the link!

Here are the Current Event Collages of the year as voted by 5TP students… The winners are… James, Axel & Gabi! Well done!

What events have they missed that YOU think are important this year?

This post is directed to your parents and may mean work for you over the Summer… Do you hate me yet…?!!

This list of suggested activities that I have put together is NOT a requirement from either myself or 6^th grade. However, both students and parents (and teachers!) recognise that many students take a backward step in their learning if they do not continue to review and consolidate… Here are a few activity suggestions and websites that are fun and keep them ticking over…:

MATHS

• Encourage real life problem solving all the time – get your child to read flight schedules, bus timetables, TV & cinema times; get them to mentally add up the contents of their shopping trolley or total their scores on the computer games they are playing; encourage them to see shapes within buildings, patterns, and estimate distances. EVERYTHING has a link to Maths – whether it’s cooking, playing, eating, socialising, travelling, there is ALWAYS an element of Maths…
• Visit http://mathletics.co.uk/  (you have your own password!)
• Visit one of the following free sites to practice skills that they want/need to practice:

http://www.numbernut.com/        http://www.factfreaks.com/           http://www.bbc.co.uk/skillswise/        http://www.shodor.org/interactivate/   http://www.coolmath4kids.com/

• Encourage them to play games such as Chess, Sudoku, Scrabble, Triolet. They all have a link to Maths AND are sociable too.

LANGUAGE

• Encourage them to write a diary, journal or even a blog of events, thoughts and opinions. They could choose to share or keep it to themselves BUT this gives them a great reason for writing. http://g5dragons.edublogs.org/ is still open for business – they may want to share what they are doing with others through this blog.
• READ READ READ!!! Vocabulary, imagination, experience, maturity, writing! All these skills and attitudes are improved by reading – and they should want to so allow them to choose the book/comic/magazine (within reason!). If you need suggestions try: http://www.readkiddoread.com/ or look at this post…
• Visit http://www.scholastic.com/summerreading/ – this is an excellent global challenge that might give them the reason to read!
• Encourage them to do wordsearches, crosswords, anagrams AND play social games like Scrabble, Upwords, Texttwist etc

INQUIRY

• Continue to keep up to date with current events around the world – have discussions over dinner/breakfast and ask for their opinion – you will be surprised at how much they know and the insight they have on world events
• What are they passionate about? What do they want to find out more about? If they have questions, don’t just tell them the answer – encourage them to find out the answer themselves by doing a little bit of research in an encyclopedia or on the web.
• Have a look at the Delicious links on the sidebar OR visit these sites to practice general knowledge and map skills:

http://geosense.net/          http://www.howstuffworks.com/     http://www.tigweb.org/games/flag/    http://purposegames.net/

TECHNOLOGY (*with guidance from parents where necessary*)

• Make your own blog – use http://bfcb.edublogs.org/ (my own site – for teachers BUT students can use it too! Sorry it’s not been updated for a while BUT I’ve been busy teaching !!)
• Try out a new web 2.0 application: http://www.prezi.com/        http://animoto.com/           http://www.xtranormal.com/                                                                                                                                                                            and there’s many more out there!

And of course – be balanced! Have fun, get lots of exercise, interact with others, make new friends, spend time with family and… RELAX!

Have a great break – keep in touch

Mr Potts 

Mr Clark is getting married and traveling around Europe, Mr Potts is watching the World Cup (hoping that England improve!) then going to his place in France to rest and relax!

SO what are your plans? Share what you are doing & where you are going!

THIS is a GREAT interactive infographic with all you need for fixtures, timings and details for the World Cup (starts VERY soon!)…

Apologies for the England bias on the sidebar…

Wednesday 9th June: MS Step-Up Day
Mission (if you choose to accept it!): Find out as much as you can about G6 & Middle School…

THEN

share your comments, reflections, likes and dislikes etc below!

Remember everyone can read this and add to your thoughts – be respectful, responsible & appropriate…

Notice from the Music Department:

Please return all instruments by Thursday 10th June!

Busy week this week! MS Parent Meeting (Monday), MS Step-Up Day (Wednesday), Bridge Challenges, Poetry, Playground Plans, Mandala Maths etcetc

AND

At the start of the year, we set a goal of 1500 visitors to our blog (500 hits more than last year’s G5 class). Now, with only 3 weeks to go… guess how many visits we have had (don’t cheat!)…?!

 SOOOO – we have had posts from all around the world, from 6 of the 7 continents (which one is missing…?!)

We have had 33 different countries visit our G5dragons site… Which one do you think is the coolest/most different?

We have had over 350 comments on 56 different posts (before this one!). How many comments per post on average…?

What would you suggest to the Grade 4′s coming up to G5 next year? What should be done differently/better?

Comment below with your answers, thoughts and suggestions…