Grade 5 Dragons!

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…!

Hi all! Hope you’re enjoying your Summer – yes – both Mr Clark and I are down after both the USA & England crash out of the World Cup….!

However, Mr Clark has been busy – here is a sample of the performance poetry that you did in the last week in Mr Clark’s class… sounds great! Who do YOU recognise?

KID POETRY

Hope you are all enjoying your hols! Lukas pointed out (on the Wonderwall) that we have had OVER 1700 visitors to this site (Amazing! Well done guys!)…

I found ‘Shrekify yourself‘ online today on Larry Ferlazzo’s great blog and used (sorry Josh) my sons picture… not the best! Check this out!

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 

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…

What an addictive game! I used to think electrocity was amazing (it still is of course!) and think this is even BETTER – especially to try out bridge designs for this Unit of Inquiry…!

Cargo Bridge (from Armor Games) was recommended to me by Jack (thank you for sharing!) and I have to admit – I’ve been playing it ALL NIGHT!!!!

Here are some of my designs (that worked!) – what shapes and patterns do you see?

It is always difficult to decide what to read next…

I would suggest anything from Roald Dahl, Jacqueline Wilson, Philip Pullman, Dick King-Smith, Enid Blyton, Louis Sachar, Sharon Creech, Anne Fine, Michael Morpurgo, Cornelia Funke etcetcetc – all GREAT! Ask me if you want more specific suggestions…!

And if you need other student suggestions, go to the ‘Books’ tab of this blog to see what other G5 students are reading…

And here are some more resources that WILL help you!

1. ReadKiddoRead is an amazing place to find recommendations. Some really fun reads! SERIOUSLY!!!
2. ‘WhatshouldIreadnext‘ is another excellent site (suggested by my teacher-friend from ISM, Adam Winton – thank you!) to find more cool books to read… 
3. Glencoe is also good for suggestions of classics – study guides are also provided if you want related activities to fill your Summer…!
4. http://www.literature-map.com - this is a great place to find other authors similar to your favourites! Have a look below at what happened when I searched for Roald Dahl – the closer the authors, the more similar they are…:

Some of you are really getting into writing poetry – here are a few resources to help you! For more, check out the Delicious links on the right sidebar…

1. Here and here are two resources to help find rhyming words – thanks to Ms. Cynthia for sharing
2. Poetry Express has 15 poem ideas HERE that you can start writing yourself NOW!
3. Giggle Poetry is a great place to find ideas for – guess what – poetry to make you giggle!
4. 30 Days of Poetry & Poetry 180 have some great poetry samples and templates to start you off – they are directed more to Middle & High Schoolers BUT are great nevertheless!

Have YOU got any useful sites to share…?

We are all well into our research & preparation for the Mini-Exhibition BUT just try one thing…:

GO TO ‘Mashpedia‘ and do a search for your topic NOW!!!

It searches through ‘Twitter,’ ‘Youtube,’ ‘Wikipedia,’ ‘Digg,’ the news & MORE for current info on your topic – GREAT stuff

What things remind you of Dubai? Buildings? Transport? People? Lifestyle? Colours? Shapes?

Please add as much as you can to the wallwisher below – it would be best if you could include photos, videos, pictures BUT just text is fine – someone else could add a picture…!