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…!

Which one do YOU think is the most U-G-L-Y…?

Which one do YOU like best!???

Top World Cup players (according to me!):

* H Valdez (Paraguay)
D Villa (Spain)
* A Gyan (Ghana)
* B Schweinsteiger (Germany)
C Tevez (Argentina)
A Iniesta (Spain)|
W Schneider (Netherlands)
K Honda (Japan)
A Cole (England)
D Forlan (Argentina)
J Boateng (Germany)

* THREE players that I would LOVE to see in the Premiership!

What do you think? Who have I missed? Do you even care?!

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

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

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!

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

Anyone got any other suggestions to avoid working over the Summer…?!

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