GIFT Box Review

Thanks for those of you who managed to attend the review last week.  I am collating your comments and thoughts and shall post a summary shortly.  I will also provide this feedback to principals as well as forwarding your participation certificates.  In the meantime I have provided an explanation and links to the various Christmas activities I gave you.  Please don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any questions.

The Ho, Ho Ho sheet was the cover sheet for a range of great activities based on the Thinkers Key.

ChristmasThinkersKey2

The second sheet also considered a variety of activities based on the Thinkers Key

christmas thinkers key

The Green sheet showed some how to consider Christmas from the Blooms Model.

Christmas with Blooms

I also gave you a CD and didn’t get a chance to talk you through some of it.  I’ll try here:

Advent Calender Template is a groovy way you can use PowerPoint to count down the days and get different children designing the slides for each day.

AdventCalenderTemplate

Some codes.

CodeCracker

Christmas_CodesPictures

Sudoku within the theme.  These would be great for the Juniors.

XmasSudoko1

XmasSudoko2

XmasSudoko3

XmasSudoko4

A great activity for oral language work.

Christmas_Tree_OralInstructions

There were also some great links that I wanted to share that might give you some ideas.

This is the link for a writing lesson using bought Christmas Cards as the prompt

http://www.successlink.org/GTI/lesson_unit-viewer.asp?lid=3013

A nice activity which links art with maths.  Students have a ‘budget’ with which to purchase materials to make an angel.  Simple maths involved would suit juniors.

http://www.successlink.org/GTI/lesson_unit-viewer.asp?lid=3823

Bright students love jokes.  Here’s a good page.

http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/customs/Xmas/santajokes.htm

Upper primary activity which nicely links Pascal’s Triangle with “The Twelve Days of Christmas”.

Hard, but worthwhile.

http://dimacs.rutgers.edu/~judyann/LP/lessons/12.days.pascal.html

Kinross Blooming

In this post I have included some of the resources I shared during the PD session.  Don’t forget that some of the files are also available on your school network or in the resources folder I have left in the staffroom.  Thankyou again for the enthusiasm during the session.  You made me feel at ease.

Here is the link to the example that shows how Bloom’s questions can be generated easily for any viewing activity.

http://www.learnnc.org/lp/media/articles/bloom0405-3/bloompix.html

This is a great play using Bloom’s.  I didn’t get the chance to talk about this but it might be useful for people who are interested in introducing Bloom’s more formally with their students and could be helpful in getting students to understand the different levels.  It’s called “The Big Bad Wolf Meets the Blooms”

blooms-play3

Here’s an example of Bloom’s is used for the topic “Investigating a Book”.  Great ideas to extend individual students who are avid readers.

investigate-a-book-the-blooming-smart-way1

This is useful to see the connections that can be made between Bloom’s and Science.

blooms-experiment-form1

Here’s a document that has attempted to link actions and products as they might relate to the various levels.  Could be useful as a checklist to see the range of products that you are asking of your students.

blooms-planning-sheet1

The following link has a heap of units based on Bloom’s that you can easily download in word or pdf.  A range of topics and year levels ranging from the zoo, frogs, politics to the Wizard of Oz.

http://www.cap.nsw.edu.au/teachers/tech_based_resources/mi_pages/index.htm

Please don’t hesitate to email me or post to this blog with any other ideas or resources that you have come across.

Merry Christmas

Thanks for the opportunity to speak at today’s staff meeting.  Here are the links to the resources I mentioned.

 

 

This is the link for a writing lesson using bought Christmas Cards as the prompt.http://www.successlink.org/GTI/lesson_unit-viewer.asp?lid=3013

A nice activity which links art with maths.  Students have a ‘budget’ with which to purchase materials to make an angel.  Simple maths involved would suit juniors.  http://www.successlink.org/GTI/lesson_unit-viewer.asp?lid=3823

A worksheet of simple maths sums, which serve to help with working out the code for Christmas jokes.http://www.primaryresources.co.uk/other/docs/christmas_jokes.doc

A neat little problem solving activity for middle and upper primary.  Students have to choose a menu for the wise men based on certain conditions. http://www.primaryresources.co.uk/other/pdfs/Christmas_cafe_problem.pdf

Listening skills, oral language activitity.  Students follow set instructions to decorate the Christmas treehttp://www.primaryresources.co.uk/other/docs/Christmas_Tree_Thinking_Skills.doc

Great questions based on the Twelve days of Christmas, creating snowflakes, and activity based on area and perimeterhttp://www.primaryresources.co.uk/topic/pdfs/Christ-Maths.pdf

Great open ended maths activity using maths addition skills to make codes for Christmas words.http://www.primaryresources.co.uk/other/pdfs/cracker.pdf

A powerpoint template of an advent calender.  You could get students to design their own page which could be revealed in the countdown to Christmas.http://www.primaryresources.co.uk/other/powerpoint/adventcalendar_template.ppt

Sudoko with Christmas symbols to print out.http://math.about.com/od/sudokupuzzles/ss/xmassud.htm

Online Christmas puzzle games:

Stained glass windows  http://www.akidsmath.com/mathgames/stglass.html

Sudoko  http://www.akidsmath.com/mathgames/sudoku/sudokuchistmsl.htm

Bright students love jokes.  Here’s a good page.http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/customs/Xmas/santajokes.htm

Upper primary activity which nicely links Pascal’s Triangle with “The Twelve Days of Christmas”.  Hard, but worthwhile.http://dimacs.rutgers.edu/~judyann/LP/lessons/12.days.pascal.html

 

Picture puzzles of well know Christmas song titles.  http://www.santalady.com/xmasgame/xmassong.html

A wonderful way to develop vocabulary and thinking skills by using Christmas song Titles. Can be used for all year levels.

http://canadaonline.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?zi=1/XJ/Ya&sdn=canadaonline&cdn=newsissues&tm=30&gps=103_759_1020_599&f=00&tt=14&bt=1&bts=1&zu=http%3A//www.education-world.com/a_lesson/03/lp327-02.shtml

Blooms Christmas Resourceshttp://www.theteacherscorner.net/seasonal/christmas/australian.htm

CBP PD 1st Feb, 2008

I really enjoyed the session.  As I mentioned all of the information and links are mentioned throughout this blog.  You will have to scan through to find them.  It should be easy enough, but let me know if I mentioned something at the session that you think I should post on here. 

The link is for Scratch.  There are great resources ideas on the site.  Let me know how you go.

 www.scratch.mit.edu

Support for Parents

At the network meeting we discussed the need to provide parents with assistance and support.  Parenting gifted children is not easy and there are many resources to tap into.  In particular I talked about GATCA.  Here’s the link.  It is also interesting from a teaching point of view.

http://www.gatcawa.org/

GIFT Network Meeting 30-10-07

Thanks for your attendance at today’s meeting.  As promised here is the information I promised I would post.

Blooms Taxonomy Information.

The first link provides great prompts for question and task ideas at the various levels. http://www.teachers.ash.org.au/researchskills/dalton.htm

The following link takes you to the site which has many complete units of study on a variety of themes, in Word format. http://www.cap.nsw.edu.au/teachers/tech_based_resources/MI_pages/INDEX.HTM

This link is a great example of how you can utilise Blooms in Viewing and Speaking and Listening.http://www.learnnc.org/lp/media/articles/bloom0405-3/bloompix_files/navigation.htm

 There are other great resources on the web.  If you want some more detailed information about Blooms then check out this powerpoint.  A quick but great way to get yourself more familiar in this area.

http://www.kurwongbss.eq.edu.au/thinking/Bloom/bloomspres.ppt

Exploring Number Systems

Comparing Number Systems WorksheetAt previous PD sessions I have shared some activities I suggested about looking at different Number systems with students.  I think this is a great topic to explore.  So much of our time during Maths lessons is spent on place value and number work.  For bright students who get it,  this can be extremely frustrating and boring.  

Providing opportunities for students to explore other number systems and letting them create their own can be a great way to manage a class.  While you are working with the students who need it, others can still engage in the kind of work you are doing but by trying to apply other number systems.

I got some Year 2’s to investigate  the Egyptian and Greek Number Systems.  These are relatively simple.  I have included a document which you can use with the students to let them compare the systems. 

The links I have included provide you with some background info about them and the symbols that are used.  Any of the upper primary maths texts should have information about them too.  It’s really interesting to let the students use these number systems  and discover and discuss them.  Our system is known as the Hindu Arabic system.  Getting the students to discuss how ours is more efficient is really worthwhile.  These kinds of activities are a great springboard for them then to  creat their own number systems by designing their own symbols.

http://www-groups.dcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/~history/HistTopics/Greek_numbers.html

http://www-groups.dcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/~history/HistTopics/Egyptian_numerals.html

Whilst these creative processes are fantastic, you need to make sure to take it that step further and provide plenty of opportunities for them to make use of their number systems in classroom situations.  This then becomes an excellent way for them to test their creations and make modifications as required. 

Working Smart 4-7 Professional Development Session

I wanted to take this opportunity to thank the teachers that attended Monday’s session.  I appreciated your positive feedback and I would like to provide you with some extra information that I wanted to include but forgot or rushed through.

 1.  Thank you for being advocates for these students.  They do need you to ensure they reach their potential.

2.  The open ended resource book I referred to is:

Open-ended Maths Activities by Peter Sullivan and Pat Lilburn.   Oxford University Press, Victoria.  2005

3.  Counting on Frank, Rod Clement.  Angus &Robertson 1990 was the book I mention as being excellent for basing mathematical investigations around.   Please check out the link at the PEAC Website on

http://www.supacool.com/westcoast/index.php?page=10

4.  Competitions

I briefly mentioned this at the end.  I do think that this is an area that could be explored between some of your schools.  I know some schools already are involved in such competitions as debating and chess.  I would love to hear from anyone who is supportive of the idea of establishing some other academically based competitions between your schools.

Please email me if you want any information from the session electronically.  I hope you all have a great term.

Working Smart K-3 Professional Development Session

Thankyou for attending the session yesterday.  I wanted to take this opportunity to reflect on the session and provide you with some further information.  The session was so rushed and I again tried to include too much.

 I’ve gone back over my notes and here are some comments I wanted to include.

1.  I think the gifted and talented students in your classes and schools are lucky to have you as advocates.  Your attendance at such sessions indicates that you do think that these students need assistance to reach their potential.   

2.  Parents are partners.  Your acknowledgement of a student’s  giftedness is a relief to parents who really only want support and understanding. 

3.  I spoke about Literature to use with teaching Mathematics.  Here is a link which provides heaps of books that are suitable.

http://math.cofc.edu/faculty/kasman/MATHFICT/default.html

4.  The link for the information on K and PP students is at

www.qagtc.org.au/ideas1.htm

And finally I forgot to mention and promote the GIFT Network that we have up and running.

This is a network of K-3 teachers interested in sharing ideas to cater for the Gifted and Talented students in their classes.  We had 40 teachers attend last time and it would be wonderful to see you there next time.  The next meeting is on Tuesday September 11th, 4 – 6pm at Mount Claremont PEAC Centre.  A flyer promoting the meeting will be sent to schools on Friday.  Have a great term.

Symmetry Ideas

            Symmetry is a wonderful area of Maths that has so many possibilities for students to explore.

I really love the Soup ‘N Such Activity.  The full details of the activity can be found at

http://www.successlink.org/gti/gti_lesson.asp?lid=3632

Another great activity involves the students using their understanding of symmetry to design their own corporate logo.  The website offers student activity sheets so this would be easy to give to students.  The details can be found at

http://www.pbs.org/teachers/mathline/concepts/designandmath/activity2.shtm