Welcome Sheera our new class pet (RIP Leonardo)!

Farewell sweet Leonardo

You may remember Leonardo the turtle our lovely class pet from one of my previous posts. Sadly Leonardo did not survive his last trip home with a student (lost, chewed by a dog or destroyed by a sibling I’ve been told). The class were upset at first but quickly forgot poor Leonardo after their kind teacher told them she would get us another class pet. Not to be mistaken for a softy the children have been told that the loss of the next pet would mean no more class pets!

It was an extensive process choosing another pet. The class was the ones making the decisions.

First was a suggestion of animals (tiger, shark, giraffe, turtle, crocodile and snake).

Voting for an animal

Next a class vote on the type of animal.  Each student recorded votes on paper. They were placed in a tin then drawn out and recorded in a tally next to each animal name.  Tiger was the winning vote.

The votes are in

Tallying the votes

Students loved tallying the votes (they didn't even know it was maths)!

The final numbers

Next Mrs Hayley had to track down a stuffed tiger toy. The mission was finally accomplished by donating to the World Wildlife Fund who then sends a stuffed animal, bag, adoption certificate and photo. 

While we waited for the tiger to come from the USA to Australia another vote occurred to decide whether the tiger was a girl or a boy. Girl won this time.

Then we started thinking about names. Some of the suggestions were Nala, Sheera, Tiger, Stripy and Alice. The winner: Sheera.

It took a few weeks to finally get Sheera to our remote island home.

She has finally arrived.

Sheera the Tiger

After her first week she has sat with students during our carpet time, sat on desks to help with work, played tennis and with hula-hoops, participated in reading groups and helped us with our math. Sheera goes home with students on the weeknights in a special bag with a writing book and pencil. She has been home with 2 students for a sleepover. They have both returned Sheera (unharmed) and presented their talks about what they did with Sheera.

Reading, hula-hoops and tennis fun!

Going home for a sleepover.

The next sleepover

Once again it is great to have a class pet. The students have fallen in love with Sheera and want to spend any time they can holding her in class. It has been great to help with behaviour management, oral language, confidence, writing and hopefully more responsibility looking after her at home!

I’ll be trying to share more Sheera adventures throughout the rest of the year.

Does anyone else have a class pet? Have you thought about donating to WWF. Click here to head over to their website. I’d love to hear your class pet stories.

 
Don't forget to follow

 

Meet Leonardo

Leonardo

This is Leonardo. He is our class pet. We will be looking after him in the classroom AND the students will get to take Leonardo home for a night and have a sleepover. Leonardo will also come with a book that the students will write in and share what they have done with Leonardo. Hopefully it will be things like do homework, watch TV, read a story and not things like go for a swim in saltwater, get drawn on by my sister, have dinner spilled on me! The students will then share their adventure with a short presentation in the morning to help develop oral language and confidence.

Leonardo was introduced on Monday. He came in the post on our weekly barge. The kids were so excited to meet him. We decided he was a ‘he’ not a she and also picked his name through a class vote. Some of the suggestions were quite funny: Squirt (came from me to get the ball rolling and comes from Finding Nemo) and Crush (also Finding Nemo). Then there was; Milo, Fred, Leonardo and Brian! The votes were counted and Leonardo it was.

Writing with Leonardo

Culture with Leonardo

This week he has been a nice companion when sitting on the carpet for whole class lessons. Even the fidgety little ones have held him carefully and still. He has sat on our desks to help with work and has been on playground duty with me (the year 6/7 kids think I’m nuts).  Today he had culture with us and now he is preparing for next week when he will go home with the first child.

 

Leonardo helping with insect drawing

This weekend I will be making his book, his bag (waterproof – and you know why) and also a little note for parents with a wish that Leonardo returns to class each time!!

I’m looking forward to seeing how his first trip goes!

Back in the Swing

Week 2 of school for 2014 and we are back into the swing of things. We are into our reading, writing, spelling, sight words, maths, science, health, visual art and history work. Phew!

Homework started this week and I’m happy to say the kids said, “YES!” with fists pumping in the air. Wow, that was a shock. I didn’t realise they were that into it. I know there are times when I have a groan about making it, printing it and photocopying it. Last year I swapped and changed a bit with what I sent home but this year I think I’ve got it all figured out (so far).

The students in my class take home:

* 1 home reader for year 1 and 3 for year 2

* a spelling list in a homework book with instructions on how to practice the words each week

* a page of sight words to learn to read

* a page of maths work

Reading bookmark for fiction and non-fiction texts

I send home as much information as I can to parents to help them help their children. I’ve made this reading bookmark for students and parents to use at home together. It has questions for before, during and after reading and has fiction questions on one side and non-fiction questions on the other. I know many parents don’t realise that reading and comprehension starts before opening a book and continues after it has been read. I hope that this “little something extra” can assist families at home. This is not just for teachers but parents too! You can download it for free here or find it in my freebies page.

Magic 100 Super Sight Words homework pack

Super Sight Words homework page

Something else I’ve refined is my sight word homework. I have made lists for each of our Magic 100 and Magic 200 words that can be used at home, then one side is returned to class signed by the student and parent while the other is left at home for future use. I love the 'super sight word' theme. You can check out my sight words homework list for Magic 100 here and Magic 200 here and don’t forget to have a browse through the rest of my Teachers Pay Teachers store. I'm currently working on words 201-300 and 301-400 for the kids who have finished the other lists.

We’ll see how much the kids enjoy their homework after this week. Already I’ve had about 6 students bring it back after one night even though its not due til next Monday. They are so cute. I think they just enjoy bringing something to and from school.

I’d love to hear about other homework systems and thoughts. Feel free to leave a comment below.

Until next time,