A Lazy School Day

On Friday we steered clear of the curriculum and had a lazy school day ... okay not so lazy. We are coming up to the end of the school year and have very little work left to do. The count down is up on the board at the children's insistence but I am not really enjoying watching the numbers go down and knowing that this also marks about how long it is until I leave. I like the kids though am happy that the holidays are creeping ever closer.

We did maths worksheets I made up as well as some I printed out.

This sheet can be found here.

 

 

We made cool crab crackers for smoko with Jatz, dip, cheese, carrot and sultanas.

 

We played a dice game called 'roll a turtle' that involved drawing a turtle by the number rolled.

 

We wrote acrostic poems about something from the ocean and made bright balancing crabs.

This activity and printout can be found here

We finished reading the second 'Rowan of Rin' book by Emily Rodda which the kids LOVED and we practised dances for our end of school musical. We then finished the school day on a high note playing computer games and drinking choc banana smoothies.

 

The evening saw Boss Lady H and myself heading down to the house dam to start the pump so we had water (long story short the windmill is broken). Imagine our surprise when we almost walked into a roo and then saw a lone pelican on the very low dam.

 

 As the light faded I got a snap of the three boys perched on a rock watching their Dads bring the weaners back after a day out tailing them.

 

 

Scrabble Letters Activity

Last week we used scrabble letters (the ones without magnets) to practise our spelling words. I put the scrabble letters in a tray in the middle of the floor. The kids chose 5 words from their spelling list that they thought were tricky and wrote them in a notebook. They then spelt the words with the scrabble tiles and added together the numbers on each tile to find out how much their word was worth and which word was worth the most. Even Mr Yr1 got in on this although his long words made for tricky adding but he got there with a little help to keep him adding on the right number.

 

 Mr T even got in on the action making 'words' and finding every letter T and E in the tray.

 

Tuesday - Mail Day

Tuesdays are our mail day. It used to be Tuesday and Friday but something happened along the way this year (it did start off being to do with a missing road) and now we are reduced to mail once a week. The thing about mail coming in so unoften is that every mail day is like Christmas. You wait with bated breath for parcels you know are coming to arrive or for a letter that might come (who cares if it is a bill, at least somebody sent something). Even in this age of computers, email and facebook I still love snail mail. I think I love it more because receiving an actual personal letter from someone is so rare.

Now I know that I have already posted about this here but well there is nothing like doing it again just in a different location. On Tuesday we received some long awaited mail from the school. Finally Unit 6 arrived. The unit was to have officially started on Monday and I am certain there were many parents and Home Tutors (Govies) who were champing at the bit for it to arrive so they could have started it already. Not us, we are catching up after time off school.

Until unit papers arrive we have to go onto the Education Queensland Blackboard site and print the papers for the kids to use. The papers are designed to use on the computer as they are all pdf documents but it is easier for the kids to write on them plus they get the added benefit of writing and being able to show working the right way oh and the fact that you don't use all the paper and ink. I went through half a 700 reem of paper in under a week at one stage. Four kids use a lot of paper and make it impossible to do it on the computer without four or more reliable computers (we have that) that are all connected to the internet (hmm we fall down here). But all that is beside the point.



What arrived in our school mail was Unit 6 Maths, English, Spelling and CLC (like social science and science combined) or Science for yr1, 4 and 7. We also received the yr 4 QCAT test without the stimulus text for English (got it later by email after requesting it). We received book club magazines that the order date had passed on, again. Then most excitedly for Miss S we received books sent by her teacher from the school library. Exciting stuff ... well it is for us.

On that note I am going to send the hundreds of post packs collected in our cupboard back to school I am sure one box will be enough rather that the three or more stashed in there, especially as we scan and email most work to school.

Terrible Tuesdays

Tuesdays would have to be our busiest day of the week. They are jam packed with on airs and someone is always on the phone, or so it seems. Miss S still thinks Mondays are the worst however I think that has more to do with them just being Monday. 

As they are so overloaded and hectic I thought I would give you the Tuesday run down.

Note that the time increments change according to how busy we are.  My On Air time table in the schoolroom is in 15min increments up until smoko and then changes to half hour.

 Reading Lessons are 15min, Learning Support Lessons are 1/2 hour and On Air with teachers are 1hour. We fit everything around these lessons from papers to meal breaks.

8am

• Start school: date change, Mr Yr1 does yesterday, today and tomorrow, 
• Spelling: look, say, cover, write, check and spelling revision activity
• Maths revision activity

8:30am

• Miss Yr 7 On Air lesson with class teacher
• Mr Yr 4 on air learning support
• Miss Yr 4 Maths
• Mr Yr1 Maths

9am

• Miss Yr 7 On Air lesson with class teacher
• Mr Yr 4 Maths
• Miss Yr 4 Maths
• Mr Yr 1 On Air Reading (until 9:15am)

9:15am

• Miss Yr 7 On Air lesson with class teacher
• Mr Yr 4 Maths
• Miss Yr 4 Maths
• Mr Yr 1 Maths

9:30am

• Miss Yr 7 Maths
• Mr Yr 4 Maths
• Miss Yr4 On Air reading lesson 
• Mr Yr 1 Maths

9:45am

• Miss Yr 7 Maths
• Mr Yr 4 On Air reading lesson
• Miss Yr 4 Maths
• Mr Yr 1 Maths

10am

• Smoko

 10:30am

• Multiplication Practice
• Miss Yr 7 Maths (and if we get lucky some English to)
• Mr Yr 4 Maths / English
• Miss Yr 4 Maths / English
• Mr Yr 1 Maths / English

11:00am

•  Miss Yr 7 On Air Japanese
• Mr Yr 4 English
• Miss Yr 4 English
• Mr Yr1 On Air with class teacher

11:30am

•  Miss Yr 7 On Air Japanese
• Mr Yr 4 English
• Miss Yr 4 English
• Mr Yr1 On Air with class teacher

12:00

•  Miss Yr 7 English
• Mr Yr 4 On Air with class teacher
• Miss Yr 4 On Air with class teacher
• Mr Yr1 English

12:30

•  Miss Yr 7 Lunch
• Mr Yr 4 On Air with class teacher
  
• Miss Yr 4 On Air with class teacher
• Mr Yr1 Lunch

1:00

• All on lunch

 1:30

•  Miss Yr 7 On Air Maths tutorial for Yr 7
• Mr Yr 4 Lunch
  
• Miss Yr 4 Lunch
• Mr Yr1 CLC

2:00pm

•  Miss Yr 7 SOSE / Science depending on what we are up to
• Mr Yr 4 CLC/ Science
  
• Miss Yr 4 CLC/ Science
• Mr Yr1 CLC and playing

This last session of the day can last varying amounts of time and depends on each child. Mr Yr 1 is usually done around 2pm on Tuesday while Mr and Miss Yr 4 are usually done at around 2:30/ 3pm. Miss Yr 7 tries to be done by 3:30pm. We try do do something fun afterwards, if we have time like art/craft, games or cooking. Sometimes though the kids just want to run around outside or bury themselves in the t.v for a while.

During the day we also fit in 'own reading' and 'own writing' when ever it works in best.

As I said Terrible Tuesday.

Station Monday

Monday got off to a rocky start which may or may not have come about from a change in routine. Then again it could have just been the MATHS ... as Mr Yr4 said at smoko "I don't like maths it is hard but I am kinda good at English, I like it better." Hmm I think it most definitely is in the attitude but then again maths is pretty tricky as far as they are concerned. Meanwhile Miss Yr 7 is acing algebra with no thanks to me that is for sure and Mr Yr 1 has certainly got direction under his belt. 

Smoko is always the turning point with Maths shelved all are a little more eager in their work well except for all the writing according to Mr Yr 1. He however has been loving looking at the 'Willy' books by Anthony Browne and is eager to see more. The Mr and Miss in Yr4 think that Folk Tales are a breeze and Miss Yr 7 is speeding through Ned Kelly faster than a bullet from a gun.

For those who were keen (which was all) and those finished work at a reasonable time (which was not all) modelling with clay was on offer. We ended up with a dinosaur and an elephant all slimed up and smoothed out by water of cause. They can now be found sun baking, well moon backing given the time of day, on the schoolroom veranda for painting at a later date.

As shadows grew long and sun began to sink Boss R and Boss H rode their tired mounts back past the houses after a day our mustering in the mud. Tack was stowed and horses were rinsed down and let go. Now that brings me to the end of a station Monday.

A Moment In Time

These photos from Friday were taken within the same minute to show the happenings in our schoolroom in one moment in time.

Mr T painting

Mr R and Miss R watching a video for English

Mr E looking through "Willy the Champ"

Miss S being very constructive and sharpening her pencil.

Thursday Thing

  

We had a Thursday Thing going yesterday ... it was the first time our new morning session layout has just clicked (perseverance), I had four children speeding through their work at a rate on knots and we spent the afternoon getting just a bit creative. We will be back to having on air lessons next week but until then we are living up the extra time we have filling it with the extra little fun things.

 

The kids wrote their spelling words in a shape of their choice.

Mr E played around with direction. He moved how the dice told him and took pictures to match the words on his direction word wall.

Miss S getting creative with clay.

Miss S's creative horse head.

Mr R making a kite as a souvenir for a kid from the Great Barrier Reef.

A crab Miss E made as one of the many things in here sea playhouse souvenir for a kid depicting the Great Barrier Reef.

A now a bit of my creativeness ...

 

 

Back to School

 

 
The wind is whistling and howling through gaps in the buildings and the wind turbines are whizzing around. Term 3 is certainly off to a wild and windy start and it seems that the rest of the week might be a bit damp around the edges, right when trucking cattle was planned.

Unwrapping the new unit something that everyone finds exciting.

Our first day back in the schoolroom was very full on with all five of the cherubs present and accounted for. All enthusiastic to be back to the school routine (that's not a joke, they miss it) after their exciting holidays. On arriving back on the station on Saturday I was greeted by 5 excited story tellers with many tales to tell. They ranged from Miss E's injuries from jumping onto a nail (went through her shoe and all) to stories of happenings in the cattle yards including Mr R's encounter with a rather nasty white steer, Boss's (the dog) close call resulting in leg injury as well as the crazy heifers breaking the cattle yard fence. Darn it, I missed it all while off having adventures of my own.

Here is a taste of today ...

Yr 4 Maths is MIA so it was back to the notebooks with revision.

ARGH a test on the first day back ... the body language says it all.

Practising numbers and counting in Yr 1

Awesome fractions tool ... makeup sponges are great for 8ths.

The fellas bringing up the bulls this morning.