Classroom Ideas Archives - Modern Teaching Blog NZ

11/01/202218/01/2022

Back-to-School Essentials

Every new school year brings with it a level of excitement for both teachers and students. It is my favourite time of the year as everyone begins with a fresh start and an enthused energy for the year ahead. For teachers, we have the privilege of getting to teach a new class of students, designing the learning space from a blank canvas, and for many, the always-elusive goal to be more organised.

In this post I will be sharing some of my must-have resources for the classroom along with my favourite beginning-of-the-year activities to get to know your students and for your students to get to know each other.

Classroom Must-Haves:
When setting up my classroom I always like to have a theme or colour scheme. Over the years some of my favourite themes that I have created have been based on butterflies, ‘Up in the Sky’ (hot air balloons, planes), the ocean and the circus. I love having the colours of the learning space, resources and display boards match to set the tone of a creative organised space that welcomes students to our class.

Some items I love to include in my classroom are;

These products can be used in a variety of ways in the classroom and the best thing is that they all match.

Lap Trays
These Lap Trays are a great addition to any junior primary classroom. They allow for flexibility in the learning space during group work and also during independent learning. I love that these trays provide students with a hard surface to complete tasks in their books so they do not need to write on the carpet or flooring. I use these daily with my students during small group work that takes place on the floor space around the class. Many students also choose to use the Lap Trays during independent learning time so they can work in a quiet spot or away from others. In my classroom, I have a beautiful courtyard outside where my students sometimes choose to go outside to work and these Lap Trays allow them to have a suitable surface to work on.

Classroom Book Caddies
These Book Caddies are a great way to store take-home readers and student books. I organise my student books in these Book Caddies and have labels on them for maths, reading, writing and inquiry books. I like having them all together for two reasons; the first being that students do not need to go to their tubs to get their specific book, rather I can either have the class captain hand the books out or I can call out student names to collect, and the second being that at the end of a learning experience students place all their books back into the Book Caddy and then I can easily view and assess their learning rather than searching through each student’s tub for their book.

Classroom Caddies
These Classroom Caddies are perfect for shared stationery and the vibrant colours stand out when placed on classroom tables. The compartments in the Classroom Caddies allow for pencils, pens, scissors, glue, rulers to be stored neatly, making them easily accessible for student use.

Classroom Caddies are also a great resource for sharing required activity materials. During STEM and Inquiry Learning activities I use the Classroom Caddies to provide each group or table with the resources they need for the specific activity. I can organise the materials prior to the lesson and, upon completion, students can return the materials in an orderly way making clean up a lot more efficient.

Chair Bags
These beautiful Chair Bags provide students with a place to store their essentials without the hassle of a tub. I love the various pocket sizes which allow for students to store their device, exercise books and the book they are reading, along with their essential classroom resources like a ruler, pencil case etc.

Beginning-of-the-Year Activities:
At the beginning of the school year the priority should be on developing relationships with your students and getting to know what they each like and are interested in. Spending time undertaking activities that highlight student personalities will support you as the teacher but also allow students to get to know each other and begin to develop new friendships. These activities also provide teachers with an insight to see how students work together, interact and complete tasks.

These are my favourite activities to get to know your students:

Jigsaw Activity:

Materials
– Jigdraw – 20 Pack
– Snap-lock bags

Each student receives a blank Jigdraw template with 20 pieces. Students draw a different image on each puzzle piece that represents something about themselves. Some ideas for images can be family, pets, hobbies, favourite food, favourite places etc.

Students place their completed Jigdraw pieces into a snap lock bag.

The snap lock bags are then randomly handed out to students who need to put the puzzle pieces together and then try to guess which student is represented by the images.

These Jigdraw blocks are also a great resource to use for students to share their learning during inquiry learning. They can then build upon their ideas and knowledge as the learning continues throughout the year.

Chalk Mindmaps

Materials – Sidewalk Chalk

Chalk is a great resource to have in any classroom. I have found the Sidewalk Chalk to be the perfect size and thickness for student use and it comes in great colours. Students can use the Sidewalk Chalk to draw directly onto concrete, but I have created blackboard-painted timber pieces for student use across many learning areas.

Students receive a number of blackboard-painted timber pieces and draw a giant Mindmap to highlight the topic they are given. The topic gets placed in the centre and then students write or draw their ideas and place them around the topic to create their giant mind map. This is a great visualisation too.

Some ideas I like to focus on at different times are;

- Looking forward to this school year
- Holiday reflection
- Inquiry brainstorm, questions, wonderings
- Spelling words
- End-of-term reflections

I hope this blog post has provided you with some inspiration to help you set up your classroom or provide you with some beginning-of-the-year activity ideas to get to know your students.

Featured Products:

About the author

Eleni Kyritsis is an award-winning Year 3 teacher and Leader of Curriculum and innovation from Melbourne, Australia. Eleni facilitates professional learning workshops around the world that focus on unleashing creativity and curiosity in classrooms. You can contact her at elenikyritis.com and @misskyritsis

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30/07/202130/07/2021

Hands-On Learning Experiences With Osmo

The Osmo range features some of my favourite classroom resources for introducing coding and integrating technology across multiple key learning areas. Today I’m going to share with you the top five things I love about Osmo. Read along to find top-rated products and resources that my students and I love to use in our classroom.

Literacy & Numeracy Integration

Osmo has a large range of apps that cater to English and mathematics curriculum links as well as literacy and numeracy general capabilities. I began my Osmo journey with the Genius Starter Kit (ages 6-10), which allowed me to explore apps such as Osmo Words, Osmo Numbers and five other great programs. The Genius Starter Kit encourages versatile use of accessories across multiple apps and allows students to explore concepts they are developing whilst extending their understanding to new settings. Purchasing the Genius Starter Kit provided me with opportunities to explore various accessories such as the word tiles, number tiles and tangram pieces. It was as simple as unpacking the box and downloading the app!

The Osmo Words app has been a crowd favourite in my learning space and fantastic for promoting letter recognition, decoding and spelling rules across various age groups. Students can work alongside a computer guide or challenge their friends to a multiplayer competition. Adjusting the ability level has allowed flexible use of the product across various users and their needs. The Osmo accessories can be purchased separately and the Osmo support team can quite often generously provide replacements. No one likes missing pieces, right?

The Osmo Math Wizard series (ages 6-8) has been recently launched, which focuses on place value and measurement concepts within the mathematics curriculum. These new additions to the Osmo range provide engaging ways to promote fluencies within these concept areas. Both programs include interactive guides, printed student workbooks, sturdy game pieces, storage solutions and game-based learning opportunities. The Osmo reflector and the interactive guide provides feedback to the child on their place value and measurement work. This app enables multiple users to create accounts which allows for the product to be used by a classroom shared audience.

$OSMO Math Wizard Place Value game on carpet$ $OSMO Math Wizard Measurement game on carpet$

The Osmo range includes various other apps such as Osmo Kaleidoscope and Osmo Tangram, which assist in promoting discrete parts of the mathematics curriculum or combining the ICT General Capability and Numeracy General Capability in your play-based learning experiences.

Projector App

The Osmo Projector app was launched during peak COVID-19 home learning in Australia. Responding to urgent requests from educators seeking the right tool to teach in an online or remote learning environment, Osmo created this free app to use in conjunction with the Osmo base and reflector. The app allows educators to scribe on whiteboards, worksheets or manipulate objects in front of the reflector and base, and the iPad will display this in the correct orientation for viewers. When combined with online conferencing platforms such as Zoom or by using AirPlay to stream from your device to LED displays in the classroom, this provides an innovative way to use your iPad as a projector for face-to-face and virtual learning.

In my classroom, I AirPlay my iPad to my Macbook which is displayed on my LED TV screen. I use the Projector app to illustrate sequencing concepts such as arrows and patterns from my work station, allowing all students to view this live-action while I’m modelling a lesson to the class. A benefit to this app is that you can screen record your learning experience and upload it to online portfolios or live cast during online conferencing.

Coding Starter Kit

The Osmo Coding Starter Kit (ages 5-10) provides users with access to the Osmo Coding Awbie, Osmo Coding Jam and Osmo Coding Duo apps. These hands-on learning apps provide various ways to access the Digital Technologies curriculum concepts of directional sequencing, algorithms and abstraction. This kit provides fabulous introductory and intermediate learning opportunities with self-paced programs and built-in computer support guides. With a mix between structured learning tasks and free-play opportunities, the Coding Starter Kit is a go-to product of mine as a Specialist Digital Technologies teacher. Plus, if the students are begging to use them at lunch time- the resources must be fairly awesome!

I use these resources in my Digital Technologies lessons, lunch-time coding clubs and before/after school at the students’ requests. To introduce the activities, I model and co-complete tasks with the students first and then allow them to continue to complete the programs independently. After a couple of structured lessons, my students can now access this resource as an independent activity as a fast-finisher task.

Osmo Pizza Co.

The Osmo Pizza Co. Game is easily my personal favourite game to play using the Osmo base and reflector. Have you ever watched a child play a game where you are itching to move them aside so that you can have a go? You will feel that way with this game. The premise of the game is to serve customers in a pizza shop by taking orders then preparing and presenting pizzas to the customers. Additional curriculum links can be made to financial mathematics as the user is also responsible for billing the customers at the end of their visit. As the timer counts down and the customer lines grow longer, you’ll find your competitive side shines as you succeed as a virtual small business pizza shop owner.

Storage

Storage! The thing that makes almost every educator’s heart sing. Osmo considers their storage to make it easy for students and teachers alike to grab-and-go with their products. Every accessory and starter kit comes in durable storage solutions that allow every piece to have its own home. As someone who owns various Osmo kits, I organise the storage containers into a large plastic container so students know exactly how to access the resources when needed. The items stack together neatly and come with clear, colour-coordinated labels which means even my youngest students can find what they’re looking for and pack them away efficiently.

There you have it! My top five favourite things about the Osmo range! Osmo has made a positive difference in my classroom and has been a fantastic way to easily and efficiently integrate technology across multiple key learning areas.

Featured Products:

Osmo Genius Starter Kit

Osmo Coding Starter Kit

Osmo Pizza Co. Starter Kit

About the Author

Taylor is a Specialist Digital Technologies Teacher. In her five years of teaching, she has found a passion for integrating a range of technologies into her classroom and strives to share these experiences with those around her. Follow Taylor along in her teaching journey on Instagram @taylorteachestech

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05/03/2021

Using Sphero Specdrums In The Classroom

Specdrum ring and Boomwhackers with tablet

Since the development of Sphero 2.0 and more recently SPRK+ and BOLT, Spheros have become one of the most popular tools in schools all around the world to teach students the fundamentals of coding and computational thinking. As these technologies continue to iterate and improve, so do the opportunities to empower our students’ learning experiences with creative lesson design.

Sphero has released a new product in Specdrums. The Specdrums are rings that connect via Bluetooth to the Specdrums MIX or EDU apps, to create and play music, sounds or recorded audio when the rings touch specific colours. The great thing with Specdrums is that the rings can pick up on colours on any material, plastic, paper and even the paint on walls, making their use very versatile in the classroom.

The two apps you can use with Specdrums are;

Specdrums EDU App

The Specdrums EDU app connects via Bluetooth to the Specdrums rings. It allows students to use the pre-programmed sound packs which include instruments, synths, strings, animals and sound effects. Students have the ability to create and record their own sounds. Students then link their sounds to specific colours, and when the Specdrums rings touch that colour the associated sound will play. When students have finalised their Specdrums colour codes they can be shared with others via the apps QR creator feature.

Specdrums MIX App

The Specdrums MIX app uses the Specdrums mat, which comes together with the Specdrums rings when purchased. It allows students to become their own DJ by exploring and creating their own musical remixes. Students have the ability to record their own voice and sounds that can then be played back when the ring touches the specific colours of the mat.

Sphero Specdrums was originally designed with the intention to create and produce music. Along with its use in the music classroom, Specdrums can be integrated and linked to other curriculum areas with creative lesson design. Here are some of my favourite integrated Specdrums lesson ideas;

Music
Students can explore and remix their own music by changing the colours to respond to notes and music scales in both the Specdrums EDU and the MIX apps. Within the EDU app students can click and select different instruments to play including the piano and stringed instruments, linking the notes to various colours which can be customised accordingly.

Boomwhackers Lesson:
Boomwhackers are eight polyethylene coloured percussion tubes perfectly tuned to the C major scale. As students learn about the specific sounds each note makes they can associate these with the various colours of the Boomwhackers. Using the Specdrums ring, students can then replicate these colours with the same scale.

ART
Students can bring their art masterpieces to life by creating sounds or recording explanations that are played when the Sphero Specdrums touches specific parts of their artwork.

Primary & Secondary Colours
When learning about primary and secondary colours, students can create art pieces and programme the Specdrums ring to pick up on colours within their art piece to explain their learning. For example, when the Sphero Specdrums touches a particular colour students can record themselves explaining what happens when that colour is mixed with another.

Feelings/ Emotions
Using a provocation such as the movie ‘Inside Out’ or the picture book ‘Feel A Little: Little Poems About Big Feelings’ by Jenny Palmer, students can learn about the various emotions we experience through coloured characters. Using the Sphero Specdrums, students can explain how they feel by touching the various colours with the Sphero Specdrums to explain their feelings. Students can create a remix of sounds and have other students try to guess what emotion they are trying to portray through the use of colour and sound.

Unit of Inquiry – Melbourne
With creative lesson design there are many ways to integrate the Sphero Specdrums into your units of work.

Connecting to our Year 3 unit looking at the History of Melbourne, students used the Sphero Specdrums together with a Sphero Bolt to create a model of the city of Melbourne. Students researched information about the unique buildings in Melbourne and then used coloured dots to create an interactive model where others could listen to their researched explanation. (Read previous post to read about how the Sphero Bolt was used to move the trams through the city)

Interactive Posters:
Students create posters or brochures all the time to showcase their learning on a range of topics. Using the Sphero Specdrums, students can enhance their completed product by recording themselves read and explain each key informative aspect of their work for others to listen and learn from. Here are two examples of interactive posters;

There are so many ways to use the Sphero Specdrums in the classroom. This new technology has only been available for a very short period of time and is continually being developed and improved to transform teaching and learning in our classrooms.

How have you used the Specdrums in your classroom?

About the author

Eleni Kyritsis is an award-winning Year 3 teacher and Leader of Curriculum and innovation from Melbourne, Australia. Eleni facilitates professional learning workshops around the world that focus on unleashing creativity and curiositrobotoic in classrooms. You can contact her at elenikyritis.com and @misskyritsis

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09/10/202027/10/2021

Spark The Christmas Imagination

Christmas Craft Images on String Line & Pegs with Christmas themed background

Christmas is such a delightful time of the year. The anticipation of this joyous occasion brings such an amazing atmosphere to the art room as the impending holidays approach. Students of all ages embrace the opportunity to create festive-themed pieces that are treasured on trees and shelves in their family homes. With such a wide array of art and craft that can be produced, the hardest part is choosing what to create!

Christmas Wreath

We hang them with such love and care on our doors during the Christmas period as a symbol of family and eternity, it is only fitting that they should feature in any festive crafting project.
This wreath kit is just perfect as you can make it as is or you can add your own unique touches to it. The creating process will build and develop fine motor skills as each strand of yarn is attached to the cardboard ring. Students can personalise their wreaths with different coloured yarn, extra pompoms, bows, buttons, bells or even felt cut-outs. I have used the centre cardboard circle and some yarn to make a bow. This would be a lovely addition to any Christmas tree.

Featured Products:
Wreath Yarn Kit
Red Acrylic Yarn
White Acrylic Yarn

Paper Angel

What a classic, the Christmas angel has been re-imagined in so many ways in classrooms and art rooms alike. Their angelic form and principal position on any tree make them a delight to create.
This version can be produced simplistically or can have all the bells and whistles added to it to make it sparkle bright. The basis for the angel is paper which can be white cartridge paper or tissue paper that is then concertina folded. When using cartridge paper students can use gold and silver pens to add patterns before folding. The heart-shaped doilies are divine for this project, just the ideal shape to fashion wings and an elaborate collar for the angel’s dress before adding a Magiclay head adorned in glitter. A halo can be made from various materials such as armature wire or a tinsel pipe cleaner and is the perfect finishing touch for an angel that will capture many hearts.

Featured Products:
Coloured Tissue Paper
Gold Heart Shaped Doileys
Candy Coloured Paper Magiclay
Creatistics Glitter Shakers

Christmas Printmaking

There are so many different symbols that we associate with Christmas time. Printmaking is a wonderful process to use to give your students’ illustrations a new life. Using the A4 printing foam, a Christmas-inspired drawing and a blunt pencil or ballpoint pen students can transfer their design onto the printing plate which can be cut to any size or shape. The creative process from here is limitless where different backgrounds can be created to apply the print such as tissue paper collages, watercolour washes and textured papers.

Featured Products:
A4 Printing Foam
Coloured Tissue Paper
Printing Ink

Australiana Christmas

From Santas on surfboards to kangaroos pulling a ute sleigh, an Australiana Christmas is unique and wonderful and is the inspiration for this artwork using a glass cloche. This activity has a lovely depth to it as it combines sculpture and drawing. Students can imagine Australian Christmas scenes, drawing the background on paper to curve around the glass cloche, and then add to their scene with Magiclay models. A task that will have their imaginations running wild with a hint of humour. This piece will be treasured by all and is one that all children will place on the shelf every year during the festive period.

Featured Products:
Candy Coloured Paper Magiclay
Glass Cloche

Gingerbread People

A character that has inspired songs and been in movies, the beloved gingerbread man has personality and style.
The Felt Gingerbread Sewing Kit comes complete to assemble your very own plush gingerbread person. Fantastic for beginner sewing skills with the pre-cut holes, the plastic needle supplied glides through to make each stitch. Once the student’s gingerbread person is filled with stuffing then the creativity can begin. Use the accessories supplied with the kit to bring them to life or give students the option of other craft materials such as buttons, fabric, glitter and felt shapes and pieces to add their own unique touches.

Featured Product:
Felt Gingerbread Sewing Kit

Paper Bag Elf

It would not be Christmas without Santa’s fabulous little helpers, the elves, busily working away in the toy shop. Inspired by “The Elf on the Shelf” this paper bag sculpture will enhance any students paper techniques. From concertina folds to jack-in-the-box springs, this elf has it all. Two Christmassy-coloured paper bags form the base shapes that are packed with low gsm paper, closed and glued together to form the head and body. Now it is time to add character using patterned paper. This step is where each student can make their own creative choices to decide what their elf will look like. From bows to buttons and hats, each student can give their elf a unique style.

Featured Products:
Christmas Coloured Paper Bags
Handmade Christmas Paper

Christmas Cards

Christmas wishes and joy are spread across the globe in folded pieces of card and paper. Students love giving these to their families as well as their friends. There are so many different materials you can use to create, and these natural coloured cards are the perfect canvas for creative ideas to adorn their surfaces. Buttons are so versatile, and students can imagine them into anything.

Featured Products:
Natural Cards and Envelopes
Christmas Coloured Buttons
Christmas Sequins Mix

How do you spark the Christmas imagination in your learning environment? We’d love to hear from you!

About the Author
Olivia is a specialist Visual Art Teacher in an ELC, primary and secondary school setting. She has a broad breadth of experience with inquiry learning and is an IBO-qualified educator. Olivia particularly enjoys developing Visual Art units around STEAM which include electronics, technology and science concepts.

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