Archive for March, 2008

Mar

New Schedule Yet Again

I’m feeling somewhat guilty for the lack of attention I’ve paid to this blog. I’ve done a lot of neat stuff the last couple months, I just haven’t had time (or energy) to get it all down. I’ll try to be better in the future.

So our schedules have changed again.

I’m now the charge teacher for November. Sounds important… More of a pain really. I have to sit in the room between classes and contact the parents (who mostly don’t speak/read English) once a month. Oh well. I guess it’ll look good on a resume.

So what am I teaching?

March – Phonics
May – Language
July – Phonics
November – Phonics and Speaking
ShaSha (6 year olds) – Language
A3 – Math and Reading
A5 – Math
C1- Math, Science and Writing
C5 – Language and Reading
D3 – Language, Reading, Writing and Speaking
Ivy – Science, Reading, Writing and Speaking

Never a dull moment.

posted by Kathryn in Staff,Teaching and have No Comments

Mar

C1 Human Body Activities

C1 (my old B1 class) has been studying science with me for a number of months. The last chapter in their book was on the human body. There were a couple of interesting but quick projects. One involved measuring heart rate at rest and after exercise. The kids really enjoyed that one because they got to go outside and run around for 5 minutes as part of it. Basically you have them measure their heart rate just sitting in the classroom. Then you get them up and running around (works particularly well if you have access to a playground) for a couple minutes. Then you have them remeasure their heart rate. You discuss how their heart rate changed as a function of their activity level.

The other activity they did was to make a model of human lungs using two balloons, two straws and some tape. You need the bendy straws. Tape the straws together. Fan out the bendy ends (this makes the two bronchial tubes). Then tape a smallish sized balloon to the bendy end of each straw. If you make them air tight, when you breath into the balloons, they’ll inflate just like real lungs do. Here are a few pictures.

Making Lungs