Poetry and Science - Twinkle Twinkle Little Star
National Poetry Day is on 4th October. The themes is STARS.
October 4th is also the first day of World Space Week.
Wouldn't it be great to use the two to complement each other?
Inspire2Learn has two Magic Planets which can be used in the centre or borrowed. It also has the Immersive Room with its Space presentations where you can take off in the shuttle, visit the planets and gaze at the stars.
This also fits in neatly, for me, as I have just purchased Carol Ann Duffy's New & Collected Poems for Children (Faber & Faber 2010 ISBN 978-0-571-21969-8). I've not read much of her stuff but was really impressed with many of the poems in this collection of hers:-
The dark is a little black dress
to show off the sequin stars. (From Don't be scared)
I need to go off now and research Space Poems. I don't remember any of my favourite poets (Blake, Patten, McGough, Henri, Mitchell) writing much with stars and space in, but I'll discover a few forgotten gems in the search.
Song lyrics are poetry, so I'm off in search of Don McLean's Starry Starry Night. Now, is it on vinyl or CD? I smell more nostalgia.
I've used iPads in a couple of schools very successfully. A teacher in one of the schools, where a set of iPads are for general use, asked me about resources for teaching about China. I provided her with a number of general resources and over the summer have concentrated on finding apps for the iPad which might be useful to her. Here's a summary (all apps have been downloaded at no cost):-
News
Art
Language (suitable for primary)
- calligraphy
- pronunciation
- numbers
Geography
History
Music - to listen to and to play on the touchscreen
Stories (often in Chinese and English)
- especially the tales of Monkey which take me back to the TV programme
Using the VGA projector output, having these apps on even one iPad could provided stimulus for discussion and research.
After a year, I've decided to discontinue my newsletter and concentrate on this blog instead. Although the newsletter was bright and cheerful, it did not lead to many enquiries from schools. Schools have their own schemes and priorities and I need to address this. The final newsletter will go out at the weekend.
I thought I'd drop in an image of the NAACE Key Stage 1 & 2 ICT Framework without comment.
I've been exploring Lego Mindstorms over the summer, not for construction, but programming and data-logging. It taxes this old brain and finances. I already offer Data Harvest data-logging which, despite being enjoyed by pupils, never seems to really take off and become integrated into schemes of work. Finally, I am enjoying the challenge of Scratch programming which I'm sure primary children will have little problems getting to grips with.
Please feel free to contact me if anything piques your interest.
I still offer free in-school consultation visits.
I've had my iPad a few months now and have worked with a couple of schools using them.
My best teaching experience (and there were several) involved making an interview with an Olympic athlete. Children (Y4) wrote the dialogue of an interview, recorded the interview, used Morpho to animate photos of their athlete and interviewer and then brought the whole thing together with titles and credits in iMovie. This was an afternoon activity that I thought they might struggle to complete. However, all groups completed the task with time to spare and very big grins.
On a personal level, these are the apps that I've enjoyed the most:-
The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr Morris Lesmore (costs)
Little Fox Music Box (free)
NASA Spacecraft 3D (free)
My wife is addicted to Pengword (free).
I'm hoping that in the months to come I'll be able to get more involved with children using apps to communicate their knowledge, skills and creativity.
Rackham's Fairy Tale Colouring Book
I've done a fair bit on traditional tales recently and picking this book up made me think of all the great illustrators and artistic styles that we can introduce children to, in addition to the stories. For example if we take Little Red Riding Hood
Also, we can progress this idea to linking illustrators to modern children's writers. Here I have to plug my two favourite illustrators - Charles Keeping and Chris Riddell.
Finally, I'll draw a line under this by referring you to an exploration of free children's books for the iPad and the recent comments by Chris Riddell about the future of books and illustration:-
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2012/aug/12/chris-riddell-new-era-illustration
