Combining Reading and Following Instructions

Today we began a unit on reading instructions. We have some very good readers in this class, but too many times when they are given written instructions, they are unable to follow them. This is usually because they don't read the instructions carefully enough and miss out important information. We talked about all the times in our everyday lives that we (or our parents) need to be able to follow instructions. 

The children are very good at coding and they enjoy it. They competently complete tasks online, however they usually just code and create whatever takes their fancy, rather than following any set instructions. 

Today I handed out some instructions on coding - programming a sprite (a sprite is a creature used in coding).  It was really interesting to watch as half the class jumped on computers and logged on to where they thought they were going to be and the other half came up to me and asked which site to go on. NO ONE actually read the instructions which clearly stated in a box up the top which website they needed to got to!!!!  Guess this shows exactly why we are working on following instructions..... 

Calendar Art

Here are our wonderful works of art for you to purchase for Calendar Art. Notices about this have been sent home today. 

Science - Little Garden

Yesterday we began our Little Garden Adventure. We are having a friendly (but serious) competition with Room 2 to see which class can get their seeds to germinate the fastest. 

We have been given thirty seeds to grow. We were provided with the pots, the soil and the seeds. Our class has decided that we will use a bit of chicken poo - taken from under the roost and mixed with sawdust - and mix it with the soil we were given.  Room 2 are using their worm vermicast and worm tea on their seeds.  

We have discussed that in order to know if our chicken poo or worm poo made a difference, we need to keep everything else the same.  We know the soil, seeds and pots are the same, so both classes have put their seeds in our school bottle house so that have the same growing conditions. 

Part of our learning involved discussing what seeds needed to germinate. The children decided that seeds needed light, warmth, water, and soil.  Our next step is to carry out some experiments where we take away one of each of the elements. We made some predictions about what will happen to the seeds without each element and we'll share this when we get the experiments up and running next term. 

In the mean time here's some photos showing the process we went through to get our seeds planted. 

Here William is braving the smell in the chicken coop and gathering our secret ingredient.

These are the soil tablets - the video beside it
shows what happens when you add water

Mixing our secret chicken poo with the soil.

Carefully putting the seeds and soil in.

All planted and ready to start growing.