Hey There.....

[Kathy Ellen]

Hello to all of my friends in FG....



Just stopping by to say hi to all of my friends in FG. I miss chatting with everyone, but school has been so busy lately, and time is flying by too fast.....



Things are settling down now at work and would love to chat, but everytime I log onto FG, it's so quiet here. Although, there are some wonderful threads started lately that I must respond to this weekend. I'm happy that some members are posting away:-6



Hopefully, everyone in FG is doing well:-4



As some of the Irish would say....'Hello, how are ya, how ya gettin on, how's yer heart and are ya well'.............



So...how are ya?

[Rapunzel]

Kathy Ellen;1343390 wrote: Hello to all of my friends in FG....



Just stopping by to say hi to all of my friends in FG. I miss chatting with everyone, but school has been so busy lately, and time is flying by too fast.....



Hopefully, everyone in FG is doing well:-4



So...how are ya?


Ditto. And Hiya Kathy.

[Kathy Ellen]

Rapunzel;1343391 wrote: Ditto. And Hiya Kathy.


Hey you...miss you. How are ya?

How do you love teaching the older kidlets? Hope all is going well in school for you:-6 What grade are you teaching and what fun things are you doing:-6

[Rapunzel]

Hi Kathy,

I absolutely love teaching the older kidlets! It's funny because I was so worried about it. Year 4 has always been the year I've been most comfortable with and having to push a year 5/6 group towards SATS was a pretty big worry. However, I found that I absolutely LOVE it! The kids are cheeky but a lot of fun.

We started out with a project on Nelson Mandela, which I was also quite worried about! But in the end that was a lot of fun too! On the first day of the project we lined chairs up in rows of 4 with 2 at each end to look like aeroplane seats. We welcomed the children to the 'plane and gave them 'tickets' so they had to find their seat. We played aeroplane noises quietly in the background and explained that they were flying from London to Johannesburg today. They had to look out of the windows and imagine what London looked like as they flew out. See the people getting smaller and smaller? They look like ants. Look at the tiny cars and houses. We showed film clips of planes taking off and of looking down on London and we discussed the buildings and their layout and what the people wore as it was a cold and rainy day.

Later we 'landed' in Jo'burg and showed film clips of houses and huts, people and animals. We discussed why their houses and clothes were different and compared and contrasted both environments. It was a really fun session.

Later on we discussed Africa, the animals, the plants, the heat, the people. We read about Nelson Mandela's life story and we discussed what happened to him and his feelings and his family's feelings. It was a much larger topic than I originally envisaged but the kids were great with it.

We've now finished that topic and started a new one on King Arthur and the Round Table. We had a field trip on Wednesday to Winchester Cathedral (well worth a visit! ) and to Winchester's Great Hall where King Arthur's Round Table hangs on one wall. It's 18 feet in diameter and weighs one ton! It's not the original, being built in about 1250-1280, at the beginning of the reign of King Edward I.

BeenThere-DoneThat: The Great Hall, Winchester, Hampshire.

Although it has a painting of King Arthur on it, the face is actually the face of King Henry VIII, during whose reign the table was painted. The paintwork is late; it was done by order of Henry VIII of England for Holy Roman Emperor Charles V's 1522 state visit, and depicts Henry himself sitting in Arthur's seat above a Tudor rose. King Henry VII and VIII were both allegedly enthralled by the stories of King Arthur, so much so that Henry VII named his first-born son Arthur. In the windows of the Great Hall are all the shields of the knights of the English Kings and Queens from Edward I to Elizabeth I.

It was a fascinating field trip, although bloody freezing! Brrr!

Last week we did a science experiment comparing the velocity of balloons whilst travelling along different lengths of ropes, set at different angles. The kids blew up balloons and stuck a straw in the end then tied them around a rope, before letting the balloons travel at high velocity along the ropes. We had balloons shooting up and down stairs on lengths of rope, balloons popping loudly, kids shrieking with laughter, screams when balloons popped and the occasional balloon-pharting noise! It was loud, noisy, hysterical. I think the final results were a bit flaky but the kids love to experiment and the session was brilliant fun!

Meanwhile their levels are generally moving up and their phonics and descriptive abilities are improving. They're starting to use a lot more adjectives and adverbs in their writing and I'm getting more compound sentences than simple sentences. In Maths they've just started algebra and they seem to have a good grasp of it already.

I love working with this age group and hope I can stay at this level next year.

How about you Kathy? What grade are you teaching and what fun things are you doing? I'd love to hear your stories too. :-6

[kazalala]

hi ,, im still around from time to time:wah:

[chonsigirl]

Hi Kathy!

[Kathy Ellen]

Hello Rap, Kaz and Chonsi:-4

Thanks so much for your replies and glad that all are ok. Happy you're still here Kaz:-6

Rap, I will have to come back to your lovely post a little later on....love that you're happy with kidlets.

I'm a bit sad right now. Just came home and found out that my Mom's sister, Aunt Margaret, has passed. I'm so sad and teary as she was my last aunt, my godmother, and my second mother. We lived in the same home...they had the apartment downstairs and we had the upstairs. Both Mom and Aunt Margaret took care of all 6 of us kids. It was lovely having 2 sets of parents:-4

But, on the other hand, it was a great relief for our family that she has passed. Unfortunately, she had alzheimers for the last 10 years....mind's gone...body strong. It was especially hard for us as our Mom also had alzheimers for 2 years. Guess I'm next on the list, so don't get mad at me if I forget things:wah:

Anyway...sorry for blathering on about my woes, but I feel better.....Thanks for listening.

I'm starving and looking forward to eating pizza....just burnt it to a crisp....not my day I guess.

[along-for-the-ride]

Good to see ya back on FG, Kathy. So sorry to hear about your aunt. I think we all have family we miss so much.



Come visit my AFTR's Daily Commute thread when you can and see some of my vacation photos from the mountains.

[flopstock]

We'll I sat at work writing a post to this thread today and must have been pulled from my desk because I'm not seeing it here now... bet it's still waiting for a button to be pushed..DUH

Nice to see you stopping in KE and you too Rap.

The school fund raising truck arrived this afternoon and I took the afternoon off to go help them unload and distribute. It's amazing to me that the teachers find the time to volunteer to help after school and yet there were only a handful of parents there to offer an assist. But I am definitely worn out now!

[Kathy Ellen]

Hi Floppy and Diana.....Hope you're both well:-6

Diana, I will definitely stop in to see your pictures of the smokey mountains. Hope you had a good time on your fall walkabout.

I hear ya Floppy. It's hard to motivate some of our parents to even send in some food products for activities we have for our kidlets. We rely heavily on the parents who are always there and so supportive of all of our activities.

[Kathy Ellen]

I've just posted a long post to Rap, and it has now disappeared. I clicked on preview post and my post disappeared...Got a message that said that I've violated a security code....grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr:wah:



I'll try again. I saved some of the post and forgot to save the rest



Hi Mel,



Oh, I love all of your activities. It sounds like you have a great group.

How old are your kidlets...not sure what the 5/6 group is. I have the 3rd grade...kidlets are 8-9 years old. Before I taught the younger kids, I taught 6th grade science and language arts. 6th graders are 11-12 years old.



Right now, I have a lovely, 21 year old student teacher who brought a world of knowledge and new ideas to our class. I will miss her when she leaves in December.

She and I plan all of lessons together, and I assist her with team teaching, grading papers and keeping in contact with parents.



In social studes, we have worked on tons of map skills and studied the Native Americans, especially the Anasazis at Mesa Verde. We did some of the activities that you've done. We took an imaginary trip to Mesa Verde. The kids used oak tag and cut it into a shape of a piece of luggage. We cut out clothes and pasted then on the oak tag and decorated the outside to make it look like a luggage. We also had an LCD projector hooked up to my computer and watched short videos about planes and Mesa Verde. It was a wonderful activity.



In science, we studied, dissected and observed all sorts of plants, seeds and flowers, and took walks around our community observing our environment. I never realized that we had so many eagles and hawks nearby. We're next going to study animals in our environment. We have a tech lab where we can use the computers to read info about animals and their habitats, and then we'll write a report about an animal to be typed on the computer. I'm going to give a lesson to all the 3rd graders....one class at a time though... about the life cycles of mealworms. I'll bring the critters into school, and we'll observe them and hopefully see some changing into beetles.



In math, we've reviewed basic concepts from the 1st and 2nd grade, studied geometric shapes and are now working on measurements. The kids work in fun activities everyday with little projects.



In language arts, we're stressing the mechanics of good writing skills. We're also reading lots of fiction books and biographies. We'll have a book report soon, and the children will dress up as the person their writing about and give a presentation of their lives.



Unfortunately, we no longer go on field trips due to money issues:mad:. I miss travelling to New York and Philly to visit the science and art museums and historical areas.



Chonsi and I are going to do a little cyber science activity sometime after the holidays...maybe you'd like to join us:-6We'll make a decision after Christmas.



That's it in a nutshell!

[Kathy Ellen]

I know that this isn't my astronomy picture thread, but....I was so excited to see the ISS the other night. The sky was clear as a bell, and you could see Jupiter and the ISS also 'just a gliding by' from the north western area. What a delight to see!!



APOD: 2010 November 15 - Home from Above

I was viewing the 'Astronomy picture of the day' site tonight and wished that I would have been this astronaut gazing upon the Earth.

What do you think SHE was thinking as she viewed our Earth and what were YOU thinking about our Earth.

************Just as an aside, I was wondering why FG is so quiet lately...What's happening....Just wish we could have a good old time in our pub.....anyone for 'a go' this weekend to belly up to the bar and have a pint tomorrow...Saturday the 20?

Attached files

[kazalala]

hi ,, yea its quiet a bit now,,, i do come and have a look but tbh ,, i would be talking to myself if was posting here im not really in to the debates that are going on at the mo,,, (god, religion, the church and god:wah:), so like i say where would i post? meh.. im too fluffy for this place now

[Kathy Ellen]

kazalala;1344400 wrote: hi ,, yea its quiet a bit now,,, i do come and have a look but tbh ,, i would be talking to myself if was posting here im not really in to the debates that are going on at the mo,,, (god, religion, the church and god:wah:), so like i say where would i post? meh.. im too fluffy for this place now


Hi Kaz:-6

Just saw your post ....I'm with you here:wah: