Where did 2014 go?

I can't believe we are half way through the final school term for 2014. Only four weeks left until the kids finish up for the summer holiday. This year has certainly been a roller coaster, but at least we are ending the ride on a high. Sam is well on his way to achieving the standard requirements set out in the Australian Curriculum for Prep students. The Home Education Unit (HEU) have received my registration form and Education Program/Teaching Philosophy for Sam and this will be reviewed for provisional registration at the beginning of 2015. Attending Prep is not compulsory for children in Queensland, so there was no issue with me taking Sam out of school this year. However, when children reach the age for Year One they must be registered with the Department of Education and Training, either at a school or with the HEU. So the good news is I am all organised for next year; and the work I have done with Sam's lessons over the past few weeks has helped me to get organised and work out a learning strategy that works for both Sam and I.

 

Like all students (and teachers), the energy levels at this time of year are running low and everyone is looking forward to the long break to recharge. I'm going to pull back on the amount of work Sam and I do and just try to have some fun. I'll review skills and consolidate what we have already learnt rather than introduce new concepts. He's worked really hard and we now have a great learning foundation to build on in 2015.

 

Monday's Lessons

 

Today I also had Zoe home with a cough and cold. She wanted to join in and see what sort of things Sam and I do. She was very impressed with her younger brother.

 





We started off our lessons as usual by observing and recording the weather and then working out the days of the week - today is, yesterday was, tomorrow will be. Sam and Zoe are watching the Story Bots video called 'Seven Days of the Week'. It's Sam's favourite.

We finished off the shapes activity from last week. This was where we hunted for objects around the house and garden that matched our shape sheets and took pictures of them. Sam's cutting out the pictures ready to match and glue them onto the shape sheets.

Great work Sam.

 

The last new concept I have introduced is 'subitising'. Subitising is being able to determine the number of objects  you see without counting them, E.g. when you role a dice  and it turns up a 4, you automatically know the four dots equate to the number four don't you? This is a skill that needs to be learnt and being able to subitise small groups of objects is part of the Math curriculum for Prep. Now I have to admit, I had to Google the word subitise to found out what it was so that I could teach it!

Sam using a new app I found called 'Subitising Flash Cards' by Little Monkey Apps.

When I Google'd the word 'subitise' I not only found the definition, but I also discovered a handy little app for teachers called 'Subitising Flash Cards' by Little Monkey Apps. It has a few different activities and a portal for teachers to change settings. The activity Sam is using above involves a single dice. It roles a dice and turns up a number in dot form. The child has to press the right number button on the line below. It took Sam three attempts to figure out the game and then I was amazed when he got them all correct in quick succession. Pattern recognition is one of his strengths so it does make sense.

Sam and I then played a 'subitising' game I made using a dice, stickers and buttons. He rolled the dice and when the number turned up, he had the option of putting green stickers on the number sheet...

...or counting out buttons on the number plate.

Game completed. My aim was to help Sam get a feel for how smaller numbers appear when represented visually using groups objects.

Then we played with the idea of 'same' and 'different' to help Sam develop his sorting skills. We started off with a YouTube learning song.

I had a tub of plastic animals and asked Sam to group them. I also mixed up the qualities I wanted him to look for. I started by asking him to find all the snakes, then all the birds, followed by animals with stripes, yellow animals, the pigs, big animals and small animals. Oh and the trees too.

We ended our lessons for Monday with a book. I love these Phonics Tales. I can pick out the books for letters or sounds that I know he is having trouble articulating. They are easy for him to read along with and they have exercises at the end to help you develop the child's comprehension and retelling skills.