Year 6-itus?

I have to say I've completely neglected this blog since starting back in September. I haven't been 'bogged down' with Year 6 stuff (yet), but I certainly feel like I'm doing a whole heap more stuff. I'm not a teach to the test type but I am conscious that I cover everything I possibly can and have to in a creative and fun way. It's a bit like trying to sneak veggies into children's food without them noticing.

So far I've been trying lots of fun topic-based ideas and role play. I'm lucky enough to have a much bigger classroom this year and it lends itself perfectly to a role play corner - so far I've created Cafe Rouge, the X Factor stage and tomorrow I shall be making a rain forest complete with base-camp and orangutans ready for our Borneo expedition. I have covered playscripts, stories with flashbacks, instructional writing, letters of complaints, balanced arguments, journalistic writing, persuasive leaflets and much more using the role play area as the central theme. The children have loved it and their writing has really come alive! They even booed when I began to dismantle Cafe Rouge!

I've also been inspired by The Power of Reading course to create a colourful and bright reading corner (I told you my classroom was big!). Prior to a bit of furniture rearranging, the books in Y6 were looking a little disorganised, shabby and uninviting. The children designed their ideal reading corner and came up with lots of fabulous plans, I explained that we didn't have a budget, so we'd have to recycle bookshelves and beg, steal and borrow what we could. We now have a wonderful area where even the most reluctant readers feel enticed to step in. During Enterprise Week we made £144 as a class and decided to spend it on lots of lovely KS2 picture books, novels and a subscriptions to National Geographic magazine for kids. Here's a video of Simon Armitage officially opening our 'Reading Den' as we like to call it (I didn't have to pay him, he's one of my parents BTW!).

I feel better now I've blogged - my new year's resolutions are going to be drink less, blog more!