I am off to London at the end of the week to deliver From Mark Maker to Writer and looking forward to hopping on and off the train in the icy winds and snow! As it looks like most of us are going to get the first snowfall or flurry of the year I want to share with you my best and easiest recipe for snow. You can prepare this in advance, but I usually do it with the children or let them have a go on their own. You only need 2 ingredients Bicarbonate of Soda (or Baking Powder) Both bicarb and baking powder work well although the texture is slightly different – not that the children ever seem to notice! Shaving … Read More
How to Write Like a Jedi – Star Wars Inspiration!
As we see the return of Star Wars to the cinema – don’t miss your chance to motivate your children with a bit of Jedi Writing! Walt Disney Company I came up with Jedi Writing as a ‘boy heavy’ reception class teacher in the early 1990’s when Star Wars was ‘big news’ in my class. The good thing about it is that although Jedi’s where my initial inspiration you can apply the principle to any interest whatsoever. The key to any successful learning is of course engagement so make sure however you choose to ‘dress’ your talk handwriting practice has them jumping up and down with excitement and not hiding under the water tray. Although it was born out of … Read More
Brilliant Idea for your Writing Area…
As anyone who is a regular reader of the blog will know, I am very passionate about getting children writing (especially boys). Over the past few years I have done lots of project work with individual settings and Local Authorities on improving Mark Making and Writing across a variety of settings. So, I spend lots of my time thinking about, and watching, what motivates children to want to mark make and write. Undoubtedly as in all things motivation is the key. If children aren’t motivated to write then they won’t. Often things that we think are a great idea as a writing inspiration don’t catch children’s imagination and therefore they are not bothered (usually finding that they need to do … Read More
International Dot Day
Have you ever heard of ‘International Dot Day’? I hadn’t either, but I think we might have been missing out! Never fear – there is still time to find out more and join the party! Here is fellow blogger, teacher and tweeter Marc Faulder to tell you a bit more about International Dot Day and what he did with it… Marc is a full-time teacher and Apple Distinguished Educator in Nottingham. He has taught in Foundation for 5 years and at his school he also leads the vision for interactive technologies and develops the computing curriculum. Marc runs the popular early years and technology blog Enabling-Environments.co.uk and can be found on Twitter as @MarcWithersey Over to you Marc… This year International Dot … Read More