For My Father in Law (Just nod & smile politely!)

And just who is responsible for making that law?!

Anyway...

It is official.

Teachers can leap tall buildings with single strides. (Oh, except during the holidays when we are too busy getting paid to have six weeks off. hee hee!).

Here is the video used for Teachers' 'Leaping Buildings' CPD (continued professional development). Enjoy...

What? None of this makes any sense? Congratulations. You have just passed the sanity test!

Getting Children Reading

Anyone who knows me, knows just how much I enjoy reading. What you may not know is that I also spend a lot of my time encouraging children to read.

My own children have always had books all around them, on bookshelves upstairs, bookshelves downstairs, a kids book box in the living room and they both have bookshelves and magazine/ comic racks in their rooms. We have story times not just at bedtimes, but sometimes during that 5-10 mins after dinner when we are still sitting at the table. So, reading in our house is not something we do as homework or just so that we can make a note in the children's reading diaries so we don't get nagged at parents' evening; it's something we do for fun and relaxation.


I was delighted recently, after spending weeks gently nagging a year 6 girl I am working with, when she came in one week telling me what she had read. Now she is reading regularly and is seeing how enjoyable it can be. Sometimes that's all it takes. It's not always that easy, though, and I am always looking out for new ways to encourage children (or encourage parents to encourage children) to get into a book!

With this in mind, I just found out about this great website and thought I would share it. Go and have a look at oxford owl.co.uk.

There is advice on how to get children reading and information about the skills they need to develop and how you can help.

There are lots of great ideas for fun games to play that will help with reading and language skills in general and it links to other good quality websites like BBC Bitesize.

Many children are already familiar with the Oxford Reading Tree Characters, Biff, Chip and Kipper etc. and they do feature on this site. 

You can even link to a PDF document which shows you the full range of the books,and if your child is doing the Read Write Inc (Ruth Miskin) Phonics Scheme, there is a link to the home reading books available to support that too.

But it is not solely for young children; there are things for slightly older children too (up to Year 3 and maybe struggling Year 4 readers). 

Particularly good is the link to this Oxford webpage about Project X, a project specifically aimed at boys to raise their achievement.

And if that hasn't got you interested enough, just go to have a look at the animated owl. He's cool...

Book Review: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


This book took far too long to get into. There was too much journalist & business talk at the beginning. I had been warned that this was the case, but that it would get better. It took me until I was over half way though to get into the story (I'm no quitter!) and then it was no quick read. I found it hard to stay awake to read it and although I didn't like certain aspects of the story, I had read too far not to find out what had happened to Harriet. However, I did really like the main female character, who was original and who we saw develop through the book. This book wasn't quite what I expected. I am sure others will really love it, but it just wasn't for me.



View all my reviews

As Good as a Rest...

It's been a busy weekend, with one thing and another...

After a busy Friday, during which I had an early appointment in Salisbury, followed by a visit to Upper Shirley High to watch Little Z play in the Woodwind Festival (she was fab! All that practice is really paying off.) and then work in the afternoon, I would have welcomed a lie-in on Saturday. I had, however, in some moment of madness earlier in the week, booked a doctor's appointment for 9.10 Saturday morning. I was glad I did though as it reassured me that the pain I have had in my foot for about 3 weeks is nothing serious and will sort itself out. Apparently I have Plantar Fasciitis. I have to rest it as much as I can and wear supportive footwear: so trainers to school and sit about all day! I think I can manage that!

Having recently researched the Spitfire with some year 6 pupils, I was very keen to go down to Mayflower Park in Southampton to see it fly past as a celebration of 75 years since its maiden flight from Eastleigh Aerodrome. We were lucky enough to park at Mayflower Park and had a cold but lovely couple of hours down there, mostly waiting and around looking at the sky, but the children got to speak to some interesting people like the town cryer, a lady from a radio station (what's that tall pole sticking out the top of your van? - little Z) and a man with a lovely... erm... dog, yes, he did indeed have a lovely dog! I have not included photos and video of the Spitfire event as Little Z has blogged about it herself and has included the video and photos we took. Go and take look.

Today was Big J's Karate grading day. He has worked very hard to learn his kata, after learning it over half term, getting it slightly wrong and having then to un-learn the one he knew and learn it the right way. Having only found out on Wednesday that the kata he had learned was not quite right, he only had 3 days to correct it before grading. But he did it! He is now what Sama Karate call a 2nd Orange Belt, which is an orange belt with a white stripe. I'm very proud of him.