A highly reccomended documentary on Maria Montessori.
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Saturday 31 January 2015
Lego Education Introducing Build to Express
LEGO® Education BuildToExpress is more than a box full of bricks, it is a teaching process that can be built on over and over again. Hence the name build to express. The core set contains a variety of LEGO pieces, 200 in all, that range from minifigures to tools to bricks to wheels. Everything a kid would need to really spark his imagination. Each piece can easily be turned into something else with a little creativity. That is what this set is designed to do.
How it Works
1. There are 2 components to the set, the core set which comes with the actual LEGO pieces in a small tub, and the teacher’s guide, which contains instructions, lessons, a CD, and challenge cards.
2. The challenge cards are the backbone of the set. Each build, or topic, consists of 4 cards: Think About It; Remember; Imagine; and Conclude. Each of the 4 cards asks the child to build a small model using the pieces in the tub. Card #1 helps the child establish their general views about the topic, card #2 asks the child to remember back to similar experiences and build a new model, card #3 instructs the child to use their imagination on a related build, and card #4 encourages the child to sum up their conclusions or what he has learned with another new build.
3. The challenge cards enable you as a parent or teacher to open up a dialog with your child so that they can better understand what they are building and why, as well as their emotions behind the build. In addition to the 29 sets of printable cards, there is a challenge card creator that lets you implement your own topics and ideas.
“In just a quick 20-minute brainstorming, I can fit a LEGO® build to any standard and usually it ends up being cross-curricular. I had a build about a poem, and you would think that is a literacy standard, but it also became a social studies standard, a little bit of a history lesson. So it kind of naturally branches out for you and hits the cross-curriculum.” – Andrew Charland, 5th grade teacher, quoted from LEGO Education
Thursday 29 January 2015
The parts of Playmobil characters
The pupils in my third grade learned the words to name the body parts. So they labelled their own copy of a Playmobil character pretty successfully. I've found the similar idea in he class of Mercedes Delgado in Salamanca. Thank you.
Successful exchange of innovative didactic ideas
Visiting the Collegio Santisima Trindad in Salamanca we've discovered the ABC built by the pupils with Lego bricks. Our 6-8 years old children enjoyed it to do the same like the Spanish kids. By the way it wasn't so easy as it seemed to be.Thank you, Nuria for this great idea!
Wednesday 28 January 2015
How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity, and the Hidden Power of Character
Why character, confidence, and curiosity are more important to your child’s success than academic results. The New York Times bestseller.
In a world where academic success can seem all-important in deciding our children’s success in adult life, Paul Tough sees things very differently.
Instead of fixating on grades and exams, he argues that we, as parents, should be paying more attention to our children’s characters.
Inner resilience, a sense of curiosity, the hidden power of confidence - these are the most important things we can teach our children, because it is these qualities that will enable them to live happy, fulfilled and successful lives.
In this personal, thought-provoking and timely book, Paul Tough offers a clarion call to parents who are seeking to unlock their child’s true potential – and ensure they really succeed.
Tuesday 27 January 2015
Lego Education presentation in Salamanca
Today we attended a presentation by Jaume Catalá, a representative of LEGO Education Spain. LEGO Education provides a tiered curriculum of rich content that is both relevant to students’ everyday lives and adaptable for teachers. The content has been created by a development team of educators and education experts and is relevant from preschool through to middle school. Designed to stimulate a lifelong love of learning, LEGO Education offers resources to help teach science, engineering, math, language arts, literacy and social studies.
Here you have some of the products we would like to include in our Lego Education Innovation Studio:
Soft Starter Set
Early Simple Machines
Math Train
Animal Bingo
Storytales
Tubes Experiment
Creative Builder
LearnToLearn
StoryStarter
MoreToMath
MoreToMath Curriculum Pack
WeDo
BuildToExpress
Architecture with... bricks
Children saw photos and pictures of Madrid and they chose to build la Puerta de Alcalá with Lego bricks.
Really a good team, and the result is...
wonderful!
Another group build the streets all around it with block of flats and buildings...
Activities at school after first transnational meeting
After the first transnational meeting in Spain, we planned lessons to empower our children's knowledge about Spain, Madrid and Salamanca, our partners' city. Class 5 and class 2 worked together in mixed group of different age and abilities.
Brainstorming
Looking for Spain and its capital on the map
Traditional costumes
Drawing and colouring
Observing the flag and symbols
Monday 26 January 2015
Pete the Cat
I love teaching English with Pete the Cat. Pete the Cat is the coolest cat ever!
Pete the Cat goes walking down the street wearing his brand new white shoes. Along the way, his shoes change from white to red to blue to brown to WET as he steps in piles of strawberries, blueberries, and other big messes! But no matter what color his shoes are, Pete keeps movin' and groovin' and singing his song...because it's all good. Pete the Cat: I Love My White Shoes asks the reader questions about the colors of different foods and objects.
Don't miss Pete's other adventures, including Pete the Cat: Rocking in My School Shoes, Pete the Cat and His Four Groovy Buttons, Pete the Cat Saves Christmas, and Pete the Cat and His Magic Sunglasses.
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The importance of Art
In recent years, school curricula have shifted heavily toward common core subjects of reading and math, but what about the arts? Although some may regard art education as a luxury, simple creative activities are some of the building blocks of child development. Learning to create and appreciate visual aesthetics may be more important than ever to the development of the next generation of children as they grow up.
My Arts&Crafts Primary 3 class today. Kids were free to create whatever they wanted to. Here you have some of the results. What's the point of directive teaching in the Arts&Crafts classroom? Just wondering. So much to learn from kids.
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