Typical Day in our Classroom - Annie

by Annie
(Queensland Australia)

Our typical day looks something like this:

8:15 - 8:30 Let children in early if they need to change for PE / if you need any little helpers or if it's raining.

8:30 Bell rings and children put their message book (home/school communication book) in its box, change readers and come to the carpet area. We mark the roll using a different activity each day including: Phonemic awareness activities (e.g. segmenting, blending, rhyming and syllabification) or Maths concepts (e.g. doubles, counting on/back 1, giving the next number in a pattern)

8:35 Phonemic Awareness: We use THRASS and have a focus sound (or two) of the week. We make charts which highlight the spelling choices. For example b as in bird and bb as in rabbit. The main spelling choice is always the main focus, but the other spelling choices are noted, and used with our extension group.

Spelling words of the week are practiced using a combination of activities over the course of the week.

8:40: Literacy Block:
2 X 20 minutes activities for each reading group 4 days a week. Over the course of the week each group does 8 activities which include: Guided Reading X 2, a reading response and comprehension task usually related to the focus reader, independent activities at the sound, word and sentence/text levels and an interactive whiteboard task.

We have some teacher aide and parent support several times a week to assist with the program. The children learn the routine well in term one, with each group allocated a leader for the week and are very independent by the end of that term.

At the end of the reading block we have a few minutes share time where the leaders summarise what they did. This helps with listening and speaking skills, and prepares other groups for the activity they may be doing later in the week.

9:25 Writing:
We write each day. There will be a consolidation task - usually a recount about their weekend, a school event etc. It may also include lists and captions to photos. There will be a guided writing task on the focus theme/genre - this term it is descriptions and narratives. There will also be modeled writing often in response to a text we've shared.

We also work together to jointly construct a shared writing piece related to our focus topic. Finally, we always include time for free choice writing and partner writing (great for the intrapersonal learners!)

Morning Tea

10:30 Mathematics Rotations
We have a 'plenary' or focus session on Mondays which introduces and teaches the main concept for the week e.g. Time. We will then follow with either a long activity session e.g. Making our own clocks, or two shorter activities - perhaps one hands on and one written task to follow. It really depends on the concept. The children sit in their own seats - not in ability.

Every other day we have 4 rotation groups of 15 minutes or so each. The children are grouped according to ability. One group is the guided maths group with the teacher, the others are either independent or led by an aide or parent.

These include a variety of text and hands on, and a variety of review and consolidation tasks with learning newer or more complex concepts. We cover elements of all maths strands each week. We always move around the room in the same order - clockwise.

At the end of each 15 minutes, we have a sound (bell, clap pattern etc) to stop and get ready to change. The children pack up the table, preparing it for the next group and stand behind their chair, holding their belongings (pencil case, maths book etc). We all point to the direction we are going (this aides our Aspergers student) and off we go. It always amazes me how keen they are to go to the next activity and work solidly for the hour!

The rest of the day is dictated by specialist lessons and where they fall. These include 2 PE lessons per week, 4 Music lessons (using Kodaly method - fantastic!), a Library, a Christian Education, a computer lesson and Assembly.

Around these we put in handwriting lessons (2x40 minutes per week - but really try to focus throughout every lesson of the day the correct pencil grip, formation etc), Art (70 mins).

We have a mini break (10 minutes) at 11:40 so we go out to our playground and play Maths and PE games, have a drink and bathroom stop.

Lunch is at 1:00 (eat inside the class until 1:15 - we put on educational programs on the big interactive whiteboard to help them eat faster without chatting!)

Play is from 1:15 to 1:40 where they have 5 minutes to toilet, get a drink and get to their class.

In the afternoons, we read (serial reading, big book, theme books etc) and work on our integrated units. These combine Science and SOSE, as well as English - especially listening and speaking tasks, and Maths.

We focus particularly on the Science concepts on one of these days and do lots of experiments! We often complete pictorial/photo or written records of our experiments/results.

We begin to pack up at 2:35 to be out the front of the school by 2:45. The whole school starts early, but the Preps, year 1's and 2's pick up is 15 minutes early to help stagger the traffic!