It's taken a while to get settle into the new class what with being in a job share but now we're on our way and we're all excited by the Wii. It took a while for me to get my head round when and how to save games (I am so out of touch) but with the Year 5's doing their cycling proficiency the Year 4s and I have been having fun exploring Endless Ocean, and soon the teaching ideas were there. The picture shows the Year 4s collecting adverbs from watching the game, to put in Wordles www.wordle.net to use later in their writing.
After some writing assessments it was clear the children needed work on description in their writing so I've focused upon the fiction side of things, especially as Literacy lessons are based around Kensuke's Kingdom. This week we are merging both as they start their own island and ocean adventure.
What I've noticed so far: kids making comments such as 'I've never written so much, my hand hurts!', total silence for 20 minutes as they write about what it is like to dive amongst the coral (our topic this term is Oceans so a perfect link!), a huge increase in use of descriptive language, motivation to write and how the Wii appears to give them the support they need in starting to write.
After some writing assessments it was clear the children needed work on description in their writing so I've focused upon the fiction side of things, especially as Literacy lessons are based around Kensuke's Kingdom. This week we are merging both as they start their own island and ocean adventure.
What I've noticed so far: kids making comments such as 'I've never written so much, my hand hurts!', total silence for 20 minutes as they write about what it is like to dive amongst the coral (our topic this term is Oceans so a perfect link!), a huge increase in use of descriptive language, motivation to write and how the Wii appears to give them the support they need in starting to write.
Looking forward to branching out and using other games after half term!
Anna
Anna
