My cloud filing cabinet is bursting at the seams. Twitter having crash landed me into the global classroom is providing me with such a variety and quantity of educational tools that I'm living in the virtual equivalent of Francis Bacon's studio! There is stuff everywhere!
With the new academic year only a butty pencil length away, I've made a resolution to actually devise a practical use for one new tool everyday.
This is Day 1.
This is aimed at  English Class for 10 year olds.
I've chosen the wonderfully simple Edward Monkton animation of The Pig of Happiness


The objectives:
                                                                                                                                                                                                           

• sharing, I too will tell them what makes me happy
• to develop comprehension skills
• focus on word skills: antonyms and synonyms
• to 'grow' a creative writing exercise from our work.
• a positive start to the new academic year.

The Approach:

First we will watch the animation.  Once over I will solicit feedback from students. The 'you have a lovely bottom' compliment the Happiness Pig gives to Pig C is a good place to start! Some will vocalise their thoughts superbly and I expect positive and negative reaction.  For others these skills are still developing but I will attempt to draw them in by focussing on a detail and taking a 'yes, I liked it' or no I didn't' response.

In the course of this bear in mind the comprehension questions they will later have to answer.  Pose questions or express your personal response to guide them towards considering these questions without overtly stating the questions. Discuss compliments: those we have received and those we would like to receive!

Whole Class Work:

Using Spiderscribe we will collaborate on creating mind maps.

First for synonyms for happiness, then for antonyms.

Print these out and display.

Individual Work:

Create a mind map using pictures or text: 'Things that make me happy'.

Comprehension Skills:

If you have time you can do this in class.  My preference is to give it for homework. I have embedded the google doc on my class website.  I've kept the typing to a minimum as I am not sure how good their typing skills are!  

You can access a copy here .

Follow Up Activities:

Build on their 'Things that make me happy' mindmaps  to create essays. Prompt them to vary their vocabulary using the mindmaps already created.

Work in groups creating a dialogue between two or more students that is full of compliments.

                               

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