Dyslexia Unit B – Class Blog

Literacy

We have been exploring the layout of different genres of writing – the children particularly enjoyed researching, drafting and re-drafting reports. These photographs show their Elephant reports and Weather reports.

Numeracy

We have been revisiting familiar topics of time, measure and shape. The children have liked discussing the properties of 2D and 3D shapes.

HWB

Our class Open Morning was held in September. The children were involved in planning the format of this session and drew up a shopping list of what refreshments to provide!

Dates for your Diary

Friday 13^th November – Children In Need (wear something spotty to school)

Friday 27^th November – Wear pyjamas and bring your favourite book.

Welcome to Term 3.

I hope you all had an enjoyable and relaxing Christmas holidays.

It is going to be another busy term in the Dyslexia Unit. We will be continuing to develop our skills in reading, writing, spelling and cursive handwriting.

In Maths we will be studying the topics of Fractions, Percentages and Decimals before moving onto Time. We will also be taking part in a Times Tables challenge.

As part of the Aberdeen Learning Festival, and on behalf of Dyslexia Scotland, the children will be getting interviewed about their experiences and feelings on being Dyslexic. This is an excellent opportunity for the children to raise awareness of dyslexia amongst children of their own age, whilst informing adults of  how they can develop their teaching to meet the dyslexic children and young adults needs. The finished film will be available to view later in the year.

The children will be further developing awareness of dyslexia by being involved in a Famous Dyslexics challenge, for their own class at their home school. On an individual basis each child in my class will undertake, as a homework project, a research activity on a Famous Dyslexic Person of their choice and  present their findings in a choice of their own. I look forward to seeing the finished results.

We will also be using our active literacy skills and strategies through a novel study.

It has been a very  busy time in our class this term.

Language

The children have really enjoyed our writing focus this term. They have been creating their own fantasy adventure based upon ‘Escape from Kraznir’.  Each lesson builds on the last one, over a serious of days with a different challenge to complete each time. This focus has sparked the pupils imagination and creativity. The children will have a complete adventure story, written by themselves, to share with you shortly.

Outdoor Learning

We have been using the outdoor environment on a regular basis this term to enhance our learning in both language and maths. The children have enjoyed these opportunities and it has helped them to develop their poetry skills, use of adjectives, thinking skills and knowledge of multiplication.

Maths

We have recently been working on Financial Education during our Maths sessions. The children were given the challenge of bugeting for a family for a week. They had £100 to spend. On Day 1 the children had to create a menu for a week for their family, create a shopping list of items to buy and use the internet to work out the cost of their shopping. On Day 2 they were told that someone in the family had an allergy to one of the following things: sugar, fish or dairy products. One of the families had vegetarian adults. The children were asked to adapt their menus from Day 1 to meet these needs. On Day 3 they had to present their findings to the rest of the class and state the total costings. Most of the children were within their budget, some even had change left.

The children were also challenged to choose a range of gifts for various ages of children. They then had to compare the price of these gifts in a variety of shops and afterwards tell the other children what they purchased, why they purchased that and the cost of the item in the various shops. It quickly became evident to the children the differences in price range for the same item.

The children have enjoyed using their mathematical skills, during these lessons, in a real life concept and the discussions that developed during and after the task were very mature and thoughtful. One child’s response was “I see now that you have to shop around before you buy something”. Another child said “It’s important to know your budget before going shopping”.