We made a Zoo

This term as well as trialling the timetables, I decided to get back to what I liked- cross curriculum learning. This was a MUST when I was teaching in the UK alongside cross curriculum writing (as to be honest writing is not just happening in a literacy lesson) and I loved teaching this way.

Our Topic this term was ‘The Zoo’ so this was ideal as there was so many different ways to approach this. This time I let the students decide for me what they wanted to do. I outlined what was going to happen in Term Four and what our ‘focus’ was. This way they had something to start off with and I was also following what the school had put in place.

They all branched off into groups and talked about what they wanted to know, learn and questions they had. I had to admit some of the ideas and questions were great and even had me thinking. I have to be honest; their question has developed so much throughout the year. They tend now to ask thought provoking ones rather than the basic closed questions. This was also observed by our Educator at Orana Park, who was ‘blown’ away with the questions my class asked while visiting. She actually made a point of thanking them as she had thoroughly enjoyed all the types of questions they had asked!

When we came back, they told me what they wanted to know and find out. We then discussed how we could incorporate this into the lessons we had to teach each day. As we set for maths we missed that one out but students in my class who were also in my maths set decided we should make our maths cross curriculum so we did!

In the end the class decided that they wanted to all research an animal and design a shelter for it. We decided Non Chronological reports would suit this very well but they also wanted to write a poem and try and develop a story (if we had time). Art we were working on collages so a collage of the animal was obvious!  Everything else, we tried to adapt to fit into the ‘Zoo’ theme where possible. We also learnt that not all subjects had a link and that it was better to carry on with what was already set in place rather than try and make it fit.

Term 4 is always a busy term and we had planned to work with our buddy class (year 2’s) on doing this topic together. We started off well and would meet with them once a week to share what we had found out all ready but as the term went on and year 6’s went on their orientation days to their intermediates, teacher were out of class and ‘other’ things popped up, it began to get a little harder to do.

Because we had been working on our own timetables, I adapted this slightly to fit in whole class teaching and group teaching times. This usually was at the beginning of the week where I went through things I felt that it was better to have the ‘whole’ together rather than in small groups. Then I spilt them into groups and would work with them all throughout the week. This worked great and it meant that for the rest of the time they could spend it on what subject area they wanted to. So while I may have been taking writing groups, some would be doing their own writing, art, blogging, designing their shelters etc.

I thoroughly enjoyed it and so did the class. They would even stay in class during break to carry on working. You can always tell when things are working well, when other students from other classes keep visiting every day to see what was happening in the room.

In the end I was so proud of my class that we invited all the other classes to come and see what they had done. They all choose a class to write an invitation to. Once again cross curriculum learning!

On the day, they set up their area and as the classes came through, they spoke to them and shared with them what they had learnt about their animal. Once again my class did me proud.