Persuasive writing ideas

One thing our kids are learning at Primary School is persuasive language - both spoken and written. How to argue their point and explain their opinions.

This is also something that is in the Naplan tests in the form of a writing test.  I've mentioned before this link to Pascal Press which has free downloadable sample writing tests and answers for each graded level.

Here are some topics from those samples, some past tests and some of our own ideas too.

Hats should not be compulsory at schools.

Life is easier today than in the past.

Dogs are a better pet than cats.

Cats are a better pet than dogs.

Every child should have a pet.

School uniform should be compulsory.

All children should have to play sport.

Boys and girls should not be allowed to eat sugar.

Junk food- should it be banned at school?

Recycling is the most important thing we can do as a family.

Computer games- are they a waste of time?

What is more important- friends or family?

Caged or free- should animals be kept in zoos?

Climate change- man made or natural?

Graffiti- is it art or vandalism?

Reading books is better than watching TV.

Shoes should not be compulsory at school.

Everyday people waste power, we should save electricity when possible.

It is better to live in the city than the country.

It is better to live in the country than the city.

If you fail something you should give up.

School should run seven days a week.

Maths is tricky- schools should stop teaching it.

Spelling is tricky- we shouldn’t worry about spelling.

Everybody is equal- this is the most important thing for all of us.

Sharing- we should share everything with everyone.

Fresh air- every child should spend half their day outside.

Rest is important- every student should go to bed at 8pm.

Stop school break time- we should have more time studying.

Here is a site with some ideas on how to structure an argument.

I hope this gives a few ideas for topics you can bring up with your kids to help them practice arguing their opinions!

Spelling corrections - Language conventions practice for Naplan

Spelling is something that kids always need practice in.  The Naplan tests have several questions in the Language Conventions section of the paper where the kids have to identify the words that are misspelled and then correct them.

I thought I might practice this with my girls - but again try to find a fun way to do it.

Last week I made them these fabric envelopes with their names on, and told them they were for me to leave things in for them - notes, things I've made them, or perhaps things they have left lying about that need putting away!!  They are excited about the idea of checking their 'mail' each day.

I thought I'd use these envelopes to leave them short notes - with a few spelling mistakes in, to see if they can correct them for me!

The idea is that they correct my notes, and that they can also write notes for each other - with deliberate spelling mistakes in, and correct each other's!

Minecraft - providing geometry practice for Naplan?

Last week our daughters asked to download the game Minecraft onto their tablets to play.

It's an interesting game where you get to use your imagination to build whatever you want mostly using cubes.

There doesn't seem to be a particular goal to reach to end the game - a bit of survival, some adventure and lots and lots of creativity.

One thing that did strike me when I was looking at this game - was the fact that you build things using cubes - and get to see those buildings in 3D.  This reminded me of some of the numeracy questions on Naplan tests for both Grade 3 and Grade 5:

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Playing Minecraft and building 3D shapes using cubes will give kids at least an awareness of these structures and because in the game, then can walk around them and see them from different sides - this should help them with the above type of question as it will give them an experience of their own to relat the question to.

My girls will be pleased to know that they are practising for their Naplan tests whilst playing this new game!!

Do you or your kids play Minecraft?

Reading Comprehension - more Naplan practice

In 2013, Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard announced 

a Reading Blitz programme for schools.

I'm all for any kind of focus on teaching kids to read - without the ability to read - so many other things become more difficult. If you just look at your own day to day life and imagine not being able to read. Not just reading books, magazines, junk mail - words on TV shows - how about signs when you're driving or out and about - food packages, menus.... I don't think anyone can doubt the importance of learning to read.

Reading is the basic foundation for kids schooling.  They need to be able to read to understand every subject as they continue through school - how can kids progress even in maths - if they cannot read the questions and explanations in text books and on the classroom whiteboard.

But being able to read is more than just being able to recognise the words - UNDERSTANDING what is written is vital.   The Naplan tests are a way for schools to check that kids are comprehending texts at a level they should be.

Most schools will have reading programmes, where children's reading levels are checked and suitable books then given for them to practice and progress in their reading and comprehension abilities.

The kids at our school have access to the Lexile Reading Programme. In this programme - the kids take an online reading comprehension test to determine their level - and then they read books found in the school library that are labelled as being within their reading level range. After each book they answer some comprehension questions online and then every few weeks take a new test to see if their level has improved.

I really like the idea of this programme - that it allows the kids a certain amount of independence to be able to take the tests themselves on the computer and there are a range of books in each level for kids to choose from.

One of the best ways to check your child's reading comprehension is to read a book with them - or aloud to them, asking them questions through the book as to what is happening - what they think is going to happen etc.

We do this with our girls - choosing books that may be just a bit above their own comfortable reading level - and enjoy them as a family.  Recently we read The Hobbit all together - and then went to watch the new movie when it was released after Christmas.  We all enjoyed the story, everyone reading some parts aloud to the family (the girls liked reading - or rather singing the dwarf's songs!), and then to see the movie afterwards - to see the characters come alive, was brilliant!

Reading books together can become very interactive and lots of fun as you discuss what is happening and what might happen.  Towards the end of Harry Potter 6, which I read with my girls recently - the last few chapters went quite slowly as they were punctuated with so many cries of "Oh NO!"   "But what if..."   "Didn't he.....?"  as all the pieces of the story fell into place.  It was so nice to see their comprehension of the story so clearly!

In terms of Naplan - and other school tests, there are plenty of practice materials for kids for reading comprehension questions.

I found several printable texts with worksheets and answers for all different levels

 here at SuperTeacherWorksheets

There are also some online reading comprehension games using different types of texts - like poetry and non-fiction

here at Fun English Games

And some more printable worksheets for many different levels

here at Education.com

I hope that our Prime Minister's reading programme is put into effect and is successful in raising literacy levels in Australian kids - it is a vital skill and there should be a strong emphasis placed upon teaching it well from a very young age.

Number sequencing - Naplan numeracy practice

Looking for number sequences is something that kids practise through junior school years.  It helps develop their logic thinking skills and in recognising patterns. It's also great practice for their mental arithmetic - adding, subtracting and multiplying.

 They may start out with very simple patterns like this:

2, 4, 6, 8, 10.........

Here the rule is to 'add 2'

And then move on to patterns that involve subtraction, multiplication or combinations of calculations.

Questions involving number sequences can be found on both Grade 3 and Grade 5 Naplan numeracy tests:

Here's an example from a Grade 3 paper:

46, 40, 34, ?

What is the next number in counting pattern?

Is it 26, 28, 30 or 38?

And here's one from a Grade 5 paper:

What is the next number in this pattern?

810, 910, ?

There are some great online games for kids to practice number sequencing.

This Caterpillar ordering and sequencing game is great for kids to build up their skills from simply putting the number in order numerically up to simple sequences in multiples.

(source:  www.topmarks.co.uk)

For a more advanced game - more suited to those Grade 5 kids - there is a great game to crack codes by finding the number sequence rule. You have to find the correct numbers or rule for the sequence to collect bio rods - and get them before the Wardroid attacks you!   

There is also another number sequencing game on this same website with slightly less fancy graphics - but still good fun - cracking codes to open the safe door!

These games are from BBC's KS2 Bitesize website which has lots of brilliant educational games for English, Maths and Science.

These are great short games you can encourage your kids to play when they go on the computer.  When I find these fun games I often email the links to our girls. They get the excitement of getting a new email - and a new game to play!

Have fun with number sequencing!!

Lemon Cookies - and more Naplan practice!

Recipes 

Our youngest daughter is a budding cook and loves making cookies and cakes.  She has a page-a-day calendar with recipes for cookies on. Here's one batch she made last week:

Ingredients:

For the Cookies:

1 cup butter

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

grated zest of 3 lemons

1 1/2 cups plain flour

3tbsp cornflour

For the Filling:

4 tbsp butter

1 cup sugar

grated zest of 2 lemons

juice of 1/2 lemon

Preheat oven to 350F (175C). Beat the butter, sugar, vanilla extract and lemon zest together until light and fluffy. Sift the flour and cornflour together and stir into the creamed mixture. Roll into balls and press flat on a baking sheet. Bake for 12 minutes. Allow to cool.

To make the filling, beat the butter and sugar together with the lemon zest and juice until light and fluffy. Spread the filling onto the flat side of one cookie, then put another cookie on top and sandwich together.

Baking as a way to practice numeracy skills

Baking is a great way for kids to practice a number of skills - not just the skill of baking!

Measurements are well practised as ingredients are weighed etc. Depending on the unit of measurement, sometimes fractions are sometimes practiced - as they are here, when things are measured in cups, and half cups etc.  This is something that can come up on the Naplan test in Grade 3 too. For example - here is a question I found on one of the past papers:

Thomas needs 3 cups of flour to make a cake.

He only measures 1/2 cup at a time.

How many 1/2 cups of flour will he need?

1   2   3   or 6 ?

When a student is faced with a question like this, of course they are being tested on their knowledge of basic fractions, but if they have had the real life experience of measuring flour using half cups for a recipe, then the question becomes so much more familiar and so, easier.

We have a large and varied selection of recipes that the girls can bake from - with measurements in cups, grams and ounces, depending on where the recipes come from !  It is great for the kids to be exposed to all these different measurements and to also be able to understand how they relate to each other. Many recipes have 2 different measurements shown, so the kids get used to seeing for example 100g (4 oz), and so gradually learn to convert between different units of measurement.

Estimation

The more kids bake and weigh ingredients, the better they become at estimating weights. It is not only important that kids can read and use units of measurements, but also that they have a rough idea of what, for example 1 kg might feel like.

Another way of practising this is by helping at the shops when buying say - a bag of sugar, and feel the weight of it when they put it in the basket. Or perhaps they know their own weight and so then have a reference point to compare other things to.

Estimating real weights and lengths etc is something else that may appear on the Naplan test, where the students may have to choose the most sensible or likely option from the answers as to what something might weigh or measure.

Here is another example of a question from a past paper:

Which of these is the closest to the length of a real shoe?

5cm

25cm

75cm

100cm

To answer this question, students need to understand what 1cm is actually like and be able to relate this to real life objects. I remember always using my 'big' 30cm ruler at school to compare things to when estimating lengths. It's helpful for kids to have a point of reference like this to refer to - something that they can think, "Is this object longer or shorter than my 30cm ruler?"; thus making it easier to estimate the length of something they don't know.

Real life is often the best practice

I hope these examples show that written tests not only test the student's knowledge of facts - but can be a measure of their understanding of some basic things they encounter in real life.

Sometimes the best practice for basic numeracy and literacy skills for young kids is doing something 'real' - like baking!

So - take a look in your recipe books, and see what tasty delights your kids could bake with you, for some 'homework'  today!

Comparatives and Superlatives - Language conventions practice for Naplan test

In the Language conventions section of the Naplan tests, there are several multiple choice questions where students have to choose the sentence that is grammatically correct, or the word that would complete the sentence to make it grammatically correct.  Some of these questions in both the Year 3 and Year 5 test include choosing the correct adjective form, both comparatives and superlatives.

For example (from a year 5 test):

Which sentence is correct?

1. Some people like cats best than dogs.
2. Some people like cats better than dogs.
3. Some people like cats more best than dogs.
4. Some people like cats more better than dogs.

(Number 2 is correct.)

For younger kids, or those who need a refresher as to how to form comparatives and superlatives, there's a really helpful little video I found here called "The Adjective Detective"

To have some practice using comparatives and superlatives for our girls I played this game with them:

1. Brainstorm 10 adjectives each, so for example:

big, red, good, happy, fast, tall, small, clever, great, slow

2.  Write the comparative and superlative for each adjective:

big       bigger     biggest

red      redder     reddest

good     better     best....... etc

3. Make real sentences using each word they had written, and using objects they could find or talking about people or places they knew.

So for example for the first line, they looked through their stationery supplies and came up with:

This pencil is not very big, but this one is bigger, and this pencil is the biggest of all.

Or :

I am clever, my dad is cleverer than me, but my mum is the cleverest person in our family!

(Ok, so I made that one up myself - but you get the general idea!:) )

I also got them to write down some sentences - and then check each other's work for mistakes (since a lot of the questions on the Naplan test are finding and correcting the mistakes - particularly spelling, and don't siblings just love to correct each other!)

I also found a neat basketball game that practices comparatives and superlatives. You can choose a 1, 2 or 3 point question, and if you choose the correct answer you shoot a basket and gain the points. Choose the wrong answer and your ball will miss the hoop.

Something else I'll encourage the girls to play to practice comparing is Top Trumps.  This is a great card game that the girls have a few different versions of, that is great for practising number skills but also for comparing - as the card with the fastest, largest, biggest, heaviest etc of something wins!  If you want to learn more about Top Trumps you can read about it here.

The above book, The New First Aid in English, is one that I bought to help our girls with English practice. I myself had a copy as a kid and used to love it. Our girls love it too, and it's full of useful information and practice exercises and tests. Definitely a book I would recommend for primary school kids upwards. It's a great book to learn from now and also a good reference book to keep for years to come.

Digital vs Analogue watches for kids

Should you get your kids an analogue or a digital watch?

When we got our girls their first watches, we chose to get analogue ones (shown here in the picture).  We wanted them to learn to tell the time this way first - not just simply read the numbers on a digital watch.

We also have analogue clocks around our house - so the girls did learn this way initially.

However - we equally found that once they had grasped analogue time - they had to learn to equate that to digital time.  It was all very well to be able to read the numbers on a digital watch and say, "It's 3.45"  but how do you say the same time in 'analogue'.

Which ever way a child learns first - they do have to learn both ways and be able to switch between them both.

Being able to switch between analogue and digital time is also something that comes up in questions on the grade 3 Naplan tests.

Learning analogue times also helps kids become aware of other basic maths concepts like fractions and even pie charts!. An analogue clock gives them a familiar point of reference to start from when learning further maths concepts at school.

Last year we explored when kids begin to understand time and found some activities to play with our girls using stopwatches - and some fun websites for them to play on to practise as well. I found another simple game here for some quick practice of converting between analogue and digital times.

I'm definitely glad we chose to start the girls off with analogue watches and clocks. We do live in a digital age with digital clocks on everything from phones, to microwaves and computers, but there are also still plenty of analogue clocks and watches to be found!

What kind of watch do you and your kids have?

Naplan numeracy practice Grade 3 - Geometry

Geometry is a branch of mathematics concerned with questions of

 shape, size, relative position of figures, and the properties of space

(source - Wikipedia)

Geometry is one of the areas covered by the Grade 3 Naplan test.

   One type of question I've noticed a few times is identifying a 

specific person in a 'photo' . For example the question may ask 

what number jumper the person in the back row, second from the

 right is wearing.  This is basic geometry - in terms of identifying 

relative position of figures.

To practice this basic skill, we got out some of the girls school class

 photos from the last few years. We then practised by asking them

 who was sitting or standing, for example - third from the left in the

 front row. We also reversed this by asking them to describe to us

 where a particular friend was in the photo. The girls enjoyed

 looking back over the years to see how they and their friends have

 grown and changed - this provided a good distraction from the

 'maths' aspect of this activity!

Another great and fun way to practice some basic geometry is to

 play Battleships.   There are also often questions which ask the 

kids to identify locations and items on a grid - using battleship

 ideas to plot co-ordinates.

A couple of years ago I made our girls their own Battleships folders

which are a great thing to have with us with ready printed sheets

 and a pencil each to play any time, anywhere! You can print your

 own Battleships grids here! Or just draw your own on scrap paper.

 This is another great, easy activity that needs very little 

preparation.

Naplan year 3 and 5 Numeracy - Fun Money practice

Both Year 3 and Year 5 Naplan numeracy tests may contain questions related to money and working out costs and change.  To practice these skills in a fun way I got out some cash and the junk mail from the letterbox!

First of all for our Year 3 daughter, I would grab a handful of random coins, pass them to her and she would add up the total value of the coins.

This is one type of question that we have found on several year 3 Naplan tests.

The next step was to grab a catalogue for one shop from the junk mail pile. We started out with supermarkets.  I told both girls they had $10 each to spend. They had to choose what they would buy from the catalogue, work out how much they choices cost and how much change they would then have from their original $10. This is to practice working out total costs and change which can come up in questions in both year 3 and 5 Naplan tests.

It was interesting to see the different ways both girls did this task. Our youngest chose her items and one by one subtracted their cost from her $10 so she saw exactly how much money she had left after each choice.  This meant she got lots of practice at subtraction!

Our elder daughter wrote down each item and it's cost on a separate piece of paper, then added up the total which she then subtracted from the original $10. So she only had to do one addition and one subtraction calculation - but it also meant she had to be able to estimate how much she was spending as she was choosing!

Both girls really enjoyed this task - they went through most of the junk mail catalogues - shopping for all sorts of things - sports gear, toiletries and lots of chocolate! They bought things for themselves and gifts for others too!  For the supermarkets I allowed them $10 each, but for bigger shops I allowed $100 each!   You could also use $1000 or larger values for furniture shops for example.

This gives them practice with money, addition, subtraction, decimal points and estimation.  Both grade 3 and 5 need these skills - grade 5 kids just need to be able to do all of this with larger numbers than grade 3 kids. From information I found on a Naplan website - for year 3 kids need to be able to perform money calculations up to $10, and year 5 kids up to $1000.

This is a great activity that you can do with your kids any time with no preparation other than having some junk mail in the house!  Our kids really enjoyed it and kept on shopping after I'd left them to it by themselves!