What Was New in April 2017?
/Welcome to a new type of post at the Galarious Goods blog! Each month I'll give a little round up of what's been going on as well as a little peek behind the scenes.
The Getting Involved lessons and bundle were unveiled in early April. There are eight lessons in this series, each one examining how students can get involved with local and global issues which matter to them.
The first two lessons - Personal Values and Collecting Information focused on personal reflection and knowledge. Students think about what matters to them - and why - and how they can find out more about those issues. The next three lessons - Why We Share, Sharing Information in the Real World and Sharing Information Online - look at ways of getting other people informed and involved with the issues students care about. The final three lessons - Local Action, Actions in Writing and Protest Action - looks at what students can do to make changes in their community and beyond.
One thing I'm really excited about is the inclusion of presentation files in these resources. These are PDF files which can be expanded to full screen and used with projectors or devices in the classroom. This allows for more flexibility within the resources - especially when you have tight photocopy budgets!
The other collection of resources released in April were centred around the verse novel Pearl Verses the World by Sally Murphy. This wonderful book takes a look at Pearl, whose teacher wants her to write poetry with rhymes at a time when she doesn't have much rhyme in her life.
The resources available include a Comprehension and Vocabulary resource, which allows students to look at the novel in a chronological order or by themes; a Whole Novel resource which looks at retelling the novel, reacting to the novel and exploring the characters in the novel among other things; and a Poetry Activities resource which examines the poetry in Pearl Verses the World and other poetry related to it.
As well as these activities focused on the novel, Galarious Goods released a series of poems written around a school theme. These poems are available in different formats for different classroom uses.
All four of these resources are available as a Pearl Verses the World Novel Study Bundle.
Behind the Scenes
It's been a busy April here at the Galarious Goods house! We've had lots of excitement with Easter this month, as well as thoughtful reflection for ANZAC Day and my daughter's first birthday. I drew a sketch of a dog's face for her birthday party cake and was immediately thankful for the amazing clip artists! (I am definitely not an artist!)
Things should calm down moving into May, but I'm excited to be getting back into some Year 6 Government resources in the coming month as well as some new resources to celebrate learning in the classroom.
A great way to have a peek behind the scenes at Galarious Goods is through the Galarious Goods instagram account. Follow along for product announcements, quotes, blog post announcements, photos and occasional really bad sketches!
