WANTED! Cool ideas for Science Projects

We are searching for a great Science Fair project to work on over the next eight weeks. Hannah wants to answer her question.. "How do you make fossils?" if anyone can help. We found this fantastic digital story by Cameron, he looks about four, very cool descriptive story on how he makes a fossil.

What a supportive parent he must have, yay!

Market Day - we're in business!

Very nervous the first morning and late setting up! Even though it says be set up by 10am, all stallholders we ready to go at 9am when we arrrived. Thanks to Kurstin, I had a lesson on how to construct a Gazebo and we were ready to roll at 9.55... beautiful weather and the comments from people were awesome. My girls are the youngest stallholders her market fee half price! I was so proud of her and her origami demos drew lots of interest.
A really successful day for our whole family, working for weeks to achieve this, a great school holiday project.



My favourite customer was a young guy who brought a bouquet for his first wedding anniversary, telling us the first year token is paper! what a sweetheart.

Thanks to all our friends and family who came to see Paperlicious Origami in action, especially, Miss Page, the beautiful teacher who taught my daughter all about Biz Kids, who happened to be at the markets on our first day, thanks so much!
Big hugs to Kate at Mini-Eco for the garland idea, Shazza for the gazebo, Trace for the table and transport! and Mark from the Art Group for our groovy business cards, posters and labels, they are so professional.




To order origami bouquets, email paperliciousorigami@gmail.com with your favourite colours!

Mini-eco playdough recipe

Found the most brilliant site for creative and handmade crafts for the kids, we spent yesterday morning making our own playdough colours with flower petals, tumeric and my eleven year old's idea- GERKINS! didn't quite come out the shade of green we anticipated, and the smell sure clears the nostrils! We found a great list of plants that will make every colour and plan to keep experimenting, to see the extensive list from Pioneer Thinking, click here.

To make your own, visit Kate's beautiful website Mini-eco for the basic playdough recipe and natural dye options. My advice though, is to add twice as much oil so the playdough doesn't dry out quick, having spent over a decade making playdough in Early Childhood-if you want it to last, oil is the way to go. I love this idea for playdough because children learn about plant properties and don't need to rely on expensive dye or toxic paint. Kate is a web designer and a self-confessed 'visual junkie', you will fall in love with the photos of her creations from garlands, to beads and her latest post, the homemade guitar, SO COOL !!.



My daughters enjoyed the scavenger hunt for petals just as much as the finished product.



This one's a bit of a cheat on the recipe, with a splash of red colouring, as some petals she found did not make a deep colour. Rose and hydrangeas petals were the coolest giving us a deep red and light purple that kept turning blue, then pink, then purple, very exciting in the pot!

School Children in Business

What is it?

Biz Kids started in Term Four as a major craft project for five classes of Year 5/6 students, the project culminated in a Market Day in Week 9 which was SOLD OUT in just one hour with the parents, whaanau and junior class clients who attended. This Business of crafty wand sellers was very popular!! Such a COOL idea...



How does it work?

Children in each class had an opportunity to be a Buisness Manager which involved producing a C.V. and craft product description, buisness name and ideas to their Teacher. In my daughters class, for example there were 10 buisness managers who then advertised for employees...giving the remaining students jobs to apply for.

Here is my daughter's ad for her Origami Buisness;

WANTED: Two Creative and Crafty Employees

This job is part-time and temporary.

We believe in turning boring old paper, either recycled and new, into anything using your imagination.

You will need to create products and come up with useful idea.

You will need to co-operate well, be organised, diligent, flexible, creative, independent and hard working.

You also need to have most of these skills wich are;

Good with numbers
Be able to do origami
Be artistic
Measure perfectly
Be extra careful

You will also need a 'can do' attitude!

Pay will be 2 Bart per week.

(Bart is the currency, different coloured paper with various amounts and the Bart Simpson logo on are exchanged by class CEO's on Market Day, $1.00 buys 3 Bart for example.)

Once all employees are hired they are trained and led by the Buisness Managers to produce a craft object for sale. In previous years Market Day has involved food products as well, Teachers found that this disadvantaged the craft making children who worked for weeks then were beaten by the hot chip stand next to them on the day! The logistics of managing baking in the School Staffroom by classes was problematic too. This year Biz Kidz is solely a craft sale day.

Buisnesses work for three afternoons a week prior to Market Day producing their products. All the money made from each Market Day goes toward buying supplies for the following year's Biz Kids Warehouse. It is so gorgeous seeing children's creativity on such a grand scale, children making for children and teaching supporting individuality and entrepreneurship.

Here is a collage of Biz Kid's products, tie-dyed scarves, bath salts, cards, games, finger puppets, stress balls...



What's the learning?

Children learn SO much, from articulating their skills in a Curriculum Vitae, confidence in interviewing and being interviewed, working on a long term goal alongside others. This year the classroom teachers including social networking tools and hosted chat forums for De Bono Hat thinking and discussion on Twiducate. I was quite heartened that most children were logging on, however mindful this is a high decile school and the assumption that most homes have internet access. I have found that parents vary in allowing access, depending on the age of the child ( I have worked with Juniors who are not allowed on the computer at home yet) and Teacher's recommendation... Including Twiducate in homework tasks ensured its success.



De Bono's Hats Picture Source

Curriculum Links?

Following Market Day they assess their writing, Technology, Visual Language, ICT and Key Competency skills;

Establishing role as business employer (manager) or employee
Displaying responsibility in chosen role
Keeping own accurate financial records
Planning Product -includes procedural writing
Making Products
Advertising Products
Presenting Products
Evaluating success of Buisness (Profit/Loss)

Children also tapped into their drama talents for their own video ads, storyboarding funny ideas, dressing up and acting it out for viewing by the other classes...


To view the full video on the school website click here

Where did it start?

I have been trying to find out where it started and by who, but there is lots on the web about Education 4 Enterprise and it's association with the NZ Curriculum, perhaps Biz Kidz originated from this initiative or is the Primary School version of E4E?...

It's definition useful in emphasizing the learning present in such a process;

"...a teaching and learning process directed towards developing in young people those skills, competencies, understandings, and attributes which equip them to be innovative, and to identify, create, initiate, and successfully manage personal, community, business, and work opportunities, including working for themselves."

E4E Quote Source

Personal Reflection

My daughter has gained so much from being a part of Biz Kids. I talked to Teachers and some say how much work it is, and that colleagues are reluctant to take this on. The majority, having seen the results for children, support it to carry on each year and for this I thank them. Term Four can be a term where enthusiasm and energy is lacking, but with this project and the intrinsic drive that creativity creates I think Biz Kids is perfect for this time of year. My daughter learnt to teach and manage others, to develop a successful and beautiful product and to persevere and work towards an event. I have seen her blossom in confidence through this, with the belief that she can have her own business!



To learn how to make items, as pictured above watch you tube tutorials and visit this origami site Squidoo

Since Market Day we have been busy with orders for Paperlicious Origami Flowers and are working towards our first Market Day in real life. My daughter has learnt to stock up, as these are so popular!



This post is dedicated to all Teachers, who don't think of how much 'work' something may be but of its potential to help children learn more about themselves and their capabilities in creative and exciting way! Ka Rawe Kaiako

Children, children what do you see?

Here is a Voice Thread, planned and created by my ten year old daughter Hannah to demonstrate to her Teacher that she has the ability to act out a story. We are big fans of Eric Carle in our house, Author of The Very Hungry Caterpillar



and this popular children's picture book Brown Bear, Brown Bear.


Over the last week we have visited his website and watched videos of Eric creating the hungry caterpillar and murals for his Museum of Picture Book Art, to view these youself click here.

Eric shares his creative processes in slideshows and there is also a video which my children enjoyed on how to make your very own very hungry caterpillar!



Eric encourages creativity with his stories and has a forum for Teachers to share ideas they have found successful in the classroom, it is called the caterpillar exchange. This is a wonderful way to think about the many ways a story can inspire.
In my own teaching I have read the story and then run a slideshow of the children's own pictures over the day, asking them "Children, children, what do you see?" ... I don't know where its heading but I love that about teaching, will keep you posted!

Enjoy the Voice Thread, the goldfish is hilarious!!!

...This post I dedicate to my very own Mandela, Miss Amanda Jackson in Kahungunu, who now joins the fabulously talented EC Girlz within CORE Education, in their mahi to provide the highest quality and most memorable professional development for Early Childhood services in Aotearoa. Miss Mandela you are my umbrella in a storm and remind me to keep walking through the puddles for and with the children I serve, I thank you with all my heart for this.

All the best for a stunning journey with CORE xxx

ULearn, UThink, UChange, UTeach better!

One of the most live changing experiences for me was the cross sector conversations and exposure to ideas and experts at ULearn in 2009. I had never even heard of the conference, until my work with CORE in the ECE ICT PL Programme. Click here to check out the team's brilliant spotlights on ECE ICT Innovations from the programme 2006-2009 on the iLead website.

Honestly if the project hadn't sponsored spaces for Early Childhood Teachers to attend and present I think I, along with my early childhood colleagues, would easily misinterpret ULearn as just another primary conference, but we would be so wrong. I was so inspired and challenged by it. My mind buzzed for nights there, its a wonder I slept at all!. ULearn is the largest technology in Education conference in New Zealand, hosted by CORE and in Christchurch every October.

I am hopeful I will be there next year, I want to take my small team of teachers. I remember meeting a principal on the bus back to the main arena after a breakout at ULearn '09 who told me she brings her whole school! 14 teachers, from Auckland...

"It is the only way we can all be on the same page together, if only one or two go, it takes too long for change to ripple through our school."

The fabulous team at CORE on the 5th-9th October, will provide another outstanding conference for Teachers across all sectors, and I hope that this post may prompt or generate interest in attending from readers, go ahead! its worth it!

To find out more about this amazing educational cross sector conference and to registration go to http://www.core-ed.org/ulearn/10

$645 + GST

I've been teaching all day Mummy!

This week I worked with my daughter and her classmates to learn to use the digital camera, download and produce a visual story in Comic Life or Photo Story 3.

Bryony was a natural at giving directions and patiently allowing children to learn for themselves! When we got home she told me how tired she was from Teaching ALL DAY! The following day, with a little negotiation and some tears she agreed to let others be trained as peer tutors too lol, with the understanding that once you have learnt something-the more you can share it-the more people will learn it, and THAT is what makes a great teacher.

Over two days the children took turns to try photography and digital storytelling with Photo Story 3, another easy programme for young children and nervous teachers to master. The children felt like pilots with the headset on, recording their narration to pictures. As the stories were played back the room went silent and they were captivated by their classmates voices.

I don't think there is anything more rewarding for me and now my daughter has felt it, when children learn something new and are completely in awe and excited by it, wanting to return to it, repeat it and learn more...

That's why I'm a teacher, what a BUZZ :)

To download a free trial of Comic Life click here
To download a pdf of helpful Comic Life notes click here
To download the free digital storytelling software for Windows, Photo Story 3, click here
To watch a tutorial you tube on Photo Story 3 without a drone speaking click here