Q is for Questions, Quotes & Quilling

And a big hello as I return to internet connectivity!!  I now realise I was a wally and forgot to hit publish so my blog posts didn't appear last week, however they are now all there for any comments to be made retrospectively - a big thank you to those who have already :)

Questions - I have found through working with children on the special needs register it is really important to listen to the questions THEY ask - this often gives a really big insight into the way they see the world or where their learning problem lies.

But you need to give children the power to ask questions as often they think that asking a question is a sign of weakness and inability that shouldn't be shown in front of their peers.  That's why not only do I regularly reward children who ask questions and give them plenty of praise for asking but I also try to teach asking questions.

Work at the start of a topic can be about what we want to find out so we need to think of questions we will investigate the answers to in order to learn new things.  When we are learning we can find out how others learnt this or how they remember things by questioning our partners.  We can swap roles in the classroom and a child has to elicit knowledge from the class - so they have to ask the questions - and boy can they drill deep at times!!

Due to this ease of asking questions nothing is then off limits so a child who asks "How did you know to put the number there?" immediately alerts me to the fact that they do not understand something fundamental in their maths working or "Why do we say Big Elephants Always Understand Small Elephants?" lets me know they haven't got the principle of mnemonics for spelling.  Even bigger things sometimes spring up like, "How do I know which way to start writing?" - possible dyslexic tendencies or even "Who's going to be here tomorrow?" - possible hard of hearing problems/short term memory difficulties.

A short pack containing questions based around dinosaurs is my freebie today - so have a look it may contain something useful for your pupils :)

Quotes - last year this was one of my most popular posts on the A to Z Challenge - mainly because I think a good quote speaks volumes and some of the pictures that go with them are wonderful.  So here are a few new ones I've come across that have a link to special needs :)

and finally one that probably should be my mantra :)

Quilling - over the years I have had chances to have a go at this craft - at drop-in sessions at craft shows and once when talking to a very nice lady on a craft stall raising money for Macmillan nurses.  I have only really seen it used for cards such as this simple one I made

but when I was looking to see examples of better cards I came across loads of earrings made by quilling -

These examples are taken from an amazing quilling artist - Erin Curet who can be found at: http://www.littlecircles.net/

so maybe I will have a go at doing some of these - don't know how robust they are though???

Q is for Questions with a Dinosaur Twist!!

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