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Showing posts from 2014

Playing with Cards

Today I am sharing a quick little math group warm up with you. I love using playing cards, and so do my students. This pack is a set from a 500 game... the numbered cards go from 2-13 and Ace becomes one. To keep them tidy and organised, I like using one of the tiniest Sistema containers I can possibly get. A little bit more expensive than other storage systems, but they seem to be practically indestructible, come in great colours and when on sale they are way more affordable: Sitting in a semi circle, I go round the circle giving the students cards, and they need to answer as quickly as they can. The questions vary: * What is your number (you can give them two cards to make a two digit number etc) *What comes before your number *What comes after your number Once they have a set (maybe 5-ish cards)... *Put your cards in order from smallest to biggest *Put your cards in order from biggest to smallest Swap sets between the children so they have a different set to work with. Next we swi

Icecream Everydays!

Went for a trawl through the local dollar store on the weekend and found some goooorgeous ice-cream shaped bowls so simply just HAD to buy them.I scored these ones ages ago: from an op shop and they got an absolute thrashing. We use them with pom poms or plastic beans (JELLYbeans so I am told), and create number problems involving ice-cream sundaes with sprinkles on top. However I only had four, and this seriously limits my group sizes for using this equipment. We want the children to be engaged, and using the manipulatives themselves right? So I bought three sets of these bad boys... ...and we can now all have a go at using the bowls! Much excitement!

Social Media Giant

Time to get back into this little project of mine, and I am kicking off by creating a Facebook page. Facebook is so much a part of my life now, I think it will be easier to put little snapshots etc up there. So try searching for The Destitute Teacher on Facebook, or follow this link . Wish me luck!

Now I know it... now I don't

We have been working hard on improving our recognition of numbers on tens frames recently. It seems that sometimes we know it... and sometimes we don't! I put together some resources and activities to help to develop instant recognition. These include... * Good, old fashioned flashcards. In a group we play tens frames speed (flip a card over, first to read it correctly gets it and the winner is the person with the most at the end). Handy hint... enlarge the tens frames, laminate and attach a magnet on the back for whole class work on the whiteboard. * Roll and Cover Tens Frames games. I made two versions of this game (apologies as I made the clipart, it could do with some refinement). One version is for a 1-6 die, the other is for a 10 sided die (if your die has a '0', use a fine permanent marker to turn it into a ten). Just click here to go to my GoogleDrive and download the PDF file. * Tens frames timed powerpoint. My children love this one. I made a powerpoint presenta

Border Organisation

I can't claim the credit for this post. The idea came from this pin (see more of my school based Pintrest board here ). I bought my plastic containers from my local Countdown, and I think it was around $3 for five. I also discovered that margarine containers fit borders too (just), however they are not clear and make it harder to see what is inside. If you are going to go to the expense and bother of using borders in your classroom, then I thoroughly recommend spending a little extra and protecting them while in storage. Some might say it is a little over the top in organisation. I say its a beautiful thing.

School Holiday Tips

If you are anything like me, you have FAR to many jobs on your "To Do" list in the holidays. Six years into this teaching gig, and I still struggle with my holiday workload. For the first couple of years, the reality is that your classroom will dominate your life. You will have SO MANY things that you need to get done, and the only time to do them will be the non-contact holiday time. So here are six lessons that I have learned in my first six years of teaching: 1. Choose ONE project for the holidays that will make a difference to your life next term. Clean out a cupboard, sort some resources, source some resources.... ONE project. Too many projects will rapidly become a mess. They may end up half done, or just wear you out even more. 2. Clean your house. Seriously, it has probably been neglected during term time, and super neglected during report writing time. A spring clean will make you feel way better. 3. Freezer meals will save you come term time. I try and put a couple

Assessment Organisation

I LOVE to be organised. It gives me a little thrill to be able to lay my hands on what I am looking for, in a quick and efficient manner. It makes me feel like I have super powers! Managing assessment papers can be tricky. My preferred method is one of those portable concertina file-boxes. One section for each student. Because I have 24 students and they come with around 30 pockets, I use the ones at the back to store assessment master copies/ marking guidelines and the occasional piece of assessment that is easier to be kept as a whole set. This method particularly comes into its own around reporting time. The file-box is convenient to pick up and take home to refer to if necessary. Better living, everybody!

ANZAC Crafts

My current school recognises ANZAC Day (Remembrance Day) every year with a whole school assembly as close to the 25th of April as we can. The local RSA members come along and each class lays a 'wreath' dedicated to our fallen soldiers. The whole effect is just beautiful, and every year I am blown away by the variety of crafts each class presents. This year we worked with our buddy class to create some layered fabric poppies. I got the inspiration from this site here . Originally I had high ambitions and wanted the children to sew layers of eco-cloth together to create the poppies. My hopes were quickly dashed, and we resorted to hot glue gunning the layers together. Nice and fast and probably more effective... most sewn efforts were a disaster. We keep our hot glue guns on plastic plates. The plates catch the drips and when the children glue the gun to the plate, it easily peels back off again. The class then brainstormed how we wanted to present our poppies. We chose to g

Recycled Love...

I don't have a teachers desk in my class. The desk I had took up far too much space and was always a mess. So it went to another classroom. Often I regret it, but mostly I rejoice at the extra space. Now I no longer tell children to 'put it on my desk' to deal with later... things get done immediately. Less mess, less stress. I need a place to keep my stickers and stamps though. I recently cut up and cleaned a couple of recycled milk bottles. I chopped off the tops and added a gorgeous little strip of fabric tape and some labels. These are now pinned on the wall next to my IWB. You might notice that I keep my smelly stickers in ziploc bags. This keeps them smellier for longer. As I took this picture it made me think of the red spotty tin that sits at the top of the teachers workstation. I have a series of decorative tins along the top- one for felts, one for permanent markers etc. The red spotty tin is specifically for WHITEBOARD markers. That way my students are able t

Writing Display

I love a good display, and this one lingered in the back of my mind before becoming an actuality. Black fabric $4.99 p/m @ Spotlight Star borders from an old display (or roughly $9.99 a pack) Clear A4 display pockets part of student stationery pack (or $3 for 10 @ KMart) Letters from an old display Laminated stars from an ex Book Fair display Paper clips Sellotape I popped a strip of sellotape along the bottom of each clear pocket and on the top corner of each back page. This stopped them from splitting and cracking when stapled to the wall. A paper clip on each pocket stops the front page from sagging. The idea is that during the year each new piece of published writing will be added to the front of the folder, creating some lovely displays. At the end of the year I will pull them down and the children will have a collection of their writing to take home. Note: absolutely in love with the crochet cushion cover I made (on the couch) to cover a cushion I purchased from the loca

LetterLand idea

This year my school has purchased the LetterLand programme to improve our phonological knowledge and awareness. We are still at the very beginning of the programme, but I am hoping to feature a few ideas on here over the next little while, to help someone else kick start their programme if needed. This first tidbit is something that arose from our discussions before beginning the programme. We noticed that the train frieze does not have character names... and we wanted something to refer to on the walls of the classroom. I photocopied one of the BLMS from the Teachers Book, and blew it up to A3 size then laminated it. Each name tag was then cut out, and as we introduce each character the children take turns to blu-tack the name tag to the train. A simple idea that has been really effective. They love to have the privilege of tacking up the name tag, and love being introduced to new characters. Success.

Christmas Crochet

I am slowly working my way through a massive backlog of posts that I have photographed and never done anything with.... Last year I made myself a vow that I would try and MAKE each of my students a little Christmas gift for them each at the end of the year. After much to-ing and fro-ing, I decided on CROCHET gifts, as there had been a wooly theme in the classroom. I found a super cute and super easy pattern for crochet monsters here . They work up quickly and it was a relatively painless process to make 21 of the little darlings. I started during the Term 3 holidays and gradually picked at the project. These little monsters were packaged up with a 3B1 notebook (which I bulk buy in the stationery sales at the start of the year... 5 cents each!), a pencil, and an eraser. The kids loved receiving them almost as much as I loved making and giving them. I also put together a simple theme for the chocolate gifts I gave to teacher aides, co-workers etc.... brown paper, twine and a little c

Kiwifruit Country

I was cleaning out some files today and found some pictures I meant to post last year. I can't even remember what we were studying at the time... but I do remember that this was a spontaneous art lesson that linked in beautifully. I think we had been looking at brush techniques and a reliever had been doing pencil sketched studies of cut kiwifruit with the class. We roughly mixed a couple of shades of green to make a massive swirl on the page. The bigger, the better. The idea was to not load the brush up too much- otherwise it ends up a mess. We then did a second swirl of white in the centre. Brushes were flipped upside down and we dragged the end through the white paint and outwards to create the lines. Lastly, we dipped the ends in black paint and dotted seeds.

Greetings from NZ

This term our focus for Te Reo is Greetings. So I just had to share a set of basic greetings posters that I made for my classroom. There is a huge deficit of free Maori printables out there... so hopefully this is one step in the right direction! You can access the documents from my Google Drive here .

Because I'm happpeeeeeeeeeee...

So, so happy with the final results of our beginning of the year, class collaborative art projects! Clap along if you feel that this is a craft for you. Day one we began to create some class bunting. I already had crochet bunting hanging in the classroom, so we have a bit of a theme going on. I made a triangle template and traced out 24 triangles onto fabric. These were roughly cut out, so that I could name them on the outside of the triangle and be able to read it clearly. We put the traced side down on the table (so that I had clear cutting lines later) and we talked about not mixing colours, background/foreground and bright/interesting colours. The children painted self portraits in any old colours they choose. I limited their colour palettes to bright tones. Day One we painted basic shapes- head, shoulders, background. Day Two we added detail. Day Three we added further detail if needed. I took the triangles home to cut and assemble. Each 'flag' was cut out and re-na

Pintresting Facts

I am IN LOVE with Pintrest. Not only is it the world's best time-waster, it is the world's best source of teacher inspiration. I spend a lot of time on Pintrest and gather a lot of resources and inspiration. This is now working particularly well for me as our school administrator has allowed access to Pintrest at school, so I am finally able to print things direct from my boards! If you are interested in getting started, and want to see what I am pinning, you can find my boards here: http://www.pinterest.com/shannane/. You might want to take a packed lunch. It is truly addictive.

Golden Rules.... a Treaty of Respect

Here in NZ we tend to cover The Treaty of Waitangi each year as we work together to establish our classroom rules. Invariably, we end up coming to an agreement and each child 'signs' it to show that they will support and uphold what they have discussed. Each year, I inwardly groan at how boring my class treaty always ends up looking. That is, until I came across this .jpg on Pintrest. It got me thinking... perhaps we could create a set of 'golden' rules.... rules that are displayed around a sun... and the rays of the sun were our handprints... and our handprints were our pledge to uphold the rules. I pitched the idea to the kids and they LOVED it. Each day we painted large sheets of newsprint in a messy, Eric Carle kind of way. Just pour the paint straight on the paper and get the kids to go mad. Geez, it was fun! I have since learned a good lesson: don't use newsprint. It's too flimsy. Go for something a little thicker. With a little help I got the bac

In the beginning, there was.... Math

So at my current school we begin each year with a mini 'about me' unit. We look at our community, our rules etc... and usually link Math in through Stats or Measurement. This means by the time they get to me, they have already charted their heights, eye colours, fav food, etc before. Been there, done that, Miss. We want something different. Yesterday I gave each child a handful of pom poms each. You want to get a child interested in Math? Try pom poms. Totally focussed and on task, we set about sorting the pom poms into categories. Most children went for the standard- colour sorting- to begin with. Then we began to talk about other ways to classify our pom poms; size and sparkly v.s. non-sparkly were other popular possibilities. At this point, I want to say that I needed to model the sorting on the board- identifying common attributes and sorting data was the focus of the lesson. I made a mental note to glue some pom poms onto magnets for future lessons. Today I gave th

And in the beginning there was...

It is the start of a brand new school year in lil ol' NZ, and for the next few posts I am going to give you the grand tour of my classroom. I am beginning the round with my new school hat storage system... it has made my life so much easier, and was quick and simple to make. I bought two over-the-door-shoe-organizers from K-Mart for $8.00 each (just in case you are wondering, there is 16 pockets in each organizer). These were stapled to the back of my class library shelves. Top tip- use the staple gun at an angle. It makes it way easier to get the staples out later if there is a little gap at one end. I chopped off the bottom rows, as they were not needed, and ran a quick strip of patterned duct tape across the top and bottom (before running out). I then added laminated name labels (stapled on) and a sign. Quick, cheap, and easy (wink wink). I love it because I can see at a glance who doesn't have their hat at school today, and their hats are no longer scattered around my

Art Exhibition

This post has been a long time coming... Last year our school had an art exhibition, where each child needed to produce an artwork to show. My class of seven year olds was eternally optimistic and wanted to produce FOUR smaller artworks, in a mixed media study of owls. We didn't quite make it to four, but gave it a good shot. Our first project was to produce a salt dough owl. Each child got a handful of dough (I think I used about 3kg of flour in total) and we followed the tutorial here Be warned- it took two days to bake 21 A5 sized dough owls enough. And baking salt dough smells kinda funny. Once baked, we looked at the process of painting our owls. We under-coated them with white, and slowly layered our paint. I wanted to emphasise the importance of getting the maximum effect- waiting to dry between each layer meant that we didn't end up with a horrible mess of brown paint. This process took a long time. In the end, to get it done I would have a painting table set

A New and Profound Love

I have craft envy. I troll Pintrest and other blogs looking for sweet ideas for my own classroom, but as I do I am hit by the availability and affordability of crafting supplies in America and the UK. We often get supplies in NZ after a long delay, and it takes even longer for the supplies to become cheap. Of note I have noticed that more and more dollar shops are beginning to stock teacher specific supplies- borders, certificates etc. Have a look around as there is some pretty neat stuff out there. Spotlight has a range of affordable classroom decoratives in some stores. A hunt through Geoffs Emporium on Dominion Road in Auckland resulted in a roll of patterned duct tape for $3. Major score! Not in love with the pattern, but excited by the possibilities I chucked it in the basket and trundled home with it. I inherited some dilipdated A3 clearfiles at the end of last year... perfect beginners project! These folders needed some love, as they were scuffed and torn, but not ready to be

Mini Books 2.0

This year's goal is to re-vamp my reading tumble activities. Last year I spent a lot of time seeking out and making resources for independent Math activities/ tubs, and poor old reading got the short stick. One very successful tub I have had in my reading tumble is the box of 'Mini Books'. We all love mini things... mini mars bars and mini bottles of liquor that you get on a plane are personal favourites. The kids have really enjoyed having 'Mini Books' as a reading task, so over the summer holidays I have added to the resource and spent some time repairing older books. All the books in the tub were sourced from op-shops for a minimal cost (mostly 10- 50 cents each). There is a good stock of books published by Ladybird in their small format, but also a range of books that seem to have been from Happy Meals, or given out at B.P. petrol stations. Either way, a fabulous source of engaging reading material! I fully recommend a strip of clear packing tape along