Book Week Paper Bag Princess

Term 3 is my favourite term during the school year!

Term 1 is all about finding out everything you can about your families and students - what they like, know, react and how they best learn.

Term 2 is reports - enough said

And Term 4 is just so busy between reports and getting organised for the end of the year. It is still a great term just not my favourite!

But Term 3 is wonderful

By this stage everyone knows each other REALLY WELL and there are so many fun events happening!

It is a busy term but a fun one!!! J

So in true Term 3 form the past two weeks have been HETIC!!!

I have been in and out of the classroom so much lately - which I actually hate!

By the time Friday rolled around all I wanted was to be alone with my kids because I just missed spending time with them!

I didn’t go to the staffroom, I didn’t go talk to fellow teachers, I didn’t leave my classroom unless ABSOLUTELY necessary for instance toilet breaks!!!

Tuesday was Book Week - my favourite day of the year!!!! J

This year I went with my peer teachers as the Paper Bag Princess!!!!

From bed hair to  the perfect tangled hair princess!!!!

If you have not read this book to your class I highly recommend it!!!!

After we have read the story we write letters to Ronald explaining why he is not a good and what he can do to be a better friend! :)

All you need is a brown lunch bag and a tempate for the princess head and hands!

I like to use the template you can find HERE at My Activity Maker

Hope you all have a super week  - make the most of this flying by term with your kids!!!! :)

Big Book Q&A

This term in Writing we have been learning all about Narratives!

We have been looking at the elements of a narrative using the Diana Rigg narrative structure. We have examined well known narratives looking at these elements in each book.

One element in particular is lots of fun but hard for little minds to get around sometimes. That element is characters thoughts and feelings. The feelings part is okay but the thoughts seem to be the area they struggle just a little. We always have so many questions!!!

I decided the best way to help my students understand a character’s thoughts would be to ask a character!!!

Now I know this in nice in theory but impossible when using fictional characters!!

So I went with the next best thing ….I dressed up as a character so my class could ask how I felt and what I thought throughout the story.

We had been reading Possum Magic (a personal favourite) in class that week so I put my best ‘nanna’ on and dressed up as Grandma Poss!

I am not going to lie it was a little concerning how much I could pass for a Grandma!!!! Hee hee

My students came in and were allowed to ask Grandma Poss any question that related to the story particularly about how she felt and what she was thinking about the story!

My little fish were bursting with excitement!!!!

They came up with many great questions! As expected one of the questions for Grandma Poss was to do some bush magic so she made a puppet owl appear ….from inside her sleeve ;)

After we finished our Q&A we shared some light morning tea.

Of course our snacks consisted of vegemite sandwiches and lamingtons . . . 

after all we didn’t want any of them to turn invisible! ;) hee hee

Making Maths Just A little More Fun

I am going to say a honest truth …

Maths is often the type of subject you love or hate.

In primary school I enjoyed Math because I understood it but when I got into high school I really struggled with Math and consequently had a really negative attitude towards it.

As we all know Maths come into our lives every day so it is SO IMPORTANT that kids enjoy math so they do not switch off!!!

In light of this - it is my life mission to have as many (if not ALL) students in my class loving math!!!

What I am about to say is not anything new but I cannot stress enough how important and rewarding it is to go through a topic using the: concrete to pictorial to abstract phases but it can be hard due to a number of factors including:

Resources - 3 classes makes resource availability not easy but I have two super star peer teachers so we manage!

Students - to be able to handle manipulatives students need to learn clear routines, how to share and how to look after resources.

Time - that’s a big one! I feel like the war will be won but I will keep fighting! ;)

Despite the challenges the process is well worth the benefits but it can be hard to fit it in within the teaching time of a lesson. 

There are many different ways to spice up a maths lessons these are my small tips to make maths as fun as possible. . .

Dance and Sing

Dance and sing at any and EVERY opportunity possible!

It is very easy to sing and dance during a lesson by warm up to some skip counting or place value videos but it can further than that!

You can sing your lesson objective or make up songs and chants to go with a particular topic!

When we looked at patterns we did the chicken dance!!

There are plenty of YouTube clips for many math concepts if you don’t want to make up your own ones!

One of my good teacher friends teachers Pre-Primary and she sings songs to teach sight words like ‘the’ and ‘because’!

ACTIONS ACTIONS ACTIONS

As far as I am concerned anything that gets people moving is a GREAT thing!

I am very big on kinaesthetic activities - as an adult I find it hard to sit still for longer than 5 mins so I try my best to keep my kids moving as much as possible!

Actions are great to go along with a verbal and/or visual message!

They just provide another way to receive and more importantly remember a message.

I usually team actions up with my WALT and WILF so it becomes easier to remember!! J

Bring the Magic

Some  people hate gimmicks but I LOVE them!

I love themes!!

I love puns!!!

I love FUN! J

It doesn’t need to be a big huzzah!!!  I honestly think it is the little things that make a lesson exciting!

Dress up!

Serving up some synonyms come as a chef!

Looking at a particular story book - dress up as a character!

Pick a theme!

Buy some plastic tongs, bowls and salad tossers for centres to create an instant picnic theme!

Pirate theme for mapping!

Cloudy with a chance of meatballs for a chance unit!

Use manipulatives!

Not just math manipulatives - use toy animals as counters or pasta as a base ten and ones! Food is a great one! Use cookies and cereal to represent multiplication arrays!

Get creative!!!! Think outside the square!!! Pinterest is your friend here people!

  Learning Can Be Fun!

Sometimes it is about the process over the product. Not every lesson requires a worksheet.  You can show what you know in multiple ways!

• Paint!
• Draw a picture!
• Use Playdough
• Take photos!
• Play games!
• Cook something!

How do you make maths more exciting?!?! I would love to hear your ideas! :)