Thank you

Wow!! I have reached over 1000 visits to my blog! I have loved watching my world map fill up with pink dots from visits around the world.

Please excuse my lack of recent posts, I have been fighting off germs that have invaded my learning space.

Some where over the Rainbow

I Love Stickers

I love stickers and I love a bargain.

I have used Vistaprint over the years for many projects, but after spotting another teacher making their own stickers I had to do the same. 

   

Claire

Classroom Shopping... again!

I couldn't help myself today, but I had to browse around one of the 'cheap' shops after work. I was going there to get supplies for our Mothers Day craft session tomorrow. Like most others I am always on the look out for classroom resources.

These magnetic boards caught my eye, which will be perfect for 'Word Work' and these gorgeous badges for my home reading awards.

Claire

Green Thumbs

I hate to admit it, but I have garden envy...

Over the last week I have been watching my neighbour grade 1/2 P and their teacher Sue Parker creating a garden in one of the planter boxes outside our classrooms. The students have designed stakes that encourage other students not to play with their plants.

As you can see from the pictures they have done a great job.

But I am happy to say my grade will be working on their own garden very soon and we cant wait.

Now what to plant...

Claire

A new Word Work task

Who would think that a packet of dry-erase textas, 

a window and spelling words would be so much fun.

1 + 1 = 2

For four hours a week I take a Cohort group for Maths 'Maths Movers', which means our three grades (Sue’s, Carmen/Louie’s and mine) are split into 3 new grades based on needs and abilities. Over the last few months I have been playing with my Maths planning and planners using the basis of Daily 5. Last year Paula played around with this with our grade and I have taken it a little further.

Our classroom timetable, excuse
the messing writing.
 I have taken out the
students names.

So I guess you could say I have Daily 4 Maths -

1.     Maths with Teacher – work with me

2.     Maths with Someone – partner work, such as a game

3.     Maths with Self – working on fluency of numbers/counting or number recall

4.     Maths with ICT – playing a maths game related to the topic

When I introduced the four tasks I referred back to our Daily 5 Literacy. I still work on the principle of ‘whole-small-whole’, starting the lesson with a short introduction, then going off and doing our four tasks and ending with a reflection. In one session/hour I see each group once. Our timetable is displayed in the classroom and the students are able to independently follow along.

It is lovely how the students have taken to this; I guess their experience with Daily 5 Literacy has really helped them settle in and understand the process.

Students brainstorm of what they
know about Addition.

My next step with my planning is to link into the four strands of AusVELs Maths –

-     -  Problem Solving

-      - Reasoning

-      - Understanding

-      - Fluency

through making these visible in my planning, to my students via our Maths Timetable and making them aware of this language.

I would love to know what your Maths lesson looks like.

Claire

Maths with Someone

Maths with Self - Mental Recall and Fluency 

Maths with Self - Mental Recall 

Maths with ICT

Books are not dead...

Today I headed to Clunes (a historical gold rush town) to meet up with my mum and dad. It was the annual Booktown Festival, the town of Clunes opens up its doors to sell books old and new every year. Book traders from around Australia gather in this beautiful town to sell their rare, second hand and new books.

I spent the day rummaging through boxes, shelves and shops on the hunt for books to full up my classroom library and my own at home. I found a few treasures, but none so precious as a copy of one of parents gardening books they had written in the 80's. I laughed out loud when I turned the book over to see a picture of my parents in their 80's attire and my dad without grey hair.

One of my favourite finds was what I am guessing a very old benchmarking book.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend.

Claire