Five for Friday… on Saturday

Ok… so I’m a bit late this week, and this will probably be my last post for a few days (yes, I can hear some of you breathing a sigh of relief!). Back to school on Monday.

I’m sure I’ll be busy, busy, busy (especially since I seem to have picked up the role of Reports Co-ordinator… or co-co-ordinator, as it will be for this term). Sigh. I’m not including that in my Five For Friday, though.

#1

Consider this my girly confession for the week. I’ve been catching up on the last two seasons of Lost Girl, and I must say that the highlight for me were 5 episodes in season 2 when Ryan Lambert (Anthony Lemke) was in the show. He was the show’s Tony Stark and was awesome and they totally need to bring his character back. He was hil.ar.ious! And he’s pretty. 

#2

I made a random stop into the Reject Shop this week and found cute little things.

1. Super-cute animal/etc post-it notes (no idea what I’ll use them for, I’m sure they’ll come in handy though).
2. Feet cut-outs that I’ll be using for informal measurement later this year.
3. Mini flip-flop notebooks (actually from Coles) that will form part of the kiddo’s Christmas present – yes, I planning ahead!.
4. Pre-cut cardboard glasses and cellophane… we’ll be making 3D glasses so that no one argues over the 3 pairs I have in my classroom for the 3D books! My Little Smarties can keep them in their tubs with their handwriting bags. 🙂

#3

Guess what I was doing this morning? Lots to cut out now, including 200 coloured sight words!

#4

And what does one watch while spending an hour + laminating? Why, a favourite movie, of course!

One that I can quote. Verbatim. And laugh at.

Major props if you can work out who my favourite character/s is/are!

#5

I have newly coloured hair. Please excuse my lack of make-up.

Now my hair no longer matches my cute Melonheadz person. May have to seek out people to make me a new, cute avatar. I’ll add it to my list of things to-do!

Right-o. That’s all from me. Nearly.

Almost forgot – you’ve got a few more hours to enter to win one of my new teaching resources. Click here, leave a comment and you’ll be in the running!

Now I’m done! Enjoy your weekend, lovelies!

Directions for Santa

Intellectually, I know that December is a crazy month and that I should expect it every year… but every year it seems to get crazier!

It’s hard to believe that in 12 (school days) I’ll be saying goodbye to my class of Prep and Grade 1 students. Some of these students I’ve taught for the last two years and they’ll all be moving up to Grade 1/2 classes in another building. It makes me somewhat nostalgic!

Next year (starting on January 31st) I’ll be teaching a brand new collection of students in another Prep/Grade 1 class. First term will be veeeery interesting (again)! So far I’ve met 6 (out of 7) of the incoming prep students and we’re finalising the rest of the classes so I’ll meet my Grade 1s on December 12th.

Anyway… we’re well into our Christmas-themed activities (primarily because we really only have next week as a normal school week – last week is full up with school events, class parties, meeting new classes, etc).

Today we started my FAVOURITE Christmas activity. It was one of the activities that my teaching team gave me in my first year of teaching (3 years ago!) and I just love it. It’s called Directions for Santa (and it’s available in my Christmas Time is Coming pack).

First, as a class we brainstormed all the places Santa would need to stop on his way to their house on Christmas. (Please excuse my drawing and handwriting…)

Now, every year the responses I get vary  – last year my preps were very realistic (they put their friends’ houses, shopping centers, world locations, etc). This year was SO different. My Grade 1s were excitedly coming up with ‘Santa stops’ – Present Word, Sleigh Workshop, Candy Cane World, the Sack Workshop, Santa’s Airport, etc. It was so cute! They really had fun with it, which was brilliant.

Next I modelled on the IWB how to start creating a map for Santa. (Note the important Apple store stop!)

We talked a lot about including clear labels for each stop so that Santa knew exactly were to go.

Check out some of their ideas!

Aren’t they great!

We have an accompanying writing task to go with it that we’ll complete tomorrow, writing out the directions.

If you like this activity you can find plenty more in my pack – just click below to see it on TpT!

What is YOUR favourite Christmas activity to do with your students?

Cyber Monday plus Tuesday SALE

Unless you’ve been living under a rock (hey! There are some GREAT rocks out there!), you’ll know that the TpT Cyber Monday plus Tuesday sale has begun.

People have been stocking wishlists and carts all weekend long, in a advance of this sale. It’s very exciting!

At the Miss Galvin Learns store you’ll get a 20% discount off all my products, plus an addition discount (totally at 28% off) when you enter the code CMT12 at the checkout.

I’ve also recently added some new products (full previews to come later):

Just click on the images to see the product and previews!

I know my shopping cart is full, how’s yours doing?

What’s in YOUR shopping cart?

Super Saturday!

It’s hard to believe that there is just 20 more (school) days until the end of the teaching year.

First thing on Monday morning I think I’ll make Count-down Paper Chains with my students so that we can display them on our back wall and count down the days until the end of the year. (I promise to take a photo!)

Not only that, but next week we have our final Prep Transition session (for the 2013 incoming Prep children) and I’ll finally get to meet my students… and find out whether I’m teaching Prep or Prep/1 next year! (That’s actually an important bit of information!) It’s all very exciting. I’ve been involved in 3 out of the 4 Transition sessions this year, and they’re a lovely group of students. Next year will be great!

Don’t forget: I have my ‘sneaky’ Giveaway ending in just a few hours – it’s easy to join in and you can win your choice of one of my paid products on TpT/TN!

However – I do have a fabulous freebie for you today, just in time for Christmas!

A new, FREE font – MGL Write Well for Santa 

Click on the image to download it!

And don’t forget – 2 fabulous sales over the next few days!

Up to 35% off my TeachersNotebook Store. (24/11 – 26/11)

Up to 28% off my TeachersPayTeachers Store. (26/11 – 27/11)

I also snuck a new item into both stores last night – an early Valentine’s Day craft (or even just to celebrate the wonderful people in our lives!):

Find on TeachersNotebook and TeachersPayTeachers

3-Day Sale (TN) & Cyber Monday + Tuesday Sale (TpT) & Sneaky Giveaway!

First off, Happy Thanksgiving to all my American friends! I hope that you all have a wonderful day. Please know that I am thankful to have met and know all of you.

Second of all, this upcoming week is massive! This Saturday – Monday, my TeachersNotebook store will be on sale for 25% off plus 10% extra. And, on Monday and Tuesday, my TeachersPayTeachers store will be on sale for 28% off! I’m linking up with The 3AM Teacher to help promote the TpT sale – so don’t forget to visit some of the fantastic stores and add to your wish lists! I’m also linking up with Blog Hoppin’ – because it’s important to spread the love (especially on a Thanksgiving weekend!)!

I’ve been working hard lately to upload as many activities and activity packs as I can to my store (and still have a few in the works at the moment!). Here’s a small reminder of what’s there already, plus an in-depth look at my new Christmas Literacy pack, perfect for Firsties!

And now for my new Christmas-themed Literacy pack:

Find on TeachersNotebook and TeachersPayTeachers

Click on pictures for an enlarged preview! 

Snowflake compound word matching activity.

Dolch Sight Words (Lists 1-6). Use for Memory, Snap, Word Work, Read the Room, etc.

Mitten Match – contraction matching activity.

Fix the Sentence – 3 telling & 3 asking sentences. Students correct capitalisation and punctuation.

Read & Copy holiday sentences. Great for reading and handwriting.

6 Silly Sentence Sorts, each with 3 options. (Cut/paste/write/colour, cut/paste/colour, cut/paste/illustrate)

Label Christmas (included in this pack).

Holiday letter writing packs.

3 class books – The Night Santa Came to School, I thought I saw Rudolph and Holiday Wishes.

Short and Long Vowel sorting sheets.

Ten Little Reindeer poem and cloze activity.

I hope that it may of be use in your classrooms!

And for those of you who’ve made it to the end of this post… a special GIVEAWAY just for you! Pin one (or more!) of my products and go in the draw to win ANY item of your choosing from my store!

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Homemade number stamps

I’m (rather impatiently!) waiting for 4 sets of number stamps to arrive from Etsy for my classroom. One can never have too many alphabet or number stamps!

I need some for my Number Rotations this Wednesday, so I spent most of yesterday trying to find some ANYWHERE. No such luck.

My sister and I made a late-night trip out to K-Mart last night and I resolved to DIY my own number stamps for this week. It was quite easy, and pretty cheap, and I’m rather pleased with myself!

Materials:

– 1 bag of foam numbers ($2)

– 2 packets of erasers ($4)

– Hot glue gun

See, easy peasy!

(And while I was there I also bought a packet of six coloured ink pads! No more students arguing over who gets to control the ‘shared’ ink pad!)

Click on the picture above for my Prep’s Stamp the Number recording sheet.

What is your best DIY classroom resource?

Enjoy your Sunday!

Christmas Time Is Coming…

That’s such a scary thought – I remember my students at the start of the year and can barely believe that in just 5 weeks time they’ll be moving up into Grade 1 and 2.

But with the end of the year, comes Christmas and all the fun festivities that surround it.

Earlier this month I posted my first Christmas Activities packet on TpT and TeachersNotebook. Tonight I plan to share each part of it with you. (Shhh! There’s a Literacy packet coming that could be even bigger…!)

Appropriate for Kindergarten/Prep.

Purchase on TpT and TeachersNotebook

(The lovely background is by MareeTruelove Designs)

Alphabet Match – Uppercase and lowercase letter matching cards (great for Snap, Memory, flashcards, etc) and 5 recording sheets.

Holiday Writing – 3 writing prompts with 2 different lined paper styles

• All I want for Christmas
• My Wishlist
• Letter to Santa

Directions for Santa – My favourite activity to do with my students at Christmas time! Students draw a map from the North Pole to their house, including all important stops on the way. Students can then write the directions on the included template (3 lined paper styles).

Awesome Adjectives – Describe an elf, the sleigh, Santa, a reindeer and a snowman.

Number Match – Match numerals, number names and number pictures. 6 recording sheets are included.

Counting Puzzles – 4 counting puzzles (with blank options)

• 1-10
• 11-20
• Counting by 5s
• Counting by 10s

Ordering Days & Months – Days and Months cards and recording sheets.

O’Clock Times – O’clock time cards (analogue, digital and words) and 1 recording sheets.

Odd and Even – Odd and Even sorting cards and 4 recording sheets (fill in the numbers and highlight the numbers).

BUMP to Jingle Bells – Simple and fun math adding game.

So, that’s my packet – I’m very proud of it. I can’t wait to share my Winter Holidays Literacy packet with you all as soon as it’s complete. It’s geared towards first grade, and incorporated my Label Christmas pack as well.

Here are the product listings for you, one final time!

TeachersPayTeachers & TeachersNotebook

(There is a sale coming up on TpT soon, so you can add it to your Wishlists if you like!)

Also, I wanted to give a huge shout-out thank you to Shanyn from Coffee, Kids and Compulsive Lists for featuring my free fonts in her most recent post. It’s so sweet!

I hope everyone’s having a FANTASTIC weekend!

I Have, Who Has? (Winter Edition)

Hello my friends!

Tonight I have fabulous news to share with you all! Today I received an on-going (permanent) position at my school! (After 3 years of contract work, this is SO exciting!)

I’m also bringing you a brand new activity pack – perfect for the current Northern Hemisphere Winter months.

Purchase on TeachersPayTeachers and TeachersNotebook

I only discovered this fun game format this year and I’ve fallen in love with it! It’s perfect for introducing and reviewing topics across multiple curriculum areas, and can be playing as a whole class and a small group.

My pack includes 4 sets of I have, who has? number cards, plus recording sheets for math centers.

• Counting by 1s, 0-20
• Counting by 2s, 2-48
• Counting by 5s, 5-120
• Counting by 10s, 10-240

Purchase on TeachersPayTeachers and TeachersNotebook

The super-cute clipart is from Mel at From the Pond, backgrounds from Maree Truelove and The 3AM Teacher.

Stay tuned this weekend as I preview my Christmas Time Is Coming and Label the Alphabet packs!

How’s YOUR week going?

World Kindness Day

This week at school we’re promoting Wellbeing Week. There’s a whole range of activities that we’re doing in the classroom to celebrate social, emotional and physical wellbeing.

Today was World Kindness Day.

As a school we each created a Kindness Leaf, a leaf decorated with what kindness means to us. I was very proud of my kiddos, who came up with some really thoughtful ideas, including:

• helping others when they’re hurt
• inviting others to play with them
• smiling
• saying lots of nice things
• hugs
• saying hello to everyone

The leaves will be collated into a whole school display in our Hall, which we’ll see every week during our whole school assembly time.

To celebrate World Kindness Day I’ve put together this little freebie pack for you:

This pack contains:

• Templates for a class book (including colour and black and white versions of a front cover)
• 3 optional writing templates for the class book
• 2 options for creating your own Kindness Tree

Click on the picture above, or here, to download this freebie.

Also, I’ve been rather busy lately creating my own fonts. It’s seriously addictive!

However, for those of you who don’t follow my TpT store (nudge, nudge!), I’ve recently uploaded a few of those fonts for FREE!

MGL All Write

MGL All Write Skinny

MGL Dotti

MGL Good Writing

MGL The Right Line

MGL The Write Stuff

MGL Too Cool

MGL Write Well

They’re all free – and available for commercial use, as long as you link back to my TpT store. I’d also love your feedback, if you have a moment.

Happy Kindness Day!

Remembrance Day

I was planning a proper update today, but I’m going to be busy writing an expression of interest for my job next year, so this post will be brief and hopefully I’ll have time to update tomorrow after school!

Yesterday was Remembrance Day here in Australia.

I believe that it’s important to talk about what that means, even with my little students in Prep and Grade 1.

As a school we celebrated Remembrance Day last Friday, but I didn’t have a lot of time with my students to actually talk about what that meant. So, that’s what we discussed this morning.

It was a fascinating conversation to have with 5-7 year olds. They really were quite perceptive and asked some great questions and weren’t afraid of the topic. I was so proud of them!

Afterwards we created a Remembrance Day poppy display:

This activity was inspired by That Artist Woman’s “P is for Poppy” project.

I adapted it for easy classroom use!

We painted coffee filters on Friday afternoon (in a mad rush!) using red food dye and water. Today we cut out green card for grass and black card for the stems, and folded our coffee filters into poppy flowers and added some black marker detail. Finally we unscrambled our message – We will remember them. 

They did such a fabulous job.

I hope everyone else has a wonderful start to the week!