A Christmas Conversation LINKY

The Silly Season is here and I’m running around like a crazy person. (Well, not right this second… trying to find the will to get up on this lazy Sunday morning!) There is so much to be done and so very little time to do it.

In one week (this Friday) I will say goodbye to my current class – the end of the year is nigh for those of us in Australia – and at the moment it’s a bit of a struggle to get there. But all will be good!

I’m linking up with The Inspired Apple for her Christmas Conversation Linky!

Happy holiday season! Don’t forget to link up with your own responses!

Five for Friday

Oh, my! It’s been a while since I updated the blog – apologies! It’s the Silly Season, for sure!

#1

Oh. My. Goodness. It’s December. Last weekend I started decorating my planner for the festive season!

#2

Elfina made her grand return to Room 16 this week on the first of December, express from the North Pole (sorry, forgot to take a photo in all the excitement!). Since then she’s wrecked havoc with the school photocopiers, become mates with The Pigeon, spied on the Grade 3/4s across the hall and hung around the class Christmas tree during Maths Fun Day (after a suggestion from one of my Grade 1s that it might be a safe place for her with so many unfamiliar faces wandering in and out of the classroom all day!).

I have some wonderful teachers (and a wonderful prin) who have played along with the kids and made it extra special for them this year. It’s been a great first week with our Elf on the Shelf.

#3

I’m so lucky to come home and have cuddles with this cutie!

#4

I opened an Etsy Store a little while ago. It’s still in it’s infant-stages at the moment, but I plan to sell a whole lot of planner pages for Filofax/Kikki-K style planners. I’ve been busy working on different designs and they’ll go up some time in the new year. Plus, there’s some fun journaling card pages listed, too! I’d love for you to check out my store: The Noveltea Corner

#5

I’ve added my first-ever set of graphics to my TeachersPayTeachers store this week – a set of unique backgrounds. All, save for one, have elements of transparency so they can be layered over other images/colours. There are 10 in all and I’m quite proud of them! Check them out here.

Thanks for stopping by this week!

What have you been up to?

Question and Comment Wands!

Earlier this week I posted a brand new product to my TeachersPayTeachers store: Question and Comment Wands!

(Click the image above to view on TpT!)

This little pack is designed to help those gorgeous kiddos who still (occasionally?!) mix up their questions and comments during whole class discussions.

How often do you ask your kiddos if they have any questions and you ask a little cherub and they pipe up with something completely off-topic? (Say, for example, when you’re introducing a new CAFE menu strategy and one poppet decides now is the perfect time to inform you that today is his uncle’s birthday!)

This is my day. At least once during instruction time.

Don’t get me wrong – I love that they want to tell me everything that’s happening in their lives, but quite often comments pop up right in the middle of that WONDERFUL lesson that’s going so well and then you have to spend 30 seconds redirecting one (or more) kiddos back on task.

Enter the Question and Comment Wands!

A handy little tool that each of your kiddos can make to provide themselves (and you) with a visual tool for identifying the types of thinking happening during your instruction time.

This would work well in whole group instruction time, or even in small group instruction, particularly if you have a focus on turn-taking and speaking and listening skills.

It also offers a great opportunity to teach or revise the difference between comments and questions, especially with our youngest students.

Check out my quick video below, with a run-down on my thinking behind this little pack, as well as a demonstration on how easy it is to put together:

Thanks so much for visiting!

I’d love to hear your

Five for Friday (September 19th)

#5

On Sunday I spent the day with my family at a family friend’s house in Torquay and our friend made me an absolutely AWESOME pink pavlova for my birthday! (It was totally yummy!)

#4

On Monday my class celebrated International Dot Day by making these Dot Quilts – students decorated 6 circles with coloured patterns, then cut them in half and traded 6 halves with other students in the class. They look beautiful and bright on our wall!

#3

Wednesday was my birthday. It was also the School Dance. So I spent 14 hours working on my birthday. (But the School Dance is seriously my favourite school event so I can’t grumble too much!)

My student teacher taught my class how to make those pink tissue-paper flowers for my birthday and one of my lovely, lovely colleagues bought me a WhizzBang Stapler (lol!) and glitter washi tapes. Does she know me or what?!

#2

I’ve been playing with my new watercolour set. Having some fun!

#1

My class is participating in the #GoZumba campaign with GoNoodle, and this week we were featured on their Instagram account. Click the picture above or here to see them dancing along to “I Like to Move It”! (I think they’re too cute!)

Happy Weekend!

New freebie! Peas on a Plate craftivity!

Oh my word, it’s been ages since I made anything!

This little freebie (click on the above image) compliments my Peas on a Plate subitising pack (below):

If you’re teaching the little ones to recognise and count groups of objects, this is for you!

There is a lot of freedom in using this freebie:

1) Let students pick a number to show with the peas on a plate,
2) Assign each student a number,
3) Have them roll dot dice to determine the number they need to record.

Once students have their number, they colour and cut the peas and glue them on to their plate – a template has been provided, but use a real paper plate for extra fun.

(Would you believe that I don’t have a SINGLE paper plate in my house… despite the drawer full of them at work?!!! Oh well, I like the cute yellow plate, too!)

Then students go in and record their number – numeral, word and illustrations!

Simple, easy to use – just print and go!

(Or, you know, add your own additional accessories!)

If you download, please leave some feedback! Also, if you use it with your class I would love to see how they turn out! Please feel free to send me a photo or link if you do!

Happy Tuesday, friends! ❤

September Currently 2014

 

 

Listening to  The Blacklist on DVD. I loved this show when it was on TV but sadly fell behind so I’m revisiting and catching up!

Loving that there are 3 weeks until holidays! And I really need a rest. This term has been cuh-RAZY!

Thinking that mentoring a pre-service teacher is a wonderful opportunity to learn a lot about myself as a teacher. Seriously, just watching and then having to give feedback has helped me better understand exactly what I do every day. (And yes, it freaks me out!)

Wanting to get rid of my cold. Seriously. Enough is enough!

Needing to manage my budget… because I don’t. And it’s depressing.

3 trips I want to take are to Canada (to see the wonderful, wonderful Alex!), Philadelphia (to see the wonderful, wonderful Var!) and the Great Barrier Reef before we do something horrible to it and lose it forever.

 

Don’t forget to head over to Oh’ Boy 4th Grade and join the linky fun!

Five for Friday (August 15th)

Can I just say: it’s been an unbelievably exhausting week. Just back from the Grade 1 dinner at school tonight and I’m beat. Not much is going to be happening this weekend, that’s for sure. But I am ready to link up with Doodlebugs Teaching for:

#5

I’ve moved into a personal-sized planner from Kikki-K and I have to say that I’m loving the portable size. I’ve even made my own planner inserts for it. This was this week’s planner layout and I’m kind of in love with it. I’m such a pink person!

#4

I saw this CUTE idea over at Love, Laughter and Learning in Prep. I loved it so much I have a little team of 14 tennis ball pals for fine motor development!

#3

I got this awesome hanging pocket from my aunt – totally out of the blue! I’ve never mentioned to anyone that I’d like one and she randomly gave it to me. It’s been put to good use, as you can see!

#2

Our class veggie patch has been a little bit neglected of late, but we’re heading up next week to harvest our lettuce!

#1

We’ve been exploring location this week – looking at paths and maps.  We spent an hour making paths around the classroom using different classroom materials and then my kiddos had to draw their paths on a classroom map. (This was very interesting to see which students could orientate themselves!) They had a lot of fun, and I loved that some of my boys used their beloved Pokemon cards to mark their paths!

Swap, Share, Give Linky!

Hey everyone!

My lovely, fellow-Australian teacher friends and I have joined forces again for another Swap, Share, Give blog linky this weekend! We had so much fun the last time around we’re back at it, sharing some of the fantastic resources you might have missed!

I was paired with the very lovely Jemima from Luck’s Little Learners. Jemima is a fellow Victorian teacher (woohoo!) and if you’re not following her already, you definitely need to stop by and visit her blog, check out her Facebook page, or visit her on Instagram.

*~ SWAP ~*

I was super fortunate enough to be able to review Jemima’s 100th Day of School Party Pack! Here in Australia we’ve hit the middle of our school year and 2 weeks ago (July 31st), my class celebrated their 100th Day of School! (Strange, I know, for my northern hemisphere friends who are only starting to head back to school now!)

First up, let me tell you: this pack is designed for the busy teacher. If you (like me) find yourself coming up on 100 days a little time poor, these activities are all PRINT AND GO and are so easy and fun to implement.

A peek at some of the things included in Jemima’s pack:

Great, detail activity ideas and instructions!

100s charts – a whole variety so that you can differentiate for your kids (or skills) as required. Also included (but not in the photo) is a hundreds chart with random numbers missing.

I used these as early finishers tasks on the day and they worked a treat!

Ways of Making 10 pages.

Tracing/writing 100 letters.

This was another early finisher’s task that I had for the kiddos – and can I just say, they were SO amazed that they could write ‘100 letters’ (Preps AND Grade 1s!). It was really adorable and they really, really loved this task.

100th Day Writing prompts!

We ended up using the 4 prompt option in the centre and I’ve got a couple of photos of my kiddos work to show you:

This was some writing by two of my Grade 1 students – I was just blown away by one of my boys who declared (very proudly) that if he had $100 he would give it to a charity. *heart-warming moment*

And some from my Preps!

(No matter how many times I tell them ‘Don’t colour over your writing…’ <- I sound like a broken record!)

Some great ‘100’ visualising mats and a 100 Days of school poem! My preps used the blank mat to stick down 10 groups of 10 objects that they all bought from home. We all read the 100 days of school poem and it was decorated and pasted into the back of their Literacy journals with the other poems we’ve read this year!

Some of our groups of 100!

Crowns and placemats and a fantastic colouring page!

One of my kiddos modelling her 100 Days of School crown!

All-in-all, I was blown away by Jemima’s pack – it was fun, easy to print and implement and provided a lot of options, which (for someone teaching a composite class) is just awesome!

I know for a lot of your 100 Days of School is still a long way off, but I would seriously urge you to add Jemima’s 100 Days of School Party Pack to your carts right now to have it ready for your 100 days of school!

*~ SHARE ~*

As part of our linky I’m going to share TWO freebies with you – one of mine, and one from Jemima!

First up, in keeping with our 100 Days of School theme, I’m sharing with you the photo sign I used for the day (modified slightly – mine had the name of the school and the specific date for our 100 days of school):

Click the image above (or here) to download this freebie! If you’re looking for my other freebies, simply click here.

If you’re looking for a great freebie from Jemima, look no further than her Digraph ‘ng’ as ‘ing’ pack! (Or check out all her freebies here!)

*~ GIVE ~*

The last component of our linky is probably my favourite: the giving part.

If you head over to Bec’s blog (Books, Bugs and Boxes) you have the opportunity to enter a giveaway to win ALL of the packs that were reviewed as part of the linky party.

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However, if you want an extra chance (or two) to win a copy of Jemima’s 100 Days of School Party Pack and my Hens Love Tens activity, just enter the Rafflecopter below:

 

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And don’t forget to head on over to Luck’s Little Learners to see Jemima’s review of my activity Hens Love Tens: A Skip-Counting Game.

Five for Friday (August 1st)

Bit late… but better late than never, right?!

 

#5

The fabulous team over at Educents is at it again, and for the next 9 hours only (RUN, PEOPLE, RUN!) The Write Stuff bundle for K-2 is on sale for $29.99. The total value of this pack is over $90, so it’s an absolute steal!

They also have a 31 Days of Back-to-School Giveaways going on (don’t forget to enter!) and a whole host of fantastic deals for you to grab for the new school year!

#4

This week marked 100 Days of School for my kiddos. We had a lot of fun with streamer-covered doors, 100 day collections, 100 day biscuits and all sorts of fun and shenanigans! (Along with specialist classes and swimming, oh my!)

Stay tuned for next weekend when I’ll be sharing a fabulous 100 Days of School resource as part of the SWAP, SHARE, GIVE linky!

#3

It’s Winter here in Australia, and where I am it doesn’t snow. But it does hail. Oh, boy, does it hail when it wants to.

#2

My Grade 1s have been learning all about fractions, and as a bit of fun, to finish off our unit, we worked out M&M fractions yesterday. Boy were they happy to be able to EAT their MATHS WORK! (You can grab the great freebie pack from Tunstall’s Teaching Tidbits here.)

#1

It’s been 3 weeks, so I had my regular nail appointment today – love my new teal and foil nails! Thanks, Nancy!

Sunday (Life)Style – Finders Keepers market

I’m really excited to share my Sunday (Life)Style post with you all today. In advance, I’m going to confess this is an event I was saving up some money for – it is a market and it has a lot of hand-made, beautiful things for sale and I’ve got very poor self-control where that sort of thing is concerned. But this is my show-and-tell!

Twice a year (in Melbourne), the Finders Keepers Market is held at the Royal Exhibition Building. It is a market that showcases local talent (from Melbourne and other Australian states) who have various crafty/vintage-style businesses. It’s just a GORGEOUS market, and this year there were over 250 different stalls, plus live music, entertainment and food.

It was also PACKED. I went with my mum and we got there fifteen minutes early and joined the line. 5 minutes later, the line went back to the road. When we left just after 1pm (3 hours later) there was still a line to enter and the place was crammed full of people. It was nuts! But a lot of fun, too!

I have some photos from the various stalls to share, then I’ll share my goodies!

Outside and inside the Exhibition Building, and our Finders Keepers entry sticker!

The last picture is a photo of all the business cards/postcards/promotional stuff I collected from some of the stalls. Because all these stall holders were local or Australian I wanted to collect and collate their information for the next time I need to buy gifts!

Now, onto some of my purchases:

My lovely new necklaces, made from beautiful polymer clay (I think!). The first 2 are nine-bead necklaces from Emily Green and the second is from Dear Mabel.

Next up I bought a sample tea selection from Organics for Lily. In my set I bought Peppermint, Green Tea Citrus and Remember Me. I can’t wait to try them!

Then I bought The Very Hungry Bum – which is a cheeky (!) version of The Very Hungry Caterpillar. There are also 2 more books Bum Magic (Possum Magic) and Where the Wild Bums Are (Where the Wild Things Are). If you’ve got kids who love parodies (or just bum jokes!) they’ll love these.  Check them out here.

I got 2 cute little terrarium figures from Meow Girl and this gorgeous Chilli Citrus candle from Zen Moments Candles.

Finally, the paper junkie in me bought some new wrapping paper. The Grand Plans for these paper rolls are for use in paper bead making. We’ll see how they turn out!

The first roll is from Bespoke Press (which sells cards and paper goods) and then 4 rolls from InkyCo, who had the most AMAZING gift wrap rolls. I think I’ll be making future purchases from them, for sure!

AND, on top of all my weekend awesomeness, I was SUPER LUCKY to get to catch up with Brooke from Teachable Moments this week while she was in Melbourne. One of my favourite aspects of blogging has always been the community aspect, and I’ve made such wonderful friends through blogging.

Plus, Brooke is just LOVELY! ❤

Now, I’m back to planning for our 100 Days of School celebrations this week!

What awesome things did you get up to this week?