The Maths Box

A little while back I was contacted by RIC Publishing who asked me if I would be interesting in reviewing one of their new Maths Boxes. Last year I received a free sample of the Level 1 box and was eager to see more of this new series of resources that they’re releasing. As with all my reviews, my thoughts and opinions are my own. I’ve also tried to include a few ways that I plan on using this resource in my classroom.

The Maths Box Series is an Australian Curriculum-aligned resource for Years 1-6. The boxes themselves retail for $275 per box and include two copies of 75 task cards (for a total of 150 cards), two copies of 75 answers cards and a teachers guide.

Each task card is colour-coded and numbered:

• (Blue) Number and Algebra – Number and Place Value (26 cards)
• (Red) Number and Algebra – Fractions and Decimals (8 cards)
• (Green) Number and Algebra – Money and Financial Mathematics (4 cards)
• (Purple) Number and Algebra – Patterns and Algebra (6 cards)
• (Orange) Measurement and Geometry – Using Units of Measurement (15 cards)
• (Dark Blue) Measurement and Geometry – Shape (3 cards)
• (Yellow) Measurement and Geometry  – Location and Transformation (5 cards)
• (Black) Statistics and Probability – Chance (4 cards)
• (Brown) Statistics and Probability – Data Representation and Interpretation (4 cards)

The front side of each card provides a stimulus material while the back of each card has questions pertaining to the stimulus material.  The cards are very graphic and colourful and include a range of illustrations and photos depending on the subject. They’re a thick, laminated card for durability.

The Teacher’s Guide includes specific links to Australian Curriculum outcomes as well as Proficiency Strands (understanding, fluency, problem solving and reasoning) for each task card. There are explanations on how to use the cards, possible tasks, student and teacher tracking sheets, and materials required for individual tasks. There are full-colour mini posters for different topics, such as counting on, coins, shapes, etc. There are additional BLM resource sheets that can be copied to be used in conjunction with the task cards, too. There’s also a collected list of answers and a glossary for teacher use, too.

There’s a lot to like about these task cards – they’re easy to use, easy to pull out, easy to implement. They’re bright, colourful and appealing to young students. Some of those things can also be a negative – sometimes too much colour or too many graphics can be distracting for young learners, however, these are not really tasks I would leave my students to use on their own.

That said, here’s how I plan to use them:

Idea #1: These would make great early finisher’s tasks for students who are confident readers and don’t need lots of teacher assistance – the visuals and the answer cards mean they can use them independently and check their answers.  Alternatively, you could pair students up to work on these (with a highly capable child with someone who needs a bit more assistance).

Idea #2: Assessment check-up. Depending on the skills you’re covering in the classroom, you might pull out a task that covers those areas and use those questions to check your students’ understanding during individual conferencing. With two copies of each task card, the student can have one in front of them and the teacher can have one for the questions.

Idea #3: A variation on the second idea, have a parent helper (or an older buddy) work with individual students to practise different maths skills. Again, use the two copies of each card.

As a Foundation teacher with students who are already achieving end of Foundation benchmarks in maths, a box like this is great for extension, too, and I know some of my students will enjoy these activities.

Overall I think this is another quality resource that teachers can definitely add to their maths arsenal, and I do look forward to using it with my students in the future.

If you’re interested in checking out this resource, or any of the other great resources available, stop by the R.I.C. website!

Did You Take the ‘B’ From My _ook?

Stop, press!

If you haven’t seen this book, RUN (don’t walk) and grab yourself a copy because it’s run of the most enjoyable books I have read with my class so far this year.

If you’ve followed my blog for any length of time, you may be aware that I love children’s literature. I love books that make kids think and feel and laugh. Did You Take the B from My _ook? by Beck and Matt Stanton definitely makes them think and laugh.

They also argue back with you, which is the most fun a teacher (or parent) can have when sharing a read aloud story, and this is one of those books that must be read aloud. Trust me on this!

For those of you who are familiar with the book This Is a Ball (also by Beck and Matt Stanton), this is a book where the adult reader is given instructions by the author prior to reading. In the case of Did You Take the B from My _ook? you love the letter ‘b’ and you’re going to sneeze and all the ‘b’s’ will be blown away.

Then begins the really fun ‘conversation’ that you have with your child or class of students as you read all the words on the page without saying the sound ‘b’ in any words that begin with ‘b’. It is both hilarious and tricky and a fantastic jumping off point for conversation with children who argue you back at you and tell you that _all should be ball and _utterfly should be butterfly and so on.

When I first read this to my class (a group of twenty-three 4-6 year olds) I had two parent helpers in the classroom. They were in stitches, too, mostly because my class were desperately trying to convince me that I was saying all the words wrong all the time. By the time I finished reading it I had a little chorus of “Read it again, Miss Galvin!” going on (which I would have if it hadn’t been recess time!).

From a teaching perspective, it’s a really fantastic opportunity to talk about the importance of remembering initial sounds in words. There’s a lot of great activities that you could do following a reading of this book:

• Make a list of words from your Sound of the Week and take that sound away from the beginning of words and read them aloud as a class.
• Take away the first sound in students names and read them aloud.
• Create an alliterative sentence using a particular sound (or your Sound of the Week), take away that sound and read it aloud.
• For much older students, you could have them create their own version of the story with their favourite sounds and then have them share them with younger students.

So, thank you to Beck and Matt Stanton for (again) producing a highly entertaining book with wonderful learning concepts embedded within it. This was such fun to read and I can’t wait to read it again with my students in the future!

If you have any favourite read aloud books, be sure to share them with me in the comments below. I’d love to know what they are!

Until next time, happy teaching, friends!

(This book was sent to me for review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.)

R.I.C. Review | Rio Olympics, Reading & Fine Motor Skills

Hello, teacher friends!

I’m very excited to be able to share a review of some books from R.I.C. Publications. Full disclosure – these books were sent to me for review, and if you’ve read any of my previous reviews for R.I.C. you’ll know that I share honest and fair reviews of these products.

There are three books in this review – The Games: Destination Rio, Reading For Success Book 2, and Fine Motor Skills.

The Games: Destination Rio

I was contacted by R.I.C. to see if I would be interested in reviewing this particular resource book as it is an Olympic Games year. This year the Games will be held in August (and there’s a great Competition Schedule included in this book with sports dates!) and for us, in Australia, that’s Term 3.

What I love about this resource book is it’s broken down into sections:

– Olympic Games Heritage
– 2016 Olympic Games in Rio
– South America, Brazil and Rio de Janeiro
– Sports and Sportsmanship
– Olympic Games Around the World

That means, no matter which aspect/s of the Games you’re interested in pursuing with your students, there’s pretty much something for everyone.

As with all R.I.C. resource books there is comprehensive information provided for the teacher – it’s like a one-stop shop for your basic knowledge needs. They also have fantastic lesson ideas including background information, curriculum links (for the Australian Curriculum) and cross-curricular activities. They also have suggested introductory activities and it has links to activities within the book that support these activities.

They also have their usual student activity pages that can be copied for students. As this book is designed for 5-7 year olds, some of these independent activities would be a little bit difficult for the younger students, but they would be perfect for small group work where students are being supported by a teacher, aid or parent helper. The suggested activities included as part of the lessons are perfect for students of all ages to help them immerse themselves in this big sporting event!

If you’d like more information about this resource book, click here to visit the R.I.C. website.

Reading for Success (Book 2)

As a Foundation/Prep teacher, building and developing strong reading skills is paramount for my students. They are all beginning readers – often at very different levels – and it’s important to have a range of resources and activities on hand to support those differentiated learning needs.

The Reading for Success resource book is aimed at 4-7 year olds and covers the following concepts:

– Phonemic Awareness
– Phonics
– Fluency
– Vocabulary
– Comprehension

Each section of this book contains detailed explanations (for teachers) as well as activities and games that can be reproduced and prepared for the classroom and student use. There is a great range of independent activities and small group games that would be perfect for use with aids or parent helpers to support students.

If you’re a teacher who’s been teaching in the early years for a while, you probably do or have a lot of similar activities, but if you’re a beginning teacher or someone who doesn’t have access to a wide range of reading support materials then this is a fabulous resource for you.

I particularly love the detailed explanations for teachers about each section. There are a lot of very practical, hands-on activities suggested and included that are easy to implement.

If you’re interested in more information regarding this resource book, click here to find it on the R.I.C. website.

Fine Motor Skills

Fine Motor Skills is a topic very close to my heart as a Foundation teacher. It is such a foundational skill that some students do not have a lot of practise with prior to beginning skill. When I saw this in my pack for review I was really excited because every teacher needs a great bank of fine motor activities stored away for those students who just need a bit of extra practise.

As with all the R.I.C. books there is a lot of background information for teachers and educators on fine motor skills, early childhood development and how to get started. There are even some fabulous fine motor skills checklists that can help you assess where your students are when you beginning teaching fine motor skills.

After the background information pages, the book is broken down into the following sections:

– Shoulder and wrist activities
– Wrist and hand activities
– Hand and finger activities
– Scissor activities
– Drawing and writing activities
– Printing practise- Appendix

Each section provides ideas for hands-on activities and follow up independent recording activities that promote the development of fine motor skills in young students. The book is suggested for 4-6 year old students, and the activities really do match the age group with simple instructions and clear illustrations. There are lots of ideas for squeezing, pouring, play dough and stamping and many, many more.

I was particularly thrilled to see a section on finger plays. I love to sing songs, read poems and do finger plays with my students because they love music and engaging interactions and encouraging them to participate in finger plays gets them involved. R.I.C. has included a range of traditional and thematic (animals, foods, holidays, etc) plays so there’s something for all occasions. (And yes, they include the actions!)

I also really like the cutting practise pages for scissor skills, because so many of my students this year have difficultly holding and using scissors correctly – and it’s frustrating for them. The included activities are simple, clear and have a range of shapes that help students learn to hold and cut their pages correctly.

I really liked the printing practise section, but the drawback for me here is that it is in print font rather than Vic Modern Cursive (which is what my school uses), so unfortunately I probably won’t be using that. However, there are plenty of great activities in here that I will copy and laminate to be used over and over as my students develop their fine motor skills this year.

If you would like more information on this resource, check out this link to the R.I.C. website!

I would like to thank R.I.C. for sending me these books for review. I am always impressed by the quality and the activities included in these resources. I can’t wait to implement some of them in my classroom this year and I’ll be sure to keep you guys updated on what I do!

 

Have a wonderful week!

The Jungle Bully (R.I.C.)

Welcome to part 3 of my review for R.I.C. Publications! If you haven’t already, check out my reviews of some of their English and Maths resources.

 

The last item I have for review, is the textless big book The Jungle Bully ($29.95). This book is A3 in size (see below for comparison with an A4 book).

This beautifully illustrated book deals with the topic of bullying, and how those situations can be dealt with and resolved, all through oral discussion about what is happening in the illustrations.

The following narrative description is taken from R.I.C.’s page:

A small monkey is bullied by other monkeys in his community and, feeling sad, runs away to be by himself. Seeing a group of happy animals, he decides to take his frustrations out on a harmless gorilla, and does this while the gorilla’s friends are distracted or sleeping. Although much bigger than the monkey, the gorilla doesn’t retaliate; but rather than remain silent, he finds his friends and tells them what happened to him. The animals decide to confront the monkey and talk about what he did to their friend.

The monkey, now realising the gorilla has a support network, appears worried about what they will do to him. The animals give the monkey a chance to tell his side of the story and are saddened by what they hear. The gorilla and monkey are left to discuss how they can move forward and how the gorilla and his friends can support the monkey.

They come up with a plan where all the animals can work together so they can all enjoy the jungle and keep the monkey safe.

I love using wordless texts with students, because not only does it reinforce the practise of using/paying close attention to the illustrations, but also because it allows students the opportunity to make their own meaning rather than purely being influenced by the words the author has chosen.

At the back of the book, you can find extensive teacher notes, or you can download them from R.I.C.’s website, too. These notes have extensive questions for discussion with students, ordered by page so you can tailor the depth of your book discussion to the needs of your class.

You can also download printable masks in black and white and colour (I printed the BLM ones) for use with the class. This provides plenty of opportunities for role-playing to build the connections established through the storytelling process.

I think this would be a great book to add to any school’s collection of student well-being resources – no matter where you are in the world – because it deals with a topic that students really struggle with. Discussing it through the medium of a story can make it very accessible even to young learners.

Thanks so much to R.I.C. Publications for the wonderful opportunity to review all of these fabulous resources. Don’t forget to check out their website, and my reviews of their English and Maths resources.

Happy weekend, friends!

 

 

R.I.C. Maths Resources

 

Last weekend I shared with you a review of R.I.C.‘s new Australian Curriculum-linked English resources. This weekend I have the 2nd and 3rd parts of the review, starting with this review of some of their recent Maths resource releases, and I can’t wait to get started!

First up I want to look at the New Wave Mental Maths A book ($11.95). There are 7 books and a teacher resource book in this series, so there’s something for all year levels. You can download some sample pages from the R.I.C. website here by clicking on the Book A link.

Because Book A is aimed at 5-6 year olds, it’s a scrapbook size book (see below, compared to an A4 resource book) and slightly larger. It also has coloured pages and the best way to use it would be to have one book per student.

As a daily maths activity, students can track the tasks they complete at the front of their books.
Activities are organised by Week # and Day of the Week, with each weekday having between 4-5 different mental math activities to complete.

 These books would be great for students to use first thing in the morning (as morning work) or as an early finishers task during math lessons. Alternatively, if you run math rotations, it could be one of the activities during the rotations.

I really like the variety of questions and the visuals and visual prompts students are given which will eventually aid in them being able to complete most tasks independently.

Next up is the Number and Algebra Foundation book ($6.95/$7.95). Again, this book series goes all the way up to Year 6.

Like the Mental Maths book, this book is a colour resource and as the title would suggest, focuses on the Number and Algebra strand of the Australian Curriculum.

The Foundation book has two sections: Number and Place Value and Patterns and Algebra as per the curriculum. The bulk of the Foundation book focuses on Number and Place Value, and the sections are marked by colours – blue for Number and Place Value and pink for Patterns and Algebra (see below).

Wearing my Foundation teacher hat, the layout of this is wonderful because it’s clean, simple, and very easy to read. The text and images are large enough for the little learners in my class to have room to work on the activities.

The final maths resource book that R.I.C. sent me to review was the Year 1-2 Fractions Book ($32.95).

I was really excited to get a peek at this book because even though I’m not currently teaching in a Year 1 or 2 classroom, fractions are one of my favourite maths topics to teach, especially over the last 3 years when I had my Prep/1 class.

The book itself is broken in to two sections – Year 1 and Year 2.

Within those sections, there are teacher notes, warm-ups, resources, BLMS, assessments, checklists and answers – everything a teacher might need to keep track of student learning and progress.

Most of you know I’m a firm believer in hands-on learning (especially in maths) but having access to a collection of high quality resources such as the ones found in this book do make it easier to collect student understanding, because we do still need to collect evidence and these can form one aspect of that evidence.

These are perfect for copying for your class – whether as a whole group, small group, or even using the activities included (enlarging them) and completing them as part of your focus or summing up activities.

Like all the reproducible books produced by R.I.C. the layouts are clean, free from any unnecessary distraction with all activities being relevant to the topic.

 

I’m looking forward to using these resources in the classroom, so a huge thanks to R.I.C. for the opportunity to do so!

Don’t forget to check out my review of their English resources and stay tuned tomorrow for a review of their new anti-bullying Big Book! Also, head on over to R.I.C. Publications to check out more of their wonderful resources!

 

 

 

 

 

R.I.C. English Resources

Hi guys!

I’m back toward with the first of approximately 3 posts that I hope to have up this week showcasing some of the new Australian Curriculum-linked resources produced by R.I.C. Publications. (

Some of you may remember that I did some reviews last year, and when I received an email asking if I was interested in doing some more reviews, I was really excited because the resources R.I.C. produce are always of very high quality and perfect for classroom use! To that end, a disclaimer that all products in this post were sent to me to review, and all opinions are my own!

 

First up, I’ll talk a bit about the Australian Curriculum Literacy series ($39.95). I received the Foundation book (perfect for Kinder/Prep/Foundation students). This series is designed to focus on the sub-strands of interpreting, analysing, evaluation and creating texts from the Literacy strand of the curriculum.

There are 18 different imaginative and informative texts provided in this book (including familiar tales like Chicken Licken and Rub-a-dub-dub), and each text has a teacher information page and two comprehension/activity pages (seen below).

 

 

The format of all these pages are simple, clear and perfect for completing as a whole class, or with small groups of students. I’ve used samples of these pages with my class during Literacy rotations, with parents working with a small group, reading through the text and working through the corresponding activities. This would also be great if you need to leave activities for CRTs because the teacher notes are included.

As with all R.I.C. publications, the curriculum links are provided at the front of the book, with all activities highlighted across the various progression points in a very clear, user-friendly way.

The next book I want to share with you is the Foundation book from the Australian Curriculum – Literature series ($39.95). Much like the Literacy series, the Literature series focuses on the Literature strand of the Australian Curriculum and its sub-strands.

It also has 18 different texts – original texts, retellings of folktales, fables, legends, myths and fairytales, including some Indigenous tales, too.

As with all their books, the presentation is very clean, and easy for young students to navigate. This would be fantastic for use with the whole class or small groups.

I particularly love the detailed teachers notes included with the series – as a teacher who mentors/assists Grads in their first few years of school, detailed notes like this are invaluable to supporting teachers in the classroom. Even those of us with years of experience can always benefit from a refresher or just a new way of approaching the teaching of familiar concepts.

The other nice addition to the student activity pages are the way R.I.C. have coded the questions that students answer. Each question has either a LC (Literature and context), RL (Responding to Literature), EL (Examining Literature) or CL (Creating Literature) next to it, highlighting the sub-strands of the Australian Curriculum.

 

The next series is the Australian Curriculum – Poetry ($32.95). This series has 3 books – Book 1 (Foundation/1/2), Book 2 (3/4) and Book 3 (5/6).

I love teaching poetry to my students, so I was probably most excited to see this book in my pack review. It has R.I.C.’s trademark clean and easy to read layout, just like the books above, but this book is broken into 3 sections – Foundation, Year 1 and Year 2, addressing the different poetry skills required at each level.

At each level there are teacher notes, curriculum links, a glossary of terms, anecdotal record pages, 9 lessons and 10-15 resource pages.

There’s lots of detail in here – again, perfect for new and experienced teachers.

 

I also received Set 1 of the Spelling Posters ($39.95), which has 12 A3-size posters featuring common spelling rules used by students in the early years.

Now, as a general rule, I don’t tend to use commercially produced posters in the classroom because I think it is important for students to help add content and be part of that process. Also, I find a lot of commercially produced posters to be quite busy and difficult for young students to read.

That said, these posters are very easy to read. Designed for the early years, they’re not overly cluttered, the text is quite large and all the examples are relevant to the learning point.

These would make a great resource when teaching a particular spelling strategy. As with any new strategy, it’s important to unpack what’s happening on each chart, but I think these would be very useful in any early years classroom as an easy reference.

(We’re currently talking about syllables, so that poster will be getting a lot of use in the next few weeks!)

Thanks so much to R.I.C. for the opportunity to review these products. Stay tuned this week for my reviews on some of their new Maths and Anti-Bullying resources!

 

 

 

 

 

 

R.I.C. Resource Review

I’ll preface this post with a bit of a disclaimer: the products I’m reviewing were sent to me to review in a fair and balanced way. All thoughts are my own, etc.

A few weeks ago, R.I.C. Publications approached me on Twitter (yes, I am on Twitter!) about reviewing some of their newer releases and, you know, I’m a teacher – I love resources, and I have always been a fan of R.I.C.’s work (particularly K-3 Class Ideas). Plus, I love writing reviews.

It’s just fun!

They sent me same trial booklets from the English Skills Practice series and a copy of their new Australian Curriculum-linked Geography books.

First up, I thought I’d tackle the English Skills Practice booklets. I received samples for the Year 2, 4 and 6 grades.

Now, being a Prep/1 teacher, I’ve never been a HUGE fan of practice tests, but given the world we live in today, testing is a big part of a teacher’s life, regardless of their feelings on the issue.

If I were to use skills practise tests, this would be something I would definitely be interested in.

Essentially they’re daily skills reviews for literacy skills and concepts – including grammar, punctuation, spelling, word knowledge, etc. Which is fantastic, because reviewing those skills is really important for our learners – the more they see and use and talk about the skills they’re using, the more likely they are to retain them.

According to the information provided, each workbook has enough questions for 150 days, and these have been organised into 15 units (equalling 10 days per unit) plus revision questions for each unit.

Each day has between 10-20 questions –  which would make this perfect for using for the 5-10 minutes after a lesson or for having on hand when you get the odd bit of extra time.

Given the way data is being collected in schools, this would provide a really great way to get a snapshot of student learning on a regular basis, and track their understandings and misconceptions. For older students, it would also be a great way for them to track their learning, too.

(Click the link to visit the publisher’s website to view more info!)

The second item sent to me for review is the Year 1 Australian Curriculum-linked Geography book Places Have Distinctive Features. It has four main sections: 1) Natural, managed and constructed features, 2) Weather and seasons, 3) Activities of a place, and 4) Rearranging spaces.

Obviously, with the introduction and roll-out of the Australian Curriculum, teachers in Australia are very keen for updated/curriculum-linked resources to use with their students.

I quite like these particular resource books for a few reasons (beyond their links to the curriculum!):

They’re easy to use: R.I.C. have fantastic teachers notes, so if you’re not feeling 100% confident on a topic, there are some great suggestions to get you started. This book has information at the start on how to use the teacher pages and the student pages. They provide skills record checklists for the class (data!)

They’re clear: I teach a visually impaired boy and the one thing that’s become increasingly more prevalent to me (as his teacher) is how cluttered a lot of BLMS or work pages can be – which are not good for those kids. The BLMs in this book are clear, the pages are not cluttered and the text is large and easy to read.

They have multiple curriculum links: While the book itself is geared towards addressing the Geography component of the curriculum, the activities themselves can be worked into literacy or numeracy lessons without the need for a ‘whole lesson’ to be dedicated to an activity from the book.

There are links to Indigenous culture: Another really big component of the new curriculum, and one that can be daunting to find resources that are appropriate for the kids. There are a few Dreamtime stories (perfect for reading) with comprehension  tasks as well as numeracy tasks.

It’s Australian: This means that the Geography explored in this book will be familiar to students, which gives them an instant connection.

Just to give you an idea of an activity similar to ones I’ve used with my class previously – on the far left in the grey box outlining the key inquiry questions, skills and concepts under review, then the white column provides information for the teacher (teaching notes, background and resources).

This particular activity is a Dreamtime story. I’ve used similar pages with reading groups, as well as whole class groups (where students all have a copy of the passage). Depending on the focus I have for the text, I’ll choose one of the following activities the corresponds to work through with the class (above there’s a bit of the comprehension, as well as a mapping activity).

All of the activities are geared towards the age group they’re labelled for – these activities would work really well for my Grade 1 students and could be adapted for my Preps, too.

Resource books like this are fabulous to have on hand, especially when you find yourself in a situation where you might not know a whole lot about a particular topic of inquiry, or you may not feel confident enough to create your own, complete set of resources. These provide a springboard into specific areas of the curriculum, with a lot of great activities for students.

This is definitely a resource I will be using this year.

Thanks for sticking with this review and don’t forget to check out the R.I.C. Publications website!