SCIENCE WEEK 2018!

Game changers and change makers...

Doesn't that theme just get you excited for Science Week? To me it's all about STEM, innovation, inquiry, investigations and experiments. We want to encourage our students to think outside the box, use their creativity and push the boundaries of what they already know and take for granted.

Science Week 2018 takes place of the week between 11th and 19th of August right around Australia. Some schools might choose to do lunch time activities in the Science labs, buddy class activities, rotations around the school or simply make extra time in their timetables for some super fun Science activities within their own classrooms.

This is a sponsored post as part of my Brand Ambassadorship with Teach Starter. 

37

Fun and Fabulous Four Seasons Activities

I'm really interested to know, how do you go about teaching the four seasons? Does it come under your Maths curriculum when you are learning about days, weeks, months and time? Or does it come under Science when you're examining the weather, Earth and space? Or maybe it's a little bit of both. Do you do it all in one unit? Or spread it out over the year so your Summer lesson plans take place in the Summer time? I don't think there is a right or wrong approach, I am just genuinely interested! Please let me know via the comments below or over on Instagram.

Anyway, regardless of when and how you teach it, here are some fantastic resources for Junior Primary level you might want to try!

When setting up your classroom at the start of the year, months of the year visuals and birthday charts are always a must have! I love how the seasons are reflected within the months of the year labels, each of which is subtly different to the last, adding a point of interest and discussion. Children can also use these as a stand alone activity where they need to place them in order or group the seasons. The poster below would make a great addition to a class calendar display as well!

24

Outstanding Oceans: Ideas for Junior Primary

At school this term we are bridging the gap from "Living Things" in the garden, to "Living things under the sea". It's another one of my favourite topics with so much scope across several learning areas - and it's just so pretty! All that blue looks amazing in the classroom (just like my discovery table pictured here).

Here are just a few fun resources from Teach Starter to get the ball rolling if you're keen to try an Ocean unit of work with your Junior Primary class.

This is a sponsored post as part of my Brand Ambassadorship with Teach Starter. 

122

A Wrap Up of our Term 1 Living Things Unit

I don't know about you - but we had THE BEST time in the Early Years in Term 1. So much learning happened. So many new things, new friends and new experiences.

For a few years now, our key theme for Term 1 is "Living Things" alongside our author study of Eric Carle. Of course we are always evolving, adding, changing and updating our programme, but the overarching theme has remained the same. It's just such a good starting place for the first term of school.

Eric Carle Animal Alphabet flash cards + alphabet pebbles + alphablocks

Way back when I first started blogging in 2014, I did a post about our Eric Carle Author Study (read it here - my how much my blog has changed and evolved since then!). In this post I go through 5 of the key texts which are all about insects/living things in the garden. Today's post is a bit more general and to show you some other things we've been doing (incase you missed them on Instagram).

15

10+ Ways to Learn Numbers with a Hundreds Board

The hundreds board is one of the most fundamental mathematics resources for Junior Primary. It perfectly demonstrates the base 10 number system to young children, encourages counting and makes number patterns easy to find and identify. There are so many ways to use them so I've rounded up my favourites to share with you today!

Sponsored by Teach Starter as part of my Brand Ambassadorship. 

7

How to Customise and Create Your Own Teaching Resources

Do you ever find that when you're scouring the Interwebs for teaching resources, you just can't find what you're looking for? I mean, every class is different and is likely to have different needs. Not to mention that within each class are students who also have individual needs. Rarely would there be a "one size fits all" approach to your worksheets or lesson plans.

So your first stop could be the Teach Starter "request a resource" option if you are looking for something in particular. The community then gets to vote on the resources they would also like to see created and each week the Teach Starter team creates the top 10!

But today's post is more about the custom worksheets you can make yourself using the Teach Starter widgets. I've had a play around with handwriting, sentence starter writing prompts, maths worksheets, and word searches to give you a bit of a sample of what you can create.

This is a sponsored post as part of my ongoing Brand Ambassadorship with Teach Starter. 

11

My Top Christmas Classroom Activities for End of Year

Christmas is coming! Assessment is almost at an end so it's time to start all of those super fun Christmas activities in your classrooms for the last few weeks of Term (depending on where you are in Australia, it sounds like the end of term dates are quite varied this year from the 1st to the 15th of December!)

Teach Starter is always adding new resources to their collection and they have some awesome Christmas activities to keep your children busy and engaged across all curriculum areas.

This is a sponsored post as part of my Brand Ambassadorship with Teach Starter. 

21

A-Z Letter of the Day Craft

Today's activity has been weeks in the making and I'm so proud to share it today (I even created a little video of our finished product!). I've been posting our progress on Instagram and have gotten a great response from my community! I really wanted Miss M to have a good background knowledge of the alphabet before she starts school, but this doesn't just mean writing out the letters 10 times each. There are so many more hands on and engaging ways to learn letter formation, as well as the sounds and words which begin with each letter.

This is a sponsored post as part of my ongoing Brand Ambassadorship with Teach Starter.

So I found these awesome alphabet play dough mats on Teach Starter, and you could of course laminate them and use them to create each letter with play dough as a fun, sensory experience to learn letter formation. But I decided to find a craft material for each letter for Miss M to decorate each one.

2

Numeracy Activities for Preschoolers

Did you know that there are several aspects to consider when teaching early number concepts to young children? It's not just about how high they can 'rote' count by memory, or writing the numerals (some would argue that is a handwriting skill, not a mathematic skill). It's much more about their understanding of number, grasping what a group of '3' looks like, understanding words such as more or less, and counting a small group of objects using one to one correspondence.

In preparing Miss M for the start of school next year, this week I downloaded some great resources from Teach Starter. Where you'll not only find excellent resources for school aged children - but some fantastic resources for preschoolers as well! Here are 5 of my favourite number activities.

This is a sponsored post as part of my Brand Ambassadorship with Teach Starter. 

6

Being Water Wise {Junior Primary Science Ideas}

Let's talk about Science today!
I love teaching Science. It's one of the most 'hands on' subjects. Children get to observe the world around them and figure out how things work. They get to predict, hypothesise, experiment, discuss, record and reflect. This term in Year Two we are focussing on the theme WATER!

Disclosure: I'm a Brand Ambassador for Teach Starter. This is a sponsored post. 

2

Following Up With The Sunshine Collective {GIVEAWAY}

Since I went back to work, Miss M has been super interested in "school work". She wants to know what the kids do all, day. I bring home spare worksheets for her to colour in and our dining table has quickly been taken over by "art". Endless pieces of paper, mini books, crayons and pencils, scissors and glue. And the best part is that she wants to learn! Her pictures are really starting to look like actual things with more detail. She explains what she's drawn and writes her name and numbers. She draws treasure maps and then we go on adventures in the back yard, and tick things off our scavenger hunt list as we go.


And she's almost four! It really is an awesome age!


Do you remember this product review I did for The Sunshine Collective? In particular we worked our way through the Preschool box, ideal for Miss M's age. Well on Friday afternoon we zipped to the post office before they closed to pick up our Foundation (reception/prep/first year of school) box to try out. Keep reading to find out how you can win one tailer made for your child.




6

Helping Kids Learn about Emergencies & Triple Zero

It's something that we hope our kids will never have to do - dial triple zero in an emergency. But it's important that they do know how to should they ever be in that situation. It's also important that they can differentiate between different 'emergencies' and identify 'is it really an emergency?'.

I was recently sent a fantastic book which gently introduces this concept to young children in a not-at-all scary way.

Meet Toby the Teddy...

64

A Tutor in a Box {The Sunshine Collective Review}

As teachers, a child's learning is obviously our top priority, and for most parents, it's their top priority too. Parents are always asking me for ideas they can do at home to support what their child is learning at school. Not only if they are struggling in a particular area, but just to give them some extra help along their learning journey. You'd be surprised at how many students actually enjoy homework and want extra worksheets to keep them busy!!

Tutoring is one option that many parents consider, but what if that tutor could be packed into a box and delivered to your home throughout the year? A tutor in a box that would cover all areas of the curriculum and cater for a range of learning styles from Preschool until the end of Primary School.

Opening and unpacking our Brilliant Box! The mini paints are just the actual cutest!

Yes that's a sticker on her t-shirt #kidlife

13

Celebrating the RIO Olympics With Your Kids

It only happens every four years, but the Olympic games are nearly upon us, commencing on the 5^th – 21^st of August. If your child is under 4, this would be their first exposure to the world wide sporting event (well honestly even if they are 5-6 they probably wont remember much from the 2012 Olympics). As you know Miss M is 3, so here are some activities we’ll be doing at home this month!

The movie Rio is a great place to start! This is a beautiful clip (I have a thing for birds)...

11

Terrific Teaching Resources from Twinkl

I have two go to websites when I'm looking for new teaching resources, or something for a particular topic, lesson or activity.

Teachers Pay Teachers and Twinkl (actually three if you count Pinterest. Teachers - what did we DO before Pinterest?? LOL!).

At Twinkl you will find so many amazing resources (much more than just worksheets, but I'll elaborate on that in a minute). The website is easy to use and navigate with ages, learning areas and various headings. My favourite feature is the 'save' disc icon. At first glance you may think this means to save the resource to your computer, but it's like a 'like' button, where you can save something to your profile to download later allowing you to continue to browse.

During my browsing, I found play dough recipes with all sorts of creative combinations of colours, scents, flavours and textures like strawberry sparkle, coconut cloud and ocean marshmallow! Plus, great play dough activity mats to go with these recipes as well. Just print, laminate and play! We practised making letters and numbers on ours (obviously these come in colour - but we don't have a colour printer!!)

6

Helpful Hints to Learn Sight Words

This post is being published in conjunction with Your Kids OT.

Many parents are looking for new and interesting ways to help their children learn sight words at home, so today I've compiled a list for Cindy and her readers (I hear Cindy's son is getting close to the learning to read stage!).

Firstly, I just want to explain a bit about how the whole 'learning to read' process happens. Basically there are three skills a child needs, alphabet knowledge, sight word recognition and a general understand of print (eg left to right, look at picture clues, repetition, making predictions of what comes next etc). The English language is a tricky one for little people to master - words like 'they', 'said', 'put' and 'was' are not simple to sound out simply by using your alphabet knowledge. Hence, sight words (or tricky words as we call them when using the Jolly Phonics program) are a vital part of the learning to read jigsaw puzzle.

Each school or teacher may have a different system for teaching/learning sight words, however generally speaking your child will probably be given a list of words weekly or fortnightly to learn, and once they master this list, they move up to a new one.

Here's a few examples of 'word building' - which is the skill of putting letters together to sound out and make words. Children love using hands on materials rather than just looking at words on paper.

For more info and explanations of these activity ideas - visit the full post at Your Kids OT.

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Still want more ideas? Look no further than Childhood 101 where Christie has compiled two HUGE posts worth of activity ideas for learning sight words. Try here and here.

I hope you found these ideas useful whether it be for school or home!
Lauren

3

Lynley Dodd Exhibition | PLUS Lesson Plans

Yesterday Miss M and travelled by train to the city to meet a lovely colleague of mine. We visited the Lynley Dodd exhibition at the SA State Library in preparation for our school excursion next term. It's a beautiful representation of New Zealand author Lynley Dodd's early art work of the character development from this well loved classic. Young children are encouraged to slow down, stop and take a closer look at the illustrations. Activity packs are assigned for school group visits (and activity books are available to all from the Hairy Maclary shop where books, games and fridge magnets are also available for purchase). The education officers have set up an introduction video for children to watch, giving them some more information and guidance when looking through the exhibition. Various Lynley Dodd books are scattered around, and there's even a few bean bags to sit comfortably and share a story.

Here's the website if you're after more info. It's still on until the 4th of June so if you have a little Hairy Maclary fan it's worth your while going!

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Lynley Dodd's books have a beautiful 'sing song' rhyme about them and are simply a delight to listen to (and read for that matter). She's written 32 books! Many more than just the Hairy Maclary series, some of which you may not have heard of. Here's a link to my previous post, where I talked about our Lynley Dodd author study from last year.

I thought today I'd also share a few worksheet resources that I made to support this author study. Please let me know in the comments if you'd like me to email you a copy of the set :)

The Nickle Nackle Tree

Hairy Maclary and Zachary Quack

Hairy Maclary from Donaldson's Dairy

Simpler version of this worksheet is available on request

The Smallest Turtle

(my personal childhood favourite)

Simpler version of this worksheet is available on request

Well we're half way through school holidays here in SA. Hope the SA teacher's are enjoying them!

Lauren

19

Back to School | Tips for Teachers

If you're an Australian teacher reading this - well then you would know the end of holidays is near... Some of us are relishing in our final days of summer holidays, and some of us are enthusiastically starting to work on our Term 1 Unit plans with bright, shiny new ideas. Either way, today I bring you a round up post of some useful back to school resources I've found, particularly for the early years. Teachers elsewhere in the world - I realise your school year works differently to us - so why not 'pin now and read later'?

Classroom Rules

Whether you prefer to have your classroom rules already done when your children arrive on the first day, or whether you like to come up with a list of rules together as a class - they are such an important part of getting your year off to a good start. I really like this set of rules which are worded as "we" statements. (Click here for this great set I found from prekinders.com).

• We keep our classroom clean
• We are nice to others
• We play safely
• We listen to the teachers

It's important the the rules are kept simple and clearly displayed somewhere in your classroom.  This language can also be used in your day to day teaching - instead of saying "No running" or "Don't push" you can phrase your words in a more positive way - "We walk in the hallway" or "We use gentle hands". Tell the children what you want them to do - not what you don't want them to do. Be sure your child understand the rules and what is expected of them. It's also a great idea to get them to agree to the rules by writing their name or leaving a handprint.

Here's another great set of 'we statements' I found (for older children perhaps)

• We celebrate each other's success
• We create
• We are a team
• We learn from our mistakes
• We respect each other
• We try our best

In my classroom, one of the most successful set of rules/expectations I've used over the years has been the "5Ls". I can also give the children a nonverbal cue of my expectations by holding up my 5 fingers and then making a capital L shape with my hand.

• Looking at the teacher
• Listening to the teacher
• Hands in Laps
• Lips locks
• Legs crossed

All About Me Activities

I love, love, love using bunting to decorate my classroom - last year I had gorgeous rainbow bunting on our windows ready for Day 1 (wish I had of taken a photo!). Anyway, this 'All About Me' bunting would be a perfect first day activity for older year levels. Display it on Day 1 and the kids already feel ownership of their new classrooms.

Click here to download for $1 from TpT

For younger ones (even my littlies would probably need assistance with this sheet) - I found this great 'All About Me' worksheet.

Click here to download the 'Back to School Memory Book' for $5

Learning Your Name

As you probably know, I teach Reception/Kindergarten/Prep whatever you call it in your state. Some children can write their name, and others can't yet. So looking at their names, the letters, counting the letters, and getting to know each other is a great place to start on Day 1. This little sheet will be perfect for my class!

Click here to download the 'Back to School Bundle' for $8 for TpT

I've also found some great Art and Craft ideas for displaying children's names around the classroom - again to help them feel comfortable and give them some ownership of the space. The following two ideas both follow the rainbow theme - Learn to Spell Your Name and Rainbow Name-bow.

Classroom Displays & Organisation

One of my favourite teaching blogs is Kindercraze. Maria certainly has a talent for creating the most stunning, beautiful and visually inviting classrooms. Please have a look at these links for some inspiration!

Classroom Reveal At Last

My Classroom Wasn't Ready and it was OK

It's so important that all of you materials are well organised and clearly labelled. This serves two purposes - firstly obviously so that the children know where to put things back and keep the room tidy, but it's also a great opportunity for them to read! Include picture clues to help younger ones learn where everything goes. These ones from sparkle box are brilliant!

Click here to download - they have many more too! Some are even editable.

Don't forget a visual/daily timetable, days of the week, date, month, season etc are really useful to have somewhere you can refer to them every morning.

Some final thoughts...

Teachers are organised human beings by nature - you could not survive in our job it you weren't! The start of a new year is definitely time to get yourself organised for a successful term. The more you do before the students come in, the smoother your first weeks will be. Whether you photocopy ahead of time, or carefully plan your lessons, be sure your classroom is ready to go with fresh sharp new pencils in pencil pots and everything in its place.

Best of luck teachers for a successful year! What year level are you teaching this year? I invite you to leave a comment below :)

Lauren

6

Meet Kerry - from 'Kids in Harmony'

A first for me today on the blog, I am privileged to welcome Kerry from Kids in Harmony who kindly accepted my offer to answer some questions for me. I met (well virtually met) Kerry through our 'Aussie Parenting Bloggers' Facebook group, and I was drawn to her website as soon as I saw the word 'mindfulness' as this is a focus at my school in 2015 and I wanted to learn more. 'Kids in Harmony' is a program Kerry facilities in Townsville, QLD. With a focus on play and music, her aim is to 'nurture the whole family'. Kerry has a background in Early Childhood and Counselling, among several other qualifications. She is one of the most positive and kind online friends I've connected with and I hope parents and teachers alike will enjoy reading her words of wisdom below. 

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Hi Kerry! Welcome to 'Teacher Types' for the day. So, your son is 13? Do you feel like those 13 years flew by?

When I look back over time, the years feel like they flew, however newborn to around 5, I felt like time stood still.  I found it a whole lot more challenging in the early years as I had a little bit of perfect parent syndrome happening.  I was so fearful of doing it wrong and fearful of how to get it right.  Thankfully for everybody, I recognized what I had been doing and worked towards more inner calm and connection.  From the outside I was calm but on the inside I gave myself a very hard time. This is one of the reasons I am passionate about parent support.  Now I look back and all the effort and energy required to parent with a gentle and positive parenting approach was worth it.  I am a better person for being my son’s mother.

My daughter is 22 months old. Do you have a memory that stands out in your mind of your son at this age?

Oh, so many.  He was adorable and it is the most precious age for freedom and all things movement.  My son was like an ever ready battery, he had boundless energy and a love of music and free play.  He was never a great sleeper and I often wondered where his inner energy came from.  I certainly could not match what he had lol.  One of my fondest memories is the way he snuggled right in.  He still cuddles but he is the same size as me now, so sometimes I feel like he is cuddling me, not me cuddling him.  Which is wonderful too.   As a parent, I wish I knew then what I know now and I would have been a lot more relaxed about things in the early years.  I took my parenting extremely serious back then.  I do now, but with a more relaxed approach and I am way more confident and calmer than 11 years ago.

Do you have a favourite song or musical activity that you use in your 'Kids in Harmony' programs?

My favourite is the Kids in Harmony friendship song.  It’s the circle song we do at the end and it is so beautiful.  The message is clear, cherish yourself, your friends, your family and your community.

Kids in Harmony cherish their family
Cherish themselves as well, they feel so good they want to yell.
Kids in Harmony cherish their family
Cherish their community, they choose to live more happily.

So simple, yet such a wonder affirmation for children and their families.

Would you mind giving us a brief description of 'mindfulness'?

I have a beautiful blog on mindfulness titled “Don’t just function in your parenting… flourish".

Mindfulness is a sure way to flourish.  It can be described as being fully aware of the present moment. The dictionary tells us it is ‘the quality or state of being conscious or aware of something’.
Keeping it nice and simple, mindfulness is our ability to notice what is happening within us and around us, without judgment.  Mindfulness helps us to not jump forward into the future with the worry of ‘what if’ or constantly lament or revisit the past with ‘but why?’.  It helps us to find steadiness in the right here and now, to be “fully present, aware and awake”.
With mindfulness you can bring more ease into the smallest of jobs like doing the dishes or a bigger challenge like handling a tantrum (yours or your child’s).

I teach Reception students (5 year olds). Can you offer one or two suggestions to incorporate mindfulness into our busy classroom day?

Oh, how wonderful for you!  Any exercises that makes them aware of their breath is a great place to start. Two activities come to mind.

Flower Breath – Visualisation and creative play.

You will need:  White paper and colour pencils.

Give the children a white piece of paper and coloured pencils in front of their desk or in front of the floor if they are sitting on a mat.  If you feel these will be a distraction you can bring them out straight after the breathing exercise.

Have the children touch their nose and breath in as if they are smelling a flower.  Breathe out through the nose and repeat.  Then encourage them to have their feet flat to the floor and back straight, hands gently on laps and if it’s comfortable close their eyes.  Imagine a flower, choose any flower you like.  Then have them do the ‘flower breathing’ with the visualization of the flower they choose.  When they are finished have them draw the flower they imagined and visualized in their head.  Once they are finished you can ask them questions.

• What made you choose that flower?
• How did it make you feel when you were visualizing the flower?
• How did you feel in your body when you were flower breathing?
• What words describe your feelings?

I know this age are not fluent writers, you could record the conversations or write them down yourself.  Or you can do the exercise without the children writing anything and purely enjoying the conversation.

Star Jumps and Star Fish

Performing Jumping Jacks to the song 'Twinkle Twinkle Little Star'.  Then at the end have the children lay in star fish.  On the floor with legs and arms out wide.

Leave them laying in Starfish until they have come back to calm and centred.

Then come back together and asked them questions.

• How did you feel when your body was energized and moving?
• Did you notice your heart beating faster?
• Did you notice your breath?
• How did you feel in star fish?
• What happened to your body in star fish?

And you can keep adding to the questions.

Both of these activities are to enhance self-awareness, which is the foundation of mindfulness.

Hope you enjoy them and please let me know how the children enjoy them.

Similarly - do you have any tips to help manage my daughter's sometimes epic toddler tantrums! And how I can remain calm?

Focus on the feelings not the behaviour.  I think if you can practice the power of pause quick enough to tune into your child’s feelings and not the behaviour it can prevent you from having your own mother melt down.  I have a crazy to calm free video series that are really quick videos explaining power of pause and some other great strategies for parenting in the moment (www.crazytocalm.com). Your parents and teachers may find this really helpful.

If you focus on feelings you can tap into the empathy bank very quickly.

• “I see you are furious, it’s okay to be angry”
• “I see you are upset, it’s okay to cry Mumma is here for you”
• “I see you need some time to vent, let it out and when you are ready we can talk about it”

This strategy helps to defuse the emotional triggers we have as parents and limits the possibility of shaming, or labelling or punishing our child.

AND, it takes a lot of practice, we are not perfect, we lose our cool and sometimes they are valuable lessons for our child to see we make mistakes, we forgive ourselves and others.

Have you done the VIA Character Strenghths survey? I did at a staff PD day last year and I got 'zest' as my top strength. What was your top character strength? Do you agree with this result?

Yes, I did the VIA survey years ago and I love their work.  I must say it’s been a while since I looked at it.  The survey is wonderful and there is an option for youth’s to do the survey too.  It is a very useful tool to better know yourself.  Zest is one of my faves.
When I did mine, I got Wisdom and Knowledge.  I could definitely relate to it and it was fun to do.  I have some of my coaching clients perform the survey and they find it really helpful too.  I really love Martin Seligman’s work, especially his theory on P.E.R.M.A for wellbeing and flourishing.

• Positive Emotions
• Engagement
• Relationships
• Meaning
• Accomplishment

This theory really resonates with me and my work.

I'd love to try out your colouring book with my class. How best can I use it?

to download your own copy go to Kids in Harmony

That is lovely.  A great way to use it, is share one of your favourite virtues/values from the list of 30 (If you have the picture book The Little Book of Harmony you could read it to them first but you don’t need it of course ).  Talk to the children about why you value it, why it is important to you and how you see it ‘in action’ within the classroom.  Have that one photo copied for the class and have them experience the colouring in.  Encourage them that it is not about correct colour, colouring within the lines or doing it perfect, it is an opportunity for them to create and express in any way they choose.  There is space for drawing on the page.

Then have a lovely conversation on what the virtue means for them and how they feel about it.

Example.  You choose ‘KINDNESS’

"I really value kindness as a teacher as it helps me to connect with you all. I look for ways to show my kindness every day to each and every one of you. Some kind things I have done today is …"

"Would anyone like to share one act of kindness that they have done or seen today?"

I would do all of this before you do the colouring in.

I had been requested to do a colouring in book for a long time and I was apprehensive as I did not want it to be about stifling creativity.  For me, it is about the words on the page, the actions, feelings and connections we want to create.  Children (and some adults) love to colour.  It is so therapeutic and gives a time for calm and peace.  The Little Book of Harmony Colouring in based from the original picture book I published in March last year.   Which is a wisdom book for children, I’d love to send you and your class a copy as a gift from me.

Thank you Kerry - how kind :)

Finally, could you share a favourite motivational quote with us?

Oh, I would love to.

made with canva

Without a doubt this is my all-time favourite as a parent and parent educator.

I strongly believe that each and every child deserves an adult in their life that believes in them.  That one or more adults that encourage, nurture and ignite self believe within a child.  As adults we have the opportunity to support a child to know that they are worthy, valuable and they already have strengths within them to live to their potential.

It is a powerful quote to remind us all, to bend down to a child and whisper ‘’grow”.

Thank you so much for your time Kerry.  

You are more than welcome.  I feel honoured to be invited into your amazing community and your inspiring work!

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To connect with Kerry, whether you live in Townsville or are simply interested in reading more of her advice, you can find her here. Parenting coaching is also available by phone or skype even if you don't live in the area.

Website - Kids in Harmony

Facebook

email - info@kidsinharmony.com.au

2

Super Dooper Lesson Plans | TpT Round Up

Back in April, I blogged about my discovery of TpT (Teachers Pay Teachers). Since then, I've found many more useful worksheets, art and craft ideas and lesson plans so I thought it was about time I did another 'round up' and featured some fantastic resources that other teachers out there are creating. Sharing is caring so each image will link back to to the creator's TpT store page where you can either purchase the product or download it for free! Thank you to the sellers who gave me permission to feature their products on teacher types. 

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This is such a cute sight word activity where students cut and paste the letters of the word 'about' to create their own mini-book. Kinder Craze is such a fantastic blog. Maria has the most stunning classroom! Lots of inspirational ideas :)

click image to download for free!

This bundle is a great set of really useful sight word sheets...(from this blog)

click image to purchase

Another sight word resource bundle...from the blog Smitten With First

click image to download for free!

My students LOVED "Rainbow Roll & Write"! It combines maths and literacy and is a whole lot of fun. There is also a black & white version so your students can colour first and then play! This is the blog it came from - A Cupcake for the Teacher

click image to download for free!

This awesome bundle of spelling worksheets are such a great resource because they can be used for any list of words.
(Here's the sellers blog)

click image to purchase

My students were so engaged in this writing activity below. They loved getting up out of their seats and being 'word detectives', looking for words around the room to record on their sheets. Also be sure to check out the creator's blog.

click image to download for free!

Finally, we are doing a unit on weather this term. This cute little craft idea looks like a winner to me!
Robin's blog is here - Sweet Tea Classroom

She also has a 3D water cycle product that I'm thinking of trying too. I'm getting exciting thinking about all of the great art and craft we can make to hand from the ceiling! Perfect for a weather unit!

click image to purchase

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So that's all from me today. I've downloaded the TpT app this week. Do any other teachers out there enjoy scrolling through the worksheets and resources on TpT as much as you like scrolling through ideas on Pinterest? I wonder what it would have been like 10 years ago when I was studying if we had these websites to inspire us? What would it have been like if blogging was so popular back then?

Hmmm...thoughts to ponder :)
Lauren

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