Today I'm Thankful For

Today's Monday Meet Me from The Teaching Tribune is entitled 'Things I'm Thankful For'. Perfect link up for me!

I am thankful that the holidays are nearly here, only 4 teaching days left!

I am thankful that my housing situation has finally been sorted out and I got the keys yesterday to my lovely new flat!

And finally I am thankful that all my current class have progressed loads over the year and I can send them off to Year 2 ready and excited (I will miss them... though maybe not until after a few weeks of the summer holidays!)

Five for (almost still) Friday

It seems like a while since I've managed to be organised enough to link up for Doodlebugs' Five for Friday, but I've pulled together a couple of random bits from my week!

1

I was given this game to use in my classroom. My kidlets absolutely adore it (I think the novelty hasn't worn off yet!). It's great for fine motor control and even basic strategy. And will be even better at the beginning of the year for my new ones.

2

I had the beebots out in Maths last week, a great interactive way of teaching direction and turning (why do they still not know their left from their right?!) and will definitely be featuring more in my lessons next year when I have to teach basic programming as part of the curriculum change!

3

I grabbed another great freebie from The Teaching Tribune's Free Font Friday. I wish I was talented enough to create my own fonts!

4

Packing officially starts today for my house move... I've timed this perfectly with the end of term, its not like school is manic and I'll have plenty of time to have a relaxing move right?!?!?

5

Only 1 more week in school, then I can stop dying with jealously reading about everyone's summers and actually enjoy my own!! 

Springy Spiders - Tried and True Thursday

I've not done very well with linking up for Week 4 of Summer Bloggin' with The Teaching Tribune but I would like to share a quick post today for Tried and True Thursday.

Many years ago, I was at a car boot sale and I came across a Early Learning Centre game called Springy Spiders. Inside were four colourful spiders on elastic and some bugs with numbers on. The numbers only go up to 6, but it was the spiders I was more interested in.

Over the years, I've made several different sets of bugs to use with the spiders. Tricky words, the alphabet, numbers, cvc words, initial sound pictures, the possibilities are endless! All you have to do is attach a small circle of velcro (the hooks side) to the top of each bug and then the spiders can stick to them as they bounce! 

As it takes a while to play whole class, I usually have a couple of bugs on the go at once. A great starter, review or independent activity. Unfortunately my google search has not come up with any obvious places to buy the spiders now, but I think ebay may still sell some. 

I've got mail

So on Monday I was VERY excited to find out that I had not one, but two packages waiting for me after work (and its not even my birthday yet!) It's taken me until today to blog about it, but better late than never!

The first was from a local bookshop with a couple of teaching books I'd seen on sale, some summer reading for me!

But the second... was my SLANT box!!!

Now if you haven't heard of SLANT box, I highly recommend you head over to Lessons With Coffee as the June/July sign ups are still open until Sunday. SLANT boxes are 'spreading love across the nation' for teachers and I participated for the first time in May. I loved getting to know my partners and sent off my box to His and Her Hobbies a few weeks ago. And now mine from Miss Maths Dork has arrived!

Inside was...

Some super cute earrings, maths themed, how appropriate!

Some lovely pastel pens in all my favourite colours (can't wait to try these out)

And a personalised drinking cup in pink!

Thank you so much Jamie, I love it all!!

I'm taking a break from the next SLANT box because of moving house/spending the summer abroad, but I'll definitely be signing up again!

Just a quickie!

Am in full report-writing swing and haven't been able to sit down for a proper blog post this week yet (have a great one half-written!!) but I just wanted to pop by and join in for The Teaching Tribune's Summer Bloggin' link up because Tuesday's are a deal day and I wanted to let you all know which two products of mine I've put on sale for this week.

First up is a capital and lowercase letter matching game. Popular with my class, particularly useful for practising with those struggling with remembering what different capitals look like.

And also on sale is a recent addition to my TpT store, another set of tricky words, but with a cute chameleon theme. This is a combined set of all the tricky words covered in the UK Letters and Sounds programme, plus some blank cards for your words!

Click on the images to grab these for 50% off! 

On a side note, not sure I'll be able to join in next week's Two for Tuesday sale as all the rest of my products are either free or too cheap to be able to discount by 50% according to TpT! Hmm... where can I find some time to make some more products?!

Throwback Thursday (Summer Bloggin' with TTT)

This makes my third link up this week with The Teaching Tribune! Today is Throwback Thursday, and it really is a throwback to my childhood!

The theme this week is a photo of when we were the age we are currently teaching. I am now teaching Year 1 who are 5/6 year olds. This very bad (its a photo of a photo) picture is from when I'm roughly 4 or 5 one summer with my younger brother and mother. We are hilariously picnicking by accident on a race course and very soon after this photo was taken a load of riders rode past us much to our surprise! It was a long time after this I knew I was destined to be a teacher (I kinda fell into teaching, but thats a story for another day!) but I did always like bossing my brother around so maybe it was meant to be after all. 

p.s. do you like how everyone else sits on the picnic blanket, but Princess me has her own deckchair!!

Two Linkys for a Tuesday

Today I'm going to try and link up with two different linky parties.

First of all, The Teaching Tribune's Summer Bloggin and 'Two for Tuesday' where I am putting two new products up on sale for 50% off for the next week. This week I'm choosing my two best-selling products so it really is a great deal!

Part of a series of flashcards aligned to Letters and Sounds with a cute, colour-coded butterfly theme.

My most popular product by far, this count the room resource has a minibeast theme and recording sheet included.

My next link up is with Deanna Jump's 'Let's Talk about Books'.

The book I've chosen to talk about is

My class and I love this series of books, they are fun to read, every so slightly 'naughty' and always have a happy ending! The illustrations are busy, but the detail has attracted them to re-read. 

This particular Sir Charlie Stinky Socks adventure I picked up at the last book fair I visited and the giant flaps were very popular! There is even an app of one of the books available on iTunes. Click on the image above to grab your own copy of the book!

Monday Meet Me (Summer Bloggin' with TTT)

This week I thought I would try and join in with another day of The Teaching Tribune's Summer Bloggin' week long linky party and so have gone for 'Monday Meet Me'.

I teach in Year 1 which is 5/6 year olds in their second (first for some!) year of school. 

I have moved abroad to teach in my current school and although its been nearly 2 years I still can't quite believe I did it!

I watch lots of old British tv shows so I don't feel homesick! Currently still working my way through Hustle, but got Broadchurch ready to go once I'm finished.

I listen to soundtracks from musicals mostly! Wicked, Legally Blonde, Shrek, Les Mis... just some of my favourites!

I read pretty much everything going. If I lost my Kindle I would be devastated! At the moment I'm reading the Mortal Instruments series by Cassandra Clare. 

I do far too much procrastinating! Such as writing blog posts when I should be writing reports!!

Why don't you link up too? I love finding out more about my fellow bloggers!

Saturday Sell It

I'm joining in with a brand new linky party today! It's hosted by Kristin from Teaching in a Nutshell. She is starting a link up called 'Saturday Sell It' and even though it is Sunday, I thought I would join in!

The product I'm going to highlight is my brand new addition to my TpT store - Chameleon Tricky Words.

This is a full set of tricky words from the UK Letters and Sounds programme. They are colour coded by Phase and all the words from Phases 2, 3, 4 and 5 are included. There are also two choices of colour for blank flashcards, so that you can write your own words. 

Leave a comment and tomorrow I'll choose one random winner to receive a copy for free! 

Edit: Winner chosen. Congratulations commenter number 2 - Susan K! 

Let's have Five for Friday

A link up with Doodlebugs with Five for Friday.

Here are my 5 moments of randomness this week.

My TA made this display for me. I asked for a seaside from the past. I got actual sand on my wall. Amazing. Love it!

I started some reading journals a few weeks ago as part of my Challenge Area and they are very popular! Look at this lovely independent writing.

My craft club made some fossil dinosaur pictures this week. An excellent use for the huuuuge box of art straws in my cupboard!

I found these at my local savers store, I couldn't resist buying them, but need to come up with a genuine educational idea to use them!

Have you checked out The Teaching Tribune's Summer Bloggin' linky? I joined in for Two For Tuesday. Today it's Free Font Friday! I've already grabbed the free font and I'll be checking back to see what other great freebies I can get.