2015 The Year in Review

How is it the start of another year already? Time flies (especially when you manage to post as infrequently as I do!!) Today I am joining Mrs Beattie's Classroom for a review of 2015.

I don't have a top 10 blog posts, because let's be honest, I only posted 20 times in total last year. Which compared to 84 in 2014, really seems quite pathetic! My top viewed post though was CNY Freebie where I shared some ideas and resources for the Chinese New Year festival (coming up on February 8th 2016), the freebie is still available should you wish to use it this year! 

The biggest blogging milestone was reaching 100 posts in April, something that seemed a very distant goal when I started blogging just over 2 years ago (incidentally I missed my 2 year blogiversary back in November). It was of course a Currently, my most prolific link up party. 

I am frankly amazed that I have any followers left after the shocking irregularity of blog posts in 2015, but my page views are slowly increasing, I hope to reach 10,000 in January 2016! Again, another number that seemed impossibly far away when I started. 

I do have blogging goals for 2016, starting with a minimum of 2 blog posts a month. I also need to get back into creating things for TpT as I find it so useful in my teaching practice that I want to share my own resources more. 

This review has been rather short, however that is probably an accurate reflection of my blogging achievements in 2015! If you have more to say, please head over to Mrs Beattie's Classroom and link up! 

Flash freebie - a new product at last!

I don't normally use my blog to write posts that are purely about products, but since its been so long since I actually managed to create a new product I thought I would make an exception today. A request from a reader has led to me to adapt one of my previous products and create...

This is to help with the common letter reversals 'g' and 'q' by providing card with the letters in different fonts and colours, which the children then need to sort into the correct groups. Mats have picture clues on to help identify the sound.

And the best part of this post? I'm going to make this product absolutely free for the next week! Head over to my TpT store and grab this product (click on the image above or here).

After the next week, it will become a paid product. If you like this or any other of my products I would really appreciate feedback and constructive criticism for any future products I might produce!

Happy weekend all :)

CNY Freebie

Now that is a much more exciting blog post title than my previous one!!

With Chinese New Year coming up (February 19th 2015) I thought I would gather together a few more ideas to help celebrate and teach this fabulous festival in your classroom.

Last Friday, my class made the some goldfish suncatchers as decorations for our classroom as goldfish (and pineapples!) are commonly found in decorations due to their colour being cl'ose to gold. If you are interested in making them, check out my How to... tutorial.

A favourite (and fairly easy chorus at least) song to sing at this time of year is 'Gong xi gong xi'. Why not try and learn it with your class? As an aside, the youtube channel the below video is from has several videos that might be useful.

For even more ideas read my post from last year Gong Xi Fa Chai (early).

Click on the images below or visit my TpT store here to grab a copy of this simple roll and read game. It is currently in my Challenge Area as a themed bit of reading practice!

Gong Xi Fa Chai!

 p.s. Thank you to my lovely commenters on my previous post, you really cheered me up!

Has it really been a year?!

Or in other words...

WELCOME TO MY 1 YEAR BLOGIVERSARY!!

http://www.picgifs.com/graphics/balloons/graphics-balloons-494433-787876/

I have got a few things I want to talk about in today's post, but firstly let me start with announcing that for 24 hours I am putting my TpT store on sale with everything 20% off.

This time last year, I had been stalking a few blogs for a couple of weeks (notably The Clever Classroom and Mrs Fultz's Corner) and I had decided to take the plunge and share some of my thoughts and opinions. My first post was only a few lines long, but since then I like to feel that I have come along in leaps and bounds. Yes, I'm still under 100 blog followers, but I feel I've achieved a lot.  I've won both a Leibster and Sunshine Blogger award. I've been featured on Teaching Blog Addict's Freebie Friday and Teaching Maddeness' Budding Bloggers. I've had a new blog design done by Designs by Christie. And most importantly, I've connected with other bloggers both new and experienced!

I posted earlier this week about things I am thankful for, at this point I want to add that I am thankful for all of my 62 Bloglovin' followers, all of my 127 comments and all of my 5000+ page views. Thank you for taking the time to read and visit my little corner of the blogging world! Here is my thank you to you, a forever freebie of an alphabet jigsaw game.

A Five for Friday Currently!

Here is my Five for Friday... on a Saturday as per usual!

1

My SLANT box for September made it to the post office this week! Sorry Stacey its going to be a bit late!!

2

Look at these cutie capital letter cards I found for free at A Special Kind of Class. Straight into my Challenge Area for my kidlets.

3

Another fantastic find from Mel at Frog Spot are these one more and one less game boards.

4

I made this a little while ago (and I took photos so I must write it up as a 'How to' post) and my class are loving using it to count our number of days in school.

5

And here is this month's Currently from Oh' Boy Fourth Grade.

Listening - Horrible Histories are just so fun to watch (yes I know I'm 20 years older than the target audience)

Loving - The slight (slight!) drop in temperature from the rain today

Thinking - That I failed in my Sunday Scoop aim to blog mid-week :(

Wanting - Not to have so much work to do... it seems never-ending right now!

Needing - to book my half-term holidays, we are considering Sydney... am unbelievably excited!!

Treat - Here is a little Friday Saturday Freebie with a Halloween theme!

6 months + 2 days blogiversary!

So I completely missed my 6 month blogiversary, in my defence Tuesday was a very busy night for me (wrote a Maths assessment and watched multiple episodes of Mr Selfridge!) and it completely slipped my mind.

I honestly can't believe I've been doing this blogging malarky for half a year and how much I'm still enjoying it, despite the slow growth of readers and followers. I've learnt so much over the last few months and I really hope that I am bringing something (even if just a little something) to the blogging world.

Anyway to thank you all for reading my blog at all, I've got a brand new product to give away for free. Just click on the image below to go to my TpT store and download for free (in a nice round-number co-incidence, this is my 20th product uploaded to my store!)

I've linked up with Teaching Blog Addict's Freebie Friday, so head over there for more great freebies!

Bonding those numbers (Freebie Friday included!)

Number bonds are something that seems to come up each year as needing practise to get them really secure. I thought I would gather together some of the things I use to try and help the kiddies learn them. I would love to hear any other suggestions you all have for what you do!

Froggie number bonds flip flap

This was not an original idea, but given to me on my first ever teaching placement! You have 10 frog cards positioned amongst other blank cards in-between sticky-backed plastic. If you follow the arrangement correctly, the flip flap can then be folded in such a way that all combinations of number bonds to 10 can be made. I use it with a simple "You can see 3 frogs, so how many can I see?", after they answer, turning it around so they can check. I can't remember now where my frog graphic came from, but grab a (slightly different) freebie of the cards here. 

Loop cards

Still a freebie from my TpT store, I'm working on similar loop cards with other themes.

Numbers to 20 Bingo
I usually ask the children to pick 4 numbers on a quarter whiteboard, or you can download game boards from the website.

Alien pairs to 10

Children have to match the number bonds to 10 pairs. 

Ladybirds

I don't seem to have any photos of them, but I have A4 blank ladybirds which I give to the children with different amounts of counters (depending if doing 5, 10 or 20 number bonds), which they use to derive all the different number bonds, recording either in their books or on whiteboards.

Let's go green!

And celebrate St.Patrick's Day!

What are you doing with your class? 

We made leprechauns that I found from a pin from Theme Party Palace.

We also made a different type of leprechaun adapted from one I saw on I {heart} crafty things. 

Next week during our Reading Roundabout we are going to be using the sight word board games from Make, Take and Teach, but with some little counters that I made from some St.Patrick's Day clip art from My Cute Graphics.

The Challenge Area is equipped with my Leprechaun Number Bonds to 10 (grab this freebie from my store!).

I'm also quite tempted to make the children watch Leprechaun Gold because its a classic!

Happy (early) St.Patrick's Day to you all!

Five for Friday and a Freebie!

One of the main reasons I love the Five for Friday link up as it is my chance to post all sorts of randomness about my week!

1

Playing with boats as part of a Science lesson this week.

2

Loving the Creative Clips Club as I get new clipart every week! So far have some very cute spring and Easter sets that have given me several ideas!

3

Had to do a cover lesson this week with Year 2 so I figured lets make some leprechauns (though had to beg, borrow and steal enough green paper!) I got the idea from a pin from Theme Party Palace.

4

2 evenings of parents evenings this week = tired!

5

Rhyme has been a focus as we start poetry and the kiddies have got into this Roll a Rhyme game I made. Click on the image below to get it for free from my store! I would also really appreciate feedback if you do download it!