Let me start by saying that my class this year are gorgeous and I'll be genuinely gutted to say goodbye at the end of this term. However, they are super active and I'm trying to get them more interested in reading.
An amazing find is the website Epic Books.
It has a huge online library of e-books, which you can search by topic, series and age range. I especially love the 'read-to-me' section that has saved my teaching voice! Although I don't use this feature, you can also assign reading to students and have class reading competitions.
p.s. this isn't a sponsored post, I just love this website!
OK so it's Saturday, but its about as on time as I'm ever likely to get! Time for my first link up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for 2016 (hopefully I will make it a bit more regularly than last year!)
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Last year my TA covered a shoe box for me to make a treasure chest and I found a cheap dustbin in one of the local shops. Now with the help of some laminated coins, I can play Buried Treasure with real and made up words using the focus phonemes that week.
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Our story this week was 'Farmer Duck' and we learnt about helping each other and working collaboratively. Here is our finished display that we collaged together!
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At my new school, I've been introduced to a great programme called 'Hairy Phonics'. Whilst it's no Phonics Play, it is highly enjoyed by my class. They are fascinated by the hairies we collect as we practise the different graphemes and play the games. It has a fairly limited range of games, however, I do like to get it out occasionally for whole class on the interactive whiteboard or individual work on the laptops. Has a game dedicated the practise for the Year 1 Phonics Check as well. And it's currently a free app on Google Play.
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A resource that I simply can't do without now, magnetic boards! Used multiple times a week during whole class phonics, I also have it out on a table for independent word making practise.
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A resource mentioned in my previous post, the Happy New Year hat (updated for this year!) courtesy of A Cupcake for the Teacher. Always fun to start off a week with a bit of hat making and a lovely way to reinforce the new year for the children.
Now after what seems like the longest first week back after the Christmas holidays ever, I am off for a massage (discount voucher came through my post box this week, yay!)
So another week has gone by and another week closer to the end of the year, and yet the work continues to pile up!
I'm linking up again with Doodle Bugs Teaching for the fabulous Five for Friday linky party which is just so much fun if you have never tried it. I've found many of my favourite blogs to read through this link up and I'm sure a lot of my followers have found me the same way!
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I've posted off my first ever SLANT box to my new friend Amanda from His and Her Hobbies . There are no pictures as I don't spoil the surprise, but hopefully when she receives it she will have a reveal! If you haven't heard of SLANT boxes before, its run by the lovely Jameson from Lessons with Coffee and you get paired up with two people, one to send to and the other to receive from. I can't wait to get my box from Jamie at Miss Math Dork.
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In my craft club, I've been sewing bookmarks with the children. For some this has meant lots and lots of re-threading needles and untangling knotted thread, but it was worth it when my littlies manage to create pieces like this!
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As part of the school's healthy eating week, my class cut out pictures to make their own balanced diet plate. I may have created a group of monsters though as I was apparently so passionate about the need for a healthy diet, that at lunchtime they all refused the cake and asked for fruit... the entire week!
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A website recommendation that I've recently sent out to the parents of my class, Words for Life has reading tips, recommended books and downloadable activities, all split up into age groups. Go check it out!
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And last, but not least, its our half-term holiday this week (yes I know some people have finished completely, but we have another half a term to get through, so I'm happy about my week off now!) so I intend to do as little work as possible and catch up with my reading. I have 5 new books lined up and have made it my challenge for the week to finish them!
Haven't linked up in a little while, but still one of the best linky parties out there, I'm joining in with Doodle Bugs' Five for Friday (albeit a little late)! Here is this week's randomness...
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Tigger and his diary spend their time visiting different houses. This is one of the photos I used for my model entry and my personal favourite!
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Found this game randomly in my local bookshop. Love the letter dice, they will be used for something in my classroom very soon!
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Didn't get around to posting this when I blogged about Easter, so here is the display board of some of our work.
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One of my besties from home had a baby last Sunday and cause I stupidly live the other side of the world from her, I sent her some biscuits as the pre-gift (real gift coming with me in the summer obviously!). She sent me picture to prove they arrived safely... well let's just say I might need to order some for myself, how amazing do they look?! Well done The Biscuit Box!
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After hearing it blogged about by first Collaboration Connection, then Ms Fultz's Corner and now half my Bloglovin' feed! I knew I had to check out GoNoodle. And I'm so glad I did, my class have completely got on board with these brain breaks this week! I introduced it to my team on Wednesday and now we are all using it. If you haven't used this free website for brain breaks, I highly recommend you check it out!
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.
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.
If you teach in a UK school in Year 1, you will be familiar with the oh-so-popular Phonics Check that has to be done in June. Not one of my favourite things as a teacher, but since it has to be done, obviously I want my kiddies to do the best that they can in it.
I'm a great believer in drip feeding or spiralling the strategies they need to be able to pass. Below are just a few of the activities that I use over the year.
iPad app 'Check Your Phonics' by Pearson Education
This app (unfortunately paid) generates both real and fake words.
Lollypop word sort
I made this product so the children could sort the real and not real words.
'Reading Robot' on Phonics Play
There are some other good themed games on here which are grapheme-specific, which generate selections of real and fake words such as 'Buried Treasure', 'Planet Pluto' and 'Dragon's Den'.
Flashcards from SmartKids
I have a box of these for each Phase so I can use throughout the year.
Buried Treasure also from Smart Kids
Again, I also have this game for multiple Phases.
Monster Names
Since the 'real thing' will involve fake words with monster/alien pictures beside them, I get them used to reading 'names' of different monster characters. (You can find this product in my TpT store).
Three-in-a-row
For this game, I split my class into teams (usually 2/3) and they take it in turns to roll my large whiteboard dice to find a word for their team to read. Then they circle it on the board. The first team to get three words circled wins. (My current class are ace at the reading, but a lot to work on with strategy to win!)
And of course, lots and lots of shared, guided and individual reading!
Happy New Year! I hope that 2014 brings you all everything you could wish for.
As part of starting Step 1 of my New Year's Resolutions I am putting some resources into my TpT store. These first few are not very seasonal, but they are tried and tested from my classroom and my children certainly enjoyed them!
They are also all free for a limited time offer! So please come along and download them. I would really appreciate comments and constructive criticism.
To use, you cut out the cards and divide them amongst a small group or pair (after we did it as part of a class activity, individuals also choose to do independently during Challenge Time). They work together to solve each number sentence and find which card goes next. I used them for a week on money, linking to finding change and recapping the recent work on subtraction. I then left two sets (one easier, one harder) in the Challenge Area for children to do independently for the next week.
I came across this website the other day called Teach Thought and they had a great article all about the best free iPad apps to use in the classroom. As we have a bank of iPads in my school and I rarely use them for anything other than photo-taking its inspired me to try some of these out with my class in the new term.
I also want to create a 'Top 10' or at least 'Top 5' educational apps to send home to the parents to use at home if I can, any suggestions?
And finally, a link up to Oh' Boy 4th Grade again with another Currently (linking up for December was the start of attracting readers to my little blog!)
Listening - 'Magic' by B.o.B. - Such a feel-good song, it always has me dancing around the room.
Loving - The cooler temperatures, especially because I get to use a whole different seasonal wardrobe!
Thinking - I can't believe how quickly the holidays seem to be flying past! It is only a few days until its time to head back to reality and school.
Needing - I have loads of resources that I would like to add to my TpT store, but since I've only ever used them in my classroom, the clipart I used was rather random. I need to go through it all (I imagine a VERY slow process) and put in stuff that I have actually bought/got a licence for!
Memory - My favourite memory for this Christmas was the mountain of yummy food that I have eaten.
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