Meet the Teacher...um... Tuesday?

I recently found a blog also written by someone new to the teaching blogging world and she has already got her own weekly linky party which she hosts every Monday, so this week I thought I would join in even though its Tuesday! Come join Trina at The Ordinary to Extraordinary Classroom.

Meet the Teacher Monday: The Business of Blogging 

1. How long have you been a blogger? I've been blogging since November!

2. Do you have any blogs other than your teacher/education blog? Nope, showing all my love for this baby!

3. What niche is your blog in? Education, specifically for the younger years.

4. Do you have plans to start any other blogs? Not at the moment, although 

I do enjoy reading other people's personal blogs.

5. What do you enjoy most about blogging? I enjoy the interaction with others, the sharing of ideas, inspirations and resources and the comments/feedback people leave for me!

6.  What do you enjoy least about blogging? Having to be patient while I build up a following, I want to feel that I'm not just writing to thin air!

7.  How often do you blog? No set amount, depends on how much free time and whether I have an idea or product to blog about! Ideally 2-3 times a week. 

8.  If you could meet anyone from the blogosphere, who would it be? Amy from Step into Second Grade with Mrs Lemons. I love her style of writing and products!

9. Are there any hot-button issues you will not discuss on your blog?  I wouldn't comment on other people's parenting style. I'm not one to judge!

10.  Name one thing (or more) that you would like to accomplish with your blog? I want to help other teachers, particularly those just starting out in their careers with ideas and resources. Teaching can be a very rewarding job, but also can take it out of you, so any little help you can get elsewhere is invaluable!

How to... make goldfish sun catchers

Thought I would write a How to for my goldfish that I made for Chinese New Year. They are considered lucky at this time of year especially due to their association with abundance of gold.

Goldfish Sun Catchers

You will need:

• sticky back plastic
• orange/yellow tissue paper squares
• permanent marker
• scissors
• goldfish colouring or outline

What to do:

1. Print out a simple goldfish colouring or outline (mine was from Activity Village) and blue-tak a piece of sticky back plastic over the top, shiny side up.

2. Using a black permanent marker, trace over the lines of the drawing.

3. Peel off the stick back plastic and cover the drawing with small pieces of tissue paper. I used a combination of yellow and orange. Allow the pieces to overlap slightly.

4. Cut out the goldfish. (You can cover the tissue paper with a second piece of sticky back plastic, however, I chose to leave it open since that side could face the window).

5. Display in the window.

Five For Friday (or Saturday!)

One day I'll actually manage to post this on a Friday...

1

Ordinal numbers for the Chinese zodiac race. We ordered the toys! Then a bit of cutting and sticking to ordinal up the animals.

2

Chinese New Year decorations - goldfish! This was something I adapted from several ideas I found on Pinterest and the internet as I had managed to use my entire red tissue paper supply up for Remembrance Day poppies back in November and so decided to use up all my orange and yellow instead!

3

We went outside to practice our phonics skills. Chalk writing to make it that little bit more exciting!

4

Using some my version of a freebie I found from Make Take and Teach r-controlled vowels. The children had to choose the correct sound and clip, turning over to check their answers with a coloured dot behind.

 5

I'm the Featured Freebie on Teaching Blog Addict! So so excited as it was only my second time linking up there! 

New products and a freebie!

I've been working on a few more products to share with you all (sorry its taken so long to get my TpT store up and running!).

First, I found some absolutely adorable clip art and couldn't resist using it to make a Count the Room. As its the second half of the year now, I've gone for numbers from 10-20. There are so many uses for this activity - as a whole class starter, in a Maths centre, for quick finishers.

I've also completed the Tricky Word Flashcards series with Phases 3, 4 and 5 (freebie of Phase 2 available here). These tricky words are non-decodable so the children have to learn them by sight. Frequent flashcard practice and games using the words are essential!

And for my freebie...

I have some cards I used for a speech and language intervention. They are simple he/she cards of verbs which I use for a variety of one-to-one games with an EAL child who struggles with this concept. Games I've used include: basic sorting into the correct group, using two sets and playing snap (but saying 'he/she' instead of 'snap') and oral describing of the picture, using the correct pronoun repeatedly. I have included a recording sheet as well which initially can be used for simply writing 'he' or 'she' as appropriate, but later I integrate some verb practice and ask them to write simple captions 'he is washing', 'she is cutting'.

Like the new look?

Courtesy of the fabulous Christi at Design by Christi (and Mrs Fultz’s Corner) I have a lovely butterfly themed blog design. Since I've had it done, I’ve found myself logging on just to look at it!

To celebrate this new look, I have a freebie to offer you all at my TpT store. It is some butterfly-themed (what else could it be, really?) tricky words. These are aligned to the UK Letters and Sounds programme and I’ve coloured coded them by the phases. Click on the image below for a link to my store to download Phase 2 for free!

 

For more great freebies from other bloggers, why don't you check out Teaching Blog Addicts' Freebie Friday? I've linked this post there and there are loads of other great things to choose from.