March Currently Time

So February was not as blog productive as I'd hoped, but in my defence, half-term distracted me!

Anyway, time to start another month with another Currently with Oh Boy It's Farley!

Listening - Jane the Virgin, found this show on Netflix and its hilarious. So ridiculous, but completely addictive!

Loving - Skype. Whoever invented this was a genius! I spent 2 hours catching up with one of my former colleagues (and closest friend at my previous job) who I've been missing terribly at my new job.

Thinking - How long can I drag out my dinner time break before I need to go and do some work (answer: quite a long time if I start blogging)

Wanting - Dessert, but I've given it up for Lent...

Needing - To blog, more than I did last month anyway!

Polling Site - No polling site here as I'm not in the US, but even on polling days, my school won't be one that gets used. In the UK, when my previous school was used we had staff INSET days so there were no children on site.

CNY 2016

A CNY-themed Five for Friday link-up today. Why not head over to DoodleBugs and see what everyone else has been up to this week?

1

Chinese New Year is a big big deal where I currently teach and the school is having a CNY rotation of activities organised by the parents, so I am actually scaling back what I would normally do so as not to take away from their efforts.

My posts from previous years about CNY ideas can be found:
here
and here

I also have a freebie on offer here.

2

I needed a really simple card as with a really tight timetable, unfortunately I didn't have time to do anything overly complicated. This year is the year of the monkey, so I adapted an idea from Adele Jeunette.

3

We made a wishing tree display as a writing focus, using the sentence starter 'I wish' to encourage some use of the recently learnt digraphs! Chinese people have orange trees for luck and prosperity and sometimes write wishes on them. There were some incredibly aspirational wishes ("I wish for diamonds"... please share with your teacher if you find some!) but also some very thoughtful ones.

4

My teaching assistant is a whiz at creative activities and she helped the children to make these beautiful blown ink and finger painted cherry blossom pictures.

5

Chinese New Year wouldn't be complete without plenty of themed books to share with the children. Click on the books for the links to Amazon.

 

 

Currently Feb :)

So I hit my target of blogging twice a month in January quite easily, although the majority of that was in one week of regular posting from me, with then another absence until today! Still I do have an idea I'm really excited about that I intend to blog about so that is my goal for February.

And onto this month's Currently, hosted by the renamed 'Oh Boy... it's Farley!'

Listening - To a oooold episode of Midsomer Murders (thank you Netflix!)

Loving - Having a cleaner. I know its a terrible extravagance, but its really common in this part of the world and a colleague recommended this lady who is great. She comes on Tuesdays so I'm currently basking in the pleasure of a spotless flat (this will not last more than another day or two haha)

Thinking - About the next week's planning. We are doing a story I've not taught before, which is interesting but means I don't have any 'go-to' activities! Any suggestions for The Magic Paintbrush?

Wanting - To be warmer! There is no central heating in my flat and its so so cold at the moment. I have to put on a dressing gown when I take off my coat!

Needing -  Food. A food shop is on the cards for tonight, but I was lazy and sat down to have a cup of tea and write this! 

Swooning - Over a new idea that a colleague of mine has brought back from a course. Its all about thinking skills and this week, we trialled an activity called 'Zoom In'. My kids absolutely loved it and were so engaged and we got amazing work from it. I can't wait to blog about the whole thing properly!

First Five for Friday of 2016

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!)

1

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.

2

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!

3

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.

4

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. 

5

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!)

Throwback - New Year Fun

As I begin the Spring term with my tinies today, I am sharing a throwback post from 2014 highlighting some of the activities I like to do in early January. I've updated the links to the resources if you want to try any of them this year...

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Original Post - 11th January 2014

So we went back to school after the Christmas break this week. Despite the time going so quickly for me, it was great (mostly!) to get back into the swing of things in class. Here are the highlights of my week in another 'Five for Friday' (despite it being Saturday!) link up with Doodle Bugs Teaching.

1

I started off this week with reading 'Squirrel's New Year's Resolution' and then using a freebie from An Educator's Life called 'New Year, New Me' which was just the sort of fun, but meaningful activity to spend Monday morning doing with some excitable 5 year olds! I hung the finished mobiles across the back of my classroom. I have also referred to their resolutions multiple times over the week for behaviour management!

2

I also added the 'New Year totals' freebie from Kathy Romano and Christina Murphy to my Challenge Area along with the 'Word Sort' that I bought from Doodle Bugs Teaching way back during the Cyber Monday sale! These activities, along with some recount holiday writing scaffolds, are the 'challenges' that the quick finishers may choose from. They can also go to the book corner if they prefer. The Challenge Area is also available during free choice time, so that my slow finishers can also access them.

3

For my extra-curricular Crafty Kids club, I used this great 'New Year Craftivity' from A Cupcake for the Teacher. These were absolutely gorgeous when the whole group were wearing them (sorry can't post photo!)

4

Multilink Maths! Using multilink cubes to help decide if numbers are odd or even. 

5

I have a Reading Roundabout session where I split the class into small groups and they take it turns reading with me or my assistant. The independent groups do different reading based activities, this week one of them used the great 'Roll and read tricky words' that I got from Primary Classroom Resources, although I adapted it into a game that can be replayed by using counters rather than colouring the sheet.

I seem to have used most of my 5 to prove how much of my classroom teaching is now affected by resources and ideas I've found off teaching blogs! Loving this addiction of mine!!