Currently almost July!

The linky is early for July!  I bet when I go link up with Farley I'll be about number 458 on the list even though it's still June for another day. :)

Listening: Chris had a few changes to make on a customer's engagement ring design so he has been busy on his computer.  I've been listing to him tap away while I read some blogs and check Facebook.  If you need a custom jewellery piece that will be gorgeous and special I can sure point you in the right direction...!

Loving: No explanation necessary!

Thinking: Tomorrow we are off on a roadtrip from Calgary into the Okanagan Valley.  We are stopping for lunch in Banff, spending a night in Revelstoke on the way to visit my cousin in Summerland. Then we have 2 nights at a B&B in Kelowna.  I'm so excited!!

Wanting: Only one more week of holidays... boo! Hopefully those days go nice and slowly.

Needing: I had planned to get myself super organised for school so I don't feel like I'm chasing my tail all of next term.  As of right now I've done nothing... maybe I can get a heap done on the plane home! Haha.

Blogging Tip: Don't compete with other blogs, especially those that have huge followings. Blog about what you are excited about in your classroom/life and even if only a few people read each post it will be worth it.  Eventually you'll have some followers and friends in the bloggy world. :)

Happy almost-July friends!

Lauren

Five for Friday?

Hi all!  No Five for Friday for me today. :( I left my camera at a friend's place earlier in the week and haven't taken any photos on my phone so I have nothing to show for a whole week in Canada with my lovebird. Waah!

While Chris has been at work I've been spending some time trying to decide how to re-vamp my sight word wall back in my classroom.  I'm wondering whether I should turn it into more of a general word wall and include spelling words and words that pop up all the time in the kidlets' writing (beach, friend, Australia Zoo etc.).  With that in mind I've made two word wall header sets.  I'm leaning towards using the rainbow one in my room, but I do love the chalkboard style because it has a gorgeous teal detail.  

Pop by my TpT store if you are in need of an update too - they are in Queensland Script. :)

Rainbow Border here.

Chalkboard Style here.

I hope everyone is having a lovely relaxing break from school, either snuggling under blankets in Australia or enjoying the Summer here in the Northern Hemisphere!

Lauren

Bloglovin'!

Hi all!  Holidays are finally here - woo hoo! After a 26 hour journey I made it to Calgary and have so far enjoyed a whole day with my lovebird.  

This post is just a little reminder that in a few days Google Reader will be gone (which is sorta sad!) so you might like to switch over to Bloglovin'.  I've been on Bloglovin' for quite a while - before I realised that Google Reader was being closed down - and I really like it.  There's a button on the right of my blog that you can click to follow me. :)

Lauren

Last Week of Term-itis!

Yaaaawn!  Is everyone else feeling the end of term exhaustion like I am? This week I have alternated between feeling like time is flying... and feeling like it's dragging on for-eva!

My kidlets have been kept super busy but they are very tired, there have been lots of tears and bickering.  I've tried to keep things light for them with lots of fun activities, a 'Snow Day' today for our Winter theme, an end of term party tomorrow and a movie on Friday after our Grandparent's Day.  Even these low-stress days have felt like a lot of work because the kidlets are exhausted and in need of a rest.  

I've got lots of school things I want to share... but those posts will have to wait until holidays! :)

Anyway... to round off this slightly useless post, here's a slightly useless quote!

{Source}

It's almost holidays! You can make it!! :)

Lauren

Five for Friday! 14/06/13

One more week until Winter break!  Woo hoo!  This week at school was busy, busy, busy... but I did manage to snap a few photos to share for Five for Friday.

Link up with Doodle Bugs!

1.  In our Science unit we have been learning about the Seasons and this week was all about Autumn.

The kidlets loved these paintings... mostly because they loved getting their arms and hands all painty!  We don't get a lot of trees here that change colours and drop their leaves, so we read lots of books and looked at lots of pictures before we did this craft.  

2. In our Literacy work we've been looking at word families.

I have been doing this activity for-eva because the kidlets love it.  We read Cat in the Hat and then brainstorm all the words we can think of that end with -at.  We add a few to our painted hats and display them around the room.  Such a great visual reminder of the word family.

3. Rain, rain... go away!

Another week of rainy lunch breaks.  Luckily I grabbed a few new DVDs a few weeks ago so one day I popped on 'Elmo in Grouchland'.  Although I had planned to tidy and take down some displays while they were watching, I ended up spending most of my time engrossed in the movie too! What is it about kids' movies? :)

4. I love working with some of my best friends!

The sun came out on Friday and while our Preppies were enjoying their outside play time I ran into Sarah, also out in the playground with her Year 2's who were having a market day.  

5. Don't worry, I won't spend this all at once!!

I had to giggle when I received this email from TpT.  In late May I posted my first ever product and had sold a whole ONE item by the end of the month.  I've read a few TpT tips that say I need to be patient with my sales so I'm not too worried... and the June payment will already be larger! :) I'm hoping that on the holidays I can get to work on a few products that I plan to use next semester and add them to my store.  Until then, I'll add my $1.76 to my rainy day fund! :)

I'm off to run a heap of errands to get organised before I jump on a plane next Saturday to Canada.  When I get home I plan to spend some time blog-hopping through the linky.  I'd love to read what you've been up to this week!

Happy Friday!!

Lauren

Morning Must Haves!

I don't know about you, but as much as I love to read blog posts with teaching ideas and inspiration I also love posts that are all about the blogger!  I love getting to know people through random facts and photos.  Halle at Across the Hall in Second Grade is hosting a favourite things linky - and this week's topic is perfect for peeking into the lives of the people behind the blogs - Morning Must-Haves!

I used to tease my friends for being slaves to their iPhones (I was perfectly happy with my ancient Nokia thank you very much!), but now that I have one I literally cannot live without it.  When my alarm goes at 5am the first thing I do is check my phone - Facebook, emails, Instagram - mostly for a message from Chris but also because I am a slave to social media! :)

My second must-have is only a must-have for about 2 months of the year here in Queensland!  Lately it's been really chilly in the mornings and evenings (we have a low of 9 degrees Celsius this week! Mind you, that's probably at 2am.) so the first thing I do when I get out of bed is pop on my super cool slippers. :)

Here in Australia we don't drink brewed coffee like in the US/Canada... so my morning coffee is an instant one. I know, I know... not classy! But honestly I prefer it.  When I was living in Canada I got used to the taste of brewed coffee (Nabob Breakfast Blend!) but here at home I'm happy with the cheap stuff - as long as it's in a big mug! :) This is my fave:

While I'm drinking my coffee I watch 'Today'.  Not much news but lots of laughs! I live by myself - I love the silence in the mornings and the TV to zone out to while I wake up.

Hmmm... seems that a few giggles and zoning out is the common denominator in my mornings!  As soon as I hop in the car I pop on Nova 106.9 and listen to Ash, Kip and Luttsy on my way to work.  I figure that leaving the house before 7am everyday I deserve a few laughs! :)

So there you have it!  My morning must-haves.  Link up to share yours (so I can blog stalk you!) and maybe find a few new blogs to follow as well.

Lauren

Sweet Treats - Primer Words!

Isn't is amazing how much you can get done when it's report card writing weekend?  My house is spotless, all the laundry is clean, folded and put away and there's not a dirty dish to be seen in the kitchen.  I also modified my 'Sweet Treats' game and now have a file using Dolch Primer words.  

Check it out at my TpT store.

And here's the Pre-Primer link.

Check out my previous post for a pic of these games in action. :)

Back to reports...

Lauren

Five for Friday! 07/06/13

It's almost the end of the semester, folks! Countdown to the holidays has begun. :) Before I head off to bed early in preparation for a big weekend writing report cards I've got just enough time to link up with Doodle Bugs to share my random Five for Friday.

1. We're learning all about the seasons and the weather in Science and this week was all about Summer!

This is the Summer corner of the classroom showing off the cute crafts we worked on.  Painted ice creams and bright shining suns! The big sun and clouds with raindrops were the original decorations but they have been taken over by the kids' work. :)

2. What to do when you've too much to do?  Procrastinate, of course!

I spent a few hours in my classroom last Sunday trying to get ahead with planning and reports, but instead made this little fella. He is our 'Number Monster' - he asks to eat numbers that are more than, less than, equal to certain numbers, or he might ask to eat 2 numbers that add to make a specific amount.  He is very demanding!  The kidlets feed him numbers written or drawn on slips of paper.  The Number Monster is of course besties with the Alphabet Monster.

3. Yep, lots of procrastinating this week!  I use clipboards from time to time when the kidlets are working on the floor in their groups.  We have a tonne of old ones in Prep - and the ones I had been using originally looked like this:

After a bit of prettying up they now look like this:

A coat of spray paint and some rainbow Scotch tape made them much cuter... and saved me some money in buying new ones!

4. Don't you just l-o-v-e it when your kidlets make you proud?

We had some unstructured time this week so I could finish up some assessment checklisting.  I'd put out some activities for the kids to work on - maths and literacy games, fine motor tasks, phonics apps, a colour by number etc. - but was planning to just ignore the tomfoolery that I was sure would happen while they were supposed to be working and I was distracted. :)  Those little sweeties worked carefully and stayed focused the whole time, even though I was occupied and not giving them any direction.  I was so impressed and proud of their maturity. The game in the photo is one that my Preppies absolutely love, and the ice cream theme fit in nicely with our Summer week! You can grab the pre-primer version from my TpT store, and I'll hopefully have the primer words done this weekend. :)

5. Bargain of the week - cupcake timer from Aldi.

Pack up time has never been so exciting! :)

I hope everyone is enjoying their last few weeks of school, or summer break depending where in the world you are! 

Lauren

Currently... it's June!

When I saw the June Currently posts start popping up on my Bloglovin' feed, I thought that people had made some kind of mistake. It can't be June already?  Sure enough, it is - so link up with Farley and share what you're up to right now. :)

Listening: I just love a bit of competition reality TV!  I'm not into the singing/cooking style but I love the renovation based shows - especially 'The Block'!  I don't love the Blockheads as much this series as I did the All Stars, but there's still time for me to get to know them. :)

Loving: Three more weeks and then two wonderful weeks of holidays!  We have a week of pupil free days after that too so I'm looking forward to doing lots of Term 3 planning before school starts.

Thinking: My poor Preppies... this week it's all assessment for them. :( So much to get done this week.

Wanting: There's a tub of Chocolate Honey Nougat ice-cream in the freezer that's calling my name!  If you've never had honey ice-cream you are seriously missing out.

Needing: Flying between Canada and Australia is expensive... a teleportation machine would seriously save my budget (and I could see Chris every day!).  Anyone know where I can get one? :)

Vacay Essentials: Since it's getting so cold here my mind immediately thought of the beach - nothing better than reading on the sand feeling the sun warm your skin, and then  having an afternoon snooze to finish off the perfect lazy day.

That's my Currently done and dusted for June... before I know it July will have crept up on me! :)

Lauren

Five for Friday on the First Day of Winter! 01/06/13

Good morning everyone!  It's Saturday here and the first day of Winter... I can't decide if I'm happy or sad about that.  While I decide, I'm going to read everyones' Friday Fives.  Link up with Doodle Bugs to share five random things from your week!

1. This is my only school related thing this week:

I have permission from this little one's parents to show her face. :)

Last weekend I finished off this Maths activity - 'Bruce the Bulldog': A Listen and Learn Maths Mat pack. I designed it to help with my assessment this term - I needed a way to quickly gauge where my kidlets were with their ability to apply all of the things they know about number.  We read them the task cards (more/less, addition and subtraction word problems) and observed how they used the manipulatives to solve the problem.  Then we asked them questions to check how deep their understanding was.  It worked much better than I expected - some of my kidlets whizzed through each question with ease and some really struggled.  A few of them really surprised me with what they were able (or not able) to do so I'm glad I now have this extra data to write report cards and to plan where they need to go next in their number work.  Best of all, they loved Bruce the Bulldog and spent time in their free choice work using the cards and making up their own problems for others to solve. :)  You can buy it from my TpT store if you think it might be useful for you.

2.

I had fun this week using my new printer to make some cute things for my house.  This little quote from 'Where the Wild Things Are' looks perfect on my bookshelf, and the free menu planner (in grey and mint chevron - bonus!) is on my fridge helping me to stay organised. The quote was from Etsy and the menu planner was free!

3. 

Loving the beautiful flowers blooming on my patio!  Also pretty impressed that I've had these for a few months and haven't killed them yet. :)

4. 

Slightly over-excited to find Jeopardy! on Aussie TV. If Wheel of Fortune came on after it I would be in heaven. :)

5. 

I spent two days this week in Brisbane at a conference.  I caught the train from my parent's house and home again both days - and managed to read an entire novel before I got home yesterday.  I think maybe I'd like to commute by train to work just for the opportunity to get through the piles of books I have waiting to read. :)  I'm planning to post soon about the conference because it was amazing.  Lots of really inspiring ideas to help plan differentiated tasks so every kidlet has the opportunity to work with their preferred learning style and achieve success.

Happy weekend friends! 

Lauren