Sunday Smorgasbord! End of term randomness and holiday plans

I'm only three days into holidays and already woke up this morning thinking 'what day is it??'.  Gotta love that feeling of total relaxation... but it does mean that I'm way too late to link up for Five for Friday!  Luckily, the lovely Michelle at Fabulous in First hosts another fun linky that doesn't require me to count. :)

Our last week of term was nice and relaxed - we played lots of games and revisited some activities that were favourites!  (Click on the photos to go see the products in the various stores they are from.)

Stretchy Snake Bingo in the sun - we've moved from the kidlets just listening to the segmented word and blending the sounds together to them stretching the sounds out for their friends. 

Shark!  I put this game away at the end of reading groups and it mysteriously made it's way back out for free choice time.  I don't mind... a bit of extra reading practice never hurt anyone! :)

I Spy the -ap family.

More reading practice, this time with sentences.  I really think my kidlets love to play this game just so they can call 'Arghh!' when they find a pirate.  It's called 'Shiver Me Timbers!'

Our end of term party was 'Frozen' themed - we had lots of fun snacks and watched about half of the movie.  We ran out of time to finish it - but since the kidlets have all seen it about a million times at home they didn't mind. :)

My plans for the rest of winter break are fairly simple - this was the view of the beach yesterday afternoon so I'm hoping to do many more walks to enjoy the sun and fresh air. I have a long 'to do' list, but am hoping to balance work with something relaxing each day.  My main goal for today is to create my first bundle on TpT! I must admit I'm a little nervous. :)

I'm off to get out of my PJs in an attempt to feel motivated... but let's be honest, I could still be here on the couch in an hour! 10am on the first Monday of vacation is surely the best time to veg out?

Do You Wanna Build a Snowman? Frozen themed fine motor fun!

It's official... we're all about 'Frozen' in my classroom at the moment!  And why not?  Such a gorgeous story with beautiful music - plus I just love the fact that it's not a man who saves the princess! It just so happens that we're also working on a 'Seasons' unit in science, too - so all things wintery are very welcome.  Each morning my kidlets complete a different fine motor activity for about 15 minutes and the favourite (by far) this year has been this cutie-cute snowman!

I adapted this little guy from a few ideas I had seen around the big 'ole internet, so please don't think I'm the clever one who thought of it!  All you need is an empty plastic bottle, cotton balls and some tweezers or tongs.  I decorated 1 bottle per group - just because the bottles I had were large (1.25L sized).  You could easily have a small bottle for each child.  I loved the fact that the groups of kidlets were working together though - lots of helping each other, turn taking and encouragement.  I decorated the bottles with Sharpie and some coloured paper, but felt would have been more effective for the scarf. (That's is what happens when you decide late Sunday night to do something first thing the next morning!)  

Building the snowman is easy-peasy - kidlets just take turns to grab a cotton ball with their tweezers and pop it in the top of the bottle.  

For extra fun, play the 'Frozen' soundtrack in the background so that only the group building their snowman can hear it... makes this activity super special and each group will be so excited when it's their turn.  I'm planning on finishing these snowmen (all called 'Olaf' so far, surprise surprise!) by taping a hat to the top and giving them away as prizes for wonderful behaviour at the end of the week.  This is called bribery extrinsic motivation. :)

Well friends, that's all from me tonight.  I have had a rough week so far with my sweeties, so I'm in need of some serious Pinterest and TV time.  Luckily a new TV dating show started tonight - it's called 'When Love Came to Town' - so I'm be all set!

Lauren

Five for Friday at the end of a wonderful week!

Two amazing things: I actually took photos worthy of a Five for Friday this week, and I'm posting on Friday! The world has turned on it's head.  Link up with Doodle Bugs to share five random moments from your week... but check out mine first! :)

1. I spent far too long this week matching up clipart kidlets with my classroom kidlets to make new book box labels!

Mel over at Graphics from the Pond has a collection of 100 Scrappy Kids and I found one that perfectly  captured the personality of each of my sweeties.  They loved  their little cartoon image and today's 'Read to Self' was especially exciting because we got to use the boxes with the new labels for the first time!

2. If you read my post yesterday (two posts in two days!) you would have seen the cute beach themed cupcakes we made earlier in the week. We continued the Summery vibe today with a playdough ice-cream stand in Outside Time!

We made a few batches of playdough and coloured them to make chocolate, strawberry, mint, vanilla and banana ice-cream.  There were tables and chairs, a cash register, spoons, bowls and real sprinkles! So much fun... and lots of language development as the kidlets took orders, gave their menu choice and chatted with their friends at the tables. :)

We painted ice-creams as well, using matchsticks on the cone part to get the waffle pattern.  The sandpit was set up as a beach, with boogie boards, umbrellas, towels and Beach Boys music playing... but I was so preoccupied ordering my ice-cream that I didn't get a photo!

3. I was at school until about 7pm tonight getting my classroom clean and tidy for our Open Day tomorrow.  Working on a Saturday isn't my number one favourite thing to do, but I do like the opportunity to give my room a bit of a spring clean.

The Alphabet Monster is all set up ready to meet prospective students and the families of current kidlets.

The sign says: Would you like to feed the Alphabet Monster?  Today he is eating words that start with t and s.

We also made these super colourful countdown rockets earlier in the week to brighten up a bare wall. I usually make this craft each year but had forgotten this year until I was reminded by my friend Jemima at Luck's Little Learners when she shared about a similar one she had made with her class.

We cut a mixed up number line into pieces and glued it down to count from 10 - 0, then added paper shapes and torn paper to make the rocket.  Before I displayed them I added a photo of each child as the window.

4. I finally got a chance to put down all of my Sit Spots!  I'd put down a few to test them but wanted the floor to be super clean before I set up the whole class.  I loved my old colourful rug... but I must admit I love my new polka dot floor space more!

And yes... as soon as I posted this photo I can see that I need to move the back row one spot over. I won't be able to sleep tonight thinking about them being off-centre! 

5. Our current favourite Brain Break on GoNoodle is 'Let it Go' from (where else!) 'Frozen'.  My kidlets are absolutely desperate for me to let them watch the movie at school... as if we regularly watch random movies!  Yesterday, I got this Quote of the Day:

Me (trying to play a YouTube clip): Oh, it's frozen.
Kid: WE'RE WATCHING FROZEN!
All Other Kids: YAAAAAAAAY!
Me: No, not Frozen the movie... the computer's frozen.
Other Kid: This is the worst moment of my life.

It was honestly the quickest mood swing I had ever seen! (I sometimes post my funny Quotes of the Day on Instagram... follow me @lozzybeck and I'll follow you back!)

Well friends, I have about a million printed photos to turn into some sort of a display for Open Day tomorrow so I'd better get to it.  I'd love for you to leave me a comment and let me know how your week went!

Lauren