Five for... Friday?

I'm going to be really honest and say that when the first 'Five for Friday' post popped up on my Bloglovin' feed earlier there was a moment when I was totally confused.  I've been too busy enjoying my glorious Summer break and have totally lost track of time.  I hadn't thought about what day it might be since this time last week! Thank goodness for linkys to keep me on track. :)

In between pinning this week I ordered some cute business cards to use as 'take home' tokens.  The first for kidlets who have made it to the 'Super Kid' card of our clip chart, and the second for those who were caught filling someone's bucket.

I'm also excited for my self-inking stamp to arrive!  It says 'Checked by Miss Kuhn'.  Teaching Prep (Kindergarten) I don't mark my kidlets work with ticks and crosses.  I don't do a heap of worksheets and when I do, I ask kidlets to 'try again' if they are wrong.  If they end up getting it right I give them verbal praise (or a smiley face on their page if they've done a super job), but if they are wrong I don't put a big old cross on the answer they worked so hard to come up with.  I've seen Preppies become really stressed when their work is marked wrong.  This stamp will be a quick way to let parents know that I've seen each page.

I ordered the business cards and stamp from Vista Print.

My brother and nephew came to visit yesterday and we went to the zoo!

Mack loved this little wallaby almost as he loved the giant Boa Constrictor!

I loved this cute guy.

Earlier in the week I finished off a pack that I'd had in the works for a long time!  Read this post to learn about how I teach my kidlets to use 'Spaceman Spaces'.

Or click on the preview below to see the pack in my store.

I've been reminiscing about my fun 30th trip to Vegas with some lovely friends who I miss a lot.  

Australia to Canada is a long way to go for a catch up - I'm thinking we need to meet halfway in Hawaii!

How cute is this 'ant'onyms anchor chart that I pinned today!  I'm definitely going to use this idea.  The link goes nowhere though - bummer.  I bet whoever made this had a heap of other clever ideas.  Let me know if it's yours!

Now that I know it's Friday I'd best be off to watch the wedding shows on TLC, while reading the other Five for Friday posts of course! :)

Five for Friday!

It feels like an age since I've linked up with Doodle Bugs and shared a Five for Friday post! Time to jump back on the bandwagon and start 2015 with some photo randomness. :)

I'm not usually the type of person who makes resolutions at the beginning of a new year... as a matter of fact setting a goal usually makes me feel stressed (is that weird?!). But this year there's a few things that I already do that I just wanted to make more of a conscious effort to stay on top of - so I made my self some New Year's Reminders!

I made a little subway art inspired print to frame both here at home and for my desk at school so I can see my reminders every day.  Most of them are pretty self-explanatory, and they're also things that should be very easy for me to achieve.  Here's hoping! :)

I'm right in the middle of Summer break and have been taking advantage of the sun and blue skies to spend some time at the beach.  It's been umbrella city down there this week!

I just love seeing happy kidlets with sun-browned skin and tangled hair running on the sand and jumping in the waves.  That's the way childhood should be here in Australia! :)

When I posted my Currently earlier this week I shared a photo of my Christmas present to myself.  I had a gorgeous green amethyst and diamond ring made with some of my TpT earnings!  

I've been checking out the #becauseoftpt posts on Instagram and am totally grateful to be part of a community that can change people's lives in so many wonderful ways! Although jewellery is a pretty frivolous way to spend money, I was able to treat myself without worrying about penny pinching to get my bills paid or groceries bought.  Thanks TpT! 

Lately I've been spending a tonne of time on Pinterest, collecting new ideas for when school goes back in a few weeks.  You can follow my boards if you like!! Here's my recent favourites!

I loved these two ideas that work perfectly together! I plan to make the "It bugs me when..." craft first, and follow it up with the "When something is bugging me I can say..." poster.  I start my kidlets working in groups right from the first day of Prep, and if I expect them to get along and work nicely with each other then I need to teach them conflict resolution skills!  The craft was pinned from The Learning Tree but the pin for the poster goes nowhere - if you know where it's from please let me know!

I always struggle to find exciting, engaging ideas for teaching positional language so I was so excited to find this pin! I'm going to take photos of my kidlets in the playground, label them with the positional language and then make a class book.  Thanks to Chalk Talk for this very clever idea!

Can't wait to make a set of 'Sight Word Stars' for my little learners to use while searching for sight words in their books.  How simple to add words as you teach them, and what a perfect (independent!) activity for those kidlets who just need a little more practise recognising sight words in context.  This was pinned from Kinderdi.

I wish that every time I pinned something it magically appeared in my classroom! Sadly that's not the case, so in the next few days I'll have to get myself motivated to tackle some school projects.  So far I've put the kidlets' scissors through the dishwasher to get the glue off...

...stocked up on Scentos...

...and thrown everything that needs to go to my classroom into a box that's currently blocking my hallway.

Productive, right?!

Before I go, I should let you know about the bundle giveaway happening on my Facebook right now! My newest products are part of my best selling 'Link It Up' series - this time with a word families focus.  Pop on over and pin it to win it!

Happy weekend, friends! Thanks for stopping by today. :)

Five for Friday! Mozart, Caterpillar Maths, Fashion Funnies & Big Giveaway News!

Friday again?  That means it's time for Five for Friday!

1.

Friday morning saw my outdoor classroom area transformed into an Art Studio!  The kidlets were let loose with glitter, fabric, crepe paper, cupcake wrappers, raffia, paper shapes, stickers and a tonne of other crafty treasures.  The result was a clothesline full of gorgeous collages.  My favourite part of the day was Mozart playing in the background, and the very serious looks on the little artist's faces. :)

2.

After struggling through some pretty horrible back and shoulder pain this week I ended up taking Thursday off to try and rest a little.  After a tough physio session that ended with me covered in sports strapping tape (which helps with the pain a lot!) I spent the rest of the time at home.  I dug out some Easter bits and pieces... how cute is this bunny?!

It's amazing how a bit of relaxation can make you feel productive!  I cooked up a big pot of vege soup for dinner, just to top off a perfect day at home. :)

3.

This week and last our focus book has been 'The Very Hungry Caterpillar'.  To tie this in with the ordinal number work we started in Maths, I stole an idea from my friend Stef's Instagram.  We cut and glued the fruit the Hungry Caterpillar ate to match them up with 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th labels.  Add a few more bits of card and you have a super cute Very Hungry Caterpillar hat! :)

4.

I've been LOVING! this product from Marsha over at A Differentiated Kindergarten. Her I Can Do It Myself: Segmenting Fun pack was perfect for my kidlets to do some independent phoneme segmentation practise.  Each card is clipped closed so that only the picture is visible.  Kidlets place down 1 counter for each phoneme they hear.  The card is unclipped for them to check their work!  I took a tonne of photos of this pack in action... but none of them turned out!  You'll just have to believe me that we had lots of fun, with lots of learning too. :)

5.

Soooooo.... in a week or so I am heading to Canada for a quick trip back to my home-away-from-hometown, Calgary.  I've been thinking about what I'll pack for the 'Spring' weather (still snow and ice there!) and have been checking out my Pinterest fashion board for ideas and I actually own a lot of similar stuff that's in some of the outfits:

But, instead of looking like this...

...I always feel like I end up looking like this: 

Anyone else feel the same?! :)

Be sure to come back tomorrow for a big giveaway!  A few of us Aussie bloggers have teamed up to swap and share some awesome products, and you'll have a chance to win all of them!

Happy weekend, friends. :)

Lauren

Five for Friday! Quotes, Tim Tam slams, monsters and more!

Stopping by for a very quick Five for Friday today!  Link up with Doodle Bugs to join in on the fun.

1.

This week has had lots of ups and downs, my kidlets are giving me a run for my money and to be honest I'm feeling a little flattened by school.  I was looking through my Pinterest board of quotes the other day and came across this one:

Teaching kidlets in their very first year of school is so rewarding and fulfilling... but at times it is also draining and things happen that can make you feel so disheartened.  This week I had a moment of 'you know what, maybe I won't spend so much time, money and energy working on resources and planning activities for school' - and in the next moment looked into the eyes of one of my little treasures. I realised that whatever happens, my kidlets are the reason I teach and they deserve for me to give all I can.  So I'm very glad it's the weekend... a few days of sleep, food and relaxation and then right back into it on Monday!

(If you're a quote hoarder like me, come and follow my personal Pinterest boards!)

2.

We played a super easy sight word game this week that my kidlets went nuts for! All you need is a pocket chart (but you could also blu-tak the words to a board and it would work just as well), cards with sight words on them and some little pictures of monsters (or anything really - at this time of the year it might be cute to use leprechauns!).  Hide the monsters (I hid 4) behind the words and have the kids search for them.  I used this as an opportunity to reinforce some oral language skills, so I had them ask "Is there a monster behind the word _____?"  I then just flipped the word to see if there was or not! We played this more than once every day this week and they never grew tired of it. :)

3.

Speaking of sight words, I spent my evenings this week making a game themed to The Very Hungry Caterpillar.

At the moment it's the M100W version using an Aussie font, but the Dolch version is coming very soon! :)  So excited to use it with my kidlets next week!

You can find it here!

(I must have been feeling super productive this week because I actually finished 2 products!  You can read about Spring into Phoneme Segmentation! in this post.)

4.

I made the mistake of buying a pack of Double Coat Tim Tams last weekend because my Mum and Dad were coming for afternoon tea.  Of course most of them were leftover, so I've been forced to eat the rest with my coffees as a Tim Tam Slam!

If you've never done a Tim Tam Slam before it's very easy - just bite the corners off (diagonally opposite each other) and then dip it in your coffee. Quickly use the Tim Tam like a straw and suck the coffee through it!  It will melt, so you need to pop the whole melty, warm, chocolately biscuit in your mouth straight away! :)

5.

My plans for the rest of the day involve a massage appointment, some time in the sun and an outdoor movie night by my friend's pool.  We're going to watch Frozen and eat frozen treats!  We are wishing that there was a Wendy's nearby so we could go get a Frosty - or even a DQ for a Blizzard but unfortunately we don't have either in Australia!

Have a wonderful weekend everyone!  

Lauren