Five for Friday!

Friends, I am tired!  The first week back at school after break really kicked my butt!  We had two full days at a statewide conference and three days back at school for meetings.  In amongst all of that I had a bazillion things that I wanted to do in my classroom... I got about 0.002% of those things done! My Five for Friday this week shares a few things I did complete as well as some random thoughts.

My main goal for the beginning of this term was to have my classroom library reorganised.  That turned out to be A MASSIVE DRAMA! I don't have a heap of space in my classroom so I bought 4 small sets of shelves - that was no big deal. Then came the issue of finding book boxes that would fit on the shelves and would be wide enough for the larger picture books to fit in (some of them are close to 25cm wide!)... as well as being nice, bright colours.  My classroom decor theme is Crayola factory explosion, after all. :)  I scoured the web, visited every store on the coast - and came up with nothing except for small blue, pink and green baskets to store my levelled readers.  I finally ended up buying white baskets and attaching bright labels.  Here's a photo journey of my last two days! 

In the end I was happy with how my little library turned out... but there were a few moments of crankiness in the mix!  I sorted my books into a few categories - readers are in baskets of two levels each and I have a basket each for Mem Fox, Dr. Seuss, Pamela Allen and Jez Alborough.  There's two non-fiction baskets and the other six I labelled just as picture books - because I ran out of time! :)  In the next few weeks I can sort and label the random other baskets.  I also need a rug and a few more decorations... but I'm not sure that those things will help the kidlets to be better readers. :)

Although the library took a heap of time (in the scarce free time we had this week!), I also managed to get new desk labels printed - using the same scrappy kids as I did on my kidlets' book box labels.  I matched each kidlet to a scrappy kid from Mel's 100 Scrappy Kids pack and use their clipart image for anything personalised I create for them!

I got my new chair set up (the metal stool from Ikea I had been using was ruining my back), and re-aligned my SitSpots.

I also threw a my reading pointers and glasses into a new basket I grabbed.  I plan to keep this on my teaching table instead of hunting around for things before guided reading time.  I need to add our sight words on rings and a 'talking stick'.  Anything else that you think is vital to have in a guided reading basket? 

The glasses are just dollar store sunglasses with the lenses popped out.  Kidlets are so much more focussed when they have their 'reading glasses' on! :)

I went to a Whole Brain Teaching workshop at the conference we went to earlier in the week.  I've been using a few WBT techniques with my kidlets - Teach, OK and Mirror mostly - but came away from the workshop super excited to more consciously implement WBT in my classroom.  I don't have a photo for this - how sad!  I've ordered Chris Biffle's book, but if you are a whole brain teacher and can point me in the best direction for resources/articles to read or could share some advice with me I'd love to hear from you.

Have you seen Abby's Pretty Little Printables?  They are just gorgeous, and I particularly loved this quote from the pack:

I have the talent of putting words together effectively (especially for comedic value), combined with the habit of making quick judgements... totally fine if my opinion is positive but it can get me into trouble if I've decided I don't like something.  When I saw this quote again (it's one of my favourites!) I was reminded to always be careful with my words.  Thanks Abby! (Click on the image to read her post.)

When I got home this afternoon I was totally exhausted!  After an accidental 20 minute snooze on the couch, I had a hot shower (it's freezing here today!) and settled in for a relaxing night.  I made sure to light my tealight candles - my favourite Friday night ritual.

Something about the soft light makes me feel so much more calm.  What's your go-to relaxation trick?

Hmmm... I don't think I should admit to watching 'I Wanna Marry Harry' two Five for Fridays in a row, so let's just say I'm finishing up this post to go and read War & Peace. :)  

Happy weekend!

Teacher Tip Thursday!

I'm feeling very sentimental as I write this post.  Tomorrow morning, my blog is getting a makeover!  I am super duper excited about the custom design that you'll be seeing... but for some reason I feel sad that the design that has been with me my whole blogging journey will be gone.  When I started blogging almost 2 years ago I never would have imagined the wonderful way my life would change.  Suddenly I was connected to other teachers all over the world, a whole new universe of classroom ideas and teaching tricks would be opened up to me, I'd begin to take myself as a professional much more seriously - but most of all I would make some lovely friends that I can chat to and feel supported by.  As I was thinking all of this I saw today's post on The Teaching Tribune - Teacher Tip Thursday - and started feeling all sentimental about my teaching journey, too.

In today's linky our job was to provide a 'Teaching Tip' via a quote.  I immediately thought of these words that come to my mind often throughout the day:

I googled Rex Hudler and apparently he was a baseball player who said this quote during a Sports Illustrated interview. :)  Not sure why, but his words (since I read them on Pinterest!) have really stuck with me.  When I'm being cranky with a kidlet who is only little and learning... Be a fountain, not a drain.  When I am asked to take on something extra at school... Be a fountain, not a drain.  When one of my treasures want to tell me a story during a busy time... Be a fountain, not a drain.  And on and on.

Out of all of the literally hundreds of quotes that I have pinned and collected over the years this one has made the most impact. Maybe because it is simple and easy to bring to mind... maybe because it is something that I need to remember often.

Hope that it it sticks with you too. And as I link up today and see my paper doll button amongst the others I will think of the fountain in my life who made it for me (my gorgeous lovebird) and the way that blogging has been a fountain of love, laughter and learning for me, too. :)

Lauren

Five for Friday! Gumballs and rainbows and hats, oh my!

Oh Friday... how I have missed you.  Let's not dilly dally - here's my Five for Friday!

I seem to have accidentally stumbled upon a rainbow themed week!

We made these gorgeous torn paper rainbows....

We made new rainbow rice for the sensory table...

I bought my favourite Enid Blyton books in a set...

and we needed new reading pointers.

This week was all about fun that is funny as we used 'The Cat in the Hat' as our Literacy focus. You can read more about it here.

This week part of our fonics phocus was 'g'.  We made these gorgeous gumball machine crafts.  They were so easy - the stars of the show were some dollar store dot stickers!

New favourite fine motor activity that includes curriculum content?  Uh, this one!  My kidlets were so excited to complete this activity, not sure why but I'm not complaining. :)

I LOVE image quotes.  I mean,  really really love them!  I saw this one on the lovely Mel's FB page and her caption was 'There is room for your dreams too!'.  I got some good news this week (like, AMAZING news!)... turns out that Mel is right and maybe there is some room for a dream I've had for a long time! :)

That's all from me lovely friends.  How was your week? I'd love to hear from you if you have time to leave a comment. :)

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

Five for Friday! With a freebie. :)

I set myself a deadline... no Five for Friday until I had finished my reports AND posted a freebie for you all.  So here I am, sharing my Friday Five at 9:15pm on Saturday night! :)  

1. I've had and itch to SHOP lately!  It seems like every time I go out I end up with something new for my classroom.  This week it was this treasure from Aldi:

Luckily (unluckily?) I've also had the urge to buy some new clothes!  Have you ever bought from Mod Cloth?  It's my new favourite online store... and the boxes are super cute which makes it all the more fun when the postman drops the package off!

2. Speaking of itches... the travel bug has been bothering me lately, too.  I haven't been on a plane in 6 months (I know, I know... poor me!) so I am planning a trip for Chris and I when he gets here in January.  I'd love to go to Spain... but I think somewhere closer to home might be more in our price range since he will be a student.  Maybe New Zealand?  This print has me planning a holiday every time I see it on my bookshelf:

3. We've been all about Christmas in my classroom over the past few weeks!  Our History unit centres around the Christmas theme, but it doesn't help that I am a Christmas nut. :)  We have done some cute crafts and activities, but none better than this freebie from Doodle Bugs:

Grab your freebie here!

4. Speaking of Christmas freebies, I just posted a letter matching pack in my TpT store!

Go grab Letters for Santa if it will be helpful for you. :)

5. I've only got 6 and a half more days left with this year's kidlets.  I say this every year... but I am really going to miss them.  What a privilege to spend every day at work with precious children!

Happiest of weekends to you all!  I'm off to enjoy the sounds of a thunderstorm as I read everyone's Five for Friday posts. :)

Lauren