Mother's Day Art!

This year my kidlets completed some super cute art work as Mother's Day gifts for their mums.  I was inspired by this pin and ran with the theme "I love you bunches!" for the card we made to go with their picture.

 

They were so simple to make! We took kidlets two at a time to complete the painting - they were given the instructions, chose their own paint colours and then painted their flowers.  When they were dry they glued on the hand that I had traced and cut for them.  You could easily have the kidlets cut their own hands out, but I didn't leave enough time for that. :) They were able to choose where they wanted to glue the 'Happy Mother's Day' label.  We laminated them before they went home so they can hopefully be kept forever!  I love they way they turned out. :)

Photo Catch Up! (Five for Friday)

It's seems like it's been such a long time since I stopped by to share photos of what we've been up to in our classroom! This week I did a much better job of snapping pics, so this post will be a hodgepodge catch up of all the fun we've had in the past week or so.  I'm linking up with Five for Friday, too! :)

Term 2 means getting serious about handwriting. We've been focusing on the correct formation of letters - but that doesn't mean that we're stuck at our desks with pencils and paper!

Chalk on the concrete in the sunshine was a very happy way to spend one of our lessons...

...and shaving cream handwriting is always a favourite.  

We got up and moving with beach ball sight words - kidlets simply throw the ball to each other and then read a word on the panel they can see when they catch it.  I just have 4 beach balls with each term's words written on in marker and choose the set of words most needed for each group.

The sight word stars I made for our library have been a hit.  Kidlets choose a star and use it to search for that word as they are reading.

Phonics review this week was hide & seek sorting!  I hid picture cards around the room for kidlets to find.  We met back at the carpet and took turns to sort our cards into the appropriate beginning sound hoop.

I saw this pin a few weeks ago and adapted the idea a little to use with this igloo tent I've got.  When our phonics focus was /i/ we played "What's inside the igloo?".

I collected a box of things from around the room and gave this rhyme as a clue:

"What's inside the igloo? What could be in it for me? It starts with ___ and rhymes with ___. Oh what do you think it could be?"

This game was a HUGE hit! We played it all week and kidlets were always excited to make a guess and check inside the igloo to see if they were correct.

The igloo also became a coveted 'book nook' during reading time. :)

Number line work has been all about caterpillars! We played Counting Caterpillars on the interactive whiteboard and used Mel's Caterpillar Number cut & paste worksheets to order numbers.  Both the game and worksheets can be easily differentiated - perfect for group work!

Our science work has been all about 'The Seasons' and for the past few weeks we've been thinking about Summer! (I know, I know... the igloo doesn't fit with that. Have I ever told you I'm not good with themes?)

We used this poem as our shared reading text - you can see the marker and stickers that we used on various days to highlight capital letters and the /s/ and /m/ sounds.  This was also added to our poetry journals.

Stef's For All Seasons Bunting came in handy for this topic, too.  We've done the Summer flag so far and they turned out beautifully.

This was mine! :)

I love these colourful paper plate suns - they were so easy to make.  We sponge painted the plates with yellow and orange paint, and then glued paper strips in a loop to the outside when they were dry.

During outside time we turned the sandpit into a beach with an umbrella and beach chairs.  We also had the buckets and spades for sandcastle making, the fishing boat and music playing.

The playdough ice-cream cafe was open again this year.  We had four flavours, cones, cups and sprinkles! Kidlets took turns to be customers, waiters, ice-cream makers or register operators.  So much fun!!

That's all from me tonight, friends.  Jerry Maguire is on TV so I'm all set for a night of pinning and veging out.  Be sure to stop by Doodle Bugs to read the other Five for Friday posts!

Currently May!

A new month means that it's time to link up for Farley's Currently!

It's Saturday night here and I am on the couch after a busy day.  It's so nice to be able to get cozy with  a blanket and a cup of tea now that the weather is finally cooling off! I've been on the search for a throw rug to snuggle under - I've got my heart set on a really expensive one that I'm waiting to go on sale.  Until then I'll keep the search for the perfect (cheaper) one going.  Recently I've been looking into buying a house (well... a beachside apartment really) so anytime I buy something it's got to be a necessity - I know when I buy my own place I'll want to redecorate! :)

Here in Australia we don't have vacation time for another 2 months, and then it will be the middle of winter.  I'll pretend it's almost summer break so I can play along with the final Currently question! Luckily for me I live close enough to the beach that I can walk down any time I want, so when school's out that's what I do often.  I'm hoping that this year I'll get to visit my friend who is living in New York, not sure whether that will be in September or closer to Christmas.  My dream is to go back to Europe - I'd love to see Italy and Austria again, and have always wanted to go to Spain and Greece.  

Next time I post it's gotta be classroom photos - I feel like I'm doing a terrible job of remembering to snap them during the week.  

Better get back to the channel surfing... Have a happy weekend whatever you're up to! Don't forget to check out the linky for more Currently posts.