Five For Friday

It is Five for Friday time my friends!


Here are 5 very random happenings from my week. What a week it has been. I worked a few extra days this week, and although I am now more tired than normal, I have to say, I was feeling very 'at home' being in a classroom for a few more hours. Some of us are just made for it I guess - I am sure you know the feeling.

#1 Scrappy Superheroes

I got time to make some Scrappy Superhero Clipart this week, and I was very happy with how they turned out. If you would like to see the final product, you can find them in my TpT store HERE


#2 Grammar and Punctuation Flippy Flappy Books

I was patting myself on the back for being a bit of a super-mum this week. I found, nestled away in the back of my wardrobe a couple of books that I purchased way back when my daughter was 2, ready for when she needed to learn more about punctuation and grammar. And who am I kidding, they are for me too! LOVE when I find long forgotten treasures, in hidden hidey holes around the house. 

These books explain all sorts of aspects of grammar and punctuation with pull out flaps and are great for visual learners.


# 3 Fat Wombat

Isn't he just gorgeous! I went along with my daughter's class on an excursion (field trip)  to learn more  about Australian animals and reptiles. I could not resist a photo of this fella. 

We also learnt that baby koalas cannot eat leaves, they cannot digest them. So mother koala eats them and baby koala, well she eats mother-koala-poo. There is no nice way to write it. 

Told you, random.


#4 Paper Penguin


We did not see any penguins at the park, but we DID see a platypus. And they are kinda the same. But not really at all. 

The platypusary (yes that is what they called it) was VERY dark, so I could not get a good photo. I tried - but it's just a very dark rectangle with two bright yellow gleaming eyes popping out. I was going to post it, but it just looked evil. And platypuses are EVERYTHING but, so I decided to post a picture of a penguin instead. 

Nothing random about that.


This Penguin with a Pencil is a paper craft that you can find in my "Let's Learn P" resource pack. And its FREE for the moment. Find it by clicking on the image below:


#5 Playing


When I think of platypuses and penguins, I also thing of princesses and playing. Why? Because that is just the way a K-1 teacher's mind works. It also works by reducing my working vocabulary to mostly cvc words, but I will save that up for another fun post ;)  

I did some cleaning out and sorting of my little princess's wardrobe this week. It hit me very hard - how much and how fast, she is growing up. In a blink of an eye and a bit of a growth spurt she has grown out of so many of her clothes, yet I still see her as my baby girl. 

I gave her extra hugs this week so that she knows how much I love her and I also played with my little man (2 yrs old) a LOT.  

I want to treasure as many moments with him, as I can, before he grows up oh-so-fast as well. 



I hope you had a week as crazy and random as mine.
Thanks so much for stopping by!

10 Things to do with a Big Book


I love Big Books. I know what you are thinking, 'you love everything Mel'. But I am quite seriously serious when I tell you I love Big Books. 

If you are not sure what I am referring to - I will explain it.

They are books. And they are big. 

Yep, that is it. See, now you know why I like them. There is beauty in simplicity. 

I like them because they are wonderful for helping students learn the strategies for reading. I like to use them for both 'shared' and 'modelled' reading experiences. When I do shared reading, I like the students to just sit back and find themselves immersed in the 'story'. Upon second reading, we often share the reading roles, and they assist in reading various parts of the text. When I do 'modelled' reading, I explicitly demonstrate various strategies used in reading. 

But what else can you do? You have invested a HUGE amount of energy in creating the reading routine, getting your students engaged and settled - transformed them to a land of imagination with your brilliant story telling. You might as well pack a little more educational punch into your session while you have the book out. 

Here are ten ideas for you to incorporate into your Big Book learning session. I am currently working on a printable pack to work alongside your big books, but these ideas require minimal, if not NO extra prep, print-outs, effort or resources. 

Just you, your kids, the book...

- and as you will know, quite often that equals the BEST learning! 


1. Before reading, ask students to predict what the story will be about. Ask them to go back to their desks and draw some pictures to show what they think will happen!

2. Play listening games – e.g. say to your students ‘roar like a tiger whenever I say the word tiger’. This will encourage your reluctant students to pay attention to the text.

3. Have groups of children chorus read, upon a re-reading of the text. You can alternate pages between groups of students. This will encourage them to attend to print and follow along.

4. Before reading, place random post-it notes through the story, over the text. When you get up to each note, in your reading, have students predict the word.

5. Tell the students that nouns are naming words and we can take a photo of most of them. While reading the text, get them to pretend they are taking a photo whenever you say a word that is a noun.

6. Before reading, identify 2 or 3 focus sight words (high frequency words). Whenever these words are read, students clap their hands.

7. Listen for mistakes – bring a puppet of some sort to school. Tell your students that he/she/it is learning to read, and will need some help. Tell your students to quietly put their hands on their head, whenever they hear the puppet making a mistake in their reading. You may ask students to explain the mistake too and describe how they knew the mistake had been made. This will encourage students to think about strategies for reading and give you the opportunity to explicitly identify them.

8. After reading, leave the big book and a pointer in your reading corner and let the children read and ‘be the teacher’ during independent free reading times.

9. Make a copy of one of the pages of text from the big book. Provide your students with highlighters to find all the occurrences of an aspect of print. Ask them to highlight all the spaces between words, all the capital letters, or all of the full stops, for example.

10. Create a character web. On chart paper, write the name of a character from your book. Encourage your students to tell you everything they know about the character from the text AND pictures. Ask students if this character reminds them of anyone they know. Encourage the link between what they read and their life experience. 


Is that all, you say? No that is not all, I will be back with 10 more ideas very soon!

Have a great day friends, and thanks for stopping by!

Ladybug Art


For the Tuesday Art Linky today, I am sharing with you a very easy Ladybug paper-arranging artwork. This idea would also look very effective with torn paper.



We started with a square of blue paper and 2 green squares that were equal in size to the blue. We also had 2 red paper circles, glue, goggly eyes and a black crayon.

We cut the green square into strips - in random, rough strips. Then we cut the circles in half. This gives  you an ideal opportunity to practice folding a circle in half. 

We then attached the green strips to the blue square paper by gluing them down in a random arrangement. Then the red half-circles were placed on top of the green strips. 

We used googly eyes, but you could also use white sticker circles. Let your students draw the detail of the ladybugs in their own creative style!

Please add a link in the comments below if you have ANY post about K-6 art or craft ideas!


Follow my art ideas board over on Pinterest for more inspiration!

End of School Year Memory Book

End of Year School Activities Printable

The end of the school year is such a wonderful and special time. It can also be busy and frantic. Many of our readers in the northern hemisphere are finishing up school for the year before a well deserved summer break. 


We have a printable commemorative book for students to make that will make a wonderful end of year activity and something to treasure for years to come! This memory book includes simple-to-complete pages. Your little learners will finish the picture on each page by adding some additional details like faces and hair and then writing a few words or a short sentence.

Perfect for independent completion by little learners!

End of Year School Activities Printable

The book includes a cover and 16 activity pages - do one each day in the lead up to your final day. Best results will occur when you carefully model the expectations for each page with your learners and provide some sample ideas on a chart or on the board. 

  1. About Me Page – students draw a picture and record some simple facts about themselves
  2. My Good Friend – students complete a picture of a good friend and write a sentence about what makes them a good friend
  3. My Teacher – students complete a picture of their teacher and write a short sentence about their teacher
  4. The Best Day – students add details to complete a picture about their best day at school, and write a short sentence to describe it
  5. Award Page – Students give themselves a class award. They name the award and record something they work hard at through the year
  6. My Favorite Book – students draw the cover of their favorite book and record the title and author if their favorite book
  7. My Best Work – students draw a picture to recall the best piece of work they completed through the year, and write a short sentence to tell about it
  8. My Favorite Lunch – students draw a picture of their favorite school lunch and write a sentence to describe it. Teachers could also ask students to label their picture with words and arrows
  9. My Favorite Field Trip – students finish a picture of themselves and write about their favorite field trip. Students can draw in, the background, aspects and features of their field trip location
  10. My Birthday – students record on the birthday cake, the candles to show how old they turned and write about something special they did to celebrate their day!
  11. A Happy Year - students recount a time they were happy through the year
  12. Thank you - students write about someone to thank and why
  13. Next year - students draw something they think they will do next year
  14. Advice - students give advice to the following grade cohort
  15. My Friends - students draw a gallery of 4 friends in the photo style frames
  16. 3 Best Memories - students write a short recount of their 3 best memories
End of Year School Activities Printable

End of Year School Activities Printable

End of Year School Activities Printable

End of Year School Activities Printable

End of Year School Activities Printable

UK and Australian spelling alternative pages are included.

This was originally published in 2006 as 'End of Year Busy Book' and is now revised and available here in our TpT store. It is perfect for keeping your little ones busy while you get those important assessment and recording tasks completed for the end of the school year.


End of Year School Activities Printable

If you are not in the end-of-school season, start early and get this booklet completed steadily through the year as a progressive keepsake for your lovelies!

Funny Ice Cream Directed Drawing

Today, I want to share with you a simple directed drawing. I have been doing directed drawings with my students for a few years now, and have been amazed at how it has helped develop students confidence and creativity. Many students will take the techniques and ideas they learn in directed drawing and apply them to other areas and lessons.

How to use directed drawing in your classroom

Be flexible overall with your approach to directed drawing. A lot will depend on your learners. I have had classes of very confident, creative drawers and also classes filled with students who just need help with ideas and simple steps to spark their imagination.

If you are just starting out, try a more structured approach to begin, giving them very specific steps and encouraging them to draw as you are (following our templates) and then over time, loosen up the steps and let them be guided by their own imagination.

Use our printable directed drawing pages:

  • for an imagination starter -  take our idea, change it for your class
  • model the steps with our page as your guide, the blackboard, whiteboard or Smartboard
  • give them the students a printed copy of our worksheet and have them follow along for themselves

Directed drawings are a fun way for students to draw new and unfamiliar themes and topics. They are also helpful for learning new techniques for shape and line making.

You can make the activity a simple one with pencil and paper, or add as many different arty add-ons as you like. Think of creative papers, paints, oil pastel, glue, collage items etc! Have fun with it!

Summer Art Project - Funny Ice Cream

Today I wanted to show you some art projects that were developed from the free steps outlined in our printable packet over at TpT. If you have a TpT account you can download it directly - it's free. If not, consider signing up, it's free to join and you just need to use your email to sign up.


Ice Cream Art Project for Kids - 1

For this little guy, I:
  • drew the steps exactly
  • painted with watercolor
  • outlined with black marker
  • added soft cotton wool ball clouds
  • added green grass detail - crayon and a downward line stroke

Ice Cream Art Project for Kids - 2

For this cutie, I:


  • drew the steps but changed the face
  • painted with watercolor
  • outlined with black marker
  • drew sand and clouds in the sky 

Ice Cream Stack Art Project for Kids - 3

For this I:


  • drew the steps but added more scoops
  • painted with watercolor
  • outlined with black marker
  • drew sand and clouds in the sky
 Encourage your little learners to draw several ice cream funnies on scrap paper or a whiteboard, experimenting with different features, faces and backgrounds. When they have drawn a few they may like to choose their favorite to develop into their artwork.
 You can download this directed drawing from our TpT store - Funny Ice Cream Directed Drawing.

I love finding beautiful art project ideas - follow me over on Pinterest to see them all!

2D Shape Puppets



Today I want to share with you a simple but fun idea for learning 2D shapes and their properties. It also encourages students to talk and build up their mathematical language. 

Have your students cut some basic shapes from thin card. They can trace some templates, or wooden attribute shapes if you like. Alternatively, you could have them pre cut and ready to go. 



You will need to assist your students with the cutting of finger holes at the bottom of their shape. You could let your students use a craft punch that has a large circle shape to easily punch out the holes. I don't have one yet, its on my wish list. The list I am still searching for (its incredibly long you see, and well hidden). 


Your students can use coloured paper to add fun features to the puppets and also googly eyes. 



Once all you students have a puppet - the mathematical discussion can begin. This lesson would be best carried out when you have already reviewed all the features of 2D shapes with your students. Perhaps you could have some posters displayed around the classroom to remind students of the features of each shape. 


Model for the students some ideas before they have a turn of their own. Your students can work with a partner to create some 'shape talk'.

Here is a rough transcription of the shape talk my daughter and I had in preparation for this blog post:

Me: "Hi, I am Mr Triangle"

A: "Hi Mr Triangle, I am Mr Rectangle"

Me: "I like your green hat."

A: "I like your orange hat. Your eyes look funny too".

Me: "I have 3 sides and they are all straight"

A: "I have 4 sides and they are straight too".

Me: "I have a friend with 4 sides, he is a square"

A: I am like a square, but stretched out. I have 2 long sides.

Me: "I have 3 corners"

A: "They are called vertices"

Me: (picking myself up off the floor, cause I didn't know she knew that yet) "Wow, that is clever, how many do  you have?"

A: "He he he, your eye just fell off".



Oh!.... the learning that can take place when students are allowed to talk and interact. Get them away from that smart board for a few minutes and get them talking, looking, and conversing with a real person! Ignore the noise and chatter for a while and focus on the good quality language (hopefully) being created!

Ideally, it would be good to pair up students with less knowledge, with a more confident students that can encourage some good questions and focus attention of important features. After a few minutes with one partner, ask your students to move on to a new partner. You will see your less-able students really grow in confidence as they use some of the ideas that they developed from working with their first partner. 

Find more ideas for teaching 2D shapes, on my blog HERE
SaveSave

Build a Number Wall - Activity for Emergent Number


Hi friends! 

I wanted to share with you a fun little idea for your students that are still working at the emergent number stage. They are students that still need to touch items to count and find the total. 

Working with visual representations of numbers will help them move up to the next level. Helping them moved from concrete to abstract will also assist. I like to do little activities like this one, AFTER a hands-on activity using equipment like counters, tokens and blocks. 

For this one, you can use up sheets of old stickers, use ink stamps, dot markers or just drawing pictures. Students work to fill up the number wall with corresponding groups of pictures in each row. 

You can download it from google drive below:


If your little ones need more work on understanding numbers, you may like my 'Number Books'. They are bundled up to include all numbers 1 to 10. Each book contains 5 days of sequenced activities that cover many areas ofnumber and numeral identification. 


You can try these books, by downloading Number Three for free. Find it at TpT by clicking on the image below:





Thank you for stopping by, I hope your week is going well!

Paper Circle Dinosaur

Shape Craft Dinosaur

Circle Shape Crafts

We love making paper crafts from 2D shapes. Do you have a stack of paper circles in your craft cupboard just itching to be used? We have 27 different ideas for you!

You can find one for each letter of the alphabet in our pack over at TPT and we are giving you one for free today too!
Shape crafts are perfect for combining 2D shapes in geometry and art. Our circle crafts also enhance fine motor skills by encouraging paper folding. With your learners you can talk about fractions and parts of a shape too!

Dino Shape Craft

Dinosaur Circle Shape Craft

Let't make a dinosaur with 2 paper circles!

By the way, once you have done a few projects like this with your class, you will be amazed how creative they will become in making their own designs! 

What you need:

How to make your shape dinosaur:

If using one of the template pages, color all the pieces with pencil or crayon.
  1. Cut all the pieces.
  2. Place pieces down on a background paper and move pieces into arrangement.
  3. Glue pieces down to create dinosaur.
  4. Talk with your students about how the circle was divided to create the picture. Encourage mathematical and positional language
Simply teach your students how to fold a paper circle into halves. Then teach them half again, and half again. Alternatively you could introduce older students to the terms quarters, eighths and sixteenths. Ask older students to record the fractions on each piece of the artwork.

A fun idea is to get a bundle of shapes cut out and then let students explore different designs of their own.

Free printable paper circle dinosaur shape craft
Hop over to our TPT store to find this free craft today!

Dinosaur Shape Craft

Caterpillar Number Game Freebie

This number game is simple to prepare, and can be easily differentiated to cater for a range of learners in your classroom. Just print and copy the caterpillar page and gather some dice and matchsticks.

You can adapt this game to focus on a range of different number skills.





The main focus/skill I have in mind, is for students to build sets of ten.

They can play with a partner and work together. They roll a die and add legs on the caterpillar (two on each body section) until they have a collection of ten caterpillars - 100 legs in total.

As students progress through the game, stop them and ask them for a running total. They will need to count by tens and then add the additional ones to find their total. Ask them how many more they need to make the current set of ten they are working on.


Differentiate this activity by changing the method for finding the matchstick number.

Ask students to use a dotted die - or a numeral die....


Students just learning to count-on, can use a numeral AND a dot die. They add the total of the dice.

Advanced learners could throw a double-dice and a single die. They find the total of the double-dice and then subtract the single number from this total.


I hope your students have fun with this number game. You can download the game boards by clicking on the images below!




Have a great beginning to the week - thank you so much for stopping by!

Five for Friday Fun

Five for Friday time! 


1. Pink Roses

My little man just walked through the door, this very minute. Well, maybe ten minutes ago, with a bunch of my favourites. Pink roses! An early Mother's Day surprise. 

Excuse my face. I have had a head cold for 3 days now. Feeling very tired and well, just yuk! But with this little man by my side, how could I not be happy! Don't think he is too fond of selfies.


2. Thermo

I am still excited about my Thermomix - but moving on from raw salads and green things to homemade chocolate dairy deserts and other yummy stuff. Stuff that is still very good to eat, because it's made from scratch. With real ingredients. From farms, like eggs and milk and stuff. So it's OK. I am being thermo-healthy. 


3. Scrappy drawings. 

With my head cold this week, I have been drained of energy. Sometimes even too drained to do housework. Imagine that. But I did get a bit of time to draw. Scrappy style. Now, just to find time to get them all prettied up.


4. Friends

Hubby earned HUGE points today for coming home from the shops with this. For me. It has been on my wish list forever. I am not sure where my wish list actually is, but one day I will find it and maybe draw some scrappy stuff all over that too. 

But for now, I will be on the lounge. With Kleenex. Chocolate thermomixed-yogo, and ten seasons of Friends. Heaven.



5. Speaking of Friends

Thanks for being here blog friends - I appreciate you so much!