I am thrilled to be a part of this

Kayla from Texas Teaching Fanatic has a giveaway to celebrate a new blog design and 200 followers. She asked if I wanted a donate a product for the winner. Yes, please.


Little did I know I would be joining these amazing bloggers - Tara from 4th Grade Frolics, Nikki from Melonheadz  and Farley from Oh Boy 4th Grade. Thanks Kayla for asking me. Check out the blogs of these amazing people and enter Kayla's giveaway. 

 

Wednesday WOW - Assessment gathering


I am sharing a mid week WOW. Also linking up with Curious Firsties.

We have just started our school year and many schools here take some time to gather up to date information (data) about our new group of kids. 

So today was Day 1 of whole school testing - one on one with a student and their teacher. Plus we get to meet the parents. 

In our State we have an English Online Interview that is mandated for our Preps (Foundation or first year of school) This gives us information about speaking and listening, retell, writing, rhyming, sound and letter identification. 

Then our P-2's do a Mathematics Online Interview 


This gives us real information about strategies for counting, place value, addition/subtraction and multiplication and division. 

For our 3-6's we have some children who do the previous Maths Assessment and some who do the Fractions and Decimals Online Interview


We also use the Burt Reading assessment and have a text that is level specific to hear each child read.
There are comprehension questions as well.
     
I am a little bit into organisation (maybe too much!) and need to have everything at my finger tips - so I am just loving my new trays - one for each assessment tool. Maths kit to the right, iPad to enter data online and my anecdotal book to record in. Plus files for each student within arms length. 


So in two more days - I will have seen everyone of my new students for 45 minutes and will be able to start at point of need and differentiate from day 1.

It is tiring - but so worth the investment of time as we know all our kids and what they know and where they need to go. 

First Day Back

Today was our first day back for 2014. Summer break is gone!

As a staff we have decided to formalise many rituals and routines.

We had many great discussions and have team planned this week and some of next week. 

These two books form the basis of what we all do.

Even our specialists looked at the move from "Management" to "Principled Habits"

This will be our focus
Trusting Students
Providing Choice
Nurturing Community
Creating a Sense of Urgency
Building Stamina
Staying out of the Way



We have made agreement about what anchor charts we will do this week and each team will assist in making us all accountable.

Our ultimate goal is independent learners who can set goals. 

I can't wait to see the second edition that is out soon.

Learning Intentions

Hey there! This little blog brings alot of enjoyment to/for me. 
I write about what I do, because I love it. I started a facebook link to it a short time ago and am amazed as it hit 413 'likers' today.

This is a huge responsibility and I amazed that other people, like you, also like it enough to keep coming back - so a huge thank you.

Why display the Learning Intention - you can refer back to it at any point in the lesson, the students can see it at anytime. It makes us all accountable. 
An example of a clear Learning Intention is ...

We will write a recount
or
We are using two step problems

Keep them simple and in 'kid speak'

Success Criteria is a break down of skills that you might achieve.
 I will full stops
I will use capitals correctly
I will have a plan
I will re read

This is where differentiation fits, they are recorded and referred to throughout the lesson. 

I have included Maths and Math tags for you to use. 
There are also tags for Reading, Writing, Word Work and Inquiry Learning.

There is a set of definitions as well as instructions on how to use them. 


I have added an extra set of tags with topic specific clip art. 
If you already own it, you can download the updated file straight away at no cost to you. 

This is a great way to have learning visible in your classroom and make your learners accountable for tasks. It is a great way to bring all your grade together at share or reflection time. 

The display of the learning Intention makes your learning sequence clear and everything relates back to that and there is no confusion as to what learning needs to take place. 

The Learning Intentions make goal setting more streamlined and related to relevant assessment. 











Books for starting school

Here are some of my favorite books for the start of school. 

These are for K-2 kids and they love them. The conversations you can have about what is similar and different gives you an insight into how your kids are managing the start of the year. 



This one is my fav of all the favs! I got it today. 

My second one I have probably blogged about before. This one is about a witch and a fairy getting mixed up and going to the wrong school. In the end they love the differences. 


Here are some others you may also like to read.




 Happy reading

Thinking about work...

I have no photos for this post. 

We have about eight more days of holidays left. Tomorrow I have a meeting with the other team coaches and our Principal to refine our first day back. On this day, we do not have kids. It is about preparing for our year ahead, fine tuning planning and getting our mid range goals in order 

People who believe teachers don't work in the holidays - well they just don't get it. Most of us willingly give up our time to be organised, it is actually an investment. There is a saying 'if you don't plan, you plan to fail' not sure who first said it. 

Can you imagine, if we did nothing over summer break! Kids and parents would walk into a space where cleaners had cleaned and furniture would be stacked in a corner. There would be no tasks ready, no classroom climate - well not a positive one. Kids and parents would make assumptions about our lack of organisation, dedication and management. 

I could not not go into school in our break. What sort of time do you spend getting organised? 

Valentine Freebie for you

Here is another freebie for you. It is a Valentine Day themed pack and is about skip counting. 
It is aligned to the USA CCSS and Australian Curriculum.

There are six sets of cards to place in order using skip counting by 2's (odds and evens), 3's, 4's, 5's and 10's.

Skip counting is an important skill - it enables us to count on, count back efficiently by more than one at a tie. It shows us patterns in numbers and gives us confidence to use numbers. 


or 




I just love the graphics and bright colors and I know your students will too.


Enjoy.......

My current project and some old photos



Today is going to be another hot one here in my part of the world. 
It will be 40 Celsius here and that means in Fahrenheit 104! 
So I am sitting here creating with the air-conditioner on and plenty of nice cool drinks.

I am currently working on a 'Workers in our Community Unit' and again playing around with Interactive Notebook pages. 
As a Melonheadz addict (I am proudly number 18) I just love using her graphics and having them in color as well a black and white. 
They just make what I do pop. 
The pack is already 150 pages long and I haven't even added the math part yet!
I am hoping to have it done by tonight and will be asking for two proof readers on my face book page. If you proof read this for me, I will send you the completed project as a gift and my many thanks.

Don't forget to go on over to my facebook fan page to pick up a freebie for Chinese New Year. See yesterdays post. 

I just found these photos below - in the rush at the end of the year - I misplaced them. 
Our Christmas Fair - is made by our kids for our kids. 
It is gorgeously daggy and heaps of fun. 
Our kids bring about $5 and buy gifts for family and friends.  

Here are a few photos.

There is also a rare photo of me - dressed in a Christmas outfit.


Freebie for Chinese New Year

Come over to my TPT store and grab a freebie for the Chinese New Year. 


It is part of a 72 page pack I have put together. 

These packs are all about creating an understanding of a Chinese New Year - the traditions, the symbols and the zodiac. 









This is part of a much larger pack for Chinese New Year



   


Chinese New Year is almost here

The Chinese New Year is an important celebration for many people. 
It marks the beginning of the New Year Zodiac Calendar and this year is the Year of the Horse. 

Tomorrow I will be posting a freebie on my facebook fan page just for Chinese New Year. This will be a small snippet of the pack below. So make sure you come and visit tomorrow and spread the word!

I have prepared a unit of work aimed at Year 2/3/4. Last year - we had some our Foundation (Prep or K kids) managing work like this.

I have been playing around with Interactive Notebook pages and this pack includes four different types as well as some thinking tools. 

I just love the interactive notebook pages and can't wait to use them. I have made up some models  to show you how they might look- see the photos below. 

KWHL – record learning , Our Class Word Wall , A poster for Chinese Zodiac Animals, Interactive Journal pages, Fact sheets, Venn Diagram, Can-are/is-have/has, Graphic Organizers 

These packs are all about creating an understanding of a Chinese New Year - the traditions, the symbols and the zodiac. 








This Chinese New Year pack is huge! There are posters and pages for Interactive Note Pages. Explore the zodiacs and understand what the traditions are that surround the Chinese New Year. 

This pack includes
• An introductory page for each section complete with detailed instructions.
• Options to print for sheep or goat at the end of the pack. The Chinese refer to goats and sheep. In English, it is based on a horned animal. In Vietnam, it is goat. In Japan - sheep; in Korea and Mongolia the sign can be sheep or ram. 

Tasks include - 
• KWHL – what do you know, want to know and what is your new learning?
• Our Class Word Wall – add to this while you are learning about the Chinese New Year.
• Posters for Chinese Zodiac Animals – information on each one. 
• Interactive Journal pages – to discover new information and record what you know.
• Fact sheets on all the zodiac animals.
• Venn Diagram – compare our New Year to a Chinese New Year
• Can-are/is-have/has on traditions that are significant to Chinese New Year.
• Graphic Organizers to help record learning. 







This is great for younger students....




Chinese New Year
146 pages



This Chinese New Year pack supports you to graph the year that your grade were born into according to the Chinese Zodiac. Build a dragon and match the animals on the zodiac to their name and number.



Ram is used in some parts of the world as one of the zodiacs. There are options to print for sheep or goat at the end of the pack as some countries use these instead. 
The Chinese refer to goats and sheep. In English it is based on a horned animal. In Vietnam it is goat. In Japan - sheep; in Korea and Mongolia the sign can be sheep or ram. 



This pack contains -
• Printing options for full color, save your ink and some tasks have black/white versions.
• There are a series of posters to display. These provide information for discussion. 
• Matching task – match the ordinal, name and the picture of the animal from the zodiac.
• Graphing task – use a sample group across your school as your grade will be only two or four animals on the Chinese New Year Zodiac.

• Craft task - Make your own dragon, photos provided to show you what to do. 






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