Getting ready for Parent Night!

Aaaah!!! I feel like I've been on a hamster wheel all week trying to get ready for tomorrow night. Today I finally got my kiddies to finish up most of their work - they got their creative writing typed, did Wordles to go with it :), finished their art, did their timelines and some Math and most of them have finished the first few bits of topic work so we can glue it into their books tomorrow and the parents will have something to look at!

I  am feeling exceptionally FRAZZLED! It's critical that my classroom looks halfway decent since parents from the entire year group gather in it for our teacher presentation. Which means that 100 parents will see my room instead of just 34! It's still a little messy but tomorrow afternoon we will do a last minute clean up - and read a story for the last lesson of the day so no-one can mess it up again!

Here are some of our displays.

 This was our Amazing Dream House creative writing - focusing on use of adjectives and vivid verbs. Once the rough draft was done (and edited) the kids made an art collage to go with their writing and then typed up a neat copy in computers. We Wordled their writing so that they could see which words they used most often. I'm going to use Wordle to edit their writing in a future exercise - they can use it to choose different words for ones that have been used too frequently. :)

There are no names on any of these - it's the parents'
job to guess which writing is their daughter's. :)

A Wordle - not too bad. Only a couple of words were
used excessively.

A Who am I writing activity to help us get
to know each other.

This was our Math lesson today - addition pairs. We matched puzzle pieces for the simple pairs to 10 and then we assembled them all on a bulletin board with other facts. It's kind of pretty!

Putting the puzzle together

Putting all the pairs in order

The final display. The girls decided to stair-step
the puzzle number sentences to save space.

This week we did an open-ended Math project - Back to School shopping - which is now displayed out in the corridor. My girls worked in groups to purchase their supplies with a budget of $50, then explained why they bought those particular supplies and put all their information and decorations on posters.

This group worked really quickly!

Our corridor display. They're pretty good for a first-time
critical thinking project!

So, the classroom doesn't look too bad! Hopefully our presentation will go smoothly. The good thing is we do a group presentation and it's definitely a lot nicer to have company at the front of the room. :)

Hope everyone has a good "rest of the week!"

Monday Positives

This seems to be about the only blog post I can manage at the moment. It's been a busy week - capped, last night, by losing my dog yet again in a thunder storm! This time, however, she didn't come back so I was up half the night worrying, called the dog warden and finally this morning got a call to say he had her safe in jail!
I picked her up at 6:00, happy as a clam and acting like she was in holiday camp instead of in detention! I'm going to have to check the weather forecast every day to decide whether she can be allowed out during the day or not! Oh well, at least she's home safe and sound now. :)

So... my Monday positives:

1. I survived the first week of school and the new 6-day cycle without making too many blunders! We did forget to go to Music on time one day but I remembered both duties and was on time at the pick-up ramp every day. Pretty good!!

2. I didn't stress over an hour long observation this morning that started at 8:45. Actually it was a student observation but normally that has no impact - I still stress. Today, possibly due to sleep deprivation, I was completely unfazed. Which is good because my lesson was bizarre to say the least. :) We had some great Math discussions though. It may have been all over the place but it was a great discussion!

3. Everyone finished their art - hallelujah! So I have something to put on the boards for Parent Night this week! Everyone also finished their rough draft for creative writing and real progress has been made with topic work so there's a good chance I'll have stuff in their topic books for the parents to look at. This is totally awesome.

These are almost-completed Dream Houses. They got
glittered just after this was taken and are now finished

 4. I did an open-ended Math project with the kiddies in the FIRST WEEK OF SCHOOL and it was fantastic! They LOVED it! 

Back to School Shopping - always fun :)

5. And finally, I remembered to take photos in just about every lesson so I have lots of great visual aids for the powerpoint on Parent Night. This way all the moms and dads will spend the entire presentation watching for their kiddies' faces instead of staring at mine. :)

Now, for more positives head over to Permanently Primary to see some other blog posts. And link up yourselves - it's always good to focus on the positives! :)

P.S. Just one more positive - completely un-school related: Look at the sunset I saw on the way home tonight. Truly, truly beautiful!!

Happy Tuesday tomorrow. :)

Day 2 :)

And so ends day 2!

I am absolutely exhausted!! Every year I forget how young the kiddies are when they move up from Grade 2 - it always takes a while to adjust to the fact that they really don't know the routines, my expectations, what to do when they're finished...

Granted, we go over it all on the first day but the reality is (as you all know) that it takes quite a while for routines to become established. :)

So... on Day 1 I lost 4 children on the way to assembly! This despite the fact that I stopped the line twice en route, re-lined everyone up, counted heads and set off. It's not exactly a 5 mile hike from our classroom to the assembly hall but we were the only class that arrived 4 short - sigh. I had to go look for my missing ones - who I've now nicknamed "the tortoises". :) Naturally they think this is hysterically funny and told me that they were all very slow last year as well and they guess they haven't grown out of it yet! :)

What's this? Keep reading :)

Today we bravely ventured into centers! It was pretty good actually - they adapted surprisingly quickly considering this is a foreign animal in Grade 2 - and most of them finished the set activities within the time frame. I now know who my chatterboxes are!!

We had a very enjoyable time discussing our Dream House writing activity - things livened up considerably when I told them that I would be making the art project for the class cooperative brainstorm. (I now have to - somehow - create a Book House, made of pink books and a garden of book trees and rainbow-colored book worms, that is housed in a gigantic library! I'll post a picture of my feeble attempts at collage when it's finished.)

I love doing art with my kiddies - that way they can see that it's ok not to be good at something! :)

And finally - our new anchor activities are a great hit. Today I had children working on making thaumatropes (nice new word for them to tell their parents :) ) Roman research and inference comprehension cards. So far they're staying away from the Math - and judging by our unit pre-assessments I have a class of writers this year, not mathematicians. That will have to change!!

Here's some photos of my scientists in action - so far the fish in the thaumatropes have all been dead! (This is because no-one has yet followed the directions properly and put the two sides together correctly. :) It's all learning though, isn't it? )

Getting help from a friend - it's hard to do this
one-handed

Starting to write up the experiment

   

Spinning the thaumatropes -
do they work?

 

They worked quite well :) and the girls were thrilled with them. Some of them still have to do the activity but I'm really pleased with the introduction of my new anchor activities. It's certainly going to make school fun!

Researching the Romans - I love seeing independent
work like this!

Tomorrow will be our first art day and we are going to be CREATIVE and MESSY and thoroughly enjoy ourselves. :)

Hope everyone has a great Wednesday.

Positive Points

This could well be my most favorite linky ever! Finding positives - it's such a great thing to do...

(N.B. I haven't seen Sarah's new post at Permanently Primary about this but I'm going ahead with mine anyway because I like the idea so much. I'll link up later when I see it :) )

Last week I was in school doing PD stuff and finishing the set up of my classroom.

Today is the first day for the kiddies :)

I can't actually talk about the positives of today because (from my perspective of writing this post early) they haven't happened yet. But I am being positive thinking that it WILL be a positive and great first day!!

Last week's positives:

• I finished my Anchor Activity trays - they're all filled up and ready to go. I really hope the kids buy into this independent type of learning!

I even did an example of our first science experiment anchor activity and took photos of every step for my more visual learners :)

• I'm definitely getting my new student so I'll have two new little people to get to know this year. Always fun! I like having new kiddies :)

• I volunteered for the first "rainy day" duty (since we have to eat inside next week due to our extremely hot eating area not having a shade structure at the moment) so I will have one down and one to go. I'm awfully tempted to do the second one as well and then I'll be off the hook for the whole term!! How awesome would that be?!!

• I have (practically) the WHOLE WEEK PLANNED... AND... PHOTOCOPIED!! This is unheard of. Totally amazing. Completely awesome. 

• I spent nearly all of Sunday night skype chatting with a wonderful teacher friend miles and miles away, in a different time zone and came away feeling revived and re-inspired!! Teacher friends are the best - and one day I hope we'll actually be able to visit - and talk - in person. :)

Looking forward to the start of a new, great year at school - with tons of possibilities, creative moments,  exciting learning and FUN!

Urk - too much to do...

It's taking me a very long time to get organized this year. Every time I think I have things under control another box of stock arrives or a pile of paper magically appears on my desk or a few gallons of paint somehow sneak in while I'm not looking... and I'm running out of space!!!

Not to mention the fact that I haven't finished my planning, am still trying to finish my first month of anchor activities (which I totally LOVE!) and still don't know if I'll have an extra child or not...

I know it will all be okay on the day so deep breaths.

Actually, it should be "Breathe deep, seek peace." Who are the Dinotopia fans out there? :) Remember these pictures?

Such a fabulous book!! I shall go and re-read it right now....

And will get back to this blog when things are more under control :)

Positive Points linky

Permanently Primary is hosting a new linky on Mondays and I love her idea! It's called Positive Points!

It's so easy for us, as teachers, to become bogged down in all the stress of getting through a curriculum, dealing with challenging students, worrying about reports and conferences and assessments - not to mention the extra stuff that might become part of your job temporarily such as accreditation and new timetables! The staffroom often becomes a place of bitter moaning and complaining and some of us take it all home with us as well.

This is not a good thing - and I'm SO glad that Sarah's had this idea for this linky because I really do want to focus on the positive this year! And thankfully - there are LOTS and LOTS of positives about teaching. :)

So... my positive points on this Labor Day holiday...

Well, despite the fact that I'm not even in school today and my kiddies don't come in until next Monday I'm already in a very positive frame of mind. :)

#1: My classroom is looking pretty good. I've gone for the minimalist look this year and I love my blues and lilacs and whites. It's very soothing.

#2: I have a small class which means I'll be able to do a LOT of one-on-one and small group work. I'm really looking forward to lots of center time, lots of differentiation and lots of fun, creative learning.

#3: This is my 5th year in grade 3 (Year 4) and so far every year I've had different team teachers. The positive? I've loved working with all of them and this year is no different. Yes, there will be some adjusting as one of our grade 2 teachers moves up for a year but we have a great relationship and she's young and dynamic and I'm looking forward to working with her - and of course, my old buddy from last year too. :)

#4: We're halfway through the whole school accreditation process and at least we're all a little more familiar with the process. Hopefully it won't cause as much stress as it did last year :) Thinking positively here!! :)

#5: I'm sharing my duty times with two of my best buddy teachers!! Why is this a positive? Because... when one of us forgets (which is practically guaranteed with our new 6-day cycle :) ) I KNOW that none of us are going to get upset!! In fact, we've already discussed the possibility of sharing the duties so we can catch up with each other while we're watching the kiddies. Now that's a real positive - coffee with a friend on recess/lunch duty. What could be better than that? :)

Wow! This is very therapeutic!! I'm going to make this my mandate for the year - find at least one positive thing about each day and then share all the wonders the following Monday. :)

I am READY FOR SCHOOL!! Woot, woot! Thank you, Sarah!!

So, if you're ready to list your own Positive Points head on over to Permanently Primary and link up. :)

Link up HERE

Getting Ready...

And let me tell you it has taken a LONG time to get ready!! Which is why this poor little blog has been so neglected lately...

I got home last week after an absolutely fabulous 7 weeks in Scotland with my parents - I was very sad to leave :( - and headed straight into school the following day.

It always astonishes me that it takes so long to set up again after the holidays. No matter how much clearing out I've done previously, no matter how carefully I've packed everything away, no matter how organized I think I am... I can guarantee it will take at least 3 full days to set up the classroom the way I (sort of) want it to be.

So here are some photos of my hard work this last week. I don't do themes in my classroom because the  "theme" will be whatever our topic is for the term. This term we'll be looking at Invaders and Settlers - the Ancient Romans and Celts in Britain - so the classroom will reflect that but I did decide to do all the bulletin boards in blue and keep the classroom as minimalist as possible.

I have to say I love it so far. It feels really spacious and light and I love my white lanterns. :)

So far I have 16 ( possibly 17) students which means
lots of space for desks :)

There was a thunder shower passing through as I
took these photos so the light is a little dubious.

I'm trying the round table in a different location this
year. We'll see how it goes...

I wish I could have got a blue carpet but no luck so
I'll have to manage with this again :)

Lots of Roman books!! It's
a lot harder to find books
about the Celts that are age
appropriate!!

You can see my desk!! Still looking
somewhat clean and empty. Long
 may it last!!

I hope we'll live up to
these ideals :)

I'm now in the throes of planning. We're moving to a 6-day cycle this year and it means revamping all my planning sheets, timetables etc. I'm a little worried that I won't remember what day it is and will be sending my class to all the wrong lessons at the wrong times!! People say you get used to it very quickly - I hope they're right!! Even our duties are tied to the new cycle so instead of having duty on Wednesday and Friday, say, I now have to remember to do them on days 4 and 6 (which will be a different day of the week every week! Oh, help!!)

It'll definitely be different this year :) I'll have to read my own bulletin board and remember that I can "challenge myself", "am efficient", "am responsible" and that, above all, I am a learner. (I hope I'm a quick learner!! :) )

On Tuesday we head in for our PD week and on Monday the 9th the fun begins! I really am looking forward to it now :)

Happy Labor Day to all those who will be on holiday on Monday :)