Peek at my week - week beginning 16 February

I love reading what other teachers are doing in their classrooms, and I love sharing what I'm doing. Here is a peek at my week!

Here is a recap of week four of term 1:

When my students come in each morning they unpack their satchels. Their satchels are blue, velcro-closure pockets that they carry notes, take home books and their diary in. They also transport money in them. Each morning they put their money pouch in the white box, their diary in the green box and their satchel in the blue bucket - we only started this routine last week and it is taking some time!!

We made these in maths. I love combining fine motor skills with other subject areas and number formation is an area we focus on. You can get the mosaic squares from Zart Art.

These were our four Reading Groups last week. We had guided reading with me, puzzles, playdough and beading. My students are still learning how to work in groups, and fine motor tasks are really useful for practicing group work. All students understand the tasks and can do them independently while I work with my small group. This week our phonological awareness focus was rhyme.

This is the board behind where I sit for Guided Reading. I write up our focus, and go through the black words (which are high frequency words from the book we are reading) before we read.

We started Maths Groups last week too. I will be doing an hour per week of Maths Groups, where the students will work in groups of 3-4 students and will complete 5 different activities. All activities will be focussed on number/place value. It is a great opportunity to do some quick assessment and see how different students are coping with the content.

Peek at my week - Term 4 Week 2

Already this term is flying by. We're about to begin week 2 of the last term of the school year. I will be saying goodbye to my little preppies in no time...

A quick recap of last week. I had on last week's plan that I was going to do fine motor skills groups. They went so well!! I had to share our activities.

Here we are using the awesome Fine Motor Mats by Tara West. We used the glass beads this time and next time we'll use tweezers as well. Most of my students were fascinated by how many 'jewels' they were using so they were also counting as they did this activity.

The preps had to write or draw with chalk, then they magically made the chalk disappear by tracing over it with water on a paint brush! They thought it was very cool, and it was a novelty to use chalkboards.

Ol' faithful - playdough!

They had to make the tallest tower they could. Steady hands were necessary!

Using tweezers to pick up magnetic letters or letter tiles (one at a time!!) from the rice sensory tub.


Now, here is a Peek at My Week (linked up with Mrs Wills Kindergarten) for next week.

We have a Stress Down Day every year. During the morning the grades will rotate around activities (20 minutes at each activity). Activities will include cyber safety, stories, games/puzzles and craft activities. After recess we invite the parents to come and participate in a Trivia Scavenger Hunt. Each group is given a list of things they have to find out, there is a winner drawn for the most correct answers. After lunch, which will be healthy salad rolls that the students will make for themselves, we have an incursion for a performance called Cyber Busters, all about cyber safety. To top it off, it is Pajama Day, too! Comfy comfy comfy!

Roll Write Read & Bright Classroom Rules

I'm on spring holidays at the moment and I have just found motivation to make some TpT products again! Yay! I put two new ones up yesterday.

The first is a set of classroom rules. A few weeks ago I uploaded some of chalkboard-style background, but they didn't look right in my classroom this year. I re-worked them, changed the border and background colour and made the Bright Classroom Rules.

There are five rules in this pack:

I love these rules because they are short and concise. When I first introduced them I read them to my class and they said them back to me. We also talked about what each rule meant. I have them displayed in my classroom and they look really cute - so clean and simple!

The other product I uploaded is a Roll Write Read pack. It has 13 different activity pages. The idea is that students will roll a six-sided dice, then trace over the next work/letter in the list underneath the number they rolled. It combines reading, subitising dice-dots and handwriting! Love that!

The pack includes two sets of sheets. One set is Victorian Modern Cursive and the other set is a simple print font.

Included are:
Single letters (4 sheets)
CVC words (3 sheets)
Four letter words (1 sheet)
Magic E words (1 sheet)
Colour words (1 sheet)
Ch sh th words (1 sheet)
Word families (2 sheet)

These could be laminated for multiple uses, slid into sheet protectors, or used as-is as worksheets. They are all black and white so they're easy on the printer ink. I'll be using these as part of my reading groups activities, but they could be used as fast-finisher work, writing centres, whole group activities, or for home schooling purposes.

New products: Monster Truck Matching!

Two new products in my TpT Store! They are called Monster Truck Matching! with lower case and capital letters and Monster Truck Matching! with numbers, tens frames and dice faces.

You get 52 letter cards, capital and lower case letters, in Victorian Modern Cursive with awesome monster truck clip art on each card. Students need to match the capital letter with the lower case letter, then record the letters on one of the two recording sheets provided.

I used these this week with my students (forgot to take a photo!) and I punched holes in the two sides of the cards, gave the group Counting Links and they had to match the cards and then thread them both onto the links. This added some fine motor skills work to the task as well.

This activity contains 63 cards with monster trucks on them (21 each of number, tens frame and dice faces). This could be used as a quick maths activity or stations activity for matching numbers 0-20. The product is made using Victorian Modern Cursive and fantastic monster truck clip art! It includes one recording sheets that has the numbers on it already.

You could even punch holes into the cards and use Counting Links to join the matching cards. This adds a fine motor skills component.

Five for Friday

I am very excited that it is Friday! I'm ready for the weekend.

I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for....

-one-
For fine motor skills over the past week we have been working a little bit at a time on Olaf Snowmen. The idea is from Lauren at Love, Laughter and Learning in Prep.  I thought it was such an awesome activity that I had to do it with my preps! They loved it! We completed the task in 'fine motor skills teams' and the team had to share one pair of tweezers and one bottle - there was great turn taking happening. A few of my preps struggled at turn taking so we do lots of activities where waiting is involved.

-two-
My school is a science-focussed school, but I still cover the curriculum in history. So this week we did two history sessions. The first was about families, and how every family is different. The second was on timelines and thinking about things that have happened to us since we were born. My preps just loved talking about their families! I have a blended family (with a step mum, a step dad and step siblings) so I always share stories about my family first, that helps some of the other kids open up about their families. We had a great chat about how exciting it is that every family is different - I really try to instill a love of diversity and acceptance in my students, it's so important. The timeline lesson was much more difficult. They could think of things like birthdays and walking/talking, but they are too young and too in-the-moment to think about anything else to add to the group timeline, but it was still an interesting conversation. Here is a sample of the pics two of my preps did of their families:

-three-
Reports are basically done!!! I'm the reports coordinator so this is very exciting for me. The final print went home with our principal today for a read, then we collate them next week and send them home the Monday after. Just the paperwork/organising bit left. So glad to have all of the writing done!

-four-
I've found a new tv show that I'm in love with! It's called Signed, Sealed, Delivered and it's by the Hallmark channel in the USA. It is a super sweet show, and started off as a movie around Christmas last year. It is a huge difference to my other current fav, Game of Thrones, but it is seriously quirky and cute and the messages in the episodes are always uplifting.

-five-
IT'S A LONG WEEKEND! I'm super excited about that. Love long weekends. That extra day just makes the weekend seem far more relaxing. Don't get me wrong, I love teaching my preppies, but I also enjoy a sleep in!

Currently May

I'm linking to Farley at Oh Boy 4th Grade for her monthly Currently linkup. Currently for May...

To explain.
Listening: It is about 9 degrees celsius here tonight, so I have the heater on. And my electric blanket is warming up my bed for me. Winter is coming!
Loving: I have the end of a cold, and it was a huge week at work this week, so a sleep in tomorrow sounds amazing.
Thinking: I am the reports coordinator for my school, and reports are due in about 6 weeks, so I have report writing on the brain.
Wanting: This year my school is starting Student Led Conferences. I have never done one before. I've been reading all of the blog posts I can find on the topic, but other tips would be amazing!
Needing: I have had a present sitting on my desk for about two months waiting to be posted to a very good friend of mine who lives in England. I've known her for 14 years!!
Surprise: I just connected up with Lauren Kuhn of Love, Laughter, and Learning in Prep  on Instagram after reading her blog for ages. I love her Stirring Up Fun! product on TpT. It's free and it has recipes for different sensory concoctions - awesome!

Thanks, Farley, for an awesome linkup!!

Sensory activities in my classroom

I see huge value in engaging students senses in activities we do in the classroom. We do lots of sensory-related activities throughout the day, from quick songs to fine motor skills centres.

Throughout the day we sing songs that involve finger and hand movement, and do little activities that support finger control. For example, we sing songs such as Where is Thumbkin? and Little Rabbit Foo Foo. Before writing I often get my students to hold up all ten fingers, wiggle there fingers, then put all fingers down except for one. I might say "wiggle all ten fingers, now hide all except for your pointer finger". We do this with rapid fire instructions so that my students have to listen carefully and also have to have quick control over their fingers.

During the first 7 weeks at school I ran a perceptual motor program (PMP) or a fine motor skills (FMS) program every morning for the first hour (alternating days). For PMP we explored lots of gross motor skills, including balancing, jumping, crawling, hopping, crossing the midline and throwing/catching. I don't have any photos of these, but the kids loved doing this every morning. I had them in two groups (one group with me and one with my classroom aide) and the students would do both activities for 10-15min. I think this program helped my students settle into school, and it certainly helped with their gross motor skills. I have a pack at my TpT store with activity cards for PMP.

Our fine motor skills program is something that I will continue throughout the year, but from term 2 on it will be incorporated into our reading groups sessions, instead of a stand alone lesson. We have done such a huge range of fine motor skills activities, and the kids love the variety. I have photos of some of these! Here they are:

Giant chalk drawings to support arm movement and control. It is also a very different experience drawing on concrete with chalk, than drawing on paper with pencils.

 

Constructions with soft blocks supports control/stability of arm movements. And, as an added bonus, it helps kids learn to share and get along!

Sorting small objects works to engage kids because the items are interesting, the items all feel different and I get them to sort by as many different attributes as they can, so they might sort by colour first, then size, shape, texture, if the object can roll, if it's shiny, etc.

We do lots of threading and weaving. This one is very straight forward and supports their hand/eye coordination. We have different patterns that we focus on, like all straws going one way, or criss-cross, or on a diagonal.

Very easy threading task using bright coloured buttons that are different shapes and some rubber string. Some students like to create patterns or sort out the buttons before they thread.

And, finally, the coloured rice from yesterday!

I will be using the coloured rice, all mixed up in a big container, as a sensory bin. It will be a centre in my reading groups session. The first centre is going to be focused on sorting out capital and lower case letters, students will have to fish out the magnetic letters from in amongst the rice and then sort them out on a chart. I know that the sensation of having their hands in rice will interest all of my students, but it will also be calming for a couple of them.

I love using sensory activities in my classroom!