Peek at my week - Week 1, Term 2, 2015

I love sharing what I'm up to in my classroom, which is why I love to join in with Peek at my Week (not that I've done it much lately...).

 

 

We have just been on two weeks of Easter Holidays, and now we are back for term 2. This is what my week looks like:

 

 

In reading this week we are focussing on sounding out words. In writing we are practising to sound out the words we want to write, and will be writing about things we like or dislike. In maths we are learning about time, and grouping events by when they happen (eg. day and night). In inquiry we are revising our five senses. In You Can Do It we are thinking about how we can get along with other people.

Harmony Day is a very special day at my school - we all love it. We don't celebrate it on the Official Harmony Day, but we celebrate it when it suits our schedule. For the first four hours of class time on Harmony Day students rotate through 8x 30min activities in their grade levels - I'm running a kite making activity. Then for the last hour of the day we have our Cultural Expo - students and their families are invited to set up a 'stall' to share music, clothes, photos, objects and food from their culture. Last year we had 20 'stalls' about different countries for the students to experience! It is an amazing event!!

#2getherwearebetter Link Up - Schedules

I have not been a great blogger so far this year, but I'm excited to join in with the April 2nd link-up run by Ashley from Schroeder Shenanigans and Angie from Lucky Little Learners. Link ups are probably my favourite type of blog posts to write, so this is awesome! 

 

 

They are doing a link up on the 2nd of each month about a particular topic, and this month is SCHEDULES!

I love reading about other teacher's schedules. It amazes me how many different versions there are, and the different types of specialist subjects, extra support, withdrawal programs, etc, that run all over the world.

My schedule is slightly different on each day of the week. I make up a visual schedule for my students at the beginning of each term so that they can look over it at home before the school day, or look over it when they talk about their day with their families. I find that it helps y 5-6 years olds share things that happened during their day. They get a schedule that looks like this:

But I will type it out so it's a bit easier to read.

I'll explain a bit about it.

Carpet time: Every morning we begin the day with a phonics song, take attendance, go through our visual schedule and do Brain Gym. It is a great routine to get started with our day.

Reading groups: We begin with a big book and a mini-lesson about our reading focus for the week. Students then go into their reading groups for silent reading and then a literacy activity. During the silent reading time I work with my low group to support their independent reading, and during our activity time I do guided reading with a different group each day.

Writing: During term 1 this hour was all about phonics, now we will squeeze more into the time to still cover our phonics focus, but also do some structured writing.

Maths: We don't follow a program, but have a school-developed scope and sequence with has lots of room to construct the right program for the group of kids in the class.

Inquiry: The rest of my school are doing a more integrated version of inquiry, where it is part of literacy and numeracy, but we are still teaching so many foundational skills in prep (first year of school) that we have allocated time for focussed Inquiry.

Sport, Music, PE, Art: These are our specialist classes, when I don't teach.

PMP: We are starting this in term 2, and it will be a Perceptual Motor Program to work on gross motor skills and coordination. This will be run with both of the prep class (42 kids all together), with 8-10 stations to rotate between.

RE: Religious Education is an 'opt-in' program at my school, so not all of the preps are doing it. This means one of the prep teachers will sit in the RE class while the other prep teacher takes the extra students for a non-curriculum-related activity.

Read aloud: We are doing a chapter book, and started George's Marvelous Medicine last term. We have two chapters left, then we will start Tashi.

Fun Friday: Every Friday we have a theme day, mostly based around our Inquiry work. They are not always big events, but there is always a theme running through the activities. For example, during term 1 we had Camping Day (we learnt about the things we need to survive), Cupcake Day (which was related to a maths assessment task using patty pans) and Water Day (learning about our water needs). Next term we are going to have Alphabet Day (once we've learnt all of the letters of the alphabet) and Silly Sock Day (which is all about sorting). These fun days give us the opportunity to be wild and creative, but still incorporate literacy and numeracy. It's great for applying skills in a new way, and for learning through experiences.

Facet: is a fancy way of saying the we do two alternating subjects in that hour with the two prep classes together. We have our wellbeing program called You Can Do It and our cybersafety program called eSmart.

Prep chat: At the end of Fun Friday we get together for a catch-up and reflection about the week.

Wow, we fit lots in! I can't wait to go back and look through all the bloggers who have linked up. I'm thinking about swapping my maths and Inquiry to the morning block, and putting reading and writing into the middle block because we always seem to have more time in the middle block. I'd love to find out if other people put maths in the morning, rather than literacy!

Peek at my Week - Addition week

It's been too long since I've blogged. I get so excited to blog, then I forget or something comes up. I missed last week's link up, but I had a few photos from the week before that I wanted to share.

We worked on even and odd numbers, so I used the Even & Odd Sorting Centers product by Kelly Witt. My kids loved the pictures!

We also used the worksheet in the pack, and students had to sort out the numbers provided into even and odd.

During the week we also made a book to take with us when we went to visit the local kindergarten. It was called School is Awesome: What we love about school. Our kinder kids are all starting transition ready to start school at the end of January, so we thought they'd like to know what is fun at school.

This is one of my little preps who tries SUPER hard, but is still struggling.

So, onto this week!

I'll link up with the awesome Deedee Wills!

Here's what my week will look like.

I'm looking forward to it. On Thursday morning while my preps have buddies with the 1/2s I am running the first transition session for our 2015 preps! I've very excited to meet them. This year I'm the coordinator (for the first time) so I'm a bit nervous about making sure it runs smoothly. I love seeing how little they look in comparison to the current preps.

I have also just added two new products to my TpT store (I'm using them this week, so I'll have photos next week).

The Dinosaur Addition and Subtraction Mats are free!! Go check them out.

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!

Peak at my Week

I'm having a go at sharing my week as a link-up with Mrs Wills Kindergarten: Peak at my Week.

Here is my weekly planning document. We start at 9am and finish at 3.30pm. Recess is 30min at 11am, and lunch is 1hr at 1.30pm. Click on the document to see it up close.

Oral language is when a speech therapist employed by my school comes into my classroom and runs small group activities focused on key literacy skills. This week we are focusing on vowels and medial sounds.

Clubs happens twice a term. Teachers and parents run a 'club' for a group of students. I run Craft Club, but we also have groups who go to the park, do knitting, do cooking, do science, make cool things, etc.

Normally I have another document with more detail on it, lesson by lesson, but I have a student teacher who is teaching everything expect for Reading Groups, so she is planning everything. I don't have her plans yet.

This is what my reading plan looks like for the week:

It has taken me a while to find a reading groups plan that works for me, but this is working so far. We do reading groups on four days. The groups are the animal names on the left. I have goals for each group, and that is what I select their activity based on. They still need fine motor work so I always have the group do a fine motor skills (FMS) activity. I have an aide who helps out with the groups. Other than the activities highlighted in pink or blue, a group does the same activity two days in a row. This gives them time to practice the task.

Have a great week!!

First day back!

Today was our first day back - for teachers only. We started with a two hour whole school meeting, followed by team meetings. Lots of info was shared because we have three new staff members this year. It was good to hear some of the info again, refresh my brain after five weeks of holidays.

I'm a prep teacher this year and there is only one prep class at my school for this year, so I'm a team of 1. This meant that during team meeting time today I got to do things that I needed to get done. I did a total clean out of my mobile whiteboard shelves, which now only has 'kid friendly' things on it (no more permanent textas near the whiteboard!!). I also set up my room ready for my new preppies to arrive tomorrow.

Super just a bit nervous about tomorrow. I love the first day of a new year and getting to meet and start to get to know my new kids. But it is also nerve wracking. On the agenda for tomorrow is playing with toys to help the kids settle (magnetic letters, lego, drawing, puppets, farm animals, books), then the good ol' whole class toilet break, followed by fruit snack, a read aloud, discussing school rules and a self portrait. Hopefully that'll take us up to recess, and after recess we will discuss and have a go at the mat rules (being 5 star listeners takes practice!) then they'll make a front cover for their Science Journal. My kiddos go home at 12.30pm the three days they're at school this week. I will be doing some last minute setting up (like table name tags) and organising the materials they bring in during the afternoons. It's a lovely way to get used to school routine.

The aim is to take some pics of my little cuties working (no faces...) and I'll do another post on the weekend to show you how our first week went!!

Five for Friday link-up

This is my first Five for Friday linky with Doodle Bugs Teaching!! Very exciting.

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This is my last week of holidays (I start back at school on Tuesday for a teacher work day, then kids on Wednesday) so I have been making the most of it. A PJ day, catching up with friends for coffees and dinners, watching some awesome TV and going to the movies with my sister. What a busy, and fun, last week of Summer holidays.

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In preparation for my new class this year I have been doing lots of planning. One of the big things has been figuring out my timetable for the new year. It has to fit all of the important things in, while still having time for some fun too! And this year I have a unique bunch of preppies who need to work on fine motor skills and following routines. This is what my timetable looks like:

PMP is Perceptual Motor Program, which is gross motor skills. FMS is Fine Motor Skills. P.D. is Personal Development for values and social skills. Buddies is the time the preps spend with their grade 5 buddies.

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Part of my personal set of school-based goals this year is to keep everything accountable to our curriculum, AusVELS, and to be explicit in the classroom about what we are focusing on. I downloaded an awesome set by Miss N (TpT) which I have put up in my room do display the standards we are focusing on. It is going to be an awesome tool for me, any CRT (substitute teacher) or visitor to our room.

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In a TV flashback, I just bought the complete set (8 seasons) of Will & Grace! Some of the clothes are still awesome, but some look pretty dated. The show as a whole holds up well 15 years from when it started. I have gotten through the first season and quarter of the second season - it's great fun!

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I have designed my 2014 class newsletter. I love sending home a newsletter fortnightly to let parents/other important people know what is going on in the classroom.

That was fun linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for my first Five for Friday linky!!