Meet Me - The Teaching Tribune Linky

I know I'm super late joining in with this linky, but I've so enjoyed reading other bloggers responses that I decided better late than never.

1. I have always loved reading. My mum is a trained art teacher and she loved to do crafty things with us when my sister and I were little. We often had friends over to have craft parties.

2. Well, I wouldn't necessarily want to change my name to this, but I found it so hard to think of anything else that I thought I'd share this - my mum had been tossing up between Jemima and Pleasance for my name when I was born, and it's always fascinated me that I might have been Pleasance instead.

3. I've had a few doozies. I teach prep (5 and 6 year olds) and they are not normally very quick at getting to a bin before they vomit, so I've had quite a few instances of vomit on tables, in laps and on the floor. One of my students in my first year of teaching decided to spin around in circles, then stop right near our bag lockers and whack his head into them. There was quite a lot of blood, and I was very glad there were a few parents around to help. On an excursion last year one of my students missed the step getting onto a train and he fell down in between the train and a platform. Thank goodness I was holding his arm at the time (trying to help him get on) so I was able to catch him. And, last one, the same kid who hit his head on the bag lockers also got right up in a visiting dogs face and the dog nipped him on the nose - the kid was hysterical about it, and the dog never visited again.

4. My most favourite children's movie is Mr Magorium's Wonder Emporium, and I would love to meet Mr Magorium! He's super cool!

5. I have one sister and she is 3 days short of being two years younger than me. This meant we had a lot of joint birthday parties growing up. Not always my favourite thing, but it meant that the budget for the one party was that little bit bigger - one year we had a jumping castle in our backyard!!

6. I love pancakes with maple syrup, but on a cold morning yummy warm porridge is also amazing!

I haven't linked up much with The Teaching Tribune Summer Blogin' Series, but I've loved reading everyone elses posts!!

 

New product: Sh Th Ch Digraph Pack

I have been really terrible with posting on this blog and making products lately. It's been a very busy couple of weeks, and I just haven't had the motivation. Until tonight!!

I've made a new product, which I'd been meaning to make for ages. It is a pack of five different activities to work with the digraphs /sh/, /th/, and /ch/. The pack includes a set of worksheets, a set of Clip It cards, a set of puzzles, a set of cards to use for Memory and a set of cards and headings to use for sorting. As I think of more activity ideas I will add them to the pack. Here is a look at the different pages.

As it's a brand new product I will be giving a copy away to a lucky winner. Just leave a comment on this blog post and I will send a copy of the pack to the winner next weekend. I will be printing and using this pack in my classroom during term 3 so when I do I will write a post about it.

I made my first font!

After ooh-ing and aah-ing over all of the amazing custom fonts that I've seen lately I asked a few friends what they used to make their fonts, and now I've had a go! Introducing the first ever LLL font: LLL Handwriting.

It is a handwriting font like the one I teach my preps in Victoria, Australia. I used iFont Maker to create it. It is available as a free download from my TeachersPayTeachers store. You can click on the picture to get to it. I'd love to get a bit of feedback about it if you choose to download it, seeing as it is my first font ever.

Monday Meet Me!

It's a long weekend here and I'm loving having an extra day off!! I've been so productive, and thought I'd be even more productive by writing a blog post on a Monday! What better way to blog today than to link up with The Teaching Tribune for Monday Meet Me.

Here is the picture:

I teach... prep. That is the first year at school, so it would be Kindergarten in a lot of places. I'm the only prep teacher at my school, I've been teaching prep for three years and I just love it!!

I have... so much fun at school! My teaching degree wasn't my first degree. I started a Scientific Photography degree straight out of high school and hated it! I was miserable. I took a year off, volunteered a bit, and worked a ton, and through the volunteering I discovered my love of education. I enrolled for the following year and found what I was meant to be doing. It can sound so corny, but it's true! I love being a teacher and I have heaps of fun at school with my students and my colleagues. I work with a super team!

I watch... too much TV 'full stop'. I don't like reality TV. I love most of the stuff HBO makes, a lot of the USA channel stuff, I'm a softy for some of the Hallmark shows (specifically Signed, Sealed, Delivered) and love lots of what comes from the SyFy Channel. I actually only like two 'made in Australia' TV shows - Offspring and House Husbands. Otherwise, it is all American and Canadian!

I listen... to heaps of music, and I love indie/folk music and blues. At the moment my favourite Pandora radio station is the Indie Folk Revival station. I'm also an avid Triple J radio listener.

I read... heaps. Every night before bed I read; it helps me sleep. At the moment I'm reading The Perks of Being a Wallflower but I generally read sci-fi/fantasy novels, and some general literature (like The Fault in our Stars and Mitch Albom stuff, or Jasper Fforde stuff). I also LOVE reading blogs!

I do... basically what makes me happy. I'm possibly too good at giving myself "me time". I've got no kids and no partner so that's pretty easy!

Hope you liked learning a bit more about me. I'm off to read some other blog posts with this link-up! Love them!

Updated blog banner and button

I love updating parts of my blog. Tonight's mission was to update the banner, button and make the background a bit more subdued. I think I've achieved that.

I also update my sign-off name, so ...

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 June

I'm linking up with Farley from Oh' Boy 4th Grade for the June Currently!

Listening: Winter is here. The heater is on and so is my electric blanket.
Loving: The long weekend has come at the perfect time - reports will be done (mostly) tomorrow and my formal assessment for this term is done!
Thinking: I'm the reports co-ordinator at my school which means I handle the computer set ups and the printing of reports. Tomorrow is our final print!! Very excited.
Wanting: Things have been very busy lately and I'm definitely going to enjoy the three day weekend.
Needing: This year will be the first time my school has run Student Led Conferences and I need to get my preps organised for it.
Summer Bucket List: Well, Winter Bucket List actually. Our holidays are three and a bit weeks away, but on the last Tuesday of this term I'm getting my wisdom teeth taken out!! So the start of my holidays will be all soup and sleep, and I'm moving back in with my mum for that week so I'll have lots of mum-support!! Love it.