A litte bit of everything...

Hello! It's already Thursday and the week is nearly over! Yay! This week has been super busy and I've started creating something I have been meaning to do for a while now. Quite a while ago  was reading an amazing blog (I can't remember whose) and they posted a link to an American Maths website which had these amazing flip flap books outlining all the Common Core Standards for each grade level in mathematics. I thought these were fantastic so I have started creating my own versions. So far I am only tackling Maths, but will eventually have them for all KLA's. Basically they are way for you to easily record which outcomes your students have mastered and also outlines the skills and knowledge they need to demonstrate for each outcome. There are recording sheets for each outcome so you can record when and what they did for each outcome and the book is colour coded for each strand. Here's what they look like;

 

So far I have Kindergarten/Prep available and Year One will be posted tonight (Find them here). I hope to get the remaining grade levels finished this weekend. Let me know if these are something your interested in! Oh and they look a thousand times better when binded!

Today I had my favourite Year 2 (I know, I know, I'm not supposed to have favourites but let's face it.. We all do!) and today was the day I realised that I've actually learnt some things about teaching!

1. If students are already super hyperactive DON'T give them an exciting activity that requires responsibility! I had been planning on doing a classroom shop today after lunch but my students had been ridiculously restless all day so I pulled the pin and we did a creative writing lesson instead. This is the first time I realised that sometimes you need to adjust your day to suit the classroom atmosphere. Prac students take note! Don't be afraid to post phone the lesson for another day!

2. Glitter is ridiculously messy and goes EVERYWHERE!! I love glitter but some of the places it was found after art today should never be mentioned! I profusely apologised to the cleaners!

3. Set up few activities at the beginning of the lesson so that fast finishers have something meaningful to do. This is so important and yet easy to forget and honestly, it's really hard when you don't know the students well enough. If no-one ends up getting to those activities, don't worry!

Experienced teachers would know all his, but honestly, university tells you nothing!! I'll leave you no with some of the creative writing letters we did today. I have done this activity with almost every class I've had and yet they still amaze me with the level of creativity. I love the book 'The day the crayons quit!' Best writing stimulus!

Miss Daniels x