Get onboard with Bloglovin'

Hi everyone! 

For the past year or so I have been using Bloglovin’ to track and keep up to date with all the blogs I follow. It makes life sooo much easier! Instead of having to visit each blog separately to check for new posts, it emails you daily with a feed of all the new posts from your favourite blogs. 

It’s so easy and practical and has an App for iPhone so you can keep track on your phone too! Download it today and start following!!

This is what your feed will look like. It's extremely easy and straightforward to use. 

Please follow :)

If you want to follow my blog but don't have an account with Bloglovin or a similar site, there is a bar down the right hand site of my page where you can insert your email address and follow me via email. 

You will be notified of new posts so you can come and check them out. I would love to have some followers to share in my ideas and passion for teaching :)

My little impressionists!

I was trolling Pinterest the other day (what's new right?) looking for an art lesson using sponging. It was one of those searches that brought up everything BUT what I was looking for.  Nevertheless I persevered and eventually struck gold! I stumbled upon a post that linked back to Mrs Picasso's Art room blog, which is where I found an amazing lesson! 

When I teach art, I usually model for the children what I want them to do, and then let them go off and make the work their own. However this was the first time I guided children step by step through the process and modelled every application. 

Before we began we looked at Monet's painting and watched a short clip on his garden in Giverny. I explained how Monet was an 'impressionist' painter; that the way he painted gave the impression of light and movement. 

 My little wonders LOOOOVE art and they really enjoyed creating this piece of artwork together. Even though we did every single step the same, they still came out unique to each of the darlings that created them. 

Thank you Denise for the fabulous inspiration! 

I'VE BEEN BUSY!

My school is currently making the move toward personalised learning (exciting times!) and as part of this we are making up learning profiles for each student. It's been a long process deciding what we want to include in the profiles, and what would be the best way to present them. 

On Monday we had a PD day where my team (1/2's) were given the chance to sit down with the foundation (prep/kindergarten) teachers and make up a list of the things we want included in our profiles so that they were visually exciting and informative. 

The activities we decided on will give us an insight into each child's interests and preferred learning style. 
I've just put the pack in my TPT store and would love for you all to check it out and let me know what you think. Click on the picture below to be taken to my store. 

What do little minds worry about??

I think it's important for children to be aware of their emotions, and of the situations that evoke certain ones. Today, as part of our values program, we talked about all the things that make us worry.

I told the little wonders a story about a little bumble bee who was always feeling worried. He was worried about being stepped on, not collecting enough pollen, and about accidentally stinging someone! 

This prompted children to share times when they have felt worried. I must say it was very cute hearing about the things that my little darlings worry about, getting lost in the supermarket, the dark, being home alone (hate to think my 7-8 year olds are left home by themselves), hurting themselves and worrying that their family is ok. 

As an independent activity the kids drew their own 'Worry Bee' and surrounded it with times they feel worried. Very cute!

P.S. We introduced afternoon fruit breaks today and it was amazing! The little wonders were so much more focused on their afternoon lessons, it was great to see!

Thank the Lord for TPT!

For those of you who are teachers and know of the wonder that is Teachers Pay Teachers, you will know how amazing it is! For those of you who don't, GOOGLE IT NOW!! It will change your life! 

Like sooo many extremely talented and committed teachers, I have a store on TPT called 'Oh the Little Wonders' I have just added some new resources to my store and would love for you to check them out. 

Click on the images below to be taken to my store :)

Hope you like them!

New Life, New Ideas, New Love!

The countdown to Easter has begun! And we have been very busy thinking of ways we can help others during the Christian season of Lent.

I don't know what it is about Easter, but it seems so hard for the little wonders to keep track of which days relate to each event. So in a bid to help my kids remember we have been reading, re-reading, sequencing, role playing and drawing the Easter Story, and will continue to do so for the next 2 weeks!

I have been stressing to my students that Easter isn't all about eating chocolate eggs. That its a time to remember the sacrifice Jesus made for us and to celebrate and embrace new life.

To remind us of this during the lead up to Easter we made little crosses out of twigs and planted them in a cup with soil and grass seeds. The little wonders have been eagerly watching and waiting for our tiny seedlings to grow into a garden of green grass. I am very proud of how attentive they have been to their little gardens.

I got the idea for this off Pinterest but couldn't find a link to the original source. If you know of it please let me know so I can share the link to it. 

My bright, organised, buzzing classroom!

At the end of 2012 I moved to a different learning centre in the school to be with the other three 1/2 classes. I was moving into a completely empty room which meant a lot of work!! So I enlisted the help of 25 little wonders to help make the job a bit easier hehe. Let's be honest, they all love a little 'out of routine' distraction.

So my summer holidays were mainly spent at school, creating and putting up displays, organising supplies, and deciding on furniture placement. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE this stuff! My OCD tendencies, which seem to exist solely in my work life, come in extremely handy during this time of the year when there is so much to do.

By the time the first day of term came around I was pretty happy with how my classroom looked. Needless to say I've made A LOT of changes from then until now, and am sure I will continue making changes until I'm 100% happy with my room.....which could be never!

 I used paint buckets on the tables as stationary caddies. These only cost $2.80 each! The children put their writing pencil and red pencil in the paintbrush holes on the sides. Keeps them very organised. The table numbers on the caddies makes it easy to identify who's is who if we have been working on the floor. 

The Birthday Bees are a new addition this year. They are from Pink Cat Studio on TPT, Melissa Rodger has so many fantastic displays and resources! My teacher chair is from Ikea and the little computer table is a kitchen trolly from a discount store. The behaviour chart you can see on the right is from DK Coleman's Owl and Polka Dot Classroom Theme Pack which I looove. 

This is my favourite area of my classroom; the reading corner. I used bookshelves on their sides to make the bench seat and covered some foam in fabric for the long cushions. The shelf houses the children IPICK book which they keep in little calico bags. This photo was taken last year and since then I have added colourful cushions to the bench seat (which you can see in the first photo).

I hope you've enjoyed a little look into my classroom!

Harmony Day is here and it's POURING!

Today was Harmony Day in Australia and it was met with the most miserable weather we've had so far this year! I don't think it's stopped raining since I woke up to it at 6.30am. As part of Harmony day we learn about and celebrate all the different cultures we have in our school (which turns out to be HEAPS). In grades 1 and 2 alone we have children from Nigeria, Bangladesh, Iran, Philippines, India, Canada, Scotland, Ireland, Sri Lanka and Malta. Which, for being a school in a small country town, is quite diverse!

We began our day with a whole school Liturgy. The children pinned a flag onto a world map, marking the country they or their family come from. 

We organised the day so that the children would rotate to four different rooms to create a craft from four different countries. 

I was SUUUPER excited to be teaching my little ones about Mexico's Day of the Dead. I just LOVE the sugar skull decorations and how the skeletons are put into a fun and happy light. Most of the children had never heard of Dia de los Muertos, so I played a cute animation to get them into the spirit. 

The children then chose a sugar skull pattern and coloured it in to make a mask. It was so satisfying watching them put so much effort into staying in the lines. I purchased the sugar skull colouring book from Thaneeya McArdle.

While they were colouring I played Mariachi music to keep them in a celebratory mood. To be honest, I really liked having the music on, I had to refrain from dancing around the tables!

I had a fantastic day teaching our little wonders about the Day of the Dead!

Welcome to Oh the Little Wonders

Hello! Welcome to Oh the Little Wonders - a blog about the wonderful, hectic and inspiring ins and outs of my primary classroom. 

For the past year or so I have been a follower of so many amazing blogs, all sharing experiences from their classrooms. I have yearned for a blog of my own to share ideas and experiences with educators around the world. So taking inspiration from my blogging idols (Kinder Craze, A Day in First Grade and First Grade Blue Skies, just to name a few), I've decided to jump right in and do it! 

So here is my first ever blog post on my very own blog! I'm EXTREMELY excited to get sharing and hope I can inspire others as they have inspired me.