I'm in love!

With organising that is!

I've always considered myself a very organised person (in my classroom anyway). Everything has its place and I can easily grab any art or craft supply I may need. But when I saw one of Maria Manore's most recent products I knew my supply cupboard was about to get a HUGE makeover...

enter Classroom Supply Labels!

(They are on sale as we speak so go right now and get them for yourself!)

As I look at these photographs I literally hear angels singing. 

Any teacher who says they don't hear it, is lying. 

Unfortunately we don't have a Big Lots in Australia, therefore my dream of having these bright coloured containers is dashed. But that doesn't matter because Maria's labels are going to look amazing on any storage containers, so I'm still super excited to get stuck in. 

Meanwhile...after school I went to our local cheap shop to buy some containers that match the ones I already have, and low and behold they no longer sell them. Needless to say I was devastated. However as I was walking to the checkout, what did I spy on sale for half price?!?!....wait for it....the clear storage pails that I've seen featured on the Kinder-Craze blog and have been looking for for sooo long! 

I felt extremely pleased with myself as those babies rang through the till. Awesome end to the day.

Stay tuned for photo updates, I can't wait to share them!

Happy blogging!

TGIF...or should I say TGIS??

Happy weekend everyone! For the next two days I have no plans and am looking forward to doing absolutely nothing....except reading blogs and watching youtube hauls and tutorials. 

In my opinion there is no better way to celebrate the week than to link up with Doodle bugs Teaching for Five for Friday. So here are 5 things to share from my week!

Incase you didn't know, 'Healthy Bones Action Week' is coming up (the 3rd-10th August to be exact) and to get my little wonders thinking about their bones and ways to keep them healthy and strong, we did a super cute craftivity where they made a skeleton out of cotton buds and wrote a response to

 'My bones are brilliant because..'

They turned out so cute. It was good to see some of the children create skeletons with jointed arms and legs. Clever little things!

Our writing focus at the moment is procedure writing, which always results in making fun and often yummy treats to write about. This week we made milkshakes and wrote a procedure for it using a template from my Procedure Writing Template pack (which is available on TPT).

We made chocolate and strawberry flavoured milkshakes. One guess which was more popular!

I have the most gorgeous photo of one of my little wonders with a milk moustache that I wish I could show you!

 One of the activities we complete in Religion this week was to create a family tree for Jesus.

We've been reading a lot of stories about Him as part of our 'Life of Jesus' unit which the children really enjoy. Building up their bank of scripture stories is a real focus in this unit. 

 (I don't know how she managed to spell Jesus wrong! lol)

 This little wonder always produces the neatest work, ruled lines, perfect circles and beautiful handwriting. I'm forever using his work as an example for the other students. 

Our art focus for the week was watercolour. As I was scouring Pinterest for inspiration I came across a blog post on Kids Artists (original idea from Use Your Coloured Pencils) that used watercolour to create David Hockney inspired art.

First the little wonders drew themselves in their bathers floating. They then used oil pastel to colour their picture in, and using a white pastel, drew wavy lines in a grid pattern all over their page. 

After they completed their picture they used a mixture of green and blue watercolour paint to wash over their entire page. They looked fantastic! The white pastel lines looked like the tiles on the bottom of the pool. 

If you know me or read my blog then you know I have a completely normal HUGE obsession with clipart, namely Krista Wallden's clipart! I had been waiting months for Krista to release her Zoo Animal Clipart set, and when she finally did I bought it the very same day and created a transformation activity for our maths focus on flips, slides and turns. Before we did this activity some of the little wonders had seen the sheet on my desk and were constantly asking when we were going to do it. I was overjoyed to see that they loved it just as much as I did! They took so much care in their colouring, and just like Krista, used light and dark versions of the same colour to create contrast.  I'll admit we spent more time colouring in than doing the actual activity, but hey...gotta practice those fine motor skills right?

I hope you've all had a great week, wether you're at school or starting to get ready for the new school year. 

Happy blogging everyone!

Let there be babies!

Week 2 of term 3 already! This year sure has flown, I can't believe we're half way through!

It's amazing to see just how far my little wonders have come in their learning.

Soooo last week we had some very exciting and very cute new additions to our little school family.

BABY PLOVERS!! 

I know most of you are probably picturing the adult plovers and their screeching and swooping, and thinking 'why is this exciting news?' Well since late last term my little ones have been watching a mother plover sit on her eggs day in and day out, through hail and rain and wind, and never once leaving them. They even suggested, during a particularly rough hail storm, that we go out and put a box over the plover to protect it. Precious!

As you can imagine we came back to school hoping extremely hard to see babies and we did! I don't think I've ever seen 21 tiny bodies move as quickly as they did when they ran to the window to see the baby chick. They spent a lot of the day staring at this teeny tiny little bird, that would have been only a day or so old. As we were watching the male bird would give out a warning call, and if the chick was out from underneath it's mother, would drop to the ground an stay completely still and camouflaged until it was safe to get up. 

The next day we came back to school and of course the first thing we did was check on the plover and her chick....well weren't we surprised when we found there were 3 chicks!!! 3 amazingly cute and active little baby plovers. 

Aren't they the cutest little things you've ever seen?!

It wasn't long after the little ones were walking and exploring the yard that the mum and dad decided to move them to the empty paddock on the other side of the fence. A wise move on their behalf. 

It's our turn to run assembly this week, and my little ones have decided that we are going to include an informative talk on plovers, their babies, and their behaviours. I thought it was a very cute idea :)

I hope everyone is enjoying the new term!

Free Font Friday with The Teaching Tribune

Ok...I know it's not Friday, but I have just made my first ever font and am dying to share it with you!

It's the last day of school holidays, which is always bitter sweet. No more days sleeping til noon, instead I get to see my little wonders, who I'm happy to admit I have missed! 

Happy blogging!

Meet Who? Meet Me! Monday Link Up

Hi all!

I hope all of you in the northern hemisphere are enjoying your beautiful summer weather, and for those of you (along with me) in the middle of winter, I hope you are enjoying wearing scarves and boots as much as I am :)

I'm linking up (yet again!) with the Teaching Tribune for their winter summer bloggin' link up. 

1. Did anyone else have Polly Pockets growing up? Not the big ones they have today, the tiny little ones that flip open to reveal the cutest little people ever! My sister and I had the most amazing collection, and have managed to hang on to them all. 

2. I've never really thought of this before. My sister and I don't have middle names so as a child I came up with a lot of options for that lol, but never first names. I chose Charlotte because for some reason Charlotte from Sex and the City popped into my head...so theres the reasoning behind that. 

3. This has happened to me once so far in my career, and I hope for it to never happen again. I've become quite good at determining the legitimacy of sickness, and I usually adopt the opinion of 'better safe than sorry' when it comes to sick children. 

4. Soooooo this is officially one of my new favourite movies. If you haven't already seen it I STRONGLY recommend you watch it immediately! Peter Lake is by far one of my favourite male leads, and converted me to a Colin Farrell fan.

5. I am the youngest in my family, which growing up I hated, but now am glad of. I have a sister named Toyah who is 14 months older than me. We fought like cats and dogs growing up but are now as close as can be. I have a brother, Adam, who is 7 years older than me and has given me the most amazing niece EVER! I also have a half brother, Rob, who lives in Ireland (where Toyah is currently visiting) and a half sister, Jodie, who lives in SA with her family. 

6. Who doesn't love McDonald's hash browns?!? 

I'm ooking forward to learning more about my fellow bloggers :)

JULY CURRENTLY!

I really enjoy link ups (as if you can't tell!). They are a great way to connect with other teachers and are often a snapshot of what's going on in you life at the time. This will be my second link up with Farley at Oh' Boy Fourth Grade' for her July Currently.

Listening - I love this show and I'm not ashamed to say it. I think Judge Marilyn Milian is hilarious! And some of the people featured on it remind me of how very lucky I am.

Loving - The cold weather. Last winter I found I lacked winter accessories, so I stocked up on scarves, boots, socks and beanies, and now I get to wear them all again!

Thinking - I've never been one to care much about what I eat, but earlier this year I tried the 5:2 diet where you fast for 2 days out of the week. I felt so much better in myself and had a lot more energy. I've decided I'm going to start it again when term 3 begins. Wish me luck!

Wanting - Currently my sister is on her honeymoon and is traveling all over Europe. I'm insanely jealous to say the least. I lived in London for four months in 2010 and will definitely be back there one day. I feel it calling me!

Needing - If you know me then you know I have a shopping addiction, sigh. This does little to help me save for a house deposit. I started to save in March of this year and am extremely proud of my self control when it comes to buying new things and online shopping. Bring on my tax return!!

4th Plans - The Fourth of July isn't a holiday in Australia, so no major plans. I am however going out for dinner with three of my favourite girls, so it should be a fun night!

Happy blogging!

Worksheet Wednesday

I'm linking up with The Teaching Tribune for Worksheet Wednesday :) How cute is the linky button! 

Here's a free page from my new Procedure Writing Template packet.
Head over to my TPT store to download the entire pack.

Right click to download.

New Products!

I know it's too early to be even thinking about Christmas, but if you know me you know how much I love Christmas, so for me it's never too early. I have recently been organising all my clipart and felt the need to do something with the gorgeous Christmas themed clipart I purchased from Krista Wallden. So I decided to make something that I know my little wonders will love doing when we get toward the end of the year. I created colour by addition and colour by sight word no prep packets to print and use immediately in the classroom.

Click on the picture to be taken to my TPT store. 

Click on the picture to be taken to my TPT store. 

While I was in a creative mood I decided to also make some procedure writing templates that I plan on using when we go back for term 3. They are super simple and straight forward, great for reinforcing the layout and features of a procedure. 

 Click on the picture to be taken to my TPT store.

I hope these resources are helpful. 

Happy teaching :)