TGIF - big time!

Thank the lord that it's Friday!

This week has been a loooong and tiring one. We've stuffed so much learning into the last 5 days that I'm left feeling exhausted! Today was one of those days when something (usually a misbehaving munchkin) makes your mood change from cheery to grumpy. I left work today feeling a little low. But looking back on my photos from the week, I'm glad to be reminded of all the fantastic things my little wonders have done this week. 

I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for Five for Friday. Here goes!

(Be sure to click on the picture below to check out the other fantastic bloggers who have linked up)

This week we were learning all about probability. We used a great pack from Secondgradealicious that contained this activity. My little wonders worked in small groups to sort the events into the categories - certain, likely, unlikely and impossible. As I walked around I heard some great discussions about why or why not an event belonged in a category. They especially loved the one that said 'Your teacher will turn into an ant'. 

 Staying on the topic of maths, we also looked at the probability of selecting a certain object out of a group. I found a super cute pack by Jane Feener which uses gumball machines to pose questions about probability. One of the activities involved putting 12 cards around the room, and the children walked around and answered the questions. They had fun trying to find all the cards and it was a good way to see which children still needed a bit of support. 

This month is Mission Month in the Catholic calendar and as something a little special, I decided I would give my little wonders a secret mission. I thought up 20 acts of kindness that could be done at home or at school, and put one in an envelope for each of my kids. I also included a 'Secret Agent' badge and a letter explaining their secret mission. The children were very excited to receive their own envelope and badge, and were eager to get started. The Secret Mission pack is available on my TPT store. It isn't linked directly to Mission Month, so it can be used by anyone who would like to promote random acts of kindness within their class. 

For art this week we made some beautifully colourful parrots. They look fantastic and brighten up the otherwise dull (and ugly) area above my sink. I had some early finishers so they made some chain link vines to add to the 'tropical-ness' of the display. 

I found the idea and template for the parrots at Squish Preschool Ideas.

Does anyone else do Cosmic Kids Yoga?

My kids loooove it! The videos have a story line that the kids can follow, and are very engaging. Today we did 'Babs the Beaver'. It's a great way to help children relax and calm down, and also gets their wriggles out at the same time. 

Thanks for taking a peek at my busy, hectic, exhausting, fun, jam packed week!

Show Us What You Bought Linky

ATTENTION FRIENDS!

If you haven't yet been to TPT and put everything on your wish list into your cart, and checked out...then go and do it now! They are currently holding a Back to School sale and there are huge saving to be had. 

I'm linking up with Blog Hoppin' to share some of the amazing resources I purchased on sale. Enjoy :) 

As I was trolling my favourite blogs, as I do at the end of the day, I saw Mel from Frog Spot bought some super fun Sight Word Pattern Block activities from one of my favourite sellers (and bloggers) Jennifer, from First Grade Blue Skies. So I clicked on the link and BAM! the grade 2 version is mine. 

I've had this Tie-rific Father's Day craftivity in my card for aaaages! I thought today was the perfect time to finally put it through the checkout. It's soo super cute, I can't wait to do this with my little wonders. 

I saw this Editable Pendant Banner on Jennifer's blog when she took some photos of her classroom projects. Love, love, love the bright colours, and the fact that you can write the students' names on there!

I also saw this one on Frog Spot in Mel's 'Show Us What You Bought' post. 

They are Ice-cream Math Centres by Doodle Bugs. Such a great resource for small groups, and for early finishers. 

Like I need an excuse to buy more of Krista's clipart. I will however use the TPT sale as one! 

Im obsessed with her cute style and bright colours. 

I picked up her Ocean Animals, Scuba and Mermaid clipart set, which I'm already thinking of ways to use in future resources.  

 

Well I'm off to checkout what everyone else got.

Happy shopping and blogging everyone!

What a whirlwind week!

What a crazy week! Not only have we been super busy, but the weather has been insane, which means equally insane children! It hasn't only been raining this week, its been hailing and the wind has been strong enough to lift our little ones off the ground.

I am very happy to see the end of this week, I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for Five for Friday, so here goes! 

The Scholastic Book Fair arrived at our school this week. I love, love, LOVE picture books!! and there are so many amazing books this year with gorgeous illustrations. Needless to say I have a very looong wish list. I took the kids in on Wednesday and they were loving looking at all the new titles. The boys were especially excited by the Minecraft manuals. 

The picture books that I put on my wish list are

- There's a Lion in my Cornflakes by Michelle Robinson

-  Gigantosaurus by Johnny Duddle

- Oi Frog by Kes Gray and Jeff Field

- This Moose Belong to Me by Oliver Jeffers

- Nugget and Fang by Tommy Sauer

- The Day the Crayons Quit by Drew Daywalt

This is our schools second year in our move toward personalised learning, and one of the first moves we made toward this change was to have personalised maths groups within each learning centre. In our 1/2 Inquiry Centre we have been learning about fractions this week my maths group has been focusing on quarters. We have looked at fraction symbols, written representations, and quarters of shapes. As a little treat for my group we used M&M's to practice dividing collections into quarters. We also looked at how to divide them into fractions according to colour. 

You wouldn't believe how their little faces lit up when, at the end of the lesson, I told them they could eat them!

On Wednesday we watched a performance called 'Circular Rhythm'. It was about Indigenous music and culture and the kids LOVED it! The presented was amazing, he used a lot of humour when speaking with the kids, so they were in stitches the whole time. This little wonder knows how to play the didgeridoo, and he got the chance to go out the front and show everyone. It was very impressive. 

At the end of the performance, as everyone was leaving, the presenter put on 'Happy' by Pharell, so as the other classes were walking out, my class and I decided we'd stick around for a little bit and have a dance together. 

HOLY MOLY! The weather this week has been absolutely INSANE! 

Now don't be fooled, that's not snow you see in the photo above...its hail! 

It was the loudest 30 seconds I've ever experienced in my classroom...and the louder the hail got..the louder the kids got lol They were loving the weather. It's probably the closest thing to snow we're going to get. 

This Friday (1st August) was Jeans for Genes day. Myself and my good friend and colleague Christine, have started a Student Representative Council (SRC) this year, and as part of that we help the children organise and implement fundraisers. To raise money for Jeans for Genes Day we held a special tuck shop day where we sold nachos. The first photo is of my class all wearing their jeans, and the second one is of the SRC children furiously making nachos. They did such an amazing job! We couldn't be more proud of how much effort they put into making this day a success. 

We raised $735 minus the cost of supplies, so we were very happy. 

Happy weekend everyone!

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!