Frames and Arrows and a SALE!

I've been flipping through my planning from last year and identifying areas that my kiddos had trouble with. One of those was completing frames and arrows diagrams. To help with this next year, I've done up this mini-pack. 

It comes with 2 centers. The first center focusing on counting forwards and backwards from 2, 3, 5 and 10 with frames and arrows diagrams.

The second center focuses on frames and arrows with 2 rules. This one requires students to use their mental computation strategies to add 6, subtract 4 for example.

 

Both centers come with a recording sheet like the one below and a student direction card.

You can grab it from Teachers Notebook and TpT. The first 3 people to comment with their email address will also get a FREE copy!

Remember to enter the giveaway that I and 11 other sellers have contributed to!

Also, both my TpT and Teachers Notebook stores are on sale until January 1st! Both shops have everything 20% off!

~Kylie

 Graphics by Scrappin Doodles. 

20 Literacy Centers, craftivities, booklets

I finally got this pack finished and uploaded to TpT. It's amazing how little gets done in a week when you sleep in every day!

This pack has 20 Winter themed literacy centers, activities, craftivities and foldable books for your kiddos. Click on the pics to check it out at TpT.

I couldn't get it to load to Teachers Notebook, so I'll work on getting it on there later (may not be until after Christmas). It's 20% off for the next few days. It includes templates for these little cuties:

 This is my rushed version of the Fact and Opinion Penguin - I'm sure your kiddos could do better and make it more colourful.

 Descriptive writing Penguin.

Well, it's Christmas Eve. I've got lots to do so probably won't be back on until after Christmas. We'll be having breakie at home (always so big I feel like a nap afterwards), late lunch at mum's and then all my nephews are coming over for a swim in the afternoon. Should be a lovely day spent with family. I hope you have a wonderful day, filled with love, laughter and lots of food (surely that's one of the best things about Christmas!!). 

~Kylie

Is 12 too young for a phone + craftivity

I can't believe tomorrow is Christmas Eve! I'm glad to say I've gotten all my Christmas shopping done (I only started on Tuesday!). I'm a little nervous though... I got my son a mobile phone. He is 12 and in January will start high school. He'll be catching the bus and might be late some days because he is interested in going to the school's Homework Club so he doesn't have to bring homework home. Soooo... I thought he should have one so I know where he is and so he can contact me if he needs to. Is he too young to have one? I'd love to know what you think.

I'm also just about to list a new pack I have made on TpT. It has 20 Winter themed literacy centers and activities. It also comes with 2 craftivities and 2 student foldable booklets. 

Here's a sneak peek:

Penguin descriptive writing

So, is 12 too young for a mobile phone?  Have you experienced any problems with your kids and their phones? Bills, bullying or anything else??

Flip the Sound Accuracy CAFE strategy + FREEBIE

I felt really bad about 'wasting' a whole week camping so I decided to do up a pack on the Flip the Sound strategy. I found this was a strategy that many of my students this year had to work on.

So, seeing as though I did not want to brave the shops on a weekend this close to Christmas, I made up this pack! It's too late for them since I start with a new bunch next year, but my students next year will benefit!

I thought having the sounds on display would help them with remember the sounds so I made up a display wall header and cards. These are some of the cards showing two sounds these letters can make:

I also made 2 charts/posters to have at the guided reading table. This is the second one. The other covers the vowels and y.

I also made up a flip book for students to record words that have the spelling/sound.

Here's one I put together for the instruction page:

 

I have the writing down the bottom so students can flick through easily to find the page they need and so it doesn't get cut off when they staple the book together.

It also includes 2 blank templates.

It covers 12 letters/letter combinations (short and long a, e, i, o, u, the sounds of y, c, g, ch, oo, ea, and ow. 

If you're interested, you can grab it on TpT and Teachers Notebook on sale for the next couple of days. TpT also has a preview.

 Now, the freebie. I found this song on ProTeacher. 

Please note that I DID NOT write this song. The song was posted on Proteacher at this link by sn02py. Thanks for sharing it - I'm not creative enough to come up with one!

Graphics courtesy of  JW Illustrations, KPM Doodles, Goodness and Fun, Alice Smith at DigiScrapKits and Scrappin Doodles.

Fonts: CK Handprint

Pinterest Christmas Craft

Well I'm back from my week of camping! We had a GREAT time, but I can't help but feel like I've wasted a week of my holidays! I ALWAYS feel like that! We've only got a month before we start to go back in! EEKK! Then the new kids! I totally don't feel ready to tackle a new bunch of kids! 

Before the end of the school year, we had a 'step-up day' so the Grade 1's came up to Grade 2 for an hour in the afternoon. Now, my school was not that organised so I didn't even have MY kids for next year... 1A simply went up to 2A, 1B to 2B etc. (I know, why  have a day like this if the the kids don't even meet their new teacher, know what room they're in etc, for teachers to see their kids, perhaps get a writing sample, see how they follow instructions etc). OH. MY. LORD. Talk about not being able to sit still, follow simple instructions, stay focused for even 1 minute, calling out, the constant asking to go to the bathroom - they were only with me for 1 hour and boy was that enough!! They weren't THAT bad, though it might sound like it, but I forget how young they are at the start of the year, and how much time we spent on routines, procedures and behavioural expectations to get them to the way they are at the end of the year. It didn't just magically happen and they were this great bunch of kids who knew that we aren't allowed to HUM, TAP or WHISTLE! GGRRRR! I think teachers need the break before a new school year returns just to get the energy back to go through it ALL OVER AGAIN!!

Now, to my post heading.. during the last week we made these great reindeer Christmas decorations - EASY PEASY to  make! Because it was a HOT day, the paint took hardly any time to dry so it was a very quick activity. I know you've seen it - it's alllll over Pinterest!

Don't you LOVE the red and green eyes-  CRAZY RUDOLF!

Reading Goals

5 days to go until the end of the year! I absolutely can't wait! Sure I'll miss my kids, but boy am I exhausted! Sorry for the lack of posting in recent weeks but I've been coming home and collapsing!

Here is something I've been doing the last term with my class. At my school, we are required to set individual reading goals for each of our students every five weeks. Thank you CAFE and conferencing for making this easy to do! (The time consuming part is having the beginning data and ending data in order to show growth, or lack thereof, every five weeks to show the powers that be before amending the goals/setting new ones). This is how I've displayed my goals for each student (another requirement).

It's on a window so you can see the blu-tac sticking the construction paper to the window! I don't have that much wall space - two sides of my room are completely covered in windows and one more has one of those concertina doors across the whole length of it so it can't be used for anything :( It's actually a shame to cover them up because when you look out my windows you see our local forest less than 20m away! It's a great view!

So anyway, each of my kiddos have a leaf with their reading goal on it (e.g. summarising texts without retelling, using a particular decoding strategy, finding the main idea etc).

I then end up grouping kids together that have similiar goals and meeting with them (even though they might be at different reading levels) during the time I usually do guided reading. I LOVE it! I end up planning a series of lessons that focus on the goal  and meeting with just the kids that have that goal. I set aside two days a week to meet with Goal Groups rather than levelled groups. I've found this really beneficial and the kids have come a long way.


I'm looking at changing it for next year... perhaps a Pot of Goals! and each of the goals are written on a gold coin... not feeling it. Does anyone have any other ideas??

Also, are you looking for some great Christmas activities? Amy at The Land of Second Grade is having a giveaway of two of her Christmas products. Be sure to head on over! It's being drawn Sunday.