My Truth: Creepy Stuff

I loved reading all of the fitness My Truth posts last week so I've decided to join Denise this week with her new topic: Creepy Stuff. 

Food: Anything soggy I just can not eat. I hadn't eaten cereal since I was a kid until very recently when I started trying to eat breakfast as part of a health kick. I would dip a spoonful of cereal into the bowl of milk and put it straight in my mouth before it could get soggy! I can't have croutons in soup (or dip in bread rolls), tomato and pineapple have to be separate from other salad ingredients and bread and butter pudding would make me vomit. I think it has something to do with the texture.

Scary Movies: When it comes to scary movies, I don't mind watching them although I am the screamer at the cinemas! And yes, I do get laughed at when I scream (and jump out of my seat) during movies. But I like them anyway. 

Sick movies are another thing though. Movies like Saw I just don't get and really creep me out in a bad way. 

What creeps me out the most: creepy crawlies. Enough said.

Head on over and link up your My Truth with Denise here:

I started up a FB page last night, I'd love you to be among my very first followers! I've just bought my first smartphone EVER and think FB and Instagram will be much easier to update and post to now!

Halloween Addition and Subtraction Game Freebies

If you are like me, you love the Halloween season! Even though Halloween isn't a major holiday in Australia, it is getting more popular and it's just so much FUN! 

Here are some math rotations I've used with my class that have a Halloween theme. I use T.I.M.E. for my rotations - Teacher's Choice (usually this is working with the teacher, unless I have individual assessments to do), Independent Work, Math Facts and Easy Revision. You can read a blog post about T.I.M.E. Math here. 

For our T (Teacher's Choice) Tub, we are working on solving and representing addition and subtraction number stories. I am using my Fall Word Problems with my lower group. We are drawing a picture, using unfix cubes in a 10-Frame, number path and number sentences to represent each problem. 

You can pick up my pack of 80 Fall themed addition and subtraction problems for K-1st Grade in my TpT store. 

For our Math Facts rotation, I made some 'broomsticks' (addition and subtraction facts written on craft sticks) and wrote the totals 7-12 on Halloween themed tubs or 'cauldrons'. Students pull a 'broomstick', solve, and sort the sticks into the 'cauldrons'. 

Here's a recording sheet I made to go along with it if you want to make this activity for yourself. I added some Hundred Charts to work out the answers as differentiation for those who needed it and some flash cards for fast finishers - they love testing and timing each other!

Another game we've been playing to master addition math facts the last two weeks is Witchy Brew. You can download it here in google drive. 

Do you love Halloween as much as me?!

More Randomness

It's been almost 2 months since my last post - where does time fly?? Here's a little photo update of what I've been up to. 

We had a visit from our local fire department. The kids had a ball spraying the hose!

We made these cute trophies for Father's Day (celebrated in September here). I spray painted disposable coffee cups gold, used double sided tape to join them together and the kids used sticky foam letters to add a message. Totally ripped off of Pinterest.

I went on a cruise with Liz from Bayside Math Teacher for 10 days over our spring break (plus an overnight stay on the Gold Coast and in Sydney). We had a great time and are already planning a ski trip to New Zealand next Winter!

Before we left from Sydney, we did all the touristy things - visited the Opera House, walked the Harbour Bridge and visited Luna Park and the Botanical Gardens. 

While down in Sydney, I had my first Starbucks coffee! I don't think we have them in Brisbane...Once on board the Carnival Spirit, I loved relaxing with cocktails in the Serenity Bar. We ended up collecting all the fancy cups they can get served in. My boy down there was constantly annoying me by not wanting to smile (or pose for) any photos. Ggggrrrrrr. Liz and I dressed up for Mexican (and Caribbean) night and of course the sunsets were amazing as we sailed through Vanuatu and New Caledonia. My head kept getting in the way of this selfie... but the first selfie I've ever taken was on this cruise (believe it or not) and I did get a little bitty bit better at taking them! When I saw Cara's font titled "Oh Poop" I knew I had to use it because that's what I said after about 10 of these selfies all having the same result :)

We ended up having shore days at Isle of Pines and Mystery Island in Vanuatu and Lifou and Noumea in New Caledonia. I LOVED New Caledonia and will definitely go back again. By now I was a little better at taking selfies.... We ended up taking a path through the 'wilderness' at Lifou which was little more than a little dirt track. It paid off, it took us straight to Jinek Bay, which had some great snorkeling. The water was so clear and there were plenty of fish!

After our snorkel in Lifou, we followed this sign to the Cave. I'd read about it online and we'd planned to go there and it was so helpful that this sign was there to show us the way! We passed some traditional homes and Catholic Church and had another little trek down to the cave. The view from where we enter looking back up was beautiful! It is very dark when you enter the cave with just a little light shining in from a natural opening. There is a man there with a torch but it was still really dark. There is a natural pool that you can jump into, which we did! The water is about a metre from the surface and you just have to take the plunge into darkness! I took a photo when I got down in there to see what I was jumping into and you could see the water with the flash, but without it you couldn't really see anything. It was a lot of fun!

The snorkeling was fantastic. We took a tour through Aquanature because it was rated Number 1 activity on TripAdvisor. It was wonderful and Bernard (our guide) was so knowledgeable, that's him swimming down to pick some things up to show us. Most of the good stuff I videoed instead of taking photos, but we got to see a sea turtle, a shark, stingray, schools of fish and lots more! I want to go back and do it all again!

Anyway, we're back to real life now - 7 weeks to go for this school year. Can't wait for summer! We are learning out Sound at the moment in science and the kids had a blast making straw kazoos to explore pitch this week. Click the pic to take you to PBS to view it. I was happy to send the kazoos home in the afternoon for the kids to show their parents!

 

I'll try to be back more school related things soon!