Winter Crafts and Word Problems

What I would do to jump in a plane and fly off to somewhere nice and warm right now! Maybe to the amazing oceans and Mayan ruins of Belize, or perhaps to see the beautiful art and countryside of Tuscany.... well a girl can dream, right?! Instead I am suffering through our Winter where my entire wardrobe consists of flannel pj's, woolly socks, ugg boots and a very warm and comfy dressing gown!

Not that I'm comfy at the moment - I am SORE! I have reluctantly pulled myself away from Game of Thrones season 2 (yes, I've only just started watching the series!) to head out for 6km bush walks the past few days. Ouch, if I'd known that half the walk was uphill I probably would have reconsidered! I even did a bit of jogging so I can up my fitness and attempt to keep up with Liz and her hubby when we do The Stampede in a few weeks. I really don't know what I've gotten myself into!

Besides the cold, I have been enjoying the Winter holidays! It always feels good to go into the holidays with assessment completed and reports done. Before we left, we completed a few Winter themed crafts I thought I'd share. 

We loved making these snowmen! It doesn't snow here in Brisbane, but it certainly feels cold enough!

During the last week of term, I went with some simpler crafts that the kids could do independently while I worked with some kids to finish off other work. Did I mention that we also had our Grade 4-12 sports carnival going over 3 days during the last week and the oval (where about 1500 kids were running around) is just metres from our room?! Luckily, instead of getting all riled up with music playing all day, my kids worked quietly so they could hear it! Happy teacher :)

We started with a torn paper penguin after we read The Emperor's Egg. Boy, did they LOVE this book! 

I found this craft here - I copied the steps onto a powerpoint and displayed it so the kids could work independently. 

We also did a snowman in a snow globe for no other reason than it was short and easy. The day before, we did a marble painting for the background and the next they just had to assemble their snowman. Many of the kids tried to show movement - like the wind knocking their snowman over, instead of just having a standing snowman.

We've also been working through some Winter themed word problems in Math. You can grab this pack in my TpT store!

What Winter crafts are you doing soon? 

Simple Mother's Day Craft

Thanks to Pinterest, we were able to make this cute bookmarks for our mums this year. 

 

 Pinterest Link.

I didn't get any photos of ours but they turned out really cute! We backed them on pale blue card and laminated them.

We also made these cutie patootie flower bouquets using our hand prints! Our classroom looked so bright with these sitting on our desks! Super cheap and easy to make - simply trace 6 hand prints (my kiddies chose whether they wanted to mix colours or use all the same), cut out, roll up and sticky tape to a straw. Tape all 6 'stems' together and wrap in tissue paper with ribbon. We also glued down a heart. I saw this idea on Pinterest, but can't find the link :(

I've taken a photo of each student and one of the whole class holding their flowers. I'm sending off a Smilebox Sunday morning with our flower photos to wish our mum's a happy Mother's Day. 

I have to say y'all (I've always wanted to say that!), this was so simple and cheap to put together! I had all the items on hand and just bought some more ribbon in case I ran out. Simple but oh-so-cute!

To all the mum's out there, I hope you have a wonderful day! My son woke me up with breakfast in bed this morning, not realising that Mother's Day is not until Sunday! I'm looking forward to it again tomorrow!

Story Elements Kite Freebie

I found these cute little ladybugs on Pinterst: 

 Click the pic to visit the site.

I wanted to use the idea when I get back to school but had to come up with an educational reason! We've been learning about story elements so I thought we could make a Story Elements Kite!

They are pretty simple to make. Just cut out the diamonds, each kite needs 2. Cut a slit along the dotted the line. Take the 2 diamonds and line up the slits and insert them into each other. Lay it flat and glue "Characters" onto the side. Open, 'turn' the 'page' of the kite, lay flat and glue down 'Setting'. Continue for Problem and Solution. 

This is the kite laid flat. 'Setting' label glued to the side. 

(How do you like my drawing skills!? Ha! Can you guess the story?)

Run a thin line of hot glue where the slits intersect to connect them together. Cut a piece of string and glue it in with the slits.

Cut a long strip of paper and glue to the bottom of the kite to be the streamer. Record the Title, Author and Illustrator of the story on the bows. Glue the bows on the streamer. 

I didn't have the glue or string at home, so here's my son holding the very quickly completed story elements kite! I figured I better do up something quickly, otherwise I'll forget about it by the time I head back to school.  I think they'd look heaps better with lots of colour and hanging from the roof. 

Grab the templates here in google docs. 

Also, I've recently added these products to TpT and TN and even better, everything is $2 or under!

 

Summer Writing Craftivity: TN and TptT 

 Skip Counting: TN and TpT            Multiplication/Division Fact Families: TN and TpT

We are now a week into our 2nd week off :( Goes too fast....Back to school on Monday.

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??

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!

Wind Socks

Last week (before our Spring holidays - yeah!), my class finished up their study of weather/the seasons and the water cycle. This is one little craft project we did when we were learning about wind. 

We just halved a piece of white card and used a range of materials to decorate it with anything to do with wind. Some used pastels, markers, cotton balls, scrunched up pieces of crepe paper to add to their trees etc. We then just folded the two ends together and stapled. Each student then cut out some streamers from a crepe paper roll (from the party section) and stapled them on. It was so easy to make!

We took them outside at various times and days so that we could determine which way the wind was blowing and estimated the strength of the wind. We hung them up across a clothes lines in our room and when the windows were open they would move in the breeze - it looked great!

Here's the only picture of have of them :(

One more week of Spring Holidays left! I can't believe we only have 10 weeks of the school year to go!

What have you done in your class in the past week? Link up at the Clutter-Free Classroom