A Steep Learning Curve & A Spelling Freebie...

Wow lovely, friends!  I am so sorry it has been a while between posts, but as I am finding out...this teaching gig is TOUGH!!

As a new graduate, there are so many things that I have never even seen before...let alone had to put together!!

The past few weeks have been a  HUGE learning curve.  Amongst all the learning (mine, not so much my students') a few things we managed to enjoy were:

1.  We (my kiddies and I) stopped a pesky pigeon from driving a bus, wanting a puppy and staying up late!  We just LOVED the Mo Willems Author Study by Sarah from First Grader...At Last!  If you haven't used this great resource, you really should hop on over to Sarah's blog and check it out....SO MUCH FUN!!

2.  We had so much fun reading Splat The Cat by Rob Scotton and then, inspired by the amazing art lesson by Patty from Deep Space Sparkle, creating our own Splat the Cats, using paint, chalk and special paper folded legs!

3.  I had to submit my Teaching Program Folder to our Principal.  It was a HUGE task to get this ready...boy the things they don't teach you at Uni!!  Then it was just as stressful having to go through it page by page with our amazing relieving Principal.

4.  All our Year 1 - 2 teachers have had to begin to implement our new Literacy program into our classrooms!  Again...another HUGE undertaking!  However, guided reading groups are up and running, and we now have literacy centers happening...which is so much fun!  However, due to the different timetable and the amount of time required for the guided reading and guided writing each day, I have noticed that SPELLING has really suffered the last two weeks.  So I am now moving my spelling activities from my word work station and adding them to a specific SPELLING STATION (in place of 'reading to a buddy', which is just not working in our classroom).

I have made up a packet of simple spelling activities that my kiddies are already familiar with.  Nothing new in there, but they are a small set of simple Black Line Masters that you may find handy for your own classroom use.  I have uploaded them to Google Docs.  I plan on laminating mine to get maximum use from them ... gee I can't tell you how much printer ink I have used in the past 5 weeks!!

CLICK HERE to download the Spelling Worksheets Packet.

I have absolutely no idea how all of you amazing teacher / bloggers find the time to create and share your resources, or even just blog!  I hope to discover that secret soon!!

Wishing everyone a wonderful weekend ahead!  I, for one, am so thankful for the weekend and the chance to catch up and get organised again before Monday morning!

Thanks for stopping by!!