Class Books ...

As a beginning teacher, I am always in awe of other teachers who have built up fabulously stocked classroom libraries!   I try to add a book (sometimes 2 or more) each fortnight on payday, but by far the cheapest, easiest and most enjoyable additions to our classroom library are 'class books' that are compiled using my students' work.

We do a LOT of writing as part of the literacy program we are trialing this year.  Some of the writing we do, like our Action Super Hero writing pieces (from the Action Verb Unit by the Teacher Wife) has an end purpose and display format already chosen to fulfill different curriculum outcomes...

These are on display on the bulletin board outside our classroom, but I will compile them into a class book when I go back to school next week.

However, a lot of our writing is not always to this standard of visual presentation, but the actual content is full of amazing ideas, stories and thoughts that the students have enjoyed putting on paper.  Of course, they usually always draw an illustration to go with their writing!  I find that either getting my more capable Grade 2 students to type out the pieces of writing for the class, or doing it myself, and then pasting this onto the accompanying drawings, making a cover sheet and then binding them to add to our classroom library is always a HUGE hit with the students.  They just LOVE to choose a class book to read during silent reading.

Our most recent class book came about from a spontaneous writing exercise that we did on our last day of term.  We had read the fun book 'A Monster Wrote Me A Letter' by Nick Bland earlier that week and instead of my planned writing lesson, my kiddies wanted to design their own monsters and write about what they would do if a monster came to their door!  How could I refuse?  The result was some fantastic writing, some fabulous monster illustrations and a whole heap of fun!  No pics I am afraid as I left them in the classroom and have not been in over our two week break...sorry!  BUT here is the freebie cover sheet and writing template if anyone would like to download them.  Just click HERE.

Do you create class books?  What class books have you compiled for your classroom libraries?   

Thanks for stopping by!

Presto, Change-o!!

Well if you have visited my blog before, you might notice something is a little bit different!!  I had been meaning to get a blog makeover for a while now, as my original blog design was my very first attempt and I did it in a hurry...just to get my blog up.

Well I am a Queen of Procrastination, and yes I have 7 more days until term 2 begins ... AND I still have to do my teaching program.  But, I have had a bee in my bonnet about changing the look of my blog, so I spent all day giving it a makeover.

I think that this new design really captures more of ME!  Owls are my favourite animal, I love teal & green together and I love spots and bunting!

To create the new look for my blog I used some gorgeous spotty clip art from my favourite clip art designer, Kirsten from KPM Doodles.  I then added the cutest little owl, ribbon and bunting clip art from Sara at Saraink.  I just love how it has turned out.  If you haven't visited either of these fabulous designers on Etsy, you really need to make sure that you pop on over!!

I also have a new blog button, so please feel free to grab the code from my sidebar, and change out the old one if you have it!

Yesterday, thanks to the wonderful encouragement from my dear husband and three daughters, I also mustered up the courage to open a Teachers Notebook store.

 At the moment, I am just listing my freebies,

including this customiseable Dinosaur 'I have, who has...?' game which goes really well with the Dinosaur Stomp Spelling activity from my last post (yes, I do like things to match and am a huge fan of symmetry :O).  Hope you find the time to stop by, you can find the link in my sidebar or you can click on the shopfront image above.

I do still intend to upload my freebies to Google Docs.  If you would like to download this freebie from there, then just CLICK HERE.

Wishing everyone a wonderful week ahead!

Thanks for stopping by!

Wordless Picture Books...

My favourite picture book of ALL time is 'LEAF' by Stephen Michael King.  Why?  For two reasons...

• Because it is both 'written' and illustrated by my favourite children's author and illustrator...Stephen Michael King
• Because it has NO WORDS...yep, you read that correctly!!

My middle daughter first brought this book home from her school library a few years ago and the first time I read it, it made me cry (lol...may have been due to me being pregnant with our littlest at the time!!).

Our littlest now loves to read this book at bedtime.  Everytime she reads it to me, her narration becomes more detailed and I love her response when she notices something new, or comes up with a new idea.

Wordless picture books are great for any age and can be used in so many different ways.  Last week the Kindergarten class I was subbing on had such a great time with 'Leaf'.  They came up with a wonderful narration, a huge list of different things that start as seeds (we did have to make one kiddie's suggestion of ham, into a magical ham plant) and then we used these ideas for a text-to-self interactive writing activity, followed by a drawing activity.

Do you have a favourite WORDLESS picture book?  I would love to hear about it if you do!!

Thanks for stopping by,

Handwriting Fairy / Dragon Notes Freebie...

Hi everyone,

I hope everyone has had a great week?  It has been a busy one for me, my last week of mid semester break!  Uni starts again on Monday, and I am lacking the energy, I must be honest!  The one unit I have left, seems so incredibly boring!  However, a little bright spark on my Uni radar this week, was that I went and met my supervising teacher and class for my final teaching prac!  I will be teaching a Yr 3 class at a local private girls' school.  There are only 14 girls in the class, they are all just lovely and my supervising teacher told me they still believe in fairies and have wonderful imaginations...how fabulous!  One of the things that they are currently working on in class, is learning cursive writing.  So in anticipation of actually teaching these little blossoms in 4 weeks time, I have designed some handwriting notes, signed but none other than the Handwriting Fairy herself!! 

I found the idea through a post by Rachelle at What The Teacher Wants blog.  Rachelle had designed a Neat Treat card and bag from the 'Handwriting Fairy'.  I love the idea and think it is another sweet way of rewarding children for trying their best.  I think this would be great for all ages, just not Year 3. 

I have made a girly design, as well as a more boyish design, using the 'Handwriting Dragon'.  Again, I have uploaded my versions as free printable PDFs onto Google DOCS.  Just click on the titles go to Google DOCS and download them if you would like...

HANDWRITING FAIRY

HANDWRITING DRAGON

I plan on cutting these out and then mounting them on pieces of coloured cardboard with scalloped edges.  Just as Rachelle did in her post, these would be great with a little reward bag full of erasers and pens etc... and maybe a special little sprinkling of fairy dust on the desk...just for good measure!!

Happy weekend everyone,

Tina

Note:  Fairy and Dragon graphics by JD Digi Designs / JWIllustrations.

BOOKMARK FREEBIE...

 Hi everyone!  I firstly want to say a big hello and a HUGE thank you to my newest friends here, I really appreciate your encouragement and support, and I hope you find some fun and useful things amongst my ramblings:)

Well, it seems my printer has died... so instead of printing and laminating these bookmarks I made this morning, I thought I would add them to my freebies list.

I don't think teachers can ever have enough positive rewards for encouraging children to read...so I just came up with some little bookmarks, to add to my teacher's stash of goodies!  One thing that always makes me smile, is that children, no matter what age they are, all want to know if they can take things that you give them in class, home with them!!  What is with that?  Anyhow, these little bookmarks are perfect as a positive reward and source of encouragement for children to read...and YES they can take them home!!  Here is the link:

BOOKMARKS

I am in no way a graphic designer, just someone that likes to make her own resources!!  I just created a few different fun designs today.  If there is any design or combination of designs that you like best ... just let me know and I will do up a class set for you and add them to Google Docs.

I am also making up some more educational bookmarks at the moment, that will remind students to think about the Who / What / Where / When  / How etc... of what they are reading.  I will post those soon, too.

Tina

Letter - Sound Recognition Record Chart...

This afternoon I made a little letter - sound recognition checklist chart to record the letters and sounds that Miss Lottie knows, so that we can introduce and practice with the letters and sounds that she is not quite recognising yet.  I am sure that this little checklist sheet would be quite handy even in an ES1 classroom, you just tick the corresponding letter and / or sound recognition space for each letter. 

I know that there are spreadsheets and all kinds of electronic ways of recording the vast amount of information for each student, that we will be required to record...but I am an old style pen and paper girl!  I think this is a good way of keeping a record of the letter - sound recognition of younger students.  You can keep the chart and use it to fill in other types of record keeping methods, and it is also a lovely visible and personal way of presenting information to parents, if they have any questions about their child's letter - sound recognition.  I am sure students would love to be able to see their little chart filling up with ticks...you could even supply a little reward or prize for students when they have learned all their letters and sounds:)

To download the free PDF version that uses a sweet little owl graphic, click on the link below:

OWL VERSION

To download the free PDF version that uses cute little monster graphics, click on the link below.

MONSTER VERSION

Again, I hope you may find this useful.  There seems to be a line missing at the bottom of the Monster version, I will work on the formatting some more and re-post the updated PDF to Google Docs.

Wishing you a wonderful week ahead.

Tina