Getting the hang of year 1 again!

The past couple of weeks has been so busy! I have started my new CPAC job, and am enjoying that so far - I had an induction 2 weeks ago and since then have been getting organised to work with staff across a few different schools. I'll update you on that stuff another day - today I have got some of the  cute things we've been doing in our class. 


 Last year we had great success with the 'Jolly Grammar' program, where kids are taught letter spelling patterns and grammar knowledge. We have started this again this year. Each week we introduce a new spelling rule, and brainstorm words that include the week's sound. Here are the first two weeks - sh and ch.

 

This term we have started the year with recount writing, I have been modelling the process for the children. We started with the introduction last week, where we worked through from the brainstorm stage, to the draft. After the class had written their introduction I got them to buddy up and read each others. Then they had to circle the 'who' 'what' 'where' and 'when' in each others work. This was really cute - I explicitly taught a few of them that were the early finishers - then when a few more finished I asked the group I taught first to go and be teachers to the other children. They were so excited to show off their skills and work alongside their peers as their teacher. :)

For art we did a directed drawing of their faces, then added crayon, paint and water colour to finish them off. They turned out super cute. We usually back our paintings onto large cardboard before we hang it up - just makes it a bit tidier and looks nicer :) I love Sara's "Anna those are freckles!"

Maths this term so far has been data collection and representation. We wrote the letters in our names down, and predicted which we thought would have the most (most of the kids predicted the letter e, the rest chose the letter their name started with). We placed them on an alphabet graph, and as we were gluing them down they were coming up with the cutest things 

"Look! E and I have the same!"

"A has 20!... I wonder if it will get any more?"

"P has none!"

"Z only has 1"

It was so cute. Afterwards we talked with our partners and came up with a few observations about the data collected. We worked out that the vowels had lots and talked about why. We also practised our tallying.

The final picture I have is all of our pencil tins. Each afternoon the kids place their pencil tins on the drawers at the back of the classroom so the tables are clear for the cleaners. Every day they line them up in order! I never asked them to, they just do it! Isn't that the sweetest? Funny little bunnies! 

Well the first week of school is over and what a cute little class of 23 year ones I have this year! Check out their feelings on the first day back on Tuesday! Super cute and thrilled that they are mostly happy and excited!

We have started this week with going through daily routines and the school values. Here's a sneaky shot of my classroom. I am in a large open space unit, which holds 6 classes. There are a few walls, but no doors so the classrooms are very open! My classroom ends where the kid's drawers start at the back. Behind is where the JP big books live and the small group readers, as well as a couple of couches and desks for reading and small group work. My desk is right at the back too where the rainbow organiser is. 

On the tables, the children share a coloured, numbered pencil pot, and have a Jolly Phonics letter chart held up in an ikea serviette holder (a nifty idea from one of the teachers sharing my class!) The pencil pots are something new this year, it has been extremely helpful as we can call out coloured tables, or odd/even numbers to return to their seats after floor time! Last year the kids had a pencil basket, but I think these are MUCH cuter!

Every day our class does 'expert reading', where we practise building our stamina and strategies. Before we started this we brainstormed what it meant to be an expert reader. I love the ideas the kids came up with for "feels like" (especially the word "EPIC" hehe). I am going to turn this into a poster for our classroom to remind children what this time is about. 

We have also been working on some cute craft literacy and numeracy activities from Deanna Jump's "Names Unit" I've linked below to her TPT page. She has the cutest stuff!

Names Unit Deanna Jump

 I had to modify her activity a little as we didn't have the book she suggested on hand, instead we just wrote our name and something we liked :) They turned out so cute and it has really brightened up the classroom for the start of the year! 

We also did her chicka chicka boom boom activity by thinking about our names and how many letters are in them. They turned out pretty cute don't you think!? We also listened to the chicka chicka boom boom song from:

http://www.schooltube.com/video/2490bb8cd9848c3af3ec/ 

 This next week I am starting my Australian Curriculum co-ordinator position, so I'll have to blog about that next!

Right so I'm pretty proud of myself as this is the second time I have blogged this month!

We started back at school this week for our teacher prep days and WOAH we have been productive!

So last year, Deann (my teaching partner) and I decided to rearrange our wet area. We are pretty lucky in our classroom to have a lovely big space to use for art and storage. However... there has been several groups of teachers in our classroom for the past few years and A LOT of junk had accumulated.

We started by taking all the drawers out and everything off of the shelves, this enabled us to see what we had, what we could donate to other classes and what we could throw out.

A quick trip to IKEA was necessary to purchase 40 new tubs!

We then sorted the items into like groups and put them in IKEA tubs or the drawers underneath.

Tada! Everything has a home and we know where everything is! Such a good feeling to be so organised!

 

Hello Literacy 

I downloaded the awesome fonts on the signs from Jen Jones on teacherspayteachers. I have to say that most of my classroom signs have her fonts on them! They are just so darn cute!! 





Well there's my second post this year! Let's hoping I can keep it up! Next week I'll post some pics of the rest of the classroom (there's not much in it at the moment!)

Wish me luck for next week's start of the school year with my new babies!!

Wow. Talk about being a slacker!! 

One of my new year's goals is to knuckle down and really start blogging regularly! I think I've said that every year but I really want to try and do this properly!! 

So much has happened in the last year! I moved to a new school and was blown away by my amazing class of kids and even more so with my amazing co-workers. I'm right by the beach (ahhh amazing!) and I feel so lucky I work in such a beautiful, supportive, fun school. I worked in a big open classroom with another teacher, between us we had 50 year 1s.

On the first day I had them draw their face on a circle and we made a picture graph. This stayed up for the first few weeks and we were able to refer to it while we started our unit on graphing. It was nice to see how many kids were feeling excited about their first day in year 1.

The whole year was absolutely amazing, I had such a supportive bunch of parents, always wanting the best from their children, and would regularly visit in the morning for a catch up chat, or to ask how their kids were doing. (This was something I hadn't really experienced before, so it was a nice contrast). 

Something else I was blown away with was the amount of work and learning these kids were capable of. They soaked up everything they were taught and were always eager for more. It was so pleasing seeing them absorb and apply knowledge.

This little love made my day with her recount writing about lunch time play 

And this little fella had a maths brain so advanced! He always went above and beyond what was required in maths tasks. Clever boy! 

I love the detail in this labelled diagram!

I lost a whole heap of my school photos when my iphone decided to die earlier this year! Thank goodness for instagram hey! 

I loved some of our mother's day craft!

One of the highlights this year for me was going to the JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE CONCERT! He is an amazing performer, and even though I was pretty tired the next day at school, I couldn't stop singing his songs and buzzing about how amazing the whole night was!

Next year, I have accepted a curriculum co-ordinator position, I will still be on site at my current school, however I will be working week on, week off, so one week in the classroom, and one week co-ordinating. I will be focusing on effective teaching strategies and 21st century learning design. I'm not 100% sure on what I am doing yet, but am so excited (and grateful!) to be in this position. I am also excited to still have year 1s next year, we had a meet the teacher session in the last few weeks of school and I have the cutest class.
I WILL update my blog with what I am focusing on in the classroom, and in the co-ordinator job... even if it is just for me (is anyone out there reading?)

Anna  

SA Public Teaching Awards

Earlier this year, I was absolutely blown away when I was sent an email saying that someone had nominated me for a Public Teaching Award. I felt so honored and humbled.

The person who nominated me wrote:

"Anna is currently a Reception/Year 1 teacher at **** Primary School. **** Primary School is a low socio economic school and many of Anna's students come to school with little or no literacy skills. Anna is able to engage all her students in a caring and compassionate manner and her students are always enthused and excited about their learning. Anna has taught a blind student for the past two years and this student has been successful in his start to school due to the hard work and dedication of Anna."

WOW. What an honour.  

Around August, I received a phone call to my classroom from our Aboriginal Education Teacher, he said "I wanted to congratulate you for winning teacher of the year..." I was confused - was he playing a joke? I told him I wasn't, and that he must be confused. He told me our local newspaper wanted to interview me for a story, and a press release had my name on it! I checked my phone and mum, dad and my brother had all messaged me to tell me my name was in the state paper! I had won my region's award for Early Years Educator. Wow. I was absolutely blown away. 

In October, I was invited to an awards dinner, where the state award winners were to be announced. It was a great night!

Kim & me at the awards dinner. We went to high school together and now teach in the same country town! Small world! She is an amazing teacher!

 The table - they had pencils with names attached for place settings. Our awards were placed on the table in front of us. 

My daddy! I took him with me to the awards night. I hope I've made my family proud. 

I didn't end up winning the state award, however I am absolutely thrilled to make it down to the regional awards. What a great way to recognise teachers in our state.

In the Garden

I just finished my last blog post, but feel motivated to continue writing!

This term, we have been learning about 'The Garden' - all about bugs and plants. My kiddos have loved it! Especially since we get to use scientific vocabulary! 'thorax' 'abdomen' etc.

This theme has been one of the most fun I have done - I have loved seeing my class get so excited about their learning - observing their seeds grow, using a magnifying glass to watch ants. Amazing!

A view of my classroom at the moment - each table has a different insect above it which helps with classroom management - e.g. "Ants - you can get your book out now"

Close up of part of our theme board

The back wall has some of our work from Science and Maths, as well as our word wall. The maths board has some pizzas we made to develop of cutting a shape in half. The kids pick up halving shapes pretty quickly so I introduced halving amounts - the majority picked this concept up immediately and we made some bugs with spots (I just noticed the green bug had a spot fall off! Oops!)

Our spotty bugs!

This term it was SSO week - I have three SSOs that work in my classroom - I made them some gifts that I had seen on pintrest - super cute! I love pintrest!

Earlier this month I ordered a classroom organiser from "Lakeshore Learning'. I was soooooo excited about it having seen it all over pintrest and other teacher's blogs. I live in Australia and we don't have Lakeshore stores here - so I had to order it online (it ended up being REALLY expensive - almost 3x the price it is in USA! oh well). I am able to organise my week (sometimes fortnight) by having the resources I need for each lesson in the coloured box. I used to have a folder in my filing cabinet - but this is so much cuter!

The last thing I have to show you is the dragonfly craft we did the other day - I'm really happy with the way they turned out! I'm also really impressed with how well the kiddos did working independently on their dragonfly!

I think that'll do for now!

Blogging catch up!

I've been thinking a lot about blogging lately - I can't seem to do it regularly enough!! I really enjoy reading other blogs, however I find that what I have to say isn't very interesting!

I thought I would start adding photos of my classroom and activities we do - maybe then I will stay motivated to keep blogging on a regular basis! We have iPads in our classroom, and I often take photos of what we do - what better way to share than over the internet!

It has been FOREVER since I last posted, so I might do a big share of what's been going on!

Last term in my class, our theme was "Dr Seuss". I chose this as I found many of my little cherubs were really struggling with the concept of rhyme. We read a different book each week, then completed some activities around the book. The kids picked up rhyming SO QUICKLY! They really enjoyed the silly words and stories of Dr Seuss. I would read a passage and stop just before the rhyming word - having them put one in. This showed me if they could produce a rhyme on their own and hey presto! They sure could! I found the activities that accompanied many of the books on TPT. Thank you to the creators! I don't know what I would do without teacherspayteachers!

Below is a photo of my classroom with some of our work up on the board.

We also had Sports Day last term. Our Sports Day starts after recess - so I needed an activity to fill in the morning (I had a class of very excited 5 & 6 year olds!). We started off our morning normally - I then read them a book I found in our school library Sports Day by Nick Butterworth & Mick Inkpen.

It is a cute little story about a school's sports day - we talked about the concept of winning and losing and trying our best. Then we made these CUTE Sports Day people using a template I made up. Aren't they just precious?!

 

I think I'll leave this post here for now!