Rudolf the red nosed Reindeer activity

Another great Christmas activity I came across was from "Just Wild About Teaching" blog, where she has created a fantastic Christmas pack that contains this wonderful Rudolf the Reindeer craft activity. But to make this activity even more special, it encourages the children to write about what they would do if they had their own reindeer. My little cherubs had so much fun with this activity, I don't think they even knew they were doing work!

A few tips when doing this activity:

1. Do a step-by-step explanation. It can be quite complicated for little ones to do all at once, so I first got my kidlets to go and cut out all their pieces, then once they had done that got them to come back in small groups and we went around and stuck the various pieces on the corresponding coloured paper (as you can see below). Some still managed to stuff this up, but I feel that's part of the assessment  - listening and following instructions.

2. Once they have gone away and glued all the pieces on correctly and cut those out, have them return and go through how to piece the reindeer together. Once they have done this, they can go and write about what they would do if they had a reindeer.

These will brighten up any classroom in the lead up to the festive season. While it is time consuming and somewhat fiddly, it is an activity that the children will really enjoy - I promise!

A quick, easy, low fuss science lesson

Need a fun, quick and easy science experiment for any age group? This is a simple one, and you've probably got the ingredients in your cupboard right now! 

All you need is:

* 1.25L soft drink bottle (per student/group)

* 1 balloon (per student/group)

* 1tsp baking soda/bi-carb soda

* 2 tbsp white vinegar

The procedure is as follows:

* Place the bottle on the table and remove the lid. Carefully pour or spoon 2 tablespoons of vinegar into the bottle.

* Open up the mouth of the balloon (put the first two fingers, not the thumb, on each hand inside the mouth of the balloon and stretch). Have a friend put 1 teaspoon of baking soda into the balloon with the spoon you have not used.

* Without spilling any of the baking soda, stretch the mouth of the balloon over the mouth of the bottle.

Turn the balloon completely upright so that the baking soda inside the balloon pours into the bottle with the vinegar. Watch!

I did this experiment on a casual day. The school is notoriously tough, but I was thrilled to see how engaged and enthusiastic the kids were about this activity - even the writing up process!! 

So don't be afraid by doing a science experiment - some of the best ones are the simplest!

You can grab a copy of the writing element FOR FREE from my stores. 

An oldie, but a goodie!

Thinking up Christmas activities that the kids in my class would not have done already was tricky - I wanted to make sure that the activities were new and fresh and kept the children engaged throughout the term. 

So, when it doubt, think back to some of the things you made as a kid at this time of year. One of the easiest is the Magazine Christmas tree. Most families will have at least one magazine lying around at home, and that's really all you need! The rest is a simple folding technique! Check out this great video tutorial (and many others like it on YouTube) for how to make these easy and very decorative trees!

Apologies for Delayed Postings...

My sincere apologies to everyone for my lack of posting these past few months - it has been a very hectic time! We've been getting the house ready to begin our renovations this month, we are due with baby no.2 in June (and I have been VERY unwell so far) and the end of the school year doesn't get any easier - even if you only work one day a week! I hope everyone had a wonderful end to the school year, and has enjoyed all the festivities over this wonderful season of Christmas and New Year!

During the final school term, I was working on a Wednesday with my year 2 class, and I was given the task of teaching Art. I created the Art program for the whole stage, and the other teachers and I decided that we would teach it as a whole grade, therefore making a Wednesday afternoon Art afternoon - which you can guess the children thoroughly looked forward too! So my next few posts will be show casing our artworks - many of which were new to me, having found the activities on other bloggers sites!

The first activity we first created at the start of the term was this Nativity scene - a wonderful art activity shared by Gail Bartel on her blog over at The Artistic Woman. You can find all the instructions and the template over at her blog - the only thing I did differently with my students was I got them to paste their silhouette cut-outs on the BACK of the black brenex paper, so that when they cut them out they all you saw was the black shape. (I also got them to stick the star shape onto some shiny gold or silver paper).

Most students followed the instructions well, BUT I would suggest doing the project in stages - i.e. discuss the whole project, but explain the painting process first, then go through the cutting and pasting of the silhouette process after. You can see how well the paintings turned out, and the beauty of this activity is that no two artworks are the same.

Programming & Register of Outcomes

I had a contract for 12 months at a local school, and it was there I probably had the most valuable learning experiences when it came to programming. My mentor was fantastic and the school was very strict on making sure programs were up to date, and were checked every term! One of the things I picked up was the register of outcomes - you place this in the front of each subject section of your program and you can tick or highlight the outcomes you cover each term in each subject. It's a great visual to show what outcomes have been addressed that year, and is also a great tool for ensuring you are addressing all the outcomes for that year/stage.

Check out my store to purchase a copy of all the register of outcomes for all KLA's from Kindergarten through to Year 6!!! I've also included a copy of my Literacy and numeracy program proformas.

Always start at the beginning

Well I have managed to pick up work for the rest of the year! YEAH ME! I will be working every Wednesday for the rest of the year on a year 2 class. The lady that I am sharing with is fantastic, very similar in teaching style and beliefs... Thank goodness! Makes the job so much easier! I have had the class the last 3 Wednesdays, and in that time I have gotten to know the kids (the naughty ones are always the first ones you get to know) and it's going to be a great class to teach.

I noticed that the other teacher had a morning routine on the IWB, so I decided to get a copy and make some modifications to make it my own (I have one from my days working in Special Ed but this one needed to be a little more complex). I found a great morning routine on the Smart Exchange, and decided to take some ideas from this, combine them with the other and make a great (Australian teacher friendly) morning routine IWB activity.

 The activities include the class roll, weather chart, days of the week and date, monthly calendar, whole number, time and currency activity as well as a sight word activity. Check out my stores to purchase a copy!

My crafting afternoon project

My husband, who is unfortunately on a very strict diet due to some unknown health issues, is always saying to me that we need a weekly menu to make shopping easier and so that we know what we are cooking that week. Makes sense, but I hadn't really put any thought into it until I saw this picture on Pinterest (click on the picture to go to The Creative Mama blog) and thought "well here is the answer, so I'm going to give it a go!"

So yesterday I headed to one of our local $2 stores and picked up a 20" by 16" photo-frame. Then continued on to Spotlight to pick up the scrapbooking paper, hot glue gun & decorative details. I had an idea in my head what I wanted, but until I got there and saw what I could get, I was undecided. So I went for colours that inspire my future (and I hope not the distant future) kitchen renovation - white, turquoise, black & grey. 

Upon returning home, I put the baby down for his afternoon sleep & got stuck straight into it! I pulled the frame apart (putting the glass aside) and begun sticking the turquoise coloured paper to the backing board of the frame. Unfortunately a sheet didn't cover the whole board, so there was some cutting required which meant some overlaps of the paper. But I did fix this but cutting strips of  - see later pictures! :-)

I then went about choosing the colours that would go onto the pegs that hold the meal cards - and i thought I would do some contrasting colours - the Kasier Cardstock flipfile was fantastic as they are small samples of colours, which meant little cutting and wastage. I went with some different turquoise shades as well as some pink and purple.

I then went about tracing a peg, cutting this out and then using that cut-out as a template for the rest. I choose the above laid out order for the colour too. To ensure the paper sticks to the peg. place the hot glue on both paper and peg. (I used plastic as I couldn't find any large wooden pegs).

* Just a tip - as you cut around the outline of the peg, leave a millimeter of two to ensure you completely cover the top of the peg. 

I had purchased some self adhesive glitter letters to go on the pegs for the days of the week. These stuck well to the paper and didn't need and reinforcing. 

I then started reassembling the frame, stuck some black glitter letters onto the top of the board & then stuck the pegs onto the side of the frame. Again, when doing this place some glue on the pegs and the frame to ensure the bind between the two is strong. 

I used an A3 envelope box for the card holder (and I will get another one soon so that I have two matching) and covered it with some gray paper and trimmed it with some gray stripped card. (Use hot glue to stick the paper to the box, then hot glue to stick the box the board). 

And so below is the finished product, now taking pride of place in my kitchen. I am currently making up the meal/recipe cards to accompany it, and will post these shortly. This is a great idea for busy mums, working or stay-at-home, as it helps plan out weekly meals.