October PICTURES!

Hello!  I've made it through the first half term! 

As I've started my third year now at this school, the curriculum is finally clear and much easier to navigate! But with three new teachers to guide through the English...well I am still learning how to communicate expectations without being too overwhelming. How do you do that anyway? 

2 of the teachers are doing fine, but the other one is still finding her feet and I think I've stepped on her toes (not my intention but ...). Sometimes I think I do a great job as English Coordinator and then other times I really wonder.

Hopefully she will see me as someone who is here to help and our relationship will change.

ANYWAY!

Here are some pictures from my Year 5 classroom (so thankful to all the wonderful teachers that inspire me with ideas for these charts)! In Year 6 we've just finished reading Holes and lots of great creative writing with that (love it so much!!) and in Year 5 we're nearly done with Thief and the children have some fantastic writing in connection with that book. Favorite time of year, not just for the books we're reading but also the leaves and weather! I wish I had some pictures of the leaves (remember I'm from Arizona so I love changing leaves).

So I hope things are going well for you! Would love to hear from you!

Summer is officially over!

Another lovely summer has come and gone. It was wonderful and relaxing and of course too short.

I wandered around various areas here in London, got my gym habit going again, got my [healthy] eating back on track, organized the classroom libraries at my school, celebrated 10 years (since my guy and I met) and went to Cornwall with friends!

Cornwall!

We have a new head (principal) at our school! Literally at our back to school meeting the bomb was dropped and then school started the next day. Feels weird. It was bound to happen since our head left at Easter when she had a baby, but I wasn't expecting it since our other head stepped in. I just hope everything doesn't change all at once! I'm still trying to figure out my new roles with Reading Intervention!

Any tips for getting to know a new head/principal? I feel apprehensive about it all.

Hope things are going well for you!

Question about first grade math?

Hello! I know someone will have an answer for me...

I've had 2 people buy my first grade math bundle and remark that it was missing money and magnitude. I am quite confused by this, as I haven't seen this with the Common Core. I've searched through the web, but have always found money to be a second grade concept. Help please?


If you went back to school today, I hope it was wonderful!

Thanks!

I finally finished it!!!!!!!

That's it! I have finished putting my resources together for K-2 Math Journals!!

Today I finished addition and subtraction for second grade math journals and it feels so good!

And such good timing-there is a TPT sale Monday and Tuesday! Did you know this?!! So glad my friend told me about it! I guess it makes sense as a Back to School Sale...I forgot since I'm on a different school year from The States. What is on your list?!! I think I need to check up on some literature circle packs I put on my wishlist...

I'm off to bed! Hope you're having a peaceful summer or nice start to your school year!

Summer time! Freebie at the end...

Well it's been nearly a month since I last posted and now that I'm a couple weeks into summer break, I can post again!

Summer is off to a great start! My husband and I moved to a new flat a couple weeks ago, so we are settling in now and I am loving this place. A lot bigger than the other place and still a great location.

My friend and I are on a 21-day break from refined sugar (I have a serious addiction) and I am feeling heaps better already. I've been reading the book, I Quit Sugar, and I hope to continue limiting my sugar even after the 21 days. My biggest weakness is cookies/biscuits at work, so I figured summer time away from work was the best time to start this habit.

This summer I'm also trying to get outside as much as possible. There are so many places to explore in and around London, so I am determined to make the most out of it. Last week I met a friend in Richmond and it was stunning! The actual cafe was under the bridge, and the trees were massive. It felt planets away from Arizona.

Yesterday I browsed around Teddington and Twickenham. They had so many amazing charity shops! I love going to charity shops for unusual dresses or random stuff for decorating. But this trip was strictly for children's games and children's books for school. I can't wait to get it to school!

Now I must finish this up and get to the gym! Here's something I just added to my TPT store: pictures of journal/notebook ideas for social studies/science (Second-Sixth Grade). Hope it can give you ideas if you use journals in your classroom.

Have a good one!

Tara.Guided Rdg.Love

A few more weeks and I'm on summer break!! I should be grading our Big Writing, but I have to blog about this blog post I just read. Literally just came across it and had to talk about it in here.

This post is about Guided Reading/Intervention Groups and that pertains to me as next year I am starting up Intervention Groups up at my school!! I will mainly be teaching English (Year 5 & 6), Guided Reading, and then the Intervention Groups!!! What a schedule! So excited!

It might sound bizarre that we don't have that already, but with small class sizes at this school (12-16 chn per class), it hasn't really been a priority. I, however, have seen some children falling through the cracks and am so happy to get this started!!

Anyway...the post. Tara at Little Minds at Work. Check this post out. There's nothing I can say. Just read it if you teach guided reading or intervention to little guys.

I am so going to print off her pictures so I can refer to them when I'm planning. Go check out her post!!

Have a great day!

Back to work...

The French trip came and went. 5 days with our students, trekking through England to get to the stunning French countryside.

We took a 6.hour.ferry.

Way too long.

The kids were very well-behaved though, and they brought lots of games and bracelet making things to keep themselves entertained.

There were a range of activities and the camp (camp? residential? something like that) was very well organized. And the food!!!! The bread! The cheese! The wine!

Everything was in French.

Everything.

Yep, I don't speak any French. It was all a bit much. On one hand, I felt so fortunate that I saw and participated in all the amazing activities with the students. But on the other hand, long days with the children were so exhausting.

Thank goodness I had my little book translation thing. Although I still can't tell you any French words.

After the trip it was half term! 1 week off-hooray! Only bad thing was the terrible weather here in rainy England.

But I did manage to rest and not do any school work (although I'm paying for it now with reports due soon).

I guess I technically did a bit of school work. I had to take the opportunity to update some of the math journal activities in my TPT store and finally get my second grade place value printables finished!!

 

Next--------> 6 weeks left of school!! The major things are reports, parent conferences and our big play!!

I have got to say that our lovely students are off to a great start with this play and I am enjoying this sweet time of the year with them. Despite the lack of stability with our admin, and high turnover of staff, I thoroughly enjoy my students and the subjects I get to teach. I am fortunate that I get to focus on a few subjects instead of teaching everything, in addition to teaching across a couple year levels. It's nice to get to know the children throughout the school this way. I must remember this when the gossip and low staff morale get me down!!

Have a great day!! 

almost forgot my fencing picture!!

 

FREEBIE FRIDAY!

YAY!!!!!!! It's Friday!!!  What would we do without the weekend??!! I'm so exhausted and I get to sleep in tomorrow!!!!

I hope you're having a good day.

Here is a Friday FREEBIE for you! I made some flashcards this week to go along with some fluency passages I bought for my intervention students. Hope it can save you some time!

Can I just mention a few things I'm loving right now?! 

This ice cream:

 

 

I forgot how much I LOVE this show:

imovie trailer app for ipads with older students:

and I would LOVE to be here:

Have a great Friday!! Don't forget to welcome my friend to the blogging world...

Je ne parle pas français (I can't speak french)

AHHH! Would so love to blog more often than I am! 

Hope you're having a great day...things have been crazy busy as always. Are most of you nearing the end of your school year? So awesome.

Coming up: a residential trip to France for Year 5 and 6 (fourth and fifth grade) next week, assessments and the play next month! Sidenote on the play-my students are making movie trailers for the play with imovie apps.Best.Thing.Ever. Hope to share some of those later.

I'm desperately trying to learn some French phrases for our upcoming trip but that is not easy! Two other teachers are coming on the trip (and they speak French), but I've gotta learn a few words right?

Anyway, I'll share pictures when I get back!

On another note, you MUST check out my friend who has recently started blogging. She is a British teacher, just learning about the blogging world, Pinterest and TPT. I'd love it if you stopped by her blog, Resource Angel to say hello and give her some encouragement. She makes amazing resources for 3-5th grade and is one of my closest friends!

Have a good one!!

English Homework for grades 4-6

Hello! This is probably the wrong time of year for this, but if there's anyone from Australia, the UK or other places that still have a while to go for the school year, well maybe you can use this.

 
English homework.
 

Sometimes I struggle to make it interesting.

I'm required to give it once a week and I wanted to make it more interactive and possibly fun.

I saw this idea for having an on-going project that incorporates many of the features of text that we'd previously worked on in class. I tweaked it for my Year Six class for half a term and put the page along with the required paper in small folders.

Would you believe they loved it?! They loved the idea of choice, they loved adding onto to it each week.......they said it was actually...fun! 

Even better...I didn't have to sort homework week after week. They had their homework assignments for the next 6 weeks!

I've uploaded it to google docs in Word so you can change it to what you need. Please tell me if that works. I haven't used that in ages. I was too lazy to upload it to TPT. Click here for it.

One more thing for homework.

We recently returned from Easter holidays (off for 3 weeks). Again, I'm required to give English homework. This time I gave a letter with choices.

They had to pick 3 writing choices (to average 1 a week). I did mention reading in the letter, but focused more on writing for this holiday. I copied this cover sheet on bright yellow colored paper, along with several pieces of blank writing paper, and put it in a folder. Easy. Except for grading them when they come back, but hey.

Can you believe they came back showing each other what they picked and what they wrote and were so proud?! I was speechless. I was just so happy to see them enjoy writing and even want to share it with their peers!

Click here for this document in Word so you change it for your needs.

Hope some of you can use this and I can save you some time!

Have a good one xx