March travel and more notebook ideas (of course!)

Well 6 weeks on, here I am again. I've seen a lot of amazing things going on in classrooms around the world...I LOVE YOUR BLOGS EVERYONE!

My life at the moment can be summed up in 4 words: Bible, Dates, Yoga, Library.

This is all I have time for these days. The classroom libraries are done for now though! I updated the libraries (labeled book baskets and all) for Year 3, 4, and 6! I am so excited to see if this help kids to find the books they want and read even more!

As for dates, the latest one (Christmas present this year: 1 meaningful date each month) was a visit to Brighton last weekend!

Here are some notebook ideas for those that do that sort of thing!

I'd imagine that many of you are spring break? I will be on Easter holidays in just over 2 weeks!! The only sad thing is that means only 1 term left with my Year 6's which makes me want to cry. I can't believe they will be leaving to go to secondary school : (   
I still love looping, apart from the fact that I feel more attached.

Have a good one!

This school year ROCKS {so far}!

Well, we're nearly 6 weeks in, and have half term break around the corner (2 weeks off starting with a trip to Vienna on Saturday)!

This year is SOOOOOO much better since I've stayed on at the school and am actually teaching the same curriculum again (what a concept?!)...I've moved around a lot in the past remember, so this is all new to me!

So I've been able to fine-tune lessons from last year (wonderful lessons that had been put in place by the teacher I was covering) and now I actually know everything I'm teaching ahead of time and feel so much more on top of it all! Last year it took so much time to learn about the British history and other stuff I had to teach because let's face it...my knowledge of WW2 and the Tudors and Victorians were not exactly up to scratch!

Battle of Britain

My students are wonderful and working very hard. My Year 6 class (fifth grade equiv) just finished a unit on Holes and we watched the movie on Friday (I've rarely done this so what a treat!). Can't wait for the compare/contrast segment tomorrow at school. On a side-note, can I just mention that this class is so sweet that they brought in stuffed animals for the movie?! Stay innocent as long as you can my lovelies! Aw!

Another thing I love about teaching over here (particularly at this school) is that the curriculum is so balanced. English is 1 hour a day (I've been able to add an extra on Mondays for reading comprehension/guided reading)
Math is 1 hour a day
Science 2 hrs/week
Geography 1hr/week
History 1hr/week
ICT (ipads/computers) 1hr/week
Art 1 hr/week
PE 2-3 hr/week
Music 1 hr/week
Languages (2 languages) 2 hr/week
D&T (design and technology) 1hr/week...currently making musical instruments!
RE 1 hr/week...currently cut down to 30 min this term because of gymnastics

And I only teach English, Geography and History (and whole school Gymnastics) out of all those subjects! How lucky! I teach each of those subjects to a couple grade levels, but it's still very manageable. What do you think about a balanced curriculum? Do you think your school is too heavy in one area?

Health-wise, things have returned back to crapville. The summer was not bad, but once the weather changed and I was back to work, it was back to sinus infections day.after.day.week.after.week. I've seen an EMT again and am trying to get my nose scan scheduled....anyway I feel like a broken record talking about this constant health problem that never seems to get better. I know it could be worse. But grrrr. It could be so much better! Must persevere!

Well I was going to talk about the Big Writing focus we have at our school, but I think I've talked long enough. Hope you are all well and enjoying life!
Sneak peek for Big Writing:

essential for end of the week 'Big Write'...indiv target card, plan, paper, dim lights and soothing music!

K xx

Back to school pictures!

My new chair for school!

I feel like I've been away forever!! Everything is so hectic now that school is in session again!!

The school year is off to a great start...small class sizes, and with the way it works at this school, I've essentially 'looped' with my class from last year for English. 

I'm mainly teaching English, Geography, and History for Years 5 & 6. I love it! Taking on the English Coordinator role full time this year is also very interesting! I dabbled in it last year, but this year I've been able to put some things in place that I noticed were missing last year. 

Here are some pictures!

download these here

download these here

 

SOME THINGS I'M LOVING!!

Hope to be on here more often now that I'm into the swing of things. Hope your school year is off to a great start!

Kelli xx

School year of firsts!

I made it!!! Last day of school! 

In some ways it was super easy (the kids), and in other ways it was a lot of work (new curriculum). There were a lot of FIRSTS!

  
What will I do first tomorrow??? I'm thinking London Science Museum or book in the park! So excited for the summer!

K xx

Religious Education in England

Hello!

I realized I have mentioned RE (Religious Education) in the past, but may not have explained it.

In schools here in England, RE is a subject. This is not just for faith schools. RE goes over a different religion each term (3 terms a year, so they will revisit religions over the years) by giving an {unbiased if possible} overview of the faith. 

I am teaching all over the place at my lovely school, and on Tuesdays I teach RE to Year 3 for an hour (Year 3 is Second Grade age). The Autumn term I taught Judaism and this term is Buddhism. They look at artifacts, books, watch video clips, etc.

Crazy huh?

Here are a few pieces of their work-the last one is my favorite : )

    
Kelli xx

Classroom pics

Hope you're all having a good week!  Here's some pictures from the last week or so! I've got a sore throat, so I'm off to bed!

I like this.a lot.

  Kelli xx

Peek in my room!

Is it Friday yet?? I'm exhausted! Happy and productive week, but I need to go bed earlier. Why am I such a night owl?!

Here's some pictures to describe life this week!

4/5th grade history journals

Thank goodness for Christmas break! In my 11 years of teaching, I have not been as sick and tired as I have this year. Sorry to complain, I just hate not feeling like myself. Does anyone understand? I went to the doctor today (again), and am hoping to switch to private healthcare (I'm in the UK) in the hope of getting immediate solutions so I can get my life back on track.

Anyway, enough of that!

It snowed last week! It melted quickly, but for this desert girl, snow is always a bit exciting. 

I feel very blessed to spend Christmas with my husband this year, as that hasn't happened since 2008 (visas and deployments)! I love our little tree and he helped me make ornaments for my students.

I've seen a linky party going around the blogs and one of the questions was a good movie you've seen recently. This made me think of the best movie I've seen all year-ARGO. So good.

OK, to end the randomness of this post-I've cleaned out my camera with some 4th/5th grade history journal activities. Hope you find them useful and can adapt the ideas to your classroom.

they did these as homework...they had many options and choices of what to do. I am very happy with it! I HATE cookie-cutter bulletin boards when students all do the same thing!

Have a good day!
Kelli xx