The end of so many things.

The Final Days

With the devastating news out of CT I can not help but think of my own students and their families. I can not imagine ever having to face a similar situation here - thankfully our gun laws prevent that. However it is amazing how the children in a classroom quickly become your own, how their brothers and sisters become extensions of the classroom, how their mothers and fathers become friends. Maybe it is more so in such a small community. Yet when one child has had a long weekend I feel it, when a child celebrates a milestone I celebrate it, when a heart is full of sadness I would do anything to break a smile. We all would. With the commitment to teach comes the biggest reward - you get an additional family and nothing is more important than family.

This week marks the end of our school year. Some students I have had the joy of sharing their adventures for two years. I have watched them grow and learn and it is amazing. I remember the sadness and excitement of their parents faces on the very first day and now on their last days I feel the same sadness and excitement by 23!

All things change. One ending becomes a new beginning. Everything is going to be OK and I will watch my students move on, grow, change, learn and celebrate next year.

It is not fair that 20 other children will never have that opportunity. I will never understand what could make someone carry out an action such as this especially in a school. I just pray that the United States will take this opportunity to introduce tighter gun laws so that no classroom ever has to live this nightmare again.

Story Telling Wall Art

 

 I once taught art to older students (year seven) and at one stage designed these delightful marine creatures to brighten up the area outside the art room.







I have been thinking of completing a similar project with our favourite story characters. I think they would look lovely in the library and encourage some to pick up a book.










I just don't know if I am brave enough to try it with the little ones. I'll let you know how I go.

Little Green Sheep

Where Is The Green Sheep? 

I was looking for a fine motor activity that focused on wrist movement. I thought wrapping wool tightly around a template and using pegs as legs (yes! a great opportunity for a session on rhyming words) would be a super quick task.




 

But afraid not! 

In the end so worth it - just look how
baaaaaaaa- uuutttiiifffuuuullll they all are. xo

The art of picture books.....Owl Babies.

I love combining a bit of creative art with a fabulous book. 

Owl babies written by Martin Waddell is a perfect choice to explore textiles while sharing a beautiful story. 








Along with our literacy and numeracy linked projects (I'll share later). I encouraged the children to create their own special owl friend with fabric offcuts, feathers, and buttons. They are just divine, especially hanging around from rescued branches in a huge mass of colour!

The First Post

Sharing some little things from the class as I start to learn how to create my first blog. Exciting!

These activities are available on shelves (labelled with these pictures) along with our puzzles and some simple games. The purpose of this center is to enable children to select a task and complete independently before returning to the correct location ready for the next person.  I usually have these ones out early in the year and later the tasks get more difficult.  It is a great skill to teach first off as students learn how to keep the classroom organised which makes everything easier.

 

The first one is a simple matching activity with a focus on texture. Lots of describing words here! Students often use the fabric in other activities (eg, role play, block corner - which is fine with me as long as they put them back).



 
Sorting buttons and beads. So many different ways to sort these things; colour, shapes, but I have also learnt so many other ways from my little friends. My favourite was a girl who sorted them into "ones I like" and "ones I don't like"! However they are sorted they really work on the fine motor skills.











Numbers! Fill the vases with different pop sticks
to match the numbers. There are dots on labels 
also so that those children that do not recognize 
numerals can count one to one.

Sorting gems (everybody loves these) what a beautiful object to count with, sort, construct patterns - just can not stop playing with them! The sorting mats (available in different grids - 2, 4 and 8) are laminated paper (not card) so that they may be used on the light box. Just adding one more fun aspect as the light makes the gems magic.
  



 


Rice and letters nothing to say on this one except go to the kitchen right now (yes now) and shove your hand into the rice canister. Now you understand! Fill it with anything, letters, numbers, shapes etc. Great for calming some of those children who can not keep their hands to themselves.





Colour match (base mats made with paint ship samples and pictures from old magazines and calendars). This activity seems a little simple but the students seem to love it as they can do it and get it right. I throw in some black and white clip art of simple objects like carrots, and frogs to make the students think about characteristics of common things without the colour clue.

AND MY FAVOURITES!!!

Mr Potato Head Construction.  Students have to follow picture cues in order to build their potato friend (this is so difficult for some students) Change over the potato pieces to keep it fresh or cut the instructions into separate cards so that students need to place them back in order by number.






Rice search. One plastic coffee jar, rice, small found objects, searching sheet, and some counters to mark off the finds. Who needs Wally! So much fun to complete alone or in pairs. Make sure you glue the lid on to avoid disasters.

And that is it my first blog post. Some old photos a little text and a thousand questions. How do I add more fonts? Why didn't my photos upload with blogger? and Will it look the way I want on the blog? So much to learn but so much excitement. Hope you enjoy and thanks for stopping in :)