Friday 25 September 2015

Five for Friday




I am linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for Five for Friday. 
This is my first time to participate in this awesome linky. Here it goes…
This week Fall officially started!  Up where I live in Northern Canada it has been around for awhile...  Seriously the trees start to turn color here at the end of August!  I do love fall though and just wish it hung around a little longer.


Hello Winter?!?  We had our first frost of the year on Monday. It only happened the one day so hopefully it was just a weather glitch. Luckily I am an experienced Northern (lazy) girl and just leave my scraper in my car all year long.  This weekend we will have to clear the bikes out of the garage so I can park inside again.  I am NOT ready for winter yet!! 


This week I was busy doing Apple updates.  It took me all week but my Apple, Apple, ABC (Alphabet Activities) and Apple, Apple, 123 (Numbers 1-10) are new and improved.  



 
With apples on my mind all week I picked up this Fall Apples candle.  It smells wonderful and I love the cozy feeling of lighting candles in the fall. 

This book has been keeping me up too late all week! It has these short chapters that keep me hooked. I keep telling myself just one more….Ok one more….  I hope to get to finish it up on the weekend.


Have a great weekend!!

Wednesday 9 September 2015

My "Must Have" Supplies for Back To School: Everything Else




We all make sure our classrooms are stocked up with the basics like crayons and glue but there are some extra "must have" supplies that I can't do with out.  Two of my favourites are BINDER CLIPS and SENTENCE STRIPS.  Click to read more about how I use them in my classroom. Here is a list of everything  else…..

HIGHLIGHTERS    

A class set of highlighters is definitely a staple in my class.  Kids love to use them and they totally make learning fun! Here are a few ways I use them in my class.

Highlighting sight words: the
Phonics skills in context. Poems are my favourite for finding sight words, beginning sounds, rhyming words, digraphs….whatever you may be working on.


Tracing letters and words. Instead of dotted lines use a highlighter to help a student correctly form a letter or correct a reversal.  If I do provide a student with a word in their writing, I always print it with highlighter and then the student can trace over it.


   

Highlight it! Worksheets.  My kiddos loved using highlighters so much I created these worksheets so they could highlight away... identifying letters, numbers and sight words.  It is harder to come up with authentic highlighting experiences for little ones so these worksheets do the trick.  

Numbers 1-20 Highlight it!
Sight Words Highlight it!
Alphabet Highlight it!   


INDEX CARDS

Index cards are great for quick name tags and flash cards. I especially love the bright neon ones!




                                          
       BRIGHT PAPER
Using bright paper is such a simple way to… well, brighten up everything from notes to parents to classroom displays.



Use your bright paper for important notes home so they get noticed.




   Save on ink and print on bright paper instead!
These are from my Apple Ten Frame Fun! set.  I have both color and black & white ten frames included. I love how the black & white version looks on the bright red and green paper.
 
Backing these simple black & white number cards on bright paper makes them really stand out.  This is a really quick way to make a display that is easy on the ink and budget!