Engaging Reflection & Goal Setting Activity

I got this idea from an excellent 'reach for the stars' activity I saw on Pinterest during the school holidays and adapted it for my students and for my own purpose. 

Firstly I quickly reviewed last terms Mathematics lessons and prompted them to think about their work ethic, homework, active questioning, book work, listening skills, behaviour and so on. I then asked them to think about four goals they could reach this term (not nearly impossibly goals)! 

After students had 1.5 minutes of reflection/ goal setting time. I then showed students my hand that I created with my own goals (I wish I had taken a picture of mine)! My name was on my thumb and on each of the fingers I wrote my own goals for the classroom and shared them with the class. 

Here are a few of my year 8 and 9 students goals for the term. 

This is what it looked like after my year 8 class completed this goal setting activity. So far each lesson I have reflected on the goals they made and encouraged them to always work towards reaching their goals.

I would love to hear ways in which YOU all focus on individual student goals and how do you track them?

P.S. - I told my students that during parent teacher interviews I will be bringing their hands with me so their parents can see the great goals their child has made! :)

Math Classroom organisation & decoration

As I said in my last post, I went into school on the Sunday before school started back.
Now this cupboard looked terrible with NOTHING in it but textbooks.

One teacher has the top shelf (because she only wants textbooks), so I took over the rest.

I have my year 9 textbooks (over 2 classes), then coloured paper, pencils, pens (50 pens for $2.60 Faber Castle too!), Math centre activities, rulers, reward container and reward certificates! I couldn't ask for a better space now!

Last year I had a problem with leaving pens/ pencils and other equipment out for other student access in a Math Centre set-up because other teachers didn't actively supervise and I ended up with NO rulers, NO pens and NO equipment, so this is padlocked and open every lesson I'm in there! :)

We also moved it more into the corner so there was more open space around the teacher desk! :) I put up my puff decorations (the pastels at the front and the bright ones at the back). I will dedicated a single blog post to creating these VERY soon! :)

On the trolley I have saved the old Year 8 textbooks that were going to be binned because of ACARA (Still VERY useful!!!!). I also found some of my posters from when I had year 6 and added them to the room to bring the class together as one even more.

You should have seen how bland and naked the back of this room looked before I took over! I've added my Math Word Wall - 43 Other words for addition, subtraction, multiplication, division and equals which I colour coordinated for students easy comparison.

I also completed a fun reflection and goal setting task with my juniors which they LOVED! Some lovely pictures to come tomorrow night! :)

Classroom Puffiness - SNEAKPEAK!

A very, very, verryyyy, VVERRRYYY busy week so far with the first week back for Term 2. I went into school on Sunday with Scott and Max and they helped me move around some things and put some decorations up! 

Soooooo helpful.

What took 1.5 hours would have taken me over 3 hours to do by myself.

Here are some of the decorations I made to decorate with... more pics to come! 

I've had a parent interview already, marking University Math assignments/ games along with planning resources and assessment for this term! Running my final workshop at Uni tomorrow night and then just marking marking marking to do!

I'd LOVE to hear about ways you have decorated your room this year! :)

GIVEAWAY! - Perimeter, Area & Volume Activity Cards

Through TN I have an awesome Giveaway where 5 lucky winners will end up with my Perimeter, Area & Volume Activity Cards #2! 

If you KNOW your students want some additional practice either now, next year or in the future, then why not enter this giveaway and be one of the 5 lucky winners to recieve these 48 question cards WITH answers in TWO themes - Valentines Day and Regular Theme!

So pop on over to the above giveaway and best of luck! :)

15% off Storewide on TeachersNotebook

I thought it's about time I throw a sale on Teachers Notebook (TN) for all my amazing supporters there!

So from NOW until April 14th I have 15% off ALL items in my TN store.

I hope you can stop on over and grab yourself a bargain on some already low prices on my new & old items! :)

Below are just SOME of the items in my store for you to look at.

     

     

     

     

We have a star among us! Christmas Co-ordinate/ Ordered Pairs/ Graphing Picture

Max saw some of my Halloween and Easter co-ordinate/ ordered pairs/ graphing pictures I had in a folder ready to digitally create them. 

He asked for his own blank copy of the graph paper and wanted to create his own. 

He drew a picture and I taught him how to write the ordered pairs! 

Needless to say he has done an AMAZING job and I couldn't be MORE proud of him. 

He asked me to draw his picture again (I did the outline) and we coloured it in together! 

He was so proud of his work and knowing that it would go towards a TpT Christmas bundle made him even MORE excited!

Anyway, keep an eye out for this and other awesome Halloween, Easter, Christmas and other such graphing items! :)

In ACTION - Perimeter Worksheet & Crossword - Beginner Level (1)

Max is always so keen to try out anything I make that is either at or above his level! He was bursting to work on this sheet when he got home so I made sure I printed it on coloured paper to make it even more pretty! :)

Background: Max is 8 but will be 9 on 2nd June and he is in year 4.

Here he is working on the first page of the perimeter worksheet and keeps eyeing off the crossword because he wants to work on it now! :)

He keeps calculating the perimeter in his head and using the calculator to check his answers are correct. A great skill to have! So far Max said he has correctly calculated 8 out of the 9 questions in his head and he was only 1 value off the correct response! :) He circled and wrote the correct response in which was great to see his honesty! 

For now it's lunch break time!

NEW! Perimeter Worksheet & Crossword - Beginner Level (1)

Phhhewww! I have a huge set of Perimeter Worksheets I'm in the middle of creating and rather than having them all together, I decided to split them into levels so you can purchase the exact ones you need OR when I've finished the levels, you can buy the bulk pack with a discount. 

There are three sets with 21 questions in two different formats. One as a worksheet over two A4 pages that students can write on and the other as a handout on one A4 page where students write the working in their book.

These questions are all level 1 (or beginner) where all sides are labelled with measurements/ units of basic shapes and then develop into more complex questions and end with three word problems. 

Additionally there is a fun crossword consolidation activity where students need to answer 9 perimeter questions (without units) and record their answers in the location on the crossword. 

Answer sheet provided with full working for the worksheet and answers for the crossword. 

It comes in .doc and .pdf format in case you want to edit some questions or units to suit your little ones! 

Max was BEGGING me yesterday to complete this worksheet and crossword when I finished creating it, so look out for some pictures soon! :) 

NEW Single and Double Dice Clipart - 570 PNGS & 20% off

This set contains 570 high quality PNG files to use for commercial, personal, and educational use. 

There are 174 PNGs of single six sided dice. 60 with a black outline and coloured dots, 60 with a coloured background and coloured dots and 54 with a coloured outline and coloured dots. 

There are four examples below of the colour arrangements.

          

The colours are black, blue, dark blue, green, dark green, orange, pink, purple, red and yellow (please see thumbnail).

          

Additionally there are 396 PNG files of two dice combinations. 36 with a black outline and back dots and 360 with a coloured background and coloured dots. The colours are blue, dark blue, green, dark green, orange, pink, purple, red and yellow (please see thumbnail).

They are 20% off in my store for a short time! :) Make sure you go grab a bargain! 

Awesome Storage & Holidays

I love being productive on the school holidays! We put up two hooks to store our gardening tools and rakes/ brooms easily along the side of the house. Talk about freeing up some space and making it very tidy! :)

We also cleaned up both of our sheds. One of them is a dedicated camping/ children toys/ kiting/ bodyboarding equipment shed and the other is gardening/ tools/ general yard items.

It's lovely knowing when we go to use something how well organised it is! I nearly cannot wait until we go camping or bodyboarding and have to go into that shed! :)

We often are building something or renovating or gardening so are always in this shed which is why it ends up being the messiest! 

I am in the middle of creating a few TpT/ TN items so I will post back VERY soon! 

Ten Frame Clip Art - 20% Off

After seeing so many ten frames filled out with counters across the rows rather than down columns, I NEEDED to make this right! 

These ten frames are the CORRECT format due to the developmental sequence of counting as they learn to count in two’s (developing patterning; rather than 1 to 5 then 6 to 10) and also learn the array model using this position i.e. 3 twos are 6 by the positioning of 6 on the ten frame. 

This is a set has 133 high quality png files to use for commercial, personal, and educational use. It varies from white with black counters to 12 different counter colours as well as one black outlined counter to colour in. 

The files themselves cannot be resold in a clip art/graphics package, but you may use the images commercially if they are used/ embedded in your lessons. 

They are 20% off in my store for a short time! :) Make sure you go grab a bargain! 

ooOo April Currently :)

I always become so excited for the beginning of the month and its all because of Farly's over at Oh boy its 3rd Grade! :) Each month she has an awesome currently so go check her out if you haven't already.

I always forget about April fools because  quite often in Australia we're on school holidays at the time. 

Sooooo now to my currently..... 

Listening: Big Bang Theory is always on at 7pm until around 8:30pm in Australia so now The Block is over, I tend to have it on in the back ground :)

Loving: Being on school holidays! Today we went to my Mums and my husband and I put up a tension wire extension around her deck and increased her fence height because she has a gorgeous new greyhound called Tessa!

Thinking: I love gardening when it isn't too hot! I managed to get a sunburnt back on Sunday because I didn't realize it was that hot! :( Cannot wait until our corn and lettuce grow! Our passionfruit vine has flowers and baby passionfruit! VERY excited.

Wanting: More sleep! I know its holidays but I cannot help but stay up late and work on TpT items or school work for next term!

Needing: Plan ahead for next term! eeeiiiiikkkkkkkkkkk

Advice: Always be true to who you are no matter who puts you down or wants you to change yourself <3