Multi-Media Center

I was asked this year to pilot the multi-media center for our school as I love and use technology on a regular basis. It is a 32 inch flat LCD screen and laptop with great speakers and a cordless mouse. I specifically did not want a huge screen as I wanted to use it for small groups as well as the whole class and have found it to be PERFECT! I love making powerpoints that are interactive and the students can use the wireless mouse on the floor when we do a small activity. The students have enjoyed listening and watching stories as well as learning sight words using a technological flash card system via powerpoint. I would love to share some of my powerpoints with others for eg cvc words, sight words and words beginning with or ending with...how can I do that any suggestions?

Taking Time to Regroup, Relax and Rethink

Our school follows the Australian Curriculum so our school year runs from January to December so we are almost finishing up when the Northern Hemisphere is just starting up. This year has been fabulous as the students have really come a long way from the beginning of the year as always it's amazing what they really do learn. This year has been exceptional as by the end of the year all of the kids (except some special needs students) will be at least at level 5 reading level while most are above level 10. I feel very strongly that this is because of our strong focus all year long on getting the children to stop and listen for the sounds in letters, not just giving them the spelling of words, having them give it a go. I really love teaching Prep(Kindergarten) and have found it very rewarding.

Nursery Rhyme Book

The students love making these projects and learning the nursery rhymes. Take a look at http://www.tlclessons.com to get more ideas.

The Teacher

The students were asked to draw a picture of a community worker and in the border they were to draw tools that the community worker used. As you can see we (teachers use lots of pencils, erasers and books!!

The Jigaree

The Prep students decided they wanted to reenact the book "The Jigaree" for assembly. We had the students come in black and put spots of green and purple and made wings from green material. Finally we added antennas to a headband to complete the outfits!

Prep E and Prep H classes have been learning about shopping this term. We had fun exploring the units. We discussed what we needed to buy to make turkey sandwiches. The two classes were divided into six groups and assigned to make their own shopping list. Then we went on an excursion to the Ranch Market to buy items from the shopping lists such as bread, vegetables, cheese, butter, fruit and juice.

The children were very excited to find and buy what they needed from the list. The jobs were shared amongst each team; the children who read out the lists, the children who carried the baskets, the children who looked for the items and the children who paid at the cashier. It was such a fun experience for the children.

When we got back to school, the children made their own turkey sandwiches and we had our lunch together. The turkey sandwiches we made were delicious!!

Letter L.....

This was an easy paper bag craft for the letter L....Lazy the Lion

Apricot Bars: Are They for Breakfast…Or Dessert?

Take a look at this yummy recipe.....and they even show you step by step from Pioneer Woman Cook

Interactive Reading

I would like to share with you a collection of interactive stories for students aged 5 to 10 that was gathered together by the Oak Street Elementary School in Plattsburgh, NY. This is a fantastic example of how a school can provide easy access to wonderful interactive reading for SMART boards or multi-media units.

Duck! Rabbit! by Amy Krouse Rosenthal

I saw this excellent video off of the blog Kindergarten Tales DUCK! RABBIT! by Amy Krouse Rosenthal. I really like the book and thought you might like it too. She found a video promoting the book at YouTube.
Tell me, which do you see, the DUCK or the RABBIT? ;-)

Introducing Me....

This has been a big year for me I turned 50! This year I have learned more about Facebook, learned to tweet and most importantly learned the beauties of a Blackberry!!!! This week I have looked into blogging and have already spent hours looking at their links and interests. People are such a fascinating species and technology has enhanced this even more!