Parent Teacher Meetings

I'm in the middle of planning my Parent Teacher Meetings at the moment and thought I might share some of the things I like to prepare ahead of time, to make sure things go as smoothly as possible.

First of all, I fill in a template for each child. Here is a section of the template.

You can view, download and edit the full template here: Parent Teacher Meeting template.

Secondly I like to have a few pieces of information on hand also:

1. Checklists that I have been keeping on words, sounds and spellings.
2. The children's maths results.
3. Art the children have completed so far in the year, stuck into a scrapbook.
4. The children's workbooks/News copy for them to flick through.
5. Work samples of the child's writing/maths, etc. 

I hope you find this useful! Let me know if there is anything you like to include, which I may have left out!

Have You Filled a Bucket Today?

I had often heard of the book: How Full is Your Bucket? but had never tried it out as a lesson until now. I've used it recently with my class and not alone is this an excellent book for infants, but I think it could be adapted for any age level.

You begin by either reading the story, watching the video or simply telling an adapted version of the story to a more grown up class level. Use some props to tell the story: a couple of little buckets, some water and a little eggcup for taking water out of one bucket and putting it into other buckets. After reading the story, you can discuss ways that the main character could fill other people's buckets or how others could fill the boy's bucket.

amazon.com

After the book has been discussed, you can get the children to either draw some examples of good deeds they could do to fill their bucket or write about them in a large bucket template. The children can then design and colour their buckets (find the template here), cut them out and glue them together (in an infant class the teacher would do this). You can stick them to a low noticeboard/easel/cupboard, alongside a bucket of little blank paper slips. In infants, the children can draw a picture on the slips of paper of a kind deed that they did that day and drop one into their own bucket and another into the other person's bucket. In older classes, they can write the deed on the slip of paper and put it into the two buckets. They continue to do this until their bucket is full (in one or two weeks). They can then bring home their slips of paper to show their parents and receive a smiley face for a full bucket (10 faces allow them to take a lucky dip prize - see this post).

http://www.lyndhurstschools.net/olc/page.aspx?id=765&s=136

I like how the idea of self esteem is addressed through this story. It emphasises how good deeds don't only improve the other person's self esteem, but also gives the person who does it that 'feel good factor'. Children see a reason to be kind in life. It is not just because someone tells them that it is important but because they realise it will make them feel good about themselves.

Teacher's Pet has lots of free display resources based on the topic if you are creating a display for your classroom. You can check them out here.

Happy bucket filling!

Halloween's a comin'...

http://goo.gl/AY6J4L

I'm in the midst of planning my Halloween art projects at the moment and have come across an amazing blog called 'Artventurous'. It has loads of great art ideas for those moments where the creative juices just aren't flowing!
Check out the blog to see some nice Halloween art lessons, including my personal favourites: In a Dark, Dark Wood and 3D Witch Faces.

http://artventurous.blogspot.ie/2012/10/in-dark-dark-wood.html

If you are looking for more Halloween lesson ideas and have not checked out my post Halloween Havoc!, I'd love you to have a look and let me know how some of them work out for you!

Play Areas in Infant Classrooms

While I have posted about literary and maths centers in infants before, I haven't posted about play/oral language centers yet and have had some requests to do so!

As with most infant teachers, I prefer to use a rota with the various groups in my classroom during play. I have a chart up on the door of the classroom with the group names written on it and the activities which are laminated, cut out and have Velcro on the back of them, stuck on beside each named group. I rotate the activities each morning so that the children are playing with something different each day and get a turn at every station.

The activities I include on my chart are listed below along with the clip art I use to represent each on my poster.

1. Lego and Jigsaws:

                                                    

2. Dolls (clothes, cot, bottle, etc) and cars:

 3. Doctor's Kit:

4. Restaurant/kitchen: 

 5. Shop:

 6. Sandpit (Only three children are allowed at this activity at one time so it is usually combined with another activity):

.

Hope you find this post useful for giving you some ideas of what you could include on your play rota. If you have any other great ideas for play areas in the classroom, I'd love to hear them in the comments section below.  

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Senior Infants' Timetable

As we settle back into school and begin to get our Learning Support, Resource and P.E. time slots, most of us (well me anyway!) are probably in the midst of deciding upon a more permanent timetable for the year ahead. I have had several requests to show you a sample timetable that I found worked for me. Hopefully this will be particularly useful to those of you doing your Probationary year or starting with Infants for the first time!

Don't forget that this is only a rough guide - every class is different and what works for one teacher may not suit another. It is also important to remember that timetables are always changing throughout the year and as you learn more about your class you may revise it a few times during the year (I would consider possibly moving maths to the morning slot for some classes for example).

You can download the timetable here if you would like to edit it.

Hope this helps some of you!

Even Teachers Need Their Space!

As I jump in, head first, into a new school year, the one thing I have decided to be is... MORE ORGANISED! (Sound familiar??) As a result, I spent quite some time planning how I was going to organise my classroom this year, with the motto: "A place for everything and everything in its place" driving my quest for a less stressful, more organised environment for myself and the children. 
Not only have I labelled every cupboard and storage spot in the room, but I have spent a lot of time rethinking my filing systems and teacher 'things'.
Hopefully you will find the following ideas useful as you are in the midst of organising your own classroom and hey, if nothing else, I always enjoy getting a peak at people's rooms and desk space (probably the artist in me!) so maybe you are the same!

First on the list is my teacher's desk:

I love being able to see everything I have for easy access, as opposed to having to search through a drawer for a marker, pen etc. I know this may not be to everyone's taste, but it works for me! I still use my drawers for storing blue tack, my whistle, sweets, my stapler, mini post-its for the children and other things that cause a lot of clutter.

As far as plans and records go, I only keep two notebooks on my table. I have an A5 one for my daily lesson notes, as I find I can bring it around in my handbag and bring it home easily in the evening. It also doesn't take up a lot of space on my desk, as sometimes my desk can turn into a dumping ground during a particularly busy day! (Often I have to make an effort to tidy up while the children are eating during lunch or I'd never be able to find anything!) I also have an A4 project book for keeping anecdotal records on the kids. I have the divider sections labelled with the children's names: A-C, D-H, etc. in it.

On the right of my desk, I have this new expanding file box:

Inside is labelled with the different subject areas and also has compartments for school notes, notes to parents, staff meeting notes and busy bee worksheet master copies. I like this a lot so far as it means I don't have to go searching through folders whenever I need to put something away, as more often than not, I will just throw the sheet in a drawer if I don't have an easier option.

Beside this box, I have all my little buckets. I prefer buckets to those stationary storage containers you can get because, inevitably, I will run out of space for the many items which end up in there. I got the first in Ikea and use it to store all my spare pencils for the kids. (I have seen people paint these buckets if you want to get really creative, but who has the time??!) The rule is: if a pencil is facing nib up, it is pared, and if it is nib down, it is not. I have a child whose job it is before break times, to pare the blunt pencils.

I have another bucket I got as part of a chocolate gift package one Christmas which I use to store scissors, pens, highlighters, markers, tippex, etc, and a plastic cup with a handle for the children's whiteboard markers.

I also have a box of elastic bands, a pencil sharpener, a box of paper clips, post-its and a cute pig timer I picked up in Dealz. I go through little sweet tubs in school so fast and they also make really good storage containers for your desk. I use them to store thumbtacks, staples and the like.

I invested in some paper trays this year also to store my 'corrected' and 'to be corrected' worksheets. Anything to encourage me to correct the work quickly is a good thing!

Never forget about the practical things in a classroom! I have tissues and anti - bacterial hand wipes (these come in more handy than you realise for after-art activities and general hand hygiene for me and the kids!).

Behind my desk I have a bench area and on it I keep this basket for resources. I put in the following day's teacher textbooks and resources in this basket for easy access the next day. It is so much easier to have everything you need in the one place!

My teacher bookshelf is quite far away from my desk which is annoying, but I have labelled the books by subject area so that I can find what I need as quickly as possible!

Now, some people may laugh at this idea, but I hide it under my desk for my own comfort! It's my Teacher's Bin! Again, this is a tub I bought Haribo sweet packets in and I like it as a mini bin because it is quite small but also pretty deep. I am lucky enough to have quite a large classroom, but my numbers are in the 30's and with all the tables, the children are pretty hemmed in! I store the bins at the back of the room because I don't want the children distracted by other children at the bin and to keep bin smells far away from me, but, as a result, it is not easy to get to! I find the teacher bin handy for used post-its, and the other small things that accumulate on the teacher's desk during the day, especially if you are using your desk for reading groups/tin whistle groups etc! 

The final things I have all around my desk are my precious checklists! I have the ones I use everyday stuck to the desk, hidden from view (words/sounds), and other ones like maths test results and P.E. observations stored in a proper assessment folder. I keep things like my classlist, timetable, allergy information and a checklist for incomplete homework in this folder so far also.

Eventually, I will sort out some sort of a substitute pack in case I am ever out, but that may be on my to do list for a while yet!

These are some sorting strategies that I find work for me, but everybody's different! Don't be afraid to share any good organisational ideas you may have in your room in the comments below, as I'm always looking for new ideas!

Until next time!

First Day Jitters...

Often teachers, especially NQT's and teachers who have not taught in a particular class level before, can be slightly apprehensive about the first day back at school after the summer holidays. Here are a few practical ideas for planning out your first day back:

1. Toys: 
The first thing that any infant teacher should plan for their first day is to have adequate toys/jig saws/lego available for the children to play with as soon as they come in. Having toys ready means the children are occupied if any parents want to have a word with you and it also gives you the opportunity to make observations of the children and how they interact while also giving you a chance to interact with them one on one before formal class begins. It is up to the teacher whether they want to leave toys on the tables before the children come in, or whether they prefer to leave them on a set of shelves and get children to choose their own from the shelf to bring back to their seat.
(The later may be easier to introduce later in the week (especially with Junior Infants) as you can take the opportunity to train them as to the correct procedures for doing this: pushing in your chair, going back to your seat straight away, bringing back your work when it is finished, etc.) Personally, I like using a play rota system once the first week has passed, where I name each group and put a picture of a toy beside their group on a chart, changing it daily, ensuring every child gets a chance at every play station. (I will post an entry on structured play rotas soon!)

2. Getting To Know You is VITAL!
Teaching infants is slightly different to other class levels in that they can be anxious on their first day with a new teacher, so the first day is a careful balance between setting rules, establishing discipline and then putting them at ease with a new environment and teacher. This is where getting to know you games come into play. You can find so many games online to suit the class level you are teaching. There are some great ideas on http://www.activityvillage.co.uk/ice-breaker-games for younger children.

http://goo.gl/wqWx8L

Often however, keeping it simple can often be just as effective. When I was teaching as a Substitute I used one game frequently as a less time consuming, simpler option which led to very few discipline problems with older and younger children alike. It involved giving the children 30 seconds to tell a partner their name, a favourite film, band and food (you can make this simpler for Infants!) and then asking random children to see if they remember what their partner told them. I may ask four children to tell me what they found out and after I have asked them, I would ask random children to see if they could remember a specific child's favourite thing. Repeat the game as often as concentration lasts. This gives a good opportunity to build up some group points at the start of the day (Another reward system I like for building team work!) and get the children's brains working. It keeps the children's attention and children love the competitive element. It also gives the teacher the opportunity to 'see can I remember all the names', which can be a good crowd pleaser (especially if you stall/mix up names!)
If anyone would like some examples of some other subbing ideas/games leave a comment below and I will post some!

3. News: 

jhan-camp.blogspot.com 

A good first day back oral language activity is talking about and writing about their news. It may seem obvious, but sometimes it's good to stick with tried and trusted activities when it is the children's first day back and you want to make the day go as smoothly as possible! It can also be the case that many of the children may not have all of their books yet so is important to think of activities that you can do with them if this scenario arises. (Colouring/drawing are other simple activities for this purpose!) When writing the children's news with them, write up the generic: 'Today is Monday. It is raining' and then add a sentence from one of the children's news. Get them to draw a picture to match the news also. I like to encourage them to try writing a sentence of their own at the end of their news and while at the beginning of Senior Infants, children may not be competent enough to do this very successfully, it is important that they make an attempt, even if it is just a word/few letters.

4. Writing time:

tx.english-ch.com 

I love to use a door hanger sign on my door when the children are engaged in writing activities. The sign I use has a picture of a child writing and says 'Sh, quiet time'. When we are about to start writing or any other individual work, I go over to the door, pick up the sign and slowly bring it to the handle, while counting down from 5, getting quieter each time until 1 is only a whisper. We have agreed that once it is on the door, no one, not even me can speak above a whisper. It really works wonders!


5. Big Books:
Read them a big book! Question them, get them to make predictions and any other activities you can think of! Maybe discuss what happened at the start, middle and end of the story. Get them to draw three pictures of the start, middle and end events in the story.

6. Maths:
Begin the lesson with a Counting Chorus, where you get the children to count as far as ten/twenty, getting different groups to call out different numbers in the sequence when you point to them. For example: the blue group call out one, the red group call out two, etc.
You can easily organise some kind of counting activity where they have to put the correct number of cubes or counters in the correct template/container (1-10). I have some good counting activities in my Maths Centers' post which you could use for this purpose! This is a good opportunity to see what children remember from last year and observe the children who struggle with counting.

7. Songs:

Have some easy to learn action songs ready for the children to sing on the first day. I personally am a big fan of:
Dr. Knicker Bocker:

Open and Shut Them:

And of course Nursery Rhymes, Jolly Phonics revision, etc.

8. Sight Word Games:
Using a word wall of words from their Junior Infant readers (or Dolch words or even Senior Infant words if you want!), you can use a teacher pointer to play some word games. Tic Tac Toe is a game where you keep pointing to different words while chanting with the class:
'Tic, tac, toe, here we go, where we land, no one knows.'
The card that you land on is the card you want them to read for you. You can start out by getting the class to read out the word you land on and then you can pick confident children to read words by themselves. You can vary the game by speeding up/slowing down the rhyme and starting in different places each time.

9. Have a Reward System in Place:
I like to have all the children's names on a separate board/laminated chart and at the end of each day, I give them a smiley face for good behaviour. I explain to them why they may not be getting one if I decide not to give them one and tell them what they need to do to get one the following day. If they get twenty faces they get to take a prize out of the 'Lucky Dip' bosca draoíochta. If a child is behaving in a way that is particularly impressive, I will give them a smiley face during the day or if they do something that is particularly unacceptable, I will take one away.

10. Rules of the Classroom: 
This is something which can be done later on in the day as an SPHE lesson before the children go home. Get them to suggest some rules for the classroom and talk about why each is important. I usually guide them to suggest these four rules:

I also tell them that I will be giving a sticker to four children at the end of the week who are the best at keeping each rule, reminding them constantly during the week of the rules and praising the behaviours when I see them. This carries on every Friday until each child gets rewarded.

channelnine.ninemsn.com.au

11. Rules in the Line:
I like using the High 5 method of preparing the children to leave the classroom. When they are all in the line and paying attention, I call out High 5 while putting up my hand. We chant while pointing to the relevant body parts: 'Looking eyes, listening ears, hands to yourself, walking feet and finger on your lip.' These are the behaviours I am looking for in the line and if I see a child who is carrying out these behaviours, I praise them in a whisper (It is always important to keep the noise level down as they will mimic your noise level!).

I hope you find some of these tips and lesson ideas useful! Above all else, remember: don't think too big for the first day back! Keep activities easy and short and try to make it as fun as possible! Don't forget how much children love nature walks/Art/P.E. and simple games like Simon Says (or Deir Ó Grádaigh) and I Spy, so don't forget to include some of these things in your first day back!

Best of luck!

Aaaaand We're Back!

Finally!

Apologies for the year long break from blogging, but as most of you understand, the life of a teacher can get pretty busy!

Keep an eye out for a post in the next few days on dealing with the sometimes daunting, first day back in Senior Infants!

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Halloween Havoc!

So it's coming close to that time of year again - personally one of my favourite times of the year - Halloween!   For those of you planning some Halloween based activities in your classroom, here are some ideas to help you along!

Gaeilge: Oíche Shamhna

Our mála draíochta for Halloween presented us with some Halloween costumes to dress up in. Included in this was a ghost mask, a witches hat, a pumpkin mask and a cat mask. The children pulled out an outfit and put it on them as we named the 'character'. They all lined up and I asked the rest of the class things like: Cé hé an chailleach? Cé hé ___? Cad é seo? srl. We also played the usual games of Cluiche Kim, éist agus dáthaigh and the like!
We also sang the song 'Oíche Shamhna' to the tune of Fréres Jacques!

History/English: Halloween Games:

I read them the story with accompanying video, 'Today is Halloween'. (If you had the hard copy or Big Book of this/a similar story you could integrate this with English!)

 We talked about things the children in the story did at Halloween and things the children in the class usually do/games they play at Halloween. The children then went home and talked to their parents about games they played at Halloween when they were young. We discussed these the following day (Apple Bobbing and Snap Apple) and we watched sections of these videos and discussed whether they ever played them/saw them being played and which they think they would prefer to play. (We played versions of these games during our Halloween party on the last day before midterm!) 

We talked about which games they preferred - today's games or games their parents played. They then folded an A4 page in two and on one half drew a picture of games 'Today' and on the other half, games their parents played.

Religion: Light and Darkness

We sang the Alive-O song about Halloween. I then showed them a little teddy and a shoebox with a hole in the top, big enough to fit a torch in. I shone in the flashlight (as the sun in the sky) and asked how they thought Teddy would feel in the box (Happy - he can see, feels warm etc). I then dimmed the flashlight and stuck it in, telling them it was the moon. I asked how Teddy would feel now (maybe cold, but at least he can still see, so he is happy enough). Then I stuck in the torch a final time, but off this time. We talked about how he felt sad as it is dark, he is scared, cold and can't see. We discussed what makes us feel better if we find ourselves in the dark. We talked about the good things about having the sun and electric lights to brighten up the darkness and thanked God in a 'Prayer of Light' for giving us these things. This provided a good introduction to stories and activities on this subject of 'Light' in religion during the week leading up to Halloween.      

                       Music: Halloween's Coming!

We talked about Halloween sounds and what makes them. We used body percussion and our voices to copy these sounds. Each group got a different sound to portray and decide how they were going to do it. I created a Halloween Music Composition chart using symbols for the different sounds (cat, ghost, door creaking, windy cloud etc) and we performed the sequence of sounds with each group waiting until I pointed to their symbol to perform their sound. We created some pretty spooky music!

We also learned the song, Halloween's coming, from the Right Note, Senior Infants which featured some more fun Halloween sound effects! 

Art: Cotton Wool Ghosts

Nothing too strenuous this time on the art front for this theme I'm afraid! One of the Halloween art projects we undertook was making these ghosts with cotton wool. We talked about scary faces and how to make our ghost's face look. We drew a ghost shape onto a sheet of card, drew a scary face on it, cut it out and stuck on little bits of cotton wool, front and back. We then hung them up around the room for a spooooky atmosphere!

Crazy about Clothes!

Hi everyone, I'm back again with another thematic unit, this time based on the topic of clothes. Hope you find it useful in your planning! I have tried to include as many useful resources as possible!

Geography: Clothes from around the world
We talked about clothes we wear for special occasions and when and where these occasions might be. We then talked about the clothes they wear in other countries for special occasions. We followed Teddy on Tour to some countries to check out what they wear:           
                

Some children tried on a sari, a furry coat and a kilt and we all tried to see if we could remember which country they are worn in!

We then wrote in the country names under these pictures (with help from the board!) and coloured them in beautiful bright colours!

History: Growing and Changing

We talked about how different the clothes we wear now are to when we were babies. We talked about why we can't wear the same things babies/adults wear. We dressed the paper dolls on the board (baby, child, adult) using clothes I got online, printed and cut out. Here are pictures of the paper dolls and their clothes.

Baby clothes      Child's clothes

Baby paper doll             Child paper doll

Adult paper doll       Adult dolls clothes

We then drew pictures of a child, baby and adult and the clothes they would wear and labelled them appropriately.

Science: Materials
We played a game where we had to run around the hall and touch different materials I called out. (Wood, plastic, metal, glass, cloth, touch something smooth, soft, rough, that can tear, that won’t tear etc). We then looked at some materials I had collected: Woolly jumper, leather runner, cotton t-shirt, furry collar, feather filled jacket and discussed whether the material was hard, soft, rough, smooth, would it tear, was it waterproof? Then I got them to walk to the picture of the animal/plant (laid out on the floor of the PE hall) that the material was made from.  After we had discussed all this and they had identified the correct animal/plant for all objects I held up the items one at a time and they had to run to the correct picture. If they went to the wrong one they were out. We played this game about three times. It was really fun and a great end of the day activity!

Art: Paper Dolls
We discussed what kinds of clothes we wanted to draw/stick onto our paper doll templates. We designed trousers, t-shirts, jumpers, dresses etc for our paper dolls. We stuck on buttons and hair also to bring them to life. Here are our creations!

English: Poem: Put on your Coat

Stuff an arm 

into each sleeve,

put on your coat

before you leave.

Zip the zipper

right to the top,

and cover your head

whenever rain drops.

James Hörner

Gaeilge: Éadaí agus an Cóchailín Dearg
We did píosa drámaíochta about an Cóchailín Dearg. I got children to dress up in costumes (red cloak, wolf ears on a hairband, showercap, axe, apron, hat) to get in roll as the various characters in the story. They acted out the script as I read it. I made sure every child got a chance to act it out. (We also used this for practice on 'cé hé seo?'). Gradually they started to join in and understand various words in the script.

http://students.ou.edu/J/Curtis.N.Johnston-1/red_riding_hood.jpg

Here is the script I read out:

An Cochailin Dearg:

Bhí an Cocailín Dearg sa bhaile. D'fhag sí slán le Mamaí agus le Daidí. Chuaigh sí go dtí an choill. Bhuail si leis an Mac Tíre. Bhí scanradh uirthi roimh an Mhac Tíre. Rith sí go dtí teach a seanmhathair. Chonaic sí a seanmhathair. (All join in) Oh, feach ar do shuile! Feach ar do chluasa! Feach ar do fhiacla! An Mac Tíre a bhí ann! Rith si amach an doras. Tháinig an gearrthóir adhmaid agus maraigh sé an mac tíre. Bhi an Mac Tíre marbh agus bhí áthas an domhain ar gach duine eile!

(If you see any grammatical errors/misspellings in this let me know as I wrote it out myself!)

There are just some ideas about teaching subjects around the topic of clothes, if you've got any others I'd love you to comment below! Happy Teaching!