I'm linking up with Doodlebugs for another 5 for Friday. Gosh these weeks are coming around quickly!
This week has been crazy busy! Bookweek crazy to be exact. I had my Study Tour day in Melbourne so I missed out on the parade which I was shattered about. My kiddos excelled themselves this year. We had: The Cat in the Hat, Where's Wally? (Waldo), a robot, witches, Billy B. Brown, Doctor Who, Batman & Robin, Mario, a Smurf, a doctor and Cinderella. Doctor Who is my particular favourite- can you spot him? He is OBSESSED with the Doctor. L and his Dad even made a Tardis last month for him to play with.
Yesterday we had whole school Bookweek rotations. The kiddos were mixed up into multi-age groups and they loved it! My group made "Peggy's" from the story Peggy by Anna Walker.
It is a gorgeous book about a chicken who gets swept up in a wind and ends up in the City (Melbourne to be exact). The illustrations are scrumptious.
This idea came from the Zart Art Book Week pd. If you are an Aussie and have never been to one of these- do! I am a big fan of their Christmas Workshops too.
These were made with: 1 sentence strip, fine liner pen for the buildings, black paint for the body and head (using your thumb) and a feather for the tail.
On Thursday the 5/6's visited us to read their picture story books to the kidlets. They were amazing! I love it when they read to the little kids.
We have also been preparing for Father's Day. We made these super cute toolbox cards which I found here.
Yesterday we had our Father's Day breakfast (my 14th breakfast- we have 2 a year). Teachers & parents cooking from 6.30. I learnt fast to get to work early and get a place on the bbq, it's the warmest place and where all the best early morning conversations take place. My teaching buddy and I rocked the eggs. It's a skill :)
*Be warned- I apologise for all of the exclamation marks used in this post*
I am so lucky to be part of a CEP study tour of the UK starting very soon- two weeks until I fly out to London!! It's a combined state & catholic school leaders (principals, deputy's & teachers on leadership teams) trip which should be really interesting and fantastic, plus a little exhausting! Yesterday we had our first group catch up in Melbourne. It was great to get to meet everyone and get an idea of what we are all hoping to get out of the trip. It is going to be full on! In a nutshell: One week in England to tour schools and meet some amazing education gurus (can't wait!) then the second week in Scotland to see more schools and then visit the Scottish Learning Festival. We will be seeing different learning environments uses of technology and how schools are building their communities and developing relationships with their wider community. I have been doing a ton of reading and watching of education videos that I thought other people may be interested in. So I thought it was "share it" time! We started the day yesterday with this video. If you haven't seen this before or heard of Suli Breaks, do! He is a 'modern' poet. Check out his youtube channel.
On the education front I have been reading and watching a heck of a lot of stuff from Stephen Heppell, Sir John Jones and Ken Robinson.
I would love to hear of any other educators that you find inspiring. Be prepared for more posts on this ahead,
This has been the busiest week ever! It has been surprisingly good even with all of the craziness but I am so ready for the weekend. This girl is tired! Sorry about the lack of pics again this week, I had every intention to take a ton of photos but only managed a few. On Tuesday we went on 'excursion' to the local TAFE library for part one of Book Week (we are actually celebrating this at school next week because we had so much on this week). The kiddos were so good! Taking all 4 Prep/1 grades anywhere is a bit of a challenge but they were brilliant. We watched Narelle Stone act out two books that have been nominated this year The Coat (which won) and Peggy (which is my favourite). She was hilarious!
Wednesday we had our School Aths. It was about 7 degrees, cloudy and rainy but we managed to survive and get through our activities in record time!
This week has also been all about the letter Q. We read Queenie the Bantam by Bob Graham (another favourite). It's also a great book for location and mapping.
Then we made these adorable chickens from Frogs, Snails & Puppy Dog Tails (I forgot to take pictures of the ones we made... oops).
Yesterday we had a PD day with Maria Forde at the gorgeous Nanga Gnulle conference centre/wedding venue in Bendigo. It was gorgeous even on such a cold day.
And on top of all of that I have been trying to get organised to head to the UK (less than 3 weeks now) for the Study Tour I will be part of! The hunt for a satchel bag that fits my laptop, is cute, under $100 and is long rather than wide (so it will sit on my hip) is proving to be a nightmare. Wish me luck! Have a great weekend,
I have missed 5 for Friday! It feels more 'routine-y' to be linking up with Doodlebugs which is good because it may help me actually get back into routine!
I completely forgot to take photos this week so it will look a little sparse but I'm sure I'm forgiven. {1} I spent last weekend in Melbourne with 2 friends which was just what I needed! I visited my favourite cake shop Little Cupcakes for a red velvet fix. I've mentioned before that I always get lost and although I've been to this place a hundred times I never find it the same way, except for the last 2 times which means I'm making progress! It's tucked into a lane way which is my favourite part about the city, wandering up and down, getting lost and eating/drinking at weird and wonderful places.
{2} This week we have been focusing on the letter Ii with my Preppies. We made cool Indian headbands with patterns and feathers yesterday- kind of like these ones from Squidoo just without the beads. Different cultures are also a huge part of the new Australian Curriculum so it gave us a chance to talk about Native Americans and we made links to Indigenous Australians.
Side note- predicta text changed headbands to 'deadheads'- made me giggle
{3} We had Kooka from the local paper visit the school on Monday as part of launching the local Help Us Kick Goalsinitiative. The kids had a blast chasing around a giant kookaburra. I pity the poor girl in the suit.
{4} Warning this is a vent.... Another one of my poppets is in the process of perhaps being diagnosed with Autism. He has some pretty extreme behaviours which are tending to make my teaching life a really tough gig at the moment. Whether or not he is diagnosed doesn't change him, his family situation or all of the behaviours he has learnt will get him attention (before he started school). We are getting somewhere but it is really, really tough work at the minute (6 months done the track) when school is one of the only consistent places he attends. I currently have 6 of my kiddos on Individual Learning Plans which is the highest number I've ever had in one year. I am really looking forward to the holidays :) {5} I went to the movies with one of my teaching mates Thursday night to see This is the End. Funniest movie ever. Completely sick but very funny. Glad she has the same sense of humour as me or it may have been a disaster!
I'm linking up with Blog Hoppin' tonight just for the heck of it! I love reading everyone's 'personal' stuff so I thought I should share the love too. Some of this I may have written about before but stay with me!
1. I LOVE to bake. If things are going wrong in my life it helps me calm down and gets life back on track. Must be the excess sugar when I scrape the bowl clean. {Random fact- my hubby won't eat cake batter because of the raw egg so I 'have to' lick the beaters too. It's tough, but someone has to do it.}
2. I'm a Pisces' and a big beach baby. Bring on Summer! 3 months to go and counting.
3. It hasn't been a great day until I have spent sometime laughing until I've cried. Luckily this year I have a cracker of a kiddo in my room who calls me on his banana 'phone' every day during fruit break. Makes me giggle every time. Plus I love Minions and it is impossible to watch this and not laugh.
4. I have absolutely no sense of direction and get lost regularly which usually results in me on the side of a road somewhere, with no phone reception, in tears. Throw in a foreign country where I can't speak the language (picture 9.30 at night, Hiroshima in Japan and no map reading abilities) and it makes it even more of an adventure :)
5. Pinterest has seriously helped my clutter issues. I love quotes and this has saved me from printing them all out.
6. Anything cute or vintage and I'm there! I spent this weekend with a gorgeous buddy cruising around the Lost and Found market in Melbourne. I wanted to buy practically everything.
Our town was yarn bombed last year- best time ever!
7. I love to travel and have been to lots of places. Two of favourites have been the Forum in Rome and Tokyo in Japan.
8. I read at least 2 books a week, sometimes more. I don't know how I do this either but it usually involves a lot of reading while cooking and eating. I'm currently going through a Vampire Romance phase. It's becoming quite sad and obsessive but a LOT of fun.
9. I love music but have not one musical bone in my body. Singing {badly} makes me happy. I heart Bernard Fanning.
10. I truly, honestly take time each day to appreciate my life and the wonderful people in it. This last week especially has reinforced that sometimes horrible things happen to good people and that I am fortunate to be me. My life is pretty damn special (no matter what 'something' is getting me down) and I am lucky to have it. Can't wait to read your link up's!
I completely forgot it was August until I went onto Bloglovin to read some blogs... I'm out of it! Being sick, having PT interviews and organising 110 things at work will do that I guess. I'll be very glad when this week is over! Anyway, seeing that Farley had made her post cheered me up and it's time to figure out what I'm up to in August.
Listening- I have treated myself to an early (as in 30 mins after the bell went rather than 2 hours after) Friday afternoon at home to make up for the 2 really late nights I had this week. Bold n the Beautiful has a serious crisis going on & I love that I can follow it even though I only see it about once every 6 months. Loving- I've been holding on to this one for awhile but I'm heading off to London soon for a study tour. Yay! Can't believe I was accepted and are now just counting done to go and hoping that I'll be organised. Thinking- Major school night tomorrow (Saturday) and I'm in charge. Be very glad when it's over and hopefully all goes smoothly. Wanting- I'm sick (again) so more energy would be lovely. Currently overdosing on lemon in hot water, vitamins and cold n flu tablets. Fun. Needing- Sleep! Having two late nights in a row at work (PT interviews til 7pm and a night where I decided my room was filthy and stayed until 6.30pm to clean) was not the best idea and tomorrow night will be another late one. Planning to catch some zzz's tonight and maybe a nanna nap tomorrow. B2s We're only mid-year here but my go to list is... 1. Clothes make me cheery and lots of bright necklaces, funny badges, etc. I find the more effort I put into what I wear the better my outlook will be. I wore my apple core necklace yesterday.. the kids were grossed out :)
2. Anything cute for my room like last year's haul. Love my apple post it note holder.
