Developing a Growth Mindset

We have been all about positive attitudes and developing a growth Mindset in our classroom this term. There are plenty of fantastic books (like this one from Carol Dweck), resources and Pinterest boards on this topic which I have used plenty of while understanding the differences between a fixed and growth mindset.

My new wall display is having a positive impact on my students attitudes and has been a great visual to remind them how to change their thinking.

I used this fantastic freebie by The Zone for my main display and added these Growth Mindset Posters to our quotes wall (above the display board) which our another great freebie from Tales From Miss D.

If you have any more ideas about developing a growth mindset I'd love to hear about them! Just leave me some comment love below,

Five for Friday~ 30th of January

Oh boy, it's been a while since I've done one of these! I'm linking up with Kasey from Doodlebugs to share the happenings from this week.

Thursday was the first day back at work for 2015. Yay! New room, new year level (hello Grade 3 & 4), new kids. My new room is a gorgeous pile of gorgeousness. Love it!

Love my minion cushion from my niece.

 Bag lockers & tubs

Reward charts

Star display from our transition day.

Fish and pencil trolley.... because that works? :)

 Our Reading Corner

Curtained area

We kicked off our first day with some Name Zentangles. The kids did an excellent job with their artworks, I have definitely missed teaching bigger kids. 

I got the idea from this pin. We looked at filling the background in with different Zentangle patterns and I used this template as an example.


As my iPhoto has just decided to die I don't have any other photos to share (grr).

Happy weekend,

Minion Mayhem

As we start our new school year next week in Australia this week has been crazy fun as I have been putting the finishing touches on my classroom. I moved rooms {again} this year but am really excited to be moving to 3/4... plus I'm in a newer room which kind of rocks.

This year I'm going with a Minion theme to match my {slight} Minion obsession. Plus since the movie is coming out this year it's a great tie-in.

I made these sweet minions for our door display. 

If you'd like a copy download the editable freebie PowerPoint file here.

My name tags and this awesome Minion Calendar are from Yara Sea of Knowledge. I attached them to my whiteboard with magnetic tape {I just noticed the wonky '17' card, sorry about that} which is just surviving this heat. 

Download the free name tags from Yara's store here and purchase the calendar from here.

Need more Minion ideas? Check out my Minion board on Pinterest and follow me @becsperry on Instagram to keep up with all the fo-shizzle happening in Books, Bugs & Boxes land.

Classroom Set-Up: Display Ideas

As the beginning of our new school year is only 3 weeks away I need to set up my new classroom. I both love and hate this part as I normally have too many ideas, or not enough! 

I've spent this morning flicking back through some old photos to get an idea or what I might do this year and thought I'd share a few of my favourites with you.

Last year I used clipboards for my changing display. Each child had their own clipboard with their name underneath. The kids and I both loved this as it was easy to add up new sheets or art works. My hubs nailed the boards onto the wall at a kid-reachable height.

I have always used material in the past for backgrounds for display areas as my old rooms have had either brown or grey carpet for pin boards. Real pretty. I have also used cardboard but the material is brighter, quicker to put up and can be washed at the end of the year.

My new classroom door may be in too sunny of an area to have a 'Welcome' display but I am thinking I might put one up and see how it goes. 

All I could find of my previous door displays was this one, but I have tried a heap of different ones in the post pre-blogging years. Wish I had taken pics! If you are looking for more display ideas take a peek at my Displays Pinterest board.