Editing freebie

I'm finally getting around to updating my very first TpT products {cringe}. Download this cute CUPS freebie here, updated with Mel's very cute scrappy cup clipart.

We use CUPS to help us to remember to edit for capitals, understanding, spelling and punctuation. Perfect for any grade level.

5 for Friday~ 23rd May

What a week! Thank goodness Friday rolled around.

Last weekend was b-u-s-y. It started off with a trip to the 'Genius & Ambition: Royal Academy of Arts' exhibition at the Bendigo Art Gallery and finished up with the Christening of our friend's baby. 

The new gallery space is spectacular and the exhibit was amazing, one of the best I have been to in ages. We are very lucky to have such a fantastic space, with regular international exhibitions. 

I finally gave in and bought myself a trolley this week to set up some core drawers. Best decision ever. 

We celebrated by decorating them for our Write the Room activity this week which is a great freebie from here.

My sister bought me this Minion case & sent it to me this week. It has cheered me up!

One of my Mum's bought us these class fish today. She is such a sweetie. So we now have 4 fish to name. I've already started to pray that they survive the weekend.

5 for Friday and a Freebie!

It's so nice to be writing this today with a smile on my face! We had a good week- an entire week without one of my poppets having a severe, classroom wrecking, melt down- and it's ONLY taken ooh 28 weeks of school to get here. Little M's broken arm was horrible but overall it was still a good week.

I'm linking up with Doodlebugs again, my last one before I go away, to share the goodness!

I visited my Poppet with the broken arm last night. She end up with pins in the wrist and elbow and having her arm wired. Fun! We made cards & I bought her some sticker books and a toy as a present.

It's finally spring! My gorgeous Daffodils.

The weather has been gorgeous (24C) until Thursday so it's been a wonderful start. The sun has made our lemon tree come back to life! I couldn't believe how many buds had come out in a few days- it was completely naked Monday.

Just incase you were wondering about my Study Tour trip... :)

X is for X-Rays- we made these by tracing around our arms and gluing down cotton buds for the bones. Idea found on Pinterest by one of my unit peeps.

I visited my Mum on Sunday and was sent home with a boot load of stuff including these Pyrex dishes & a green glass jug. The orange sunflower dish and I are in love- it was meant to be :)

This week we have been writing procedures and we made toast. And nobody was injured, put butter on the ceiling, each other, licked the knife or anything! 

 They made a mess of the butter, which I pinched out of our staffroom fridge. When a teaching peep asked what had happened to it and I explained by saying "But no-one licked it or put their face in it- it's safe" he laughed. Let's face it, it could have happened :)

This poppet does the best drawings! I love the bubble head style and he even included his school polo top in the picture. The kiddo is a cracker!

And now for a Freebie!

If you would like the toast template I have uploaded it here just for you! It's basic but might be handy.

Have a great weekend,

August Currently

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.

3. Wish I'd found Mel's sentence packet earlier. I love it!

Thanks for stopping by!

Tired it Tuesday- CUPs Editing acronym

I'm linking up with Holly from Fourth Grade Flipper for another Tired it Tuesday. 

Thought I'd share something I've mentioned before. In my K-1 room I use the acronym CUPs to help my first graders edit their own writing. To start with I only focus on Capitals and full stops.

I put this up on the SmartBoard as a reminder and they use a red pencil to edit, so I can see what they have changed.

What I love:

• It's visual.
• The acronym is a great reminder and it's easier to say "Have you used CUPs?" than "Have you edited your work?".
• My kiddos are much more aware of sentence structure because they are their own editers.

What I don't love:

• The "U" for understanding really needs to be focused on and taught repeatedly for the kids to get it. Would be better if it was an "M" for Makes sense but then it's not a word!
• I have to keep the red pencils in a cupboard because if I leave them out they need to do a disappearing act. I'm hopeless at remembering to get them out but I have a kiddo organised to do this so it makes it easier.

What can I do differently:

I've been meaning to make this into a flip book or poster for tables so that it can be used if the computer has a hissy fit (which always happens at the worst time). In a dream world where I had more time I would figure out a way to make this interactive and have a game to match it on the computer.

Click here if you would like a free copy of the SmartBoard page. Looking forward to reading all the other great ideas!

Squiggley Wiggley Freebies for Friday

A few weeks ago, after singing "Mr Clickety Cane"

with my blossoms, one of the kiddos said "Can we watch that movie of the clown?" (from those pics of 'similar vids' that pop up at the end of you tube). Me : 'Clown? You mean Mr Squiggle?' Kids: 'What's that?' 

Therefore adding another story to the 'I feel OLD' pile. Anyone who is Australian, in their late 20s & above will hopefully know what i"m talking about! 

For anyone that's never heard of Mr Squiggle watch this

We watched a couple of minutes of this and the kids loved it! This week I'm going to use Mr Squiggle to help us with some creative writing. I created this "Squiggles and Wiggles" pack. We will finish one of the drawing starters by creating a picture of our own and then use one of the writing templates to write about our squiggle!

There are 32 activities!

Click on the picture below to go my store and then download the 'preview' to get the 2 activities below for free!

Wishing everyone a wonderful weekend! Phew 2 weeks until Easter holidays... hang in there :)

xx Bec

Writing Freebie

My first year of teaching, I had 22 3/4s and I found prompting them to edit a really difficult task. I had a friend who taught grade 1 who used the acronym CUPS to teach her poppets to edit independently. So, as you do when you begin teaching, I took this idea straight back to my class and was amazed at the difference it made! CUPS stands for Capitals, Understanding, Punctuation and Spelling. 
It was also around this time that my school installed SmartBoards so I turned this acronym into a SmartBoard page with explanations underneath to prompt my poppets. It was also easier to put this on the SmartBoard each writing session, rather than writing it up each time.

I find this is also great for my grade 1's and I introduce a different letter during first semester, for example, we begin by only editing for Capital letters.

If you would like this download it from my store here

What other ideas do you have for editing? Have you used this acronym before?

Hope it's helpful!

x Bec