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,

Currently September

So I completely forgot that it was September! Might have something to do with school camp, Father's Day activities and preparing for my long service leave all this week. I'm linking up with Farley to share the currently love anyway, just a few days late :)

Listening to Season 3 of Suits. Completely love this series!

Loving that our cat Axel is paying attention to me today {two days away will do that} and I'm getting lots of hugs. Plus, I am officially on Long Service Leave from today! Really enjoying the thought that I'll have a month off before the last term of the year. I'll be heading in to term 4 relaxed and ready to end the year right!

Thinking I need to be in Melbourne this afternoon to meet up with some lovely blogging buddies. I probably should be on a train already! Oops.

Wanting to enjoy this gorgeous sunshine today... and somehow stay on the couch.

Needing to read our travel plans over for this week. We our heading to Tasmania for a weeks holiday. A whole week exploring will be nice.

3 Goals:
1. I'm loving meditation, I need to keep up taking the time to stop, process and breathe.
2. Enjoy everything.
3. Keep up the work organisation.

Happy September!

5 Fun Facts with Blog Hoppin

Happy teacher week! I'm linking up with Blog Hoppin' to share 5 fun facts about me. 

~ One ~

We eloped!

My hubs and I will be celebrating our 6th year wedding anniversary in December (time flies). We shocked pretty much everyone at the time by eloping in Coffs Harbour while on holiday with a couple of friends. It was a planned wedding, with our two friends in on the secret and it was just right for us.

~ Two ~

I love to travel

If you have stopped by before you probably already know this but I love to travel and explore new places. My last big trip was Scotland & Paris in 2013, we're planning another trip for next year. Fingers crossed. This is me in 2009 in Germany (the same year I traveled Europe, went to Japan, built a house, became engaged and got married. Yeah).

~ Three ~

I hate Ferreo Rochers

This came up at work today. I hate them. My class have just added this to the many reasons I am "weird" :)

~ Four ~

Art is my Zen Zone

Art galleries, drawing, strolling around and looking at street art are all in my "happy zone". One of the best parts of teaching in Australia (and sometimes one of the hardest) is that I teach my students all subjects so even though I'm not an art specialist I am are art teacher. I love getting to share with my kiddos what I love and hate and I am hopefully teaching them to judge, critique, enjoy and be opinionated about art.

My birthday trip this year was to see Blue Poles {Number 11} by Jackson Pollock at the National Gallery of Australia (NGA).

I always visit the Weeping Woman by Picasso when we are in Melbourne. Love! My class upon seeing pictures of her this year decided she was "weird" (it seems to be our word this year) and there were a lot of "what is that?!"'s exclaimed.

~ Five ~

Stationary Addiction

This is probably just a general teacher thing but my stationary habit is legendary and is kind of getting out of control. It's all useful, right?!

Thanks for stopping by,

Currently August

I'm linking up with the lovely Farley for this months currently :) If you're stopping by for the first time just a heads up that I'm Australian, it's currently winter here and we're mid-school year so there are a few differences. Jealous of all of you in the summertime!

Listening to the radio while out and about and I'm writing this on my phone. Tricky stuff. 

Cannot get Taylor Swift out of my head at the moment. Love!

Loving anything warm as it is super freezing this week! I have FINALLY after many years of trying began to run and I am loving it. Can't wait for Spring so I can do so more often.

Thinking that I'm enjoying being organised at work and giving myself some time out this weekend. My Replacement Teacher folder is a god-send.

Wanting to finish correcting journals (our learning portfolios). I have long service leave at the end of this term and I am trying to keep on top of the correcting which I am terrible at.

Needing to get back into a meditation routine. I am a complete stress head and it really does help... when I do it!

And I might do a bit of mid-year RAK by doing a coffee run for my unit this week. We all need a pick-me-up!

Thanks for stopping by! Have a great August,

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.

Back to School Essentials~ A linky party

Two posts in two days, it's a miracle! Even though I'm heading back to school after our winter holidays in Australia, not to a new year after Summer break, I thought I would link-up with Amanda at The Teaching Thief to share my back-to-school essentials.

As my class this year will tell you, I have a massive stationary addition. Between them and my husband I swear they are working together to get me to stop. Every time I go near I shop now I hear my kiddos saying, "Do you REALLY need that Mrs Perry?" :) It hasn't worked yet but I'm sure I'll hear it again when they see everything I bought over our winter holidays (ummm... it's a LOT).

My typical summer haul looks (partly, ok this is about half) like:

 My B2S list normally includes:

1. New buckets, baskets and general cute looking containers. Not that I actually need any more but I keep on buying them!

2. New cushions and seats for my reading area. I normally sew new cushion covers and hit up Kmart for other bits and pieces.

3. Laminating pockets! Along with stamps & stickers. Aldi in Australia are great for cheap stamps close to the start of the school year.

4. A new classroom mat. These are not the cheapest item to buy in Australia. I normally wait until Kmart or Spotlight has a sale.

5. Clipboards for displays and group work. I bought mine from Amazon a few years ago and love them. I'm due for some more this year.

I also normally buy new tissue paper decorations, pencils and other small stationary bits for my reward box and new fidget tools.

Happy shopping to all of you heading back to school. Can't wait to see your blog posts and ideas in the next few weeks.

National Gummi Worm Day & a Freebie

My random googling for our first week back from Winter break paid off when I found out that this Wednesday the 15th of July is National Gummi Worm Day. Who knew?! 

We may be cheating a bit by 'celebrating' this in Australia as I'm guessing the National part means America but shhh I won't tell anyone that.  Plus, we are starting a new Inquiry unit with the focus on Life & Living so at least worms will tie in nicely.

Download this free Worm mini-reader here. This is great for Kindergarten as it includes high frequency words and would be an easy to make take home reader. Simply print, cut & have students read and colour the worms to match. There are 8 half-pages in total.

If you want to join in with the fun here are some other activities you might include:

Measure with Gummi Worms.
Idea 1- Use Gummi Worms as an informal measurement tool, for example, how many Gummi worms long is the table? Nancy over at First Grade Wow has a fantastic free worm measuring unit (cover pictured) that includes a worm craft. Definitely check it out!

Visit Nancy's blog or click on the image to go to her blog to download this unit.

Idea 2- Use a ruler to measure the length of a bag of Gummi Worms like Rachel did with her kids at Kids Activity Blog.

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Idea 3- Stretch & measure your Gummi worm like K-5 Math Resources did! And they have a great freebie to record the information too. Click on the image to download.

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Experiment with Gummi Worms like this fantastic science fair project on Candy Experiments. 

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Watch the Discovery Channel video on how Gummi lollies (candy) are made here.

Make your own Gummi Worms. Recipe here.

Read the Diary of a Worm By Doreen Cronin or watch the book being read here.

Happy Gummi Worm Day! Any excuse to eat lollies will do, right?!