The Destitute Teacher

Suited for: ages 1+ (adult supervision required for any children who are putting items in their mouths) Equipment: iceblock maker (approx $2 from Kmart) and pom poms (from dollar shop) Great for reinforcing pincer grip, language (e.g. 'in', 'out', 'on top', 'under', 'sparkly', 'scratchy', 'fluffy'), early 1:1 skills I'm trying to find little activities to set up for Miss One in the afternoons. She has a little lull in energy around 3.30pm and this activity was a perfect quiet time, 1 on 1 activity that kept us both occupied for a surprising length of time! Yesterday we had played with the iceblock maker set and spent ages putting the plastic sleeves in the trays, fitting on the lids, taking it all apart and swapping lids around etc. Miss One also discovered that the sleeves stack inside each other so we made towers as well. Today I added some silver sparkly pom poms to the mix. Pom poms are a great sensory material, and the ...

Todays focus is pens and pencils. Of course you may have this set up at home already, and if you do, then congrats... no need to spend! However, here is a really basic kit that can be put together so cheaply. If you are buying everything on the list, the maximum outlay will be around $10.  At the very minimum, having HB pencils and a sharpener available will set your child up for learning. Here is a 'stationery list' to help you get set up... 1. HB Pencils... have a couple of pencils set aside per child. Avoid cheap pencils as the lead inside them is usually broken and they are terrible to sharpen. 2. Pencil Sharpener. A nice metal sharpener will live longer than a plastic one. 3. Eraser- buy a quality one, rather than a novelty eraser. 4. Chalk. Great for practicing writing or basic facts on the concrete outside. 5. Colored Pencils- avoid the dollar shop version as they are terrible to sharpen and don't really color in well. Invest in a good/ branded set. 6. Felt Tipped Pe...

 The back to school sales are rolling out... love this time of year! Its an expensive time for families with school aged children, but this year I would like to encourage a little extra spending, if you can stretch to it. Stationery is really affordable at this time of year (e.g. notebooks go from $1.50 each to 5cents each), making it a great time to put together a 'lockdown kit' just in case of further lockdowns this year. There is so much uncertainty around Covid. but having a little kit put together could potentially be massive for encouraging your child's home learning. I am planning on putting together some ways to help your child with learning at home, and there is no better place to begin than with getting set up! The following couple of posts will focus on shopping smart to ensure you are well set up. Disclaimer- I mainly shop for stationery from Kmart or The Warehouse. I don't advise buying dollar shop/ bargain pencils or pens, they are so rubbish that it is wo...

Today I am sharing a quick little math group warm up with you. I love using playing cards, and so do my students. This pack is a set from a 500 game... the numbered cards go from 2-13 and Ace becomes one. To keep them tidy and organised, I like using one of the tiniest Sistema containers I can possibly get. A little bit more expensive than other storage systems, but they seem to be practically indestructible, come in great colours and when on sale they are way more affordable: Sitting in a semi circle, I go round the circle giving the students cards, and they need to answer as quickly as they can. The questions vary: * What is your number (you can give them two cards to make a two digit number etc) *What comes before your number *What comes after your number Once they have a set (maybe 5-ish cards)... *Put your cards in order from smallest to biggest *Put your cards in order from biggest to smallest Swap sets between the children so they have a different set to work with. Next we swi...

Went for a trawl through the local dollar store on the weekend and found some goooorgeous ice-cream shaped bowls so simply just HAD to buy them.I scored these ones ages ago: from an op shop and they got an absolute thrashing. We use them with pom poms or plastic beans (JELLYbeans so I am told), and create number problems involving ice-cream sundaes with sprinkles on top. However I only had four, and this seriously limits my group sizes for using this equipment. We want the children to be engaged, and using the manipulatives themselves right? So I bought three sets of these bad boys... ...and we can now all have a go at using the bowls! Much excitement!

It is the start of a brand new school year in lil ol' NZ, and for the next few posts I am going to give you the grand tour of my classroom. I am beginning the round with my new school hat storage system... it has made my life so much easier, and was quick and simple to make. I bought two over-the-door-shoe-organizers from K-Mart for $8.00 each (just in case you are wondering, there is 16 pockets in each organizer). These were stapled to the back of my class library shelves. Top tip- use the staple gun at an angle. It makes it way easier to get the staples out later if there is a little gap at one end. I chopped off the bottom rows, as they were not needed, and ran a quick strip of patterned duct tape across the top and bottom (before running out). I then added laminated name labels (stapled on) and a sign. Quick, cheap, and easy (wink wink). I love it because I can see at a glance who doesn't have their hat at school today, and their hats are no longer scattered around my...

This post has been a long time coming... Last year our school had an art exhibition, where each child needed to produce an artwork to show. My class of seven year olds was eternally optimistic and wanted to produce FOUR smaller artworks, in a mixed media study of owls. We didn't quite make it to four, but gave it a good shot. Our first project was to produce a salt dough owl. Each child got a handful of dough (I think I used about 3kg of flour in total) and we followed the tutorial here Be warned- it took two days to bake 21 A5 sized dough owls enough. And baking salt dough smells kinda funny. Once baked, we looked at the process of painting our owls. We under-coated them with white, and slowly layered our paint. I wanted to emphasise the importance of getting the maximum effect- waiting to dry between each layer meant that we didn't end up with a horrible mess of brown paint. This process took a long time. In the end, to get it done I would have a painting table set ...

I have craft envy. I troll Pintrest and other blogs looking for sweet ideas for my own classroom, but as I do I am hit by the availability and affordability of crafting supplies in America and the UK. We often get supplies in NZ after a long delay, and it takes even longer for the supplies to become cheap. Of note I have noticed that more and more dollar shops are beginning to stock teacher specific supplies- borders, certificates etc. Have a look around as there is some pretty neat stuff out there. Spotlight has a range of affordable classroom decoratives in some stores. A hunt through Geoffs Emporium on Dominion Road in Auckland resulted in a roll of patterned duct tape for $3. Major score! Not in love with the pattern, but excited by the possibilities I chucked it in the basket and trundled home with it. I inherited some dilipdated A3 clearfiles at the end of last year... perfect beginners project! These folders needed some love, as they were scuffed and torn, but not ready to be...

This year's goal is to re-vamp my reading tumble activities. Last year I spent a lot of time seeking out and making resources for independent Math activities/ tubs, and poor old reading got the short stick. One very successful tub I have had in my reading tumble is the box of 'Mini Books'. We all love mini things... mini mars bars and mini bottles of liquor that you get on a plane are personal favourites. The kids have really enjoyed having 'Mini Books' as a reading task, so over the summer holidays I have added to the resource and spent some time repairing older books. All the books in the tub were sourced from op-shops for a minimal cost (mostly 10- 50 cents each). There is a good stock of books published by Ladybird in their small format, but also a range of books that seem to have been from Happy Meals, or given out at B.P. petrol stations. Either way, a fabulous source of engaging reading material! I fully recommend a strip of clear packing tape along ...

Today we had such an awesome art lesson that I have come home on a Friday afternoon to blog about it. Yes, it was that awesome. And simple. And easy. Let's not forget effective. Craft foam prints were made this afternoon, and the over all effect is just stunning. The photos do not do the prints justice. I purchased a packet of A4 craft foam from the local dollar shop. There were four sheets in the pack, two thick and two thin. I've put the thin pieces aside for another day, and we used the thickest available. This meant that our prints were lovely and clear and the foam did not rip. I cut each sheet into 4 (A6 size?) to make it go a little further. The students used ball point pens to 'draw' their image onto the foam. It didn't matter if the pen didn't work... we just needed a good, clear indentation in the foam. Today the children had 'free choice' on what (school appropriate) pictures they wanted to draw. They went to town on it. ...

A while back we did a short unit on pattern making. I was absolutely blown away by some of the patterns that the students made, and just had to share them with you here! Color patterns with buttons (some children used them to make repeating patterns with size e.g. small/big/small/big) Number patterns with dice. Color patterns with Jovi's. Creative patterns with classroom equipment. Increasing patterns with unifix cubes. Unfortunately I can't find a photo, but one student made number patterns using playing cards as well. Love the affordability of these manipulatives!

We are hammering away at our skip counting sequences at the moment. So when my husband went fishing a couple of weekends ago, I found it the perfect opportunity to make a couple of skip counting activities for the classroom, using my favorite math manipulative- milk bottle tops! To begin with, I took an A3 sheet of colored paper and traced around a bottle top multiple times, to create one long, windy snake. I filled it in with permanent marker and drew on a head and snaky tongue. I then wrote the skip counting in fives sequence that I wanted to re-inforce on each body segment. This took a surprisingly long time, so I was on the hunt for a quicker way. So I cut some chux cloth and glue it onto the back of a milk bottle cap, creating a simple stamp. I then chose white paint to stamp my second snake, to create a skip counting sequence in twos.  By the time I finished the second snake, I was totally sick of serpents. So my final game is a flowering vine, with petals stamped wit...

My class absolutely LOVES raiding my big pointers. Unfortunately sometimes they can be a little hard on them, especially the more fragile fairy wands etc.  So I have made a bunch of mini pointers for the children to use when reading. They went wild for them! This set is inexpensive, quick to make and an easy craft activity. You could even have your students make their own!  The wands are simply large popsicle sticks with a decoration hot glued to one end. I am hoping that the decoration focusses the eye, helps the children with their tracking and makes their reading just a little bit special and exciting. I used a range of decorations- googly eyes, wooden shapes, felt shapes, sparkly decorations, Christmas decals, foam shapes, pom poms, ribbon flowers, fabric flowers. The craft aisle of the dollar shop or your local emporium should provide plenty materials to work with.  They are stored in a condensed milk tin. I used PVA glue to cover it with yellow paper an...

Shifting classrooms always requires a scramble to inventory current equipment and to replace those old regulars that you use a lot. I know that almost every classroom must need counters at some point in time! Having a range of alternatives can often pique children's interest, but can be a budgetary stretch at the same time. Here are 10 alternatives that I have rustled up with a minimum cost. 1. Smooth stones come ready made and freely available from your local beach or stony river. Small pebbles are perfect as game tokens, or collected for use in Math lessons. They look great with stickers and glitter glued on and are REALLY durable. However, they can be heavy when stored en masse. 2. Wooden shapes are available in packs of 12-20 from your local dollar shop. These are particularly awesome to use for number stories (i.e. 6 bumble bees were sitting on a flower and 3 flew back to the hive, how many were left?). They are more durable than paper cut outs, intriguing and reasonabl...