The Destitute Teacher

This term our focus for Te Reo is Greetings. So I just had to share a set of basic greetings posters that I made for my classroom. There is a huge deficit of free Maori printables out there... so hopefully this is one step in the right direction! You can access the documents from my Google Drive here .

So, so happy with the final results of our beginning of the year, class collaborative art projects! Clap along if you feel that this is a craft for you. Day one we began to create some class bunting. I already had crochet bunting hanging in the classroom, so we have a bit of a theme going on. I made a triangle template and traced out 24 triangles onto fabric. These were roughly cut out, so that I could name them on the outside of the triangle and be able to read it clearly. We put the traced side down on the table (so that I had clear cutting lines later) and we talked about not mixing colours, background/foreground and bright/interesting colours. The children painted self portraits in any old colours they choose. I limited their colour palettes to bright tones. Day One we painted basic shapes- head, shoulders, background. Day Two we added detail. Day Three we added further detail if needed. I took the triangles home to cut and assemble. Each 'flag' was cut out and re-na...

Here in NZ we tend to cover The Treaty of Waitangi each year as we work together to establish our classroom rules. Invariably, we end up coming to an agreement and each child 'signs' it to show that they will support and uphold what they have discussed. Each year, I inwardly groan at how boring my class treaty always ends up looking. That is, until I came across this .jpg on Pintrest. It got me thinking... perhaps we could create a set of 'golden' rules.... rules that are displayed around a sun... and the rays of the sun were our handprints... and our handprints were our pledge to uphold the rules. I pitched the idea to the kids and they LOVED it. Each day we painted large sheets of newsprint in a messy, Eric Carle kind of way. Just pour the paint straight on the paper and get the kids to go mad. Geez, it was fun! I have since learned a good lesson: don't use newsprint. It's too flimsy. Go for something a little thicker. With a little help I got the bac...

As mentioned in the post before, this term we have an Arts focus. So I inquired of my students... what area/media would you like to focus on? 21 lovely littlies all put their hands up and said... knitting. Now I love crochet, do knit some times and am an avid crafter. I must admit I was thrilled that they want to tackle knitting, and immediately began to plan the unit. I plan to integrate content on primary/ secondary colors, brights v.s. pastels, and how our color choices suit our purpose. I hope that we will get to start off with making some small finger puppets as a learn to knit project. Teaching 21 six and seven year olds to knit is quite daunting, but i'm hoping that we will get to the dizzying heights of yarn-bombing before the term is through. Perhaps a little too ambitious. I decided that inspiration was key, and so have set about yarn bombing our own classroom with hand-crocheted items.  Rainbow bunting now hangs along our back wall. The wall is divi...

This term we have an arts focus, and I am almost beside myself with excitement. I have such large ambition for our artwork, and so little time... we need to get started! Last week we were lucky to begin our art unit with a trip to the local art gallery. This was a truly fantastic visit. We we guided around the gallery by the world's most amazing educator (I spent my time rhapsodising over her behaviour management and questioning skills), and then got to make our own artwork. The gallery provided some lovely heavy-weight watercolour paper. We did a very quick and simple line drawing of a local mountain/ocean scene. The painting was then completed with a lovely set of watercolours.... you know the kind that are a dry block on the palette and then you add water and it works? They came out just gorgeous. I love the way the watercolours have those swishes of colour through them... even the least artistic of us all had spectacular results! I mounted them on black paper a...

Ok, this is the moment that you have been waiting for. You have been on a shopping spree, been busily printing, laminating, sticking and gluing and now you are ready to... hang your displays! But maybe you are feeling a little bit lost... not quite sure what is needed... and just want to get something up on the walls. I will start from the start (a good place to begin) and will give you a few hints and tips to get you going with a simple display. An equipment list will be at the bottom of the post to help you to assemble your gear. 1. You will probably have four key display areas: Math; Discovery/Topic Studies; Art; Literacy (Literacy can then be split into Reading and Writing). For each area you will need some kind of definition of space- like a background color and borders, plus a title for the display. Stick with easy titles ('Math' will always be Math, whether you are studying fractions or square roots). I like to have each area with its own color scheme if possible. 2...

By now the walls of your classroom are begging to be hung with precious treasures and made beautiful. Ignore it. Wait it out. Thought out a wall display? Keep thinking! This is my fourth year of teaching, and the fourth new classroom I have had to set up. If you do your wall displays now, chances are that your furniture will block some crucial part of one of the displays. If you arrange your furniture and put all your resources away now, you will probably end up moving furniture back out away from the wall in order to reach. Grrrr. Now is the time to tentatively put out your furniture. Arrange the big stuff- library shelves, tote trays, your desk etc. You will be surprised at how long this process takes at first (don't worry, you get quicker at it every term). Don't bother putting stuff on shelves until you are happy with the layout and your wall display is hung. Keep thinking about how you want to decorate. Remember its nice to create a cosy Library corner nook, or a Math ...

Summer holidays are in full swing, but I know all the beginning teachers out there will be getting themselves organised and into their classrooms. So, in honor of this, my first posts of the year will be about getting your classroom environment up and running. I believe that classroom environment is under-rated by many teachers. A welcoming, interactive classroom display hooks students, parents and other colleagues in before you even open your mouth- a big help if you are like me and suffer from repeated 'foot IN mouth' disease. Its very intimidating when you first get those keys and walk in the door. Just take a deep breath, and segment it into steps and you will be fine! Most classes will have their furniture shifted into the middle, so the cleaners can clean around the walls. They then come back again once the furniture is in place (often the last weekend before school starts) to clean again. While your class is all packed up like this, its a great idea to get stuck in...