Spring/fall is here

Spring is here and it is my favourite season!

These photos are from our Botanical Gardens in Ballarat and they are amazing at this time of the year.

Do you teach to themes?

I have blogged over at Australian Teachers - here is my post.
I have joined a group of six other teachers for this collaborative blog.

How high a profile do you give the arrival of a new season? 

With many of our schools either on holidays or returning to school tomorrow planning is a high priority for us all. 

We spend so much of our time planning those just right tasks that will support and challenge our learners and make learning and teaching engaging and embedded in what we do. 

Why teach to a theme?

When learning has interesting content, our kids are more engaged.

Any theme or unit is more than asking children to sing a few songs, draw pictures or work on worksheets.

A great unit has tasks that will engage children and lead to observations and inquiry.

I use themes to teach because they create excitement, hold attention spans, provide new vocabulary and teach new skills. A great theme encourages learning new content, sharing what we learn, investigating what we don’t know and form questions about what we what to explore. 

I am a huge fan of Inquiry Planning and whether you follow a subscribed method or not - the engagement is much higher and retention of information is higher. 

A very basic way to plan is the e5 model or use other inquiry process models. I will blog more about the planing aspect latter in the week. 

   

These packs will help you with your planning and create that great theme all based around Spring - click on the images to see more details. 

There are some Fall links below.

     

These are two freebies for you to use. 

   

Happy spring or fall!

Here is a Fall link for you too.

Been a bit busy....

Finishing off some packets and now all posted ......

Click on the images to go to the pack for more details

    

 

     

  

       

  

  

    

 

Falling for Fall

I have just posted my pack for Fall - and for those who have Autumn, there are pages included to enable you to use this pack too.

I have marked it down to 50% for two days only ( 26th - 28th Sept, Sunday evening Aussie time)

This pack contains 135 pages and has 5 English and 5 Math tasks for K-1. It helps to celebrate the Fall/Autumn season and builds on the need to use adjectives.

English Tasks

Word Wall- This will help you to brainstorm words about fall/autumn for your grade to use in writing tasks.

Adjectives- Recording sheets to draw and then list the adjectives for all things autumn/fall

Mini book- This will give you two books. Copy and staple where the two marks are, then cut in half. Children can record what they see, hear, touch, smell and taste during this season. There is a cover for Fall and one for Autumn.

Matching - There are two sets – one in full color and one in a ‘save my ink’’ version. Color copy, laminate and cut the cards. Store in a small bag. Match the lower case to the capital letter

Writing tasks - Life as a Scarecrow, If I could ride on a tractor…, Down in the pumpkin patch, A Hay Ride, Down on  the Farm, A huge sneeze, Template to make your own writing topic, An extra writing page for more writing

Math Tasks

How many? There are two sets – one in full color and one in a ‘save my ink’’ version. Color copy, laminate and cut the cards. Store in a small bag. Add a peg on the correct number

Roll and cover - Use a 6 sided dice - roll and cover. There are three additional sets that ask you to +1, +2 and double the number rolled

Jigsaw- These eight sets will give each student a chance to explore counting patterns for 1, 2, odds, evens, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 10’s. Color copy and cut along the lines. Then match up the patterns to put the picture together.

How many leaves on the ground? Work out how many leaves on the ground?  Color copy and laminate, then display around the room. Read the equations and use the leaves like a number line.

Record your answer on the answer sheet.

Time to Eat Apples - Color copy and laminate, one set is o’clock, one set is half past. Spread them out and match the correct labels.