Paula's Place Teaching Resources

Harmony Day - celebrating diversity

Harmony Day is about celebrating cultural diversity. We should celebrate this every day, but this day highlights how great our country is.

We acknowledge this in March on the 21st.

Did you know that ...

around 45 per cent of Australians were born overseas or have at least one parent who was

we identify with about 300 ancestries

since 1945, more than 7.5 million people have migrated to Australia

85 per cent of Australians agree multiculturalism has been good for Australia

apart from English, the most common languages spoken in Australia are Mandarin, Italian, Arabic, Cantonese, Greek, Vietnamese, Tagalog/Filipino, Spanish and Hindi

more than 60 Indigenous languages are spoken in Australia.

(Stats taken from this link)

Australia is a great place to live because of this diversity. Harmony Day is a celebration of our cultural respect for everyone who calls Australia home.

We respect community, cultural and religious diversity and foster a sense of belonging for everyone.

The colour orange represents social communication and meaningful conversations. It is about the freedom of ideas and encouragement of mutual respect.

Last year I prepared a PowerPoint to share with my grade that provided information and tasks to help make a shared understanding of this day.

Click here to see our pack on TpT

Here are examples of what is in the pack.

Click here or on the images.

Here is a sample from our PowerPoint

Revising and Editing made easy

Writing conferences take time and effort to maintain.

As teachers we work so hard to improve our kids writing pieces and the outcomes they achieve.

I don't know about you but I have worked for a long time to try to get this right.

I think I have found a way that is easy - trackable and helps set goals.

I have been able to have a much bigger impact on getting my conference time more streamlined and manageable for us all.

Here is what I do....

I have created what we call our Monster Editor. My students color in certain parts of him as they move through the editing and revising cycle.

At the Teacher Conference I can see straight away which parts of the process they think they need my help with - it is the part not colored in!

To add a real conversation I can also ask questions like - I see you have colored the ears - show me where you have upgraded the punctuation or the vocabulary?

Our Monster Editor is displayed in our room as a large visual reminder of each step.

We attach a small Monster to each piece of writing. This then drives our goal setting.

Writing conferences and setting new goals can be so time consuming! This Editing and Conferencing Lapbook has been a life changer in our Writing sessions. We always know what stage, goal and level our students are working on.

This Editing and Conferencing Monster Lapbook is to be used every time your student’s are writing.

The LapBook can stand up and be a useful resource during writing sessions.

It is instrumental in the conference phase with you as the teacher. It helps guide the conversations, goals and steps for improved writing outcomes.

The students can use a paper clip to show which part of the writing cycle they are up to. The paper clip can be moved from –plan –draft- revise – buddy edit- teacher conference – publish.

There are extensive photos to guide you through the setting up and use of the Editing and Conferencing Lapbook.

This work is available in our TpT store by clicking here

Ice Cream Math

Who doesn't love ice cream? This pack is engaging, colorful and full of addition ideas. Use this Ice Cream Shop to create your own ice creams and work out the cost for each one.

It is your choice if you show your students how to record dollars and cents. My extension students do, but my other students do not. Use bundling sticks or Base 10 blocks to work out the cost. Check on a calculator – they love doing this.

Click here to see it in our TpT Store

Fraction Lapbook

Learning about fractions can be fun.

This Fraction Lapbook investigates the fractions of half, thirds, quarters, fifths and sixths.

(There is a section at the end for fourths).

Choose which sections you need to copy for color or black /white printing.

The pack contains

There are detailed instructions to put the folder together and photos to assist you through every step-A choice between a color and black/white cover
A template for where to place each part of the folder
Level One, Two and Three Learning Goals to achieve
Pocket templates to attach to sort fraction cards-Color and black/white options for sorting cards
A ‘Fraction Fact Booklet’ to work through to build knowledge about whole, half, third, quarter (fourth), fifth and sixth
A ‘Fraction Example’ Booklet for each child to record their knowledge about whole, half, third, quarter (fourth), fifth and sixth
A section that has replacement pages for quarters/fourth and recognise/recognize

This pack contains references to - half, halves, thirds, quarters, fourths, fifths, sixths, whole.

Click here to see this is our TpT store and it will be 50% off for only 24 hours