Saturday 17 June 2017

Activities for the last week of school

So you've finished the curriculum, the reports are done and dusted and finally you have the chance to do some nice, relaxing activities in the last week of school. Here are lots of ideas for nice activities to do (some that I shared last year and some that I added this year!)

For the little ones:
Have a teddy bears' picnic. It doesn't have to involve too much organisation. They could just eat their normal school lunch and do it at a different time and with their favourite teddy bears in tow. If it's dry, it could be a treat to eat their snack on blankets on the grass. If not (for my Irish teacher followers, this is the more likely option once the Leaving Cert weather is over!), you could just clear a space in the classroom and put down the blankets there. They could read "We're Going on a Bear Hunt" and sing "Teddy Bears' Picnic" and the horrifically catchy, "Yogi Bear Song" - WARNING: Do not, UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES show any video entitled "Yogi Bear Song" on YouTube without listening it to yourself first. There is a very non-child-friendly version out there!

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For the older children:

3-D hand drawing: This one is pretty easy to do and the results are really striking.



Create their own Harry Potter-inspired plant:
Read and respond to some descriptions of magical plants from the Harry Potter series. This article from Garden Design magazine could be useful to jog students' memories. There's lots more information available on the Harry Potter Wikia. The children could then create their own plant(s), draw them and write about them - an art and literacy activity all in one!
image source: Wayne Dorrington

"I Am" poem to get them reflecting about their personal characteristics, strengths and characteristics from Who's Who and Who's New.


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 This end of year scavanger hunt from Jonathan Pearson.
 You might need to modify this a little to make it suitable for your class. Here's another free one from SuperTeacherWorksheets.
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Introduce your children to these inspirational quotes (from Jason's Online Classroom). They can then design a poster to write them beautifully and illustrate accordingly. They could be used as a writing prompt so that their story uses the quote as its core.


Image source: Jason's Online Classroom

A table quiz. I'm a self-confessed quiz nerd and am quite happy to ramble off table quiz questions off the top of my head. If you need a bit more guidance, why not use a ready-made quiz like Seomra Ranga's wonderful art quiz (on PowerPoint, created for Digital Art Week but could be tweaked to make it suitable for your needs - non-Irish teachers, there are some questions you might want to change/remove) or this one from The Telegraph (answers are here).

For younger and older students:
Fidget spinner stations: If your school hasn't already banned them, why not use this latest craze for some maths, English, P.E. and art stations? Download my free station cards and worksheet pack for this by clicking here or on the image below.


A "field trip" to the next grade. Your children think of questions they would like to ask to children in the class above them. Then they go to that classroom and find out the answers from the "experts." What a fantastic idea from Melissa at Inspire Me ASAP.

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Going the other waythis end of year book allows your current students to give advice to incoming students. It's a great way for your students to reflect on what they have learned and it's a lovely thing to begin the school year with if you have the same class level.
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Create a memory book:
Use this free template from Sara Rucker's TPT store to create a cute and simple end of year memory book.


Minute to Win It games. Maybe you're familiar with the gameshow "Minute to Win It." I wasn't until Ginger Snaps shared this great idea for some fun class challenges to complete within a minute. She has given the link to the timer (for your board) and a playlist of the instructions to the challenges. She has also given a list of ones she has used and the required materials.




Orienteering around the school grounds. I've created a resource pack with instructions on how to set it up and carry it out and the resources needed. All you have to do is make a map of your school grounds, stick the clues around and hand out the students' sheets. Click here to download it for free from Google Drive.
Superlative Olympics. This is a game I have used to teach comparatives and superlatives to children with English as a second language in summer camps. I made my own cards to go with the game. Click here to read my blog post about how to play. It's suitable for primary school children of all ages and it's loads of fun! Click here or on the image below to download the resources for free from Google Drive.


This summer writing activity from Educating Everyone 4 Life:
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Create a wordsearch with all of your children's names in it. Thanks to Jordon at The Half Full Cronicles for this idea.


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One of my favourites is to create a maths table quiz to revise the topics you have covered in the year. I put different maths questions on a PowerPoint/Keynote presentation, split the children into teams of 3 or 4. They love working together to solve the problems. Just make sure you put in a few really tricky ones to get them fully engaged!

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Have an end of year compliments box. All you need is a box/basket, small pieces of paper and an envelope for each child. Obviously, it would be better to do it a day before they take them home so that you can read them and make sure there is nothing bad in there. Here's a ready-made compliment kit to get you started.Thanks to Blair Turner for creating it.


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Create an alpha-autobiography. The children choose words that mean something to them and explain why, for example: A is for Adam, my brother's name, B is for Belfast, where I was born; C is for cycling, my favourite sport... I've made two free-to-download versions, one with lines, one without. Click here or on the image below to download from Google Drive. I'm going to enlarge mine to A3 to give them more space to write/draw.



*The clip art in main image is from My Cute Graphics

Tuesday 13 June 2017

Tech Tip Tuesdays: Organisation Hacks



Welcome back to the final installment of Tech Tip Tuesdays. Click here to view any of the other posts in this series. 


This week I wanted to share a couple of hacks for getting your techy items organised.



This first hack has helped to keep my desk clear and I haven't lost a remote control since! Simply attach adhesive velcro squares to the back of your remote control and another to the edge of your board. 



This next hack is if you need to move your computer to another place but you don't move the power lead. I use a binder clip to attach it either to my noticeboard or to the nearby speakers wire. Then I don't need to go hunting under my desk on my return.




Credits for Tech Tip Tuesday logo:
Keyboard lettering  licensed by Dancing Crayon Designs ©www.dancingcrayon.com 
Glittery clip art from Glitter Meets Glue Designs 

Clip art frame from My Cute Graphics

Thursday 8 June 2017

FREEBIE: Fidget Spinner Stations


If you can't beat 'em, you may as well join 'em!

If the fidget spinner craze has hit your school and you'd like to incorporate them into their learning, look no further. I've made a six-station activity pack which you can download for FREE from my TPT store. I'm going to use this in the last week of school as a revision activity.

This freebie contains 6 different station headers and the following instruction sheets and worksheets:

Maths:
Graph template for how long the spinner spins (You will need a timer)
Single digit addition
Double digit addition
Multiplication (up to x12s)

English:
2 persuasive writing templates
Phonics worksheet - Long A (ai/ay words)
Phonics worksheet - Long E (ee/ea words)
Phonics worksheet - Magic E words
Phonics worksheet - sh words and -tion words

Art:
Collaborative drawing instructions

P.E. 
Exercise instructions (including dabbing!)

Enjoy!

Tuesday 6 June 2017

Tech Tip Tuesdays - NCCA Planning Tool

Welcome back to another Tech Tip Tuesday. Click here to view any of the other posts in this series. As always, if there are any technology tutorials that you'd like me to feature, be sure to comment below!

This week's post is dedicated to teachers in Irish primary schools. It's a tool that has saved me HOURS of time I could have wasted scrolling through the curriculum documents. It's the NCCA online planning tool.  If you haven't used it before, be sure to check it out. You can select your class level (or multiple levels if you have a mixed class), subject, strands and strand units in order to find your desired objectives. You can select them to create a bank of resources in the panel on the right of the screen. You can then copy and paste these into your fortnightlies or cuntais míosúla.



Credits for Tech Tip Tuesday logo:
Keyboard lettering  licensed by Dancing Crayon Designs ©www.dancingcrayon.com 
Glittery clip art from Glitter Meets Glue Designs 
Clip art frame from My Cute Graphics

Friday 2 June 2017

IB MYP Bumper Poster Kit in Spanish

This is for all of you MYP Spanish teachers out there! I've just put together several sets of MYP posters in Spanish and added them to my TPT store.



This 80-page IB MYP poster pack contains the following sets:

  • El Currículo del PAI
  • Enfoques del Aprendizaje
  • Actitudes del IB
  • Los Contextos Globales (2 versions - pastel / world flag frames)
  • Conceptos Clave del PAI
  • Perfil de la Comunidad de Aprendizaje


All of the poster sets are available individually too. The total cost of all of them is $12. If you purchase this bumper kit, you can save $2.

For anybody looking for MYP resources/posters in French... They're coming to you this summer!