Monday Made It

#MondayMadeIt

Hi everyone, I hope you all had a relaxing weekend and had a chance to get out and enjoy the sunshine. This week I am sharing the many possibilities of a beach ball! They are inexpensive and it is great to stock up on them at this time of the year!

While I was on teaching practice I used it to start my Gaeilge lessons. 

The children loved them and it was a great way to get children up moving and speaking Irish. 

I feel it’s a good idea to write on the ball with a whiteboard marker as you can make changes as you need to. 

This is how I like to use it. Have the children make a big circle. Throw the ball to a child. The child then calls out the question under his/her right thumb.e.g.Cad is ainm duit? The child then answers and tosses the ball to someone else. If a child lands on an instruction, e.g.Gach duine seasaigí ar chos amháin ar feadh deich soicind then everyone completes the instruction.

In Math it can also be used to practice recalling tables.

I like to take both of these balls with me when subbing. What class wouldn’t enjoy tossing a beach ball around the room!!!

English: At the moment in the Resource room, we are practicing our understanding of story elements as we recall stories that we read. We got a marker and I asked pupil A to write one of the following questions on each section of the ball: Beginning?  Middle? End? Where? (Where did the story take place) Who? (Who were the main characters) Favourite part?etc.

Gross Motor Activities (which could also be used as warm up’s in PE)

The Exercise your tables is going very well and the children are doing a great job practicing this game. Some days we enjoy taking out the beach ball and playing a simple game of toss and catch (with a twist).  When a child catches the ball they must perform the exercise that is under their right thumb.  Children perform each exercise for 10 repetitions or hold for a count of 10.  I have no picture of this ball as I leave it in school.

This following activity is a favourite in my room. I allow the children to listen to their favourite song and ask them to pass the ball around the group.  When the music stops, whoever is holding the ball will perform the exercise under his/her right thumb. Everyone in the group repeats the exercise performed. I turn the music back on and continue to stop the music to perform a Gross Motor exercise.

I have yet to try this next exercise as I am waiting until the weather gets better. 

The children will get into a circle. They will kick the ball around the circle and when I will call out stop and the child with the ball between both his/her feet will perform the exercise that his/her
right ankle is touching.

So there you have it, just a couple of ways beach balls can be introduced in the classroom.

Let me know if you have tried any of the above,

Niamh,

Monday Made it

Hi everyone, 

I'm back with a very exciting idea to share with you all. Thank you to those of you who sent messages requesting the Finger Twister game from last week, I hope you enjoyed it and that everyone is getting great use out of them. This week I am zoning in on Tables in Mathematics and I promise you won't be disappointed.

This idea caught my eye while I was on Instagram and came across this video! As you know I am in the Resource room this year and Gross Motor exercises are an integral part of our daily routine.Lately I find my pupils getting a little tired of how we practice our exercises so when I spotted this I couldn't wait to share it with them.

I went on to Miss5th's Teachers Pay Teachers page and was delighted to see she had a free addition one. I knew this would be far too easy for my 4th class students but trialled it with first and second class students and they loved it. Definitely worth the download, however the resource is not editable. So I began tweaking and creating one to suit me.  Class teachers set new tables to revise weekly so an editable template is perfect to work with and to have on file.

This week fourth class are reviewing ÷7. After a discussion on which exercises they would like to review this week I made a start on the PowerPoint. The exercises they picked were star jumps, squats, windmills and hug yourself. So each day they will be practicing their Gross Motor skills but also be getting a chance to review rheir tables for their Friday Tests!

Has anyone used something similar in their classrooms?

If you have any questions or comments don't hesitate to get in touch!

Until next time,!

Niamh.

Monday Made It

This week I am excited to share with you all my #mondaymadeit

It's a fine motor activity that I came across on Pinterest called Finger Twister.

For those teaching Resource or in any Mainstream classroom I feel these will go down a treat and will really help their writing and manual dexterity.

Look at how cute they are. 

I decided to make my own as I couln't find a printable version.

I made the dots larger for the older classess and for the younger classes they will test out the smaller dots. I'll keep you posted and let you know how they go!

If anyone would like a copy sent to them just let me know.

Stay tuned for more #Mondaymadeit next week

Niamh

Monday Made it

Hi everyone,

I hope you all had a nice break over Easter and enjoyed being back in the classroom today. Over the last few days I was busy scrolling through all the amazing ideas on (yep you guessed it) Pinterest... I am sure I am not the only one who clicks on a pin and then 50 pins later you find yourself saying .... eh is that the time!!!

Which lends itself to the title Monday Made It! I am going to dazzle you all with some awesome pins I thought were worthy of making... laminating ..... and having my lovely students try out.

The first one which is located on my Pinterest board here is all about Numbers :)

Number Sense

Everyone needs to know this was not my idea and a round of applause goes to  Hodges Herald for her creativity(",). If you click onto her page you can grab this freebie (brightly coloured paper not included).

                   

I tried it today with one of my students who is struggling in Maths. I modelled and practiced a few wit her and she really enjoyed them. I am looking forward to seeing her progress and practice essential math skills om a daily basis.

What do you think of the resource?

It would make an excellent Early Finishers activity in any classroom.

Enjoy :)

#mondaymadeit

  

Fantastic Find Friday

Hi everyone, this week I am sharing a fantastic litle find that I found in Tiger!  As you can see from the picture below they are these wonderful Storyteller Dice! When I saw them I did a little happy dance inside! Then I did another one when I saw the price of them.... (drum roll please)  €4 for a pack of 6. It certainly made my day.




The minute I got out of the shop I had to inspect them and was pleasently surprised by the size of them (2cm) and the quality of them.

Side 1

Side 2

Side 3

Side 4

Side 5

Side 6

Here are some ideas of how I am going to use them in the classroom

• Work as a class and ask someone to roll the dice ask a child to begin a story using one of the pictures as their starting point. Then, ask a new child to continue the story by including another of the pictures. Repeat until all 6 pictures have been used in the story.
• Work in small groups and have 'story telling' sessions where the group works together to tell a story which involves all 6 of the pictures.
• Pair work. One child rolls the dice and tells a story using the cubes. The other child has to listen and remember the story, then retell it to others in the class.
• Roll the dice and share the pictures with the class. Ask all of the children to tell / write a story which includes all of the images. Share the stories at the end of the session and compare them... how were they similar / different?
• Roll two or three of the cubes and ask children to think of a super sentence which involves the pictures shown.
• Give the children a grid with six boxes on it. Ask the children to roll a set of dice and put one in each box on the grid. They should then tell / write a story which includes the images in the order shown on their grid.
• Roll one of the dice and identify the picture (e.g. plane). Then:
  • Ask the children for words to describe the plane.
  • Think of ways to help them remember how to spell 'plane'.
  • Share words that mean the same as plane.
  • Think of words which rhyme with plane.
• Give the children some cube nets and ask them to make their own paper sets of storytelling dice. Which images would help to make an interesting / exciting story.

I hope everyone can get to a Tiger store and get this wonderful resource!

P.S. For those who can't get to a Tiger and are interested in these I will be giving away this fantastic find to a lucky follower over the next few days!!!! 

Have a lovely weekend everyone.

Niamh  

Wednesday Wishlist #4

With Maths Week just around the corner I felt it would be apt to share five math based websites I wish I had known about this time last year.

No. 1   k-5 math teaching resources

This site provides an extensive collection of free resources, math games and hands on math activities.
Here are some screenshots of the site.

No. 2  Virtual Manipulatives

This link would have been such a life saver a year ago but I am glad it found its way into my life now It. provides any math manipulative you want displayed on you IWB in an instant from number lines to clock faces to fraction tiles.. It even virtually roles two number cubes!!!! Mind blown!! How come nobody told me about this site!!!! (sigh)

No. 3 Matific


This is a wonderful child friendly site, You will need to sin up but the games are fantastic. There are many strands covered which will reinforce concepts or perhaps you could use this site during station teaching.



No. 4 Classmaths Irish Primary School Maths

This website is designed to support the Irish Primary School Curriculum.
This sorting game is so cute!

No. 5 Get Smart

I shared this website in my Facebook page a couple of weeks ago and I hope you all have got some use out of it. The breakdown of each math area is laid out clearly and I hope everyone loves it as much as I do.

I hope these websites are helpful to you and you class over the next few weeks. If you have any Math Websites that you love using why not share them below. 

Using a Novel

Hi everyone,

I have been working on creating a document to show you how I used the Novel KATE by Siobhán Parkinson with 5th class on TP2. The google doc is 29 pages long. it includes a chapter summary, discussion questions, and lesson ideas for each chapter. I have included general ideas that could be used with any novel so it will have something to offer everyone. These are all tried and tested ideas that worked really well in the classroom. I have also made question sheets, a chapter summay sheet, a dictionary work sheet and character lists, so all you have to do is download the document a print the pages you want. 

The link to the document is available  on google docs here.

Thanks for reading,

Niamh.