Little Miss Teacher is a place where those of us in the classroom can share our ideas, resources and experiences. We can also have a good old moan and share some of those funny little things our children say!

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Tuesday, November 29, 2005

Writing Target Apples Year 2/3

One of my previous displays was a Writing Target Tree. I wrote the children's targets onto apple shapes - which we blue-tacked onto the tree. The children would 'pick' their apple before each writing lesson to have it as a prompt on their desk. It was a useful, interactive display.

I moved on from writing out the targets myself, to having them pre-printed. I would just print off the relevant target on red or green paper - to look like apples! I used a lovely, simple clip art package called PrintMaster to make them in. I know not everyone has that, so I have converted the file to pdf format so anyone can download it.

The targets were taken from a list of writing targets I found covering Y2 and Y3. All you need to do is stick up a basic tree shape, with enough space to fit everyones apple on.

I hope the file is of some use, or at least gives you a few ideas for displaying targets.

Deb

Saturday, November 26, 2005

Display Websites

Here is a list of some websites I occasionally visit for inspiration:

Gigglepotz - boards from around the world

Display Index - lots of links

North Yorkshire Display Materials - posters and wordbanks etc

My Classroom Displays - an Early Years teacher sharing ideas

More Teaching Ideas - about displays


And then of course there are my own display photos from this blog...

Magnets Display

Thinking About Thinking

What I like About You

Around The World

Hope you find some inspiration.

Deb

Monday, November 21, 2005

Australia Resource

I have made this Australia pdf file from a PowerPoint. I can't upload the PowerPoint itself as it is a huge file because of all the pictures in it. Therefore, I have changed it to an Adobe pdf file and you can always copy and paste each page into a PowerPoint yourself.

It was made as part of our Passport to the World topic, summarising some of our main findings. I hope you find it useful.

Deb

Saturday, November 19, 2005

TESall.com A BlogList for ESL/EFL Teachers


There are some great blogs on TEsall.com's bloglist. They are blogs from ESL/EFL teachers all over the world. Content ranges from really useful research and resources to having a good old moan about the management to discussing living in a fantastic part of the world.

You can submit your own blog to them, but it can take a while for them to crawl it and they like to ensure the content is related to ESL/EFL.

Deb

Friday, November 18, 2005

Christmas Poetry Ideas

The Poetry Zone website is currently showing some lovely Christmas Poems written by children. They are extremely good and even have poems written in the shape of Christmas trees. Ideal of you are searching for inspiration.

The site actually sets 'challenges' every few weeks, asking you or your class to send in poems on a theme. Recent ones include Scary Halloween Poems, Food Poems and Famous People Poems.

There is an index of previous themes and even if you don't use these actual poems in class or submit poems to the challenges, the site provides you with loads of ideas for your lessons.

Deb

Monday, November 14, 2005

Anti-Bullying Week 2005

Anti-Bullying Week 2005 runs from November 21st-25th. Here are a few links to help plan some activities for the week.

The children's commissioner, Professor Al Aynsley-Green, stated in Sunday's BBC report:

"Despite good work in schools, there is still denial
about the "existence, severity and effect" of bullying."


He has suggested schools ask children to complete a bullying questionnaire each term, which can be downloaded at the Anti-Bullying Alliance website, along with numerous other resources for use during the anti-bullying week.

CBBC's Newsround site has a lovely Flash animation about bullying which you could use in class. It refers to text bullying, the silent treatment and violence, as well as giving suggestions as to what children can do. If you don't have Flash, there is also a standard PC version available.

There are loads of other useful resources for teachers, parents and children on these sites:

Kidscape

Bullying Online

Bully Free Zone

Childline

Radio One Life - which also has advice on bullying in the workplace.

Deb

Sunday, November 13, 2005

Jolly Phonics - Practical Ideas For Introducing The Sounds


As I have mentioned, I am a Jolly Phonics Trainer in my 'spare' time. I spent yesterday working with the teachers from two international schools here in Bangkok. They were very appreciative of the part of the presentation which gave practical activity ideas for introducing the letter sounds, which my colleague Laura and I came up with.

I decided to put the ideas into a Word document which you can download here. Obviously, in the presentation we went into detail, but I think you will be able to work out what we mean! I hope you find it as useful as the teachers did yesterday.

Please e-mail me if you would like any further advice on Jolly Phonics.

Deb

Science Vocabulary Display

I came up with this idea for displaying the vocabulary needed for our science topic on Magnets and Springs. The children love it! Posted by Picasa

A Close-Up

The same display up close! Posted by Picasa

Multiple Intelligences Display

This is my interpretation of the Multiple Intelligences display suggested by Andrew on Primary Teacher UK. You can take the online test and print out the results at the BGFL.

 Posted by Picasa

Thursday, November 10, 2005

Ted Wragg Dies

Education expert Ted Wragg sadly died on Thursday morning of a heart attack. He was 67. Many of us will have read some of his books on our teacher training courses. They were full of practical advice.

The BBC news report about Ted has a comment box where you can leave your thoughts and condolences. This is a very sad loss to the teaching profession. He had made a difference to so many of us and will be dearly missed.

Our thoughts are with his family.

Wednesday, November 09, 2005

Professional Development Survey - Have Your Say!

The Training and Development Agency for Schools (TDA) is asking for teachers to complete an online survey to help them shape standards for different teaching roles.

The survey asks questions about the standards in 5 areas:

QTS
Induction
Senior Teacher
Advanced Skills Teacher
Excellent Teacher

This is our chance to give our opinion about what the standards should be for each of these roles. The would like teachers, coaches, metors and tutors to take part. The results will be used to publish draft standards early in 2006.

Deb

Tuesday, November 08, 2005

Advent Calendars Online

I have been thinking ahead today, and have started to plan activities for Advent and Christmas. As this will be my first Christmas with my LCD projector, I thought that an online Advent Calendar would be a nice idea!

Below are links to some of the ones I have found. Some are from previous years, but are still very nice. The downside is, of course, that there are no chocolates behind the windows!

Culham's Bethlehem Street - a very pretty scene. Clicking on the buildings takes you to a page with a poem telling some of the Christmas story.

KTMATU A choice of three here. I am not sure what is behind the windows as it wont let you open them until the day!!!

Papa Bear's Advent Calendar - this one is lovely. Starting with the Bear family on the sofa in a bare room. A story at the bottom changes each day and advises you to click on the Christmas cards - which come from all over the world! The room fills as the days go on.

Yule in Iceland - another one which won't let you peek!

My Friend Magazine Advent Calendar - a very religious one, taking you to a prayer for each day.

Let me know if you find any more. At the moment, Papa Bear is my favourite, but I may well do a couple!

Deb

Sunday, November 06, 2005

Thinking Skills


The Mind Friendly Learning website, part of Cheshire LEA's site is fantastic for anyone interested in developing their use of thinking skills in the classroom.

It has a wealth of information on why and how we should use processes such as mind-mapping, De Bono's Thinking Hats and Brain Gym, as well as a lot of the theory behind metacognition.

The Mind Friendly Toolkit link is where you will find the lots of practical ideas and downloadable materials and relevant websites.

You can also watch video clips from the Key Note Speakers at The Learning Brain Europe Conference.

Developing Thinking Skills is something many of us are interested in and I find this site to be one of the best resources on the web for anyone wishing to find out more and start immediately. It gives you enough background to know what to do and why you are doing it, without having to plough through endless volumes of research. A great starting point.

Deb

Saturday, November 05, 2005

Geography Resources - Asia


We all do projects on different countries, and for anyone wanting some resources on Asian countries, the Asia Education Foundation is very useful.

It has been set up by the Australian Governemnt to help link Australian children to Asia. The Curriculum Resources Link is probably the most useful. It has an online resource section, which links to resources on China, Indonesia and art from Asian countries. The Text link goes to either relevant web pages if available, or else a catalogue detailing where you can purchase the book. However, the most useful link is to lesson plans, where you can access materials on most Asian countries.

All the links contain resources for both Primary and Secondary aged children and can be sorted as such. There are also other useful links covering professional development and international initiatives too.

This site is worth adding to your favourites and popping to as needed. And remember, you can always email me for help with topics on Thailand! The Loy Krathong Festival is on November 15th.


Deb

Abiator - Interactive Maths Activities


I have just found the Abiator Interactive Maths Activity website and think it will be quite useful. It has lots of various quizzes, including problem solving, maths crosswords and multiple choice questions.

It is the type of site which the children open and answer the questions themselves. It will take a few minutes of researching by you, to make sure you are directing them to a page at the correct level. From what I have seen, it has activities appropriate to Y3 and above. Unfortunately, for UK teachers, the money part seems to be in dollars.

This is something I will use with some of my groups to liven up activities and allow them to test their knowledge and understanding.

Deb

Thursday, November 03, 2005

Trackbacks - No More!


You may have noticed, I have removed Haloscan Commenting and Trackbacks. In the same way as I have ended many relationships in the past... "It is me, not you!"

I am sure it is all good, but I just didn't get on with it. I missed not having comments landing in my inbox (A feature Blogger uses can only get after making a donation to Haloscan). I was only linking to one blog (Primary Teacher UK); and it would appear they had me blacklisted for some reason somewhere. I tried to post a reply to Brian, who had left a comment on my Poetry Teaching post, and it wouldn't allow me. I tried a few test posts to other comments and it said I was blacklisted. I checked my banning facility in the comment manager, and I hadn't accidently done that either.

So, with no hope of ever replying to anyone kind enough to leave a comment, I thought it best for me to return to Blogger's own commenting again. I am actually rather proud of myself for removing all the codes manually too. I might just be getting the hang of all this!

Guaranteed replies to all that leave comments from now on - HINT HINT!

Deb

Wednesday, November 02, 2005

Assembly Ideas

I was so upset today when one of my colleagues asked if I could swap my impending assembly with her!! (Can you hear the sarcasm?) I was due to put on a class assembly in three weeks time and hadn't really given too much thought to it. When she asked if I would be willing to swap becuase her class has written plays which they would like to perform, I almost bit her hand off! So, I get to wait until next term! Woo hoo!

By coincidence, I have just read Henry Walpole's fantastic blog entry on assemblies. As ever, his articles are side-splittingly funny and oh so close to the truth! His advice on never allowing teachers to pick the music is spot-on. An old colleague once chose one of the very songs he mentions! (I wonder if I used to work with Henry?) Anyway, it is well-worth a read!

For anyone not as lucky as me, who has to do their assembly sooner rather than later, here are a few links to sites offering assembly ideas and scripts (Links should go directly to the assembly pages):

Teaching Ideas - Assemblies

Primary Ideas - Assemblies

Primary Resources - Assemblies

School Assemblies

The Assemblies Website

Please post comments adding any other links you have.

So far this term, my colleagues have put on some fantastic class assemblies. These include:

Year 4 hot-seating the characters of Roald Dahl (hilarious);
Year 5 Greeks, covering: the Olympics - comparing then and now; maths then and now; Greek sculpture - with the children in Greek style poses (clothed, I would like to add!); instructions on making masks; Greek Theatre and a performance of a Cyclops story;
Year 3 - Australia - discussing the food, money, art, landmarks etc. with a showcase of children's work;
Year 6 art exhibition in a fashion show style, with the children walking down a 'catwalk', showing and explaining their work on a communication theme. They also wrote and performed plays on this theme.

The standard of these assemblies has been amazing and our children are all stars for performing so confidently and speaking so clearly to a large audience.

Deb

Tuesday, November 01, 2005

Boudicca's Revolt - Roman's Topic Resources

For anyone teaching The Roman's as their History topic this term, here is a link to a simple online book about Boudicca's Revolt. The book contains character profiles, a click-on glossary and questions and activities providing good cross-curricular links.

This is part of the Leicester Education Online site, which has several useful resources for a range of KS2 subjects, including maths, science and history. (Lots of resources for Egypt)



Deb

Teachernet Video Channel


In addition to Teacher's TV, there is another on-line teachers video channel on the Teachernet website.

Presently, there isn't very much available but I am sure it will grow. For now, it has some hot-seat interviews with education ministers and experts, advice on behaviour for parents and a programme on Black History Month.

To watch the shows online, you need the Media Player 9 series and a JavaScript enabled browser. You dont seem to be able to download the programmes as you can from Teachers TV, but the streaming is good through broadband.

One to check out from time to time.

Deb

 
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