Currently March

Well it has been almost a month since I posted last. I have just not been able to sit and write - too exhausted! I promise to make a bigger effort for March! Yes I said it - MARCH!!!


That means it is Currently time!!! Go link up with Farley.

Listening - It is a rainy old Saturday, the first day of Autumn here! My kids and husband are taking it in turns to play the Xbox. If I let him, my son (4) would play alllllll day!

Loving - My class has only been at school for 4 weeks now (and only 3 as a class group with me as we keep them all together the first week) and they are just smashing it. I will have to take some pics of some writing and show you - fabulous!

Thinking - my main issue at the moment is one little boy who is a new arrival from Egypt and speaks mainly Arabic to me - which would be great if I could understand him! We are trying to do basic vocab stuff - he can ask to go to the toilet with one word and is very good at following instructions but to me, he seems like an awesome survivor. in saying that I mean, he is good at picking up what is going on around him even though he may not understand. Besides vocab stuff, I would love any suggestions what to do next!

Wanting - well the weather has changed here this week! I am hoping that March will still be warm so I can wear my new gorgeous dresses - one still has tags and I really want to wear it!

????? Can you guess my question?

Bright Ideas Blog Hop

Thanks for hopping by!

DOLLAR STORE ITEMS IN THE CLASSROOM

Teachers have the ability to go into a dollar store, pick out random items and turn them into a fantastic learning activity which is engaging and relevant. I just wanted to share a couple of these ideas that I have used in my classroom.

PEGS

You can use pegs for lots of things. Clip charts, hanging artwork...but you can also use them for learning. In the pics below, we are using them to choose the medial vowel sound.

MAGNIFYING GLASSES AND FINGER LIGHTS

You can turn dollar store items into reading aids! I used these with my struggling readers during guided reading time and it was certainly more engaging!

PIPE CLEANERS AND BEADS

A fantastic tool for fine motor which links perfectly to Mathematics. You could use it for patterning, use two different colours to work on addition, or what we did in the pic below, use a tag on each pipe cleaner and students added that many beads.

PLASTIC SHOT GLASSES AND MINI POP STICKS

Another great fun activity. In these pics, I labelled each cup with a number, then students had to place that many sticks into the cup. To extend it for some, I had them order the cups. You could also do it as a colour sort, or even sight words!

I hope you have grabbed some bright ideas from this post. Please leave some of your own in the comments.

Hop on over to 

For her Bright Ideas on sharing Visual spelling strategies with parents.

Or cruise the linky for more