Five for Friday - May 31

Its Five for Friday!!! Thanks Kacey at DoodleBugs

 1. I got my very own guided reading table on Monday and immediately built it, ready for groups on Tuesday. The kids are loving it! And so am I. So easy to monitor each kid and I think it is helping with the focus. It is from IKEA and has adjustable legs so we can always make it a standing table too. The model is HISSON cashew shaped table.

 2. This week we were working on counting forwards and backwards - specifically the language of before and after which a lot of my kids are struggling with. they had to roll a dice, write that number, then write the numbers that came after (for 2 days) or before (2 more days).

 3. This is a great idea I saw last year sometime on Deanna Jumps blog and I have been anxiously waiting for my kids to be at that point! Blending CVC words with magnetic counters and magnetic wands! These fantastic CVC cards are From the Pond and they are fantastic!Click HERE to find them. So many differentiated sets to choose. I am going to do a little video of using this activity over the weekend and post to the blog. 

4. Our letter of the week was E! This cute craft was so much fun and let the students show their creativity! It is Elmer the Elephant. I found the free outline HERE

5. Yesterday was my birthday. My friends at work always spoil each other. This was what I saw after work on Friday when I thought we were just going to have some drinks - my very own 1 Direction party. (And no, Im not some super obsessed fan....its like our running joke!) But it was awesome and we ended up drinking Moet champagne from 1D paper cups. A great end to my birthday :)

Organising Table Supplies - Another Bright Idea

I hope you are loving the Bright Ideas Linky hosted by Shelley Gray. It is such a fun and innovative idea to find a wealth of knowledge and information from REAL teachers using these REAL Bright Ideas in their classrooms. Make sure you click back to the linky to find over 100 more great Bright Ideas from teachers around the world!

My Bright Idea is all about how to organise those table essentials. In Kindergarten we supply everything for the students (and beg for donations of glue sticks along the way). Last year I had everything in cups and found that my kids must have been eating the supplies! Red pencils seemed to disappear into the ether but the purples were breeding. And don't get me started about the accidents....the pencil cups just always seemed to be on the edge of falling over (probably because of all the random pencils in there). AND the fights! I had a group of boys last year whose goal it was to have the most pencils in their cups. Did they want to use them all? No way, just collect them to be the winner.

I really wanted those cute caddies you see from Really Great Stuff or Oriental Trading but shipping to Australia is rather ridiculous. Enter the humble cutlery drainer from the $2 shop (you know, where you put your knife and fork to dry?)

Anyway this is what I started with

The baskets cost me $1.50 each and I bought 1 between 2 kids. I also bought new scissors this year for my class in 4 different colours and these colours are exclusive to each table. Each student gets a glue stick each.

Top view - there are 4 compartments. I use one side for coloured pencils and the other side holds glue in one section and scissors in the other.

See?

Pencils in the other side.

The finished basket.

Here they are on tables in the classroom. The kids have been fantastic and will let me know if they have too many of one colour pencil or there are no scissors  because someone has accidentally returned them to a different basket. Even pencils on the floor usually get returned to their rightful home as we can quickly see which basket is missing that colour.

Trust me...I am not an over-the-top-organised person, but for some reason this has really worked with me and I will definitely be doing it for years to come :)

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And for more Bright Ideas from over 130 bloggers, make sure you visit the link up below and find what you need!

An InLinkz Link-up

Jack in the Box - Tuesday Art Linky

My sweet friend Mel has a fun weekly link up.

I wanted to share this craft we made last week for our week on 'j'.We made Jack in the Box (es)

It is actually a craft from Mels pack Craft Projects - 26 Fold and Create Paper Crafts

I took the clown template and gave it a bit of adjusting (as all good teachers do).
And taadaaa.......

How cute are they?

Lots of different skills involved including colouring, cutting, gluing, folding and peeling and sticking stickers.

Took us forever but the outcome was totally worth it :)

Currently May!

Oh Farley....I love your monthly link up!

Loving - my class is just awesome! So settled, willing to learn....I think a lot of teachers are jealous ;)

Thinking - I have a lot going on this term. Reports due in 4 weeks, Kindergarten Healthy Lunch - we invite the families of all the students in K and we make them a Healthy Lunch (last year we catered for over 100 people!) and NAIDOC week activities like The Great Book Swap and a performer. Whew!

Wanting - enough said!

Surprise - I totally biased. My girl Mel is the bomb! A bloggy friend as well as a real life friend, I love her to pieces and feel so lucky to have found her :)