Goodbye laminator :( and some favs

 

We're nearly half way through term 3 now... time is flying! I have had such good intentions to blog in the last couple of weeks, but somehow it just hasn't happened!

The week started off with a bit of a laminator crisis...

 

I let my daughter put in a laminating sheet without watching what she was doing (WRONG move) and a sheet got jammed. It started making all sorts of not-very-good noises and then seized up altogether!

To top it off, I sat down to write this post tonight and my laptop has given up the ghost :( I'm just not having much luck at the moment!

But back to more positive things...I was having a look for different maths resources during the week, and I thought I'd share a couple of my favourites.

This first is my absolute favourite maths book - it's my go-to book for whenever I'm planning or have any questions about maths concepts and how to teach them.

Teaching Primary Mathematics.. (Booker, Bond, Sparrow and Swan)

This book is AMAZING! It's quite pricey (I think I saw it for $115 at a book seller stall the other week) but totally worth it! Written in a really easy to read but comprehensive manner, it covers the concepts that kids need to know, the sequence for learning, common misconceptions and examples of activities too. PERFECT!

 

Another resource that I love to use in the class, are the Targeting Maths Literacy books. There are four sets, each has a big book and 12 (I think) small books to go with it.

 

Here's one set of the small books

 

They're suitable for Reception-2 and cover a range of topics from Number through Measurement and Geometry. I love using the big books with the class as a part of our whole class focus time, but I find both the big and little books are popular with kids when they have free reading time. The little books are also fantastic for small group work - I use them when I have support staff in my room - they can take a book and a couple of kids and focus on a particular strategy or concept.

I would love to hear about some new maths resources....what is your favourite?

First day back!

Having termly intakes of Receptions has its benefits (especially the small class size in term 1!) but it does make for a pretty full on first week of term - every term!

We had a big group of newies this term, so this first week is really going to be taken up with getting them settled and finding our grove again. We read that lovely little book 'The Kissing Hand' on Monday - it's such a lovely way to talk about first days and how the kids are feeling. I actually ordered a copy online for my daughter at the beginning of the year (for when she started Kindy) and was going to use it with my class then but Australia Post was a bit too slow for that!

My class really enjoyed the story... we did a couple of activities related to the book to start off the term,

After reading the story, and having a chat about how we felt staring school, the kids drew a picture of how they felt and we wrote a sentence to go with it. The newies got this copy....

While those who have been at school for a term had a blank template, where they either wrote a sentence themselves, or cut and pasted the words to make a sentence.

Here's a finished one....

Here's a copy of this activity, I've included all three variations :)

Sorry for the short post today... my mind is a bit frazzled from such a busy week! I'll be back for Friday Game Day soon :)