{ One Day }

It feels silly to be nervous about a new school year but I am incredibly overcome with nerves!  One more day of preparation before the new school term starts. I will be back with updates and feedback from the first week. Fingers crossed, prayers a plently and good thoughts going to any of you having your first day this week. Let me know how they go. 

{ No Worries }

What do you think of my make shift post box? Thought it would do until I can afford/have time to buy/make a proper red English post box. I am going to introduce it in a few weeks. In the U.K curriculum we have to teach personal, health, social and emotional studies (PHSE) which can actually be difficult. A lot of adults assume that children are born knowing and understanding things such as emotions but actually they need to be taught. 

In my class we have a morning meeting every day as a way to check in, this is a great entry into PHSE as it gives you 15-20 mins a day to assess and talk about anything that is on the children's minds. We also have a separate lesson exclusively for PHSE or circle time. The children come to the carpet and sit in their circle spots, we try and not talk or interrupt unless we are holding circle time ted (a gorgeous teddy bear), this has always been hard to get going but once we learn about respect and good listening it gets easier. Promise. Then we discuss our topic which could be anything from emotions to staying safe, we sometimes role play ways to deal with situations, and then we complete a short activity. 

SIDE NOTE: I used to hate teaching these lessons because I never had them as a child and my cohort in school turned out fine, they can be overly sentimental but I will tell you what turned me around. A few years back, in my first year actually, I taught a child who used to attack me (biting, scratching, hair pulling, spitting, chair or table throwing etc) as well as other children, this child was referred to a child psychologist. What was uncovered was that this child has never been taught empathy. NEVER BEEN TAUGHT EMPATHY! Then next part was even more complicated, If he hurt himself or was upset he would seek condolence, if however he did not feel that this was adequate enough then minutes, hours or even days later he would hurt someone else to watch them being comforted in a hope this would make him feel better.

That's when circle times became much more frequent and relevant in my classes. 

{ Meaningful Talk }

So something that I am going to be working on a lot this year is teaching my kiddos to  hold conversations with me and with each other that are more meaningful, especially during carpet and group times. I have a picture in my head of how this is going to look and sound. I'm thinking wee angels sitting quietly having deep conversations with each other, okay, okay, I know, who am I kidding right? Well I have these two posters made, hanging up (on my cover your eyes, yellow walls) and ready for the first day of school.  i will be modeling modeling modeling this sentence frames constantly until, hopefully, they are stuck inside everyones heads. Wish me luck!!

How do you get your kiddos to hold conversations with eachother?

{ Fairy Tales }

I was just chatting to a friend about how many children's books I have. It really is sad because I have more kids books than my own but honnestly it is because I find them so enchanting and it doesn't half help that I'm a primary teacher!

I thought I would share my favourite author. Firstly you should all head over to Emily Gravett's Official Site she is hands down my teacher author crush. I love her books.

Look at these illustrations, are they not to die for?

God Bless
Lo

{ Golden Time }

I don't know how many people do golden time in class, but it was set up in my class before I took over the job and I wouldn't give it up for anything now. I think it is a great time in reception right through to year six to promote imagination, team work, creativity and allow children to use the classroom space in their own way. Of course if you are lucky enough to have a big space and have role play areas then you know what I mean. Unfortunately, as I've said my classroom is tiny so this is the best of both worlds for us. 

For those of you who don't know what it is, I'll try and explain it as best as possible and how I have implemented my golden time system. 

In a nut shell, golden time is precious free time at the end of the week that children earn. The picture above shows you how we document minutes lost. All children start the week with 30 minutes, however if they do not follow the classroom rules, complete work etc then they can lose minutes. The children use a whiteboard pen and tally marks to keep track of their own minutes. I was amazed how well this system worked along side the classroom rules and expectations because all the kiddos want to keep their full half an hour. 

We have our free time on a Friday afternoon after show and tell and I have to tell you that it is joyous to watch the kids get out games, drawing, role play clothes and see them prance around their classroom stage. The vocabulary that comes from their imaginative play is fabulous and can't be taught. If you ever get a chance to have golden time, have a go, it doesn't just have to be play it could be different rewards such as ice cream, going to the park, extra games or even a pizza party.

Do you have more ideas for golden time? 

{ Organisation Panic }

Like everyone else I'm in a whirlwind of paper work, planning and resources trying to get myself and my classroom somewhat ready for this years class of kiddos. The school that I am in presently used to be a house and as such I guess that means I teach in the living room. The little humans and I fit just fine until the Christmas break, but after that it is such a squeeze! 

I have two set of shelves which I'm lucky to have in such a small room, but I would love some doors to hide all the mess away! I have tried as best as possible to tidy everything away  and to keep things neat {I am such a neat freak!} although sometimes the size of the room has thrown up a few problems with staying neat. I've labeled everything using these lovely new labels {which I will share at a later date} and hopefully it will help the kiddos locate things even quicker. 

I will share more photos as school gets back into the swing of things!
Are you in the same whirlwind of paper and cleaning? 

God bless

Lo 

{ Busy Bee }

So I have so much work to do before school starts back in two weeks!! That's right two weeks and I will have the pitter pat of tiny little 5 year old feet cautiously stepping into my classroom. I don't know about everyone else but everytime I complete something on my to do list I'm adding another five things. 

I am new to the world of teaching blogging {writing not reading them!} but I thought I would try and share. I saw these helper sheets by Michelle from Fabulous in First and was so jeaslous of them that I got straight to work creating a year one helper sheet that fits into the English curriculum {or lack there of}. Hopefully my year one helper sheets will be helpful to anyone who has the joy of teaching in year one in the U.K.

As I've said I'm new to this world so I have no idea about how to set up downloads so if you can't work my link for my U.K helper sheets then leave a message with your email address and I will happily send over a copy.  If you have any other ideas of information that is always useful for children to have to hand, please drop a line and I will update the sheets. :)

God Bless
Lo

**Update**
When I look at the document in google pages it overlaps and looks awful. The originals do not do this!