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Catch of the Day!
15 September 2012
I am always looking for new and engaging activities during my maths rotations. I really wanted some more hands on activities that would keep my students on task during their independent rotation activities. I was shopping and came across some magnetic fish sets, and thought they would be perfect for a new game!
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Download it here

 

There is a colour and black and white version for each game. I like to laminate the colour version and use during rotations, or alternatively use the black and white verson as a worksheet and keep for a record of student learning.

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I purchased a few cheap magetic fishing sets and wrote a number between 0-10 on each one. (I placed them in little blow up pool to make the game more exciting, but you can plase the fish whever you want)

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Students take turns using the fishing rods to pick up fish (the number of fish depends on the game)

1 - Addition - choose 2 fish and students write the 2 numbers into the fish on the template. Add those 2 numbers together and write it in the box

2 - Multiplication - choose 2 fish and students write thw 2 numbers into the fish on the template. Multiply those 2 numbers together and write it in the box

3 - Place Value 2 digits - Students choose 2 numbers - and depending on what side of the sheet they are doing have to make the biggest or smallest number they can using those 2 numbers

4 - Place Value 3 digits - Students choose 3 numbers - and depending on what side of the sheet they are doing have to make the biggest or smallest number they can using those 3 numbers

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This activity was a hit and is constantly being asked to be played again! 

'Remember keep calm and pretend it's on the lesson plan!
Top Teacher xx
Spinning up a work of art
13 September 2012

We are always looking for new and dynamic art techniques to try out in our Kindy room. After reading about this technique in an art book we thought we'd give it a try. Check it out and see what you think...

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Place a paper plate (or paper circle) into the bottom of the salad spinner. Use a spoon to drip paint onto the plate. In order for this technique to work make sure the paint is very watery. We had to add extra water to the paint a few times to achieve the right consistency.

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Put the lid on and get those arm muscles working! My students loved this part of the activity - just make sure someone has a firm grip on the bowl.

As you can see the excess paint will come out of the bottom of the bowl. We placed the bowl on top of newspaper to make cleaning up easier.

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Open up the spinner to reveal the plate. We sprinkled glitter on top to finish it off. Glitter makes everything much more fantastic, just ask my Kindy kids!

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The final product.

We will be using these plates as the front of our mystery eggs... come back next week to find out more about this activity.

'Remember keep calm and pretend it's on the lesson plan'

  Top Teacher xx

Dinosaur Mash Up!
11 September 2012

Create this cute dinosaur craft where students make their own dinosaur and add their name to it!

Download the templates here!

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First design your dinosaur background. On A3 paper we used crayons to draw the background then edicol dyed over it.

 

 

Print out the dinosaur images onto lots of different coloured card. Cut out the dinosaurs, then cut and separate the dinosaurs into heads, bodies and tails. Students can then create their new dinosaur using different body parts and colours. Glue this onto their background.

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Afterwards use the editable '-o-saurus' and add your students names to the front of it. Glue these to the backgrounds to finish the craft.

My students loved making crazy dinosaurs named after them!

'Remember keep calm and pretend it's on the lesson plan'Top Teacher xx
Perfect Pizzas
8 September 2012
Every Friday in my class I try to provide a cooking experience for my students. It is a great language experience lesson as the vocab the students use during and after the task is wonderful. It also leads to great writing! This is the first time my pre's (5 year olds) have attempted a procedure, so we chose to make something with easy steps - pizzas!File 3957
File 3955We talked about the steps involved in making pizzas and the different ingredients we could put on it. Not everyone liked the same things on their pizza so students were going to create and write the steps involved in making their choice of pizza. 

We had the ingredients in bowls on the table and students spread sauce on their pizzas and then went along in an assembly line and added their choice of ingredients. While they were doignt his we talked about what we were doing - great words like spread, sprinkle, add, place were discussed rather than just using the boring word 'put'. 

 While the pizzas were cooking students created their little pizza craft. We used brown paper and students added different craft material for the ingredients and then squirted on glitter glue for the sauce. 

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After being cooked we finally got to eat the pizzas and they were so yummy.

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When we came back in after lunch, and talked about the steps we took and again discussed more exciting words than always using the word 'put'. We also discussed the order of the steps and how this is important.

Check out our great first attempts at writing a procedure!

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"Remember keep calm and pretend its on the lesson plan"

Top Teacher xx

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