April Currently

This is my first time linking up with Farley for her "Currently" linky party.

Listening: It's been raining since yesterday. I like the sound of the rain, but only when I'm indoors. There's just something nice and comforting about being inside when it's all gloomy and wet outside.

Loving: I am not a summer person. I hate humidity. It makes me feel so uncomfortable, so this cooler weather we have had for the past two days has been wonderful. It's going to get hot again next week, but luckily for me, I will not be here...

Thinking: I leave for Japan in 4 days! Oh my gosh! I am very excited because I have wanted to go to Japan since I studied it in year 7! I also get to go to Disneysea which is another thing I have been wanting to do since forever! (well not forever, but you get my point. I have always wanted to go to Disneyland/sea).

Wanting: I need to get some ink (don't we all?). However I don't want to walk in the rain. I'm hoping the rain will stop for a few hours so I can get some ink without getting soaked.

Needing: My bag is packed, I just need to print out the accommodation vouchers and flight itineraries and to do that, I need ink.

EGGS-plain: I started this blog to share what I have been doing and blog about interesting ideas. So I figured; tales = stories and Miss D = me, so Tales From Miss D. It's kind of a dopey name and I get embarrassed telling people what my blog is called, but at the same time I like it.

I will be away for 3 weeks, so I won't be updating this blog again until the start of May. I'm going to try and be a good blogger and post more frequently :)

Have a happy and safe Easter!

Five for Friday! (on a Saturday)

I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for Five For Friday!

Numbers 0 to 10

We have been working on recognising, writing and representing numbers 0 to 10. Everyday we have been working with flash cards, counters and other math manipulatives.

Flashcards and a worksheet from my Subitising pack on TPT. Click on the picture to check it out!

I am quite happy with the progress I am seeing already. At the start of the year, if I asked students to give me __ counters, they would count out/give me the whole pile. Now pretty much all of my students know that number I tell them, is the number they have to stop at. 

On Friday, I taught them the Roll & Build game from my Numbers to 10 Math Stations pack. We played whole class, boys VS girls. It was a hit and they are eager to play the game in pairs next week!

Letters A, M, S
We have been working on the letters A, M, S. I do this in small groups while the rest of the students are doing activity rotations. The sessions have been going like this;
1. Introduction to the letter - name and sound. Students repeat after me. eg. A /a/ A /a/ A /a/.
2. Letter hunt - students sort through magnetic letters to find the target letter.
3. Words that start with target letter. Students repeat after me. Focus on listening for the target sound.
4. Alphabet book. Students pick a picture to represent the sound and stick it in their book.
5. Handwriting - correct letter formation.

I am in the process of creating packs for each letter. I will be using these in addition to the small group sessions.

You can find them in my TPT store by clicking here.

Each pack has; two posters, letter hunt, case sort, letter sort, handwriting and bracelets. Ideally I want to send my students home with the bracelets on so that it becomes a talking point with their family.

All About Me
We have been doing lots of talking about ourselves; our name, age, birthday, family and appearance. Next week, we will be looking at our Five Sense senses. I am looking forward to this as it just lends itself to all sorts of fun hands on activities and experiments.

Dressing Up
On Friday we finished off the week with Developmental Play. I changed up the toys a bit and added the dress up box. It was a hit, EVERYONE was playing dress ups. All the other toys were untouched. I think it worked out well with everyone wanting to dress up, as it made everyone take turns! It was lovely seeing the students use phrases like "Can I please have a turn?" and "Here, you can have it now". No tears at all. Who'd have though a dress up box would help teach sharing and patience?

Last day of February
I can't believe we are heading into March already. Feels like we started the school year last week. Have gotten into the spirit of things by making a March themed packet of key concepts we will be focusing on.

That's it for Five for Friday. Enjoy your weekend! Be sure to check out the other blogs in the linky party :)

School's Out (for the summer)

I haven't updated this blog in over a month. I'm a terrible blogger, I know!

The last few weeks of term were pretty busy. I spent a lot of the time in the office finishing off the two school books and designing the presentation day program. I spent so much time in front of the computer, that when I got home from work, all I wanted to do was give my eyes a rest. I do not know how anyone can spend all day staring at a computer screen!

I also got the big new that next year I will be on Kindergarten! I am very excited to be back on class and I have already gone on a bit of a design, print and laminate frenzy. My classroom theme? rainbow. I love having everything bright and colourful and I want my students to look forward to coming to a cheerful looking classroom. Is it wrong that I am already looking forward to when I actually get to start putting everything up? You can check out my rainbow themed resources here.

I haven't had my own Kindy class before, so next year will be a learning curve for me. Overall I am excited, though I am paranoid that on the first day everyone will be crying and I will have no idea what to do or how to make them stop. I'm sure I will be fine though. I am reading through a bunch of awesome Kindergarten blogs to prepare myself :)

It feels weird to already be on holidays. 2014 has felt like a pretty short year for me, I guess because I was on holiday for half the year :P My plans?

* Continue to learn how to swim
* Read up on the new syllabus documents (they changed while I was away)
* Design and make resources
* Do outdoorsy things while avoiding the heat
* Finish the comprehension series blog posts
* Relax

I can pretty much guarantee I will do everything but the last one!

That's about it for now, happy teaching!

I Got a Liebster!

Kathleen from Kidpeople Classroom nominated me for a Liebster Award! How exciting! :D Be sure to check out her blog!

In order to accept the nomination I must answer the following questions from Kathleen;

1. What one word sums up the heart of your blog? 

Experiences.

2. What is your favorite post, or your favorite category of post?

Teaching. I love sharing my ideas with others. I also like scrolling back through past posts, it's like a diary of lessons :D

3. What one blog tip would you pass on to other bloggers?

Sign up to Bloglovin'. Makes following blogs a lot easier and they have an app! I use my commute time to read up on all the latest from my feed.
 

4. What one thing would you most like to learn?

I would love to be fluent in another language. I'm not quite sure what language, but I think it would be pretty cool to be bilingual.

5. What's your favorite holiday and why?

Easter. Hello chocolate!
 

6. How do you spend your summers?

Hiding inside with the aircon up full blast. I know that's not too exciting, but I burn really easily, so any outdoor activity usually involves me turning into a lobster. However, this summer I will probably be making use of the pool in our apartment complex. My goal is to learn how to swim.
 

7. If you could live some place else, in some other time, where would it be?

I quite like the idea of living in Europe. Purely for the cooler temperatures and interesting buildings.
 

8. And I GOTTA ask this :) What idea on my blog is most useful to you?

Five for Friday posts. I love reading about what others do in their classrooms.

Now, here are 5 random facts about me;

1.  My nails are currently painted teal, pink, purple and cornflower blue. At 26, I still love painting my nails with crazy colour combinations.
2. I own over 200 headbands. Yes, OVER 200.
3. Last year, I travelled to 67 cities across Europe and lived in England.
4.  If I wasn't a teacher, I would probably be a graphics designer.
5. My all time favourite place to go is the Zoo.

Now it is my turn to nominate 5 people :D Click on their buttons to check out their blogs.

Miss Tompkins' Classroom

Here are my 5 questions;

1. Why and how long ago did you start blogging?

2. What one word sums up the heart of your blog?

3. What tip would you give to other bloggers?

4. What tip would you give to new teachers?

5. What is your favourite thing to do on the weekend? 

Enjoy the rest of your weekend! :D 

Five for Friday!

Linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for Five For Friday!

School - Friday was the last day of Term 3. I am now on holidays for 2 weeks! :D My plans? scootering, swimming, days out and resource making. I am keen to get back out on the scooter as it's been ages since we've been able to do it. Next term I officially start my contract! woo hoo!

TV - We got the TV we wanted! Now our lounge room has a brand new, 50', 3D, smart TV. It's awesome. I love it, especially watching movies in 3D. We watched the Lego Movie and it looked pretty cool especially when there was lots of movement. Of course watching that movie got the Everything is Awesome song stuck in my head, which lead to random outbursts of "everything is awesome!" over the past few days.

There are also other neat features with the TV, like the ability to go online, download apps or even tweet from the TV.

Resources - I've been pretty productive with my TPT store lately. I've made a few new things as well as made different designs for some of my most popular products. This morning I revamped my 2D Shapes pack because I felt like it should be more colourful. It wasn't ugly or anything, I just decided that rainbow paper would make it even better! (did I ever mention I was a perfectionist?). Click on the picture to see it in my store :)

Text Type and Purpose - This week one of the focus points of my reading groups was talking about the text type and author's purpose. I introduced the three types; Informative, Imaginative and Persuasive. We then talked about how we know which type it is, e.g. whether it was giving us facts, about a made up person or telling us why something is good. These three types then link to the author's purpose; inform, entertain or persuade. To help with these concepts I created a few posters.

Comprehension - In my reading groups we are also using the Super Six Comprehension strategies. We do a lot of discussion, which is great but then I want the students to be writing/recording ideas so the classroom teacher has a way to see what we have been doing. So to cater for this, I am using my Super Six Journal Prompts!

These are great because I simply need to print off one or two copies of a page, cut out the strips and then the students glue the prompt at the top of their page. They then complete the activity. So now when the teacher looks back in their book they will be able to easily see what the activity was :)

That wraps up my Five for Friday. Will work on the next part of my Comprehension series sometime in the first week of the holidays.

Enjoy your weekend!

Five for Friday!

Once again I am linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for Five For Friday! I love this linky party!

Work. This week I received some awesome work related news, for the rest of the year I will be working as a support teacher on Year 3 and 4. I am super excited to start this new job as I have been enjoying working on the older grades this year. Will be a great opportunity to build up even more experience.

Birthday Celebrations. It was my mum's 60th birthday on Tuesday. After work, we went out for dinner and then on Wednesday we went out for lunch and shopping. We had the most delicious lunch from Salsa's. I love their chicken burritos and Mexi-crinkles. It was nice spending some time with my mum as well, I do miss her now that I've moved out.

Surprise blender! I came home from work on Thursday to be greeted with a blender from the boyfriend's parents! (lol, this probably sounds funny, but I was actually excited about it). We have been meaning to get one for a while now so we can make smoothies/milkshakes. This weekend I am going to make some Orero and Tim Tam shakes. It's pretty easy to do; one cup of milk, some ice cubes and 2 biscuits. No more trips down to the coffee shop and spending ridiculous amounts on these things :D Of course, now that we have this appliance, we're on to the next one; a bigger TV! Furnishing this apartment is fun.

Wanderlust. Sometimes I miss the travel lifestyle. We have been looking up some things to do for the end of the year/school holidays next year. So far the one trip that looks very appealing is a 2 week Japan and other Asian countries trip. I would absolutely love to go to Japan. I studied Japanese in high school so getting to experience the culture would be awesome. However at the moment it's all just plans, nothing is actually booked or set. I really want to go to Disneyworld Japan though...

Free Travel Fridays. Loving the fact that my travel to work on a Friday will be free from now on. Using an Opal card means that when I travel for 4 days, the rest of the week is FREE! Brings a whole new meaning to TGIF!


Enjoy your weekend!

Five for Fiday! (on a rainy Saturday afternoon)

I am linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for the Five for Friday Linky Party!

Work, Work, Work! 
 I have had consistent days for the past few weeks. It has been awesome as well as tiring! I finished up on the Year 4 class and spent this week mainly on Kindergarten. It was definitely different, going from a class of 31 students, down to a class of only 19! I mainly focused on Reading Groups, TEN Groups (math) and Writing. The rest of the time was spent practicing for the school production next week.

I got to help paint a backdrop for the production. One of the teachers asked me if I could help her out as she knows that I am into all that artsy stuff like drawing and painting. It was fun, I added a bunch of glitter to the sky and trees so it will POP while under all that stage lighting. I don't think I will actually be going to the production, but I'm sure it will be a great night!

Book Week Parade
The best part of the week was the Book Parade. Last weekend, I brought a black wig and a witch's hat just in case I was working on the day of the parade (I didn't want to be THAT teacher that doesn't dress up). I wore them with a cute, black, corset dress with purple bow print. Of course, I had to wear leggings and a cardigan with it to make it work appropriate, but it looked pretty cool if I do say so myself :P I just love the book parade and seeing all the awesome costumes that people turn up in.

Rain!
The weather this week was pretty lousy. It rained pretty much everyday. Quite a few days were spent inside all day. Luckily, I had GoNoodle to keep the kids active and not so fidgety. I love that site, it's so useful and the kids love earning points to make the monster grow and change.

Teachers Pay Teachers
My store has been flourishing! I never imagined that it would have taken off as much as it has. I spent the past few weekends making my covers and Pinterest images better - as in they show pages from the product. I think they look ten times better than before and I have noticed a huge jump in sales. I don't know whether this is just a coincidence with the time of year, but I think my store looks much better now so the effort was worth it :)

Dinner
I love food! One of my favourite things to do is go out to a restaurant and eat, especially after a week of cooking. Tonight the boyfriend (or am I too old to be using that term and should I be referring to him as my partner?) and I are going out to dinner with his parents. We are going to a Chinese restaurant, they make a delicious Sizzling Mongolian Lamb. It's that good, that I could eat two servings of it! I can't wait.

That rounds up my Five for Friday, enjoy your weekend! :)

Five for Friday!

Eek! I haven't updated my blog for a while! I haven't forgotten about it, I just haven't had a proper internet connection since moving into the apartment. We got the modem in the mail, but it does not connect to the internet. I'm assuming it is something to do with the cabling in the building, so on Monday a technician is coming out to have a look and hopefully get it working. I have missed being able to read up on bloglovin, add products to my TPT store and browse pinterest!

I'm currently using my cellular connection on my iPad and the blogger app, let's hope this shows up properly. If it's a big mess, I shall fix it up once I am on my laptop :)

The apartment! We are all moved in now and it's complete after multiple trips to Ikea and various furniture shops. I love the way we have it set up and I cannot wait to post pictures of it. I get excited when people come over and I get to show them around. 

I have an office! I can't remember if I mentioned this before, but the apartment has a study in it, so it has become my office. We found an awesome high back dining chair for $49 and are using that as the chair for the desk in there. It's super comfy and will be perfect for when I'm working on lesson prep or TPT stuff. Loving that I have a dedicated room for work and that I can simply close the door if things look a bit messy :P

Back to school. This week was the first week of Term 3. I was lucky enough to work 3 out of the 4 school days. I was on Kindy support, which is always fun. I have work next week too, covering a different class each day. I am so thankful that I have been getting steady work since returning from holidays.

Opal Card. In Sydney they've finally introduced electronic ticketing. It is so much better than having to buy paper tickets. It has definitely made my trips to work easier and cheaper. I'm surprised not many people have gotten themselves a card yet. The best part? $2.50 Sundays. Last week, we took advantage of it and caught the ferry to the city and then the ferry to Manly. ALL FOR $2.50. On any other day it would have cost $28. Bargain!

Not sure where we are going this Sunday, but will definitely be doing something. At that price it's a bit silly not to.

Swimming. We have a gym and pool at our complex. This morning we went for a swim. I haven't been to a pool in years. I think the last time I went to a pool was when I was in primary school! It was fun, I did a few laps, not that I can swim very well. I stuck with the frog style stroke. I have no idea what the technical name is, but it gave me a nice work out on my arms and legs. There is also a spa next to the pool, it was a nice way to relax after my swim. 

Hopefully the internet will be up and running next week. Will be back to my regular posts about lessons and resources.

Have a great weekend!

Five for Friday!

I enjoyed writing this last week, so I have decided to participate again this week!

I went to The Voice with my friends. Not to sing (I can't), but to be a part of the audience. We got a great spot, right by the stage. Watched the show and managed to see my cat hat on camera.

We have an apartment! Let me repeat WE HAVE AN APARTMENT! I am thrilled! It is my 'dream' apartment and we got it on our very first application! The area is beautiful. We move in next week :) I'm so happy this was an easy process because I didn't want to deal with this while being at work. I have my boyfriend to thank for that, he did all the hard work and organisation.

Shopping for homewares. The day after we were approved, we went shopping for homewares. I find this exciting. I mean, we did this before in Manchester, but this has more of a permanent feeling. Over there we knew we would have to throw everything out when we returned. We were pretty successful with our purchases as a lot of stores were having a homeware sale. The best purchase was the entire kitchen set (as in everything you need for cooking) for $29. It was one of those magical Target purchases where the item scans at a very, very low price compared to what it should sell for. Now the only things we need to buy are bed frame, fridge, washing machine and bar stools. I can't wait to get our apartment set up. Perhaps the pictures will be part of an upcoming Five For Friday :)

I revamped the logo and banner for my TPT store. The one I had before just made me cringe! I'm happy with the way the new set turned out. I made it to coordinate with my blog.

Mini cold. I call it mini because I don't have all the symptoms. Mainly a sore throat and a sniffly nose. I haven't been sick in over a year now, so this has hit me harder than it normally would. I'm guessing I picked it up at work last week as I was coughed on quite a few times by the kinders. I have found taking panadol before I sleep reduces the sore throat and makes it easier to have an uninterrupted sleep. Have also been eating plenty of fruit and drinking lots of water. I find it interesting that I spent time in the UK and Europe in minus temperatures and snow, but never managed to get sick, yet within a few weeks of being back here I catch a mini cold. Can't wait to stop sounding so nasally!

That's about it from me, will be very busy over the next few days with all the packing and unpacking. I'm so excited!

 Have a great weekend :D