A Colourful Ending

Hi Everyone,
Anyone who has been reading our Room 13 class blog this term will know that we have been working on a school wide colour theme. So it is fitting to end the school year with a colour theme link from the Peep and the Big Wide World site .To play, get Quack to jump on the tubes of paint to mix colours.

I am getting so much better at hyperlinking now! Is hyperlinking a real word?

Edible Christmas Trees

Hi Everyone,

I have just been searching for last week of school, Christmas cooking activities, to do with the kids .I am always on the look out for easy recipes or ones that have loads of pictures so that the children can work as independently as possible. During my search time have have found lots of really good sites and have added them to the 'Food Links' section of the blog, including this quick treasure 'Edible Christmas Trees' which we will make this week. Have fun cooking.

My Wild Self!

Hi Everyone,

if you are looking for something that is good fun to do, build your 'Wild self' by clicking on the underlined words. It only takes a few minutes to put together a wild character and they can be saved as a desk top or print screened to turn it into a photograph. Those of you with more technology savvy might like to tell me how else it might be saved. I am on a very steep leaning curve! I think that my wild self fits in well with our class themes for this term. Follow the links to Room 13 if you would like to see what we have been up . Yes , I have finally figured out how to use hyperlinks! Thanks to all those people who have been trying to educate me. I take a while to catch on, but I expect that I will go into a hyperlink frenzy now!

A Cyber Visit to Room 102

Hi Everyone,
I went to visit Room 102 today They had some great language links on their blog which I have copied into my 'language links' area. Thanks for the tip Mary Ellen. If you would like to visit Room 102 just click on this link:
http://teacher102.edublogs.org/
The 'Browser Books' Link is my favourite because it is great for Early Years kids and fantastic for students with special needs. I think I have now read every book! One of the best features of the site is that it can be a read yourself or a read too activity.
My other great revelation today was that if you click on the eyes on the 'Looky Book ' site the text will enlarge and can be read on a small screen or interactive whiteboard. Thanks again Mary Ellen! I am still a bit hesitant at this stage of my ICT development to just click on things randomly to see what happens, but most of the time it doesn't even occur to me to click on things! My teenage son thinks I am incredibly ignorant on these matters, but at least I am trying!

Welcome to our International visitors

Hi everyone,

I have set up this blog as a library of teaching resources from the web. I hope that you find what you are looking for and perhaps even an unexpected treasure!

Please feel free to suggest any resources that may be of use to others and visit to 'raid' this site for resources you might like to use in your classroom or attach to your own blog.

I would love to visit your blog too, so please leave a link.

Today I visited a Kindergarten blog called 2468 Meet Me at the Garden Gate

http://2468meetmeatthegardengate.blogspot.com/ .

it's a great blog with lots of ideas for teaching young ones from a very experienced teacher. Well worth a look.

They had a link to this great alphabet site www.learnenglish.org.uk/kids/antics/monkey.swf

It's a great site for Early years teachers.

Another great site for links for Junior teachers is Carl's Corner. You will find it in the right margin under ''Language Links'. It has loads of free downloads for Early Years teachers including worksheets and levelled readers. it would have to be one of my favourite sites on the web!

For something completely different, have a look at the blog called Tamaki Today in New Zealand. I visited this morning and watched some amazing video footage of the class practising and performing Cook Island Dancing.

http://tamakitoday.blogspot.com/

A new addition to a great site!

New online at www.teachers.tv - Behaviour Support
Time-saving and filled with new ideas, Behaviour Matters is a brand new area on the Teachers TV website. It's dedicated to issues surrounding behaviour, providing guidance on best practice and leading you through to resources you can use in class.
For the first time, you'll be able to find programmes, support, tips and materials for behaviour all in one place. Behaviour Matters gives you quick and easy access to useful information and the resources you need. With professional advice and expert hints, it’s your online guide to all aspects of classroom management.
Solve problems before they become major issues with Quick Fixes, an innovative feature which focuses on common behaviour problems. Quick Fixes offers you short videos to help you address low-level disruption, and features expert advice from Sue Cowley.
With a recommended programmes and editor’s choices, Behaviour Matters means there's no need to miss out on best practice in classroom management.

Education Times Finds

Hi Everyone,
Today I sat pouring over the latest edition of the Education Times, which arrived in my pigeon hole this morning. I love the 'Useful sites' page. I do look at all the other articles too! This edition's useful sites are based on a food and technology theme. I have added the ones that I thought were relevant to my learning setting on the blog this afternoon. There are so many others that would be great to explore too. So, I would encourage you to have a look each edition if you are not already a 'Useful sites' devotee. You'll find the new links under the 'Food Links' heading.

A new site to explore

Hi Everyone,
Our school has just purchased to rights to use the program 'Zip Tales' which is an interactive language program you can use on line. It has got an amazing array of Australian content for language programs. You can follow this link to find it or I will list it under Language Links.
http://www.ziptales.com/
The more you look the more great stuff there is to find. I am in serious jeopardy of only living a cyber life!

There Goes the Down Load Limit

Hi Everyone,
I am in serious trouble. My down load limit is at critical! Why? Because I have just been exploring the site Cybersafe Classroom- Latest technologies A-Z, a Victorian Education site, which has heaps of free downloads for bloggers and those wanting to use Web 2.0 technologies in the classroom! It is a must explore site, so click on the link, or you will find it in the Techno Gadgets and tools links.
www.education.vic.gov.au/management/elearningsupportservices/www/classroom/technologies.htm

On Track and On Line!

Hi Everyone,

I am so glad to hear that all is going well in Room 13 and that our computers are all up and running again! I am looking forward to getting back to school and seeing all of your work, especially your photos. Have fun on your outing tomorrow.

Sue

Passionate about wild life!

Hi Everyone,
It has been interesting to monitor which links the children like to choose when they have free choice time. Today we had not only my class in the room but also a group of older children from the Middle Years area, using the computers and Smart Board today. By far, the most popular site by request from the students was the National Geographic Animal Video link. They sat spellbound through the collections of short videos on a variety of topics. If you haven't checked it out yet you might like to follow this link.
http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/player/kids/

Love & Reilly- Just Love Their Work!

Hi Everyone,

I have been having another really good read through the Love and Reilly language site today. A friend of mine, who hapens to be a speech pathologist, recommended it to me quite a few years ago, and I have been picking up gems of wisdom from it ever since. You can sign up for their free newsletter on line. It's a good source of relevant professional development, without over kill sales pitches to get you to buy their products. You can find their site under 'Language Links' or just click on the link now to take a look.

http://www.loveandreilly.com.au/

Conflict Resolution and Child Like Excitement

Hi Everyone,
I have been having a great time over the past few days learning how to use our new 'Smart Board'. The children have been tapping all over the blog finding out which sites are good to use on the board. I love that you can just tap on a resource so quickly to meet a need of the kids. Today we had to work through some 'conflict resolution issues' and it was wonderful to be able to click on the Urbanext Conflict Resolution' site and run with the lesson at the point of need. it is a great site with a very simple approach to conflict resolution, which can be found in the 'Student/ Teacher Well being links' on this page. or just follow this link:
http://www.urbanext.uiuc.edu/conflict/intromovie.html I was also very excited to see that we have had our first international visitor to our blog. Hi readers in Nottingham UK!

Teacher's TV/Video

Hi Everyone,
I have spent the morning watching videos on Teacher's TV. You will find it in the Image and Video links section. It is a UK site with loads to offer. I have been overdosing on Early Years and Special Education videos and links, but the site covers Middle Years and Senior topics too. It is best to watch Teacher TV in the morning, before lunch. I tried to log in this evening and I got frustrated because the buffering process interfered too much with the video continuity. I suppose there are too any people accessing the site at that peak time when our time zones overlap in a wakeful period for both hemispheres. Well worth a look. Here is a link to a video I watched this morning on planning Early Years environments. It really got me thinking.
http://www.teachers.tv/video/27056

Welcome to the Teacher Space

Hi everyone,
Our main blog page was getting way too congested, so I have created a special space for teachers. All of the links from the main page are here. Hopefully you will find that they are better organised and easier to find. Please let me know if you have any links that I could include. I have kept our classroom theme topics and frequently used sites, on the first page of the blog so that they are easier to access for me and the children when we are using the interactive whiteboard. If they suddenly disappear from that page, you will find them here. This term our school has a school wide focus on 'Colour'. The activities listed are at a variety of ability levels cater for differentiated programming. My classroom focus is on' Snails and Slugs', because I have a student that is highly motivated by interactions with bugs! Lucky me!