Freebie: Editable Choice Board for Remote Learning Project

Hi all,

Our school has been doing remote learning for the past 7 weeks here in Italy. I'd love to share more here but, being a PYP school, a lot of resources we have made are very specific to our school's Programme of Inquiry and wouldn't be useful to others. 

However, I think this choice board could be a valuable resource for remote learning during the current school closures. Simply click here to download. This will prompt you to make a copy in Google Slides. You will then be able to edit this copy to suit your class' needs. Don't worry if you do not have a way to share this with your students through an online learning portal. You can simply click "File" then "Download" and save it as a PDF file.

Choice boards are a great way to promote student agency. The students get to decide how they would like to learn. As our students were learning about how the activities of different regions in Italy are connected to the natural environment, they did research projects about their chosen regions in Italy. I've modified the version I'm sharing with you to be about a country. However, you could change it to be about a specific county or state.

You can also modify the activities to suit your students' current skillset. We had already focused on directions, data handling and persuasive language - hence you'll see that some activities are closely linked to that. 

We tried to put in a variety of activities to suit different intelligences, interests and strengths. We asked our students to do one task of each colour. The green tasks have more of a language focus, the purple a maths focus and the yellow were more "creative" activities, trying to incorporate visual arts, music, drama, dance etc. You could also put in something more "sporty" like demonstrating skills from the national sport, designing a logo for that country/county/state's team, etc.

International Mindedness - Greetings in Different Languages Poster

Greetings all!

We were brainstorming ways to promote international-mindedness in our school. Following my colleagues' suggestions, we started taking our class register in a new language (chosen by the students, naturally) each week. They're really enjoying this and particularly enjoy researching countries where the language is spoken. They're often surprised by what they find!

To document this learning, I created this poster. I've printed it A3 and stuck it to the whiteboard so we can easily refer to it. If you'd like a copy, pop over here to get it for a mere 75c.

The Foos - coding from 5 years old

Hello folks!

I'm really excited to share my latest discovery with you. We've been making a big effort to get the children in our school coding. The classes with children aged 8 onwards are currently using Scratch to code. This is going down a treat! They absolutely love it! The teachers are using the free lesson plans developed by LERO as a guideline. You can log in and download them for free from here. The great thing about these plans is that they give open-ended challenges so children can work on the same concept in their own way.

However, we felt the younger classes weren't quite ready for Scratch just yet. We wanted something a bit easier to introduce the basics first. I went hunting and stumbled upon The Foos (developed by CodeSpark). It was exactly what I wanted for my 7 year olds and it's also suitable for younger children too. It is a fantastic way to work on developing logical sequences and problem-solving (If you're in a PYP school, it perfectly fits the definition of learning through inquiry!).

Here's a quick video intro where you'll see how different blocks can be put together and you can use loop functions and "if" commands.

Before I continue, I'll mention the best part - there is a 147 page curriculum available for free from The Foos website. Each lesson in the curriculum has a particular focus. They recommend which levels of The Foos to play to reinforce this learning and they provide resources to do "unplugged activities." Don't worry if you, as a teacher, don't feel confident about coding. The curriculum guide lays out all the required coding language simply. By working through the lessons yourself, before doing so with the children, you should feel fully confident!

I'm going to introduce The Foos to my class after the Christmas holidays. I am certain that they'll love it. I tried out the lesson plans myself, playing each of the associated levels and I got completely hooked. I even brought the iPad home one weekend to continue doing it! If a teacher can get sucked into it so easily, I'm sure the children are going to love learning in this way! In fact, I'm pretty sure they won't even know they're learning because they'll be too busy having fun. 

In my school, each child has an iPad so we're going to use the free Foos app. It's also available for free in the Google Play Store for those of you who are android users. The Foos is available to use online for those of you with computer rooms. Please note that they recommend using Internet Explorer, Firefox or Opera (I was using Chrome and it's not supported) and you'll need to download the Unity3D browser plugin.

Please comment below if you've been using The Foos and want to share your experiences!

Wonder Walls Galore!

Hi there,

As a PYP teacher, our wonder wall is a big part of the classroom. Here are some different ideas of ways to create a space for displaying the students' questions in your room. 

This is my wonder wall. It was very quick to make. I just cut out some thought bubbles, laminated them and then the children stick up their questions on post-it notes.

I LOVE this one with the children's photographs. I bet they enjoyed doing those thinking faces! Thanks to We Are Teachers for sharing it on their Facebook Page.

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Another firm favourite is this burning questions display from Kate's Science Classroom.

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You could make one that looks like a brick wall like this one from Connie at Welcome to First Grade.

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This is one that Mrs Bright's Class used for genius hour. The coloured sheets (one per student) are very striking against the black background.

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You could go all out and use IdeaPaint in your classroom. It's a special paint that transforms any wall into a whiteboard surface. The children could literally write all over the walls!

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Making the key concepts "alive" in your classroom

A question that has come up in IB training sessions and in online forums from many IB PYP teachers is "How do I introduce/teach the key concepts to young children?" 

It's something that I've found challenging to communicate to the children. I'm focusing on improving this at the moment. In order to do so, I did a very simple thing - I stuck the key concepts to the bottom of the whiteboard. I always write the learning objective(s) on the corner of the board. Now, given the position of the key concepts, I can easily ask the children to identify what concept(s) we are exploring and place it near the objective.

I know this isn't exactly groundbreaking but it was a simple step that made a big difference to me. If you have any other suggestions for helping children to be familiar with the key concepts, please comment below!

If you'd like to get these key concepts (made by Ms Murdoch) for free, click here!

Classroom reveal: Owl-themed PYP classroom

Hello there, followers! It's that time of the year again - classroom reveal time! I still have a few bits and bobs to do but this is the classroom as it looked today after day 1 with the children!

This is my teacher desk area. I've gone to town on the paper flowers on my own bulletin board. I love my little stationary house from Tiger and my set of drawers to help me organise resources for the coming week.

 Here is my classroom management behaviour clip chart. I got this one from Under The Alphabet Tree and added my own "Are we being principled?" sign.

 Here's the central focus board for my first unit of inquiry. I've displayed the transdisciplinary theme as the centre of the paper flower and will change this according to each unit. Don't you just love the watermelon bunting from Tiger?

Here is one side of work wall (high frequency words). I've kept a section separate for vocabulary specific to the unit of inquiry.

These photos show both sides of my reading/reflection corner. I have yet to add some cushions (and I definitely need to have a word with my children about how to put books back carefully!). The R-E-A-D owls are from Kathleen Amari-Crookston. I made the paper lantern owl display that reads "We love books."

The reflection corner consists of 6 different reflection sheets. You can read more about the exact contents and purchase them (individually or as a pack) in my TPT store.

Here are my Learner Profile and Attitudes reflection sheets. The children will use one of these each week to set a goal. They will then reflect on how well they have achieved that goal using the same sheet.

These reflection sheets will then be stored in this stripy box in A5 folders. Tomorrow, the children will design their own cover sheet for this folder.

As you can see, there are also some Learner Profile and PYP attitudes certificates. These are available for the children to take, fill in and present. to a student who demonstrated one of these attributes/attitudes. I will then hang them up on the classroom

Here is my editing board. The giant pencil is from The Teacher Wife and the "capital letters detective" display is by me (and available in my TPT store!).

If you have read my blog over the summer, you may have seen the post in which I created these owls. Now you can see what they were used for. Each owl's tummy has a picture and a description of each of our essential agreements.

As for the board below, you'll just have to wait a little longer to see what I'm doing with that one. I spent a lot of time preparing some parts for it which the children need to finish in the coming weeks. All will be revealed in due time!

Here is the calendar/birthday area. The adorable owl-themed classroom birthdays display is from Halle Hird, the owl-themed calendar set is from from Apple Girl Amber and the header was from Sparklebox. All other elements were made by me. 

And finally, some more IB PYP displays. The first one is my cupboard, backed with blue paper. The wonder wall is for children to post their questions about the unit. I added a "We are inquirers" sign with cute detective clip art from My Cute Graphics. On the other door, I've displayed the transdisciplinary skills. These are also available in my TPT store.

The other display is on my door. I bought the owls swinging from the tree wall sticker on eBay, added this action cycle freebie and created my own purple lettering. My plan is that the children will take photographs of themselves representing the attributes of the Learner Profile and I will add each of these on clouds above the tree.

 I hope you've enjoyed this little tour. If so, please leave a comment. It'd make my day! ;)

Reflection area resources (self-assessment and peer assessment)

If your have been following this blog over the summer, you probably know that I have been, ever so slowly, building up a bank of resources to make a reflection area in my classroom. I definitely feel the children in my class could have been given many more opportunities for written self-reflection. I thought dedicating a section of my room to this would promote this aspect of assessment.

I have already shared some of the resources for the reflection area on my blog (including the FREE peer assessment sheet.) 

I've gone about making the rest of the resources that I'll be using in my reflection corner. I've uploaded them to my TPT store so that you can purchase them if you like. Two of these sheets are directly related to IB schools as my school follows the PYP. However, the other four sheets and headers could be useful to teachers in any school setting.

The pack contains:

• "Reflection Area" heading (A4)
• "Reflection Corner" heading (A4)
• Mini headings for each sheet (blue)
• Mini headings for each sheet (multicolored)
• and the following assessment sheets in A5 size (2 on each A4 page):
• Peer assessment
• Collaborative group reflection
• How Well Do You Understand? (self-assessment - colour)
• How Well Do You Understand? (self-assessment - black and white)
• Two Stars and a Wish (with lines, colour)
• Two Stars and a Wish (with lines, black and white)
• Two Stars and a Wish (without lines, colour)
• Two Stars and a Wish (without lines, black and white)
• Learner Profile Aims
• Attitude Goals

All of these items are available for sale individually in my store. Just use the filters to select "assessment" and you should find them easily.

Click on the image above to view the pack in my TPT store.

Stand by for photos of the finished assessment corner when I get free reign on my classroom next week!

IB Bumper Poster Kit - World Flags Edition

Attention IB PYP teachers!

I have added a GIGANTIC poster kit to my Teachers Pay Teachers store. 

It contains:
IB PYP Learner Profile Posters (World Flags Border)
IB PYP Attitudes Posters (World Flags Border)
IB PYP Transdisciplinary Skills Posters (World Flags Border)
IB PYP Transdisciplinary Themes Posters - with a display idea!
IB PYP Key Concepts Posters
*Where necessary, I have provided two versions with different spellings (British English and American English)

This set costs $10. If you were to buy each of the included items individually, it would set you back $12. So you can go and have an ice-cream with your spare change! ;)

If you think there are too many flags going on in this kit - please check out my other PYP bumper poster kit including the same items but with different, colourful backgrounds for each.

If you would prefer to buy the items individually, click on any of the images below:

$2.50

$2.00

$3.00

$2.50

$2.00

To view all of my IB PYP-related resources, click here!

IB PYP Poster Kit

Calling all IB teachers!

I am very excited to announce the addition of a GIANT IB PYP poster kit to my Teachers Pay Teachers store.

The kit contains:
10 Learner Profile Posters
12 Attitudes Posters
8 Key Concepts Posters
5 Transdisciplinary Skills Posters
Headings for all of the above sets
6 Transdisciplinary Themes Posters (and a display idea)

Where necessary (regarding the spelling of "organise" and "behaviour"), I have included two versions, one in American English and another in British English.

All of the poster sets are available individually in my store. The total cost of all of these is $12. If you purchase this bumper kit, you can save $2 (and buy yourself something nice!).

This is a fantastic purchase for an International Baccalaureate school, especially at back to school time.

Click here to download the IB PYP poster bumper kit!

Learner Profile Attribute Posters - Black with coloured polkadots

I have recently added my first paid item to my TPT store. It's a set of learner profile posters. This may be of interest to those working in an IB school teaching the PYP programme.

Each poster has a gorgeous black and coloured polkadot background and cute clip art from My Cute Graphics (my latest addiction!). It costs just $2.

It's often hard to find printable International Baccalaureate resources so I aim to make some more in the near future! If you have any requests for resources, please comment below or send a request through the link in my TPT store.