Area and Perimeter FREEBIES

Hi there,

Just a quick couple of freebies for you. The first is this area and perimeter poster. Click here to download it for free from Google Drive.

The second is a set of area and perimeter challenge cards. Give each child / group 12 squares of card and have them try to make shapes with the given area and perimeter on the cards. Click here to download the cards for free from Google Drive.

That's all folks!

UEFA Euro 2016 Teaching Resource Pack

"The Euros" i.e. UEFA Euro 2016 Competition is on it's way. It's taking place from 10th June - 10th July. If you want to follow it with your class, download this free A3 wall planner where you can mark in the scores:

FREE WALL PLANNER:

I've also created a pack with 90 pages of teaching resources, posters, flashcards, worksheets, sample lesson plans, lesson ideas, bunting, word searches etc. The lesson plans and related resources are most suitable for upper/middle primary school. 

The full contents are:

• 2 title posters (UEFA Euro 2016)
• Groups posters
• Flashcards with names of each participating country
• Sweepstake kit
• Bunting for the children to colour
• Table quiz questions and answer sheet
• Maths lesson plan, worksheets and self-assessment sheet
• English lesson plan and prompt cards
• PE lesson plan and station teaching cards
• Science lesson plan
• Geography lesson plan and project template
• Visual arts lesson plans and ideas
• Drama lesson plan and related resource materials
• Music lesson plan and related resource materials
• Flag hunt sheet and solution sheet
• 2 differentiated word searches with solution sheets

Here's an idea of some of the contents:

Some things to note:

-The geography project is in the same format as that of my Rugby World Cup 2015 resource pack

-Some of the objectives in the lesson plans include objectives from the Irish primary school curriculum. These should be easily adaptable to any primary school curriculum

If you're interested in this pack, you can get it for $3.50 (about €3.20) from my TPT store.

If you're an Irish teacher - there's also a separate pack with a leagan Gaeilge (Irish language version) of the posters, flashcards, bunting, project template and sweepstake kit available on its own for $2 (approx €1.85) or as a 138 page bumper pack with this English-language pack for $4 (approx €3.65). 

Boosting staff morale in your school

Often, staff rapport in schools can be neglected due to short breaks and busy schedules. Sometimes teachers are too busy trying to get everything done that thinking about their well-being is not on their agenda. However, happier teachers lead to happier schools. Here are some suggestions of how to create a more positive atmosphere amongst staff.

Sign up for a free health and well-being seminar
Irish teachers, check out the free seminars on pdst.ie. Teachers can sign up for these courses at their local education centre free of charge. For those of you who can't attend, the PDST has also shared the booklets that accompany these workshops.

Make a compliment box for your staff room
This is a lovely thing to do with the children in your class but it also works really well with staff. I set up a compliment box in our staff room last year and it worked a treat. Here's how to do it:
1. Get an old box, stick a "Compliment Box" label on it and write some ideas of sentence starters on it like "Remember that time when...." "I really like how you..." "I admire the way you..."
2.Put envelopes (one for each staff member) in the box along with slips of paper, markers, pens, pencils and scissors.
3. Send an email with instructions that the box will be in the staff room the following Monday for a week. They can write compliments for as many staff as they like. Under no circumstances is anybody allowed to read what is already in somebody else's envelope. 
4. On Friday afternoon, seal the envelopes and deliver them to the teachers.
Lots of people came to me last year and said that it really gave them a lift. The things that were written in the envelopes were a mixture of heartfelt messages from close colleagues, surprise compliments from mystery staff members and some silly memories and jokes thrown in for good measure.

Try this 30 day happy teacher challenge from Presto Plans
Hop over to the blog to download this printable for free. It includes things to minimise your own stress levels and to be nice to your colleagues! 

Made by Presto Plans

Make a staff meeting more sociable: Let them eat cake!
Ask staff to bring in some treats to share on an INSET day or just before a staff meeting and spend 20 minutes indulging and having a chat. The sugar hit can really cheer people up, particularly if the meeting is at the end of a school day.

Count down:
In my school we sometimes put countdowns on the board in the staff room - usually to the next long weekend / holiday! Currently there's a "... days until the next Game of Thrones" episode. It's very satisfying watching the numbers get lower and lower and can be a good starting point for conversations between staff who don't know each other very well.

image source

Share those memes!
Did you see a blog post / meme about teaching that gave you a laugh? Why not print it off and stick it on the staff board? Somebody else might appreciate it!

image source: Buzzfeed

And remember... don't just think it, say it!
Did you just walk past a beautiful display of children's work? Turn back and tell the teacher (and students) what you think of it. Did you hear a student say something positive about what they were doing in class? Tell the teacher how enthusiastic they were. 

STEM investigation booklet freebie

Hi all,

As I mentioned in the last post, our school is having a STEM day as part of STEM Discovery Week (22nd to 29th April).

Here is the booklet I've made to go with our challenge (to build a base for a stilt house). You can download it for free by clicking here.

STEM Challenges

Do you do STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) challenges in your school? STEM activities provide a transdisciplinary approach to problem-solving. It's all about hands on learning through inquiry. STEM Discovery week is taking place from 22nd - 29th April so we're going to have a STEM day in our school during that week. To find out more about it visit the STEM Alliance site.

Here are some great free resources for STEM challenges. It could be great to have a STEM area in the classroom with weekly/daily challenge cards for early finishers or indoor playtime. These 4 challenges from Frugal Fun for Boys show just how simple it could be to set up. 

And you don't have to spend a fortune on resources. So many STEM projects can be done using resources that you'll find in your recycling bin. Of course, you can ask the children to bring in resources from home too. Here's a handy list of potential supplies from The Owl Teach.

Share the process. Here are some gorgeous free posters showing the design process made by Teachers Are Terrific. 

There are lots of free templates out there for the children to record the process. I particularly like this one from Create Teach Share.

As for the challenges themselves, the Practical Action site has great ideas that link nicely with geography topics. There is a PowerPoint with each idea to present the challenge and lots of other resources like student sheets, picture cards and certificates.

Here are some more from Dr. Wesley Fryer (all using resources I imagine you already have in your classroom or that can be easily bought).

Just give a quick Pinterest search for STEM challenges and you'll be full of inspiration! 

Do you Kahoot?

Hi there,

Do any of you out there use Kahoot? It's a great FREE site for creating multiple choice quizzes, polls and discussions. One of my friends, a secondary school language teacher, finds it very useful in her classroom for reinforcing new vocabulary.

Your students can then access your quiz using a computer/mobile device (no sign in required - they just create a temporary username and put in a code that you generate just before playing). You can then display the questions on your interactive whiteboard/smart TV and the children respond on their device. The teacher's (and shared) display shows (anonymously) how many people got it right. Afterwards, a teacher can download the results and have a record of this assessment, be it formative or summative.

You can access the (millions) of readily created Kahoot!s or you can invent your own. A great assessment tool could be to ask your students to create their own Kahoot!s.

Here are some examples of ready-made Kahoot!s:
Gaeilge (Torthaí)
Multiplication facts (x9s)
Brian teasers
Famous landmarks
Food groups

IB PYP Posters in Chinese

For the attention of any teachers working in an IB school where Chinese is taught: 

I have just added a Chinese version of my bumper poster kit to my TPT store. It costs $10 and includes 5 different sets:

• Learner Profile posters in Chinese
• PYP attitudes posters in Chinese
• IB key concepts posters in Chinese
• Transdisciplinary skills posters in Chinese
• Transdisciplinary themes posters in Chinese

All of the sets are available individually but, if you want all of them, it's cheaper to purchase the bumper kit.

Click on any of the images below to view them in the Chinese section of my TPT store.