Five for Friday!

We celebrated our 17th wedding anniversary earlier this week and my husband hid these flowers in the garage overnight so he could give them to me first thing in the morning.  Feels like it was just yesterday we were walking down the aisle!

This cutie had his 10th birthday as well this week, seriously people time is just moving a little fast for me, he cannot be ten!  

He loved all the spy gadgets he got for his birthday, he is still really into make believe play which I am so grateful for.  I don't want his childhood to pass to quickly.

My TA made this really fun moonsand from flour and baby oil.  It holds its shape when you squeeze it into different moulds or in your hands.  The kiddos love it and we encourage them to squeeze the sand and push it into lots of different moulds to work those muscles in their fingers and hands.  

Report writing season is upon us here and I am supposed to be doing that instead of this.....we all know I am not going to get started.  I still have my fractions unit to finish off before I do reports!!  Priorities people.

November 11 is Remembrance Day here in Australia and I won't be in my Grade 2 classroom so we made our poppies this week instead.  I did forget to take pics of the ones we did yesterday so here is the one I prepared earlier, hahaha!  I tell you I could be a comedian.  Really if you want to see how we did it check out this post here.

That is it for me, I am off to procrastinate finish some things that really need to be finished before I do anything else.  

Head over to link up with Doodlebugs for yourself!

Currently November

Hey I have blogged twice today!  That has to be a record, but as soon as I saw all the Currently post going up I knew I had to jump in.  I love this linky!

Listening to my daughter play the piano is just one of the blessings I have in my life.  We just got back from seeing her perform with 2 other piano players, she is just beautiful and I get to listen to her play everyday.  She plays from classical to contemporary, at the moment she is praciticing 'A Thousand Years' to play at her cousin's wedding in January.  She is one of those amazing people who can play by ear and she just keeps going until she has nailed it.  I am probably her biggest fan :)

I am loving the beautiful flowers my husband brought home on Friday night and hid in the garage so he could give them to me first thing Saturday morning.  We just celebrated 17 years of marriage and I would love to say that is has been smooth sailing and we stare lovingly into each others eyes romantically every day......but that would just be a big, fat lie.  I would say we have survived many wonderful and horrible moments in our marriage and the journey goes on and is changing all the time.  He is my best friend and I just don't know where the time has gone but I look forward to having my best friend with me for many more years to come.

I like to plan my meals a week in advance and over the last week I have started a new fitness program that provides me with healthy eating and an exercise plan.  I never thought I would say I love working out but I am really digging it, and the healthy eating plan is really yummy and I never feel hungry.  Looking forward to seeing a new me by the end of the year.

Seriously people I want and need some warmer weather, it is supposed to be Spring here but it still feels like Winter.  3 times this week we have had snow on the mountain, as we speak I am on the couch with a blanky and a cup of tea.  WHERE ARE YOU SPRING???!!

I reserve my reading for the school holidays because once I pick up a book I just don't put it down until it is finished.  The last book I read was 'Written In My Own Hearts Blood" by Diana Gabaldon and is number 8 in the series.  If you read my blog regularly you know I am all things Outlander, I just love the story of a WWII nurse falling through time to fall in love with an 18th century Scottish Highlander.  Brilliantly written and such a moreish read.

That is it for me now friends, make sure you head over to Farley to catch up on other Currently's, I am off to make a healthy dinner.

Food Fractions!

We have been investigating fractions in our Grade 2 classroom over the last 2 weeks.  We started off looking at fractions of a shape with this fun activity.

We then moved on to looking at a fraction of a collection.

We used popsticks as a whole group so we could learn from each other.

Then we each made a paddock in our books  and used blocks as 'farm animal' to show a fraction of a collection.

Next week we will be reviewing with a new file I am currently making that includes a game as well as read the room, the pizza activity and lots of other fun ways to explore fractions.  

Don't like pizza?  (WHAT!)  I also have it as a cookie unit :)

Here is a sneak peek.  When it is finished I will pick one lucky person to get their free copy.....stay tuned!

Like what you see?  It should be up and ready to go by tomorrow.

Papier Mache bowls

I wanted to share some of the art work I have been doing with a Year 4 class.  I take them once a week for the last session of the day and we ALWAYS do art, so I then become their favorite teacher :)

This week we finished a project we have been working on for a little while.  We made these beautiful papier mache bowls, I love the colors and the patterns they have created!  

I haven't got any progressive pics as it was a very hands on, messy process and my hands were right in there with them, not camera friendly hands.

We used plastic bowls as our mould and layered the bowl with newspaper strips about 5 cm wide, that had been soaked in a mixture of PVA glue and water.  I don't have any exact measurements of what I used, I just put in glue and added water until I got a runny consistency.  (I kind of cook like that too :)  don't ask me for a recipe what you will get is I put some of this in there and about a handful of that in there, I stirred it for a while and then I put it in the oven until it looked cooked and smelt great.)

We had to make sure it had about 4 layers of papier mache on and let them dry.  Once dry we trimmed the edges and painted the outside and inside of the bowl with a layer of white paint, letting each side dry in between.  If you are using a lighter color like the orange pictured above you might need a couple of white paint layers to hide the newsprint if you want, (learn from my mistake).  

We then painted the colored paint over the top.  We used the plastic bowls to put the paper bowls in whilst painting to help it keep its shape while the paint was wet.  

The kiddos then used oil pastels to draw their patterns on, we were focussed on our patterns having a South American flavour to them.  Finally I gave the bowls a spray with a fixative to seal it.

I hope you love these and can take a few ideas for papier mache from this.  

Seasonal headbands

Do your students love to make crowns or headbands?  Who doesn't love headwear!  

I have finished up this fun and easy to use No Prep file.  These would be great for centers or just as a fun way to celebrate special days and seasons.

Each headband has a message on the back band for students to complete.

I will be adding more to this pack as the year goes on, so jump in now to get the updates for free!

Just click on any of the pics to get your copy and if you have a special request email me and I will be happy to help you out!

Happy, happy Snaps!

Yay!  Time for Happy Snaps with Shanyn @Classroom Chit Chat!

Here are a couple of things that made me smile this week.

Office Works!!  I love shopping at Office Works!  This is one of those places where you go in for printer ink and come out with a wireless mouse (because you need it!), chunky markers (I have just the kiddo who needs this!), craft scissors (I definitely need these for Christmas craft).....are you noticing a pattern here?

I posted this on my Instagram, it is a spinach and caramelised onion tart with filo pastry.  Lordy it was delicious!  Here is something you need to know, it is low, low calorie, seriously!  I was so happy that I could have some for lunch the next day.  Word of warning though......it has onions and eggs......the aftermath was somewhat.....gassy  interesting.  

Hairdresser hair!  I luuurve going to the hairdresser, there is something so lovely about someone washing your hair and making you feel like you are the center of attention for a couple of hours.  I got a new darker color as well, friends I have to tell you I got a little freaked out a couple of weeks ago when I found my FIRST grey hair!  I made the hairdresser have a really indepth look to see if there were anymore, there weren't.  Phew!  I am taking it as an anomaly and I am sure it will never happen again!

I hope you had something to smile about this week, if you did head over to link up with Shanyn!

Five for Friday!

I totally had this post started last night and then......then I didn't finish it because there was a couch,TV a blanket (yes it is still chilly here)  and wine.....post not finished :)  but I am back to link up with Doodlebugs!

I totally made my kiddos model my newest product Halloween headbands....they were so into it, can't you tell! Seriously they had a blast coloring them in and writing a halloween message on the back.  Halloween is not as much of a big deal here in Australia but these two have begged me to let them dress up and trick or treat this year.....so I said yes! That makes me Mother of the Year! 

PS. I love that cheeky smile :)  The other one is a teenager grin....cool ya know 

My Year 4's have been doing some word art and I am loving how they are turning out.  They were asked to choose a landscape that they love going to withing Tasmania, this one is Cradle Mountain in the background and Dove Lake in the foreground.  Hikers paradise!

My Year 2's have finally finishing their Spring trees!  Friends we started this BEFORE our Term 3 break, that was over 4 weeks ago.  Well, I said, enough dilly dallying around let's get these bad boys finished!  So we did.

We used pencils and crayons for the background and trunk then used white tissue paper to scrunch and paint with watercolor for the leaves, the kiddos loved watching the watercolor spread through the paper.  The blossoms were made by dipping cotton tips into paint and splodging (technical art term) onto the branches.  I love them!

We had a short week at school this week, with public holiday on Thursday and A Student Free Day on Friday that was full of PD.....oh the humanity!  Some of it was great, some of it was not, I'm sure you know those presenters that could possibly be a reanimated cadaver?  Yup, we had one of them. 

My last randomness for this week is this delicious spinach and caramelised onion tart.  OMG it was yumminess plus, I even got to have the leftovers for lunch the next day.  Just FYI, I served it with green beans and mushrooms kilpatrick.  There were no complaints...except for Mr Fussy pictured above but we try to ignore that.....tough love here people :)

Head over to Kasey's blog to check out some other fun randomness :)