YouTube Tuesday (Spooky Edition): The Skeleton Dance - Walt Disney (1929)

Yep, it's YouTube Tuesday again! Be sure to check out the linky page for more great videos!

With Halloween coming up this week, I thought I'd issue a spooky edition of YouTube Tuesday! Back in the day when Disney wasn't all princesses and fluff, they put out some wacky cartoons! This one has got to be one of the weirdest - The Skeleton Dance. Made in 1929, it is sure to get you in the mood for a spooky Halloween, in a macabre, black and white kind of way. Great stuff!

Top 5 Pins of the Week: Onomatopoeia Edition!

The theme of this week's top 5 pins is onomatopoeia. Why? To celebrate the release of the latest resource for grades 1-3 in the Little Green shop: Outrageous Onomatopoeia!

5. What is Onomatopoeia? Terry Green explains!

Need I say more? Thanks for the overview Terry!

4. Onomatopoeia in Every Language!

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Have you ever thought about this before? We might say squeak, when talking about the sound a mouse makes, but in other languages, the perception of that sound may be totally different. Don't you just love the little mice in this graphic?

3. A Noisy Alphabet

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Onomatopoeia can be any word we use to represent a sound - even made-up words. This fantastic 'noisy alphabet' by graphic artist Tom Gauld gives some great examples of made-up onomatopoeia! Love it!

2. The Onomatopoeia of Storms

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What better time to introduce onomatopoeia to your class than when you are studying weather? There are so many fabulous weather onomatopoeia words, like drip, zap, crash and boom! Kristina at School Time Snippets has come up with a lovely way to make these words come to life: a storm mobile. This simple craft will have your students up to speed with onomatopoeia in no time! Thanks Kristina!

1. Onomatopoeia Mentor Texts

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Marcie Flinchum Atkins, a children's and young adult writer, has compiled a list of terrific texts to act as mentors in the process of teaching students about onomatopoeia. Her website is a treasure trove of ideas and resources, which I plan to explore more ASAP! Accompanying the list of books are some free lesson plans and ideas to help get you started. The Little Green 'Outrageous Onomatopoeia' resource would work very well alongside Marcie's plans, if I do say so myself! Thanks Marcie! 

How do you teach onomatopoeia? Check out the Little Green Pinterest boards for more inspiration on teaching onomatopoeia and more!

Freebie Friday: Hundreds Chart

Thank goodness it is Friday! Time for another freebie from the Little Green store: a hundreds chart.

We all know and love hundreds charts - they are a fantastic way to help our students see the patterns in their times tables, as well as having a smorgasbord of other uses! There is nothing super special about the hundreds charts I have created, other than that they use a beautiful background from Prettiful Designs, a chalkboard from Sonya DeHart and fonts by Jen Jones.

As well as the starter model shown above, we have the no-title model...

...the black-and-white-printable model...

...and the black-and-white-printable-no-title model!

You can get your copy here. I hope you find it super-useful, whichever version you decide to use!

YouTube Tuesday: Owls - Beautiful and Deadly

Welcome to another YouTube Tuesday! Be sure to check out the YouTube Tuesday page to see all the great videos that have been shared! If you're an education blogger, feel free to link up any time.

I'm a self-confessed owl lover. I first got into owls by reading Kathryn Lasky's Guardians of Ga'Hoole series.

Get book one of the series here.

Since then, I have collected lots of little owl things - books, toys, figurines, puppets - and they are mostly quite cute and idealised. So it is easy for me to sometimes forget that owls are scary birds of prey and that they kill and eat small, furry things for dinner! Today's video serves as a reminder to all us owl-lovers that these birds are both beautiful and deadly. This video would be good to show in a unit on owls or birds of prey, or when looking at animal adaptations to environment.

Warning: this video is not for the squeamish. No gore, but a small, furry thing is caught by this most powerful of hunters.

Top 5 Pins of the Week: thoughtful logs, flashcards, macaroni punctuation, weather task cards & writer's workshop!

It's Monday again, and at Little Green HQ, that means I've spent lots of time on Pinterest in order to find HEAPS of goodies to share with you all. Here's what I've found this week:

5. Thoughtful Log

Leanne over at the Life in 4B blog has written a detailed post about how she uses 'thoughtful logs' with her students. In these structured journals, students write about the texts they read, among other things. Leanne's students clearly are, as a result, great thinkers! One of the fabulous ideas that will be helpful to us all, whether we choose to have our students keep a 'thoughtful log' or not, is photographing anchor charts and having students glue a copy in their notebooks. This is an excellent way for students to access anchor charts beyond the classroom. Thanks Leanne!

4. Storing Personalised Flashcards

This great idea comes from Judy Baxter on Flickr. She has shared a terrific way of storing a student's personalised flash cards in a makeshift folder that divides the known from the unknown. This could, of course, work for whole-class cards as well. Thanks Judy!

3. Macaroni Punctuation

Heather at the HoJo's Teaching Adventures blog has posted photos of a fabulous activity she worked on with her class, also inspired by Pinterest! Using dried macaroni, students were able to add speech marks, commas and apostrophes to a passage written on large sheets of paper. Thanks Heather!

2. Weather Task Cards

Working on weather with your 3rd, 4th or 5th graders? The Science Penguin has you covered! These great FREE task cards will have your students reviewing all the terminology and conventions you have been teaching them about reading and predicting the weather. Thanks Science Penguin!

1. Writer's Workshop

Ever wanted to know how other people structure their writing time in the classroom? Steph over at the Apples of Your Eye blog has given us a sneak peak into her writer's workshop time. She has some great ideas for organising writing time and has included this terrific graphic, created by a lovely person named Donna. Thanks Steph and Donna!

I hope these pins have inspired you! Be sure to check out my Pinterest boards for more inspiration!

Guest Post at One, Two, Three: Math Time!

Hi all, I hope you've had a great weekend! Just a quick post to let you know that I am making a guest appearance once again on the One, Two, Three: Math Time! blog.

The post is all about data and graphs, and I've included a link to a great little freebie poster that I'm sure you'll love. It looks a little like this:

Enjoy the week ahead!

Freebie Friday: Flash Freebie!

Hi all, welcome to another Friday! Today's freebie comes in the form of a flash freebie. That's right, this is a limited time freebie that will be available for today only, then will be returning to its usual price. Up for grabs is one of my favourite resources in the Little Green store: Creative Writing Dice.

Yes, I know I've harped on about this resource over the last week or so, but I just love it! Included in your download are three dice templates. One for characters...

...one for settings...

...and one for actions.

Students roll each of the dice to determine the three non-negotiable parts of the story that they will then write. Trust me. It is ace.

So, for ONE DAY ONLY, you will be able to download this resource FOR FREE! I would love if you could rate this resource and provide a short feedback comment while you are there, particularly as this resource is yet to be rated. It only takes a moment, but it really makes my day! Get your freebie here, but be quick!

Enjoy your weekend!

YouTube Tuesday: Chick Hatching

Welcome to another YouTube Tuesday! Be sure to check out the linky page to see all the fabulous videos posted there!

This week's video will be useful to anyone teaching life cycles or birds in the lower grades. It is a great little video of a chick hatching, and it explains what is happening along the way. I hope you find it useful!

Eek! Is That The Time?

Happy Monday all! This is just a quick message to say oops! Usually on a Monday I would be giving you a weekly round up of great Pinterest pins, but tonight I must give my apologies - I've been plugging away at a new resource for my TPT store and time got away from me! You can, of course, still check out my Pinterest boards for plenty of inspiration!

Now, I'm no night owl and I've got to be on my A-game for school tomorrow, so it is off to bed for me!

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Be sure to pop by tomorrow for another fabulous YouTube Tuesday!

Flash Sale!

Surprise! I'm having a flash sale in my TPT store today and tomorrow only!

The Little Green 20% off sale coincides with a flash TPT sale to celebrate reaching 100 000 Facebook followers, so if you use the code 'FB100K' at the checkout, you'll get a further 10% off! Be sure to 'like' Teachers Pay Teachers on Facebook if you haven't already done so!

The biggest bargain of them all is my 'Creative Writing Dice' - it was already reduced down to $2, and the 20% off is coming off that already reduced price! I posted about this resource here. Click here to see it in the Little Green store.

Drop by today or tomorrow and pick up a bargain. Now's the time to get all those Little Green resources that are on your wishlist! 

Freebie Friday: Spooky Addition Task Cards

It's Freebie Friday again! Woo hoo! Today's freebie goes out to all you Year 1 and 2 teachers: Spooky Addition Task Cards!

These 12 spooky task cards will have your students adding three whole numbers together in no time and are great for developing fluency in older students too!

Also included is a recording sheet...

...and answers, so your students can mark their own work.

Halloween is not too far away now, and there will be more spooky freebies to come before it comes! Enjoy your weekend!

YouTube Tuesday: To Be A Drum

Have you checked out the YouTube Tuesday linky page yet? Be sure to pop over and check out some of the great videos that have been posted!

Storyline Online is a great resource for video readings of great texts. Today I am sharing one of my absolute favourites. 'To Be a Drum', read by James Earl Jones, is so very powerful - a little bit 'shivers down the spine' even. I'm sure both you and your students will love it.

Giveaway Reminder - last chance to win!

Hey kids, just a quick reminder that there is only 1 day left to enter the amazing giveaway at Teaching Maths with Meaning! If you haven't already done so, get over there quick sticks and enter one or both of the draws.

One of the fabulous prizes coming to the winner of the K-2 draw is my 'Roll, Tally, Graph' game.

What are you waiting for? You've got to be in it to win it!

Top 5 Pins of the Week: non-fiction notes, place value slider, pyramid dioramas, rekenreks and lapbooks!

Happy Monday! It is back to school for us here in Sydney this week, but we have had an extra day's reprieve with a long weekend public holiday. Time for some inspiration to get us back into the mood for school!

5. Non-Fiction Notes

Get it here!

What better way to start our countdown than with a freebie?! Jessica Heeren has created a fabulously free two-page graphic organiser to help students organise their thoughts while reading non-fiction texts. If you decide to download this fantastic freebie, be sure to leave a rating and a short feedback comment to show Jessica some love! Thanks Jessica!

4. Place Value Slider

See it here!

Suzie over at the 'Suzie's Home Education Ideas' blog has devised a terrific place value manipulative to help students to understand place value. The best part about it is that Suzie has made it available as a free download! Included in the download is everything you see in the picture, as well as a three-digit version. Thanks Suzie!

3. Pyramid Dioramas

See it here!

What is a pyramid diorama? It is an innovative way for students to present information and show their learning. Jimmie Lanley has written all about them here and has included lots of pictures, templates and instructions, as well as a video tutorial to make it super easy for all of us to get in on the action. Thanks Jimmie!

2. DIY Rekenreks

Ever heard of rekenreks? Me neither, until I stumbled across this blog post via Pinterest! Rekenreks are a fantastic tool that can help students to have a greater concept of five and ten. They were originally developed by a Dutch mathematician, and the name loosely translates as 'calculation rack'. Donna Boucher, over at the Math Coach's Corner blog has developed an easy, inexpensive way to make your own rekenrek and has written a step-by-step tutorial on how to make them, using lots of detailed pictures. She has also kindly provided a link to a comprehensive free booklet on using rekenreks in the classroom. I'm super-keen to try rekenreks out in the classroom now and am so pleased to have another tool in the tool kit for Maths. Thanks Donna!

1. How to Make a Lapbook

Maybe you're already familiar with lapbooks, but I'd never even heard of them until a few weeks ago! If, like me, you're a newbie to lapbooks, this great little video will both introduce them and show you how to make them. Lapbooks are a great way to organise information and would be a fantastic study-helper for students. What a terrific idea! 

Be sure to check out the Little Green Pinterest page for more inspiring ideas!

For those heading back to school this week after holidays, all the best for the new term! For everyone else, keep on keeping on! 

Storybook Saturday: Each Peach Pear Plum

Happy Saturday everyone! Today I am linking up with Paula at Paula's Place for Storybook Saturday.

The book I'm sharing with you today is an absolute classic: Each Peach Pear Plum by Janet and Allan Ahlberg.

Click here to see it on Book Depository UK.
Click here to see it on Book Depository USA.

In this beautiful storybook, we are invited to play 'I Spy' and look for the hidden characters in each image. We start off looking for Tom Thumb, then end up finding a smorgasbord of beloved fairy tale and nursery rhyme characters, including Cinderella, Baby Bunting and Robin Hood. Children love looking for the characters and spotting all the things that aren't mentioned in the text, such as the various woodland creatures that inhabit each page, Robin Hood's framed picture of Maid Marion in his lair and Baby Bear's lack of talent with a rifle! For this reason, Each Peach Pear Plum is visual literacy heaven! There is so much to look for and it is a great way in to discussions about the relationship between the text and the illustrations. 

This book is also a great starting point for discussions about creative language features, such as rhyme, rhythm and alliteration. For this reason, I have used Each Peach Pear Plum as something of a 'mentor text' in my Amazing Alliteration pack, which you can purchase at my TPT store for only $2. 

Get it here!

This resource is suitable for Year 1/Stage 1 in Australia and Grade 2 in the USA, and is aligned to the Australian Curriculum, the NSW Syllabus and the USA Common Core. Read the product listing for more information about what is included in the pack.

If you don't have your own copy of Each Peach Pear Plum, check your school library. It was originally published in 1978, and is still in print, so it should be available somewhere near you! 

Enjoy your weekend!

Freebie Friday: Spooky Bookmarks!

It is the last Friday of the school holidays here in Sydney, so we are revving up for a busy term four. With Halloween coming up at the end of October, I thought I'd get in early and dedicate this week's freebie to the spookiest of holidays!

These spooky-but-cute bookmarks are sure to go down a treat with your students and could even be included with sweets for any trick-or-treaters that come to visit!

Get your free bookmarks here, and be sure to check out the rest of my Teachers Pay Teachers store too - I've been a busy little bee, uploading several new products over the holidays, and there are still more resources to come! Have a great weekend!

Giveaway on the Teaching Maths with Meaning blog

Happy Wednesday! I just wanted to let you know about a fantastic giveaway that is happening over on the Teaching Maths with Meaning blog. Alison is giving away lots of fantastic resources from a whole bunch of bloggers, including the Roll, Tally, Graph maths resource from Little Green! I blogged about this resource back in August - click here to read that post.

Click here to see it in my TPT store!

Alison has so much great stuff to give away, that she has split it into two competitions - one for K-2 (which is where you'll find Roll, Tally, Graph) and another for 3-6. Click here to check out Alison's post about the giveaway and to enter for yourself! There are only 6 days left to enter, so get in quick!

YouTube Tuesday: String Figures

Welcome to another YouTube Tuesday!

A few weeks ago, I visited the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney to attend an educator exclusive. It was a great night, and one of their current exhibitions, String Theory, was absolutely fantastic. If you are in Sydney and looking for an excursion to take your kids on, I highly recommend it! During the final part of the evening, we got to have a go at making some art using string ourselves - super fun!

One collection of artworks in the exhibition were prints using string. Remember making cat whiskers, the Eiffel Tower and a teacup with string? Well, it was like that, only more complex. The video I am sharing with you today shows some of the artists making these complex string designs. It is seriously mesmerising! In the classroom, you could have your students make more simple shapes using string and use these shapes to make prints. Enjoy!