Start the Year Inspired Sale!

Good morning, everyone!

Just a super quick post today to let fellow teachers know that my TpT Store is joining in the huge site-wide sale today and tomorrow (Jan. 20 & 21).  This is a great opportunity if you're looking for handy IB resources, vocabulary/word wall cards, ORT comprehension sheets, maths inquiry-based worksheets, etc.  Everything has been marked down by 20% so go check it out!

Happy downloading!

TpT More Love for Back to School SALE!

Hello, hello, fellow teachers!

Have you heard the news?  Teachers Pay Teachers is having a *second* back to school sale and it's this Wednesday, August 19!

I've been busy working on product re-designs of my geometry and Oxford Reading Tree worksheets.  If you've downloaded any of them in the past, you should have received notification to re-download them and if you haven't done so yet, I would highly encourage you to do so.

Here's a taste of the updates thus far.  For full previews and to download any to use in your classrooms, please check out my TpT store.

Each worksheet has been re-designed to provide clear instructions, visual examples and/or helpful tips and age-appropriate workspaces for writing, drawing and sorting.  They also all include answer sheets.  The maths worksheets use an inquiry-based approach and some may include exit tickets to check for student comprehension.

If your school uses the Oxford Reading Tree scheme, you'll also want to check out my ORT close reading worksheets.  Newly re-designed worksheets include Stage 1 Kipper's Diary and Stage 2 Naughty Children.  Again, clear instructions with a variety of language activities and age-appropriate workspaces for writing and drawing.  Again, answer sheets provided.

Download Now!

Unit of Inquiry Home Handout Templates - Tpt

Welcome back!

Today I'm sharing a new teaching resource for my fellow IB teacher colleagues.  Now available in my TpT store - UOI Home Handout Templates:

Download Now!

For the last two years now, I have been making these home handouts for my students' families.  They contain all of the important essential elements for each Unit of Inquiry my class studies.  I send them home both digitally and in hardcopy so that parents understand the curriculum and can support students at home.

Who We Are Template Preview

The templates are provided in PowerPoint (PPT) format; simply replace (copy/paste) your specific Unit information over the place-holder text and drop in a few images of your choice.  The two specialty fonts have also been included, should you like to use them.

Templates include:
* Transdisciplinary theme
* Central idea
* Lines of inquiry
* Concepts
* Learner Profile attributes
* Attitudes
* Transdisciplinary skills
* At-home reinforcement links

Once you have entered your own UOI information and photos, simply export the file in PDF format to email and print as needed.  Use year after year, saving you time and energy.

All in a quick, easy and stylish format. Multiple licensing is available should your whole PYP department wish to use the templates across all year groups for a consistent look.

As usual, if you download and use this resource, I'd love to hear back from you - did the quality measure up to what you would expect?  Did you find them useful in the classroom?  Any tweaks or considerations to suggest? 

Memory Game: My Rights & Responsibilities - TpT

Hi, folks!

It's been a long time since I shared some teaching supplies but as the academic year is wrapping up here in Sweden, I'm already starting to think ahead to next year (seriously, what's wrong with me?).  Since I moved to a new school this year, I've had 5 out of 6 Units of Inquiry completely new to me - yikes!  That's a LOT of new material to find and create and let's face it, there is only so much one person can accomplish in a single year so a lot of ideas didn't get done.  But now I'm starting to fill in those gaps and this is one resource that fits the bill.

Now available in my TpT store - My Rights & Responsibilities Memory Game:

Download Now!

My Sharing the Planet UOI is all about rights and responsibilities.  It's a good Unit to start the year off with, since you can tie in Essential Agreements and set behaviour expectations in the classroom.  Even if you don't teach the IBO curriculum, this is a great topic to roll into your Circle Time or PSPE lessons.

I have a set of A4 posters with these phrases on them that I put up in my classroom last year and we did a whole class matching activity using them but I felt like the students really didn't internalise them in the way I wanted them to.  So I made this memory game to help with this.  I also reworded the phrases into first person so that students would be more likely to apply the concepts to themselves on a personal level.

Example cards.

As you can see, the cards are made in matching pair sets.  Each right is on an orange background and the responsibilities are on turquoise backgrounds.  The words 'right' and 'responsibility' are capitalised to draw attention to them.  I also added in a small clip art icon to help with the vocabulary.  There are 11 card pairs altogether and I also included an extra blank card pair, should you wish to make your own - for this purpose, I have included both the original PPT document and a PDF version for your convenience.

These cards are designed to print to A4 paper and cut into quarters (once cut, each card is sized A6). Simply print (colour is recommended), cut and laminate.

As usual, if you download and use this game, I'd love to hear back from you - did the quality measure up to what you would expect?  Did you find them useful in the classroom?  Any tweaks or considerations to suggest?

Group Role Cards - TpT

Wait, what?

Is that what you just asked yourself?  What's this post all about?  It's not quilting or scrapbooking related...

That's true, it's not.  However, you might recall that earlier in August I posted about a little make-over here on the blog.  What began as a bit of a cosmetic face-lift has steadily been morphing into branching out on the content, too, so I hope you enjoy the new variety (feel free to drop me a comment!).

For all you fellow primary teachers out there, I have a new resource available on my TpT store that I hope you will find useful in your classrooms - Group Role Cards.

Download Now!

My class this year really needs to work on their group work skills so I'll be using these role cards extensively.  The set comes with six cards on bright and cheery polka dot backgrounds.  Each card clearly explains the role's jobs / responsibilities in an easy-to-read format.  Additionally, each card also lists the IB Learner Profile, Attitudes and/or Transdisciplinary Skills related to the role.

Roles include:

• Facilitator
• Secretary
• Mediator
• Resource Manager
• Investigator
• Time Keeper

The cards are designed to be printed on A4 (landscape) paper, then cut into A5-sized cards.  Laminate and punch a hole in the corner to clip together for long-term use and easy storage.  Since I'm an IB teacher, these obviously align with the IBO curriculum.

Now that all the formal and official info is out there, I need to gush a little.  I'm SO chuffed with myself!  I finally sat down and figured out how to make pretty resources using PowerPoint (yeah, it was one of those 'Well, duh!' moments when I researched it...)  But never mind that, now armed with this new knowledge, I will be happily creating more pretty and eye-catching resources in the future.

And of course, if you download and use these role cards, I'd love to hear back from you - did the quality measure up to what you would expect?  Did you find them useful in the classroom?  Any tweaks or considerations to suggest (bearing in mind that I'm still new at the whole PPT design element)?

Cheers and happy group work!