Welcome to our Monthly Link Up ! 

Every 26th of the month we will post one of our Teacher Tips and encourage others to link up and share their tips.  Make sure you add a link to your blog post at the bottom of this post!

Stephanie from Fishing for Education here to bring you my Teacher Tip of the month!

Teacher, I'm done!
Now what do I do?

This month I'm focusing on what to do when your student is done early, those early finishers who don't know what to do!  In my class I always had a variety of choices for my students to choose to do when they finish.  I would focus the first half of the day on Reading & Writing activities, then the last half of the day focus on Maths activities.  It is up to you how you want to structure it.

I like to allow the students to have some choice in this as they enjoyed it more. Since it was things they wanted to do and understand the expectations I had less behavioural issues overall.

Students Know Expectations!

(Poster from The Teacher Wife)

I'm my class we would have a routine when it came to our work, but we made sure to emphasise what was expected of their work.  I had maybe 2-3 weeks of fast finishers who didn't finish their work with best effort.  (I had them redo the work during the class activity time, if I catch it, or during some class fun time.)  Eventually the students quite rushing through work.  Just keep on them in the beginning.

My students knew the expectations during "I'm Done! Activities" as well. Most of my activities were geared towards independent study, buddy work, or small group games with the "No more than 4" rule.  We also discussed not excluding others if we had room.  This made sure there were less behavioural issues.

Education Games

I always made and had some easy to play education games in the classroom.  I would make sure to introduce the game once and model how to play, and make sure to keep it simple.  Easiest game was to have a deck of cards (or number cards) and play Addition, Subtraction or Multiplication Top It!  I know it's old (from Everyday Math), but my students loved it and it kept their fluency up! Above is a picture of the "I CAN..." activity games for Math from One Stop Teacher Shop.

List of Activities

I would also list activity ideas on the board for students to choose from.  I made sure my lessons allowed 5-10 minutes of finishing up time for those with unfinished work or who need extra time.  I made a ring of cards that had specific activities in my classroom that students to choose from.  My students LOVED that! (It's on TPT for $1 if you'd like it.)  This is where my independent study would come into play.  Sometimes my students enjoyed some time creating their own work.  They loved writing their own stories and making their own comic strips!  (I would integrate Story Elements as well!)

What's your Teacher Tip this month?

An InLinkz Link-up

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This month we've decided to share our ideas and resources on Australian animals on the blog!  Although I'm fairly new to Australia (13 months living here now), I've had my fair share of Australian animals encounters.  I just started in my Year 3/4 class and we're focusing our writing this term on informational writing and we decided to focus some of that on Australian animals.  So I was on the hunt for some great website in the class!  Here are some of my current top favourites! 

#1 - Your local Zoo's webpage! (Perth Zoo)

One of the places online that I found to be most helpful was Perth Zoo's webpage!  I'm several hours away from Perth, so no recent visits from me, but that's why we've got the internet to take us on virtual excursions!  

I found their Animals & Plants tab and clicked on Australia for TONS of easy to read information!  I love that the information isn't overwhelming for students.  You can get your information easily and teach your students how to research using online resources.  Some of them have videos and images.  Plus there is an easy downloadable fact sheet (in PDF format) for you to download and print, which is helpful with those who don't have enough computers to go around!  

Not sure about other Australian zoos out there, but I'm sure the one closest to you also provides you with tons of helpful information!  (I know I'll be using this in my classroom.)

#2 - Animal Fact Guide

This is another website of information that is easy to read for students.  There aren't as many Australian animals on here, but for the ones that do it goes into more detail.  Great for those students looking for more information! 

#3 - Pinterest Boards

Follow Stephanie's board ED: Australian Animals Unit on Pinterest.

Don't you just LOVE Pinterest and all it has to offer, PLUS easy finding!  I know I want some kind of visual to go along with our Australian animal reports and I love the ideas I've come across.  Check out my Australian Animals Unit board!  I love how a lot of them incorporated the Aboriginal art! I'll definitely be using some of these ideas!

Other Resources:

Here are some other resources I find helpful, although it may not be Australian animals specific.

• http://australian-animals.net/ - TONS of information, but more reading.  Definitely gear towards your older students.  
• http://kidcyber.com.au/category/topics/animals/ - Kid friendly and all sorts of animals! Plus extra resources.
• http://ngkids.com.au/animals/ - A favourite for nearly any kid!  Easy to navigate.
• http://www.activityvillage.co.uk/australian-animals/ - Some information, but great craft ideas for teachers and some printable resources.

What are your favourite
resources for Australian animals?

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Hi everyone! Casey here from Little Lifelong Learners. Today I am here to share a super fun maths resource with you...and the best part is that I'm offering it you all as a freebie!

 This is one of the very first games that I made for my very own prep class back in 2012. I noticed that my students were wonderful at numeral recognition, but their numeral formation left a lot to be desired.

I headed to pinterest for inspiration but couldn't find anything suitable because most US games form their 4's incorrectly. My race to trace game was born!

I purchased these cute graphics a few months ago knowing they would be perfect for something and now my race to trace game has been spruced up ready for your classroom. Please head on over to my TPT store and grab your copy for free.

Grab your copy here: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Race-to-Trace-Numeral-Recognition-and-Formation-QLD-FONT-1951300

Check out my other numeracy resources here: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Little-Lifelong-Learners/Category/Numeracyhttps://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Little-Lifelong-Learners/Category/Numeracy

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Casey

We'd like to celebrate this milestone for our blog!  We've reached 1,000+ Facebook likes and we're hosting a Giveaway on our Facebook page!  Make sure you go like our page and find the post below to comment with your email address to enter our giveaway!

Facebook Giveaway Hosted by the following TPT Stores:
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Fishing-For-Education
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Miss-Jacobs-Little-Learners
http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Early-Years-With-Sheri
http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Little-Lifelong-Learners
http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Mrs-Edgar 

HOORAY for us reaching 1,000 likes! We're so excited to have all of you join us! We decided to have a GIVEAWAY to...

Posted by Australian Teachers on Wednesday, July 8, 2015

Thank you to all of our readers!

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