Free Shamrock Clipart

To help you get ready for St. Patrick's Day, here is a set of Free Shamrock Clipart. I searched the net for this but decided to make my own because I prefer a puffier look to the shamrocks. I put together an assortment of green shades and white versions. All are png format, royalty free and can be used for personal or commercial use.  So if you like, you can download your free copy here from my TpT Store.

I got the green background in my poster from Sassy Designs.

Making Real-world Connections in Geometry - Solids

I got some amazing images of real world examples of 3D shapes last month so I decided to incorporate it into a new math word wall for solids. So here it is. Each card shows the name of a solid, a 3D rendering on the left and a corresponding real-life picture of a solid object on the right. The shapes in this set are: cube, cuboid, sphere, cone, cylinder, triangular pyramid, square based pyramid, triangular prism, solid, 3D shape, face, edge, and vertex. A large sentence strip is also included which has the definition of a 3D shape on it. You can place just above your word wall in your classroom. I posted on TpT for you. You can check it out by clicking here to see more pictures from the file.

It's Carnival in T&T

I've been having so much fun this week with my students. It's Carnival season which always has us busy with field trips to mas camps, carnival shows (for kids), and any historical displays we can find. Carnival is a national festival in Trinidad and Tobago that is celebrated annually on the Monday and Tuesday before Ash Wednesday. It is similar to that of Brazil but for us, aside from the mas, we have a lot of Calypso and Steel Pan competitions in the weeks leading up to Carnival.

So, in our schools, we have our own version of Carnival. My favorite aspect of it is the Old Mas portrayals. Each class has to do skits using signs and props - no words - to portray current events in a humorous way. Students also sing their own calypsos and party to loud soca music. Soca music originated out of Calypso but it is very fast paced and just gets you off your feet. They love it.

Here are some pictures I took out on one of our school trips. This was at a soca event for kids. The traditional Carnival characters were there to meet the children.

 

Moko Jumbies - they dance around on stilts.

 

A Soca performer takes to the stage as Moko Jumbies dance. The children are in awe. These ladies above are traditional Carnival characters. On the left is a Baby Doll and next to her is a Miss Mary.

  

These are the Fancy sailors and the Dame Lorraines

The very poetic Pierrot Grenades

 There are many other traditional Carnival characters by the way, like the Bookman, Burrokeet, Fancy Clown, Fancy Indian, Guarahauhn, Jab-Jab, Midnight Robber, Jab Molassie, Minstrels, Bats, Seybucan, Soumayree, Stickman, Imp, and Dragon. 

Oh gosh, I have so many pictures to share. These below are of a display at the airport in Trinidad. I could not resist posing with the mannequins.

I'm next to a Fancy Sailor costume. 

   

A contrast of costumes on the left. A butterfly costume on the right.

Now for the best part... my little three year old, Ashley, had some Carnival fun at her school too. I had to take pictures! I wish I could have gotten pics of all the kids in their costumes for you. They had a street parade masquerading in their head pieces. These are what I got... It was all about head pieces (hats) and face masks with a nature theme.

 

 These are for the flowers and butterflies band.

 Fruits

 

 Butterfly face masks

 

 

These are for the weather section. I think in all, the sections were nature, fruits, and weather. Awesome! Hats off to all of the hardworking teachers at Ashley's school, Mt. St. George Early Childhood Centre!

So this is my Carnival 2014. You can click here to read about last year's Carnival at my school and here for the year before.

Happy Carnival to you!

Degrees of Adjectives - St. Patrick's Day theme

Hi guys! St. Patrick's Day will be here soon and I made these Shamrock Degrees of Adjectives worksheets (cut and stick matching) for the different examples of degrees of adjectives which can be used for interactive notebooks. There are blank shamrocks in both small and large sizes for students to write other sets of examples of adjectives for each of the three degrees. A black and white version is also included and each page here is to be printed on legal sized paper (8.5" x 14"). The classes of words chosen (in terms of their rules) span the levels from Grades 1 to 4 and are separated on different pages so that you only need to print out the sets that are suitable for your students' level.

Valentine's Day Hearts and Cards

I used the Valentine's hearts wherever I could this week.

 

I made it my students' mission not to leave these compound words all heartbroken. My zigzag scissors really came in handy.

 

These are the cards we made. Our school ordered dozens of these heart shaped lollipops so I had to rack my brain for days to come up with something cute. So here it is - 'A sweet heart for my sweetheart'. 

              

This blue one above was my demo card. For some students I help them write up theirs. Each small group was given blank cards with the holes cut out to insert the lollipop, heart shape cut-outs, and lollipops.

        

        

We made bookmarks too. Happy Valentine's Day!

Making Pencil Lanyards to Keep Tools Within Reach

This is something I've been working on for my six year old son, Rashad. I'm one of those mothers that buy pencils and erasers every month because... well, he either lends them out or looses them too quickly. I would normally send his teacher a box of pencils for him, but as a teacher, I don't want to burden her with the task (she probably has boxes for other children to deal with) and as a mother I want to train Rashad to take better care of his tools. I thought it best that I find a way to keep everything on a leash - pencil, eraser, and sharpener - plus a name tag. 

 

I got the inspiration to make this from a pen lanyard when I realized that it could work for pencils too so I had to start from scratch using binder clips to attach the eraser and sharpener along the length of the lanyard. The smallest sized clip was attached to the end of the pencil and the fine loop of the lanyard was attached to that. It's best to just check out the pictures below to get a feel of it.

I bought these and the lanyards...

  

  

Now it's to be worn around the neck or wrist. Just think of it as connecting the contents of a pencil case. The lanyard is long enough that the tools you attach to it would not weigh down on the pencil as you are writing.

 

I couldn't make one for Rashad and leave out his sister, Sade. Even though she takes excellent care of her tools, I try to balance my TLC time with them. This one above is hers.

 Here is a variation, almost everything is tied together. I found an ergonomic eraser that can be hooked onto the ring tag. If this works, I'll make a few more for some students in my class.