The Learner Profiles for Back to School

Hi everyone,

With the start of the new year approaching, I have been thinking about and compiling 'Start of the Year' activities that formulate how the classroom will work cohesively.

At the start of each year we revisit all ten Learner Profiles (I teach at an International School that follows the curriculum framework laid out by the IBO). These are then incorporated into all our units, as well as our classroom behaviour contract.

This time I created a Mix & Match activity around the Profiles for a group activity. Download FREE from my TpT store - One Teacher's Journey - HERE.

Print and cut. Students then attempt to match the pairs in teams. This really forces them to read the definition of each profile and this can lead to good discussions.

I printed 6 sets for my class (1 per group) and paper-clipped each set together.

I also came across some cute posters created by Andrea Knight for juniors, that inspired this 'Parts of a Learner' poster. This poster is aimed at classrooms from Y4 - Y6. I integrated the essence of the Learner Profiles so that students could see how these related to their daily lives. It can be found in the same product mentioned above.

I would love for you to leave a comment below about these resources :)
Enjoy!

Organise Table Groups, Toolkits and a Labels Freebie for Back to School

As summer break draws to an end, teachers start migrating back to their classrooms to make a start on the new year down here in the Southern Hemisphere. One of my first jobs this week has been to create a stationery toolkit for each table. Here is a picture of what it looks like.

 

Each table has its own file holder to hold the students learning journal folders (homework) which will travel to school daily, and a bucket that contains the stationery required. Each item has been marked by a piece of coloured tape to match the table group, for easy identification. Each week's table leader will be responsible for checking the table bucket before each break (recess) and at the end of the day, during pack-up time. 

I made rectangular labels for the file holders and buckets. Then I laminated these and taped them on. The disc labels have also been laminated. One is blue-tacked to the centre of the table for the bucket to sit on, and the other, to the white board for point scoring. The stationery is only intended to be used to reduce unnecessary movement or to help in a pinch when a student runs out of their own supply. These 6 colours were selected to match the coloured tape that I sourced from my local $2 store.

You can grab your FREE set of the labels from my TPT store - One Teacher's Journey -HERE

or on my website - HelpMeLearn - HERE

This resource is part of a larger Bundle for BACK to SCHOOL, that you might also like to preview HERE

Enjoy!

Writing Cinquain Poems - Templates

Hello teacher friends,

Last term there was an afternoon when many of our teachers had to attend union meetings, so we had to double up some classes for the afternoon sessions. I planned a poetry lesson for my group and made this student guide to go with it. Being term 4, it was a great way to revise some of the learning we had done during our water unit (Sharing the Planet - IB), as well as language features.

I took it as a guided lesson for the first poem and as an independent for the second (9 yr olds). This lesson went really well. You can grab your copy by clicking on the image below. We worked through the first booklet (water poems) but I have also added a blank booklet so that you can use this for any theme you are working on.

The Water Cinquain Template is available from my TPT store - One Teacher's Journey - HERE

or grab it free by registering on my website to access my FREE resource bank  at - Help Me Learn - HERE

Enjoy :)

PRAISE FOR Cinquain Poems

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️fantastic resource. thanks

Step-by-step Art Units Dragonflies and New Zealand Cultural Art

Here in New Zealand we have been enjoying a wonderfully relaxing and hot Summer vacation. I have taken a break from all things 'School' until we had our team planning meeting yesterday. This does seem early as we only start back with Staff Days on the 30th but my new team this year is awesomely talented. One of our members will lead 2 international conferences for IBO before we go back this term, so we thought we would get a jump on things early. The other member is an eLearning guru and our school's ICT leader. Lucky me I say :)

At the end of last year I chose to make a classroom move to the senior block as an opportunity came along to shift from teaching Year 4 (9yr olds) to teaching Year 6 (11yr olds). Daunting at first as this meant an over haul of my teaching materials to suit the older kiddies, but I knew it was an opportunity to create lots of lovely new resources to share with you guys.

I will keep you updated as I go :) For now I would like to show you 2 art resources that I posted to TpT today. They are both published as PDF books. 

1) Dragonfly Dreams
This is a unit I first created with 7 yr olds and WOW! I think you'll agree - what a great job they did.

Dragonfly Dreams is available from my TPT store - One Teacher's Journey - HERE

and on my website - Help Me Learn - HERE

This lesson also has a poetry partner for teaching students about Similes. Take a look at it in my TPT store - One Teacher's Journey - HERE

or on my website - Help Me Learn - HERE

PRAISE FOR SIMILE POEMS guided lesson plan for dragonfly POETRY WRITING

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ This was just about the best thing ever to teach poetry with similes! The slides were beautifully created with vivid colors, and my students were totally engaged from start to finish! Just could not be happier!

  
 

2) Maori Cultural Pendants & Panels

This unit was born out of a unit I taught about New Zealand's First People - The Maori, to 10 yr olds. There was very little teaching resource available around on this topic for English medium schools at that time, so I compiled it into an art unit that has proven very popular with teachers here in New Zealand.

Cultural Panels is available from my TPT store - One Teacher's Journey - HERE

and on my website - Help Me Learn - HERE

PRAISE FORMaori Cultural Pendants & Panels

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️I'm not an art teacher, just a general ed teacher, but the way the lessons are laid out with lots of descriptions and pictures makes me feel very empowered to guide my students through this piece of art. This will supplement our unit on Polynesia nicely.

Enjoy :)