Predicting the future

Using the ipad, you can download some age booth applications and take pictures of the kids to show what the app guesses they will look like in old age. It's a very fun way to talk about growth and change with younger kids.

You can then use the photo as a writing prompt for the children to talk about what they expect their lives to be like when they are in old age. 

Lego symmetry

How cool is Lego? It enhances creativity, improves fine motor skills, facilitates cognition and so much more.
A great way to use Lego is to use it to teach symmetry. After leaning about lines of symmetry and rotational symmetry, use some Lego to allow children to show their understanding. It might also be nice to get them to work in pairs to get the full cooperative learning benefits.

Learning about senses through popcorn

I'm currently taking a K-1 class for a 4 week block. They're a wonderful class and make me laugh and really enjoy what I do. 

Their current science topic is "Senses" ie, taste, touch, smell, sight and hearing. It is such a great cross curricular topic such as with Maths when they identified sound patterns today and English when they used adjectives to describe the things in their environment. 

After checking with the school about any possible allergies, we got the green light for a fun Friday afternoon activity that fits right in with their topic: popcorn making! 

After taking in my popcorn maker and making popcorn with the children I plan for us to make poems about the popcorn we made into the following week. We are going to write observations about the cause and effect of warming the dried kernels, descriptions of the popcorn's taste, feel, smell, appearance and sounds it makes, weighing and hefting "popped" corn and dried kernels in maths and what I'm most looking forward to, turnin popping corn into HOPPING CORN!

Hopping Corn is one of the most fun science experiments I know. You just need:

- a clear jar

-some dry kernels

-30g baking soda 

-90ml White vingar

-750ml water

Then fill up your jar with the water and mix in baking soda until it disappears. Then add the kernels and add vinegar. This is when the kernels bob up and down like they are hopping! It is caused by the gas (co2) made from the vinegar and baking soda mixing. 

Talk about about the senses they used in the experiment and write about it in their books. Keep language at their level and let them ask questions and try different things like shaking the mix or stirring it. Investigative learning made simple and fun. 

 

Playing card fractions

Whilst playing yet another playing cards maths game, I had an idea for another way to use this versatile resource in another way. Converting irregular fractions! Just pair the children up and give them a deck. Place 2 cards one above the other. The top is the numerator and the bottom, the denominator.  Does the fraction require converting? If so children race to convert the irregular fraction and record their working. Simples :) 

Quiz and quieten

Sometimes a class is not necessarily off task but really loud. As a personal preference, I don't even mind if students are talking. It does not bother me at all but when those little voices turn into big voices it becomes a bit much. Naggy reminders and clapping patterns become like water off a ducks back after a while so I like to do something a bit different and keep it fun: quizzes! 

I just look up a list of trivia questions online about whatever theme they're learning about, eg space. And as the noise elevates, ask a question and tally the points on the board. This could even go towards their prize at the end of the day. 

Feet: Height Ratio

I love to be a bit silly with the classes I teach. 

Last week I had a lovely little Year 3 class with no work left for them and I was called in last minute so had zero time to prepare. I could have got them to do something in a textbook or shown a sight word clip to them to buy some time but I felt like taking some risks with "winging it". 

I looked at one of the kids bright pink shoes and said "Wow! Look at those. Can I try them on?" Obviously, they couldn't possibly fit (which the kids immediately told me). As the strange looks and giggles passed about I told them they have one minute to convince me why. They told me my feet were too big. Why were my feet big? What makes feet big? Eventually the conversation steered into the relationship between foot size and height. We went off, ordered ourselves according to height, measured our height and measured our feet. When we worked out the common factors, we went to our books and wrote up our little experiment. 

Science, Maths, English and PSED all in one lesson and just to fill in a few more minutes we wrote a cinquian poem about feet. 

Give me 6 seconds, please!

Every week I go to a French class. I love it so much and have a passion to keep improving. Last week we (the students) paired off and quizzed eachother on the content of the lesson. My partner continuously answered for me each and every time I paused. It was incredibly frustrating  and reminded me of something I'd heard from a literacy consultant: give someone at least six seconds to answer a question before offering to answer for them. Some kids may need longer and if they do ASK, frustrating situations do not facilitate learning. 

Marshmallow catapults!

With just 4 marshmallows, 7 barbecue skewers, a rubber band, a plastic teaspoon and a strip of masking tape you can have yourself a maths, science and English lesson. 

Have a little chat about what a catapult is, where they've seen it and introduce your materials. Get the children to have a little turn trying to assemble it themselves then show them one, which may or may not look like the one in my illustration. 

As an English lesson, students can write a procedure on how to construct a catapult. In maths, measure distances of appropriate objects thrown from the catapult. In science, talk about potential to kinetic energy. 

This is probably best taught to children from Year 3s upward. 

Area game

An easy way for children to practise their multiplication skills whilst leaning about area is to give children 1 piece of grid paper between 2 and a pair of dice. 

They choose a different colour and colour in the timetable fact that corresponds to the numbers they rolled so, if they roll 4 and 6 they colour in a 4x6 area on their grid. The most prominent colour at the end wins. 

Acrostic poem arguments

I recently taught a Year 6 whose theme topic was rainforest. Their English text type was expositions so it was a perfect opportunity to tie the two in together with some research on what the biggest threats to the rainforest were. 

They then designed some posters to create awareness of their rainforest threat (visual arts) and used that as a reference to write their exposition. These students had plenty of information because they used an acrostic poem in their awareness poster. 

It's so great to use a theme across as many KLAs as possible to really incorporate as many of their strengths as possible as well as tap into their interests. 

Playing card factors

I recently had a Year 5/6 class and played a fun, easily differentiated and quick set up activity.

Children pair up and get a deck of playing cards, each child picks one off the top and places down and place down, the first to work out the factor of these two keeps the cards. Person with the most cards wins. Jacks represent 11, Queens 12, King 13 and Ace 14- I put in the jokers as a zero card because people sometimes forget any number multiplied by zero is zero.

Kids who were whizzing through made it a bit harder by working in threes and finding the product of three factors. Simples. 

Wax resist spelling

It's nice to combine art with drier areas of the school day.

I like to do wax resist with white wax crayons and watercolour paint to do spelling words. It really facilitates the children's visualising a word before they write as well as their handwriting.

They need to grab a white piece of paper, write their word with white candles and then paint over with watercolour to reveal their words. It's quite a cool little magic trick younger years just love! 

Spelling battleships

This is a nice game to play in pairs. It's just like battleships except you use spelling words.

Each player chooses five different words to put on a word list. They keep the words secret from each other. 

Players then put their five words into their own grid. They can be any direction but backwards and can't overlap. The children then take turns calling out coordinates, such as A3 for example. If they call out a coordinate that has a letter in the box then the opponent must reveal that letter and say "hit". The child then writes down this letter in the coordinate of the partners word grid. If the coordinate called out is empty then the partner must say "miss" and the child colours in the box.

Players take it in turn calling out coordinates until they can take a guess at what the partners words are. If guessed correctly the word is "sunk". Once all words are sunk then you have a winner!

The morning show!

A nice little introduction to the day is to do a morning show. I just put one together on the interactive whiteboard each time I take a new class and chose a volunteer to help me do each slide.. It's also a good way to learn their names early. If I have time up my sleeve, I let them do a self register as they come in to. To show you how it all rolls out, I've put some example pictures that are similar to the slides I make up. For older kids it might be nice to have a puzzle or riddle for them to ponder on throughout the day as a fast finisher exercise too. 

Pipe cleaner angles

Pipe cleaners are very cheap and very fun.

I recently taught a lesson about angles and used pipe cleaners to teach angles. 

I displayed a poster of angles, explained the terminology of angles: the amount of turn between two lines that share an end point of vertex, then demonstrated measuring that amount of turn with a protractor.

We then went through the types of angles, measured and labelled them. 

We then made the angles with pipe cleaners and brainstormed where they are in the environment.  

Play dough!

All kids love play dough from preschool to year 6, adults love play dough, I myself LOVE play dough! 

It's a great thing to take into school on a casual day because it's easy to make, fits into many subject areas and makes learning fun. 

A few ideas for using it in the classroom are:

-3D shapes

-spelling words

-model making

-weighing activities 

-using it as counters

-making fractions

A basic, gorgeous recipe I use is:

- 1 cup plain flour 

-1/2 cup salt

-2 tsp cream of tartar (it's near the bicarb soda in the baking aisle) 

- 1 tsp oil

- 1cup water

-food colouring

- any scents or glitter you may like to add

Just stir up the dry ingredients, mix the water and colour and stir in, bung it in a pot on low/medium heat while stirring constantly for 3-5 mins, dough will start to pull away from the sides of the pot and form a ball, take it out and knead it like mad- put your back into it and get rid of those stringy gluten strands. 

Make sure you double check it's cool to bring it into class too but chances are your efforts to bring in something lovely will be appreciated especially if you've a great lesson plan to go with it. 

Noughts and crosses

From the game noughts and crosses (tic tac toe) I taught of a really simple spelling game that can be done in pairs. Each person chooses a spelling word from their list and substitutes it for a nought or cross to practise. 

It's good teaching practice to facilitate peer scaffolding in learning experiences and this is a simple yet effective way to do it. 

Comics and visual learners

I've just completed my first ever French lesson! I absolutely loved it but found my mind wandering a couple of times. To keep busy and focused on my learning I made a little comic strip of the conversation I needed to learn. 

Today when I taught a class watching a video about the digestistive system I suggested they wrote dot points and/or do a comic strip to remember what was being said in the video- it worked! 

It's a great strategy for visual learners too. 

I'm thinking of doing comic strips with my spelling group tomorrow too! 

Sentence of the Day

Expanding on the numeracy idea to use a number of the day as a starter, a simple spelling and grammar  activity to the Literacy session is a Sentence of the Day activity with a few guidelines set by you. Just make sure to go over what the parts of speech (verbs, nouns, adjectives etc) mean first. 

Number of the day

A nice and effective little maths starter is to set some clues for the children to find the number of the day with some scaffolding clues. It's really nice if the children have whiteboards and markers available, otherwise they can do some working out on paper. It's also a good idea to set and extension for fast finishers whilst the others might be working through. 

Checking for children's understanding

It's really important you discover where the children are up to in their learning. Questioning is a really powerful tool and if presented in the right way can give you a clear indication of what they realise. The teacher you're filling in for will really appreciate that information in your notes too. I've jotted down a few tips and techniques for questioning and letting them show you their knowledge in a more student directed way. 

1. Make sure the questions are open ended; how do you know that, what do you think it means, what can you tell me about... They allow the children to verbally paint a picture of what they know and might surprise you with what they know and what they need explained. Yes/no answers really give very little information.

2. Reflection time: 5 minutes to think and then record by writing, drawing or acting out can be really effective in allowing them to recap on what they've learnt and consolidate their learning.

3. Think. Pair. Share: give the children a few minutes to think about the lesson, then explain what they've learnt to their partner, then their partner explains to the class.

4. who's being honest game: ask 3 children to explain a concept you've just been learning to the class two are wrong and one is right. Children decide on who is telling the truth and explain why that is the correct answer. 

Rubrics for writing

All teachers ask children to check their writing before handing it in. Before doing so, it's important children know what they are meant to be looking for.

A 5 star checklist is a great visual reference and cuts down on what you need to correct. It's also a good idea for kids to swap books and peer scaffold- so long as they know to be respectful of eachothers work and not write on some else's work. 

Spelling Word Perimeter

Shape words are a brilliant way to tap into children's phonological and visual awareness in spelling.

This week I taught a spelling lesson with a small group of kids. 

Some finished just a little quicker than expected but not quite early enough to do a new activity.. I set them an extension task by getting them to me are each words perimeter which is really straightforward when using grid lined paper.

Cross curriculum learning: too easy. 

Secret Super Hero

An easy goal setter for great behaviour management is to have a secret super heroes jar- you can fashion your own jar with a little felt cape or even just use a box, bucket hat... At the beginning of the day, children write their names on a piece of paper, put it in the jar and you draw one out. This is your secret super hero. No one knows who it is but you and you will be watching your secret super hero for great behaviour all day- if they can make it to home time without any problems, they win the super hero prize of your choice. You can also use the secret super hero jar in conjunction with the jelly bean jar (first post on the blog) and the secret super hero can choose the activity. 

Teacher Mascots

When I teach a class of younger kids I like to bring along a soft toy that is my mascot. Mines an orang utan. I introduce her to the class and say she's shy and doesn't like it when people are unkind or doing the wrong thing. Then I choose someone sitting/ working well that she can sit with and change the person throughout the day and routines to make sure lots of children get a turn.

It's also important to explain not everyone will get a go but maybe they will next time you visit. 

I've even used it with older classes by putting it on the whiteboard with a magnetic clip with a speech bubble and reminders like newsletters, people who need to go places at a certain time, assembly time, etc.

Leaving Notes For Class Teacher

When I had my own class, I wanted to hear about everything that went on in my absence. While I wasn't  looking to read a novel upon my return, a paragraph or so letting me know what happened was nice. I want to know if my kids did a good job because it makes me feel really proud of them and I can lavish them with praise upon my return. I also want to know which students were challenging for the relieving  because I may need to sort that out.

Its also imperative to be careful with attendance records, i.e. letting teachers know who was late or absent. Schools legally need to maintain accurate records, so not making note of these sorts of things is really bad.

Above everything, teachers want to leave their class to a relief teacher who cares about their students and their classroom. I always loved hearing my students tell me that the relief teacher chatted with them, got to know them, and asked how I usually handled certain things if they weren't sure about the procedure.

Now as a casual I leave a little note in this format I whiz up in word- it's really easy and looks lovely all printed.

Sight words

I've been lucky enough to be working with a group of lovely Year 3/4 kids to help them with spelling for the next few weeks. They are mainly working on Dolch Sight words. I wanted to do something a bit more enjoyable than Look, cover, write, check and also bring in as many multi-sensory experiences as possible too. 

Some of the ideas I came up with were:

Word erase: write a list of words on the board, have three ways of spelling each words, two wrong and the correct way for each word. Children erase the incorrectly spelt words and are left with their correctly spelt words to do the next activities with. 

Using the fridge magnets interactive media in Smart notebook (this is a smart board school but all the interactive whiteboards have a similar programme)

Memory games, where children turn over cards and match them or they can play snap. 

Word bingo

Cut and paste sight word sentences 

Finger spell with sign language 

Scavenger hunt: we use photocopied pages from readers to highlight out spelling words when we find them

Buddy highlighting: a buddy 1 reads the word, buddy 2 spells or writes it. If it's correct, buddy 1 highlights it on the sheet to mark it off. 

Magic words: Kids write the word in white crayon, and then colour over it with marker to make it appear.

Puzzle maker: there are loads of make your own word search sights. Children can type in their own words, make their puzzle and find them in their word search.

Skipping: we did this years ago at one of my schools in the outback. Children jumped rope and spelt out their spelling words at the same time. So good when kids have been sitting at a desk far too long! 

Dominoes: it takes a little while to prepare, but why can't the kids help make it? It would give them so much ownership over the game. Just have some oblong cardboard strips, draw a line half way and write a sight word each side of the line.

Figure Me Out

I recently stumbled across a nice idea for maths. Kids base a heap of problems on questions pertaining to things about themselves and then have their partner solve the problems and vice versa. They might also like it if the teacher does one too. 

Shadow puppets

A nice way to tie in visual art, drama, story telling and story writing is to get the children to work in groups to make a story then make some puppets on black card and make shadow puppets on the light from the white board projector. 

A simple activity the children get so much from.

The Bean Game

Simple and fun game I've used with kids from Reception/Kinder/Prep through to Year 2. They love it.

It's a warm up game for PE and a lot more fun than running a lap around the oval.

All you need to do is call out the name of a type of beans and the children do the corresponding actions.

Jelly beans: wobble all over like jelly

Runner beans: running on the spot or to a certain place

Chilli beans: Shake as though they are cold making the shivering noise

String beans: stretch up tall like a piece of string

Broad beans: make yourself as wide as possible

Frozen beans: stand perfectly still

Beans on toast: lie on the floor

French beans: say "ooh la la" 

Mr Bean (my favourite): in a Mr Bean voice say "Aw Teddy" whilst pretending to hug a teddy

Jumping beans: children jump on the spot

Canned beans: children make a can all squashed together (sensibly)

You can also make combinations of those bean types eg jumping mr beans! 

Numbers and symbols groups

An effective yet simple activity to get children moving in their maths starter is to hand out numbers and symbols that make equations. 

Give them a timer (5mins) and don't let them look at each other until the timer stops. 

Feedback

It's awesome when teachers you're relieving let you know you're doing well, it also gives you a good idea of what you know to keep doing to be a good casual.

One of the teachers I relieve for sent me a beautiful email to tell me I was doing well and to assure me of more work coming my way. 

The key things she mentioned were:

1. Marking all set work. This is something I learnt to do back in my London supply days  and the advice I was given was to use half of lunch for marking (if you don't have a duty). It also helps you get home earlier.

2. Work ethic: do the job you're paid to do. Don't take short cuts and treat the day like you're being observed.. Because in one way or another you will be! 

3. Classroom management: use sanctions, set your expectations, reward/praise positive behaviour immediately and encourage more and more of it.

4. Leaving notes for the teacher: this is another habit I got into in London. It also helps the teachers remember who you are when they want you back! 

It's good to have a little reflection on the successes and challenges of your day and think about how you might do things better in future. A journal was one of the best graduation presents I got upon leaving uni :) 

The price is right

One if the easiest maths warm up games ever is to use the hundreds chart and have children guess a secret number. They can even use mini whiteboards if you have them to help them with their working out. 

Where's the teacher?

When teachers call in sick they often don't have time to leave work or tell the class they won't be in.

When 30 little people ask "Where's Miss so and so." You can make it a bit more interesting by giving the children a creative writing task about where their teacher might be. 

You can also make missing posters and do some description text type work. 

Story Bags

I've decided to include a story bag into my bag of tricks. It's an activity suitable for all age groups and ticks talking and listening outcomes boxes as well as drama. 

The best part is it takes little preparation and is very child directed. All you need is a bag, pillow slip, box or sack and put a few odds and ends inside- plastic animals, maps, happy meal toys, keys absolutely anything. 

Ask the children to take a piece out at a time and tell a story. Older kids might even be able to continue on one story and build on the last child's tale. 

Classical music

They say music soothes even the savage beast.. Kindergarten and Year 1 can sometime be a bit of a savage handful! It's wonderful to see their enthusiasm but sometimes it's not channelled into something and it just becomes chaos... Lots of teachers have started using classical music in the class to set the scene and enhance leaning activities.

Music can put out positive learning vibes, calm children, build anticipation, put energy into activities, stimulate thinking, encourage concentration, aid memory, allow for multi sensory learning, release stress and facilitate imagination.

You can either sit the children down for a few minutes to listen or play the music throughout the day as they work. At the end of the day or after they've listened to the music ask the children to write a little piece about what they listened to and how it made them feel or what it reminds them of.

Compass painting

It's awesome when you can integrate different subjects together: maths is one of those subjects that can cross every single key learning area. 

I mixed geometry and art by having the children use their compasses with paint brushes. Easy and really effective. From this you can go into lessons about circumference, diameter and radius. 

You can also use other art materials like pastels and crayons in your compass and come up with some interesting designs. Perhaps look at famous artists like Damien Hurst and Wassily Kandinsky's circles in art for inspiration.

Hi-lighted names

Children LOVE hi lighters. Writing their names, not so much. 

It can be really frustrating when they hand in work without a name so I put out hi-lighters for them to hi-light their names on the loose sheets they hand on. Works a treat! 

Paint chip stories

If you've ever noticed the way paint companies name their colours, you'll see they really are using some quality adjectives.

These are great writing prompts for creative writing. I've put a few in my bag for times kids need inspiration for story writing, song writing, poetry, description or adjective work. 

The best part is they're free- important when you're living day to day with casual work. 

Pictographs

One of the easiest maths lessons for kindy/reception/prep when work has not been left is a pictograph.

Start by reading a story using just the pictures in a picture book then explain you can use pictures to represent numbers. A pictograph is a way of showing how much of something we have using pictures.

Have a made up pictograph ready to show the children like this:

Then look at the features: title, numbers and labels.

Ask the children what they'd like to make a pictograph of out of a few choices: favourite pet, way of coming to school or favourite lunchtime games. List the categories on a piece of flip chat paper or butchers papers and give children a card to draw their picture on. They then place them into the appropriate category and the class analyse the data together. 

Lucky dip jar

A simple goal setting activity and behaviour reward for kids is a lucky dip. Get them to write down a game or activity of their choice that lasts ten minutes and write it down. Place the folded note into a jar, box, bag, hat or bucket (the lucky dip) and if they've ten minutes free time at the end of the day, one of the children pick a game from the lucky dip. 

It might be nice to play the game in conjunction with the jelly bean jar activity. 

Student feedback

It's nice to find out from the students how much they got from your teaching in the day.

Instead of playing heads down thumbs up at the end of the day, get them to write down some they remembered from the day and stick to some card. It's nice feedback for their teacher too.

Talking ball

Sometimes I sound like a cracked record, constantly asking for hands up.. It's so archaic and outdated, I'm sure my great great grandfather used to ask hands up in his era as a teacher in the 1890s. It's also fairly ineffective because kids still call out. 

 I now use a soft foam ball to toss to kids who I choose to answer a question after getting the idea from the Canadian Aboriginal custom of using a talking stick. No stick: no talking. It's nice to throw that multicultural fact in when introducing the talking ball too.

Stress balls

So often I'm left work that involves kids to watch a movie or news clip which is lovely.. But some minds wander, carpet threads get pulled, hair gets played with, friends get pinched etc etc.

One of my own teachers from school had such a good idea that really worked and I'm going to do this tomorrow: she made some stress balls with dry rice poured into a balloon and an extra balloon over the top. It should look something like a hacky sack when complete and fit into the palm of your hand. 

If you've got a class over a few days and little or no work left, get the kids to make them! Just check for allergies first: latex and rice. If so, marbles, fine gravel, dried beans and old but clean socks are alternatives. Gee, what a nice idea for writing a proceedure! 

Lines of Symmetry

A good maths lesson to do with Years 3/4 who have not been left work is symmetry.
 

Symmetry runs deeply through maths and the world around us.
Look around the classroom or maybe outside environment and look at how many lines of symmetry  (a line you can draw through a shape when everything on one side of the line is the exact same as everything on the other side of the line) exist on that object.  I keep a symmetry jig saw in my bag of tricks. So easy to make; pretty cardboard  into geometric shapes and cut through it's line of symmetry for the kids to put together. I just put it up on the board with blu tac and get the students to put it together in turns. 

I also like to refer to a line of symmetry as a mirror line because if you were to put a mirror on the line, the picture would be the same.

Triangles have one line of symmetry/ mirror line... where is it? Have a look with the kids. Show them where it is and isn't. How many on a four pointed star? A square? A rectangle? Watch as the kids become more enthusiastic and confident finding the lines of symmetry on a shape and discuss why it is or isn't a line of symmetry amongst themselves. Get them to double check a rectangles lines of symmetry with a mirror if they believe the rectangle has a diagonal line of symmetry.
Do points on a star correspond with lines of symmetry?

What about a parallelogram? Make predictions and check with a mirror.

It should take little time to make a worksheet using auto shapes or even give the children some geo shapes to trace  around in their books to investigate lines of symmetry.

Make sure you've tracked down the mirrors before you start and stand is a back and let the children do the investigating. Symmetry lessons are great to facilitate children's discovery learning.

It might also be nice for children to make butterfly prints to show examples of a line of symmetry at the end of the day if you end up with time up your sleeve.

Lie Down Paintings

Before the turtle, came the artist: Michaelangelo Buonarroti. Michaelangelo was best known for his commitment to painting the Sistine Chapel and popular belief is that he painting it lying on his back... Actually that's not true- he was ahead of his time and used a complicated scaffolding system that supported him and his aides. 

The strain on his neck, head and back must have been tremendous and he probably would have been better off painting on his back. 

Even though Michaelangelo's myth about painting the Sistine Chapel has been debunked, it's still a nice lesson on persepective and a challenge for students.

All they need to do is tape paper to the underside of their desks and paint with a brush that's not too wet. If you're worried about paint dripping, just use markers. 

I would definitely introduce the lesson by talking about Michaelangelo, his works, his era and the myth about him painting upside down. It might be nice for them to paint works inspired by Michaelaneglo that you show the children. 

Hopscotch grammar

Hopscotch is such an adaptable game. This example shows parts of speech in a hopscotch game. Each child calls out an example of one of these as they hop through and make a sentence out of it on the home square. It's best to make about 5 little hopscotch courts and put the children in groups.

Word Problem Posters

Instead of using dull, meaningless word problems in the style of a sadly named individual buying 40 watermelons and eating 15.. Why not make a poster with sticky notes using the children's ideas to make word problems for the area of operation they are looking at. 

My example is ocean life, all the children need to do is think of a topic that interests them or draw on something they may have learnt in HSIE or Science and invent relevant word problems for their sums. 

They highlight the information that will help them do the operation eg 4 had 3 baby octopuses each, how many altogether? Then they show their working under the sticky note. 

Domino Facts

Take a domino and draw the domino you have. Write the addition, subtraction and if you're up to it, multiplication fact for that domino's numbers. For example if your domino has 6 dots on one side and 4 on the other your facts are:

 6+ 4= 10

4+6=10

6-4=2

10-6=4

10-4= 6

6x4= 24

4x6=24

Extension

24/ 6 = 4

26/ 4= 6

You can make the activity trickier or easier depending in the needs of your students.

Number of the day

A nice little introduction for maths is to display a number and put in some questions focusing on that number.

Making Board Games!

What a fun activity that fosters collaboration and gives children a chance to apply what they know as well as peer scaffold. I've included a maths game that Year 1 could handle, they simply need to move forward the amount of spaces that corresponds with the answers they gave.

It's probably easier to use squares of paper that are stuck on a back sheet with younger kids, rather than have them battle with drawing squares but some will be more capable than others.

You can also do a spelling game with pick up cards, science games using questions from something they've learnt about, literacy board games based on a story they've read and so on. It can fit into most subjects which is the real beauty of it, especially when you've not had any work left for you. 

Have fun! 

KWL charts

A nice introduction and plenary activity is a KWL chart. The class do the K W part during the introduction. They can contribute their existing knowledge to the K section by offering verbal contributions or write them in sticky notes. They then discuss with a partner some questions regarding what they want to know and offer those questions in the W section. As a research activity, children use available texts and computers to answer those questions and any extra information they discovered .

 They don't need to limit themselves to books and computers, there maybe clips you can show them or hot seating activities as well.

Onomatopoeia/ Lichtenstein Art

Combining literacy with art is a wonderful way to make communication even more powerful. 

Onomatopoeias are the words that replicate the sound they make like splat, buzz, bang and zzzz. Onomatopoeias exist in most languages and change in different languages, for example, in Polish a "bang" would be "piff puff" some of your ESL students might enjoy sharing these with the class. 

After brain storming all the onomatopoeias that you and the class can think of, have a look at some of Lichtenstein's artworks showing his pop art style works with onomatopoeias.

Have the students use their own onomatopoeias in a comic story referring to Lichtenstein's style.

Mirrors and blobs

Two great and zero preparation drama games are mirror mirror and the the blob.

Mirro mirror is an imitation game where children work in pairs, one child makes the actions and the other mirrors the actions. The blob is a game where one child sits in a blob on the floor and their partner moulds them into shape. 

Turn Ten

Turn Ten is a really easy maths game they line up 20 cards which are numbered 1(ace)-9 in four rows of five. If they turn over two cards that equal 10, they take those two cards out and replace with two more from the pack (ensuring jokers and face cards are removed first). The game is finished when all the pairs are found. 

8 Simple Rules

Sometimes you'll be presented with "challenging" classes. I taught the most challenging class of my career a couple of years ago and supply teachers would often refuse to ever take them again, some even came close to leaving at lunch. 

Whether they be a delight or a dred, you're first job is to stay in control and that comes down to the most basic of rules to help get you through it: 

1. Be happy to be there- Smile, say hello, enjoy the experience, remind yourself you're employed. No one is going to respond to a miserable grump- keep smiling. 

2. Be prepared- get there early as possible and get all the information you need: passwords, procedures, plans, timetables. Write the timeline of the day down the side of the board. Keep the teacher notes in an accessible spot, talk to the teacher next door if your unsure, talk to the class ta if time permits. If all else fails have a bag of tricks on hand. Always get your own work ready in case the teacher  hasn't left any.

3. Be positive as possible- both for the students and yourself. If you can give them enough positive feedback as possible, they'll want to receive more and be more willing to please. By the same token, don't let negative behaviour slide either just draw in the positives so it hopefully doesn't get that far.

4. Be calm- you might want to scream, shout and go bananas but it's not helpful to anyone. It's amazing what behaviour management techniques will come to mind when you take a deep breath first.

5. Use your voice- screaming like a banshee is not great teacher etiquette and a good way to ensure you won't ever be asked back. Talk firmly from deep in your belly if necessary, it has a sound of authority without sounding out of control. 

6. Take an interest in your students- kids love it when a visitor takes an interest, ask them about their work or when they provide an answer ask how they know that, it's good feedback in your teaching and it's nice for them to personify their answers

7. Be pleasant- Would you rather be a Miss Honey or Ms Trunchbull? It's good role modelling to be polite and friendly and never let your mood dictate your manners. 

8. Teach- you're there to educate, not entertain. 

Sun dial, fun dial

The sun is fast escaping so if you've got to do a lesson on time, why not tie in a bit of hands on sun dial making? 

All you need is a stick to make the dial, then a few markers such as rocks. Start your dial at 9 and a new person (who's doing the right thing of course) can add a new marker each hour. Your dial would probably only go from 9-3 but what an interesting thing to add to the day that doesn't take time away from any set work you might have and leaves something for the children to talk about and reflect on- even though you might just be in for the day, doesn't mean your teaching won't go in!