Clouds, Ceilings, Challenge, Camping & More

It's the end of the week so it must be:

To begin with are these little thought clouds I have used to try to help some of the children I work with understand what other people may be thinking if someone says something or does something.  Often these children get into trouble because they do not stop to think about the consequence of their actions and why the other person may react how they do.  The aim therefore is to role play some scenarios and break down what may be happening.

I say an action or sentence and the children need to hold up:

 a red cloud if they think the other person might have an angry thought

a blue cloud if they think it might be a sad thought

 a yellow cloud if it might be a happy thought

a green cloud if it might be a nervous/worried thought

a black cloud if it  is an OK - nothing special thought

Sometimes the children are in agreement, sometimes they think something very different to how others would perceive the situation so we have to talk through these thought processes.

We can then move on to what that other person may be actually thinking and vocalise those thoughts.

Sometime ago I blogged about there being a hole in my ceiling - caused by a hole in the roof - which I am very pleased to say I have now managed to mend (oh boy was it a whole lot harder than even I had imagined) and have begun the process of putting wallpaper up over the mended part and wall below which needed the wallpaper removed too.  

I have learnt a lot whilst doing this job and although it is always going to look like a patch repair I am very pleased with myself for giving it a try and saving a whole heap of money in the process!!

Hole in ceiling exposed after I investigated a sagging in the wallpaper - water had been dripping for years?  Original lath and plaster work over 150 years old an be seen.  I had to carefully remove sodden laths without bringing too much more down - leaving an actual hole which I forgot to photograph!

Then I had to make my own laths and secure in place onto the more solid ends of the original laths and beams of ceiling.  Tried to do this with hammer and pins but in end had to resort to electric nail gun!

Have learnt to mix my own plaster as needed very light weight and to build up layers forcing it between laths to hold.  Smoothed off with finishing plaster.

Have now sized the wall and ceiling ready to afix ceiling wallpaper as well as wall lining paper later today.  Am changing the colour of the wall so that won't be a problem as will paint entire wall once ready but somehow need to mix a small quantity of paint to correct colour to match ceiling!!

Last Thursday, I successfully completed the A to Z Challenge - a challenge that requires you to blog through the alphabet every single day of April except on Sundays.  It is also about visiting lots of new blogs about lots of different subjects and I can totally recommend this.  

Sometimes as teachers, I think we can get a bit too insular and only ever really visit blogs written by other teachers - mainly because we are always looking for things to improve the teaching in our own classrooms but if you do dare to go further then there really are some amazing blogs and bloggers out there who can fill your head with inspiration, wisdom and creativity.  So if you didn't have a go this year think about it for next - I guarantee you won't be disappointed!

Another resource I shared this week and wrote about the ideas that could be used with it was about camping!  If you'd like to take a look and be able to download this freebie please click on the picture below :)

and finally

this weekend is promising better weather so hubby and I will be out in our garden trying to wrestle it back under control and finishing off the scattering of grass seed in order to begin the process of growing back our side lawn - I will be just so happy when green shoots appear :)

Here's to everyone - hope you all have a lovely, restful and enjoyable weekend :)