Magic Hat Pattern Matching Freebie

Thought I would share part of another resource I am working on for some of the children to help with their understanding of and being able to replicate repeating patterns.  I thought I would give it a bit of a Halloween twist to make it a slightly different.

Please click on the button below to be able to download the pdf.  The first page is made up of the patterns the children need to continue and the second page is where I have put the hat cards that can be cut out and given to the child for them to put into the blank squares.  You could put velcro on the blank squares or make into a folder if you so wish.  For children who like to draw they could draw and colour the next hats in the blank boxes if you so wished.

This type of work helps with colour recognition and as we do not use black so much in the classroom I thought this would be a good opportunity for the children to have manipulatives that are this colour!

I am calling them magic hats as one of the children I work with has parents who do not like Halloween to be "celebrated" and this is a way they can be included without the "H" word.

If you would like some more pattern cards or have any suggestions to make this even better let me know and I can either email you the improvements or will include them in a later post.

50 TpT Followers Freebie

I know I've said it before but it does bring a warm glow when someone chooses to follow you.  It means they value what you do and they want to see more of you in the future so that is why I have decided to create and distribute another freebie to celebrate gaining 50 followers on the Teachers Pay Teachers website.  As it is pumpkin clip art it also ties in with the clip art Halloween celebration going on over at Graphics From the Pond that I blogged about yesterday.

However, you also know how technology thwarts me at every turn if it can - even though I try my very best to embrace it in my work and today was no different as when I tried to upload a thumbnail image on to the TpT website it came back with the comment that the file was too large - say what???

How could I change my file size I asked myself and tried various saving picture from a word document, then to paint and back again, powerpoint and nothing worked it remained as 220k and not the 200k or less I needed to upload successfully.  I then googled the question which came up with I needed my snipping tool - where the heck is that I asked next!?!  It seemed to suggest I would find it if I put a search in on my start button - alright let's do that - O.K. now what's happened???  I seem to have been flung out into cyberspace on a loop back to where I began!!  OK after trying again without pressing return my computer sat there ...   ...   ... but finally came back with a snipping tool in a little move-able box which I shifted rapidly to the top left of my screen.  Now I realised I was dealing with something similar to my Smartboard phototool so took a snip of the picture and turned it into a PNG file and tried uploading and still too big - looked at the file and saw that it now weighed in at 310k!!! I was heading to melt down at this point when after reading another helpful post I changed the size of my picture in my word document so that it was really little and took another snip of it - this time it worked- yippee which is why I can offer you this Pumpkin Porch clip art freebie whilst I still have some hair left on my head!!

Let me know what you think and if anyone else is struggling with making their picture files smaller I hope this helped!

Pumpkin Patch

I love clip art and the artists who create it - particularly those that will share their talents freely so when I heard that Graphics from the Pond was holding an October celebration of clip art I knew I would like to grab me some freebies.  You can too by clicking on the button below.

I also thought that the old adage share and share alike rang true so I have decided to create and share some original clip art as well.  I know when working with children that they like variety and are not too critical of someone's drawing skills so I hope that holds true for the rest of you!!

Click to go to my TpT store to pick up your free clipart.  I'd love some feedback as I am really nervous it might not work correctly.  Please remember this is the first time I have tried posting clipart as a product on TpT and I might have done things wrong :(

October Currently

With everything else that has been happening at the beginning of October I almost forgot to get over to Farley for her monthly Currently linky party - press the button below to go over and join in the fun.

So here's what mine looks like - all the wonderful spooky fonts I used are from the Halloween collection by Cara over at her Creative Playground (carascreativeplayground.blogspot.com):

I woke up so early this morning and just couldn't get back to sleep so I went into our front room to do some work and that did let me hear the owls hooting from the trees at the front which I haven't heard in some months.

I have been loving that it has still been sunny and warm over the past four days despite the forecast being that October would bring about change but I know it will be changing soon so make the best of it I say :)

I am thinking I need to get fitter and lose some weight and I know that chocolate and I do not have a good relationship (I do think I am addicted - I just cannot eat one piece - never have been able to never will!!) so I am banning chocolate completely from my life (going cold turkey) - let's hope I can hold out!!

I really do want to sort out a whole lot of craft materials and school stuff up in the attic - would be useful for the craft activities I might want to plan and I really do think that some of the teaching material I have kept for the past 15 years are now obsolete.  With cooler weather approaching this would be the time so it doesn't feel like I'm up in a sauna.

This month, I need to get some of the products I have half done completely finished and posted on to TpT as I could so do with a bit of extra money on the run up to Christmas this year.  I am also thinking it is coming up to a year of having joined as a seller so I should be doing something to celebrate!

My final thing here is a TREAT for you with once again a big shout out to Granny Goes to School for all of the wonderful clipart.  grannygoestoschool.blogspot.com

Click on the button below to download

This simple Halloween gameboard that can be adapted for any use you want - at the moment I am using it with children who are learning to count spots on a dice and then move that correct number of spaces - if they land on a spooky picture they get a small treat - and I am also using it as a practising blends board with another group - every time they land on a picture they turn over the card and try to say the blend - if they do get it right they get an activity card (stand on one leg/pat your head three times/spin around twice etc) as their prize.

If you would like a copy of the gamecard backs press on the picture below to download (the space on the card is to write what category the card belongs too e.g. blends/activity/times-tables/speech & language target - this helps ensure you don't muddle up cards accidentally.

You get nine to a page

I'm off now to follow Farley's rules and leave meaningful comments on peoples' blogs. 

 I'd love a comment from you if you visit my page - many thanks :-)

Friday Five Autumn & Halloween Freebie

It's the first Friday of October so I'm joining up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for her:

and also joining in with 

I made these little apple counters to fit in with our autumnal theme for this month heading towards Halloween celebrations.  A big thank you to Granny Goes to School for her lovely apple graphics and to Carrie for the use of her Dnealian font

grannygoestoschool.blogspot.com

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Handwriting-Font-DNealian-by-Carrie-FREEBIE-269324

I seem to have seen lots of harvest celebrations going on all over the place with donations heading towards the old people's centre and the local homeless centre - both very deserving causes. This led to me clearing out cupboards looking for donations and of course finding those old tins and packets that are out of date including one that has managed to stay hidden since 2005!!!  Honestly, most of the children I teach are younger than this tin of pineapple!!  Needless to say they all went in the rubbish bin immediately (in mitigation I have in the past used out of date packets and tins for shop work in school so that might have been why there were so many!!)  As there was also homemade produce on sale to raise donations for said causes, I picked up some spiced apple chutney for my hubby as he enjoys this with a big hunk of English mature cheddar.

My work in the garden has been mainly sweeping the leaves off the front drive this week.  I tried raking them from the front lawn but have decided a going over with the lawnmower would probably remove more (it might be the last cut of the season!)  However, I did pick up 4 winter polyanthus in various colours for only 99p which have gone in for some brightening up one of my borders.

Granny Goes to School is also responsible for inspiring me to create this week's freebie - which I think will link well to Halloween through its monster theme - a little emergent reader strip book (easy to print, cut out and make in larger quantities if necessary).  Mine will be going home with some of the children who very rarely get to take books home because they never return but this is cheap enough to give them a book and who cares if it doesn't come back they will have the opportunity to read at home or even better to a younger sibling (I have found in the past that if children expose their younger siblings to these books those siblings are much better at reading by the time they come to school!)  These will be used when we look at Not Now Bernard (a favourite book of mine) by David McKee.

The little book contains both statement sentences as well as questions for comprehension requiring a simpe yes or no answer which make them perfect as an introduction to comprehension exercises.

If you would like a copy head over to my TpT store for US English version:
http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Color-Monsters-Emergent-Reader-Halloween-Freebie-1479738

or for the English spelling version
http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/The-Colour-Monsters-Elementary-Reading-Book-1479722

Please remember to leave feedback so I can improve the quality of my products and it helps me create even more freebies to share with you!!

Please check out Granny Goes to School blog as she has so many other great clipart products and freebies which I am sure will inspire you.

And on a slightly sad note for me - this will be the last weekend we spend as a family for a long time as No.1 son heads back to Uni for the autumn term and DD gets ready to fly overseas for the next 8 months!!  My children are like the swallows flying south!  I do not really know how I will feel when it's only hubby and me - a brand new chapter in our lives - I hope it will be a good one :-)

Have a great weekend everyone.

Throwback Thursday 100 Books

I am once more linking up with The Teacher's Desk 6

to share a post from last month where I set up a Read 100 Books challenge.  I have already realised the enormity of the task and have stated that reading children's books can count as well - but the challenge is to give oneself permission to read and often I find it really difficult to make that time for me.

I used to love reading as a child - you could always find me snuggled up somewhere with a book if the weather was cold or up in a tree or in a deck lounger if the weather was warm - I would go twice a week to the library and when I was old enough I volunteered during my summer holidays there just to have more access time to the vast variety of books.  It was also at this time that my librarian gave me a set of bookmarks with lists of books on - each had a different genre - which I endeavoured to get through - these really expanded my knowledge of authors and life in general and promoted my reading of classics - I read Tolstoy and learnt about suffering, I fell in love with Zola and learnt about passion, I read Dickens and learnt about character and a whole lot more.  At school and even now many people comment on my large general knowledge and this is due to the amount of books I read in my early formative years as well as the amazing Look and Learn magazines from the 1960s passed down to me by my uncle (did anyone else get their hands on these?)

However, if you do want to join in the challenge then just hit the button below to go to my Throwback post that will tell you all about it - and happy reading :-)

Wordless Wednesday Cat Puzzle

And After

Cats Sleep Anywhere

or is it

You don't want to look at them - you've got me?

For more Wordless Wednesday themes and fun photos come over and browse at Miss DeCarbo's: