I haven't yet set foot in my new classroom and here I am back to planning on a Sunday night! I have planned my first day and I am now looking for relevant resources in various bags, boxes and of course on just-teaching. My printer doesn't know what has hit it, after a year gathering dust in the cupboard it is now printing all the flashcards and word lists I think I might need on my first day. Tonight I made a new set of phonics flashcards (in school we use Jolly Phonics) and I have uploaded them to J-T tonight...you can download the free cards in the language section. I have made the long and short vowels red as I plan to revise vowels as part of my first language lesson this week.

Jolly Phonics Resource CD

I ordered new resources from amazon and they arrived today, although Ross can't understand why on earth I need more resources as he thinks my teaching stuff takes up far too much room in the house. Anyway, one of the items I ordered is a Phonics resource CD and although I have only had a quick look I can see it will be a very useful resource. I wish I had this CD when I first taught a Primary One class as it would have saved me time when making and researching worksheets & teaching aids.

On the CD you will find the following items:

* Dictation sentences

* Inky, Bee and Snake colour clipart

* B&W sound images

* Letter formations using sassoon font

* Sassoon letters

* Awards and Stickers

* Tricky Words

and much more, I will now have to find time to look through all the folders on the CD. I meet my new class next week and plan to assess their knowledge of phonics through games and activities, I hope to use ideas from this CD. If anyone has any great ideas for activities on the first day... all ideas will be gratefully received....please post here or email.

Kerry

x

It has been such a hectic week for us! Ross has been working towards the change of his business, along with a busy last month producing the last photo gifts and canvases he has also launched the new website - http://digitaldesignscotland.co.uk

If you visit the site you will find out what his plans for DDS are and how he plans to take things forward. It was great to read all the feedback he received from existing clients, to hear how happy they were with the quality of the products and many said they were sad to see this side of the business close down.

Along with this we are still decorating, as usual these things take longer than planned. I have been into school to discuss dates for my return to teaching, I still have 2 months of maternity leave left and plan to enjoy every last moment. It may appear as though just-teaching has taken a backseat however I have been working on the next newsletter and I am also organising all the resources I plan to upload in the next few weeks. It would be a big help to me to get my files organised online before I return to teaching then I can access them from my classroom.

Things are very hectic here at the moment, my 8 month old son has been on the move for the last few months, he is getting faster everyday and has endless energy....on the otherhand I am exhausted chasing him round the house. Ross is busy making changes to his business DDS and we are also in the process of redecorating!! I am trying my best to keep up with Just-Teaching, I have hundreds of resources sitting waiting for upload and fantastic links to add to the site so watch this space....I hope to get things online soon.

I was sent the following link - "100 Best YouTube Videos for Teachers"  - I hope it will be helpful. I will admit I haven't had time to go through all the video clips so let me know if there are any worth seeing!

Links for free science resources - forces, energy, enzymes and more at teachable.net. It is also worth having a look at their freebies page.

Today I have manged to upload a 'ch sh th' free resource in the language section -

Kerry 

New today - ai ee ie oa ue - free flashcards

The links page has been updated, I found some great websites for CfE and my favourite by far is listed at the top of languages on my weblinks page:

http://www.just-teaching.com/category/web-links/languages

I really hope the links page can become a free and useful resource, thank you to visitors who have suggested a link and please email kerry@just-teaching.com if you have a relevant website. From researching this page I have found many great resources to use when I return to teaching later this year.

Today I have uploaded a resource for ORT stage 1, this file could be used for playing snap or pairs.

Stage 7 keywords are now online...stage 8 coming soon!

UPDATE - Stage 8 words are also online :)  

Also added today, the family names from Oxford Reading Tree (Stage 1) - a great resource for classroom display!

I am in the process of adding the 'keywords' from Oxford Reading Tree to our free language download section. Tonight I hope to upload stage 1 - 6 and will upload stages 7 - 8 very soon.

More information on this reading scheme and some great free resources for teachers can be found here

Thanks again for all your kind comments and feedback, from looking at our registrations and visitor information I can see that many of you are preparing for the new term! My colleagues return to school tomorrow and I wish them all well for the new term.

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   UPDATE - Stage 1 - 6 keywords are now online...you can find them in the free language section :)