CLASSROOM
•
Ladybird Contractions
Help your students learn the art of using contractions with this fun Ladybird Contractions activity. IT’S educational, THEY’LL love it, and YOU’LL save time resourcing. So DON’T wait any longer, hit download now! Contractions are commonly used in spoken language. We...
Combining Maths and Physical Activity
Physical activity should be an essential part of everyday life for all of us. Unfortunately, it often falls by the wayside in favour of work and family commitments. Activity is even more critical for children, and they are not always getting enough. They are often naturally full of energy, but they end up restricted to a classroom for extended periods. It’s hard to engage kids in learning when they are staring out the window and counting down the minutes to freedom.
Matching and Sorting
Sorting, classifying and matching are the basic skills required for maths development. These skills are the foundations for kindy and prep curriculum areas with which teachers will access each child to gain their understanding in these foundational mathematical principles.
Anxiety in Children
John Marsden’s recent comments victim-shaming children bullied at school have rightly provoked community outrage. Marsden – an award-winning children’s author and educator – has been a teacher for four decades and currently runs two schools, north of Melbourne; his words carry significant weight and connotations.
Strategies for Reading Confidence
STRATEGIES TO HELP CHILDREN GAIN READING CONFIDENCE
Word of the Day Vocabulary Activity
Word of the Day activities are great for building children’s vocabulary, which in turn helps develop their communication skills. This Word of the Day activity sheet is a great teaching resource for students and teachers. Students can enjoy investigating new and interesting words. While teachers can benefit from hassle-free preparation.
Cross Number Puzzles
These challenging cross number puzzles are a great way to keep your students entertained and they hold a whole load of hidden benefits too!
Seasons Word Search
Discover new vocabulary, learn to spell and have fun at the same time. This Seasons Word Search is a super resource if you’re teaching the topic of seasons or if you’re looking for a constructive way for your students to pass some time in class. Word search activities...
Number Facts Bingo
What better way to engage students than with a fun game! This Number Fact Bingo resource is guaranteed to excite learners and encourage them to use and recall their number knowledge. Are you familiar with groans and complaints the moment you mention a mental...
Similes – Methods to Support Descriptive Writing in the Classroom
A great teaching resource to help children develop their descriptive writing skills. The Similes activity sheet is a fun tool to teach similes and encourages children to think imaginatively.
Fun Scrabble Spelling
Spicing up your lesson plans with fun activities can make learning much more fun. A game is a great way to increase participation within a lesson and inside your classroom. Even though the learning processes may be the same, a worksheet presented to a student as a...
The DON’TS on Managing Classroom Behaviour
The one major thing that removes the joy from teaching is, without a doubt, dealing with badly behaved students.
Sign Language Spelling
Brighten up a spelling lesson with Sign-Language Spelling. Students can have fun learning how to communicate in sign-language whilst learning their weekly spelling words. The activity sheet displays clear visuals of how to sign each letter of the alphabet. There is also a space at the bottom of the page to write the spelling words.
How Does it Move?
This is the perfect resource to introduce verbs to young learners. This fun resource combines students’ natural interest in animals while learning all about verbs. Verbs are used to describe an action, a state, or an occurrence. And, when introducing verbs to young...
Daily Fun Fitness
Jump, hop, skip and march into action with this Daily Fun Fitness Activity. Designed to get your class moving by adding a little fitness to your school day. The Daily Fun Fitness Activity has been created to help you easily incorporate fitness into your daily class...
Times Table Bookmarks
Encourage a love of reading and develop your students’ mathematical skills at the same time with these colourful Times Table Bookmarks. They are easy to make, and we love their dual purpose! Every bookworm needs a snazzy bookmark and these DIY page markers have the...
All About Me
Christmas card templates featuring 3 festive designs. If you’re looking for an easy, no-fuss Christmas card activity for your students then these templates provide just that. To unwrap this yuletide treat, simply click download on the link below. This free festive...
Place Value Posters
A must-have for a Maths working wall. Print out these colourful Place Value Posters to help your students understand the concept of place value. The posters are a quick and handy reference for students to refer to while they study in class. Place value is one of the...
Times Table Posters 9-12 Times
Learning the times tables needn’t be dull with these colourful Times Table Posters. Print them out and pin them up to help your learners memorise these important number facts. Memorising number facts such as the times tables is an essential skill to learn in maths....
Times Table Posters 1-4 Times
Jazz up your learning space with these colourful Times Table Posters. They are guaranteed to brighten up a classroom or workstation and they are a super handy reference for learners too. As educators we know it’s important for learners to understand the concept of...
Inspirational Bookmarks
Do you love reading? Or maybe you want to encourage your students to read? Look at these beautifully designed, Inspirational Bookmarks. You can create your own DIY bookmarks that will help to inspire you and your students. These Inspirational Bookmarks can be used by...
Craft Ideas! Newspaper Piggy Bank
While you’re busy teaching your children the value of a dollar, sit down and create this simple Newspaper Piggy Bank with them!
Flexible Seating Options That Won’t Break The Bank
Flexible Seating is the new inclusive way to teach students in the classroom. Teachers are moving away from structured rows and boring school-provided group seating to create flexible space for students to learn.
Keyboard Spelling Activity
Keyboard Spelling combines learning spelling with developing important skills for modern-day writing. It is a fun spelling activity with cross-curricular links. Students will benefit in more ways than one and teachers will enjoy the hassle-free preparation.
Spelling List Spiral
Spelling List Spiral is a novel way for students to practise their weekly spelling. The teaching resource can be used in a variety of ways to suit students of different ages and with different interests. Below you will find a number of creative ideas for teachers that want to liven up a grey spelling lesson.
Reading Log Sheets
Reading logs are a great way as a teacher to see what books students have read for either home reading or inside your classroom reading program. Students can write their own name, book title and date on the reading log or for the little ones, they can have a parent assist after home reading time.
The Zones of Regulation
There are 9 posters in our Zone of Regulation poster pack that is inside the Lizard Learning Club PLUS Membership. Teachers can decide which ones they want to use in the classroom to suit their students for any given year.
FOOD ALLERGIES ARE THE NEW “STRANGER DANGER”
I am ashamed to admit that I was indeed one of “those” teachers, who was definitely aware of kids having food allergies, but I certainly wasn’t too concerned about the topic.
Strategies for Oppositional Kids
Our spirited kids are the ones you need us the most even though they test us the most.
The Importance of Learning 2D Shapes
From an early age, students are noticing and experimenting with different shapes. Exploring 2D shapes in the classroom builds upon mathematical knowledge.
I Can Learn at Home Checklist
Yesterday, my daughter Ava received her Learning At Home pack from her school. We live in Queensland and the current directive from Education Queensland means our schools are moving to online learning when the Easter holidays finish. This will be our new normal for 5 weeks at this stage.
Intergenerational Learning
They say it takes a village to raise a child. The charming, heart-warming ABC series Old People’s Home for Four Year Old’s proves this adage true.
Screen Time for Kids
Pressure on vulnerable children to navigate tricky technological waters has generated intense debate; some parents vehemently oppose all screen-time; others endorse screen-time to prepare children for a technological future. IPads and tablets in the classroom, teaching coding to primary children; these practices highlight implicit tension between encouraging technology for learning (and tech-based jobs of the future) and awareness of too much screen-time.
Resilience in Children
School is a valuable environment for children to learn resilience. We’ve touched on resilience previously, as a key skill that underpins how we move through the world; how we make sense of our place in it and our ability to affect positive, momentous change. As educators, we can sensitively explore adversity and building resilience in the classroom. Life is lived forwards and protecting our mental health depends on coping with inevitable change, loss and adversity; in short, resilience.
Home Economics in Queensland Schools
Education Queensland’s decision to cut home economics from the high school curriculum fails in the government’s duty to halt rising obesity in teenagers and promote healthy lifestyles.
Who Knew UNO Could Be So Much Fun!
Hours of fun was had in my family with UNO Cards. As I researched this worldwide phenomena, who knew that UNO could be used in so many varied ways; a tattoo on someone’s body I think takes the cake; oh and speaking of cakes, check those out too!
Teaching with a Disability
I was born with a disability called Spina Bifida and have used a wheelchair all my life. Disability has challenged my resolve; equally, it provides tremendous gifts and unique perspective on life.
That Last Nerve
Kids love to craft, and there is proven value to including craft in the learning process. But with so much to cover it can be a good idea to integrate other educational elements into craft time.
Appreciate your P & C Day
Kids love to craft, and there is proven value to including craft in the learning process. But with so much to cover it can be a good idea to integrate other educational elements into craft time.
Best Plants for Your Classroom
Kids love to craft, and there is proven value to including craft in the learning process. But with so much to cover it can be a good idea to integrate other educational elements into craft time.
Book List for Ten Year Olds
There are millions of books on the market for our little readers with a new children’s author popping up daily so it seems. To encourage and promote readers as leaders is rather easy in the early years, however as our kids get older, it’s harder to continue that love of reading and literature. This is why a list of books like these for tweens is a great start to continue the enjoyment and wonderment of reading for our older students.
Teacher Gift Goals – Supply Cakes
These are definitely TEACHER GIFT GOALS!
Doors
It’s the New Year for Aussie teachers where we are getting back into the swing of cutting, pasting and laminating again! I used to think laminating my sight word cards and A4 posters what a big job, until I look across the socials to see what teachers are doing now to engage, inspire and bring joy to their classroom and students.
Fidget Spinner Craze
The fidget spinner craze has died down which makes it an excellent time to take a step back and assess the place of fidget toys in your classroom. At the height of the craze, many teachers banned the spinners, and we can all admit they could be distracting, but for some students, there are genuine advantages to using a fidget in class.
Play-Doh Inspiration
We all have fond memories of playing with playdough as kids. If you gave me some now, I’d probably still have fun making things and even just squishing it between my fingers. Playdough allows your imagination to run free.
Poetry in the Classroom
Poetry is an excellent way to get students thinking about how different parts of a sentence can be used to create an effect. Poetry gives clear examples of how an adjective in the right place can make all the difference. More experimental poetry can also provide interesting models of the variety of ways words can be used and how meanings can change based on the construction of a sentence.
Teaching Children Gratitude
We have always known that it is important to thank the people in our lives when they help us. Nobody likes to deal with someone ungrateful, and it only takes a few moments.
Teaching Kids How to Ask Thoughtful Questions
Children are only in school for a limited amount of time, but they will never stop learning. So it’s most important we teach them how to learn. Reading and maths are pretty essential, but it is the desire to seek out knowledge and the skills to learn new things that will serve them best in the long run.
Positivity in the Classroom
Positivity is one of those slightly vague concepts that we all strive towards. Because of its ephemeral nature, it can be hard to take concrete steps towards bringing more positivity to your environment.
Bookstore Distributor List
Term 1 & 2 has been crazy for me! I can’t believe only a few short years ago I would have been writing report cards at this time of year. Instead I’m writing purchase orders and emails to distributors!
Addition Flower Facts
In this week’s blog, flowers provide a lovely layout for addition exercises, but flowers and math are much more closely intertwined than you might think. Math shows up all the time in nature most commonly in the form of Fibonacci sequences and the ‘golden ratio’.
Flexible Seating
Introducing alternative, or flexible, seating arrangements into the classroom is the latest in a long line of steps towards more student-focused learning. As with all things, the success of alternative seating depends on your students and your teaching style.
It’s or Its
The difference between its and it’s is easy to learn but can be hard to implement consistently. Even as an adult you sometimes have to pause and remind yourself that it’s is a contraction of it is and there is no possessive apostrophe in its (even if it feels like there should be).
Literacy Games
Sometimes you have some extra time during the school day. It’s not quite enough time to start a new exercise or lesson, but you need to do something to fill the time. Here are some games to play with your kids that are still educational and will help reinforce their literacy skills. These games are easy and involve minimal prep.
Leadership Word Find Activity
Leadership is a fascinating topic to discuss with children as they are still forming their ideas about what it means to be a good person and by extension a good leader. Children are often very concrete thinkers.
Spotlight on Homeschool
Home-schooling your kids is not an endeavour to be taken lightly. It is a time and resource intensive process that can get overwhelming at times. Educating children outside of the structure and support of a school environment allows for more flexibility but also requires strict organisation.
Paper Chain Countdown
Teachers and students together make a paper chain for the last 2 weeks of school (or whatever time frame you wish to count down). Each student could decorate and create the activity then loop it together and make the chain.
Preparing for a New Term
Whether it’s your first term teaching or you’ve been doing it for years, preparing for the new term can seem daunting. It is easy to get overwhelmed when there are so many things to organise before term starts.
How to Integrate Art Across the Curriculum (Part Two)
Cross-curriculum integration is crucial. Arts integration especially can provide an excellent way to discover how your students learn and foster their overall creativity. Increased creativity can lead to improvements in areas such as critical thinking, problem-solving, curiosity, and the willingness to try new things.
How to Integrate Art Across the Curriculum (Part One)
Arts integration especially can provide an excellent way to discover how your students learn and foster their overall creativity. Increased creativity can lead to improvements in areas such as critical thinking, problem-solving, curiosity, and the willingness to try new things.
TED Talks to Inspire You Through Mid-Term
Rita Pierson comes from a family of teachers and has been a teacher herself for 40 years. Her remarkable TED talk is a reminder of the importance of human connection and relationships in the teaching environment. Kids don’t learn from people they don’t like, and while you may not like them all, it’s important to build connections with all children in the classroom.
Prep Superstar
My daughter started her first year at prep on Monday and with that came so many emotions. These emotions are the same as the first day of the new school year for teachers.
Teacher Tip: Teaching Students How to Write the Number 5
Teaching is all about your presence, and how you can CONNECT with a child. This is one aspect of teaching I love because I see the person I need to be to reach each child in the classroom.
Classroom Theme Ideas
Researching and virtually scanning the classrooms of the globe brings me so much joy, not only because I am offering value to you my audience and followers, but because I love to see the passion teachers bring into their classrooms. Some of these classroom themes are out-of-this-world!!
Compound Words
Building up your vocabulary is an important part of any kind of education. The deeper your understanding of words and how they work the easier it is for you to learn…
Robot Symmetry
Symmetry is all around us. It is so common that sometimes we don’t even notice it. But the human brain is a pattern recognising machine. It tries to find patterns in everything. Teaching it how to…
Area
When it comes to teaching units of measurement there are plenty of hands-on opportunities to get students more enthusiastic about maths. It is always easier to teach things with…
Fun With Words
Our ‘Fun with Words’ freebie will challenge students and help them learn to think critically and use words complexly. Some of the word puzzles can be a bit tricky, so it could also be a great opportunity for…
Rainbow Facts
Everyone loves rainbows. So what better way to get your kids engaged with learning than to provide an activity that allows them to express their colourful imagination…
Using Prepositions
Some of us struggle with prepositions even at the best of times, and it gets a thousand times more difficult when you’re first learning what prepositions are. But as with everything…
Kicking off stress and the need to be perfect!!
BLOG Kicking off stress and the need to be perfect!! You never know where life might take you, but your kids are counting on you and watching what resilience looks like. So the Lizard Learning team and I have put together some tips that might help productively deal...
Classroom Ideas to encourage kids to read
As we come to the end of Book Week it’s important that we continue to create fun, easy and engaging ways for our kids to read. This is the perfect time to make sure you have strategies in place to make this possible within your classroom. We have put together…
Adding and Multiplying
Even with fun pictures, kids can struggle to master the fundamentals of maths. Just when they’ve got a handle on addition, they learn that there’s another type of maths that is similar to addition but also completely different: the dreaded Multiplication. Even as adults we sometimes…
Blocked Towers
Kids can be pretty concrete thinkers so it can be tricky to introduce them to more abstract ideas like the ones that turn up in maths. Activities that incorporate simple visual representations of mathematic concepts are an excellent way to…
Colour Crazy Animals
What better way is there to increase reading comprehension than to incorporate it into a fun colouring exercise? This fun sheet is filled with simple sentences explaining the colour each animal should be. The colours are…
Fact Family Robots
Fact families are an excellent way to get kids thinking about the way that numbers relate to each other. Addition and subtraction fact families are an extremely important step towards being able to factorise numbers using multiplication and division. Fact families are also a great way to…
Matchstick Puzzle
These matchstick puzzles are a fun way to reinforce Roman numerals while challenging students’ problem solving skills. To make things easier for more tactile students you can do the exercise with actual matchsticks. This is also an easy way to…
There, Their and They’re
The English language can be so confusing. All of the spelling rules have exceptions. Some old rules, like “i before e except after c” had to be thrown out because there were too many exceptions. Even good rules like…
Subtracting Ten
Learning to add and subtract by tens is an important skill to learn. Not only does it simplify mathematical equations, but our system of measurement (the metric system) is based around tens. Mastering the role of the number ten in maths is an…
To, Too and Two
The differences between to, two, and too can be difficult to master. Some adults still get them wrong at times. To and too can be especially tricky. It could be a fun class activity to try and come up with easy ways to remember which…
Word Endings
Word Endings! It looks simple right? Let me show you how I make a lower grade activity into one for the 10 and 11-year-olds.
24 Different Ways to Use a Star Theme
We here at Lizard Learning love connecting with teachers on social media. Recently, while exploring the wilderness of Instagram, we discovered this delightful ‘Welcome Back Star Wand’ project. What a stellar way to welcome back students and get them excited about the new term.
Tips and Activities For All Those Completed Colouring Sheets
I would make my kids glue in every loose sheet in a scrapbook … I would even go and purchase 28 scrapbooks myself so each child would have a ‘finished sheets folder’ to glue their work into. I was one of those neat freak teachers that wanted students to have their desks, their areas, and their books presented neatly and tidy. All. The. Time!!
Benefits of Colouring In
Teachers, especially relief teachers, are looked down on for colouring in with kids. We are seen as lazy and unprepared. We just throw out a colouring in sheet because we couldn’t be bothered to think of something else. Most of us know that this is not the truth, so let’s debunk this annoyingly persistent myth.
Overtime for Teachers. We’d be Rich!
My goodness teachers rock out great events. They place SO much work into making sure every detail is perfect. I just need to say my hat goes off to any teacher who is or has prepared for any kind of large scale event such as…
Activity Ideas for School Events
BLOG ACTIVITY IDEAS FOR SCHOOL EVENTS Ava is off to big school next year and with this comes invitations to visit the local schools around us. We live on the north side of Brisbane in sunny Queensland where there are so many choices to make, both public and private....
Ensure the consistent and constant delivery of classroom content
We hear the stories all the time that Naplan is stressful and an anxious time. It certainly was for me as a Year 3 teacher until I changed my mindset and started to become creative in how I prepared my kids.
Top Tips for Naplan – Keep it calm and chilled!
It’s very important that you as the classroom teacher always demonstrate a chilled and relaxed approach to testing and during the three days of Naplan testing. It is our attitude that our students are ALWAYS watching.
Every kid needs a champion
Rita Pierson, a teacher for 40 years, once heard a colleague say, “They don’t pay me to like the kids.” Her response: “Kids don’t learn from people they don’t like.'” A rousing call to educators to believe in their students and actually connect with them on a real, human, personal level.
NSW Curriculum Change
BLOG • NSW Curriculum Change This week’s announced changes to the NSW state education curriculum are a welcome change. Schooling has always been about preparing children for their future, and giving Years 11 and 12 a renewed focus on fundamental skills such as...
Define Homework!
My personal opinion on all this as a teacher, a student who struggled at school, a parent to Ava who is about to embark on the world of homework from ‘the other side of the fence’ and as an author and business owner helping kids across the globe increase their confidence and self-esteem in learning, is this from several perspectives:
Uncertainty
BLOG • Uncertainty LOOKING FORWARD AND FACING THE UNKNOWN With another year gone by the wayside, January is the month to look to the year ahead. Resolutions are made and we attempt to plan our path through another twelve months. I say attempt because life isn’t a...
Take a Break
All of us here at Lizard Learning wish you all a Merry Christmas and, most importantly for the teachers, happy holidays.
Queensland Education Resources Expo RNA Showgrounds
Lizard Learning set up at the Queensland Education Resources Expo in July 2013 at the RNA Showgrounds to educate and allow the public access to all of our great resources.
Great Teachers Reevaluate
Have you ever sat up all night planning this amazing lesson where you thought the kids are going to love this?!?! Instead, you find the lesson, content, or activity you placed your heart, soul and weekend into, was…
Recent Comments