LIZARD LEARNING
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Congratulations – Home Learning Awards
WE DID IT!! What a time of learning new skills and adapting to new ways. It was nothing short of incredible to watch teachers shift their classroom learning to online in what seemed like an overnight process.
Anzac Day Red Poppies Craft
Australians and New Zealanders have quite a few symbols to represent ANZAC Day and are used to commemorate this time in history. The red poppy, which was one of the first flowers to bloom in the French and Belgian battlefields after World War I, is often correlated...
Anzac Day Colouring In Page
Our ANZAC Day colouring page shows a representation of the main symbols to commemorate Anzac Day. Students can colour the page and place it up in the name of the symbol and write their own description. You can download this activity from the Members section. If you...
Anzac Day The Ode
In most ceremonies of remembrance there is a reading of an appropriate poem. One traditional recitation on Anzac Day is The Ode. It is traditionally part of the ANZAC and Remembrance Day services. The Ode comes from ‘For the Fallen’, a poem by the English poet and...
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.
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.
Lizard Learning Loves Community Events!
BLOG Lizard Learning Loves Community Events! This year marked the 10th year anniversary of the annual Easter Egg Hunt held at Teralba Park in Everton Park on Sunday the 14th of April. Organised by Madeleine Hicks Real Estate, this famous Easter celebration brought...
Colouring for Adults
It’s never too late to start integrating mindfulness into your everyday routine. It’s a great way to reduce stress and anxiety and enjoy your life more by staying present in the moment. One of the most popular ways to practice mindfulness over the last few years has been colouring in.
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.
Craft Ideas! Newspaper Piggy Bank
Learning how to write a simple story is an essential skill that children will use throughout their school years. Story writing is one of the most common ways that we teach children to stretch their imagination.
How to Write a Simple Narrative
Learning how to write a simple story is an essential skill that children will use throughout their school years. Story writing is one of the most common ways that we teach children to stretch their imagination.
Educational Craft Activities
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.
Building Self-Esteem and Confidence Through Rock Painting
Painted rocks are such a great activity for children to do. Building confidence and self-esteem through fun activities is a great way to encourage positive mindsets.
Cooking with Kids
Kids don’t always want to learn over the holidays, but cooking is an excellent way to combine education and fun. Plus the end result is food, so everybody wins!
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.
Irregular and Past Tense Verbs
Providing your students with lists of past and present tense forms and asking them to match them up is helpful. If that seems a bit boring, you can use cards and variations of the game ‘Memory’ where the past and present tense of a word make a pair.
Report Cards and Looking Ahead to Term 3
{TEACHERS & PARENTS} Report cards are out soon! If there are gaps in learning TERM 3 is the time to jump on these areas so no child is left behind. We have the perfect program to help any child who needs a little boost in their learning – 10 Quick Questions a Day.
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
A few of our recent blogs have focussed on ways to improve student engagement by concentrating on the learning environment. This week’s blog will be about bringing positivity into the classroom. Positivity is one of those slightly vague concepts that we all strive towards.
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!
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.
Lose or Loose
Remembering whether to use lose or loose is something I still sometimes have problems with. The spelling doesn’t quite match with the pronunciation so even as an adult it sometimes takes a moment to remember which is which. I find the easiest way to consistently pick the right one is to find a phrase that helps you remember.
History of Education in Queensland
While we have always taught history in school; we don’t often explain the history of school itself. Examining the rocky road that Queensland schools took to get where they are today really makes you appreciate the educators of the past. It also makes me look to the future with excitement to see what comes next.
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.
3D Shapes
3D shapes are best experienced in three dimensions. This is especially true for younger children who struggle to relate 2D drawings to the 3D objects they represent. To make learning about 3D shapes a bit more fun, we’ve found some fun 3D shape craft activities for you to share with your kids.
Field Trips
Hands-on learning is one of the most effective ways to keep children engaged in the learning process. This is true for children of all ages but is especially relevant for young children. This is why excursions are an excellent way to enrich the learning experience.
Growth Mindset Activities
The term ‘growth mindset’ has been a buzzword for a while now. Despite its status as the latest ‘in’ thing, it can actually be a beneficial technique for helping children learn. The main idea of developing a growth mindset is focusing on the way a challenge is approached. It is about learning new skills and not letting failure stop you from trying.
Spotlight on Homeschool
Homeschooling 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Easter Ideas
It can be challenging to keep kids entertained over the holidays, especially if you want to keep them engaged in the learning process rather than banishing them to the backyard or the rumpus room to entertain themselves.
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.
Easter Bookmarks
Easter is here but you can only fill those mouths and tummies with so much chocolate. All children love bookmarks so why not incorporate the love of reading with a fun and easy to make Easter themed bookmark!
Brand Ambassador Contest
Have a passion for primary education and/or homeschooling? Enjoy Social Media? We’re looking for you! Lizard Learning is proud to present our first Ambassador Contest. View our Ambassador Benefits page to learn about all the perks!
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!!
Tally the Shapes
In the age of technology the idea that we sometimes need to make counting easier or faster seems a bit old fashioned. Tallies are extremely usefully for recoding ongoing…
Instead of ‘very’
Even the best writers are always trying to improve their writing. There’s a whole industry of different types of editors who help people to craft the best possible version of their idea. Unfortunately most of us…
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...
Inspirational Video for Teachers
BLOG Inspirational Video for Teachers 'A teacher shakes loose dreams!' I 💚 these words used in this video. A lovely tribute to the work of teachers!
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…
Because and So
BECAUSE AND SO Compound sentences can be tricky. Even trickier than making sure all parts go together properly, is choosing the correct conjunction to join them. There are so many different types of conjunctions that sometimes it can be hard to decide which one…
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…
Humble beginnings to reach
BLOG Humble Beginnings To Reaching A Big Goal! Lizard Learning started from humble beginnings to officially (as of last week) EDSCO becoming a distributor of our resources!! If you don't know EDSCO, it is THE leading educational supply bookstore in Australia, a...
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…
Sydney Teacher Meet-Up
Sydney teachers held their Sydney Teacher Meet-Up at The Gatehouse High Tea Rooms on Saturday 27 May 2017 and from what I hear and the feedback, everyone had a fabulous time. We were absolutely honoured to send down personalised gift bags to share with such hardworking, dedicated and passionate teachers.
Report Card Writing
I am hearing that teachers are becoming a little overwhelmed with the workload of reports plus the additional responsibilities upon you these next few weeks. I received an email from a Sydney teacher this week who told me she has report cards to write, a grandparents’ day to organise and an art show to present showcasing her students’ work (and her art program) in these coming weeks.
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....
Introducing the Lizard Learning Club PLUS Membership
We are super excited to announce the launch of a new opportunity to save you hours in preparing lessons, reduce the overwhelm you may experience as a teacher, guidance in your teaching and the most flexible delivery of content.
How to Improve Spelling for Kids
Worried about basic English language skills of Punctuation and Spelling?
Concerned that these important skills need a worthwhile kick start?
Lizard Learning Featured In The Gold Coast Bulletin
My TOP TIPS for Naplan, along with a published article about Lizard Learning and our educational, engaging and fun teaching resources were a feature article in their education section!!
Lizard Learning As Seen On The Today Show
Why Lizard Learning is the solution for the busy teacher, parent, homeschooler or carer to engage, inspire and motivate their kids in literacy and numeracy! The full interview below with Karl and Lisa on The Today Show.
Dealing with the Emotional Toll of Naplan
Naplan is a stressful time for everyone involved. We spend so much time drilling facts and formulae into our children to prepare them for the exam that sometimes we forget about the emotional side of the equation. Today’s blog delves into a couple of methods for helping children through the upcoming days, and seeing them come out the other side no worse for wear.
It’s Naplan Week!
Teachers! NAPLAN has arrived and this weekend is the last weekend before the three official days of testing begin. I really only have a few words to say across the board to teachers, parents and students – ‘keep perspective’ – this is only one test in time and one form of assessment!
Understanding is the Key to Naplan
Naplan is a test designed to gauge students’ understanding of school curriculum content. The key word here is understanding. Naplan is not a test that requires students to…
Provide Exposure to Practice Tests
3 Top Tips as to why encouraging and using Naplan practice tests are necessary…
Naplan readiness begins in all year levels
With Naplan just around the corner, everyone is looking for hints and tips on how to get ready. The stress on the children and teachers is building to a fever pitch and people are looking for a quick-fix…
Crashed Site
BLOG • Crashed Site Yesterday was absolutely crazy. Never in my wildest dreams did I expect the last minute response, from this wonderful community we have here at Lizard Learning, who are just trying to find the best ways to help their kids. This is all any of us are...
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.
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...
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...
Lizard Learning Lounge
LIZARD LEARNING LOUNGE • We love to offer heaps of value to our community here at Lizard Learning. This is why Mark, one of our tutors, has created free teaching videos for you to use in your classroom. Just another timesaving tool for teachers. See below a sample of...
2017 Placemat Resource
BLOG • 2017 Placemat Resource The story behind this resource started in my second year of teaching when I learned my lesson that I needed an activity for children to do on their first day back at school. I wasn't prepared for this the previous year. My first few hours...
Lessons From My Mum
BLOG • Lessons From My Mum My beautiful mum passed away on Sunday 8th January ❤️ I hope sharing this very personal sadness may help you in some way when things aren't exactly going to plan today or in the future for you.Firstly, I must thank everyone who contacted us...
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