Mental Maths Grids

I cannot take any credit for this idea, both the idea and grid came from my new year 4 collegue.

I intend to have these mental maths grids out on the desks at the beginning of a maths lesson. I will give the children the name of a column and an instruction; for example, column A multiplied by 2 or column G subtract 50.

Eventually I will give the children two or three instructions to choose from so they can pick a suitable challenge.

Olympic Volleyball

 On Monday 6th August Dad and I went to watch men's volleyball at Earls Court. Although team GB didn't do particularly well (it seems volleyball is not our strong point), it was a great day out and amazing to see the team spirit.

Rather than recycle my ticket, I up-cycled it. 

We won this point!

Portsmouth Trip

We had a brilliant time in Portsmouth. It was just so good to get a away; even though it was only one night and only 1.5 hours from home, it felt like a proper holiday.

Whilst we were there, we had every intention of doing all the grown up things like going to the historic dockyards and museums. What we actually did was spent 2 days at the beach!

We stayed in a really lovely hotel/guest house called The Clarence Hotel. We chose to stay here because it was rated number one on trip advisor and, yes, it did deserve it! 

For dinner we went to a Turkish restaurant called Nemrut, a tiny little place in the middle of a rather run down, dodgy looking street that I would looked at purely to say, "I'm not eating there!" Well, I am very glad we did eat there! It was delicious. Found, once again, on Trip Advisor. 

Mini golf, beach and 2p machines.

Picnic on the beach

Random Bits

Mini golf, beach and punch-a-duck

Fisherman

Big Balloon

Lamp Post

Geocaching

Today Mark and I went to Windsor Great Park with Mum, Dad and Bertie, the miniature schnauzer. Whilst there we remembered the modern day treasure hunting "sport" of geocaching.

Using the wonders of modern technology, whilst in the middle of a field, I downloaded the app (the free one, c:geo) on Marks phone and off we went. With more forethought and forward planning we could have followed the route someone has set but still had fun finding the nearest 3.

A minibreak!

Off to Portsmouth for the night. Picnic, hotel breakfast, sightseeing, pier arcade, meal out (not necessarily in that order) - can't wait!

Disappointed.Com

Today is the first day Mark has off work with me and so we thought we would kick it off with a nice lunch out, taking advantage of the set lunch menus many places put on during the week.

We went to The Windmill in Windlesham and was so disappointed with the experience I felt compelled to write a Trip Advisor review. Now I am even more annoyed because it has turned me into one of those people... "the window was too far to the left... the door opened outwards instead of inwards... the carpet was too green..."

"Having been here before and seeing a good value set menu on their website, we travelled the 10 or so miles to the Windmill. After waiting too long to be seated in the near empty restaurant we sat down and asked to see the set menu... which apparently no longer exists, the website just hasn't been updated. Having got there we decided to stay anyway. 

Staff were friendly enough and service was OK. 

There was a filthy glass on the table with red wine splashes all down the side but we weren't having wine so left it.

The food was OK but not up to standard for the money paid. For £12 I expect an outstanding burger, not one that is too salty (though that could be my taste) with a burnt bun and undercooked chips.

All in all, will not be returning to The Windmill."

If only I had checked Trip Advisor first.

Archie

Whilst Mark watches the olympics, Archie has had to endure being my model whilst he tries to eat his bone in peace. He did try turning round and sticking his bum in my face every time I sat with him but my persistence paid off and he eventually stayed put.

Unfortunately they are only phone pictures as, due to the great British summer, it is too dark to use my camera without the flash.

Now, where's Otis...?

Archie

Found him!

Otis

Classroom Monitors

Part of being more organised, for me, is to keep things tidier. The way I have always tried, but failed, to do this is to get the children to do most of the work!

This year I am going to use a classroom monitor chart, and stick to it. I will change most of the monitors weekly but the ones which will need training I will keeps for probably a term; for example, the art and PE monitors.

Now I have been teaching for longer, I have a better idea of which jobs are most helpful. The only one I couldn't fit on the chart is a tray monitor to make sure felt tips don't end up in the line guide tray etc.

One year I had name labels for all the children and moved them around but I found this very time consuming and so the system fell by the wayside. This time, I have left a gap at the bottom so, after it is laminated, I can just write their initials in a white board pen. 

You can download the chart here.

Visual Timetable

Colourful Visual Timetable

Plain Background Version

Download Colourful Version Here
Download Plain Background Version Here

Drawers

Today I made my last trip into school until the final week of the holidays. Due to some minor flat pack issues, I was not as productive as I would have hoped.

Screwdriver in hand, I was very excited to get started on my flat pack set of drawers from IKEA. I got to work on the main frame which went well and I thought, with a certain smugness, how quickly I would get them set up. Little did I know the problems I would face in only moments to come...

The damn drawers! I spent ages trying to get the stupid things together; once I had got 2 expanding screws in places, the final two holes would not line up! Getting more and more irate, I was drafting a letter in my head to IKEA about how if they wanted people to put together their own furniture, they should make it fit together without having to drill new holes.

This was the moment when my deputy head came in to say hi, took one look and said, "I think the drawer face fits round the outside, not the inside." Of course she was correct - I had been doing it wrong the whole time. I blame the instructions, it's not obvious without any words!

Cue me trying to un-expand the expanding screws and take apart my hard work. The 5 screw casualties meant that my lovely new, organisational drawer set is being held together by split pins. Bad omen?

The Drawer Debacle