Placement - Creating Environments Part 4

The Doctors Office

The home corner at placement is a little dated. While the furniture is neutral in color and in good condition, the play items in there are no longer extending the children's interests and so I set about looking at how we can change it. I took this photo as part of one of my observations...

The children who usually prefer to play in the home corner moved all the chairs and lined them up against the mirror to make a bed. One girl, E, tucked L into the new bed, using the tablecloth as a blanket and put her hand against her head to check her temperature. She then brought a cup up to L's lips and let her sip. This type of play could have been inspired by the doctor's office some other educators have set up in the 2-3 year old room, where these children spend family grouping in the morning.

Upon watching this, I asked the children if they could change the home corner, what would they put there instead? It was no surprise when they suggested a doctor's office or hospital. If you follow this Pinterest board of mine, you might have noticed a slew of pins awhile back around medical play as I looked online for inspiration. This was the final result...

Using what I could find in the storeroom, what my AT had from their last hospital play area and moving around some furniture, the area began to take shape. A small table with an old desktop computer, a screensaver printed and tacked on, made the reception area while two chairs made up our waiting room. Including the height chart, eye test, light-box and scales made the area seem more authentic. The bookcase which previously housed utensils and cookware, is now labelled (using this font) and displaying the medical equipment of the Whales Kinder Hospital.

The instruments included some from a store bought doctors kits, and three identical jars filled with cotton balls, cotton buds and Popsicle sticks.

The band aids were made with paper cutouts but you can download print the template below onto cardboard or poster paper for the same result.

The bandages are large pieces of beige/cream ribbon cut to size. I would suggest measuring the ribbon around one of the children to see how much is adequate to tie a knot as our ones were only able to be tied around toys.

The patient forms can be downloaded from here, they are a great literacy tool and the pictures make this template perfect for early childhood. Print out about 20 and attach them a clipboard, don't forget to have a cup of pens or pencils handy like we did near our reception desk.

The stethoscope we used was a real medical one and worked, however if you cant find one or are hesitant to use one in the room, there are plenty available in play doctor kits.

The doctor's bag was made using an old cosmetic case and simply painted it black with a large red cross on top.

The blood pressure cuff was made using a recycled plastic screw-top container. On the top, I attached some cord and a cardboard arm cuff with a red cross glued on and from the left/right side, a cord attached ti a partially blown balloon. This was one of the most played with item as the children had seen it at the doctor's but never had the opportunity to see it in use.

The x-rays that we used in this environment came from a set of animal x-rays purchased through Educational Experience and were stored on a clipboard in this cubby when not on display on the light-box.  

This new area of the room was well received by the children, who continued to surprise me with how they chose to play...

DOWNLOAD BANDAID TEMPLATE HERE

Miss Tracy xx  

Placement - Creating Environments Part 3

The Handwriting Table 

The children in the kinder room love to write. Some have mastered their names already and write it on every piece of paper they can get their hands on while some of them are still experimenting with what letters they can trace, draw and recognise.

In knowing this, my AT and I have been doing everything we can think of to support this current interest of theirs. When choosing the order to wash hands, put on jackets, get place mats etc. we draw a letter or a name on the board. Some children knew their names and others while others had more fun sorting out the false names from the real ones. During my full control week, I asked the children what their favourite letters were and why for their morning minutes questions and I received some very thoughtful and insightful answers.

When it came time to change one of the activity tables, I had the perfect idea; a writing table!

I got the idea for the banner from here but cut out yellow and pink paper instead and painted on the letters. After laminating, I used a hole punch to punch holes (duh) and strung it up using twine. I had to redo some pencils so that they could match so for your convenience and found at the bottom of the post, I have made a template that you can print out and either write, type or paint the letters onto.  The milk carton pencil holders were my AT's idea and sorts out the pencils by colour. After placing the banner up, setting out a tablecloth and some paper in a natural tray, I set to work on the most important part, the names!

The Victorian Modern Cursive Script font is the best tool you could have installed on your computer. It is the font used in Victoria to teach handwriting and to create handouts, posters, practice sheets...you name it, you can type it with this font! I used the holy grail of fonts to type out the children's names and placed them up around the table with Velcro. I decided on Velcro so that they could recognise and pull off their own names should they need help to spell it or what the letters look like,  and then place them back when they were finished.

From the email I received from one parent, "F has asked me for paper and pencils so that he could write his name at home but when I got it for him, he said he needed the table and the banner to write," the children really enjoyed the new edition to the room and what they can do here!

DOWNLOAD BANNER TEMPLATE HERE

Miss Tracy xx

Parent Postcards

Hi all,

I am currently in the midst of my block placement and slowly getting accustomed to the new expectations. one of those is documented in my placement booklet as follows:

"Implement a parent communication strategy during block placement." 

It says so much and yet ...it doesn't. Many of my units, my assignments and my readings have discussed different ways of involving parents and the many benefits of a early childhood service who does.

Taking what I knew, that parents usually love photos and something specific to their child, I came up with the following template...

Each day, I document 5-6 things that their child did or engaged with and hand-write it onto the left side. On the address lines I write the children's name, the room they are currently in and the date of the observation. My current placement's logo, which I have placed under the address lines, features puzzle pieces on which I place pictures of their child and how they spent their day at kinder.

The children in the kinder room absolutely love writing their names at the moment so I have been asking them if they would like to write their names instead of me doing it. For the uninterested children, I usually just write their name myself.

Just like the learning stories, I try to choose easily identifiable photos of the children and their friends. I also try to include pictures from group time, outside and scheduled sessions, like Hey Dee Ho.

These postcards have proved to be a success! They give the parents a quick slice of what happened that day and something to stick on the fridge. Since they are dated and often approved and requested by the children, they are also something which can be included in their portfolios.

The only problems I have had so far is the timeline. I try to complete one per night with a different child each time but taking and downloading the photos, putting it together, printing, writing and photocopying, it can be really difficult to produce the amount that I would like to send home. I have also been having some issues with whether or not it reaches parents; they seem to be staying in some children's bags and not being read until a few days later.

These aren't massive problems but it means I may have to tweak my approach further down the track. I'm going to stick with this communication method until the end of placement (next week).

Would really appreciate some ideas on what you think all think and whether this is something you would consider implementing!  

DOWNLOAD SAMPLE POSTCARD HERE 

Miss Tracy xx

Placement - Creating Environments Part 1

Creek Explorers

If there is one thing I have noticed about the children in this kinder room, it is their love of exploring and how much they love playing with water. Last week, after days of rain, a large puddle formed over part of our playground. While did this pose a safety threat due to its size and depth, the educators cornered it off and allowed play provided that the children didn't put their hands or feet in the water.

One of my focus children, W, used a garden rake to play with this new attraction. He skimmed it across the water and watched the patterns it made. When I asked him what he was doing, he told me his was fishing, and that all the fish went into the bucket, the large bin we use to store the sand and water toys in.

I pondered over this observation throughout the week and used what I had seen as the basis for my next implementation; a creek environment where the children could explore a small ecosystem. 

After filling the bottom of the container with various sized pebbles and filling in one-third full of water, i began to arrange the elements of this environment. I purchased the frogs from my local dollar shop, along with the lizard. I foraged the park across from my house, and the kinder store room, for the large logs and twigs. After attaching some twine and a hook shaped paperclip to the long twigs, I had two fishing rods.

Accompanying the creek were some small fish! I printed and laminated images of trout and attached them to paperclips, so that the children could link the hook and the paperclip to catch the fish. Below is a link to the document that you can laminate to create your own fishing experience! In the end, I added a total of 8 fish.

The children were so excited to watch me put this together! By the time I had finished, they had already picked up the frogs, experimenting with how stretchy they are and who was too scared to even attempt touching them. The fishing rods worked great, however I wished I had made more so that more children could fish simultaneously with out too much conflict. Had I the money, I would have acquired a container which looked more natural, but I made do with what the centre already had.  

Some images of the little explorers...

DOWNLOAD FISH TEMPLATE HERE

UPDATE 28/05/2014 - The water, if not changed regularly, begins to smell and can be dangerous if accidentally ingested. If you plan on having this environment active for longer than 7 days, ensure you change the water as soon as you notice any changes.

Miss Tracy xx

Placement - Planned Experiences Part 2

Garden Sensory Box

Every week in our kinder room, we have a letter focus and last week's was the letter 'G'. We listed all the words we knew which started G and my AT set up a grass growing station where the children could see mustard and fennel seeds grow. We have also been changing the vegetable patch outside and planting some flowers in the barrels.

To support these changes, I thought a garden sensory bin would complement what the learning environment and the current interests of the room. After discussing this, I began working on putting the environment together. 

I got the inspiration for this environment from this post and began collecting the materials: 

• Two 6 egg cartons 
• Green pipe cleaners
• Paints
• Envelopes
• Coloured paper
• Popsicle sticks
• Got glue gun and sticks
• Pebbles 
• Laminator and sheets 

First step was cutting up the carton, by the end of it you should have 12 little 'cups' and make sure you save the lid for a seedling box. I cut up 2 pipe cleaners to make 12 little pieces, folded in half to make the 'V'.  You can paint the cups whatever colours you like, I chose these because they matched the colours of the vegetables I picked. 

Once the paint has dried, cut a little slit into the tops of the cups so you can poke the pipe cleaners through. To make them look a little cuter, I curled the tops on a pencil. And there you have it, little vegetable seedlings!

Next up is the planters. Introducing the first LMST freebie, which can be downloaded below, just print out the page, laminate it if not printing on card stock, and glue them to the popsicle sticks.


To make the seed packets, you can download the labels below and print onto coloured paper. Then glue to the envelopes. I filled mine with pebbles and glued it shut but depending on the age group of the children in your care, you can use bigger/smaller articles and chose whether to glue it shut or not.

Add a couple of child sized gloves, a watering can, some small gardening tools and there you have it - garden sensory box! Don't forget to grab some small pebbles or coloured sand for your 'dirt'.

The final product looked great in the room and the children loved it! It was super easy to put together and was an opportunity to recycle some of our household waste. It was a perfect opportunity to link to my AT's learning focus and I am so happy with how it all turned out.

As for the children; loved it! Bringing the dirt and nature into the classroom really opened up the chance for them to get excited  about planting our veggie garden and adding some greenery to our playground. The biggest hit has been the gloves but since there is two chairs at the table and to gloves, some opportunities here to practice their sharing skills. The amount of collaborative work that happens at this station is phenomenal!

As promised, you can download the templates below, the very first LMST free download with only more to come!

DOWNLOAD SEED LABELS HERE

DOWNLOAD PLANTER LABELS HERE

Miss Tracy xx

In Review - dotEPUB

Hello readers,

For those of you you have an iPad, this post is for you. For those of you who have an iPad without 3G, you will enjoy this post even more so than those who do.

Introducing...

dotEPUB

The idea is simple; this website helps you convert any compatible webpage into ePub format, so it can be be viewed on an iPad using the iBooks application. To actually use the function is even simpler.

If you have an iPad, you save this site as a bookmark. If using a desktop, install the extension onto your browser. When you find a webpage, simply click the button/bookmark and the page will begin to convert into the ePub format. It is that easy!

There is also an immersive mode; for pages which contain unnecessary links and images, you have the option not to include them on your document so it only contains text.

The following is an doteEPUB converstion of THIS PAGE, detailing my university course:

This little application is helpful when you need to save pages ahead of time or as documents to continually view. The ease of use means you don't have to worry about printing unnecessary pages and worrying about whether a webpage will be later available or not.

Since finding this gem, I haven't stopped using it, and hope that you too find joy in how easy it is to convert webpages to ePub format.

For those using a kindle, there is the option for MOBI file conversion .

Miss Tracy xx

My Educational App Collection

Good morning all,

I have been posting a few app reviews lately and thought it was about time I showed you my app collection. It's taking a while to come up with this many educational apps and I have had some great sources; the Ipadopedia, a children's literature unit I took in first semester and a music education unit I just completed.

But lately I have found a new source, the Education section of the iTunes store. This section of the store caters for varying levels of education, from early childhood straight up to self education for adults. It is meticulously organised, much like my iPad, and has great sections:

• Reading
• Maths
• Physics 
• Chemistry
• Music
• Writing
• Life Science
• Geography
• Astronomy and Earth Science

And so we begin the journey through my iPad! I have provided a picture of each folder and the apps they contain and what section I find them useful to store under.

LMST BLOG

• Dropbox
• Pic Stitch
• Pinterest
• Tumblr
• Blogger
• Twitter
• Mailbox

COACHING

• Coach My Video
• Ubersense

DEMONSTRATIONS

• Educreations Interactive Whiteboard
• bContext
• Class Act Lite
• Show Me
• Brain Pop

DIAGRAMS

• Mind Meister
• Prezi
• Lovely Charts

DOCUMENTING

• iZip
• Jot Not
• Evernote

LITERACY

• Story Wheel
• Chain Story
• Outline
• Claro
• Rhyme Zone
• Character Prompts
• Writing Prompts
• A Novel Idea
• Poetry Creator

MANAGEMENT

• Teacher Kit
• iStudiez Lite
• Chore Pad HD
• Pocket Picture Planner

MATHS

• Algebra Touch
• CALC
• FluidMath
• Soulver
• Mathletics Student
• Calculator 
• iMathematics
• Triangle Solver

MEASUREMENT

• Multi Measures HD
• Tuner Lite
• Pano Tuner
• MultiMeasure 
• M Tools
• Timer+
• iSetSquare

MUSIC

• Baby Chords
• Sound Prism
• Electric Guitar!
• Magic Zither
• Core Synth HD
• Music Sparkles
• GarageBand

SCIENCE & GEOGRAPHY

• The Human Body
• iCell
• Planets
• Google Earth
• Memory of Colours

SOUND MANAGEMENT 

• Too Noisy
• Decibel 10th

And as usual, all apps I have posted today are available on the App Store however please note some are free and some are paid so please check before you press the little green button!

Miss Tracy xx

In Review - The Teacher's IpadoPedia

Hey readers,

Recently I decided to peruse the (free) shelves on the iTunes bookstore and was astounded by the number of free books available in the education section. I came across textbooks, guides and many other wonderful things and promptly downloaded all that I could see. The first book I decided to read was 'The Teacher's IpadoPedia, An A-Z of using iPads in the classroom' by Philip Johnston.

The Teacher's IpadoPedia

An A-Z of Using iPads in the Classroom

Philip Johnston

After my first placement and some of the material we have been covering in class, I have come to realise what an impact technology can have in the classroom, both good and bad, and how this comes into play when I eventually am in the classroom. For these reasons, I decided to go with this book first and was pleasantly surprised with what I had found.

This book blew my mind! Not only was it incredibly well written and set out, Johnston commented on a large range of topics including:

• attendance 
• managing homework
• archiving
• coaching
• photocopying
• quizzing
• creative writing
• taking notes

The book is divided into categories, with app listed which can either perform a task or help aid the process of the mentioned categories. Not only is there a wide range of apps, free and paid, to cover the categories but the book is cross references when apps have multiple functions. 

The actual layout of the book is clean with small chunks of information and plenty of pictures to accompany. The great thing about this being an eBook is that often the text is interactive! Beside the text, you will often find videos which demonstrate an app and how it works and text is often hyper-linked to show you exactly what app you should download and where to find them.

I have already downloaded some of the apps and can see their potential for use of them in the classroom. Other I have been able to integrate into my university life! Overall I enjoyed reading this book, it was not text heavy, it flowed well, you could jump chapters without feeling lost and the interactive nature made finding what Johnston what talking about incredibly easy.   

Philip Johnston has also step up a great website for the book which includes sample pages, links to download the book as well as a contact page if you would like to speak with the author. The website can be found here.

As Johnston said in the foreword, reading this book does not mean you have to apply everything that you read about but rather take what you like and make it work for your classroom. There are some great apps listed and the great thing is the discovery, while Johnston may list the app for one use, you could find a totally new use, either for the classroom or for your personal life!

For those of you who are still unsure, you have nothing to lose as this book is 100% free to download from the iBookstore!

Stay tuned as I discover more education eBooks from the iTunes bookstore!

Miss Tracy xx 

In Review - Blogger, the App

Good morning!

Now, I'm sure many of you readers also maintain a blog and perhaps even use Blogger as your preferred platform but how many of you knew that Blogger had an app?

I came across the app awhile ago, completely by accident, and since it cost me a total of zero cents I promptly downloaded it. After playing around with it for a bit and placing it in the 'LMST Blog' app folder on my iPhone, I finally got a feel for what I could this app for.

The app itself is quite easy to get the feel for, you log in and you will see the first screen on the photo set below. From this menu you can see your posts, both published and scheduled and your blog. The blog view is similar to that of the second picture in the photo set above, only it will be your blog! The post list view, shown in the second photo below, is quite similar to that of the web version of Blogger however less tags are shown. From this menu you can also edit or delete these posts by simply pressing the encircled arrow.

You can also change the app's settings and create new posts from here. And this is where my problem with the app begins. As you can see from the third photo featured above, there are similar inputs as the web version, post title, post content, labels and locations. There are also the options to add photos, either from your mobile library or by using the camera. However not similar to the web version is the easy ability to create text, move photo around, add links and format text; some of these features are not even present while others take time and plenty of patience to take form.

While these are deal breakers for me using the app solely for blogging, it doesn't stop me from using the app to make quick fixes and check up on scheduling dates. Check out the app for yourself and let me know what you will do with the app! 

DOWNLOAD THE BLOGGER APP 

Perhaps my next review will be on the web version of Blogger? You never know!

Miss Tracy xx

Assignment File - Sketchbook and eResource Part 2

Hello there,

As promised, here you will find part 2; the eResource. This part of the assignment asked us to create a live webpage using Web 2.0 technology, focused on a single topic relating to the visual arts. This resource would not only be for assessment but for our fellow pre-service teachers as well as teachers out there already teaching with access to the internet.

I chose the theme 'A Bug's Life' after covering a number of artists who focused on natures and the creatures in it. Since I was already extremely familiar with Blogger, I chose this as my method of presentation.

And so my discovery unit was born! Click the title to take a peek...

A BUG'S LIFE

This unit looks at the topic of bugs and insects as a stepping stone for visual art exploration and how to weave this knowledge into other aspects of curriculum and the learning environment.

One aspect of this assignment that I had a hard time working out was the lesson plans I was expected to create.  While I have done 3 curriculum based units, we have not touched on writing lesson plans yet, primarily since we are still studying early childhood. So I took to the internet and put together a template myself, which you can view  as PDFs in the appropriate sections. 

I also had many internal (and one external) debates on how these activities I had designed should be assessed or documented. In the end, I devised a simple rubric with smiley faces, which can be completed by the teacher, student or together as a reflection exercise.

I was very happy with the outcome of both pieces of work and with my hard work and perseverance, I earned myself a credit (C)!

Miss Tracy xx

Assignment File - Sketchbook & eResource Part 1

Hi all,

Here comes another post on one of my countless assignments, this one for a creative arts subject, EDAR-368.

Rather than one set task, the assignment asked us to document our leaning and changed perspective over the semester in relation to this one subject. Using an A4 sketchbook, each class we would sketch what we 'thought' and then what we 'saw' and complete a pre-planned lesson according to a given preparation sheet.

Another component of this ongoing task was looking at a specific artist. Each week, we would have a new focus, which guided our reading, research and tutorials. Depending on the style and technique of the artist, we would take part in activities, such as sketching live scorpions, sketching ourselves using a single line, drawing our tutor with our eyes closed and tearing paper into a thousand pieces.

By the end of the six week block, I had pages and pages of hard work, which I have decided to share with you!

HOWEVER...this was only part 1 of my assignment for this unit! Comeback next week for the next installment.

Miss Tracy xx

Assignment File - The Grammar Booklet

Hi all,

I completed a lot of assignments last year but this one was one of my favourites, which is saying a lot! The task was to complete a set of concept maps for a list of grammatical items we were given.

We were given the list at the beginning of the semester and the due date was set sometime during Week 10, after our vacation week. Each week during our tutorials, a group of 2-3 people would present a short PowerPoint on the grammatical item of the week and we were expected to take notes, ask questions and prepare the appropriate mind-map in our own time.

For our presentation, My partner K and I chose 'Type of Nouns' and rather then a PowerPoint, prepared a Prezi to share with the class. These presentations were worth 10% of our final grade and the both of us walked away with a HD.

We had the choice of how to create our maps and I went with Lovely Charts. I had used the online program in high-school on a PC; I loved how clean and professional the final product looked without using default fonts like Times New Roman and Verdana. So when I revisited their site and saw that they had an app, I looked into it. Now usually I only go for free apps, but at $5.50 I knew how good this program was and happily clicked 'buy now'.

The app is painfully easy to use and the part is its save function; you can email the diagram to yourself in a variety of formats. The only limitation I found with the app was the color schemes available; while there a plenty of nice colours there, I would have liked to be able to customise and mix the schemes. Besides that, use your fingers to draw shapes, use two finger to connect shapes and one finger to drag. There it is, painfully simple!

The original idea I had was to do two mind maps a week when I had the time but as things worked out, I majority of the work until the vacation week. Luckily I finished and had about 17 mind maps at the end of my ordeal which looked something like the one below...

But creating countless mind maps was not enough for my tutor, we had to make a grammar BOOKLET. So off to Officeworks I ran to get this piece of hard work bound. I choose the Pro-Click binding for this assignment as we were permitted to bring this into our exam and had I made a mistake, I would like to have had the option to change my mind map. One of my favourite components of this assignment was the fact that we had to include an acknowledgment thanking our classmates for their input since we used information from others presentations. I was really happy with my final product and thankfully, so was my tutor which reflected in my mark, another HD!

Miss Tracy xx

In Review - PicStitch

Hello again,

As you may have already noticed, I like to use photo collages in my blog posts and they would not be possible without the wonderful app of PicStitch!

I'm a big user of Instagram, stalking and and posting alike, so when I saw a few posts with the hashtag #picstitch, I couldn't help but check it out. This led my down the rabbit hole.

My favourite feature of PicStitch is its simplicity. The interface is dark, with very little advertising space, and uses very little text. There are something like 280 collage templates to choose from but this wasn't enough and I ended up paying $0.99 to unlock all templates.  You can chose your photos from various sources, including your photo album, camera, Facebook, Dropbox and other social media sources.

When it comes to putting the collage together, even simpler! Just choose the the photos your using and then what edits you would like to make. There are various options for editing including enhance, effects, frames, stickers, focus, orientation, crop, sharpness, splash, draw, ext, red eye, whiten, blemish and meme.

When your done editing, you have the option to change your layout, the aspect ratio of the frame or to re-size your photos. Adjust the product in the frame and then move onto the next photo. Repeat then fiddle until you're happy!

The last step is to save your photo. Again, many options to choose from. I usually go for the option to save to my photo album but here is where you pay for the free app, usually you are exposed to 30 seconds of a movie trailer or an app advertisement. Not much to bear but enough for me to feel impatient!

PicStitch is available from the iTunes App Store, free to download but any add ons are paid. I highly recommend this app if you feel the need for a collage!

DOWNLOAD PICSTITCH FROM HERE!

Happy blogging, and let me know how PicStitch works for you!

Miss Tracy xx