Education, Learning & Work

Slide Backgrounds & Wallpapers

Fri, 07 Apr 2023 20:58:29 GMT

Visually appealing PPT templates to help engage your learners!

Well, I've already told you I'm a huge fan of a colourful, co-ordinated classroom, but did you know that extended to my PowerPoints?

Seriously, there is nothing I hate more than a dull looking PowerPoint! I use slide shows a lot to engage my learners and to help keep my teaching and delivery well paced and on track, and I love to make them visually appealing and stimulating to my little audience!

However, I know from conversations with colleagues that not everyone always feels confident to explore different settings on PowerPoint, and goodness knows we're short enough on time to not necessarily have a spare few hours to experiment.

That's why I created these sets, so that busy teachers who would like aesthetic PowerPoint Sets can have them at the tip of their fingers.

All backgrounds are saved as high quality PNG format. You can add text boxes or image boxes over the top of the background and customise to your own content.

You can grab yourself various individual sets (each linked within the bundle set) or for maximum variety and value, grab my growing bundle set - that's 184 different images, each in two sizes, making 368 in total!

As always, I hope they are useful to someone!

Em x

Classroom Décor Packs

Fri, 23 Dec 2022 21:45:28 GMT

...because a cute classroom is a happy place to work...

What can I say....I'm a huge fan of a colourful, co-ordinated classroom.

Having matching, themed resources around the classroom always just makes me feel like I've got my act together....even if sometimes, that couldn't be further from the truth. But hey, whatever gets us through, am I right?

If you're looking to refresh your classroom, or perhaps you are going to be moving rooms over the summer break and need to start from scratch, these sets would be perfect!

There's a whole variety of themes, mainly 'boho' in style.

Each set contains:

Upper and lowercase alphabet (26 portrait posters)
Upper and lowercase alphabet (26 landscape posters)
Number posters 0-100 (101 portrait posters)
Days of the week (5 labels)
Dates (31 discs)
Months of the year (12 labels)
Tray labels (12 blank for writing or typing, although the page can be reprinted/reused as required)
Pre-printed bunting for display boards/bulletin boards, including "English," "Maths", "Science", "Topic", "Phonics", "Rules", "Book Corner"
Blank bunting for your own writing

You can grab yourself a rainbow , leaves or boho set depending on what takes your fancy!

As always, I hope they are useful to someone!

Em x

Column Addition & Subtraction Cupcakes

Tue, 01 Mar 2022 21:36:25 GMT

Introducing formal methods for addition and subtraction

Introducing your kiddos to formal methods of addition and subtraction can sometimes be TRICKY!

Even after putting in all the ground work of laying it out practically using dienes/base ten equipment, children still need regular exposure to the method in order to embed it successfully.

And if you're following a depth based/mastery curriculum, such as White Rose, then keeping those addition and subtraction skills ticking over whilst you teach new modules is vital!

That's where these cute sets come in...

Each set ( addition or subtraction ) comes with a mixture of difficulties, from straight forward addition and subtractions, requiring no borrowing/carrying/exchanging work, through to harder examples and even a template for rolling your own sums.

I think these would be perfect laminated or popped into a dry erase wallet (not an affiliated link - I just think they're soooooo useful!) and then set out for early morning work!

As always, I hope they are useful to someone!

Em x

Phase 4 Phonics Clip Cards

Wed, 01 Sep 2021 20:27:37 GMT

Phase 4 Phonics Clip Cards

You may already be familiar with these Phase 2 - 5 Phonics Comprehensions to support teaching in Reception and early KS1.

However, one of the phases which often gets neglected is Phase 4. In this phase, no new sounds get introduced BUT children do learn to become increasingly familiar with multisyllable words as well as consonant clusters and blends.

If you're looking for a way to practise more of this, look no further!

All you need to run the activity is a simple set of clothes pegs or even paper clips if you don't have pegs available. You could possibly even laminate them and use dry wipe markers if you wanted!

Children simply pick the best fit option to match the picture!

I've got all sorts of sets available for you, with different initial blends, final blends, compound words and so on. You can buy each separately if you prefer, or you can get the best value for money by purchasing the bundle here .

As always, I hope they are useful to someone!

Em x

Leaf by Sandra Dieckmann

Sun, 09 May 2021 12:08:43 GMT

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Oh my days! How did it get to be spring time already?

That's just nuts!

If you're anything like me, the build up to Christmas passed in a blur, and then you spent the whole of last term juggling remote and in-person teaching simultaneously! When I think about it like that, no wonder I've not been keeping this place up to date!

Anywho... I'm baaaack, and I've got such a fabulous book unit.

It's based on Leaf by Sandra Dieckmann. My class LOVED this book. It's great for promoting inclusion, tolerance, respect and acceptance.

When a strange creature, the likes of whom the other animals have never seen before, washed up on their land, can they bring themselves to welcome him?

Phonics Texts Update

Sat, 01 May 2021 12:25:15 GMT

Phase 2, 3, 4 & 5 now added!

A little while back, I made these Phase 2 and 3 Phonics Comprehensions to support teaching in Reception and early KS1.

Whether you're looking to stretch able 4 & 5 year olds, or support and nurture those Year 1s and 2s who are still not confident in their sounds, they were a great solution!

I'm really pleased to say the packs have now grown to include Phase 4 and Phase 5 texts!

As you can see, the texts progress from a few short simple phrases or sentences, with some picture to word matching activities, through to one-paragraph stories with fill in the gap answers (plus more matching activities (beginning and ends of sentences), yes/no tick box questions as well as sequences and short answer sentences. The whole bundle (Phase 2-5) gets you FIFTY SEVEN texts to use...and it's still GROWING ! You can buy each separately if you prefer.

You can print them and use them whole class; dish them out to certain groups to work on independently whilst you give direct input elsewhere; laminate the full set and have them for "Early Finishers" or "Early Morning Work"; plan them into intervention groups.... I like to think they're super versatile!

Let me know if they're are useful! They're certainly one of the more popular items in my store.

Em x

Phonics Sound Button Font

Wed, 17 Feb 2021 21:17:45 GMT

Sound Button Font - Dots & Dashes

I've been making phonics resources for a little while now, and have a range of comprehension texts which you can read about here , as well as clip cards and other activities.

However, as a busy teacher making lots of resources, what always frustrated me was having no way to add sound buttons to any of my resources.

If you're not familiar with sound buttons, they work on the premise that single sounds have a dot beneath them, whereas digraphs or trigraphs have a single line underneath them. Split digraphs are connected by a curved line or, in this case, matching curved arrows. This then helps children to work out how to sound out the word.

You can see more about how it works, below.

Black History Month

Mon, 26 Oct 2020 14:23:20 GMT

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Wow! It's nearly November guys! The leaves have turned golden (or blown away entirely) and a whole half term has passed us by!

I'm guessing it's been as hectic for you all as it has for me.... I've barely had time to think outside of work, even less so than normal. With the kiddos having missed a chunk of schooling, everything we'd normally be doing this half term has been changed or adapted to suit their needs, which means more planning and prepping time than normal.

It's been worth it though! I've loved having them all back, and they're a super class!

One thing we have been doing lately is some English work linked to Black History Month.

We began with Nathan Bryon's story "Clean Up", with the main character Rocket who you may or may not be familiar with from "Look Up" (another fab book). I'm really keen to make sure that the fiction I read and have in class is representative of all children, and Rocket makes a great addition to the class library of books.

In "Clean Up", she visits her Grammy and Grampy who live on a tropical island and, whilst there, learns all about plastic pollution and the power of ordinary people to make a change.

We were inspired, also, to look at Imani Wilmot who is a famous female surfer from Jamaica (she gets an honorary mention in the story), and at the life of MaVynee Betsch, an African American opera singer turned conservationist.

The class loved it, and I have created an even larger unit of work around it to study next year, too! Even more excitingly...by then, a new book called "Saving American Beach" is due out, all about MaVynee Betsch.

You can find a link to the entire bundle of resources (Clean Up + Imani Wilmot + MaVynee) on TPT here or on TES here .

I hope you love them and find them useful!

Flip Sticks!

Fri, 28 Aug 2020 09:38:32 GMT

Jazz up your lolly-lotto with these cute flip sticks!

You know you're a teacher when your list of supplies to bring home for the holidays included a big box of several dozen lollipop sticks in various shades!

I'm a big fan of lolly lotto-ing to select students, so everyone gets involved and has their turn (nobody dominates and nobody can shy away). Usually I make a set for my maths group, English group and one for the class.

This year I ended up not using the pre-coloured sticks and instead went for some Pinterest & Insta inspired flip sticks (check out "Inspired Elementary" / "@inspiredelementary" and "@mrs.rottenhills") - once you've picked a student, simply place the stick back upside-down to save re-picking! No more random piles of sticks all over your desk/lap/in your pocket (and then in the washing machine...).

I've gone for watermelon, pineapple and set of pencils! All it took was a bit of felt tip and some Sharpie marker. A perfect 'in front of the telly' job. Just got to get them all named up now...

Recovery Curriculum - Phocus on Foniks

Mon, 24 Aug 2020 13:00:16 GMT

Phase 2 & 3 Revision

Hands up anyone who's a little bit stressed about where on Earth they're going to begin with their phonics teaching this year....

Just me?

Nope, thought not!

With our poor kiddos having missed so much face-to-face teaching and with varied input at home, we will probably be facing some huge gaps and some really varied levels of ability!

A little while back, I made these Phase 2 and 3 Phonics Comprehensions to support teaching in Reception and early KS1.

Whether you're looking to stretch able 4 & 5 year olds, or support and nurture those Year 1s and 2s who are still not confident in their sounds - yet are also expected by 'The Curriculum Gods' to be pursing skills in reading comprehension at the same time! - these are a really simple and straightforward foot in the door to help children develop and demonstrate their understanding of a short, phonically decodable text.

As you can see, the texts progress from a few short simple phrases or sentences, with some picture to word matching activities, through to one-paragraph stories with fill in the gap answers (plus more matching activities (beginning and ends of sentences), and yes/no tick box questions. The whole bundle (Phase 2 & 3) gets you THIRTY texts to use, or you can buy each separately if you prefer.

Let me know if they're are useful! They're certainly one of the more popular items in my store. My plan is to have some Phase 4 and Phase 5 available to complete the set, too! I'll probably work on them term by term as I progress with my groups this year.

Em x

Socially Distanced School!?

Sat, 22 Aug 2020 19:26:22 GMT

Kids + virus + guidance documents = !?

With so many schools either starting back or about to start back, including mine, I thought now might be a good time to start blogging again.

I don't know about you guys, but I feel all sorts... nervous; excited; overwhelmed; scared; motivated; lost; organised; totally disorganised....it changes by the minute and is quite often totally contrary to the emotion I was feeling just before.

My own class are only littlies, and I know they won't be able to (or expected to) social distance as we are using the bubbles/pods approach. However, despite the acknowledgement of this in the guidance documents, there are still references to and expectations of us adding in distancing where possible, extra cleaning (of them and everything around them!) and oh-so-many adaptations and adjustments. It's A LOT to be thinking about, especially when all I really want to do is get stuck in, have fun, make a routine for us all after so much disruption, and make new, happy, learning-filled memories!

A little while back, when I returned to teach a small 'pod' during the Summer Term, I created some posters and handy guides for Socially Distanced Schooling. If I'm being perfectly honest, I'm not sure who I was trying to reassure more...the children, or myself! I certainly felt better for knowing I had tried to do something towards normalising this very weird time, and had some resources to hand for when I needed them.

I made some posters with alternative no-contact greetings, some hygiene/keeping safe posters, and a whole set (24) of games which can be played on the playground or in PE at a safe distance. If you fancy them, the "Showing You Care from a Distance" pack is available for free here and if you click the image at the top, you can get the full pack in my TpT store .

I wish you all the best for returning to your classes, in whatever form that looks like.

Stay safe and stay well!

Em x

Aaargh!

Sat, 26 Oct 2019 20:10:23 GMT

So, I'm actually doing this then...

So here it is, my first website and my first venture into online publishing. At the moment, this is more of a pet project than anything else, but I've longed to break into the education publishing world for ages but never found the guts to do it! I make soooooo many resources each and every week to suit my learners in my classroom, but now I'm ready to branch out and start creating content for the wider world.

Fingers crossed, hey? Let's see what the future brings...