Surfing the Literacy Wave - NZLA Conference

In the September school holidays I was lucky enough to attend the 2014 NZLA Conference in Tauranga. I would like to thank NZLA and TTLA for providing me with such a valuable professional development opportunity. It was a very worthwhile experience and I went away buzzing with ideas on how I could further improve my classroom literacy practice. It also enabled me to gain an insight as to how the national literacy conferences are organised and run. As a result I have a better understanding of how I can contribute to organising the 2016 NZLA Conference, in Northland.

Two keynote speakers that stuck out for me were Dr Mere Berryman and Rob Southam. Merry Berryman spoke about enjoying education success as Maori: a home school approach to learning and literacy. Mere reminded us that no matter what background a child comes from, every child arrives at school with skills. We need to consider how we value these skills, rather than saying that a child comes to school with ‘nothing’ or very few experiences. Having heard similar comments time and time again, as well as previously teaching children from lower socioeconomic backgrounds made her words really hit home for me. Another gem of Mere’s was when she shared about providing students with responsive feedback, where you initially only respond to the message in their story instead of any punctuation and spelling errors. The importance of positive teacher-student and home-school relationships were also a focal point of her keynote.

Rob was a fantastic keynote speaker and even more exceptional considering she was asked to present on the morning of the conference, due to Stephen Graham been unwell. The content she shared was light, but inspiring. She spoke about the latest trends in children’s publishing, shared a smorgasbord of books to hook young readers in and touched on the importance of correctly teaching reading strategies. The fact that Minecraft has motivated so many of our reluctant readers to read more, especially boys, was also mentioned. This is something I’ve personally noticed in my own class too. 

My purpose for attending this year’s NZLA Conference was to gain a better insight as to how I could further improve my writing programme in my year 4 classroom, as well as to take away ideas around improving student engagement with my reluctant readers and writers. I felt that the ideas needed to be fresh, practical and have some evidence to support their success in the classroom. Louise Sherrington’s workshop around building reading stamina during independent reading sparked a few ideas for me and really got me thinking about how I can support my struggling readers to build their stamina. Louise is a literacy coach in the Gold Coast, as well as a friend of Sheena Cameron’s. She shared how reading stamina wasn’t only important in the classroom, but that she also believed kids are failing tests because of a lack of reading stamina. Louise talked about how we shouldn’t expect that all children can simply sit down and read for thirty minutes. She compared it to how you wouldn’t expect an adult to run a marathon, if they struggled to run for ten minutes. It takes time, effort and practise. Louise shared a variety of practical strategies to improve children’s reading stamina. Some of which I am looking forward to trialling in my own class.

Gay Gilbert’s workshop was the presentation that I personally got the most out of during the conference. Her topic was called Picture the Writing. Gay enthusiastically shared her experiences of running an integrated visual art and literacy programme – something she did for years. Immediately I thought of my target group of writers, all students who love art. Something that I know I am guilty of not making enough time for in the classroom.

Gay gave examples of ‘hook ins’ she had used over the years e.g. taking a live chicken into school, putting jam on the concrete and watching the ants come out of the cracks to eat the jam, observing a praying mantis or a group of snails, swinging on the swings while closing your eyes, taking kids out in the rain with raincoats on. Straight away I noticed that all of her ‘hook in’ activities were hands on and authentic; that also enabled all students to have a shared experience. During, or straight after the activity children would sketch pictures. Criteria was co-constructed and set for the sketches, as well as the major art piece. Different media was used for different art projects. Close up photographs were also taken and put on display for further reference. For example when the chicken was taken into the class close up photos were taken of its different body parts e.g. feet, beak, wing and feathers.

In Gay’s classroom reading, writing and visual art all dovetailed together. Narrative and personal writing runs through their school like a heartbeat. ‘We can’t give children rich lives, but we can give them the lens to appreciate the richness that is already there” by Lucy Carkins. Other genre such as explanation is only taught when it’s relevant. She was very passionate about not forcing genre and teaching it where it didn’t fit. Gay often told her children not to over egg the pudding, referring to too many over the top, fluffy language features. She will also scribe for children for five minutes, when needed. Gay doesn’t only do it for the lower learners, but for the top end learners too. She’s found this to be a very successful strategy to get boys moving with their writing.

There are so many inspiring ideas to take away from the 2014 NZLA Conference, but to start with I will be focusing on introducing the following things:

• Using strategies to support my target readers in building reading stamina.
• Integrating visual art into my writing programme.
• Making a genuine effort to spark excitement in writing by using hook in activities that are authentic, vivid and sensory experiences.
• Being a scribe for children when needed, for a maximum of five minutes.
• Reading more children’s books, myself. This will enable me to not only listen to the children buzz about their books, but to contribute as well.
• Tracking down a copy of ‘The Day the Crayons Quit’, by Drew Daywalt and reading it to my class. 

An example shared by Gay Gilbert, during her workshop - Picture the Writing

Personalised Learning #Edchatnz Conference - Part 2

When it came down to choosing what to do in session 2 I was really torn. I had missed the first tour of Hobsonville Point Primary because I was presenting the @Kidsedchatnz workshop with Reid. I would have loved to have gone over to see the school and kids in action, but in the end decided to opt for Amy and Erin's workshop on personalised learning. I loved how they had also brought some of the kids over to share their personal experiences too. 

Here is one of the first images that was shared. I couldn't agree more! I've played around with personalised learning and independent learning plans over the last 18 months, but dropped the independent learning plans when I moved to my new school. Mostly because being in a new school was a big learning curve over the first two terms, but also the school I'm in is what I would class as being a very traditional school. After the #Edchatnz Conference I've decided that it's actually okay to be the lone nut and so am going to give things in my single cell class a bit of a shake up. Yes, I'm a lone nut and try to hack the education system. Why? Because I strongly believe it will benefit my students and support them with becoming independent learners who are able to think both creatively and critically about their learning. Don't get me wrong; I always ensure that I meet school requirements, but am always looking for innovative ways to improve the teaching and learning within my class. 

We were reminded that we are teaching kids, not subjects. I still believe that there are still so many teachers out there that are stuck in the habit of teaching subjects, while failing to ask themselves whether the learning is really meeting the needs of the individual learners? Is the learning personalised? One boy shared how at his old school he always felt bored and wanted to go to sleep. Another child spoke about the olden days and the teacher planning the whole day and everyone doing the same thing. So many teachers are still doing this! 

 At Hobsonville Point Primary learning is personalised by the students. For learning to be personalised it has to be coming from the students, not the teacher. The children start the day by completing a timetable. The children are encouraged to start this before school if they wish, but are still given some time after the bell goes to complete it for the day. The timetables look different at different levels. Here are some examples:

 The children's day is made up of group workshops e.g. guided reading groups, writing and maths groups as well as whole class workshops such as PE. Students also have independent activities to complete, including follow up activities - just like in a normal class. The children first block in their workshops, followed by their independent activities and any negotiated projects. The negotiated projects came across very similar to our Adventure Learning projects in Room 8, that are based on Google's 20% Time. 

Students check off what they've completed during the day and the teacher stamps it to ensure that the students have a balanced day. From memory, younger students planned for one day each morning, while older students completed their timetable for the whole week. When I did independent learning plans I found that doing it day by day worked best for my year 4 class, so that will be my starting point again. 

Hobsonville Point Primary School's planning is all visible both on a wall in their learning environment and on their Google Site. The children can access the Google Site to see what's happening during the week. It also assists them with planning their timetables. 

Up the top you will see I've clicked the tab 'Term 3' and then selected Week 3. The timetable clearly shows which workshops are happening at what time, who is running them, who is attending them, resources needed and whether or not there is a follow up activity. Love the detail and how visible the planning is for both students, other teachers and the students' families. 

After attending the TTLA seminar in Whangarei in Term 2 and listening to a presentation on how Point England School uses Google sites I went away and started having a play with creating one. Here's where mine is at, at the moment. After seeing how Hobsonville Point School uses theirs I've come away with some fresh ideas to further develop our class one. Watch this space :) The reason I created my class Google site was to enable the students in my class to access their learning any time and anywhere. 

Here's a photo of the learning wall at Hobsonville Point Primary School. This is one idea that I'm taking away to implement in my classroom straight away. 

A big thank you to Amy and Erin for sparking my excitement around personalised learning again. Looking forward to blogging my students' progress throughout the rest of the year. 

Quote is one I came across online, but image is my own. 

#Edchatnz Conference

Yesterday I spent the day at the first #Edchatnz Conference in Auckland. It was held at Hobsonville Point Secondary School, which made for an excellent opportunity to have a look around another modern learning environment (MLE). I've been lucky enough to visit a few schools with modern learning environments over the past couple of years - Silverton Primary in Melbourne, Amesbury in Wellington, Elim Christian College, Stonefields and Hingaia Peninsula in Auckland. However; Hobsonville Point Secondary School was the first high school I'd visited with a MLE. Saying I was impressed is an understatement. Not only by the innovative learning spaces, but more so by how the teachers are using the spaces for teaching and learning. That's what is truly inspirational. 

A TED Talk about how to start a movement was shared with us in the first keynote. I definitely feel like the lone nut a lot of the time. It was so refreshing being surrounded by people who are on the same wave length as you. It was also awesome to be able to meet so many tweeps I've connected with online, face to face for the first time. 

Reid (@ReidHns1) and I ran a hands-on workshop on @Kidsedchatnz during the first session. While we have collaborated online for some time, we had only met an hour prior to presenting together! We had an awesome bunch of enthusiastic teachers to work with, which always makes it so much more enjoyable. A couple of them had joined in a @Kidsedchatnz chat before too. 

We spoke for roughly 15 minutes about what @Kidsedchatnz is, the purpose and benefits for students. Then got straight into the hands-on part. During this time Stephen (@Palmyteacher) moderated a live chat from Palmerston North. This provided an authentic opportunity for student voice and allowed the teachers to actively participate in a chat. We also helped others sign up, learn how to use lists and tweetdeck. We even managed to hatch a couple of eggs! 

Here are some of the tweets from the classes that participated in the @Kidsedchatnz during the conference. So proud of how far they've all come with their tweeting. 

The more I think about being a lone nut, the more I think there must be a lot of other lone nuts out there in Northland schools. With lots of lone nuts you can make peanut butter. As Scotty, our DP tweeted yesterday it's time to 'crack them open'.

And of course no workshop yesterday would have been complete without a grelfie! 

Auckland Road Trip

Teachers buzzing with enthusiasm, exploring modern learning environments, seeing personalised learning and ICT effectively integrated into every day learning experiences, chatting to students about their learning, professional conversations en route to Auckland or caramel, cookie slice for afternoon tea? It's hard to pick only one highlight from our Auckland road trip to Elim Christian College and Hingaia Peninsula School!  

The purpose of our visit was to look at modern learning environments and ICT. It was an early start, leaving Kamo Primary at 6.30 am - still in darkness. I think most of us were at least half awake by the time we reached Wellsford. Our first stop was Elim Christian College, followed by Hingaia Peninsula School. 

Elim Christian College is a relatively new school, with the junior campus opening in 2012. The senior campus is a couple of minutes drive down the road. We couldn't have asked for better hospitality from Shaun. Not only did he take time out of his day to talk to us about his school and show us through their modern learning environments, but he also ended up taking us across to Hingaia Peninsula School when our mini van failed to start. 

The junior campus caters for students from new entrants to year 6. Sliding glass doors separate classrooms, allowing for open spaces as well as having the luxury of being able to close a space off when needed. Blended learning (paper and paperless/ICT) takes place across all MLE (modern learning environments). Children work collaboratively together, sprawled out across the floor, sitting at tables or on ottomans. Some children were using iPad minis, others wrote on paper and some children were actively participating in a group session with the teacher. 

Shaun also spoke about the difference between BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) and bring a specific device, in their case an iPad. I thought his discussion on the benefits and the simplicity of sticking to one device had merit. It also links in well with the SAMR Model. As Shaun said, "you can't use new technology the way you used the old technology. The pedagogy needs to change."

After morning tea we popped down to visit their senior campus. The senior campus was a traditional school that has slowly evolved into a more modern learning environment. It's refreshing to see how a traditional school started their journey, as it can often be disheartening seeing modern learning environments when you know you don't have a brand new school to go back to. 

What I've learnt over the past year is that the key isn't the fancy furniture, but the change in pedagogy. Elim Christian College have worked hard to ensure that their staff compliment each other and can collaborate effectively. Learning is personalised by students and I couldn't have agreed with Shaun more when he said, 'if you're a passenger you don't remember the journey as much as the driver.' 

Over the past couple of years I've visited five schools with modern learning environments. Something I've noticed is that each of them has the ability to have smaller spaces within spaces. Whether it's small rooms with glass doors like the photo above or large glass sliding doors between rooms like we saw at the junior campus. Some of the benefits of doing this, that teachers have shared with me include: having a space where children are able to make more noise if needed e.g. when using iMovie or doing music, a place for a quiet space or a room to withdraw a small group to. While we were at the senior campus one of the groups using a smaller space was their target maths group. The group number was kept small and the same teacher worked with that group each day. Another benefit of having more than one teacher to a learning space. Something else I noted was the use of Swiss balls in one of the learning spaces. Great idea and won't break the classroom budget!

At lunch time we moved on to visit Hingaia Peninsula School. Because it was lunch time we didn't observe any students in the learning spaces, but were able to walk through and have a good look at how they had created their MLE. Here are a few snapshots. 

Beautiful courtyard, with painted bird boxes attached to each post. The children also have access to a large grass area. 

Modern stools and benches in an open side room, off the main learning area.

Another open, side room off to the side of a learning hub. 

Whiteboard paint seemed to be a popular choice at both schools we visited. Endless possibilities! 

 Stools that move around (wobble) as you sit on them. Awesome idea for kids (and teachers) who struggle to sit still. I could use one of these! 

The main learning space. The rooms above branch off to the side of this main hub. All open/visible though.

Had to take a quick snapshot of this character. He lives in the school office.

Overall an amazing day out of the classroom, with an enthusiastic and inspirational bunch of teachers from Kamo Primary, Kamo Intermediate and Tania from Core Education. Great professional discussions over lunch at the waterfront and on the way home. 

Here are a couple of gems from our discussions...

Voice QR codes 

Challenge based learning 

So what am I going to take away from this road trip as a teacher who works in a single cell classroom?

* To continue to allow the children to design their own learning environment. I've said it before and I'll say it again - you don't need modern furniture to have a modern learning environment. 

Our current learning environment designed by the children and based around the concept of caves, campfires, watering holes and a sandpit.

* To continue to work towards making learning more personalised. 

* Play around with mixed ability groups. 

* Discuss with syndicate how we can work more collaboratively. 

* Incorporate challenge based learning into strand maths and Adventure Learning.  

* To further explore the use of QR codes within the classroom e.g. voice QR codes, using them for feedback in books, around the classroom, QR code wall with the children's photos and QR codes linking to their label on our class blog. 

* Continue to dream big! 

A big thank you to Ben Soole and Tania Coutts for organising such a worthwhile experience. 

Incredible Years

During the first half of the year I attended Incredible Years for Teachers. Incredible Years included six full day workshops based around positive classroom management strategies, building relationships with students and behaviour management. 

It was an excellent opportunity to connect with teachers from other schools, be reminded of useful classroom management techniques, as well as to come away with some fresh ideas. I found that it also really made me reflect on my teaching practice too. 

I've always focused a lot on rewarding positive behaviour in my classroom and building positive relationships with the children and their families. Carol often reminded us that you get more of what you focus on and I completely agree. Here are some of the ways I encourage and reward positive behaviour in my room. 

Our bucket filling display. See my post on bucket filling for more information. 

Class Do Jo or warm fuzzy awards as we call them are used to reward individual children. At the end of the week we use the random selector to select three winners, who need get to choose something out of the prize box. Visit www.classdojo.com to set up your own account. 

Throughout the week Room 2 earn sparkly pompoms for their jar. Once the jar is full all of the children vote on a whole class reward. This normally happens twice a term. 

I personally found Incredible Years really useful for adding to my bank of strategies for different types of behaviour e.g. engaging a child who would prefer to be rolling around on the floor, instead of doing his work or the bright spark with a short attention span. It was really beneficial to be able to speak to other teachers, in different schools who teach the same year level too. 



Here are the two teaching pyramids that were shared with us. 

Smidgens that I will take away 

• Always remember that you get more of what you focus on. 
• If you focus on successfully achieving the things at the bottom on the pyramid, you will have to use the strategies at the top of the pyramid very often. 
• Use proximity praise more often. 
• Focus on decreasing inappropriate behaviour, prior to using negative consequences e.g. use proximity praise, redirect, provide choices, ignore (but then acknowledge as soon as the right choice is made), use non verbal cues. As I've always believed, negative consequences should always be a last resort. Being provided with a bank of strategies to decrease inappropriate behaviour was really useful, as different strategies work for different children and different situations. 
• Incentives and rewards SHOULD be used!! Although we may love our job we wouldn't work if we didn't get paid. Just the same as most people possibly wouldn't take on more responsibility e.g. leadership roles within a school if they weren't getting paid extra for the time and additional workload. 
• Remember to make more time for the small things e.g. have lunch, a chat in the morning or kick a ball around at play time with a child that is displaying challenging behaviour in the classroom. Make the time to get to know each child as an individual. Those small things will make a big difference. 
• Communicate positive behaviour and achievements with families more regularly, not only when something goes wrong. So important! 

Amesbury School

My focus when visiting Amesbury School was to have a look at their modern learning environments, connect with other teachers that may be doing something similar to Adventure Learning and to see what they were doing with independent learning plans. 

Amesbury is made up of two learning hubs - a junior hub (new entrants - yr 3) and a senior hub (yr 4 - yr 6). In both hubs the children have a lot of ownership of their learning. By the time they reach the senior hub they are self-managing their learning and organising their own timetable. As shown in the photo they have a list of must do activities and a list of can do activities. Whole class activities are already blocked into their timetable. Group workshops e.g. reading, maths are blocked in next. Then the children can decide when they do the rest of their activities. 

The juniors have timetables that look like the one below. I liked how visual they were and how easily different activities could be rearranged. The juniors also have itime where they are given a time slot to work on something that they choose. I think from memory that it was normally based around one of their learning goals, but am not 100% on that. 

Amesbury has large, open spaces filled with modern and flexible furniture. There are also large glass, sliding doors that can be closed off to create a separate space, when needed. Excuse the teddy bears. They're our class mascots. 

They weren't doing anything similar to Adventure Learning at the time. However; I was lucky enough to have a chat with Matt (@hunch_box) about how they run Google 20% Time in the senior hub. Very similar to what I've been doing. 

Smidgens that I will take away

• The idea of the must do and can do lists at the top of children's timetables. 
• Window chalk on windows - great idea! 
• Just because the learning spaces are flexible the furniture doesn't have to be rearranged for every activities. My class found this a novelty at the start. 
• Possibly organise a Twitter chat around Adventure Learning, with our two classes. 
• The concept of itime as a way to initially introduce the start of independent learning plans. Also like junior timetables as a stepping stone to encouraging children to become more self-managing. 

Inquiry at Island Bay School

We spent our first day in Wellington visiting Island Bay School. Island Bay School is a decile 10 school, where the students are very much at the centre of their pedagogy. The purpose of our visit was to further explore their inquiry learning process. Their inquiry model is heavily based on Kath Murdoch's ideas. They've spent a lot of time working with her, within their school. To view a full sized model of their inquiry process you can visit here http://islandbay.ultranet.school.nz/WebSpace/60/ 

Every inquiry big idea is either connected to Health, Science or Social Sciences. They've chosen to do this as these are the curriculum areas that best describe how the world works. The overarching concepts are revisited three times within each child's primary schooling to ensure that layers of understanding are built. 

Each unit also has a provocation. Examples that we saw including 'minibeasts - helpful or harmful?' As well as 'Are we a threat?' The contexts are negotiated with the children, so although a syndicate may all have the same provocation they may all choose a different context e.g. for 'Are we a threat?' one class decided to learn about rainforests, while another selected Antarctica for their context. Then when it comes time for the classes to share and celebrate their learning they can continue to learn from each other. 

Perry spoke about how they spend a lot of time on the 'tuning in' stage, prior to starting a unit. This is when the topic is introduced, hands-on activities are included, kids have conversations and as a teacher you have the opportunity to find out exactly what prior knowledge your children have and where to take them next. Gone are the days where the entire unit was written prior to teaching! 

Inquiry activities should be authentic and meaningful. They should encourage self-discovery e.g. hands-on, interview an expert, experiment, debate. Finding information should not consist of a child just searching for information via Google. I know a couple of years ago I was guilty of this! 

At the end of their inquiry unit the children share and celebrate their learning, as most classes do. The difference with Island Bay is that they then have a stage called going further. It encourages the children to think so what? Now what? I really liked this about their inquiry model as it's about taking the learning that one step further and digging deeper. 

Each classroom also has an inquiry wall where their learning is visually displayed. 

Teachers are provided release time to plan together. There is also money that is put aside so that teachers can take a morning out to learn about the topic they're about to teach (if needed). This may involve going to see an expert in the community so that you have a better understanding of the content knowledge yourself. 

I learnt a lot during this visit and went away completely inspired. I'd like to thank Perry for the time that he took out of his day to share their journey with us. 

Smidgens that I will take away

• Spending more time on the tuning in stage. Once the children have some background knowledge on the topic I am hoping that they will be able to ask more meaningful and in-depth questions. 
• To create an inquiry wall so that the learning is visually displayed and growth in the children's learning is shown. 
• To introduce the going further stage. 
• To introduce a provocation to continuously reflect upon. 

Visit to Stonefields School

At the end of Term 1 I visited Stonefields School to see their Breakthrough learning in action, as well as to have a look at their modern learning environment. Breakthrough is very similar to Adventure Learning. It's personalised inquiry learning where the children are given a large portion of their Friday to work on a project that they're passionate about. 

The children work through this model called the 'Learning Process'. They also talk about how when you are stuck in the pit that this is when the real learning happens. Have a look at the YouTube clip of Courtney explaining the pit. This is something that I have identified as a next step for Adventure Learning. 

Breakthrough projects are tracked using a Google Doc. The Google Doc shows what project each group is working on, what their current goal is and where to next. I was doing something very similar in my own class, but liked the idea of using a Google Doc so that everyone had easy assess to the document. This is something that I personally took away and implemented when I got back to school. 

I didn't take a lot of photos of the hubs as didn't want to have children in any of the photos I took. However; I did manage to take a snapshot of one of the smaller learning spaces within the hub. I liked this concept as the space could either be closed off as a quiet space, or used when children needed a place to be noisy e.g. musical instruments, recording etc. 

 A big thank you to Chris Bradbeer who took a lot of time out of his day to show us around. It was an excellent opportunity to connect with other teachers who were passionate about personalised inquiry learning. Going down to attend Ignite at some stage id definitely on the cards. 

Smidgens I will take away 

• Track children's projects via a Google Doc. 
• Create a visual model for Adventure Learning. 
• Encourage family to come in to work alongside their children and/or share their own talents. 

Literacy Mystery Bus Tour

Last Thursday afternoon just over 100 Northland teachers participated in a literacy mystery bus tour. The first stop was our school - Morningside School. Adam and I had afternoon tea, while everyone wandered through the classes. 

There has been a lot of talk lately around different learning spaces. If you are interested in finding out more about the caves, campfires and watering hole spaces Adam is the person to see. At the start of the term the children redesigned their learning environment, using the concept of cave, campfire and watering hole spaces. Adam does a fantastic job of enabling his year 2 and 3 class to have a lot of student voice. Explanations of the different spaces are also visually displayed throughout his classroom. 

Our next stop was Whangarei Intermediate School. We were warmly greeted by Hayley and then set off to explore the classrooms that were open. High quality examples of children's writing were on display and rich literacy centres were set up that encouraged independent learning. I also took quite a liking to the hand made puppets. This would be a great idea for oral language! Will have to add it to my 'to do' list. 

Our last stop was St Francis Xavier School. All of their classrooms were extremely colourful and rich with literacy. I loved Tracey Alison's 'little things we celebrate' board as well as how her groups are visually displayed in such a creative way. The photo frames have all been painted, with coloured paper inserted into the frame. You can then easily write on the glass using a whiteboard marker. 

Awesome display about how to cook up great writing. Simple step by step instructions with lots of visual prompts. 

Another colourful learning environment that really caught my eye. 

I know I wasn't supposed to be looking for art ideas, but couldn't resist taking a photo of these cute owls! 

If you missed out on the literacy bus tour this year I would highly recommend participating next year. It's a great way to get into other classrooms, meet other teachers and take some snapshots of inspirational ideas. It was a very relaxed and enjoyable evening, with no shortage of pizzas for dinner! Thank you to everyone who helped to organise such an amazing event. We need to do this more often. If you know who's classrooms any of these photos are from please let me know so that I can credit them. 

Smidgens that I will take away 

• To make my classroom displays more literacy rich. 
• Provide more examples of quality writing for my children. 
• Photo frames and whiteboard markers for groups. This would be a great for our fluid groupings! 
• Definitions of caves, campfires and watering holes visually displayed around the room. Like the idea of also including what they could be used for. 
• Handmade sock puppets for oral language. 
• Oh and to add owl art to my 'to do' list :)