Last Friday, after school, an email came through to all staff advising that we were now all on 'photocopying rations' due to the school budget! And we are only 3/4's of the way through the school term. It is going to be one long 11 week term now.
I guess that the Gonski review for funding needs to be implemented quickly, as my school is in desperate need of extra funding for the basics. Considering we are only allowed 5 sheets per student per week it isn't really hard to cut back, so now is the time for me to whip up some work centres that don't require any sheets. Most of my literacy stations have an accompanying activity sheet, so I need to think quickly.
First off is a Silly Sentence activity that Monica has at her TpT store, and I adapted it to fit in with what my class is learning at the moment, pulling in a lot of our sight words, and changed the American words to Australian (Mom to Mum).
Each Silly Sentence is based around the Who, What, Where, When model, and colour coded to match. Using the spinner each student has to collect 1 piece of the sentence from each colour, before creating their sentence. Now normally I would have the kids then record their sentence on the accompanying sheet and illustrate, but for now it will have to be completed in their literacy books. Guess it will now be extra handwriting practice between the red and blue lines!
The spinner is an easy one that works every time. The child uses a pen and a paperclip and simply flicks the paperclip. It spins soooo easily. Covers a little of fine motor for the day!
The next one I pulled together over the weekend is based around the School's Multilit words.
There are 300 words in lists of 10 (nothing new there!) and each list is coloured in the same colours across the school. I laminated up the first 100 words to display in my room this week.
I am also planning on taking deeper look at how ...
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... has organising her sight words. She has put together a brilliant expanding folder to organise the different levels.
So I can see lots of rainbow writing, playdough words etc happening in group time, all without the dreaded photocopied piece of paper.
Now I am on the asking side, I am after any and all of your best and fun ideas for literacy centres that don't involve photocopying. Activities that you rely on or find that the class just love....
I get where you are coming from Judith. We don't have rationing at our school yet, however I have been at schools that really curb photocopying. I did end up getting my kids into LOTS of copying from the board, using mini whiteboards if I didn't think it was absolutely necessary to have a hard copy. Actually I think it really benefits them to have to concentrate on setting out properly in their workbooks. Also when I had yr 1 in QLD I sacrificed a few blue and red lined books for writing paper and got them to glue these into their scrapbooks if they were not using their journals or genre writing books. Good luck
ReplyDeleteTania
Mrs Poultney's Ponderings
I feel you Judith! We only get 2000 credits a year (500 a term) - it is soooooo tricky! Some trips to Officeworks are required at times! We make a few copies and laminate them so they can use whiteboard markers on worksheets. We also put a lot of things on the IWB and then they draw them up in their book - things can end up a bit messy!
ReplyDeletePlease let me know if you want anything from my TpT store - I added a few new things today - and I owe you a freebie! Please email me at aahislop963@gmail.com (I thought I had your email address!)
Thanks,
Alison
Hi Judith,
DeleteI've just uploaded some sight word bingos and flashcards if they are of any use!
Alison
Wow! I thought our school was harsh on the copies. Good luck with it. Thanks for stopping by my blog. I'm excited to read a blog from someone down under.
ReplyDeleteI'm your newest follower!
-Jeremy
Mr. Michelbook's Classroom