Sports Day is fast approaching!

Sports Day is fast approaching! One of the biggest events in the school calendar is just around the corner… Teachers and parents come together to watch pupils take part in the big day! As well as helping children to be more competitive, school sports day is also a chance to enjoy a day in the sunshine, the weather allowing of course.

Physical education and sport is important to the development of children and young people. So why not celebrate achievements in PE by allowing children to show off their skills during a sports day?

It’s good to play sport for health reasons, but there is so much more to it than that. Sports day for children in primary school has been proven to enhance mental and physical development, as well as social skills and even improvements in academic performance. So what are you waiting for? Books yours in the calendar today!

Race Ideas for Sports Day:

– Hockey Relay

– Dribbling a football relay

– Basketball Pass

– Hopped Targets

– Football Dribbling

– Ladder Runs

– Bean Bag Throwing

– Running Races

– Egg and Spoon Race

We have the perfect range of Sports rewards to make every sporting superstar feel special. The range includes Badges, Stickers, Certificates, CertifiCards, Personalised and even more!

Shop our sports range for much more products here!

Step away from the highlighter!

Michael Tidd wrote a fascinating article in this week’s Teach Primary Magazine, and it got us thinking….He talks about the importance of verbal feedback in a classroom and we completely agree with him that written feedback is good however verbal feedback is key.

Marking serves a purpose, we understand that in a classroom of 30 plus pupils you cannot give verbal feedback to every single child, and you also cannot see what every child is thinking or writing…and so you need to take work home with you to assess properly, but even then you should be careful of seeing written feedback as the only option. This is the point Michael tries to get across in his article, to step away from the highlighter and offer more verbal feedback to your pupils!

If six children in your class are still not correctly punctuating speech, then is your time best spent writing out an explanation five times over, or could you use that feedback from their work to find another way..? If they didn’t understand it when you taught it, is a scrawled note in red pen going to make all the difference? Written marking should be a tool of last resort.

Primary Teaching Services has always been a fan of verbal Feedback, we introduced a stamper for marking explaining verbal feedback given, and since this stamper hit our shelves it has always been our best seller.

Our stamper is only £4.50 incl VAT and the more you buy, the less you pay. Our motivational aids have been created to help you and make marking easier and feedback better for pupils. If a stamper is not for you, we also have feedback ranges in Stickers from just £1.32 for 56 stickers!

What are you waiting for? Shop our website now

P.s.

Follow us on social media for updates, new product launches and competitions! If you have any questions regarding our products or blogs please do not hesitate to contact us at chat@primaryteaching.co.uk

The apostrophe man…

Rumour has it there is an apostrophe vigilante on the loose! The apostrophe man…

He operates at night, under cover, he finds the misuse of apostrophes in public life and fixes it. The man has corrected tens of missing and misplaced apostrophes on shop banners across Bristol over the past 13 years

He climbs a step ladder at night, armed with a custom-made “apostrophiser” (or should that be “apostrophizer”?) and some sticky-back plastic, he gets to work on shop signs that, for example, may read “Gentlemens Hairdresser’s”. The business owner arrives the next morning to find one apostrophe added and the other taken away. How would you react?

The apostrophe perdant, who is yet to reveal his identity, claims his efforts are needed to bring an end to the improper use of English. “People might say what I am doing is wrong, but it is more of a crime to have the apostrophes wrong in the first place”

When it was put to him that what he was doing was probably illegal, his defence was staunch. “I’m sticking on a bit of sticky-back plastic. It’s more of a crime to have the apostrophes wrong.”

The Apostrophiser is on BBC Radio 4 at 8pm on Monday if you would like to hear more on this story…

Let us know your opinion on the apostrophe man by emailing us at chat@primaryteaching.co.uk. Do you agree to his work or do you disagree, and why? We will be talking about your opinions in next week’s blog so make sure to email us as soon as possible. We look forward to hearing from you!

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Welcome to PTS’s very first blog competition

Welcome to PTS’s very first blog competition, In case you hadn’t noticed, we post weekly updates on our blog site to help, guide, and inform our lovely customers of new product launches, and particular calendar events that we accommodate for. Check this site weekly or follow our Facebook page to read our latest blog and get quick and easy craft / cooking ideas as well as tips for everyday life!

Now for the fun part…We are super excited to be giving away two Scented Personalised sticker sheets,  only this time it’s through our blog page!

For one entry into the competition all you have to do is comment on this blog your favourite PTS product!

To enter the competition twice, simply share our blog onto your Facebook page and tag us!

Obviously the more entries you have, the more chance of winning!

The Scented Personalised Sticker sheet up for grabs can be seen here

The competition will close on Monday 3rd April at 12 noon and we will contact the lucky winner to get your stickers dispatched to you!

If you have any queries you can contact us via our Facebook page or by emailing us at chat@primaryteaching.co.uk

Good luck!!!

St Patrick’s Day is fast approaching!

On the 17^th March, everybody is a little bit Irish…

We have put together a few simple craft ideas to celebrate the occasion with your pupils and we would love to see your versions of them! If you would like to share your children’s artwork – simply email them to us at chat@primaryteaching.co.uk and we will feature them in our next blog and on our social media pages. Happy painting and happy St Patrick’s Day!!!

You will need:

Green paint Paper Black pen

Instructions:

Print four green handprints in a circle, palms outwards and fingers together. (For a traditional shamrock rather than a four leaf clover, you can of course do just three handprints). These are your leaves.

Add a line with the side of your hand for the stalk.

When the paint is dry, outline with black pen

And it’s done!

This paper plate shamrock makes a satisfying kids craft for St Patrick’s Day, with painting, cutting and sticking involved!

You will need:

3 small paper plates Green paint Green glitter glue Sticky tape Green card

Instructions:

Paint the front of the plates green and leave to dry.

Cut out a ‘v’ shape from the edge of each plate and draw on a central vein with glitter glue. Use the photo below to help.

When the plates are dry, arrange them into a shamrock shape and glue or tape together. Glue or tape on a green card rectangle as a stem.

And its done!

The children will enjoy making these rainbow castanets for St Patrick’s Day – remember there’s a pot of gold at the end of every rainbow!

You will need:

Paper plate Paints Lids from plastic milk/juice bottles Strong glue

Instructions:

Paint circles around the back of the paper plate working inwards from red to orange to yellow to green to blue to purple. Leave to dry.

Fold the plate in half (with the paint to the outside) and with strong glue stick milk bottle lids along the inside edge of the plate, making sure to leave a gap a couple of inches either side of the fold line.

When the glue is dry, play your castanets by holding between your thumb and fingers and clicking together.

Secondary school transition.

Parents in most parts of England received the news of which school their children will attend last week!

Monday 27^TH February was officially national offer day. After sleepless nights, parents and children across the land raced to the door for the post in the morning.

However, this hasn’t been great news for every parent, a government survey shows parents are finding it harder to get their children into the secondary school they wanted.

The biggest fall in first-preference offers between 2011 and 2016 was in Blackpool, down 19.6 percentage points. It also had the largest drop for overall preferences, down eight percentage points.

The big move to secondary school can be daunting for not just the children, but parents too! Watching them move from their cosy local primary schools to a brand new big school in September is a major milestone and we have noted a few tips to try and help settle both the children and parents and prepare you for the big move!

Firstly, it helps to be able to visualise a new situation, so if your child hasn’t yet seen the school they will be attending in September, it may be worth organising a visit before the end of term.

Secondly, make sure you have all the required uniform and PE items plus stationery, bags and books well in advance – all labelled of course! It’s a good idea to involve your child in this process, as a way of preparing for the organisational skills that will be needed at secondary school…

Also, organisation really is key for the first few weeks whilst your child settles in, help prepare their uniform in the morning, bags and their books then gradually let the child take over. Don’t forget breakfast!

Prepare a quiet area at home for study time and homework, especially if your child isn’t used to doing much homework. This will help with scheduling.

And lastly, we encourage you to enjoy this time! Be sympathetic, but supportive, relaxed, but on hand when they need you! And remember, children sense how adults feel. If you show you are nervous, chances are they will be too.

We would love to hear how you are preparing for the secondary school milestone, and would like to see pictures of your little ones trying on their uniforms and showing them off with pride! You can send them to us here:  chat@primaryteaching.co.uk and we will feature them in our 1^st week at secondary school blog in September!

Valentine’s Day is just around the corner!

Valentine’s Day is considered a holiday in the UK that children benefit from and love to get involved with! It is a great excuse for a crafty session with pupils – after all there is nothing better as a parent than getting a little something made by someone you love.
Below we have listed a few craft ideas for you to share with your pupils, suitable for all ages and ability!

Heart hand stamps

What you’ll need:
• Red paint
• White paper

Step one:
Cover the side of the child’s closed fist in red paint as shown.
Step two:
Stamp onto a piece of white paper to create a half heart shape.
Step three:
Using the alternate hand, repeat steps one and two. You can use these heart hand stamps to make cards, cute gift tags and wrapping paper – or even frame one to save as a cute keepsake.

Thumb bodies

What you’ll need:
• Red paint
• Paper or card
• A thumb

Simply press thumb into paint and stamp onto paper. Then draw two legs, two arms, and a smiley face to create your thumb body as shown in the picture below.

If you’re feeling really brave, you could try our love bug craft idea

What you’ll need:
• Red paint
• Paper or card
• A foot

Simply press the pupil’s foot into red paint and stamp onto paper, then let your pupil’s imagination run wild as they create their bugs like the one shown in the picture.

You could also create a heart stamp using a card board toilet roll by simply bending the middle into a heart shape and dipping into paint.
Send us your creations to chat@primaryteachingservices.co.uk and we will feature a handful in our next blog and social media updates.

(Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com)