We're Back! (And a few freebies on currclick)

We just returned from a wonderful holiday in Sydney and Canberra. We did a lot of really fantastic things and caught up with some friends. I feel rejuvenated and excited for the next term. I'm brimming with ideas!! It has been more than a year since we've been away as a family (we live in a very isolated town; 1200km to the nearest city!) I'll be posting a few pictures from all of our adventures soon (in the next week or so).

We've been busy today (after the flight from Sydney) doing laundry, mowing the lawn, doing the shopping and all that, but just quickly I wanted to post some card kits that are available free on Currclick. Yup, a load of laundry, an email here, mow the lawn, a printout there!!

These cards can be used in pocket charts, but more likely I'll sit on the floor with the kids, talk about them and sort them.

INSTRUMENT FAMILIES
I'll using the instrumental family cards soon in our music class (with friends). These include really nice pictures from the woodwind, percussion, brass, string and keyboard families.

ANIMAL CLASSIFICATION
I have cards already so I didn't download these.

UNITED STATES AND THEIR NEIGHBORS

PERIODIC TABLE OF ELEMENTS (too advanced for my kiddos!)

Here are a couple links I hope will work, if not search currclick for "card kits" or for the "teacher book bag" and you should be able to find them.

http://www.currclick.com/index.php?free=1&filters=0_0_0&skip=5
http://www.currclick.com/index.php?free=1&filters=0_0_0

FARM THEME FREEBIES:

If you're interested in doing a farm theme with your preschooler here are a couple of freebies I noticed:
A sheet of farm animal cards:
http://www.currclick.com/product_info.php?products_id=29485&it=1&filters=0_0_0&free=1
Very cute notebook pages (with lines or without), with adorable pictures. This is a large download, though:
http://www.currclick.com/product_info.php?products_id=30016&it=1&filters=0_0_0&free=1

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By the way last week at that same website with the "homework suggestions" there were some wonderful annotated book lists. What I find great about them is that each title has a brief description of the plot. I think they are wonderful resources. I'm including the links for the upper elementary grades. It includes everything from classics to sci fi and the lists are 19 pages long!

http://www.austinmontessori.org/Forms/Resources/Resources%20Page%20Reading%20Lists/Upper_elementary_booklist.pdf

http://www.austinmontessori.org/Forms/Resources/Resources%20Page%20Reading%20Lists/UE%20Summer%20Reading%20List%202008%20v2.pdf

Here's a short reading list for the early elementary grades:

http://www.austinmontessori.org/Forms/Resources/Resources%20Page%20Reading%20Lists/early_elementary_booklist.pdf