Rainbow Skies for Teachers

It's 3:30pm, the bell's gone, and your to-do list hasn't noticed. What if you could talk your ideas out loud, hand the mess to a thinking partner, and walk out with a plan for tomorrow?
Rachel McKay spent 15 years in NSW classrooms and she's now helping educators get confident with AI. In this chat, she shows us how Claude can save you hours without ever replacing your judgment. We talk differentiation, report comments, making lessons relevant to the real world, and the privacy habits every teacher needs. You'll leave with practical ideas you can try this week. 
In this episode, we cover:
Why choosing one AI tool and treating it as a thinking partner beats decision fatigue
Capturing ideas by voice on your commute, then turning them into action items and resources
How annotated assessment examples can go from three hours to about 15 minutes
Differentiating tasks for different ability levels without starting from scratch
Making lessons stick with current events, like turning the AFL Grand Final into a case study
Reverse engineering your prompts and giving Claude specific feedback so it improves
What never to put into an AI tool, and the privacy settings to check today
We'd love to hear from you. What's the one task you'd happily hand to your Ai ‘thinking partner?’ Come and tell us over on Instagram.
Rainbows ahead, 
Alisha and Ashleigh

Enjoying the Podcast?
If you're loving Rainbow Skies for Teachers, we'd be so grateful if you could subscribe, leave a review and share this episode with a teacher friend. Your support helps us reach more educators and continue inspiring teachers around the world.
Resources mentioned in this episode:
Rachel's FREE prompt builder for teachers 
Check out our FACT FLUENCY PATHWAY (with the digital class games for multiplication and division)
Connect with Rachel on Instagram or at buildwithrach.com.au
About Today's Guest 
Rachel McKay spent 15 years in NSW secondary classrooms teaching PDHPE and CAFS, and she was always the first to try a new tool and the one helping colleagues get confident with it. Today she puts that same teaching instinct to work in a new way. Through Build With Rach, her AI implementation consultancy, she helps businesses and education organisations adopt AI by treating it as a capacity-building challenge rather than a technology problem.
Connect with Rachel on Instagram @_rachelmckay or at buildwithrach.com.au.
About the Podcaster: Ashleigh Smith
Ashleigh Smith is an experienced primary educator, former school leader and Co-Founder of Rainbow Sky Creations. With almost 20 years in education, Ashleigh has taught in Australia and internationally in Dubai, UAE. Today, she draws on her classroom and leadership experience to create practical, engaging resources that save teachers time and make learning meaningful and fun. A passionate cheerleader for teachers, Ashleigh is all about helping educators work smarter, not harder. She also co-hosts the Rainbow Skies for Teachers podcast, sharing practical ideas, strategies and encouragement with primary teachers around the world. Connect with her on Instagram or LinkedIn.
Let's hear from you! Text us!

One kind note can change someone's whole day. And when your students see that for themselves, kindness stops being a poster on the wall and starts being something they actually do. In this episode, we're sharing our favourite ways to bring World Kindness Day into your classroom. The ideas are simple and meaningful, and you can use them all year, not just for one day.
We chat about where World Kindness Day came from and how to help students define kindness in their own words. We share role plays that get them practising kind choices, plus a stack of free resources to make it easy for you. 
In this episode, we cover:
How World Kindness Day began 
Explore what kindness looks like, sounds like and feels like
Helping students think beyond school to kindness at home and in their community
Role plays, scenarios and post-it note discussions to practise kind choices
A paper jar compliments activity your students will love
Our new kindness yo-yo craft 
How social media has helped kindness movements spread
If you want a classroom that feels a little warmer, this one's for you!
Rainbows ahead,
Alisha and Ashleigh

Enjoying the Podcast?
If you're loving Rainbow Skies for Teachers, we'd be so grateful if you could subscribe, leave a review and share this episode with a teacher friend. Your support helps us reach more educators and continue inspiring teachers around the world.
Resources mentioned in this episode:
FREE Kindness Flyers
FREE Christmas Kindness Flyers
FREE Hey You cards
FREE "In a world where you can be anything, be kind" banner
FREE Bucket Filler lesson
Compliment Jar Lesson
World Kindness Day PowerPoint and Yo-Yo Craft

About Rainbow Sky Creations
Ashleigh Smith and Alisha Hughes are experienced primary educators and the co-founders of Rainbow Sky Creations. With more than 30 years of combined classroom experience teaching in Australia and internationally, they create practical, engaging resources that help primary teachers save time and make learning meaningful and fun. Together, they also host the Rainbow Skies for Teachers podcast, sharing classroom ideas, teacher tips and real-world strategies with educators around the world. Connect with us on Instagram or LinkedIn.
Let's hear from you! Text us!

You know the student who stares at a blank page and tells you they’ve got no ideas? Matt Stanton reckons that’s almost never a creativity problem. It’s a confidence problem.
Matt is a bestselling children’s author and illustrator, and in this chat he unpacks what actually gets kids writing. Time to think. Room to move. Permission to speak or draw the idea before writing a single word. If creative writing has become the hardest part of your week, you’ll walk away with a few things you can try on Monday. Have a listen.
In this episode, we cover:
Why confidence, not talent, is what sits between most kids and their creativity
Matt’s belief that everyone is creative, and that the job is finding each kid’s key
Matt’s alternative to the introduction, complication, conclusion scaffold
The trigger points that shut writers down before they’ve started, and how to take them away
Why letting kids move their bodies and get outside first leads to better ideas
Drawing as a real way to plan and generate ideas
Putting joy back at the centre of creative writing
Tell us the truth, what trips your class up most in creative writing? Come and share it with us over on Instagram, we love hearing what’s really going on in your classrooms.
Rainbows ahead,
Alisha and Ashleigh
Enjoying the Podcast?
If you’re loving Rainbow Skies for Teachers, we’d be so grateful if you could subscribe, leave a review and share this episode with a teacher friend. Your support helps us reach more educators and continue inspiring teachers around the world.
About Today’s Guest
Matt Stanton is a bestselling children’s author and illustrator who has sold more than one million books in Australia. His middle-grade series FUNNY KID debuted as the #1 Australian kids’ book and has fans all around the world. He has twenty picture books to his name, including the award-winning THIS IS A BALL series, and over twenty-five novels including the immensely popular graphic novel series, THE ODDS, BORED, DUCK and FLUFF. Matt lives on the south coast of NSW with his wife, bestselling author Beck Stanton, their four kids and a giant dog.
Resources mentioned in this episode:
Episode 153: We Asked an 11-Year-Old What Teachers REALLY Need to Know
Connect with Matt on Instagram or TikTok
Find Matt’s Website here: mattstanton.net
Ash’s favourite Matt Stanton series: Fart Monster and Me
Matt’s favourite read aloud: Elephant and Piggie series

About the Podcaster: Ashleigh Smith
Ashleigh Smith is an experienced primary educator, former school leader and Co-Founder of Rainbow Sky Creations. With almost 20 years in education, Ashleigh has taught in Australia and internationally in Dubai, UAE. Today, she draws on her classroom and leadership experience to create practical, engaging resources that save teachers time and make learning meaningful and fun. A passionate cheerleader for teachers, Ashleigh is all about helping educators work smarter, not harder. She also co-hosts the Rainbow Skies for Teachers podcast, sharing practical ideas, strategies and encouragement with primary teachers around the world. Connect with her on Instagram or LinkedIn.
Let's hear from you! Text us!

You know the moment… you ask 6 x 7 and half the class starts counting on their fingers while the other half either guesses or just looks at you with a blank stare. We've been there too, which is exactly why we spent months building something to fix it. 
In this episode, we're unpacking our brand new Fact Fluency Pathway for multiplication and division. It's a simple 10 minute daily routine that helps your students recall their facts accurately, quickly and flexibly, without eating into the rest of your math block.
We walk you through the “FACTS” routine day by day, share why we built it from our own classroom experience, and explain how it keeps every student working at the right level. If you teach Grade 3 and up and you're tired of the finger counting, this one's for you.
In this episode, we cover:
What fact fluency actually means
The three skills we want students to build when it comes to fluency
The FACTS routine: Focus, Apply, Connect, Target and Show Your Speed
How target cards give students ownership of their own tricky facts
Built-in differentiation so every student works at their level
How the pathway runs for 32 weeks at 10 minutes or less a day, with a pre-test to find each student's starting point
Which times table do your students find the trickiest? After trying our new fact fluency pathway this question will be a lot harder to answer! 
Rainbows ahead,
Alisha and Ashleigh
Enjoying the Podcast?
If you're loving Rainbow Skies for Teachers, we'd be so grateful if you could subscribe, leave a review and share this episode with a teacher friend. Your support helps us reach more educators and continue inspiring teachers around the world.
Resources mentioned in this episode:
Fact Fluency Pathway for Multiplication and Division ([LINK NEEDED])
About Rainbow Sky Creations
Ashleigh Smith and Alisha Hughes are experienced primary educators and the co-founders of Rainbow Sky Creations. With more than 30 years of combined classroom experience teaching in Australia and internationally, they create practical, engaging resources that help primary teachers save time and make learning meaningful and fun. Together, they also host the Rainbow Skies for Teachers podcast, sharing classroom ideas, teacher tips and real-world strategies with educators around the world. Connect with us on Instagram or LinkedIn.
Let's hear from you! Text us!

Most of us were taught that play is what kids get once the real work is done. Liz reckons that's backwards. Play can be the learning itself, and for kids aged 7 to 11 it's often the quickest way in.
Liz is the founder of Playful Learning Games, and in this chat she walks us through games you can run tomorrow with a deck of cards, a handful of dice and a stack of post-it notes. No laminating, no budget, no prep. She also takes on every pushback we've all made. No time. No space. It'll be chaos… it actually turns out play tends to settle a class rather than wind it up!
In this episode, we cover:
Why play works best as the learning itself, not a reward at the end of the lesson
The honest answer to "I don't have the time, the space or the resources"
How play-based math sits alongside curriculum pressure and test prep
Games using only a deck of cards or dice 
Fun Place Value games you can try with your class
Teaching fractions with paper plates and Play-Doh
Why running the same game all week is what makes your expectations stick
What's the topic your class switches off for every single year? Tell us over on Instagram and we'll see if we can dig up a game for it.
Rainbows ahead,
Alisha and Ashleigh
Enjoying the Podcast?
If you're loving Rainbow Skies for Teachers, we'd be so grateful if you could subscribe, leave a review and share this episode with a teacher friend. Your support helps us reach more educators and continue inspiring teachers around the world.
Resources mentioned in this episode:
Connect with Liz on Instagram, Facebook or TikTok
Playful Learning Games website: www.playfullearninggames.co.uk
2 Weeks 2 Learn website and Instagram
Rainbow Sky’s UNO Math Games.

About Today's Guest
Liz is the founder of Playful Learning Games, which provides printable games and resources to support the teaching of English and math for 6 to 11 year olds, through play. She believes we should all learn through play, no matter our age.
About the Podcaster: Ashleigh Smith
Ashleigh Smith is an experienced primary educator, former school leader and Co-Founder of Rainbow Sky Creations. With almost 20 years in education, Ashleigh has taught in Australia and internationally in Dubai, UAE. Today, she draws on her classroom and leadership experience to create practical, engaging resources that save teachers time and make learning meaningful and fun. A passionate cheerleader for teachers, Ashleigh is all about helping educators work smarter, not harder. She also co-hosts the Rainbow Skies for Teachers podcast, sharing practical ideas, strategies and encouragement with primary teachers around the world. Connect with her on Instagram or LinkedIn.
Let's hear from you! Text us!