I'm On a Roll With Snowmen

Our hallways were looking pretty bare after all of the holiday decorations came down...so I had to think of something, and think of something quick!  : )

With a quick search on Google, I came across Deep Space Sparkle where I found these adorable snowmen.  The directions say to use tempera paint, but if you know me...paint and my name are hardly found in the same sentence at school! 

I couldn't bear to get the paint out, so I opted for our oil pastels.  I modeled how to draw a snowman up close (just like Deep Space Sparkle did).  They colored in all of the white first so it didn't bleed with the other colors.  Everything was outlined in black oil pastels when they finished.  To make it a little more academic, I added a writing piece which you can download for free by clicking on the image below.



If I was a snowman, I would be still as a statue.  I would sneak around at night.


Don't you just love this one?!?!?!?

No matter what we are working on, this little one always manages to fit in the pink lips, some bling and flowers.  {SMILE}

I think this art project is a keeper!!!  Let me know if you try it!!!  : )

Pumpkin Fun! A glyph and a freebie!

We are beginning a study of pumpkins and their life cycle this week.  Pumpkins make me happy, but sad as well, because that means the snow is going to start flying soon.  Any other northerners feel the same way?

Click on the picture below to see the latest glyph I just posted.  

Happy Pumpkin Days!

Graphics courtesy of Scrappin Doodles.

While you are in my TPT store, don't forget to grab a free copy of the graphing activity I made using BooMallows!  If you download it, please kindly leave feedback...it warms my heart!

The first 3 comments I receive on this post will snag a copy of my pumpkin glyph pack for free!  Just be sure to leave your email address so I can get it to you right away! 

Book Leveling Labels {Made Easy}

Recently our district book leveling chart changed!!!!  And it happened after my kids had already book shopped, had their personal book shopping list and a bag full of leveled books...of course!  I needed to make new book labels, and it had to be done quickly!  I just so happened to have a package of Avery Color Coding Labels in my drawer that are suitable for printing!  It was easy to find the template in Word using the product code, 5472.

I would love to share the documents I made, however, Google Docs will not let me save it as a label document.  It just spreads out all of the typing all over the page.  : (

If you missed my post this summer about book shopping lists {and would enjoy a freebie} click HERE.

Week One...Done...and a Whole Bunch of Fun!

Whew!  How do we always forget how exhausting that first few days back can be?  I have an awesome group of 21 kiddos who all came to me from kindergarten already READING!  They are all at a 3 (C) or higher already!!!  Our all day every day kindergarten program is a blessing!  This year should be amazing!

Hang on tight because there is a whole bunch of first-week-of-school randomness in this post. If you make it to the end...there is a freebie for you! : )
I purchased Abby's (from the Inspired Apple) Fun with Firsties unit and it was worth every penny to get the year started!  We made Jitter Juice, surveyed our friends, made darling backpacks and school house books.  I would highly recommend purchasing it and tucking it away for next year!  She also has a unit for second graders as well.  A few things from the unit are in pictures below. 

 

School House books...my awesome retired-teacher-mom cut all of these out and assembled them for me before school started!

Our adorable backpacks!  My awesome retired-teacher-mom also assembled these for me!  Doesn't the scrapbook paper make them extra adorable?  : )



Not only did we have fun with Abby's unit, we decorated our Reading Notebooks. And yes, my awesome retired-teacher-mom made these for the class as well!



Go to my post HERE to learn how to make your own Reading Notebooks!

We also decorated our canvas pencil pouches with Crayola Fabric Markers.  The kids will keep their pencil and a box of crayons in this pouch.  I have had great luck with these for the past 3 years.  You can purchase them from Discount School Supply for $8.99 for a pack of 12.

Since I have tables, the kids keep their pencil pouches and work folder in a tub at each table.

Scissors and glue sticks are kept in these numbered drawers.  Each table has a drawer that can be removed and brought right over to the table when they need scissors or glue sticks.  I have used this system for over 6 years and it works perfectly!

These are our name tags.  I found the name badge holders at the Dollar Tree last winter!!!  Score!

We read the Enormous Turnip to begin a discussion about cooperation.

Next, we colored people to make a hallway display to illustrate the concept of cooperation. 

All 64 first graders are included in this Enormous display!

If you would like a copy of the person template, you can download it from my TPT store for FREE! If you download it, I would love for you to leave your thanks in the form of feedback in my TPT store. Enjoy!



Oh...and one more thing!!!  My own two kiddos started preschool this week.  My amazing mom (yep...the one who helps with all things school) made these adorable chocolate covered mini-oreo apples for my kids' teachers!  We forgot to take a picture of them in the cute bowls we displayed them in along with their apple-licious cards.  : (

Book Shopping Lists....another freebie

I scheduled this post to come out while I am on a vacation (minus Internet) so that I didn't leave my favorite people (YOU) hanging for too long.  I also just realized that I have been in a pretty giving mode lately...I get all excited when I can grab something for free, and I'm hoping you do, too!  So...here is another piece of free from me to you!  (Yes, I do have a TPT and a Teachers Notebook store...feel free to shop around...my store links are just to your right...) 

Click on the picture below to download a pdf file of Book Shopping Lists.  (The document will open in Google Docs, two shopping lists per page.)  I use these book shopping cards for my kids when they shop for Readers Workshop independent books out of my classroom library.  I print them on card stock, put their names on the backside with a label, laminate them and use a Sharpie to write their lists.  When the child's level changes, you can use a Magic Eraser to erase the Sharpie (as long as it is on the lamination and not under it!) and write in their new levels.  For example, if Luke was independently reading at a level 6, I would fill out his shopping list like this:  

2 books from level 4  (easy)

5 books from level 6 (just right)

1 book from level 8 (challenge)

1 Look Book

The look book is just an extra fun book or magazine for the kids' bags that they may or may not be able to read.  Once I can get back into my classroom, I will take pictures and post about my library.  I am a book addict...my district Reading Coach told me I seriously have to stop buying books or I am going to run out of nooks and crannies to store them!

I am going to print only the bees for my class.  If you want, you could print a little of each so everyone in your class had one to pick from to make them a little more personal.  All clip art is from the one and only, Scrappin Doodles.  Love them!!!

Enjoy!

More Freebies...Frogs, Ladybugs and Bees

I went a little overboard with Scrappin Doodles purchases yesterday and was in a little bit of a creative mood...I needed to make myself some new table number signs to hang on the sides of the table bins (that I have yet to find this year) for my kiddo's tables.  I have a bee theme in my room so I made bee table signs, but I also made ladybug table signs (those are for you...Andrea, from Stepping Into First) and some frog numbers for you amphibian loving teachers out there.  I hope someone can use them!!!  Click on the set you are interested in and they will open in a pdf through Google Docs.  There are enough signs in each set for 6 tables.

 I plan on laminating these with my latest find:

a personal Purple Cow Hot/Cold laminator from Costco.  It was only $18.00 and came with 200 pouches!!!!  I have no idea why I needed it...our school has a perfectly fine commercial sized laminating machine, so please tell me what you use your personal laminator for if you also own one.  : )

One more thing...I had a couple of you who couldn't open my welcome packet in my previous post.  I have emailed it to you...it should be in your inbox.  Also, I had a question about how I embed my documents into my posts.  I have figured it out only for documents in Word format.  Once it is uploaded in Google Docs, it gives you a html code that you have to copy and paste into your post (make sure you select the EDIT HTML tab at the top of your post box before you paste the code in).  I cannot for the life of me find out how to do this for pdf documents that I have uploaded into Google Docs.  If anyone knows, I would love to hear from you in my comment section.  : )

I am off on a vacation on Wednesday and will not have access to the Internet until after the weekend!!!!  AAAHHHHH!!!!!  Stay tuned...I will have some treats for my followers when I return...

Welcome Packet for Parents

I was editing my Welcome Packet/First Grade Handbook for Parents and thought I would share.  I would have appreciated something like this in my earlier years of teaching!  Of course, if I didn't have this by now, I would have appreciated it just as much in the middle of my career.  : )  Feel free to download and change what you need to make it more personal for yourself and your class.  I left it in Word format so you are able to edit it as you see fit.  Enjoy!

**I have been hearing (at various different times) the document below isn't showing up...Google Docs drives me CrAzY!  If you can't see anything below, trying clicking HERE.**
If that doesn't work, email me and I will get it to you.  (I'm away on vacation minus Internet until August 2nd, so please be patient.)

Math Fun with Potato Heads

After playing and building Potato Heads with my own two kids, I brainstormed an addition game to play with my first graders. (School seems to always be on the brain!) Enjoy the free download for your classroom by clicking on the wonderful creation my kids made for Mrs. Potato Head's photo shoot! I would love to hear from you if you download the game by leaving me a comment!

Classroom Celebration Tip and a Freebie

Do you celebrate holidays in your classroom with a celebration of some sort?  Do you have parents sign up to donate items or to volunteer their time at the party?  For years, I would put sign-up sheets out at Curriculum Night (early September) for parents to write their name and phone number if they could donate a food item or their time.  Then...when the holiday finally came, I was digging out those sign-up sheets, making tons of calls (I rarely come across a "room mom" that will help out with that kind of stuff), playing phone tag, and getting very frustrated!  A few years ago discovered a FABULOUS site that makes party planning so much easier!  WIKISPACES!  A week before the party is going to happen, I set up a wiki space and email the link to my parents.  They can sign up at their own leisure and I can check on the site to see the progress.  Click HERE to see an example from last year's Winter Celebration.  Next winter, I will just erase the kids' names and resend the link to my new set of parents.  So easy and it's free!  I use wikispaces for every celebration, for parent teacher conference sign up and more.

I was cleaning out my school files and came across my birthday note to parents.  Our school policy is that birthday treats be sent home.  This birthday note explains the rules and suggests what to send in with the birthday child.  If you are interested, click on the birthday girl for a free download. 



Vistaprint...Free and Fun! Plus a freebie!

As I was cleaning and packing after our last day with kids today, I came across some things I made using Vistaprint for the beginning of the year.  If you have not discovered Vistaprint yet, you are missing the boat!  Vistaprint has thousands of templates to make tons of free and fun "business" type items like labels, postcards, magnets, etc.  Teachers have gotten creative and started using the company to make things for the classroom.  When you make a free item, you only have to pay for shipping!  Shipping is a little crazy high, but totally worth every penny.  Here are a few things I have made:



  These are small business card magnets that I pass out to the parents on Curriculum Night.

 Next, my kiddos' book shopping lists.  I made these using a postcard template.  I laminate them so I can use permanent marker to write the child's level and amount of books I would like them to take.  Using a magic eraser, (someone is genius who invented those!) I change their level each time the kids are retested.  The kids keep these cards in their reading bags.  Below is a picture of the back of the card.  I just added each child's name with a label.

This is the front and back of a post card my kids and parents fill out at our Meet and Greet sessions before school starts.  (I tried and tried rotating that pic. and had no such luck.  I even took the picture straight, but blogger liked to rotate it for some reason.  Don't you hate when that happens?)

One more thing for today...and a freebie.

I explained to my kids that the kindergartners coming next year will want to know all about their new teacher, me!  So, my kids filled out a form about me and their first grade classroom.  I plan on putting them out at our Meet and Greet in the summer for the new families to read.

Click here for the free generic download!

Father's Day Freebie

Father's Day is creeping up around the corner!  We are in school until the Friday before Father's Day, so we cannot leave dad hanging!  : )  We are going to make these adorable tie books for our dads.  I'm posting now in case you want to get a head start on the scrapbook paper covers.  Directions are included in the download (last page of document).  Just click on the picture for the free download.  Enjoy!

Sight Word Fun (and Freebie)

Are your kiddos wiggly at this time of the year?  (I have 12 more days....)  Do you need to get them up and moving, but want to have them learning at the same time?  If you have answered YES to those questions, this game is for you!  

I found these cute dinosaur cut-outs at the Dollar Tree.  I am going to stick sight word labels on each dinosaur for this game that I will call Dinosaur Sight Word STOMP!  : ) 

(You could use any cut-outs or just plain old index cards.)

Split your class into two teams and have your kids take their shoes off so they are in sock feet.  Put all of the sight word cards (in this case, dinosaurs) face up, spread all over the floor in a group.  The first two kids will line up near the edge of the group of dinos.  Call out a sight word and the first child to STOMP on the correct word wins a point for his/her team.  Once the first two kids have a turn, they go to the end of their team's line.  I like to pick up the word once it has been used and make two piles so we can count who wins at the end.  I have attached a document with pre-primer, primer and first grade dolch words.  They are color coded by list (explanation of colors are at the end of the document).  I have also included many extra blank labels in case you want to type some of your own words.  Enjoy!


Also, my $3.00 sale at my TPT store ends tonight, Monday May 30th.  I have Mo Willems' Pigeon fun, Frog and Toad, end of the year activities, and a non-fiction writing unit all for $3.00 each!  See the post below for more details and a direct link.  If you purchase something, kindly remember to leave positive feedback!  Have a wonderful Memorial Day!

 

Money Mini Book

Here is a mini book I made about coins.  It includes coin combinations up to $1.00 and an extension worksheet to go along with the book.  Enjoy! 

PS  Don't forget to become a follower of my blog.  My friend from Stepping Into First and I will be hosting a giveaway when we both reach 75 followers!