Can't Get Enough of Banners and a Freebie!

I started by creating an Eric Carle themed banner for my classroom and then I realized that I just couldn't get enough of banners.

If I can get to the school laminator this week, I will be showing you how I am using this in my classroom ASAP. My thoughts for the banners right now are to color code subject walls in my classroom. Red and Multi will be my math corner. Green and Multi for the word wall and reading. Blue and Multi for science/social studies. We'll see where I go once I get started.

Here are the other banners I have put together. All banners come with all of the letters in the alphabet in all colors, plus an exclamation point and blank banners for a create your own. If you are interested in any of the banners please feel free to click the pictures. They will take you to my Teachers Pay Teachers page or click here. Also if you would like a banner theme made let me know. I might be able to whip something up for you. :)

Eric Carle: This one also comes with the caterpillar and the butterfly in all colors.

Blue and Red: I thought this one would be great for a Nautical Theme or Dr. Seuss.

 

 Bold and Bright Chevron: I just can't get enough of Chevron!

 

Blue and Green Polka Dots: Here's that freebie I was talking about. My old classroom was a blue and green ocean theme so I added a banner to remember the good old days. The only thing I ask is that if you snag this freebie, please follow me on my blog, Blog Lovin', or Teachers Pay Teachers. :)

Five for Friday: June 28th

I'm Linking up with Doodles Bugs Teaching again for the last Five for Friday for a while. Sniff, Sniff..

1. My wonderful friends came over on Wednesday for what I fondly call Cheese Night. We do Cheese Night every time my wonderful, allergic to dairy, man has to be out of town. Each person brings something cheesy over and as you can imagine, it is DELICIOUS! This Wednesday, we sat on the patio and let me tell you, the next morning my legs were eaten alive. Mosquitoes are the worst! I am so itchy. :(

 

 2. I've been really thinking about the beginning of next school year. I will be teaching full day Kindergarten and I worry about how tired we will be by the end of the day. Please note that I used the word we. Then, I started thinking of ways to add in afternoon breaks that took us outside but were still educational. I started with sidewalk chalk ideas and then did bean bags. Click on the links to see what I came up with. Also, please share with me what you do to break up the day.

 

3. I love send my kiddos on what I call a Walk About. This means there is something around the room that they need to find. I use this with all subject areas. This last year to review shapes, we went on a Shape Hunt. I got these shape posters, free I should add, from Intentional Momma and posted them all around the room. Then, I made up a page for the kiddos to write the names of the shapes as they found them. Click here to get a freebie Shape Hunt page of your own.

I have the kiddos use a white board for the paper so they can walk and write.

I love how this friend is checking to see what shape she needs to go find next. So professional!



4. I have turned into a frame addict. I love making things fun and cute. I was as pleased as punch when I found Teaching Super Power on Teachers Pay Teachers. I have been using her frames everywhere. These green frames are a prime example. She has lots of freebies and the frames are just too fun. I love the chalkboard look and the bright colors.

 

 

 5. I'm sure many of you have heard that as of July 1, 2013 Google Reader is going away.  Bloglovin' is a site that will put all of your favorite blogs in one place and it is super easy to add all of your favorite blogs. All you have to do is sign in and hit accept. I did it is less that 2 minutes. I added a Follow Us button on the side of the page and I would be honored if you would follow us on Bloglovin'. :)

 

Happy Friday!

 



Priscilla

Snowman Writing and Craft

We wrapped up our week of snowy fun, minus the snow, by writing about our favorite snowman. The kids had to write about their snowman first and then make a snowman that matched their writing. They are just too stinky cute!

This one has icicle hair. I just about died. Kids are so creative!

For the snowman, all the kiddos had to do was trace a large paper plate, a small paper plate, and a little plastic cup onto a large piece of white construction paper. Then, I set out colored construction paper scrapes, black beans, buttons, and sequins. The kids were so creative and did an amazing job.

If you are wondering, why yes those are earmuffs.

Here is a copy of the writing page if you want to make a snowman of you very own.

My Snowman

 

Thanks!
Priscilla

Snowmen at Night

Let me tell you, I love snowmen. I love their funny faces made with carrots, buttons, string, sticks, rocks. I love their scarfs, mittens, and hats. I love the way they can make a yard instantly become whimsical. I think you get the point. One of my favorite books to teach around this time is Snowmen at Night. It is a hillarious story that tells about what snowmen do when everyone is asleep at night. It is a fun read and keeps the winter magic going even after Christmas.

Click on book cover to a link to Amazon.

Here are a couple of freebies that I am going to have my kiddos do this week during our snowman unit. Enjoy!

Label a Snowman

Snowman Spelling

 Thanks for coming by!

Priscilla

Dive into First Grade

I have been so blessed to have had the opportunity to go on another dive trip. We did our first dive trip 3 years ago and this last November, we went on a week long adventure to the island of Roatan just off of Honduras. Here a picture of me next to Mr. Bud; one of the wreck dives by our resort. :)



When I came back, I of course had to dive into Thanksgiving but after all of the pilgrim fun, I was able to take some time to bring the ocean to my landlocked classroom. We spent the week writing and reading about the ocean animals and at the end of the week were able to pick our favorite animals to create published writing and pieces of art. We put all of our ocean life together to make a coral reef that I would be all for diving!

Isn't it cute! The kids got to pick their favorite animal they wrote and learned about for the week, make a final draft of their writing, and then create an animal out of construction paper. Of course...you will notice all the sharks at the top. Kids are just fascinated with them. I could spend a whole week just on sharks. Here are some close ups of my kiddos work.

 




When we do our writing, I split the kids into differentiated writing groups that are working on specific targets/standards. As a group, we do an example writing together and discuss the writing target and previous worked on targets as we create a descriptive writing piece. Then the kids go and work independently on a piece of their own. Since we are describing something, we use a web to brainstorm out descriptive words before writing about the animal or object. The below picture shows the group work together on the left. The student then gets to pick out an animal of his or her own to write about. I like to give the kids something tangible to take back to their tables for independent work so for this unit, I used cut out pictures of ocean critters from my dive magazines.

At the end of the week, the kids go back and review all of their writing and pick their very favorite writing. Once they have picked it, we go through and edit the work together. That is the orange pen marks you see on the picture on the right. Then, they write up their final draft. Isn't this clownfish the cutest!  

 

Here is a freebie of the writing page, if you want your kiddos make an ocean writing of their own.  Here is also another freebie for a seashell writing page that we did after our ocean unit to tie into our life science unit.

 

Enjoy!

 

Priscilla 

 

 

 

100 Chart Pumpkin

With Halloween landing on a Monday {ugh!} and an involved party planned by some of my amazing parents, there wasn't much time left in the day to squeeze in some math. So....I created an easy 100 chart mystery picture for my students to complete. The fun part is that this activity is super easy to differentiate! Pass out blank 100 charts, charts with missing numbers or a completed 100 chart depending on your kids' abilities. Plus, you can give the numbers in so many ways it is bound to keep their interest. Announce numbers to color in tens/ones, as addition/subtraction sentences, word problems, 1+/-, 2+/-, 10 +/-...you get the point :)

After coloring in the numbers, a cute little pumpkin appears.

**Side Note** I plan on using the interactive 100 chart found in the Smart Board Notebook gallery to follow model. This is what you are seeing in the image above, I left the side bar open so you could hopefully get a better idea of where to find it!

{Download a copy of the coloring instructions HERE!}

Jennifer

Yum..a sweet candy corn man

Whew...I don't know how you ladies do it! I am having such a hard time keeping up with the blogging and teaching, now that school has settled into a bit of a routine I am ready to jump back in!

I have Halloween on the mind, as I'm sure you do too with only 6 short days to go! I just wanted to share a cute and easy art/writing project my class completed this week to get into the spirit of Halloween.

First we made a torn paper candy corn man, inspired by this post from Made for 1st Grade's Candy Corn themed unit. We added our own spin by cutting our own triangle shape without a tracer and adding torn pieces of orange, yellow, and white paper. The kids choose to snazzy their Candy Corn Man by adding a face, arms, legs and of course a spectacular pair of shoes :)

The following day, we added a poem about candy corn. I deleted the color words as well as the missing verb in the last line. The kids enjoyed filling in the missing color words... but we had to keep in mind what colors needed to go where in order for the poem to rhyme. The poem is a short one I whipped up so it's nothing special, but the kids liked choosing the verb. Overall, it was an easy project which encourages individuality, plus it keeps those copy machines a little less busy!

Candy corn,

candy corn,

orange, yellow, and white,

I sure hope I ___ you on Halloween night!

{Download the Candy Corn poem I wrote HERE!}

Jennifer

Freebies you NEED to check out!

Wow, the first week has come and gone and I am loving my new class! I'm tired, but so excited to incorporate all of my new blogging ideas.  I have printed so many spectacular signs, games, and my wish list on Amazon is becoming monstrously long!  For this post I just wanted to link you up with some of my favorite ideas and freebies I have printed from all of those amazing teaching blogs out there via googledocs.  Hope you can find something useful too!

Super cute Daily 5 Posters from kindertastic's cute blog...there are large and small versions for both pocket charts or anchor charts. I posted mine on some cute scrap booking paper at the top of our I chart.  They not only look great but provide a nice visual for beginning readers. You can find them here!  

Here are some G-R-E-A-T reading strategy posters.  They can be found at The First Grade Parade...of course. There are two different versions to choose from... Letter size and she also also included a bookmark for kid friendly referencing too! Cara has such darn cute stuff to post every week. {how she does it all is inspirational to say the least!}  Love, Love, Love! Click here for her reading strategy post.

I have also found Deanna Jump's monthly calendars super handy at Mrs's Jump's Class.  I am planning to keep a copy in my Cafe binder to help me stay on track with all of those conferences. You can click here for the link!

Those are three of my current favorites...stay posted for more :)

 Jennifer

Owl Themed Rules

Here are some cute rules posters I made using my classroom theme. I created the rules as an acrostic poem with the word OWLS. The letters stand for:

O = Our classroom is kept clean
W = We keep our hand, feet, and objects to ourselves.
L = Listen to our teacher and our classmates
S = Speak softly and respectfully

I used clip art from Lettering Delights (Thanks Deanna Jump!) and after I they were printed, I glued them onto cute scrap booking paper. I hung them near the fun wall decal I bought from the kids bedroom section at Target (in the picture below!). If you think you will be able to use them, download the rules now!

{To get a copy for click the photo!}

Here is a photo of how they look in my classroom. I think they look pretty cute!

Jennifer