Freebie

Here are some bookmarks I made for my students. Enjoy!

Download at https://docs.google.com/?tab=mo&authuser=0&pli=1#home

 Check out my other items at TPT.

Scrapbooking

If you are into inexpensive digital clip art, srapbooking clip art, downloadable crafts printables  and the like, check out the Digital Crafting Mall.  It has some great designers and some very cute clip art.

New Look

I am changing grade levels and the style of my blog.  I will now be posting all the great things we are doing in Second Grade.

Parent Contact

I find it is becoming more and more critical to keep records of when you have contact with parents.  I made a form that I keep by my phone.  I fill it in every time I have a call a parent. If a parent stops in to talk to me I also make a note of it and just mark that the contact was in person and what the conversation was about. It is a good way to cover yourself if a parent says they had no idea their child was having a problem.

Click here to download.

Story Wands

What better way to get children excited about reading than with story wands that kids will love to use! The wands feature simple questions that explore plot, character, setting and more. Just pass them out at reading time to get kids thinking about story elements and building comprehension skills as they go! Cut out the stars, laminate and attach to paint sticks. Download here.

Classroom Jobs

This is the easiest way I've found to do classroom jobs. I was doing a lot of tidying up and organizing each day and thought that my 1st graders could do most of these things with a little training. I gave every child in my class a job. This builds community and responsibility. Children have a new job assignment every week. I keep track on pocket chart. I rotate the students by taking the last job listed and move it to the first spot. All other jobs are moved ahead to the next job. We also do some "job-sharing" where two children do a big job together. You just have to print the icons and match them to your students. 24 different jobs available.

Classroom Helpers Icons 

Place Value

I got an idea from Teacher Tipster Mr. Smith on You Tube that I use.  The kids love it.

I use a child's plate with a large section at the bottom and three sections at the top.

Reading Street Iris and Walter

I have put some smartboard files for Iris and Walter on a Wiki. It is a compilation of  material from here and there on the internet and my own files. I hope you can use it. Reading Street Smartboard

Summarizing

I find it is difficult for young students to summarize a story.  They get carried away and retell the entire story. This is a Smartboard activity I use with my primary grades. I have found it to be an easy way to help them summarize the stories we read and the stories I read to them. It also contains an activity that you can use with the icons in the Smartboard activity. It can be found in my TPT store for 20% off until Sunday.

Teacher's Notebook

I have opened my store on Teacher's Notebook.  Stop by and see how easy it is to use.  The first 3 months are free and it is so user friendly.  Take a look.

25 Primary Activities and Centers

I have listed a new DVD

This new DVD contains pocket chart activities, centers, calendar, matching, memory etc. see the list below for a full list.
Alphabetical Order
Apple Pocket Chart Words
Word Wall Basket
Bookmarks
Calendar Numbers for March Plus Headings
Easter Memory Match
Fact Family 11-19
Feb words
Habitats
Job icons
March Words
Matching Place Value Ladybugs
Mothers and Babies
Name Plates
Pres Glyph
Peter Rabbit
Rockin + Facts
40 Spelling Test Forms
Spring Word Wall Words
Story Wands
Sub gift
Syllable Sort
Time
We Love Contractions Activity
What is your guess? 

Take a look. 

Rockin Addition

I just posted a new math activity on TPT. Students will gain practice in adding and in sorting the sums that are greater than, less than and equal to 10.

Easter Eggs

My niece made these.  Think I'll save these for next Easter. I put rubber bands around the head and glued water bottle caps for the face...I put a white round sticker, similar to a garage sale sticker, on the cap and drew eyes...cut out felt for feet...glued them on...cut a bendy straw and glued it on...only dip the eggs a 1/3 of the way, I glued them to the plate cuz some of them wouldn't stand up straight...I got the idea outta the Family Fun magazine :) 

Mother's Day Gift

I finally found the poem I was looking for, for Mother's Day.  We are taking foam hearts, covering them with glitter and gluing a shiny dime on it.  Then we'll glue a pinback on the back. Mom's will treasure this.

Have you tried selling your great ideas and materials on Teachers Pay Teachers?  It's a great place to share your materials and earn some extra money too.  It's very gratifying to know others think your ideas are worthwhile. Click here to become a seller.

Help

I received an idea for Mother's Day.  It was either from a blog or a group I'm on.  I lost it.  It was a poem from a child about giving a mother her first diamond pin and he would give her a real diamond pin some day. There was a pin craft project that went with it. It was a glittery heart with a dime glued on the heart. Is this familiar to anyone?

Fact Families 11-19

 

Check out my new Fact Families for 11-19 

Math Counting Money Less Than $1.00

I made this counting money Smartboard activity for my first graders.  They had so much fun they didn't realize how hard they were working.  When a slide appears the students count the money and write down the amount. A student then touches the glass of lemonade and they hear the sound of the boy slurping the lemonade.  (It makes them laugh every time.) The glass empties and the correct amount is revealed in the glass.  This activity made counting money much more enjoyable for the kids and me. TPT

I've put some iron-on transfers on my Etsy page. Take a look and see what I have.  I'm just getting started with the iron-on transfers.  The chick below is one of them. There will be more to come.

Alphabetical Order

This is a sample of one of the many activities I have on Teachers PayTeachers. Take a look and see if it is the type of activity you would be interested in using.  You can use all of the cards to challenge some of the more advanced students or part of the words for students just beginning to understand alphabetical order. Click here to download the activity.

Math Timesaver

This is an idea I use to save time passing out manipulatives during math.  At the beginning of the year I give each student a Glad food container.  In it I put various manipulatives students will use throughout the year.  Most of the items fit in film canisters and are labeled for easy accessibility.  I include 2 dice, 2 pigs, 20- 2 sided counters, 12 pennies, 10 small eraser counters, 10 connecting blocks and 20 connecting links. When we need the manipulatives they are easy to find and we save so much time with not having to pass items out one at a time. When finished the students return the canisters to their boxes.

Weekly Planning

After 27 years of lesson planning I have finally found something that works for me.  I think that is the key to what we do in our classroom.  Everyone is different, just like the kids, and what works for one teacher may work for them, but not for you.  This works for me.
I purchased 5 storage tubs with lids.  Every Friday after I write my lesson plans I go back over them and highlight all the materials I will need for the next week; copies, milk list, videos, cd's, homework decodable stories, guided reading books, stickers, behavior sheets, reading logs, etc.  I then collect everything for Monday, and put it in the Monday tub.  I then collect everything for Tuesday, and put it in the Tuesday tub.  I do this for each day of the week. I then run all the copies in the Monday tub for Monday and put the tub on my desk with my lesson plans and grade book. I stack the other tubs on a cart for the rest of the week. When I come in on Monday morning, I am ready to go. Before I leave work on Monday I get everything ready for Tuesday in the same manner.  If you are lucky enough to have someone who does your copies this would be even easier.
I hope this will help someone.  It's probably not for everyone, but like I said, "It works for me."

 

Candy Bar Wrapper

 Our district like many others has a difficult time finding good substitute teachers to take over when we are gone.  I have created a Hershey candy bar wrapper to enclose a candy bar and leave as a small treat to help my subs feel a little appreciated.  They. are easy to make. Just print and fold around the candy bar. The wrapper can be found on TPT.

I use You Tube videos in some of my lessons, but I have been bothered by all the distractions on the You Tube page.  I looked around to see if there was a way to watch the videos without all the distractions and buffering and I found it.

Go to   http://quietube.com/
Drag the quietube box up to your bookmarks toolbar. 
Open a you tube video and then click on the quietube button on your toolbar.
The you tube video will open in a new window without buffering or ads. 

You can also click on the full screen button in the bottom right hand corner of the video for a larger picture:)

Todays Laugh

Today was a very busy day.  The kids were chatty and I was repeating my directions over and over again  I told my first graders they were driving me crazy and I was going to end up in the nut house.  One little girl piped up,  "I hope you have a coupon for that.  I heard it's expensive."  I couldn't help but laugh.