Wonder (Freebie)

You've read it, right? The fabulous book by R.J. Palacio called Wonder? I cried and cried when I read it. I wanted to read it to my class, but I decided that it wasn't a good fit for my students at the time (it's recommended for 3rd grade and up). And then I found We're All Wonders (basically the picture book version of Auggie's story) and immediately read it to my 1st grade students! We had a wonderful discussion about how we treat others who are different from us.

        

I wanted them to make a text-to-self connection so I did a writing extension. Then I made a cover. Then I made a bulletin board. DOES THE WORK EVER STOP! HA! The writing can go with either book.

I wanted to spread a little kindness to you. You can snag this for free in my store! Leave me a little love in the feedback. 

Back to School Gift Tags: Colorful Year

My kids headed back to school day! It's such a bitter-sweet moment because on one hand you're so sad to watch them grow up and start a new year of school, but on the other hand you know they're going to learn so much and make a lot of new friends and you're so excited for the year ahead of them.

I picked up some teacher gifts on Amazon a few weeks back and then late last night realized I forgot to make a cute tag to go on them. So at midnight last night I hurried to make and print these cute tags to go on these gifts for their teachers. I want to share these Colorful School Year Gift Tags with you and they are available in 3 different versions. 

Affiliate links for Expo markers here:

Affiliate links for Mr. Sketch Markers here:

Here are the 3 tags that are available! 

One for a student to give to their teacher, one for a teacher to give to their team members, and one for a teacher to give to their students. Would also be cute for a principal to give to their staff members on the first day of school! Or the PTA could hand them out during the first week of school. The possibilities are endless and it makes a cute, cheap, practical gift!

Gift ideas:
EXPO Markers
Box of Crayers
Set of Flair Pens
Set of Watercolors!

Thanks for being my teacher!

Thanks for being on my team!

I'm so happy you're in my class!

Download here: 

*Please note that there were available for free for the 2017-2018 school year as a special gift to blog readers. The price has since increased to $3. 

SaveSaveSaveSave

SaveSaveSaveSave

Parent Communication Tools

If you ask a teacher what their favorite part of teaching is, they would most likely say teaching! Sounds a little silly, but it's true! A teacher's job description includes many more jobs including: planning, grading, team collaboration, bus duty, data collection, test administration, copy room tech… and many, many more! It's all these extra tasks that combine together to make the job of teacher extremely difficult. Teaching is the easy part! It's all the other hats a teacher must wear that make teaching (in my opinion) one of the hardest professions out there! 

One job that is often times quite difficult is communicating with parents. Today I'd like to share with you some ideas on how we can make the job of communicating with parents easier.

Parent Communication Log: It's very important to document phone conversations with parents. Detailed records of past phone conversations with parents could come in handy down the road if you were ever to encounter any problems. 

   

{Download this FREEBIE here!}

I always used to keep a spiral bound notebook by my telephone to jot down phone conversations quickly, but I recently made this binder cover and communication log that is much cuter! Simply make copies of the log sheet and put them in a 3 ring binder. It's an easy way to document your phone calls with parents. (You could also print off emails and collect any hand-written notes as well.) 

Just a tip: Don't forget to communicate with parents over positive things too. A phone call or email home about special accomplishments, letting parents know when their child met a certain goal, or just simply calling to tell them you love having their child in your class can go a LONG way! As a parent, I would LOVE to hear about the good things my own son was doing in class. Please don't forget to add positive communication with your parents as well!

Remember that you and your students' parents form a team and it will take all of you working together to have a successful year! 

Do you have any advice  for communicating with parents?

Please leave a comment are share your ideas!

Favorite Freebies

Can you believe that we have been blogging here for almost 5 years? WOW!  It's been such a fun ride and we will continue to share our ideas with you. I hope that people still read our blog!!! HAHA!

I just wanted to stop by and share our favorite freebies with you from the past 5ish years!

Eye Spy Time {Click here to download}:

 

Put the clocks around the room and have your students walk around with a clipboard "spying" the analog clocks and writing the digital times on their recording sheet.  Easy, peasy, lemon, squeezey {mac and cheezy}! The best part is, I include the clocks for you to use and they are blank so that you can write in your own times.

Writing Prompts {Click here to download}:

 These are writing prompts and paper that I use throughout the whole year. There are over 25 of them...all for you! :)  I put them in writing centers, sometimes use them in whole group lessons, and even use them as "fast finishers". The kiddos love them!  

Here are some of my favorites {and the kiddos too}!

Spring Fever Behavior Management {Click here to download}:

Are your kiddos feeling the spring fever or are you the one going stir crazy!?

This management tip is used on our 1st grade team but will work in any classroom. 

It's great for springtime spring fever.

You need 2 Easter baskets and plastic Easter eggs (you need double the amount of eggs as you have students...so if you have 25 students, you need 50 plastic Easter eggs).  Can anyone say Dollar Tree?

In basket #1, you fill the eggs with the students' names (one name in each egg).  In the other basket, you fill the eggs with strips of papers that have prize names on them.

Randomly throughout the day/week, pick a student to come and pick an egg out of the name basket.  They open up the egg and read the name {or you can pick from the basket instead of having a student do it-I just like to involve everyone}. If that student is on task they get to pick an egg from the prize basket (If they are not on task, you just quietly put the egg back and the students know that someone that was picked was not on task).  Here is a list of the prizes I giveaway. Some of them might not be applicable to you, but you can just leave those out.

After the winning student gets their prize, you also give them one of these certificates!  It makes them feel so good and you'll have VERY on task students all week.   

{Click HERE to download certificates}

clipart and or fonts from DJ Inkers (djinkers.com)

Picture Perfect Class!

For my back-to-school bulletin board, I used Kimberly Geswein's Font "KG Second Chances Sketch". The PRECIOUS cameras came from Jessica Sawyer Design on Etsy! They are so cute! Go buy them ASAP!

So, as I begin a new school year, I like to look ahead and start setting goals. I want to be a better teacher each year!  There are so many things I need to do to be better. I'm not perfect. I slack, get lazy, cry, and sometimes need an extra unsweetened iced tea on rough days. I think making goals each year can help me strive to be better and be accountable for it! :)  So, I created this gem:

Click the picture to download.

I printed mine off and plan to keep it nice and safe in my Erin Condren Teacher Planner. 

Some of my goals...

Organizational:

*Level my new books from Scholastic

*Organize my theme books

Teaching:

*Plan guided reading lessons EVERY DAY (I'm the master of "off the cuff")

Personal:

*Make my bed each day (am I 12 years old?)

*Go to the gym 4-5 times a week (yeah, right!!!)

*BE POSITIVE :)

What goals do you have this year?  It helps to say (type) them out loud! HA!

You're on a Roll So Far and Giveaway Winners!

The school year has already started for some of my teammates (I'm in a year-round school and I start later than the other tracks). I wanted to show my appreciation for my teammates and how much they've already done in the past 2 weeks! 

Or... your little one could give this gift to their teacher after the first week of school!  Every teachers loves a treat, right? ;)

I just bought some cinnamon rolls from a local bakery, printed the tags {You're on a roll... GET IT????} and added a little Washi Tape. VIOLA! 

You can download this freebie {here}. Enjoy!

Teaching Civil Rights

I received a copy of this book today from my Teacher's of American History class. I love the way it teaches about the brave people in the south who stood up against racial segregation.

The book is called, Freedom on the Menu.

Luckily for everyone, this book has been made into a Reader's Theater script that is available for a free download.

CLICK HERE

Also, PLEASE check out the Teaching Tolerance website for some great resources for teaching civil rights. They offer FREE teaching kits for educators, which are incredible! This kit includes classroom sets of books, CDs and music, videos, and lots more. 

Here is the form to order your free kit.

Free fonts!

I am OB.sess.ED with fonts.  I especially like free ones.  Although DJ Inkers isn't free, I still love everything she does!  I just wanted to share with you some FREE fonts though!  I have a lot of fonts and half of the time I have a really hard time picking one to do for my printables. Not sure how to install?  Go through--- >this <---tutorial! After I install fonts, I always restart my computer!

http://misstiina.com/fonts/go/freefonts/

http://www.lettersnstuff.com/fonts/fonts.htm

http://www.dafont.com/

This cute little website has all of your favorite TV show fonts (like Bewitched and Brady Bunch). They even have video game fonts like Super Mario Bros and Pokemon. Won't your kiddos just love that?

http://www.fontspace.com/

I particularily love this font collection because it's free AND you can search the fonts by "commercial-use ok". 

http://www.kevinandamanda.com/fonts/

Kevin and Amanda Fonts are BY FAR my favorite free fonts! 

Here are some of my frequent offenders! :)

Go ahead! Download your little hearts out! You'll thank me later {haha}! ;)

Thanks for the Linky party Jenn!

Current Events

I think that it is very important for my 5th graders to be up to date on the current issues facing our country. The best way I have found to do this is by showing my students a 10 minute daily news program called CNN Student News.

You can stream the program straight from the internet, but I prefer to use iTunes to download the daily podcast. It's simple to download: Open up your iTunes, go to the iTunes Store, type in CNN Student News, and download the current episode. It's completely free!

I have shown this program for 4 years, and think it has a great impact on my students and their knowledge of current events and important issues facing America. Over the years, my students have been up to date on all the important events; like the 2008 Presidential Election, the Earthquake in Haiti, and most recently, the miners in Chile.

I recommend this program to all 5th grade students and above. It helps students become more aware of their country, helps meet state curriculum standards, and overall makes them better American citizens.

Free Stuff!

Every teacher likes free stuff, right?! Have you ever thought what you’d like to get for your classroom if you could afford it? Would it be technology? Books? Or even just some extra basic supplies? Read on to find out how you can get free materials for your classroom.

I was introduced to this awesome website about four years ago. Since then, I have received a total of 5 (FIVE!) grants from this website. The best part about it: IT'S SUPER EASY! It honestly takes me an evening, just a couple hours, to write a whole grant.

Sometimes when I share this information with teachers, their reply is, “I don’t have time for things like that,” or, “It seems too complicated,” or even, “No one would donate to me.” But honestly, take it from someone who has received almost 25 hundred dollars in materials for my classroom, it is not too difficult.

Here are the steps:

1.Go to www.donorschoose.com:

2. Sign up for a teacher account

• Click create a project
• Click get started

3. Write your proposal

• Create a name for your project
• Go shopping
• Follow the prompts to write your essay (a series of questions that help explain what you need and why you need it)

4. Press submit

• Then all you have to do is wait until someone donates money to fund your project. (Sometimes it takes up to 6 months for a project to be funded. Don't get discouraged if it doesn't get funded right away.)

Here are the projects that I have had funded:

LCD Projector: $823.17

Literature circle books: $264.63

Chemistry supplies: $559.76

Shakespeare for Kids books: $300.00

A class set of books on Ellis Island: $465.83

Total: $2,413.39

Good luck and happy grant writing!