First Week Positives

I've been doing a little bit of reading this week on my vacation. It's called Kids Deserve It! by Todd Nesloney and Adam Welcome. They have talked a lot in the book about making that connection to students and building a positive relationship with students and parents. This is not anything new to me as an educator, but sometimes we all need a little reminding of how important the little things are in building successful relationships with students and parents.

Those tough students can be the hardest ones to reach and sometimes all it takes is someone to believe in them and find the positive in them.

My first year teaching someone shared with me the importance of reaching out to parents during the first week to share how their week has gone. So I made myself a little first week notes checklist so that as the week went on, I could jot down the positive things I saw in each child so that I wouldn't forget. Then, at the end of the week, I could sit down and call every parent to share those positive things.

It was so powerful for starting our year off on a positive note, especially for those challenging kids. It was hard to find something positive for some of those little gems, but you have to get creative and find something that every students shines at.

I have to be honest and say that I have been sort of awful these last few years at my first week positive phone calls, but reading this book has inspired me to create a little checklist to help motivate me this year to make this happen and start my year on the right note!

Just click on the image below to download your free copy of the checklist! I hope this helps you start your year off on a positive note as well and see the good in each and every one of your sweet kids!

And I would recommend reading the book Kids Deserve It! It is very inspiring!

You can head over to my blog and check out more of my ideas for back to school as well! Click my blog button below!

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Back to School Prep: Using Duct Tape for Making Mini-Books Last Longer

Making Mini-Books Last Longer for Mini-Fingers!

Hello everyone, I'm Fern from Fern Smith's Classroom Ideas. While you're prepping for back to school I would love to share one of my favorite tips. Once you invest in the paper and ink for printing mini-books and mini-readers, duct tape helps to make them last longer.

I like to use duck tape as a 
side binder OVER the staples.

Four Reasons:

1. It keeps the book together longer.

2. The BACK page is not as quick to rip off.

3. Little people don't start crying when little fingers get snagged on the back part of the staple!

Oh.the.Drama!

4. Teacher stays happy! :)

Guided Reading Groups and Fluency

You can also print 6 to 8 of the same mini-books to make sets to use again and again during your guided reading instruction. The students can use the books with white boards and white board markers. 

Another Favorite Tip: Use one color of duct tape for the binding to keep all the same titles of a book easy to find and organized. 

Click here for Michelle at Teach123 camping mini-books. 

Click here for my phonics mini-books.

Please follow me for more tips, tricks, resources and freebies!

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Fern Smith's Classroom Ideas FREE Printable Lunch Box Love Notes!

FREE Lunch Box Love Notes!

While you're planning and getting ready for back to school, here's one of my favorite freebies for you. Lunch Box Love Notes. For Teacher-Moms, as tired as we are once August and September hits, we don't want to short change our own children. I remember I really wanted my children to have a good day at school, listen to the teacher. learn a lot and make new friends. But mornings for Teacher-Moms are not like something out of the Full House TV show....many a morning at my house SOMEONE crying over SOMETHING because they weren't the center of attention at that given moment. SOMETIMES it was even me! {Just kidding, OK, no, maybe not....}

These love notes are a quick and easy way for you to show them some love when they are away from you in that big, ole' school cafetorium, as they call it in my district.  BUT no lie, a very easy prep, I would write five on Saturday afternoon or Sunday night and hide them in my bedroom. That way I was ready to slip one in their lunch box each morning and if they wanted to buy their lunch that day, I had it ready to slip into their backpack. My FREEBIE has enough for 24 notes, that way you can use a different one each school day for a month! 

These Love Notes are also perfect for teachers to use as an End Of The Day student note! ♥

My favorite author, Erma Bombeck once said something about school notes....If they are typed on nice paper and signed in pen, they have been forged by the child, a real Mom has to grab a red crayon and writes on a kitchen napkin. :)

Some mornings, showing your love with a red crayon on a napkin is just terrific too! Enjoy!

Click here to download it!

Please follow me for more tips, tricks, resources and freebies!

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Testing Treat Freebies

Testing season is upon us.  Teachers are stressed.  Kids are anxious.  Pencils are scarce.  Everyone could use a pick me up about this time of year. 

Leave your children little pick-me-ups each day of testing to let them know that someone is in their corner, cheering them on!  If your children don't test, let your class pay-it-forward by leaving small treats and notes for students in a testing class. 

Here are a few pictures of the treats from Learning in Wonderland's Instagram.  Her treats are ready to go for testing days!

Grab this FREEBIE packet here!

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Winter Time: Teacher Tips and Freebies

Hi, I'm Michelle from Teach123.  I am always looking for new ideas to try. One of my favorite discoveries is reuseable ice cubes.  They can be used so many different COOL ways!

I love the colorful reuseable ice cubes like the ones in the picture above.  Give each team a colorful ice tray. When the ice tray is full the team earns a special prize such as:

• Use special crayons, gel pens, or markers
• 10 minutes of computer time
• Shoes off during work time

Each team may fill their ice tray at different times and that is OK, because if one team wins, the other teams can continue filling theirs.  When one team finishes; they begin again.  This helps maintain the motivation of the teams.  They know they can eventually win, if they all work together.  Each time a team wins, it will motivate the other teams to do better so they can be the next winner.

Use the ice cube in your estimation jar or in your marble jar.  Tell your class you are looking for "cool behavior" in the hallway.  If you see a "penguin or polar bear" in the hallway - because who else lives in a cool place - tell that student who is acting like a penguin or polar bear that he or she may put an ice cube in the jar.

Inside recess is one of teachers' least favorite days in the winter months.  Why not try a couple of winter themed activities during your next inside recess?  I found the white puffy ball at Target's Dollar Spot last year.  I think it was supposed to be a snowball dog toy.  I decided to repurpose it for a game like Hot Potato only call it Too Cold to Hold.  Play it the same way as Hot Potato.  The class sits in a circle. One person begins with the object (snowball).  The music begins and the person passes the object to the person sitting next to him or her.  That person passes it to the next person and it continues until the music stops.  The person holding the object when the music stops is out.  Continue doing this until there is one person left and this person is the winner.  Play winter themed music such as:

Kids' Music:

• Frosty the Snowman
• Let it Snow
• Frozen soundtrack

There are also songs that adults know with themes of snow, ice, and winter such as:

• Ice, Ice Baby by Vanilla Ice
• Hazy Shade of Winter by The Bangles
• Cold as Ice by Foreigner

The black hat can be repurposed with a game of "Doggie, Doggie, Who has your bone?".  Only with this game it is "Frosty, Frosty, who has your hat?"

Are you looking for some winter themed lessons?  My Owly friends have some freebies that you will love.  Click on the pictures below and follow their stores, too!  Don't forget to leave feedback on TPT.

An InLinkz Link-up

You are invited to hop over to my blog.  I love to share tips and free stuff.

Sources to make my blog post graphics can be found HERE. Click HERE to read my blog's disclosure statement.

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HALLOWEEN FLAVORED SENTENCE WRITING FREEBIE

Happy Sunday to all you alls.  It's Kelley Dolling from Teacher Idea Factory.  I'm here to help spread a little Halloween themed cheer.  How do I intend to do that you ask . . . with a spooky writing freebie, of course :)

I have been runnin' with Sketchin' Out Spooky sentences for years in my classroom and it has been in my TPT shop for a while now. However, this freebie needed a serious face-lift . . . let's just say that my design skills have come a LONG way in three years ;)

Here's how this one works . . .  

First, stock your center with a handful of Halloween or strange/spooky directed draws. Ed Emberly has oodles of great books, From the Pond has a great Spooky Directed Drawing packet, or you can simply print out multiple free Halloween themed directed draws via a Google Search.  

Next, the kids get a worksheet template and use the books to help them sketch out a spooky scene in one of the boxes - just in pencil up front (they come back at the end to add more details). This one always delights my kiddies. I think it's the whole BREAKING the classroom writing rule of ALWAYS drafting your sentence before illustrating that draws them in right off the bat.  Yup . . . they get to sketch first.

This is usually a two day center activity.
They get into producing SUPER quality work.
These are the old ugly templates, but you get the idea :)

When finished, they write a detailed sentence to go with their sketch.  They complete this task twice.  After both sentences have been drafted, they can add more details to their pictures and some color!

This assignment always lends itself to a wonderful round of "author's chair." The giggles are contagious and they LOVE showing off their spooky work :)  If you are interested in picking up this fun writing FREEBIE . . . click here.

Alright, I am out of here.  It's time to prep for the week.  I will see you again in November . . . 11/11 to be exact. Until then, catch me over at Teacher Idea Factory.  Merry Sunday!

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Fall Fact Frenzy {Fact Practice Freebie}

Happy Fall, y'all!  It's Dana from Prepping for the Primary Gridiron and I'm excited to share an activity that will help your kiddos master the relationship between addition and subtraction!

It's extremely important that students understand the relationship between addition and subtraction.  Once this connection is made, their fact fluency increases.

In this activity, the kids start by matching up number sentence cards.  They are creating a fact family, so they will match two addition sentences with two subtraction sentences.  

Once the kids find the four matches for each fact family, 

they must begin to solve for the missing numbers.  Each card 

has a missing number.  If the kids understand the relationship 

between addition and subtraction, this part of the 

activity will be a little easier.  

The kids record their answers on the recording sheet.  It's a great way for you to assess their understanding and fact fluency.  

I hope this activity benefits your kiddos as much as it has mine!

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What Is Our Global Position? {anchor chart and journal/notebook activity}

Hi, Owlies!  It's Dana from Prepping for the Primary 

Gridiron!  I wanted to share a global position activity 

I did with my kiddos.  I am hoping it can help yours 

just as much as it did mine!

Global position is one of our 1st grade Social 

Studies AKS.  It's always a tricky concept 

because of how abstract it is.

I decided to make something visual to try 

and help them better understand the size 

concepts of each location/position.

We started with this anchor chart:

We labeled it together using a 

PPT we had previously used.

Then it was their turn!  I printed out

the same type of circles (but small enough

for their journals).  They had to glue them

in their journals and then label them.  

Here are some pics of the finished product:

If you teach global position and think

this activity could help your kiddos,

you can snag it for free at my shop!

Click {HERE} to download it!

I hope it helps your kids get a better

understanding of global position!

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FREE Printable Lunch Box Love Notes

FREE Lunch Box Love Notes!

I know that this is the craziest time of year, but for Teacher-Moms, as tired as we are, we don't want to short change our own kids. I remember I really wanted my children to have a good day at school, listen to the teacher. learn a lot and make new friends. But mornings for Teacher-Moms are not like something out of the Leave it to Beaver TV show....many a morning at my house was SOMEONE crying over SOMETHING because they weren't the center of attention at that given moment. SOMETIMES it was even me!

These love notes are a quick and easy way for you to show them some love when they are away from you in that big, ole' cafetorium, as they call it in my district.  BUT no lie, I would write five on Saturday afternoon or Sunday night and hide them in my bedroom. That way I was ready to each morning and if they wanted to buy their lunch that day, I had it ready to slip into their backpack instead. My FREEBIE has enough for 24 notes, that way you can use a different one each school day for a month! Perfect also for teachers to use as an End Of The Day student note!

My favorite author, Erma Bombeck once said something about school notes....If they are typed on nice paper and signed in pen, they have been forged by the child, a real Mom has to grab a red crayon and writes on a kitchen napkin. :)

Some mornings, showing your love with a red crayon on a napkin is just terrific too! Enjoy!

Click here to download it!

I would just ♥love it if 
you would follow me!

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