Five For Friday

This was my first week since school was over that I had a day off that I didn't need to go into school.  It was very nice to relax and get some work done around the house as well as for the classroom when I return in September.

This was a unit that I posted on TPT as a part of my Guided Math Lessons.  This one is all about teaching money and the value of coins to $1.

This was my Teacher Tip Tuesday post about sharp and dull pencils and managing pencil sharpening during class.

My blog post this week was about online resources that I use during the school year to make planning easier.

For the last 2 days I have attended a Literacy Training that was based on writing.  I went with a few friends and it was a lot of fun learning about how I can better incorporate writing into my lessons for next school year.

Happy Friday!

Teacher Tip Tuesday#9

My teacher tip of the week is about pencil management.  As I am getting some things ready for the upcoming school year, I wanted to share this tip with you all.  I do not let my students sharpen pencils at all and I don't let them interrupt a lesson or work time to have a pencil sharpened.  I have 2 bins in my room.  One is labeled "sharp pencils" and the other is labeled "dull pencils".  I have used these bins for several years now and it is so nice.  When students can't find a pencil or break their tip, they just walk over to the bins and exchange their pencil for another one.  I sharpen the dull pencils in the morning or during specials so we don't run out of sharp pencils throughout the day.

Teacher Tip Tuesday #8

I love this idea for dry erase markers. I hot glue poms to the back of dry erase markers and use them as erasers. It makes it so easy to not have to worry about the students finding an eraser in order to erase their work. These also come in handy at guided reading and guided math time when I have the students write right on the table and then erase before I call the next group over. I make these over the summer for the next year's class. I have them in centers, at my teacher table, and in their pencil cases.

Teacher Tip Tuesday #4

BOY Donations

At the end of each year, I can't help but to think of the next year. What do I want to work on over the summer to make the beginning of next year easier for me.  One thing I do each year is make a donations table for Meet the Teacher day and I also put it out at Back To School Night. My first year teaching, I didn't know what to ask for. I copied down whatever my co-worker had down and it was helpful, but once I had a year under my belt, I was able to think about what I was going to need for the next year. My second year of teaching I asked for many of the same things, but also a few other things that I was going to need. 

I found this cute idea and sign on Pinterest and had to copy for myself. It is from Head Over Heels For Teaching.

Last year I made these adorable apples to ask parents for donations at the beginning of the year. You can get them at my TPT store.

 I printed these on red, yellow, and green paper and cut them out. Parents could just grab whatever they wanted to donate.

For next year, I made cupcakes and this "sweet" sign to ask for donations. I am very excited to put these out at the beginning of next year. You can also get these at my TPT store. 

I printed them out on construction paper and scrapbooking paper and glued them together.

If you know me, you know I am addicted to pinterest and have to admit that none of these original ideas were my own, but I was inspired from Pinterest and recreated the ideas to make them work for me and my classroom.

School Supplies

At the Beginning of the Year, the students are required to bring in school supplies to use for the year. This year, we required the students to bring in: 5 plastic folders,tissues, 3 composition notebooks, pencils, felt tip pens, markers, crayons, glue sticks (seems like we NEVER have enough), erasers, scissors, hand sanitizer, and zip lock bags.  Our PTA is amazing and offers a supply pack that includes all of this when the parents pay a certain amount.  I love when parents do this because it is exactly the correct supplies and we get them in our room the week before the students come back so I can label everything ahead of time!
I also ask for extra supplies from my parents like packing tape, snacks, card stock, play dough, extra glue sticks, colored paper, and sticky tack.  I ask for these donations on Meet the Teacher day and at Back to School Night.  I also will ask for them thorughout the year if I need them on signupgenius.com, which I sign up all my parents for and use it throughout the year to contact and scehude meeting with them.
What do you have your students bring in for supplies for the year?

Word Sort Journal Set Up

At the beginning of the school year, one of the things on my "to do list" is to organize the student's journals.  The students have 4 journals that we use throughout the year.  One is a spiral journal that I provide for them. It gets a label with the student's number on it.  Their math, language arts, and word sort journal all get a colored label that I tape onto the spine of a composition notebook.  This helps the students know what notebook to use for what subject.

In their word sort notebook I also attach a zip lock baggie to the inside cover for them to place their sorts in each week. You can see my word sort schedule here, as to why they need a baggie, but basically they get 2of the same word sorts within a week. One gets glued into their journal and the other one, they use all week and glue it to a check-in form and turn it in for a grade. They use the baggie to hold their sort words until Friday when they turn it in to be graded

Linky Party

It's my first linky party!!! I'm so excited!  We just started 4th quarter last week at my school, but I am already thinking about next year.  I always do that around this time of the year.  I can start testing out things that I would like to try with my students next year on this years students, and I just feel more prepared when I start thinking about things early.
Anyways...

I linked up with Mrs. Wheelers First Grade  to talk about next years wish lists.
At the beginning of the year, I always ask for donations from parents for things for in the classroom.  In the past I have done "Lend a Helping Hand" with donation objects written on a hand print.

Next year I decided to do apples and this idea.  I got this idea from pinterest.  This is not my own.

However, I did make the apples that I will be printing out on colored paper for parents to take.  I am also going to have real apples for parents to have and the book The Giving Tree out to tie it all together.

The items listed on these apples so far are... Packing tape, play dough, snack bags, bingo markers (for painting indoor recess), masking tape, goldfish crackers, fruit snacks, cards with blank insides, white card stock, colored card stock, colored printer paper, labels, sticky tack, stickers, glue sticks, tissues, board games (indoor recess), coloring books (indoor recess), jump ropes, side walk chalk, bubbles, googley eyes, magnets, dry erase markers, band aids, and brass fasteners.

If I think of anything between now and when school starts, I will add it to the list.  Hope this helps!

stapler

I was very excited when I found this stapler at Best Buy.  It comes apart and allows you to staple the middle of books and papers.  It was only $5 and a nifty little gadget!

I have used it to staple regular papers as well as taking it apart to staple the center of papers and it is awesome!