I am all done with parent conferences and it feels great! I had the most terrific year and I’m so happy to share my students’ progress with their parents. During parent conference time, I always love to have lots of student work to display. I absolutely love to incorporate student pictures into student work. This ... Read More about Silhouette Autobiographies and Read Across America
Happy New Year! I'm keeping up with my new-ish tradition and rounding up my best meal prep plans of 2018 for you. This is the third annual PBF Meal Prep Round-Up! 2018 was another crazy
The beginning of the year welcomes a fresh start & these can't miss tips to include when setting up your new planner for the year are a must! Taking time to do some intentional planning now will pay off all year long!
I remember a particular year of teaching quite vividly, and not for the right reasons. As teachers, we don't discuss often enough the years we struggle. Or, the years that bring us heartache, and yes,
Check out these MUST do things to check off before you leave for the summer! {TONS of FREEBIES to help you get prepared for next school!}
Hey guys! I’m excited to finally be sharing a series of my guides about my trip to New Yrok a while ago! New York is honestly one of the most amazing places you can visit – it’s almost a cliché to say
Looking for tiny resolution ideas that are actually doable? A resolution you'll actually stick with or good habits you'll keep? Click through for 25 resolutions to try this year!
Envie de concrétiser vos projets ? Créez un vision board en 5 étapes clés et utilisez-le comme puissant moteur pour enfin atteindre vos objectifs.
If you haven't already done so, it's time to choose your ONE WORD for the year! Have you heard of the concept? A dear friend introduced it to
Learn how to play the Kaboom game in your classroom to make practicing math facts, sight words, and more a blast for your students!
A summer review packet for rising first graders. To get a FREE copy of this summer review packet with your students, when you get to the blog, click on the picture.
A Year of Dates Gift- 12 pre-planned, pre-paid date ideas to give as the perfect gift so you can make dating easy and enjoy quality time all year long! How to pull it together and tons of creative date ideas for your 12 months of dates gift in one place.
Backwards planning and curriculum mapping for school year success are an essential part of being organized and making your teacher life easier.
Get the bundle... Or purchase individually... Let's talk guided math. We started implementing guided math in my school about 2 years ago. Prior to my guided math awakening I was making 4 math centers per day. I found myself stressed about not only the excruciating prep of creating so many activities each day, but I also struggled to get finished with the centers. When the idea of guided math was introduced, I greeted the change with open arms. So here's what works for me. I implement guided math by creating 5 math centers per week. I group my students heterogeneously and they rotate to a new center each day. During this time, I pull students who struggled during the math lesson and provide a reteach lesson individually. This means that most of my math centers are completed independently by the students. I'm lucky enough to have a full-time assistant in my classroom who is able to take a math center are help others while I'm with my reteach group. Here's how I organize my group rotations each week... I write student names on each group. I laminated stars and write the weekly center on each star with dry-erase and attach a magnet. When I rotate groups, I simply move the stars over 1 place. This way, students know which center to go to. I organize centers in numbered buckets shown below. See? Easy breezy! Currently, I'm working with my students on addition and subtraction. I'd love to share some resources I've found to be useful in my guided math groups. First, I made a Guided Math Center Bundle. You can get it HERE. This week, we used the Spin and Subtract center. Here, students spin subtraction sentences. This is great because I was actually able to use it 2 weeks in a row. Because they spin different combinations of numbers, the possibilities are endless! I also used a similar Spin & Add center. Here, students build number sentences. Addition & Subtraction I made some lower-maintenance addition math worksheets which require no-prep! Hellloooo sanity-saver! Here are some of the activities I'll be using! Shapes geometry math worksheets Download it HERE Measurement Measurement Worksheets
Behavior Alert & Behavior Praise includes Student Apology Letter and Behavior Chart for Tracking. This is an easy tool for excellent behavior management in the classroom! This resource includes a Behavior Alert (for 'bad' behavior) and a Behavior Praise (for outstanding behavior) half-page note to send home to parents. This behavior alert note allows you to praise good behavior or send home a behavior alert. These behavior notes may be used along with a behavior chart. This resource also includes a fill-in-the-blank student apology letter template for kids to write to a classmate, teacher, and/or parent. I always keep a big stack of Behavior Alert and Behavior Praise notes on a clipboard ready to go! I only use the Alerts as needed. However, I try and send home a Behavior Praise to a student every few days. A great way to make sure every students receives a Praise note is at the beginning of the month, write each student's name on one. Keep track of who receives Praises & Alerts on the included Behavior Chart. There are multiple behaviors you can check off on the Behavior Alerts and Praises and a blank spot to write your own. Three lines on the bottom are for parent, student & teacher signature. Enjoy this quick, easy and consistent behavior management technique! This product also includes a FREE fill-in-the-blank student apology letter and behavior chart to keep track of Praise & Alert notes. Read my recent blog post to learn more how I use these Behavior Alerts & Praises in my own classroom Looking for more Classroom Forms? - Beginning of Year Parent and Student Survey - Free Homework Pass - Test Retake Request - Student Reading Log - Missing Homework Note - Behavior Alert and Behavior Praise - Apology Letter - Conference Forms with Student Self Reflection - Absent Student Form - Weekly Homework Agenda ❤ Click HERE to view 750+ resources by Happy Teacher Happy Students ❤ ************************************************************************************************ ⭐Happy Teacher Club Join for Exclusive Freebies, Tips & Tricks ⭐Happy Teacher Happy Students Blog Visit My Blog and Chat All Things Teaching! ⭐Instagram: Let's be friends! Use one of my resources in your class or homeschool? I want to see it! Tag me @happyteacherhappystudents in your photo I’ll send you a special freebie. ⭐ Questions? Looking for something not already in my store? Contact Me @ [email protected] ************************************************************************************************ ** Visit my STORE and click on the 'green star' to follow me and be the first to know about new products, sales & freebies! ** Please remember to rate this product so that you earn TPT Credits for future purchases! Copyright © Happy Teacher Happy Students. All rights reserved. This file is intended for classroom and personal use only. Any redistribution or reproduction of part or all of the contents in any form is prohibited other than the following: **You may print for your personal, classroom use, and non-commercial use only. **Clipart, graphics, photographs, found inside this product are copyrighted. They may not be extracted from this file without written permission from the original artist(s).
This Leaf Cutting Activity is super simple to create and makes a great scissors skills activity for toddlers and preschoolers!
At the end of the school year my principal had all of the teachers find a rock. There were no rules about the rock, it could be any shape or size. Then she asked us to draw a happy face on it. We had
2 free goal setting apps that are great ways to keep track of all your fitness, health and personal goals! They're great for adults & students!
Over the years I've created and shared more than 500 printables here on the blog. Keeping track of all of them and, more importantly, making them easy for you to find can be a bit
Name posters are an easy art project for the first day of school and also double as classroom decor!
Check out the Benjamin Moore 2019 Color Trends and the 2019 Benjamin Moore Color of the Year Metropolitan action.
Gracie was a sweet Border Collie rescued by friends some years ago. She enjoyed a loving, happy home in her senior years, but sadly passed away this fall. I designed this ornament to honor Gracie. …
Happy New Year! I thought it would only make sense to share with you my planner organization and include a free printable binder tabs tutorial!
Forget a brief layover! My 4 day Hong Kong itinerary outlines FREE things to do, where to stay, eat, costs PLUS a Macau day trip!
How do we teach kids peace? Children are future leaders and peacemakers. Montessori emphasizes global, community, and inner peace.
AWESOME teacher checklist to get through beginning of the year classroom set-up! Organized by tasks: -Classroom Prep -Laminate -Print/Copy -To Buy -Team Planning ....and room to add more! ***If you like this product, please rate/comment. You'll earn TPT credits and I'll know you want more great products from Tinkering with Teaching. Font Credit: KG HAPPY by Kimberly Geswein http://kimberlygeswein.com
Happy Summer, friends! I found the cutest ball popper in the Target Dollar Spot and it inspired another freebie! How cute is this flamingo popper?! If you’re a newsletter subscriber you can find it in the free resource library! If you’re not a subscriber and you’re interested in weekly emails from me (about blog posts, ... Read More about Flamingo Articulation Freebie!
Use these four great classroom time savers to help you stay on track with your schedule, teach more efficiently, and save your sanity.
Inside: Discover a year's worth of mom-child date ideas for enjoying happy moments with your kids! You'll certainly find some good inspiration on this list. For this Christmas, I prepared a special gift to offer
Use magic play dough as a fun activity for the first day of school. Your students will be amazed as they ease their way into a new school year.
Discover the structure of the 12 week year and follow the step-by-step process on how to implement this productivity tactic. More importantly...
The one night that is most stressful for me is definitely Meet-the-Teacher Night, but I have learned through the years that it can also be...
It goes without saying, the end of the year is CR A Z Y. The kids are off the chart excited (the diplomatic way of saying WILD). There are grades and assessments to complete. There are records and other paper work to be tended to. There is a classroom to clean out, organize, and shutdown for the summer. Plus, there are all those special, fun days that you put off until all the major testing is over. Whew...I've been on summer break for about a week and I'm still breaking out in a little sweat thinking about the last few weeks of school. ;) After 16 year is the classroom, there are a couple of tips I have for ending the school year with your sanity intact. First, start working on all your extra stuff early. Do not wait until the last minute to try to organize field day, put together end of the year gifts for your students, do grades, and finish permanent record cards. Take care of as many details as you can before you hit the last couple of weeks. My second tip is to keep your students busy, busy, busy. You may have already covered all of your essential standards. Your students may be struggling to fully focus. But, you need to keep them moving ahead in their learning. Plus, from my experience, students behave much better when they are engaged and have tasks to complete. Here are some fun end of the year/summer inspired activities we did during the last weeks of school... I love having student work on display. I have a spot in the hallway where I hang student work and I also put display pieces in my classroom. At the end of the year, it can get a little too hectic to change out student work, so I put together a simple summer writing craftivity that took little to no time to prep. Students wrote about their plans or things they would like to do this summer. They really got into this assignment. In the end, we had a colorful display to remind us that summer break was just around the corner. If you would like to use this writing craftivity with your students, you can click on the picture below for more details. We also worked on some (hot off the press) literacy and math centers. For the past couple of years, I've intended to round out my literacy and math centers with sets that are end of the year and summer inspired. However, since the end of the year is the way it is...I have ran out of steam before I completed my project. But, this year was different. I stayed up late several nights and managed to finish up these long awaited resources. To tell you the truth, it was pretty fun putting these sets together. They served as a great review of many skills we practiced during the year. I could really see how far my young learners have come. Pictured below are a couple of the literacy centers students worked with during the final weeks. These literacy centers (and nine others-there is a bonus 11th center as well) are part of my Excellent Endings {10 Literacy Centers for the End of the Year} packet. The centers in Excellent Endings include work with adjectives, synonyms/antonyms, syllables, pronouns, verbs, sight words, vowel teams, contractions, and more. You can click here if you'd like more details. We also kept busy with the companion set of math centers, Excellent Endings {10 Math Centers for the End of the Year}. Pictured below are a couple of centers from this packet. There are a total of eleven math centers in my Excellent Endings {10 Math Centers for the End of the Year}. (This packet also includes a bonus 11th center.) The centers in Excellent Endings include practice with fact families, place value, geometry, time to the half hour, double digit addition/subtraction, fractions, and more. You can click here if you'd like more details. These end of the year literacy and math centers offered a good deal of flexibility and quality skill practice during the last weeks of school. In addition to our center work, another end of the year project I love is my Graduation Glyph. We've made these glyphs for the past few years and they always turn out so cute. Like with all glyphs, students answer questions to determine details about their project. We used our glyphs for some data collection to help complete our end of the year memory booklets. When we finished, students autographed each others' booklets. (They loved this part.) If you would like more info about my Graduation Glyph {A Fun End of the Year Craftivity and Memory Booklet}, just click here. Besides keeping my kids occupied, (like I mentioned before) there are quiet a few responsibilities that get added to teachers' plates at the end of the year. One responsibility we have at our school is to put together a little something for our classes during Awards Day. This year we had the option of doing awards with our students in our own classrooms, instead of in the auditorium with the entire grade. We opted for doing awards in our classes and I went to work making some new superlative awards for my almost second graders. It was nice to reflect back on the year and about my students' accomplishments, personalities, and interests. All the students loved hearing about their special awards and why they are so deserving. We had a great time. I created the awards in full color and in ink saver, backline. I went back and forth on which version to use. In the end, I decided to go with the ink saver on some bright and colorful paper. My End of the Year Student Awards are also available at my store. They are editable and include girl and boy versions of all of the awards. You can click on the picture below for more information. Student awards and end of the year gifts are definitely tasks that you can get an early start on. For this year's gifts, I gave each student a book and personalized bookmark. Scholastic books is a great resource when you are trying to outfit your entire class with the same book. I was so excited to see this Ready Freddy Second Grade Rules on sale for $1. #score Many of my firsties were pretty proud to be leaving for the summer with their very own chapter book. If you would like a free (and editable) copy of the bookmarks I gave to my students, you can click here. I hope some of these ideas and resources are a help to you as you wrap up your school year. If you get an early start on some of your extra responsibilities and keep your students involved with meaningful activities, the end of the year will way less stressful. Thanks for stopping by.
Do you have helpers in your classroom? Many teachers have asked over the years about how classroom helpers work in our classes. Here are the top three questions: "Why do you have classroom helpers?" "How do you organize our helpers?" "Can you help me get mine started?" Here are our answers: 1. It helps build a community. 2. The children take on a responsibility/leadership role. 3. Helps the classroom run smoothly. 4. Reduces the teacher's workload. 5. Children LOVE taking responsibility for our room! Each Monday the children look forward to their new jobs! We rotate the jobs because more that one child usually enjoys a job. We like to give every child an opportunity to try each job. Sometimes they find they really enjoy a job that they thought they wouldn't like. Every classroom has a different plan for changing helpers and you have to find what works for you! *Alison loves to change her helpers Friday before she leaves for the day. It is just part of her routine and she feels great about getting it done early! *I love to change mine with the kids on Monday morning as part of my "Monday Morning Routine." It helps us ease back into our week! *Another friend of mine changes her helpers every two weeks because one was too fast. Once the helpers are assigned and posted on our "Helpers" chart the week starts. I never forget who has a job because the chart is there to refer to and the kids know their jobs and take pride in having them. My answer is "YES!" We have several helpers to match what you might need in your room. They are also editable and you can change the job titles & add your students names. You can even add your own cards to match on the "blank" card pages. Once you choose the theme/style that matches your classroom, putting it together is easy peasy! Here is the set I used last year: I backed my cards after I printed them with yellow cardstock to match my color scheme. There are so many ways to display your helpers, here are a few of the ideas we have used: We have attached them on ribbons and used clothespins for the names. We have placed them in a pocket chart and just tucked the children name card next to the job. We have placed them on a magnetic surface, too! These are just some of the jobs in the pack! Best thing, they are EDITABLE! You decide what the names of the jobs are. Here is our selection in a variety of themes: (You can click on any picture below to see it in our store.) Don't see what you need? Contact us at [email protected] to get your request on our list of projects now! Have other ideas for jobs, we would LOVE to hear them. Please comment below or send us an email. Happy Teaching!
