Time to inspire and motivate your students with these 4 fun bulletin board ideas that are perfect for schools, classrooms, or libraries!
So much Twitter love from my post about my walls this year. Y’all know how to make a girl feel good! I don’t have my lesson plans ready, and am not entirely sure what I’m doing on…
These all about me, back to school art activities for kids are engaging icebreakers. Encourage creativity and build community during the first week back
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Too many classroom icebreakers require students to take big social risks with people they barely know. Or they don't really help students get to know each other. Or they are just plain cheesy.
I love these name letters for bulletin board toppers and more! This includes the Flap Book printable also. This set of letters that spell JOSHUA is a super condensed overview of his life. They can be used as a bulletin board heading, or by themselves. These letters are perfect when you have a couple extra minutes when you are studying Joshua and can spend some time for review. The download includes the color and black & white version. Click here to download the Spell-It-Out Letters for Joshua. For the students, you can print this Joshua Flap book. The students can write each Joshua fact under the flap. These are great for Joshua discussions and for review. The download includes the color and black and white to print. Click here to print the Joshua Flap Book. Click here to see more for Joshua. Click here to see more.
I have updated this link with a freebie! Click here to get there. "No, David" is one of our favorite books to begin the year or use anytime we need a little review of what our classroom expectations are. One corner of our classroom is devoted to David and our school rules. We read the book several times then the students chose one rule they thought was especially important to them and they typed their rule during Computer Lab time. Then each student created a picture of David and they turned out AMAZING! We had so much fun with David this year that we decided to use iMovie to create a short video of David following the rules and showed the video to the entire school. How FUN! If you would like to view the video you can see it on my classroom webpage. The poster shown above was printed at Staples. I used PhotoShop to edit the title to fit our lesson and class.
Click here to view tutorial on Pinterest. Last updated 8/20/2022.
Easy idea for building self confidence and celebrating individuality in children. I love using this as a back to school activity for community building.
Get your students invested in showing you about their novel with this novel study choice board. There's a time and place for book reports, but there are better and more engaging ways to check for understanding! This resource includes 12 open-ended project prompts that allow students to use their own creative strengths to share about their novel. Your students will find themselves doing any of the following to show their understanding: Writing Graphic design Drawing Recording a podcast Creating a video Building a 3-D model Acting out an interview and more! Click "View Preview" to preview the resource before purchase. These resources may help your students with their novel study projects: 40 Printable Templates for Storyboards or Comic Strips Create Your Own Invention Activity Novel Study: Soundtrack Activity [create soundtracks to books or just for fun!] You may also like: (FREE!) Five-Sentence Summary Graphic Organizer Book Review Templates for K-5+ [Differentiated with over 20 different designs!] English Language Arts Graphic Organizers Bundle: Writing and Vocabulary
Head back to school with The Kissing Hand book by Audrey Penn. Pair it with activities and crafts to go along with the theme of the book or even buy Chester
Back to School Night can be the first time you meet many of the parents in your class. It is important that you communicate all of the information the parents will need to help their child have a successful school year. Here are my top tips for planning an informative and stress free Back to School Night: Have a Sign In SheetHave parents sign in on a sheet as the enter the room. This will allow you to keep track of which student's parents were able to attend. Be sure to send home copies of the
This post may contain affiliate links. Thanks for supporting Sisters, What! I've recently went down the rabbit hole of home school resources that you can buy and that are also available to download for free. There are so many talented home schoolers these days and they have used their amazing art skills to create such beautiful unit studies and they're quite affordable. I thought I'd share both some that you can buy and that you can download for free. You may also enjoy: Homeschool Gift ideas Favorite Home School Resources to buy on Etsy (skip to second part of the post for free resources) *You can find a full list of my favorite Home School Etsy Favorites HERE and my Etsy Profile of Favorite things HERE This is a favorite Charlotte Mason Quote digital download that is perfect for any home school room Honey Comb Shop is one of my favorites, they have so many different mini unit nature study and the art is beautiful. I made these homeschool stickers for friends and now have them in my shop. Raising Wild Things Shop also does some great and beautiful nature unit studies printables I love all these life cycle physical prints from The Rewild Shop And more life cycle prints (printables) from Lovely Wild Sunflowers Shop Pretty Nerdy Press makes some really beautiful graphics for home school and for the home. Such great quality too. So many great simple Charlotte Mason unit studies from CM Simple Studies. MATH HOMESCHOOL PRINTABLES TO BUY Know It All Shop offers not only beautiful ABC prints but also so many great, colorful math printables you can download at a great price. This shop, Artsopomc, also contains some fun multiplication printables and if you're Korean, some Korean printables as well. I love all these very bright and colorful prints from Petunia Be Designs. They also come in black and white as well. Home School Resources to Download for Free First of all, I have created a few free printable resources here on this blog. I've made a few different types of bookmarks that you can download for free. These vintage reading chart bookmarks have open ended questions on the back to help kids dive deeper into reading. And you can download a fun reading bingofun summer reading bingo to go with the bookmarks Free Printable Coloring Reading Bookmark printable Free Printable Reading log/planner (perfect for summer) and free home school planner printables And these free printable Writing and Number Charts. Also these garden journal/books you can download for free And from around the internet: Jessica over at Simple Wonders has created so many great printables to get your home school started. Much is aligned with Charlotte Mason Philosophy. Along with a great reading and spelling list to download. She even has created a great curriculum outline for you to download. Everything is free or pay what you can. She only needs just enough to keep the site maintained, any profit she donates to a non-profit. She has been so generous at what she offers. You can also find free artist studies to download for free HERE I love all the Humble Place has to offer. She has created so many great artist study units. Most cost a little something, but she offers a few of them for free. I love This Reading Mama. She offers so many free printables, especially for preschool and younger elementary age. I have used her Learning to Read Printables for so many of my kids. Life Abundantly Blog has so much to offer and has some great printables that you can download for free like this nature collection journal Silo and Sage has created some great printables and even has some free ones, but you should also check out the ones for sale. The Measured Mom is another great blogger that offers so many free home school resources like these Math printables and these Free Handwriting Pages which I have used for all my kids. Those are what I have for now. I'll probably keep updating this resource list as I come across others that I think are great!
Time to inspire and motivate your students with these 4 fun bulletin board ideas that are perfect for schools, classrooms, or libraries!
Want to improve your students' vocabulary? Included are 38 Word of the Week posters, one for each week of the school year. Stick them up on the wall each week, or put them all onto a keyring and hook them onto your board to switch them easily each week. CHECK OUT OUR BUNDLE WHICH INCLUDES WORD, IDIO...
Name posters are an easy art project for the first day of school and also double as classroom decor!
Use this Book of Mormon timeline in your Come Follow Me studies!
The pencils are sharpened, your classroom is clean and the bell rings…gulp…here they come! My feelings on the first week of school are conflicted. On one hand, it’s one of the most important weeks. Explaining and practicing the class procedures and expectations sets the tone for the rest of the school year. Success is vital. On the other hand, I’m so excited to start teaching my historical content that waiting until all the expectations are explained requires a lot of patience! Every teacher has their own plan of action for that pivotal time. Here are 5 things I can’t live without during the first week of school: One: An Icebreaker. I aim to try and make kids feel comfortable in my classroom on day one. One of my favorite little activities is Fact or Fiction. Each student receives a small slip of paper and they’re instructed to write one fact and two fictions. Then each person (including myself!) introduces themselves and we all try to guess which statement is the fact! It’s a great way to quickly learn about each other. Two: Classroom Information and Expectations. This is every teacher’s staple, I know, but it had to go on the list because it’s a must-have! When you’re making your own, spell everything out – from the obvious grading procedures and late work policy to how to pass back papers and when to sharpen pencils and go to the bathroom. Trust me, leave no stone unturned. Your classroom will function much better if you set the tone from day one. (Oh, and don’t forget a seating chart!) Three: Fun and Games. On the second day of school, I love to start class with a little game. It’s a great way for the kids to start practicing our classroom procedures and expectations while getting familiar with their teacher and classmates. Here are some of my favorite games that I use during the first week of school: (P.S. Some of these activities can be found in my Back to School Activities resources! Click the grade level you’re teaching to check them out: Sixth, Seventh, Eighth) InstaFriend: This activity gets students moving around the room and interviewing fellow classmates! Their InstaFriend paper has a series of descriptions and characteristics. When they find a student who matches the description, they write their name in the box. Each name can only be used once! Right or Wrong: I love skits. LOVE THEM. I like to introduce students to the idea of skits during the first week by allowing them to create their own based on our class expectations. I first divide students into small groups of 2-3. Each group then randomly receives one of our class procedures or expectations. As a group, they have to work together to create two mini skits – one showing the RIGHT way to follow the expectation, the other showing the WRONG way. They get to be silly and I get to reinforce my class expectations. After each skit I happily point out all the positive behaviors as well as each time a class policy was violated. It’s a light-hearted way to grab their attention and create a positive atmosphere all while practicing the laws of the land. Classmate Bingo: I love to play this game at the end of the first week. I give each student a blank bingo board with a large selection of personal characteristics, hobbies, etc. at the bottom. The students choose 16 off the list and create their customized board. Then, I randomly select characteristics from the list. If a student has that characteristic on their board, they have to write down a student’s name that matches the characteristic – but no cheating! They have to use what they’ve learned about others during their first week of school to try and win the game. Four: A Pre Test. After a few days of class information and fun, it’s time to start getting down to business. Each year, I make a short pre-test on the information they’ll learn about that year. It gives me a chance to see what the kids already know and gives them a feel for what subject matter they’ll be learning about in the coming weeks. FYI: Your pre-test probably won’t take the whole class period. Make sure to have plans for other activities, too, on the day you give your pre-test! Five: A Writing Activity. True fact: when I tell kids they’re going to do a writing activity, they groan every time. It’s a signal that the “real work” is about to begin. Luckily, they’re always relieved when I assure them that this activity will require very little research because it’s about a subject they’re experts in – themselves! I have a few different activities to choose from each year. Here are some suggestions: Student Survey: What are your strengths? Weaknesses? What do you hope to learn in this class? These are just some of the questions I ask students in the survey. The more I know about my students, the better I can help them achieve success in my class. Write Away: A staple of many: write a letter to a future you! I ask students to write goals for the year, dreams they wish to see realized, and questions they want to ask their “End of the Year” self. I tuck these letters away and revisit them during the last week of school. I’m Ready: Like every middle school history class, we do a lot of writing and students always have to back up their reasons, statements, etc. with evidence to support their claim. In this writing activity, students have to identify which class rule or expectation they believe is most important and provide evidence to support their claim. This activity both reinforces my classroom policies and secretly gives me a preview of their writing proficiency. Have I left anything out? If you have any fun plans for the first week of school, share them in the comments. I’m always looking for new ideas for my classroom!
The beginning of a new school year is exciting but can also be a little bit nerve-racking for children and teachers alike! The first days need to fulfil several objectives including allowing everybody to settle in, to begin to re-connect/make new connections and to be filled with enthusiasm for the year ahead. Whole school or class projects are a great way to start the year with a bang, so here are 16 ideas to inspire and make everybody feel part of the team.
Since I am not one to cook, much less prepare a meal ahead of time, I wanted to catch up on our back to school activities that we have done the past few weeks. Bare with me as I let the pictures do most of the talking. Here are a few of my favorites to […]
Middle grade books are admittedly some of my favorites to read. Both when I was in middle school and now as an adult. My only regret is that I hardly read
I’ve had this giant gap of space above my wall of classroom cabinets the last two years. I’m decorating it, one little piece at a time. This week, I decided to create a giant copy of my…
Woordsoorten benoemen is vaak lastig en abstract voor kinderen. Er zijn veel posters ter ondersteuning op internet te vinden. De ene nog vrolijker en kleur
Pete the Cat rocks a new school year in his school shoes. Make a Pete inspired class book of how you are rocking your school shoes.
Here's a resource to help you teach your children about the people in the Bible. This Bible People printable will help you do just that.
Everyone loves Before & After Pictures, right? So, here we go! These pictures are just what my room looked like at the very beginning of the year. At the end of this post, I’ll post som…
Click here for back to school read aloud activities for Our Class is a Family read aloud, printable worksheet, craftivities, bulletin board!
These all about me, back to school art activities for kids are engaging icebreakers. Encourage creativity and build community during the first week back
Back to school freebies: No David directed drawing and free printable crowns
In this article we are sharing how to make your own family board book with photos of YOUR family for the little in your life. Sure to be a hit!
Great FREE Printables for AAC/PECS to use with students with Autism and PMLD. Awesome free printable communication boards for special ed.
Our Class is a Family Back to School Book Unit is perfect for creating a class family community during the first week of school. There are 2 anchor chart response sheets, 6 reading response pages, A Class Book featuring All About Me and my class, 6 class banner options, and 7 class meeting scenarios! After reading, Our Class is a Family by Shannon Olsen, complete as many of the included activities as you like! Our Class is a Family Back to School Activities: 2 Anchor Chart response sheets Our Class Promise Our Class is a Family 6 Reading Response Pages In Our Class Family I will for our class Family Our Class is a Family Giraffe and Elephant Scare Up Support My Partner Play Plan 1 Class Book All About Introducing Me! I am Unique My Favorites My Family Goals and Dreams My Class Family 6 Class Banner Options Create a wall, bulletin board, or cross-classroom banner about students! 7 Class Meeting Scenarios Display or project the scenarios to continue the conversation. Related Resources First Week Favorites All About Me Flip Book Get to Know Me Flip Book Back to School Backpack Thank you, Reagan Tunstall Tunstall's Teaching Tidbits
The green and red choice board is a universal support available for all students to support their social-emotional behavior.
Jill of Homemade by Jill is sharing her templates for an appliqued “quiet book.” Run over to her blog and get them. This original post needed some expansion so we have added some…
Plus follow-up activities and a free printable list.
This hilarious little gem is the perfect first day of school book! See how I use it in my classroom to create the most fun and full first week of school ever! I even build anticipation before the first day of school by displaying this on meet the teacher night.
I used to spend so much time looking for the perfect read aloud books each month to read to my students. I have finally compiled a list on this blog post to save you so much time searching for books your students will love. I have even created FREE book companion activities you can pr
When I start the new school year, I pick a book of the day for the first two weeks. I create a variety of activities to go with each book. I use a lot of books that focus on social and emotional learning, including kindness, friendship, and respect. But, I also add in some fun ... Read More about 8 Books for Back to School
A cute back to school book and art project for 2-3! Read Do Unto Otters to talk about classroom rules & then make an otters guided drawing bulletin board.
