A bright and cheerful bulletin board in the hallway is the perfect way to welcome students back to school! Check out these ideas for inspiration to create your own school and classroom decorations.
Great FREE Printables for AAC/PECS to use with students with Autism and PMLD. Awesome free printable communication boards for special ed.
If you've ever wondered how to make geography more interactive, this list of 100 hands-on geography activities for middle school is perfect for you.
Get your classroom back-to-school ready with fun bulletin board ideas you'll never want to take down!
Woot woot! This post was featured on the TpT blog! You can see it here. Never underestimate the importance of teaching routines. In every classroom and every grade level... but ESPECIALLY in Kindergaten. And in Kindergarten,
These all about me, back to school art activities for kids are engaging icebreakers. Encourage creativity and build community during the first week back
Free Printable Back to School Banner Crayons. Crayons for bulletin board decorations, crayon banner classroom decor or classroom door crayon theme.
Name posters are an easy art project for the first day of school and also double as classroom decor!
Time to inspire and motivate your students with these 4 fun bulletin board ideas that are perfect for schools, classrooms, or libraries!
These all about me, back to school art activities for kids are engaging icebreakers. Encourage creativity and build community during the first week back
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
Great ideas for welcoming kids to your classroom.
Back to school freebies: No David directed drawing and free printable crowns
Decorating your classroom at the beginning of the year (or any time) is a challenge. Let me help with these ideas! There's always so much to do at the beginning of the school year. For me, this was really brought home when I started a new job with a science lab as my classroom. An
Why I don't review the syllabus on the first day of class in high school and what I do instead. Fun first day of school activities and icebreakers!
Who doesn't love free classroom decor? In this post are a bunch of free math bulletin board printables, from posters to math pennants, that you can download for your classroom for free today.
Have you tried using Collaborative Posters in the Classroom? Collaborative posters are a fantastic way to build a culture of teamwork and unity in your
These all about me, back to school art activities for kids are engaging icebreakers. Encourage creativity and build community during the first week back
School Spirit - School Themes for the Year
Kick-start your leadership class or student council group with these must-do activities that will set your whole year up for success.
Turn those blank walls into something worth looking at!
Why History Matters Interactive Bulletin Board This resource includes 35 interactive cards to be used in a bulletin board display focusing on "Why History Matters." Topics included are: Why history matters? What skills do we learn when we study history? What does it mean to think like a historian? How are historians like detectives? What is historiography? What is a primary source? What is a secondary source? Why is sourcing important? What is oral history? What is historical inquiry? What is continuity and change? And more! A title, "Why History Matters" is included. This resource also includes two bonus visually appealing note pages that may be used in conjunction with the bulletin board or may be used alone. (Students may use the bulletin board as a reference when completing the notes pages.) A completed notes page is also included. (I provide the completed notes page to my students who struggle with note-taking. I have my students highlight important information on the completed notes page.) Topics included in the notes pages are: Why study history? Tools of a historian. Thinking like a historian, and more! QR Codes are included. NOTE: An answer key is NOT included with the notes pages. Answers will vary on both notes pages depending on the student and depending on how the notes pages are used. The notes pages are included in this resource as a BONUS. Feel free to use them or discard them if you wish. A bonus "Why History Matters" station activity is also included in this resource. This activity includes 5 stations (primary and secondary source sorting activity, quote analysis activity, and more! Bulletin board templates and station card templates are included if you choose to add your own bulletin board cards and/or stations.
As a teacher, there is so much to do when it comes to setting up the classroom, that it is hard to know where to start! Over the course of my first six years of teaching middle school math, a few of these classroom projects have become staples in my classroom. In this post, I plan to share a few of these ideas. (1) Assignment Notebook Board The first thing my middle school students do (or should be doing!) when they come to class is fill out their assignment notebooks. With some ruler tape that I found at Office Max, I created this assignment notebook board. The number 1 on each day is for what we do in class. The number 2 on each day is any homework that is assigned. For example the 1 might be "Multiply Fractions" and the 2 might be "Pg 232 hw (due tmw)." (2) Math is Everywhere Board I have written about this project in a few other posts, but it is one of my all time favorites to start the year! I have two bulletin boards in my classroom. This one gets filled with these tiles. Students must show how they see math in the real world on their tile. On the back of their tile, they must write a paragraph explaining how math is seen in the topic that they chose! You can click HERE for a free set of the bulletin board letters! (3) Challenge of the Week Many of you have already seen or tried out the Challenge of the Week in your classroom! I have loved seeing the pictures! Each week, I put up a new challenge problem. They are optional and students have until the end of the day on Thursday to turn it in. Anyone who gets it correct gets a small prize on Friday when we go over the answer! Both the 6th Grade Challenge of the Week Problems and the 8th Grade Challenge of the Week Problems are FREE in my TpT store. Enjoy! (4) Teacher Book Shelf My teacher book shelf took on some major changes recently. I started with this new way of organizing all of my math workshop materials. I decided to organize them more by the type of game, rather than by the topic like I had done in the past. I cleared these shelves off and organized them in these containers that I had ordered a few years ago. If you are looking for the materials and resources that I use for math workshop, be sure to check out my Math Mega Bundle (Upper Elementary/Middle School) and my Math Mega Bundle (8th Grade Math). Below these containers, I have two shelves with labels for Monday through Friday. This is where I put all of my plans and resources that I will be using for the coming week. This has been a useful way to stay organized and prepared throughout the week! As you can see, I am not quite ready for the first week of school... On the bottom of these shelves are my task cards, which very well could be the hardest resource when it comes to organization! I found these containers at Michaels. They have worked out pretty well. I have two sets of task cards that I use throughout each school year for each grade level. I have a regular set of task cards and then a set of enrichment task cards. Each set takes up two of these containers. Teaching two different grades means I end up with 8 of these containers, which is pretty manageable! Check out the links below if you are interested in the task cards for each grade level! 6th Grade Math Task Cards Bundle 6th Grade Math Enrichment Task Cards Bundle 7th Grade Math Task Cards Bundle 7th Grade Math Enrichment Task Cards Bundle 8th Grade Math Task Cards Bundle 8th Grade Math Enrichment Task Cards Bundle (5) Bulletin Board (Number 2) My second bulletin board is filled with some routine-oriented and expectation posters. I made these the last few years. The colored math workshop poster shows where students of each group should be at any given time. The homework data chart is where we record our homework data. As a class, we figure out what percentage of homework we turn in on time each day. Over the course of the year, we graph these and look at trends. It also becomes a fun competition between classes! (6) Bobblehead Collection I started my bobblehead collection a while ago and it has just grown ever since! Students enjoy seeing them and it is a fun way for students to get to know me and my interest in baseball! My wife and I are trying to get to all 30 MLB stadiums, and recently made it to Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City. Luckily it was a bobblehead giveaway, so the Kevin Appier Royals bobblehead is the most recent addition to the collection!
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!
I love bulletin boards. Have I mentioned that? I love making my bulletin boards art. I love putting art on my bulletin boards. Heck...I'll put almost anything on my boards! Here are a few ideas for quick and funky borders using some non-traditional items that you may have laying around your house. Poker Chips I use poker chips for several different things in my classroom, so I have quite a few on hand. They make a great border, don't they? If you have a metal edged board, you can use a glue gun to attach them. If you are working with a board with a wooden frame, the hot glue may damage it. Use glue dots. I like to layer them for more visual appeal. This bulletin board is a free download which feature the old national music standards. Poker chips hold spray paint well. I've spray painted them gold to use for the gold at the end of a St. Patrick's Day rainbow before and was pleased with the result. Boxes I did a movie theme in my room once upon a time. It was so fun to find new ways to use popcorn boxes and bags. They are inexpensive to purchase (I got mine on Amazon.) and could be reused. Popcorn boxes would be great for movie themed bulletin boards, popcorn words, etc... I have plans to do something similar with small Chinese takeout boxes with my Instruments of China board. Cards It seems that it is completely impossible to keep a full deck of cards at my house. Any kind of cards! That's okay, because they look GREAT as borders for bulletin boards. Uno, Phase 10 and regular playing cards work great for math bulletin boards, rhythm or time signature bulletin boards or maybe even a great trim for a bulletin board that showcases your daily schedule. This set is from a Go Fish set of cards I picked up at the dollar store. Love that they work so well with an ocean or beach theme. Kids love to stop and look for matches even when they are displayed on a bulletin board. Cupcake Papers This is one of my go to looks for making a display really pop. There are so many varieties of cupcake papers available that you can find any color and any theme that you may need. Flatten them out and staple them to your board. I've found that buying complimentary patterns and layering them can really be beautiful. When working with my rock star theme I wanted something metallic that would be a little flashy. It turns out that there is a cupcake paper for that! These little baking cups are so cute at the corners of my rock star alphabet display. I added some glittery foam stickers to embellish them a little. (Classroom teachers see the rock star theme HERE. Music teachers see it HERE.) Duct Tape It doesn't get any easier than this! Look at what a great job duct tape does to cover this older bulletin board. Check out your local discount store for tons of duct tape options. The bulletin board above is from my Number Posters - Rock Star Theme. This is another example of the versatility of duct tape. This is a light blue glittery duct tape. It is displayed on my Soar Into Music board. Legos This is SUCH an eye-catching display! The bulletin board is Minecraft inspired and the Legos (or are these Duplos?) go with the building theme. I used Scotch tape to attach them to my board. For some of the pieces I just laid them on top of one piece and then taped the next block on it so that not every block is taped. This may work better on a board that students can't easily touch. (Classroom teachers take a closer look at the board HERE. Music teachers HERE.) Pool Noodles Those of you that have been following my blog for a while know that I have a great love for re-purposing pool noodles. I've made ponies, steady beat swords and even workstations. I also just cut them up to make great bulletin board borders! For this fishy bulletin board I wanted them to imitate bubbles. I've attached them with glue dots. You could also use a low-temp hot glue gun to attach them. This bulletin board is called Making Music Together. Notepads They aren't just for note taking! I often use these little gems to add content to bulletin boards. They also make a great (and inexpensive) border. The iPod pad shown above came from Wal-Mart and the composer bulletin board can be found HERE. Paint Chips Paint chips are free and are a perfect way to add visual interest to any bulletin board. On the border above I chose to use two different kinds of paint chips and to create a pattern with them. Paint chips look just as great mixed up and stapled in any order. Staple them so they hang over the edge of the board and overlap. You can learn more about the Let's Talk bulletin board HERE. Plates Even more than I love pool noodles in the classroom, I love plates! When I packed up my room this year I marveled at my collection. I have Zoo Pals (photo above), baseball plates, basketball plates, beach ball plates, watermelon plates, heart plates, square plates, Santa plates and more. I also have colored plates in 3 different sizes and every color you can imagine. I use them for movement and composition activities, but LOVE using them on bulletin boards. I pick them up at discount stores, dollar stores and party supply places. Here are a few examples. The What's Cooking in Music board can be downloaded HERE. The watermelon plates are so fun! This year I found them in a larger, oval size. This bulletin board is part of my Music Burger writing display. Puzzle Pieces Shhh! Don't tell my daughter but sometimes I swipe her old puzzles for school projects! In this instance, it was a jumbo Barney puzzle that had several missing pieces. For the display below I just attached them to the board with glue dots. You might be able to use Scotch tape too. I have painted them before to match a bulletin board. Tissue Paper Like many teachers I have created flowers and pom poms to decorate bulletin boards. They have a huge visual punch and are relatively inexpensive to make. It's very easy to just scrunch it up together and staple it around your board. Creating enough tissue paper flowers to use around the edge of a bulletin board is also pretty, but time consuming. Braiding long strips of tissue papers creates an interesting look and lets you coordinate your border with whatever colors you may need. Song Bugs Bulletin Board Odds and Ends Really, I'll put anything on a bulletin board. I've used socks, fishing poles, candy, lights, my son's overalls and more. For this movie themed bulletin board I used a few View Master reels to accent the corners. Wrapping Paper In my bulletin board kits I often talk about using wrapping paper as a background for your bulletin boards. It can be found in many themes and patterns and often stays bright and colorful without fading for several months. Reversible wrapping paper can also be used to create borders. As you are stapling the paper in place, leave about two inches overlap on each side. Fold this down to reveal the back side of the paper and staple into place. What unusual things have you put on your bulletin boards? I'd love to hear about them or see a picture!
Show your middle school math students the relevance of what they are learning with this fun bulletin board kit that answers the age-old question "When are we ever going to use this?" This bulletin board includes the letters to spell out "When are we ever going to use this?" and includes 15 cards that each feature a middle school math topic and 4 unique jobs that use that math skill. The topics included in this set are: decimals, fractions, integers, percents, ratios & proportions, angles, area & volume, transformations, equations, exponents, slope & linear functions, data analysis, probability, measurement, and problem solving. (Please see the preview for a look at all of the included cards!) Included in the zip folder that you download are both a printable pdf and an svg file. The pdf is for traditional printing and cutting by hand on 8.5 x 11 paper, while the svg can be used with your cutting machine to save you time and energy!! This is a great bulletin board for the secondary math classroom to remind your students of the importance of math! Check out more middle school math classroom decor here!
Getting kids started writing STORIES in Kindergarten is not impossible! In fact, I have done this MANY times with my students, and I c...
Have you thought about having a class pet, but don’t want to add one more thing to take care of in your classroom? Well, I have the perfect solution---a take-home stuffed animal! Kids love it and there is no cage or tank to clean out! Having a traveling class pet was by far the most popular class pet I ever had. Kids couldn’t wait for their week to take home the pet and have it be part of their life for a few days. Of course, I had to include a journal for the kids to write in through the week. Tips for having a take-home class pet. 1. Choosing a stuffed animal is the easy part because kids love them all. But, keep the size of the pet in mind. Too large and it's difficult to transport home and then back to school. Too small and it feels too much like a toy instead of a real pet. 2. Pick a traveling bag for your pet. I like clear plastic bags so everyone can see the adorable pet inside. Make sure it's large enough to hold the pet and the journal. I found this bag on Amazon for under $10. (Search "clear plastic tote" for lots of choices.) 3. Decide on the requirements for the journal. The requirements should be based on the writing level of your students. Kindies can have a drawing journal where they draw a picture or two that shows what they did with the pet. Firsties can write a few sentences along with illustrations. For older students, they can write paragraphs and add illustrations. Make sure all requirements and suggestions are included in the journal, so kids know exactly what is expected. 4. What will you use as a journal? I like using a composition book. It's sturdy and will last the whole year. You can glue on a cover and then glue all instructions and suggestions to the inside cover. Click here to download this freebie from my TpT store. (Click on this image.) 5. Make sure you share the journal on the day it's returned and before it goes home with a new student. 6. A letter home at the beginning of the year, explaining the Take-Home pet is a good idea. That way, parents know what to expect. I also let parents know the take-home schedule a few weeks in advance. That way, the schedule can be adjusted if a family needs to reschedule the pet's visit to their home. Above all, have fun. Just like a live pet, the stuffed animal pet is a great way to teach responsibility.
We want students to be comfortable in our classrooms. We want them to feel welcomed and inspired. Classroom decoration can play a role in creating that environment. Below are some simple ways to …
My favorite first grade Back to School Activities in my classroom! These are my go-to activities for the first week of school!
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Let's dive into some new options to teach vocabulary, for those who have the time and energy to pursue them. In this post and podcast, I'm sharing ten ideas for making the study of vocabulary something students might even look forward to.
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Find a cute and easy theme for your elementary, special education, or middle school classroom.
Use these Getting to Know You activities and games to help your students make friends and build classroom community at the beginning of the year. These Back to School Get to Know You activities will give you so many ideas and games to help students feel comfortable with one another. Never have a blank minute in your schedule when you don't know what to do and your kids are going crazy--just whip out your book and get kids instantly engaged in a meaningful, community building activity! Help students build connections with each other and make friends by filling your first week of school with these fun activities. Classroom Use: Games range from partners, to small group, to whole group activities and focus on getting to know each other and working together. • First week of school activities • Building classroom unity • Time-filler activities • Practicing social and conversation skills • Faculty function ice-beaker activities Includes: • Instructions for all 32 games • Cover page in BW or color • Table of Contents • 8 extra print materials to go with some of the games Set-Up: • Print all game instructions out • Cut pages in half and hole punch • Attach with a binder ring to make an easy, quick to access book full of games **********Check out some of my other products!********** Back to School Addition and Subtraction Jokes ELA Intervention Binder Bundle ELA Comprehensive Reading Skills Intervention Assessment Adding and Subtracting with Tens and Ones Bundle ********************Customer Tips******************** • New products in my store are 50% off for the first 24 hours they are posted! Follow me by clicking HERE so you don't miss any new products or sales. • Did you know with each purchase you make, you can earn points towards free products on TPT? For each product you provide feedback for, you earn 1 TPT credit for each dollar it was worth. After you make a purchase, hover over "My TPT" and click "My Purchases". Click "Provide Feedback" by the green little thumb. After you provide feedback, you can check your TPT Credit Balance by hovering over "My TPT" and clicking "TPT Credit Balance". Such an awesome way to save some money! Happy shopping!
These all about me, back to school art activities for kids are engaging icebreakers. Encourage creativity and build community during the first week back
We want students to be comfortable in our classrooms. We want them to feel welcomed and inspired. Classroom decoration can play a role in creating that environment. Below are some simple ways to …
This pack of print-and-go back to school activities will make your first week of school a breeze! Keep your new students engaged from the start with fun printables, Magic Bracelets, Jitter Juice, and a cute getting-to-know-you pencil craft! Included: *When applicable, printables come with primary & secondary lines.* About Me Pencil Craft craft patterns and directions about me booklet (two versions) Magic Bracelets Magic Bracelet Poem (in color and b&w) Magic Bracelet Supplies (p.75) Magic Bracelet Predictions My Magic Bracelet coloring craft Jitter Juice Jitter Juice Poem (in color and b&w) Jitter Juice Poem- juice box (in color and b&w) Jitter Juice Survey (cup and juice box) Jitter Juice Sentence Starter (cup and juice box) Jitter Juice Recipe First Week Printables Back to School Fun Pack cover page First Week of School cover page First Week of Kinder/1st/2nd cover pages Our Brightest Work (lightbulb) placeholder in color and b&w Our Brightest Work (rainbow) placeholder in color and b&w Happy First Day of School coloring pages x2 Hello Kinder/First/Second play-doh mats All About Me My Favorites (6 favorites) My Favorites (10 favorites) My New Teacher Math About Me Summer Memories My Classroom Class Roll Call x2 This or That I Wish My Teacher Knew First Day Survey Find a Friend #1 Find a Friend #2 Find a Friend #3 All About My Name (up to 10 letters) All About My Name (up to 12 letters) Class Name Graph x2 The Night Before School First Day Selfie School is A-MAZE-ing The Bus Stop Maze I Spy School Supplies Classroom Scavenger Hunt School Scavenger Hunt Show What You Know Printables Color by Vowel Color by Word Color by Sum Alphabet Trail x2 I Can Trace Letters x2 I Can Trace Numbers I Can Trace Shapes Trace and Color Letters I Can Write Numbers 1-10 I Can Write Numbers 11-20 I Can Write Letters a-n I Can Write Letters o-z I Can Write Letters A-N I Can Write Letters O-Z Alphabet Expert Directions Expert Color Expert Cutting Expert Time Telling Expert Money Expert Color by Coin I hope you love it!! Enjoy! :) XO Teri A Cupcake for the Teacher
On a normal, middle-of-the-year day, I want my students to come into my room in the morning knowing it is a calm place, a cooperative pla...
