Little things that mean a lot and won't break the bank.
Little things that mean a lot and won't break the bank.
Birthdays in the classroom can be tricky due to cost and food restrictions. Here are bonafide tips for how to celebrate student birthdays in a special way.
It's hard to believe it's already that time of the year again! The End of the Year Countdown is on and I wanted to share some EASY and inexpensive student gifts for the end of the year! Let's get this party started!!!! And, at only $3.88 for a pack of 6 these Bubble Sticks from Wal-Mart are an AMAZING deal! I am giving my sweet students these bubble sticks this year and I am going to personalize them using my Silhoutte Cameo! Another option are these adorable popsicle bubble blowers from Dollar Tree! Sand Buckets make a great end of the year gift because they can be used to hold ANYTHING! My own kids play with sand buckets all the time for anything and everything, not just at the beach! I gave my students each a sand bucket a few years ago and personalized them with their names! You could also put some fun items inside! You can find these anywhere, but I found some great deals at Dollar Tree and Michaels! My kids LOVE water bottles and the great thing about these is how easy they are to find for pretty cheap! I found these ones at Dollar Tree and last year I personalized them for each of my students using my Silhouette! I've also seen great options at Michaels and Hobby Lobby! When I was in third grade, my teacher gave my entire class a book for our end of the year gift. But, she didn't just give us any book. She picked out a different book for every single one of us that would mean something to that student. I STILL remember that gift, and I'm sure I still have the book in a box in my parent's attic. One simple little gift that has truly made an impact on my life! One year I hope to do that for each of my kids! It is definitely not a cheap idea, but one that might impact a future teacher! Books are ALWAYS a good idea to give! And, even if you don't want to choose a DIFFERENT book for every student, you can easily purchase a class favorite for the class! Make sure to check out the Scholastic teacher section for dollar deals, and if you are lucky enough to have a Scholastic Warehouse near you, their sales are AMAZING! When I was a little girl, I LOVED playing school! So, giving dry erase boards as an end of the year gift is always a good idea in my book! And, there are so many different options! I have these plastic trays and dry erase board paddles from Dollar Tree! But, you could also go to Home Depot and have them cut pieces of Shower Board for you! I did this my first year teaching and STILL have the same boards TEN years later!! It would also be cute to personalize the backs of the boards using a permanent marker! What kid doesn't LOVE sunglasses!? These are such a fun gift for the end of the year! These are also a pretty inexpensive gift and would make the cutest picture of your entire class wearing them all! You can grab these options from Dollar Tree! And, these NEON sunglasses are only $15 for a 24 pack on Amazon! I am all about some memories, so giving a picture frame with a class picture inside is a great gift idea in my book! I can just imagine this sweet little picture frame sitting on a night stand for years to come! And then maybe one day it'll be placed in a box and bring back lots of memories and smiles! I grabbed this little frame from Dollar Tree, so it was a great deal! I just love the idea of giving students beach balls at the end of the year! And, these work out perfectly because you can have your class sign each ball with a permanent marker as a fun little memento to keep for years to come! And, at only $1.00 a ball they make the perfect gift! You can find these at Dollar Tree! You can also grab this 12 pack of beach balls for under $10 on Amazon! For all those crafty teachers, I bet you could come up with something CUTE to put on a t-shirt! I'm thinking tie-dye or some Heat Transfer Vinyl! And then you could also have students sign the backs and have a sweet little gift that they can keep forever! You can grab this pack of t-shirts on Amazon! How FUN is sidewalk chalk during the summer!? My kids LOVE using sidewalk chalk at recess, so I know this would make a great end of the year gift that they could use at home! These 20 packs are only $1.00 at Dollar Tree!!! Because what kid doesn't LOVE candy!? This is always an easy idea! And you can get ANY kind of sweet treat! Gummy Bears are some of my favorite!!! I found these Krazy Straws at Dollar Tree and there are 6 in a pack for only $1.00! I mean, it doesn't get much cheaper than 16 cents per student! You could even add one of those packs of Kool Aid or Crystal Light to it to make it more fun! I also found these cute mini Krazy Straws at Hobby Lobby! Or, you can grab a 36 pack on Amazon for only around $7! So, I'm going to be completley honest and I HATE playdough! But, as much as I hate it kids absolutely LOVE it! Dollar Tree has TONS of options! They even have a 4-pack for only $1.00! This would make a great gift for primary grades! You could even send home a cute little list of things that they could use the playdough for to practice over the summer- letters, CVC words, sight words! Anything! And, for those fun and silly years how FUN would Silly Putty or Silly String be for a gift!? You can find both of these fun things on Amazon! I love the idea of paint and some paper or an art pad! As a mom of two, this would give kids something fun to do over the summer! Markers or crayons would also be a cute idea! And again, not expensive at all! I also found some large Art Pads at Dollar Tree for only $1.00! Because when it's all said and done, the years really do FLY BY! It always amazes me how fast the school year goes by! Frisbees are such a fun gift idea, and I think it would be super adorable to have your students sign each other's frisbee! So, I just LOVE when I find cute little plush toys to give to my kids! Especially when they aren't very expensive! How ADORABLE are these little plush fish that I found from Dollar Tree!? I love the whole o-FISH-ally theme and got super excited when I found them! And, these cute little caterpillars make the CUTEST little bookworms! I found these at Dollar Tree, too! I mean, how ADORABLE are these little plush fish from Oriental Trading!? They would make the cutest little gift with an O-FISH-ALLY tag! Or, these sweet little bears from Oriental Trading would make the sweetest gift for a BEARY sweet year! Pencils are always fun! But, personalized pencils are even better! How adorable are these pencils that you can grab from Oriental Trading!? Clipboards are always fun! The best part of these is they are a blank canvas and you can personalize them in different ways! You can add their names with vinyl, stickers, or a permanent marker! You could even write a special message on the back! And, if you wanted to you could add some summer review pages to the clipboard for students to practice over the summer! You can get a 30 pack on Amazon for around $30! One of my FAVORITE things we did on the last day of school was give our students this fun little Last Day of School Snack! It was such a fun way to end the year!! You could really use ANY candy for this and come up with cute little sayings for what they stand for! Just a FUN way to end the year in a positive way! I hope that you found some ideas for your end of the year gifts!!!! If you need a tag, you can grab my End of the Year Gift Tags in my TPT store! It has ALL the tags shown in this post, including the treat bag topper for the Last Day of School Snack! They come in color and black and white versions and you can personalize them in PowerPoint with your name! For more {Fashion, Fun, and Favorites} make sure to follow me on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Bloglovin', and Teachers Pay Teachers! 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Celebrating classroom birthdays is the kind of thing that made me feel a lot of pressure when I first started teaching. I didn’t realize that my kids would be grateful for just any kind of acknowledgement. I didn’t know (for some reason) that I should plan to give them all identical things. I just d
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There are so many ways to celebrate birthdays in the classroom! I’ve done several different things throughout the years but this year, I found the perfect combo. Kept it easy and meaningful for the kids! Read below to see how we celebrate birthdays. Please note that this blog post includes some Amazon affiliate links. These ... Read More about Student Birthday Ideas and Tips and Tricks
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If you're tired of digging into your own pockets to find ways to motivate your students, you need to check out these FREE reward coupons. You can even use the editable option to add your own coupons.
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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.
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The Giggly Guide to Grammar is the life's work of a dedicated language arts teacher with a life-sized sense of humor and the hand of an artist. Cathy Campbell has both illustrated and long tested the exercises in this guide with her 9th grade students in The Woodlands, Texas. It's a lighthearted and ludicrous guide to the essential elements of language and grammar (with a few writing tips tossed into the mix). It's Shel Silverstein meets Strunk and White and the results are both hilarious and instructive. Tried and true, and everyone a delight, there isn't a serious sentence in the group. But this is a dead-serious grammar book with the heart of a clown. Lessons include: parts of speech, subject-verb agreement, parts of the sentence, clauses of all kinds, quotation marks and italics and much more. The Deluxe Teacher's Guide has a CD-Rom that includes a full answer set, posters for the classroom and a set of transparency-ready exercises for each of the chapters. | Author: Cathy Campbell | Publisher: Discover Writing Press | Publication Date: Jul 17, 2023 | Number of Pages: 304 pages | Language: English | Binding: Paperback | ISBN-10: 1931492220 | ISBN-13: 9781931492225
Your school staff members do a lot for the students and it's time to recognize and spread kindness all year long! These staff kindness grams are fun activities where you get a small treat and attach the tag and secretly leave the grams for them to continue and pass it on. You will attach the treat tag to a fun treat or small gift. Place this treat in the mailbox or desk of a coworker without them knowing to brighten their day during the month. This person will display the flag on their mailbox or classroom/office door and then do the same for another staff member. This bundle includes the following: Smiley grams (Beginning of the year) Boo grams (Halloween) Gobble grams (Thanksgiving) Cookie grams (Christmas) Cozy grams (Winter) Candy grams (Valentines) Lucky grams (St. Patrick's Day) Egg grams (Easter) Sunshine grams (End of Year) Each kindness challenge includes: Directions Organization ideas Pennant flags Gift tag Connect with Me! Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thecreativeclassroom/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheCreativeClassroom/ Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/ashlyn1214/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/thecr8tiveclas Blog: https://www.the-creative-classroom.com Don't forget to receive TPT credits to use your purchases! Here’s how it works: First, Go to your My Purchases page. Next to each purchase you'll see a Provide Feedback button, click it and you will be directed to a page where you can give a rating and comment on each product. Every time you leave feedback for products you will be given credit to use on future purchases like this one! Are you following my TPT store? Don’t forget to make sure you are following my TPT store so you can stay updated on new product releases, sales and freebies! Click the green star beside my name at the top of this page! Thanks for visiting and following my store!Y
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This “Selfie Sculptures” activity was designed to help elementary teachers of gifted children facilitate meaningful conversations about their social and emotional learning and needs. With guidance and support, students will be able to recognize social and emotional characteristics and needs within themselves and represent them in a “Selfie Sculpture.” These final sculptures will include color-coded shapes that represent each student as an individual while encouraging creativity and a sense of community in your gifted classroom. What’s Included: There are two different versions of the project handout—A & B. The bottom spiral descriptions are different on these handouts. Use whichever you prefer for gathering information about your students. An extension handout C is provided to help gather additional information about the needs of your students. It may be a good idea to print the project handout (A or B) of your choice with the extension handout (C) on the back side for early finishers. "Selfie Sculptures Observations" pages are included for teachers to observe and record sculpture choices as a group. These notes can be used to help you plan future SEL lessons. If using different colored paper than suggested, editable versions of handouts A-C are included for the teacher to write in the colors of paper that are being used with students, as well as editable observation pages.
