Once upon a time, I wasn't really a huge fan of writing conferences. To be completely honest, I had no idea what I was doing. I knew that they were important and what part of my writing block to do them, but I really didn't know what to do! It's not like I had this amazing class in college that taught me how to confer with my students during Writer's Workshop. Even though I'm still not a professional, I feel that over my ten years of teaching I definitely got better at conferring with my students about their writing! I actually fell in love with writing conferences and getting to watch my little writers grow throughout the year! Here are three tips to {hopefully} help make writing conferences a little bit easier for you! One of the most beneficial tools for me for my writing conferences was my Writing Binder. It kept everything in one place-from my anecdotal notes, to my lesson plans, to writing rubrics. My binder also had a separate section for each student. This really allowed me to keep up with the habits and goals my students had throughout the entire year, and for each writing focus. It also made report card comments and parent-teacher conferences a lot easier! Having a designated form to complete during my conferences helped keep all my notes accurate. I would try writing things on sticky notes or index cards, but it helped so much to have an actual form to keep in my binder. I kept extra forms in front of all my student dividers so they were easily accessible! One of the hardest things for me at the beginning of my career was knowing exactly WHAT to help my students with during our conferences and HOW to make sure they knew not only what they were doing well, but what they needed to work on. I would write different things on their papers or in their notebooks. I tried using sticky notes, but they would end up getting lost in their notebooks. I also tried drawing little pictures for my littlest writers to really understand what they needed to work on. None of these things worked extremely well for me, so I was so excited to finally start using Conference Companions! These writing strategies work best for students in Kindergarten through second grade. They can easily be printed on address labels, so you'll always have them at your fingertips! Each strategy features a visual and a statement for students to easily recognize their habits and goals. They can be used on a Habits and Goals sheet, your students writing notebooks, or their writing folder. And, the best part- they won't be falling out! It really is that simple. Even if things don't go as planned, it's so important to have a plan. At least some type of plan for your students and/or groups. Whether it's WHAT students you are planning on working with each day, or what you want to focus on throughout the week, make a plan! I also kept these plans in my writing binder In my classroom I usually completed drive-by conferences with my students. These conferences were ways that I could work with individual students and check-in with them on what they were working on. I tried to plan out who I would meet with each day so that I made sure to meet with ALL students throughout the week. I wouldn't necessarily be able to plan exactly what I was going to be working on with the students, but I knew who I wanted to work with each day. For me, it was easier to plan out my writing groups. I would use previous writing pieces to guide my writing groups and their focus. Writing everything down on a planning form helped keep me make sure I was meeting with all my students and focusing on what they needed! I hope these tips help your writing conferences become easier and help your writers flourish! If you are interested in the resources I use, click on the images below! Want to save these ideas for later? Pin the image below!

Hey y'all! It's Chandra from Teaching with Crayons and Curls! I don't know about you, but I definitely feel like the world needs some more k...

Happy Sunday! It's Chandra from Teaching with Crayons and Curls and I am SO excited to be sharing some Sweet Treats with you today!! Let's get started with a freebie that you can start implementing in your classroom NOW for Valentine's Day and continue using ALL year long! This year I am teaching in a multi-age classroom and my teacher bestie and I try to create an extremely positive learning environment for our firsties and sweet seconds! We are constantly giving our students positive feedback, but wanted them to take on more resonsibility and really focus on having a positive attitude and sharing that positivity with others! We both absolutely LOVE this quote and wanted to really put it to use in our classroom! So, we did! I have this sweet quote framed on my desk as a great reminder! Right at the beginning of January when we were discussing resolutions and goals, we decided that it was our class goal to make someone smile each and everyday! At the end of the day we discuss who made us smile that day! GREAT way to end the day in a positive way! We also started using "Sending Smiles" or "Spreading Smiles" slips within our classroom! Students are encouraged to fill out a form when someone in our class makes them smile and then either pass it along to them or put it in their mailbox to take home. We even sent a letter home so that families could get involved in all the positive fun! We love this quote and what it means SO much that we made it the center of our classroom- literally and figuratively! If you think this is something you could implement in your classroom, grab this freebie in my store! I can't wait to hear about how your students spread smiles!!! And, you can make your own bulletin board! Now on to my BIG idea! (Not really, but a fun idea to try in your classroom!) Since we've been spreading smiles and promoting kindness, I thought it would be a great to share all the kindness and in a fun and creative way. And, I just LOVE doing crafts with my kids! In order to tell special people in our lives how we feel about them and WHY they are so special to us, our firsties and sweet seconds will be completing these cute little crafts next week and writing a letter to a "BEARY" special person and letting someone know that some "BUNNY" loves them! I just love being able to incorporate ways for my kids to share kindness with others AND incorporate all the kindness into standards based activities! Grab the {"Beary" Special} craft or the {some "BUNNY" Loves You} craft in my store! And, I can't leave you without a little bit more! These are some of my absolute FAVORITE read alouds for Valentine's Day! They help spread kindness and LOVE! If you haven't read Somebody Loves You, Mr. Hatch, you MUST order it for yourself right NOW! Trust me, you won't be disappointed! This is a great read aloud to read with the bunny OR bear craft! A great read aloud to read before the bear craft is The Valentine Bears! If you are anything like me and dont' have a copy of the book, but still want to share it with your students here is a video of the story being told! And, a favorite to read with the bunny craft is Dear Bunny. If you want to save this idea for later, make sure to pin the image below! Thank you for joining me! Make sure to check back ALL month long for even more {Sweet Treats}. For even more ideas from The Primary Peach, be sure to follow us on Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook to catch all the latest news and updates!

Hello! I am SO excited about this new series! I can't wait to share one of my new favorite books with you and share some of the ways you can use it in your classroom! You can check out my previous post on the book Sneaky Spinach here! As soon as I read Spaghetti in a Hot Dog Bun the first time, I fell in LOVE with Maria Dismondy! Her books are absolutely amazing and all teach different character lessons in a kid-friendly way! When Maria asked if she could send me her newest book, The Jelly Donut Difference, my heart was so happy! I couldn't wait to read the newest book in her amazing collection and come up with a fun way to use it in my classroom! This book is so cute! I read it to my own two kids before I read it to my classroom kids and I loved being able to discuss ways to sprinkle kindness at home and at school! This book is too cute! It is all about Leah and Dexter, two siblings that can't seem to get along! With a little help from a neighbor and some special donuts, the siblings learn what is really important in life and learn to spread kindness and smiles! How absolutely ADORABLE is Maria Dismondy!? Maria Dismondy is an inspiring author whose books focus on topics that challenge children. Maria has a background in early education and is commited to teaching the importance of character building, which allows her to touch lives all over the world! She travels as a public speaker to schools, community forums, and national conferences! When she is not busy writing or speaking, she is at home in Michigan with her family! My class and I had SO much fun with this book and the activities that we did! If you follow my blog or social media accounts, you can see how much I love spreading kindness and positivity! After we read The Jelly Donut Difference we brainstormed ways that we can {sprinkle kindness} as a class! How sweet are these ideas!? Then, my students wrote about how they can sprinkle kindness and enjoyed their very own jelly donut! I just got jelly donut munchkins from Dunkin Donuts! Their little pennants made the cutest banner in our hallway! I really loved reading all the different ways that they could sprinkle kindness! You can get these activities and MORE in my Kindness Counts: A Maria Dismondy Unit in my Teachers Pay Teachers store! Seriously, such a CUTE book and so much fun sprinkling kindness! Do you want to WIN your very own copy of this book and my Kindness Counts unit to use in your classroom? Make sure to enter the giveaway below! a Rafflecopter giveaway For more {Fashion, Fun, and Favorites} make sure to follow me on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Bloglovin', and Teachers Pay Teachers! If you want to save these ideas for later, make sure to pin the image below!

Teacher Truth- I used to despise teaching Writer's Workshop. I understood the structure of the workshop model and the focus of each grading period, however, I didn't really know WHAT to teach each day during my mini-lessons. Fast forward a couple of years, and I had an amazing opportunity to visit an amazing teacher's classroom and observe her in action and I fell in love with her writing instruction! And then the next year, my amazing team and I decided to each tackle one subject and share our plans. I chose writing (even though it still wasn't my favorite) so I could spend more time learning about teaching writing and *hopefully* fall in love. It worked! Now that I LOVE writing, I wanted to share what I currently do to launch Writer's Workshop! I've taken pieces from what I love from different resources to make what works for me and my students. This post is a little peek into my mini-lessons, anchor charts, and mentor texts that I love! I posted them in the order that I usually teach each lesson, however you can change them around to make it work for you and your group of writers! For each lesson I shared an example of an anchor chart! In my classroom, I always prepped the anchor charts with the title and an image first, but added the content WITH my students during the mini-lesson! The books that I have posted are linked to my Amazon affiliate store. If you purchase them through the link, I will receive a small commission! This might just be one of the most important lessons to launch Writer's Workshop because it explains exactly what it is and what students can expect from their teacher and their own expectations. This is always the very first lesson that I teach when beginning Writer's Workshop and I love using the pie chart as a great visual! I begin this mini lesson using the book Arthur Writes a Story to get my little writers thinking about writing! After we complete the large anchor chart together, my students completed their own mini-anchor chart to glue in their writer's notebooks! I love using these mini-anchor charts because my students can reference them at anytime, even if the large anchor chart is not visible in our classroom anymore! After this lesson, I continue to follow this model for our writing instruction each and everyday! The independent writing time is always the most important and longest part of our writing time! For the next mini-lesson, we discuss WHAT writers actually write! Some groups do a great job at brainstorming different types of writing, while others need a little push! This would be a great mini-lesson to bring out different types of writing to show your little writers! Think cookbooks, Christmas cards, printed e-mails, grocery lists, newspapers, magazines, etc. You can put all these items in a basket to have your writers explore independently, or pull them out while you are making your list as a class! After creating a list as a class, students can either create their own list OR they can simply glue in a similar list into their writer's notebooks or folders! This is another important mini-lesson! It really allows your little writers to think about WHY writers write and why they should write! I love using the book Author A True Story by Helen Lester because it is a story from an author's point of view and allows writers to hear why an actual author chose to write! In my experience, sometimes writers have a difficult time determining WHY they write and might need some guidance to brainstorm ideas for the anchor chart! This particular mini-lesson sets up your expectations for HOW students behave during Writer's Workshop. Using the book Ralph Tells a Story, you can show students what not to do during writing time. This really allows them to brainstorm ideas of what they should be doing during writing! I always teach this lesson right after the {What Good Writers Do} lesson because it always focuses on writing behaviors. For this particular lesson, I reference back to Ralph Tells a Story to help my writers determine what writing should look like, sound like, and feel like in our classroom! For this mini-lesson, I always ask my writers what our classroom would look like, sound like, and feel like if one of our administrators walked into our classroom during writing time. Depending on your class and group of writers, you could complete this in one lesson or split it up into three different lessons! This particular mini-lesson discusses the tools that writers need in order to write. I'm going to be honest, if I'm struggling with time this is probably the first lesson that I would cut out because you could also discuss it in the What Good Writers Do mini-lesson. But, this is a good lesson to go over all the tools that your students can use in your classroom and your expectations for using them. Writing journals or folders? Pencils, erasers, pens for editing? Extra graphic organizers, writing pages? Writing prompts? Word wall or personal dictionaries? There are TONS of writing tools for the writers in your classroom! It's really important to talk about your expectations and even discuss with your writers how they should set up their writing journal or folder! It's common for little writers to not able to keep their belongings organized, so this is a great lesson to really focus on that! Using the book The Day the Crayons Quit is a fun book to use for this lesson because you talk about what would happen if you didn't have access to certain writing tools! "Mrs. Dills, I'm done!" If I had a nickel for every time I've heard that statement, I would probably own my own island! I don't know what it is, but at the beginnin writers always think they are completely finished as soon as they finish with one writing piece! This anchor chart stays up in my classroom for a very long time and I reference it A LOT! This book is a great story to read for this mini-lesson because they are SUPER short stories and allows you to discuss how writers could add lots of details to complete their story!. Then, you could discuss what else writers could do when they think they are done! Because of course, they've really just begun! In my first and second grade classroom, it was very common for my writers to freeze when they couldn't spell a word correctly- especially at the beginning of the year! Some would ask how to spell the word and some would just sit there and not write anything else! This mini-lesson really focuses on stretching out their words the best that they can instead of focusing on spelling the word perfectly. For this mini-lesson, I don't read a mentor text but instead I really focus on modeling how to stretch out words by listening for each sound and then writing them down. I go over each step with the students and then model writing my own story using this strategy. There are times that my writers still have a difficult time stretching out words for their writing, so during this lesson I also give them a personal dictionary. I didn't have a word wall in my classroom, but instead each of my students received a personal dictionary to keep in their desks. I like printing this 2 pages to a sheet and allowing them to keep it in a pocket in the back of their writing journals or folder! And FINALLY, it's time to really dig into story writing! I absolutely LOVE hearing from my little story tellers and I really look forward to teaching them HOW to write a story! This can definitely be broken into multiple days if you want to focus on modeling each step! However, it can easily be taught in one lesson! A Squiggly Story is such a fun little book about a little boy that is learning how to express himself, just like your writers as they learn how to write a story! This is another important anchor chart that I refer back to a lot during my writing instruction. A lot of times writers want to skip right to the writing part, but it's important for them to realize that there is a process! This is a great introductory lesson to the writing process for your little learners! I model this a lot in my classroom! This lesson really focuses on allowing students to come up with their own ideas for writing. I teach this after the {How to Write a Story} lesson because then I can really focus in on the first point, which is thinking of an idea! I like to reference the book Ralph Tells a Story again because the character in that book really struggled with thinking of an idea to write. The character in The Best Story has a similar problem, but she figures out that she should write from her heart! After reading the book, we talk about what is in our heart. Then, we talk about maps and their purpose. It would be really great to show students a picture of an actual map during this lesson! Then, I begin creating my own heart map and have students create their heart maps to keep in their writing journals to use throughout the year! Oh my goodness! I always, always, always have writers that get stuck or frozen and just don't know what to do! Stuck is the cutest book about a little boy whose kite gets stuck in a tree and he is determined to get it out! For this mini-lesson, I really like having my students brainstorm ideas for what they can do when they get stuck during writing time! So the anchor chart will look different each year because it really depends on the ideas that the group comes up with! Then, during independent writing time my students get to practice using those ideas if they get stuck! This might be one of my FAVORITE writing mini-lessons, which is crazy because not a lot of writing actually takes place! This mini-lesson shows the importance of illustrations and having them match your words! All of these book options are great because they have very little or no words at all, and students have to look at each illustration to tell the story. For this particular mini-lesson, I did not create an actual anchor chart with the students. Instead, I drew a simple picture and had students tell me what was happening in MY story! Then, my writers had to do the same thing! I had their return to their desks and they drew a detailed illustration. Afterwards, in pairs, students had to look at each other's illustrations and try to explain what was happening just from their drawings. This really helped them see the importance of their illustrations! To introduce the Writing Process, I like reading the book Rocket Writes a Story and discussing each part with my writers. Of course, this is truly just an introduction and students will not go through the entire writing process in one lesson! However, it is good that they have an understanding of each component and are aware of the process as they begin their writing units! I allow my writers to glue this mini-anchor chart into their writing notebooks so they always have a visual reminder of the writing process even if it is not currently displayed in our classroom! After students have an understanding of the writing process, we spend more time on how writers can fix or "fancy" their writing using the book Fancy Nancy! Although we go over editing and revising in a mini-lesson, this is definitely not the last time that my writers are introduced to this concept. I model editing and revising throughout the entire year and they have A LOT of practice working independently, with writing partners, and during writing conferences! For these lesson ideas in one easy FREE document, click here or the images below! For the mini-anchor charts click here or the picture below! For the personal dictionary click here or the picture below! For the FREE writing notebook cover and dividers, get the password to my Resource Library here! Or click on the image below to get the password emailed to you! Send it my way! Powered By ConvertKit For all of the subject covers click here or the image below! For the books click here or the image below for my Amazon Affiliate storefront! How do YOU launch Writer's Workshop in your classroom!? I hope this post gave you some ideas for your classroom! If you want to save these ideas for later, make sure to pin the image below!

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! Want to save these ideas for later? Make sure to pin the image below!

I feel like I was JUST trying to figure out what to get my students for the end of the year, and here we are- it's already time to head {Back to School}! My {End of the Year Gift Ideas for Students} post made it super simple to find easy and inexpensive gifts back in May, so I wanted to do the same for the Beginning of the Year! Now, let's get onto these easy and inexpensive ideas! I mean, what a FUN way to end the summer and start the school year! You can get Cool Neon Sunglasses from Oriental Trading for less than $1 a piece! I don't know what it is about these fun little bouncy balls, but kids seem to LOVE them! My own children always choose bouncy balls at our doctor's office! And, the best part is the price! You can get 48 of these things for less than $6 at Oriental Trading! What kid doesn't LOVE candy! I was so excited when I found these cute little lollipops and started thinking of all the possibilities that they could be used for throughout the year! You can grab these lollipops here! You could give your students any type of candy and I'm sure they will have a huge smile! My co-teacher and I used these small bags of chips for our back to school gifts a few years ago, and they were SUCH A HIT! I loved having a few extras in my classroom so that students could trade out flavors AND we had some for younger siblings! You can get an entire variety pack from Amazon for under $10! Starburst is always FUN! You can grab a entire box of 36 on Amazon for a great deal! Y'all know I LOVE anything DONUTS! I mean, anything. So, when I found these adorable Donut Yo Yo's from Oriental Trading, I had to get them!! You can get a dozen for only $6, so these are a great deal! You could also be really sweet, and just grab donuts from Krispy Kreme, Dunkin Donuts, or from your local bakery! DONUT you know, that would be an amazing way to start the year! I mean, how ADORABLE are these Donut Lollipops from Oriental Trading!? Glow sticks are ALWAYS a great option because of how fun and affordable they are! I love these Glow in the Dark Star Bracelets from Oriental Trading! I am SO excited about using these Personalized Pencils in my own classroom this year! I was honestly very shocked when I realized how affordable they are and I know they will make such a great gift at the beginning of the year! I'm pretty sure Gummy Bears are my FAVORITE candy! I love these Haribo Gummy Bears from Amazon because they are pretty tiny and you can use the remaining gummy bears for other things in your classroom throughout the year! Because what kid doesn't LOVE crayons! Back to School time is a GREAT time to grab crayons at a great price! I even stock up for years to come! And, for something a little different these Neon Crayons are so much fun! It's hard to believe, but it's o-FISH-ally time to go back to school! I just love using this little saying at the beginning of the year! You can grab an entire box of Goldfish Crackers from Amazon here! You could also use Swedish Fish OR cute little fish plush toys! Y'all- these Unicorn Characters are THE CUTEST little things ever!!! What a magical way to start the school year! I don't know what it is about these sticky little hands, but kids seem to love them. I'm not a huge fan of anything sticky- but it's for the kids! And, when you can get 72 Sticky Hands for less than $9, that is a GREAT deal! I just LOVE starting the year out in a HAPPY way! And, these cute little Emoji Discs couldn't be anymore HAPPY! There are TONS of different emoji toys to choose from on the Oriental Trading website! This year is going to be a BLAST! How adorable are these little Rocket Ship Erasers!!! Oh my goodness, they are just the cutest! You could easily put one on top of a pencil and your gift is good to go! If you've got a space themed classroom, these are a must have! So, if I were a six year old I probably wouldn't be too excited if I got a ruler from my teacher as a gift! But, if it were one of these INCREDIBLE Mood Rulers, that would completely change my mind! I am 31 years old, and y'all I couldn't stop playing with these fun, color changing rulers! As soon as you touch them, they change colors! So. Much. Fun. They are also less than $10 for a dozen, so a super great deal! Fun Dip just reminds me of being a kid. There is just something about that powder and stick that screams FUN! It's a super FUN and cute way to start the year! Popcorn is always an easy gift! You can simply give your students a pack of popcorn to make at home! OR, create your own Popcorn Bar!!! How adorable would it be to have different flavors of popcorn and popcorn bags that your students could scoop their popcorn into!? Such a fun way to start the year!! These cute little Guitar Bubbles are way too cute, and such a simple gift! And, if you aren't loving the bubbles- how fun are POP ROCKS!!! I hope you got some EASY ideas for your Back to School gifts for your students! For even more easy and inexpensive ideas, make sure to check out the Oriental Trading website! If you are interested in the tags that I used, you can grab those right here! For more {Fashion, Fun, and Favorites} make sure to follow me on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Bloglovin', and Teachers Pay Teachers! If you want to save these ideas for later, Pin the image below!

My Think Happy Thoughts Bulletin Boards are some of my favorite decor items in my classroom! However, they do take a lot of work! So, these Think Happy Thoughts printable are a GREAT way to put some positive vibes in your classroom easily! You can simply print and frame the 8x10 prints! Or, get your local print shop to print the LARGE engineer prints or posters! You can print off the sticky notes to leave on your students' desk! Or, visit a website (I suggest zazzle.com) to create a pillow or a t-shirt using the images! The options are endless and I can't wait to see what you come up with using these designs! Please note, there is NO hard goods included with this download. You receive the images and are able to use them to create YOUR OWN decor items with the company or website of your choosing! For each file these quotes are included: -Be the Reason Someone Smiles Today -Sprinkle Kindness Like Confetti -BElieve THEre is GOOD in the world! - Create your own Sunshine! OR Be the Sunshine in Somebody's Cloudy Day! -Dream BIG and enjoy the little things! -The Future of the World is in This Classroom Today! -Think Happy Thoughts! -Kind People are our Kind of People! -Be Present in All Things, Be Thankful for All Things! Kindness Warms the Heart January- The Best is Yet to Come What We Love Most About our Classroom is Whom We Share it With -It's Always Better When We're Together! -"No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted." -Aesop There are also sticky notes AND banners included with ALL the quotes so you can decorate your classroom and spread happy thoughts! Updated 05/2019: Now includes labels for small candy wrappers to use with Avery 5160 labels!! BONUS: Includes candy labels with COLOR quotes! I hope you are able to promote positive and spread smiles with All the Think Happy Thoughts printables!

This blog post is about teaching primary learners how to decompose numbers in more than 1 way using hands-on activities. What is decomposing? Decomposing

I feel like I was JUST trying to figure out what to get my students for the end of the year, and here we are- it's already time to head {Back to School}! My {End of the Year Gift Ideas for Students} post made it super simple to find easy and inexpensive gifts back in May, so I wanted to do the same for the Beginning of the Year! Now, let's get onto these easy and inexpensive ideas! I mean, what a FUN way to end the summer and start the school year! You can get Cool Neon Sunglasses from Oriental Trading for less than $1 a piece! I don't know what it is about these fun little bouncy balls, but kids seem to LOVE them! My own children always choose bouncy balls at our doctor's office! And, the best part is the price! You can get 48 of these things for less than $6 at Oriental Trading! What kid doesn't LOVE candy! I was so excited when I found these cute little lollipops and started thinking of all the possibilities that they could be used for throughout the year! You can grab these lollipops here! You could give your students any type of candy and I'm sure they will have a huge smile! My co-teacher and I used these small bags of chips for our back to school gifts a few years ago, and they were SUCH A HIT! I loved having a few extras in my classroom so that students could trade out flavors AND we had some for younger siblings! You can get an entire variety pack from Amazon for under $10! Starburst is always FUN! You can grab a entire box of 36 on Amazon for a great deal! Y'all know I LOVE anything DONUTS! I mean, anything. So, when I found these adorable Donut Yo Yo's from Oriental Trading, I had to get them!! You can get a dozen for only $6, so these are a great deal! You could also be really sweet, and just grab donuts from Krispy Kreme, Dunkin Donuts, or from your local bakery! DONUT you know, that would be an amazing way to start the year! I mean, how ADORABLE are these Donut Lollipops from Oriental Trading!? Glow sticks are ALWAYS a great option because of how fun and affordable they are! I love these Glow in the Dark Star Bracelets from Oriental Trading! I am SO excited about using these Personalized Pencils in my own classroom this year! I was honestly very shocked when I realized how affordable they are and I know they will make such a great gift at the beginning of the year! I'm pretty sure Gummy Bears are my FAVORITE candy! I love these Haribo Gummy Bears from Amazon because they are pretty tiny and you can use the remaining gummy bears for other things in your classroom throughout the year! Because what kid doesn't LOVE crayons! Back to School time is a GREAT time to grab crayons at a great price! I even stock up for years to come! And, for something a little different these Neon Crayons are so much fun! It's hard to believe, but it's o-FISH-ally time to go back to school! I just love using this little saying at the beginning of the year! You can grab an entire box of Goldfish Crackers from Amazon here! You could also use Swedish Fish OR cute little fish plush toys! Y'all- these Unicorn Characters are THE CUTEST little things ever!!! What a magical way to start the school year! I don't know what it is about these sticky little hands, but kids seem to love them. I'm not a huge fan of anything sticky- but it's for the kids! And, when you can get 72 Sticky Hands for less than $9, that is a GREAT deal! I just LOVE starting the year out in a HAPPY way! And, these cute little Emoji Discs couldn't be anymore HAPPY! There are TONS of different emoji toys to choose from on the Oriental Trading website! This year is going to be a BLAST! How adorable are these little Rocket Ship Erasers!!! Oh my goodness, they are just the cutest! You could easily put one on top of a pencil and your gift is good to go! If you've got a space themed classroom, these are a must have! So, if I were a six year old I probably wouldn't be too excited if I got a ruler from my teacher as a gift! But, if it were one of these INCREDIBLE Mood Rulers, that would completely change my mind! I am 31 years old, and y'all I couldn't stop playing with these fun, color changing rulers! As soon as you touch them, they change colors! So. Much. Fun. They are also less than $10 for a dozen, so a super great deal! Fun Dip just reminds me of being a kid. There is just something about that powder and stick that screams FUN! It's a super FUN and cute way to start the year! Popcorn is always an easy gift! You can simply give your students a pack of popcorn to make at home! OR, create your own Popcorn Bar!!! How adorable would it be to have different flavors of popcorn and popcorn bags that your students could scoop their popcorn into!? Such a fun way to start the year!! These cute little Guitar Bubbles are way too cute, and such a simple gift! And, if you aren't loving the bubbles- how fun are POP ROCKS!!! I hope you got some EASY ideas for your Back to School gifts for your students! For even more easy and inexpensive ideas, make sure to check out the Oriental Trading website! If you are interested in the tags that I used, you can grab those right here! For more {Fashion, Fun, and Favorites} make sure to follow me on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Bloglovin', and Teachers Pay Teachers! If you want to save these ideas for later, Pin the image below!

***Update...Due to a seller bundling my items and offering them for sale via another web site, I am no longer offering these items for free....

Come On In! I am SO glad that you are joining me on this peek into my classroom! I am so glad you are here and can't wait to show you around! My room didn't change TOO much from last year! If you are curious what it looked like last year, you can check that out HERE! I did add some fun new touches and it's a space that I truly enjoy spending so much time in throughout the year! So, let's get started! Here is my door! I made the welcome sign using scrapbook paper and my Silhouette Cameo! I made the little pencil sign using a pencil from the Target Dollar Spot and using vinyl and my Silhouette Cameo for my name. The BEAUTIFUL door hanger came from Just Plain A-Door-Able! This is the view when you walk into my classroom! I teach 1st grade in a co-taught mulitage classroom with 1st and 2nd graders! So, it is actually two classrooms in one and I get to teach with one of my best friends everyday! So much fun! Looking the other way from the door, this is what you see! I LOVE these quote posters from Blair Turner and have them all over my classroom! Since my classroom mailboxes are right at the front of our classroom, I also like to have this Reminders board to post our Class Calendar and Peek at our Week! I also put any important notes right here since I always see this when I leave our classroom! We go over our daily schedule each day during our Morning Meeting. These schedule cards make it easy for my students to know what we are doing each day! I use this side of my white board as my Focus Wall! This is where I post our Essential Questions and the Standards that we are working on! One of my favorite places in my classroom is the classroom library! We have TONS of books and I just love how cozy it is in this little corner of our classroom! How ADORABLE is this sweet little bench that my co-teacher made!? The perfect place to hold more books and for our students to sit and read a good book! On the other side of our classroom library is our Writing board and our computers. I LOVE this cart that I got from Ikea. I'm going to use it to store all my teaching materials that I want to keep close to our Smartboard! I created the subject banners using scrapbook papers and my Silhouette Cameo. But, I made a printable version that you can edit for YOUR classroom! Click here to grab the banners! Here are some more views from the front of my classroom! This beautiful print is from INKchicago! They were SO great to work with and made this custom print to match my classroom! LOVE this quote! These cute little class pets will be introduced to our class VERY soon! I can't wait for my students to be able to take Nick and Brave home on the weekends! If you are curious about how I use this Boo Boo Basket in my classroom, you can read all about it HERE and grab the FREE labels while you are there! Each of my table groups is called a "Team" and I LOVE using this to help build a community within my classroom! The students at each team need to work together to earn team points, and they have to keep their team supplies neat and organized! These drawers have been in my classroom for EIGHT years now! Yes, you read that right! They have been worth every penny and have other than being a little dirty, they have held up GREAT! I have one at each team and use them to organize a lot of their supplies and reading bags! These Trash Tubs have been a lifesaver! I used tubs from the Dollar Tree and my Silhouette Cameo to personalize them! And, my MOST favorite thing in our classroom is this board! It has become the motto of our classroom and we always focus on making someone smile! We end each and everyday with a Smile Session to discuss ways we made people smile throughout the day. You can grab your own Smile Slips and printable HERE! I'm hoping to start selling the letters for the bulletin board SOON! You can read all about how I use this in my classroom HERE! If you are interested in any of the Classroom Decor items in my classroom, most of them come from my Chalkboard Brights Decor kit! For more {Fashion, Fun, and Favorites} make sure to follow me on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Bloglovin', and Teachers Pay Teachers!

⭐Impress your parents, students and colleagues with this impressive MASSIVE poster.This resource is designed to be a class collaborative project, with each students working on a page of the larger puzzle/poster.This resource contains 30 printable pages, which will create 2 posters.Suggestion- pair your students up to w

First things first, to REALLY maximize instructional time in your classroom, it is so very important to set up clear expectations and procedures for pretty much EVERYTHING! Your classroom will not run smoothly and efficiently if you do.not have expectations and procedures put into place. And, you can't just TELL students what they need to do. You need to model it, model it, and then model it some more. And practice, practice, and practice some more. Once you have these little things, like asking to go to the bathroom or sharpening a pencil put into place, your classroom will be much more manageable and you'll have way more time to spend on the important things! Even if you didn't focus on them as much as you think you should have the beginning of the year, it will never ever hurt to go back to them! A long weekend, a break, when a student moves or comes in, review them again and again! Of course, setting up expectations and procedures takes a lot of time! But, I promise it's worth it! I love using a simple PowerPoint to go over all my routines and procedures with my students at the beginning of the year! I love adding pictures of them actually completing the procedures correctly into the slideshow and then revisiting it throughout the year! Then, you can even make them into little booklets to keep at students' desks or tables! Although expectations and procedures are super important, they do take a lot of time! So, here are four SIMPLE ways to maximize instructional time! Whether it's a doorbell, a song, a chant, or a clap- transitions help make things easier! In my classroom, we chose a certain song and my students knew that when they heard that song it was time to clean up and meet me back on the carpet. Of course, this definitely goes back to those expectations and procedures that you have to go over explicitly! Just having a transition won't help you maximize instruction time if you don't have procedures for your students to follow! One way that I love playing music in my classroom is using Amazon Prime Music! If you've got a Prime account, it's a great way to listen to awesome music with your subscription! You can read more about how I use it in my classroom here! This allows you to choose from a TON of different songs for your transition music! For those times that you don't need to actually have your class clean up but just want to get their attention, using a specific signal like chimes or a wireless doorbell (affiliate link) can work great! It's just important that your students know exactly what to do when you make the signal! Otherwise you'll be waiting forever for all their little faces to look up at you! There is SO much to do during the day and it's so hard to get it all in. I really struggled with this as a teacher because it was so hard to stop working on something and move onto the next thing if my students weren't quite finished! I also really struggled with getting in the closing of my lessons, but again, those closing are so very important! In order to help with this I started using a timer (affiliate link) to help keep me on track! This little thing came in really handy when I was working with groups! Another way to maximize the time you have with your students is to make sure that THEY are organized and can easily find their materials! In the elementary classroom it can be hard when you're teaching all the subjects to transition between lessons and activities. Even giving simple directions to primary students can be extremely challenging and take up lots of time! I love color coding ALL the supplies to make it super easy for students to find exactly what they need and not waste a lot of time! In my classroom I used composition books for literally EVERYTHING! However, since they all looked the same it was so frustrating when students couldn't find the correct notebook to pull out of their desks! It helped SO much to color code them for each subject and put a key in my classroom so that students could easily remember that when we were completing a reading activity they needed their blue notebook! Using color coded covers helped save a ton of time throughout the year! It also helps to have students supplies easily accessible! I have always allowed my students to keep some supplies in their desks and community supplies in caddies. I am absolutely in LOVE with these organized caddies from A Primary Kind of Life. Reading a new book? Have your book ready to go! Creating a new anchor chart? Make sure the paper and markers are ready! Passing out a worksheet? Have it right beside you! It's so important to go ahead and have all your materials that you need for a lesson prepped and ready to go BEFORE you actually start teaching! I'm not going to lie and say that I haven't been the teacher that has to pause a lesson to go get my copies out of my weekly bins or go find a specific marker, but being prepared makes things SO much better! As soon as your students know that you are OFF, even just a little bit- THEY are going to be off! Then it takes longer to get them back on track! I hope these four simple tips help you maximize instructional time in your classroom! Want to save these ideas for later? Just Pin the image below!

First things first, to REALLY maximize instructional time in your classroom, it is so very important to set up clear expectations and procedures for pretty much EVERYTHING! Your classroom will not run smoothly and efficiently if you do.not have expectations and procedures put into place. And, you can't just TELL students what they need to do. You need to model it, model it, and then model it some more. And practice, practice, and practice some more. Once you have these little things, like asking to go to the bathroom or sharpening a pencil put into place, your classroom will be much more manageable and you'll have way more time to spend on the important things! Even if you didn't focus on them as much as you think you should have the beginning of the year, it will never ever hurt to go back to them! A long weekend, a break, when a student moves or comes in, review them again and again! Of course, setting up expectations and procedures takes a lot of time! But, I promise it's worth it! I love using a simple PowerPoint to go over all my routines and procedures with my students at the beginning of the year! I love adding pictures of them actually completing the procedures correctly into the slideshow and then revisiting it throughout the year! Then, you can even make them into little booklets to keep at students' desks or tables! Although expectations and procedures are super important, they do take a lot of time! So, here are four SIMPLE ways to maximize instructional time! Whether it's a doorbell, a song, a chant, or a clap- transitions help make things easier! In my classroom, we chose a certain song and my students knew that when they heard that song it was time to clean up and meet me back on the carpet. Of course, this definitely goes back to those expectations and procedures that you have to go over explicitly! Just having a transition won't help you maximize instruction time if you don't have procedures for your students to follow! One way that I love playing music in my classroom is using Amazon Prime Music! If you've got a Prime account, it's a great way to listen to awesome music with your subscription! You can read more about how I use it in my classroom here! This allows you to choose from a TON of different songs for your transition music! For those times that you don't need to actually have your class clean up but just want to get their attention, using a specific signal like chimes or a wireless doorbell (affiliate link) can work great! It's just important that your students know exactly what to do when you make the signal! Otherwise you'll be waiting forever for all their little faces to look up at you! There is SO much to do during the day and it's so hard to get it all in. I really struggled with this as a teacher because it was so hard to stop working on something and move onto the next thing if my students weren't quite finished! I also really struggled with getting in the closing of my lessons, but again, those closing are so very important! In order to help with this I started using a timer (affiliate link) to help keep me on track! This little thing came in really handy when I was working with groups! Another way to maximize the time you have with your students is to make sure that THEY are organized and can easily find their materials! In the elementary classroom it can be hard when you're teaching all the subjects to transition between lessons and activities. Even giving simple directions to primary students can be extremely challenging and take up lots of time! I love color coding ALL the supplies to make it super easy for students to find exactly what they need and not waste a lot of time! In my classroom I used composition books for literally EVERYTHING! However, since they all looked the same it was so frustrating when students couldn't find the correct notebook to pull out of their desks! It helped SO much to color code them for each subject and put a key in my classroom so that students could easily remember that when we were completing a reading activity they needed their blue notebook! Using color coded covers helped save a ton of time throughout the year! It also helps to have students supplies easily accessible! I have always allowed my students to keep some supplies in their desks and community supplies in caddies. I am absolutely in LOVE with these organized caddies from A Primary Kind of Life. Reading a new book? Have your book ready to go! Creating a new anchor chart? Make sure the paper and markers are ready! Passing out a worksheet? Have it right beside you! It's so important to go ahead and have all your materials that you need for a lesson prepped and ready to go BEFORE you actually start teaching! I'm not going to lie and say that I haven't been the teacher that has to pause a lesson to go get my copies out of my weekly bins or go find a specific marker, but being prepared makes things SO much better! As soon as your students know that you are OFF, even just a little bit- THEY are going to be off! Then it takes longer to get them back on track! I hope these four simple tips help you maximize instructional time in your classroom! Want to save these ideas for later? Just Pin the image below!

We have officially been in school for ONE HUNDRED days!!! It's hard to believe that we only have 80 days left and my firsties will be sweet seconds. Absolutely crazy! We really enjoyed celebrating the 100th day of school with some fun activities in the classroom! In the morning, we discussed what we would be like when we are 100 years old! We started by brainstorming ideas and making a bubble map of all the things we would do when we were 100! I was really impressed with all the ideas they came up with- working out to look like they are still 50, how cute!? Then, I modeled writing about being 100 years old! Students got to write about themselves at 100 years old, then they made these cute little crafts! At the end of the day we went on a 100th Day HUNT!!! All you need for this fun activity are dot stickers and Hershey kisses (or any other small candy). Simply write the numbers 1-100 on the dot stickers and put a sticker on the bottom of each piece of chocolate! Then, you are ready for the fun! My co-teacher and I each hid 100 Hershey Kisses around our classroom! Each Hershey kiss had a number on the bottom and as students found them, they put the chocolate in a bucket and colored in the corresponding number on our hundreds chart on the Smartboard! It was easy to see what numbers (and how many kisses) we were still missing by what numbers were not colored in on the hundreds chart. When we were finished, we discussed patterns on the hundreds chart and got to enjoy our chocolate! So much fun, and a perfect way to end the day! Want to use these activities in your classroom? Grab them (and lots more) HERE! For more {Fashion, Fun, and Favorites} make sure to follow me on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Bloglovin', and Teachers Pay Teachers! Want to save these activities for later? Just pin this image below!

Happy Random Acts of Kindness Week! I absolutely LOVE spreading kindness in (and out) of my classroom! So, I wanted to share some of my favorite activities that you could easily implement in your own classroom to spread some happy! There are SO many ways to spread kindness! So, let's get this KINDNESS PARTY STARTED!!! My students this year are very competitive and are always up for a challenge! So implementing Kindness Challenges are a FUN way to spread some kindness in and out of the classroom! I wrote all about how I use them in my classroom over at The Primary Peach! Throw Kindness Around Like Confetti is one of my favorite quotes, and I LOVE this kindness challenge because students write about their kind acts on confetti pieces to create the board! You can grab this Confetti Kindness Challenge here! Kindness Counts, always! This Kindness Challenge is SUPER easy to implement and it's FREE! Students are given hearts to record their acts of kindness on and then return them to school! You can read more about how I use Kindness Challenges in my classroom over at The Primary Peach! I LOVE using quotes in my classroom as a way to motivate students and spread kindness! These Motivational Quotes by Blair Turner are one of my MOST favorite purchases, EVER! This quote is in the very center of our classroom, and serves as our classroom motto! My co-teacher and I point to this quote many times and ask our students if they are being the reason someone smiles today!? Such a great reminder to spread smiles and not frowns! Interested in making your own {Be the Reason} board!? You can grab the letter template here! What better way to spread kindness than by giving compliments to each other! This was a SUPER SIMPLE and completely random activity that I did with my class one afternoon when I really noticed that we needed to spread some happy! I printed out a class list, cut out all the names, and put them in a bucket. I went around the classroom and had students pull names out of the bucket. They had a minute or two to think of a compliment to share with the student that they drew out of the bucket. Then, we sat in a circle and went around the circle sharing compliments with each other. I absoutely LOVED the randomness of this, because students were sharing compliments with kids that were not their best friends or kids that they don't play with on a regular basis. And, every single time a compliment was shared BOTH kids smiled! Seriously one of the sweetest activities to end the day in a happy way! Sometimes you just need something small to spread smiles! Like a post-it! I LOVE using these {Positive Sticky Notes} to spread some happy to my students and co-workers! They are super easy to print and leave anywhere where you want to spread kindness! You can grab the {Positive Sticky Notes} here! I think it's also very important to let my students be in charge of spreading smiles and kindness to others! In our classroom, students can fill out these simple slips of paper and deliver them to people that have made them smile! Something SO easy and let's them work on writing while being kind! You can grab this FREE activity here! Ordinary Mary's Extraordiary Deed- By: Emily Pearson The Berenstain Bears: Kindness Counts- By: Jan and Mike Berenstain The Kindness Quilt- By: Nancy Elizabeth Wallace The Invisible Boy- By: Trudy Ludwig Kindness Counts- By: Bryan Smith Somebody Loves You, Mr. Hatch- By: Eileen Spinelli Kindness is Cooler, Mrs. Ruler- By: Margery Cuyler How Full Is Your Bucket- By: Tom Rath Stick and Stone- By: Beth Ferry These Shoes- By: Maribeth Boelts Kindness Counts- By: Debby Anderson Each Kindness- By: Jacqueline Woodson The Potato Chip Champ- By: Maria Dismondy (affiliate links) How do YOU spread kindness in your classroom? I'd love some more ideas to add to this list! Hopefully you found something new that you can use with your students! For more {Fashion, Fun, and Favorites} make sure to follow me on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Bloglovin', and Teachers Pay Teachers! Happy Teaching and Kindness Spreading! If you want to save these ideas for later, make sure to pin the image below!