I love reading fall themed books but I do not always want them to be Halloween themed. So many children do not observe Halloween as a holiday. While I think it is okay to still talk about this holiday, I try to read books that will speak to each of the students in the classroom. […]

I love reading fall themed books but I do not always want them to be Halloween themed. So many children do not observe Halloween as a holiday. While I think it is okay to still talk about this holiday, I try to read books that will speak to each of the students in the classroom. Also, let's face it...if the student doesn't celebrate Halloween--they ask a whole lot of questions when we read Halloween books. Who can blame them? Below are my top five favorite fall/autumn read alouds. These are not the typical books that are listed in every blog post though. I try to choose books that all of my students haven't read before coming to me. At the bottom of this post, you will find two choice boards to use with these read alouds! Kids love to choose activities after reading these books. I give them these boards and let them pick 2 or 3 activities to do with each book. 1. Pumpkin Circle: The Story of a Garden This book is great for talking about the Life Cycle of a Pumpkin. The pictures are great and the uniqueness of the way the book is written keeps students highly engaged! 2. Seed, Sprout, Pumpkin, Pie Another great book for informational text. The photographs are great and it discusses all things pumpkin! Now, not all of my favorite autumn books are about pumpkins but I really love these two! I also put these in centers and such throughout the season! 3. Sophie's Squash Eeek, Sophie's imagination is my favorite! This is a great story of using your imagination, friendship and the kids always get such a kick out of it! 4. Pumpkin Soup Pumpkin Soup is a great book about friendship and solving problems with friends. I love the message it sends about compromise as well! Such a cute story with great characters! 5. Otis and the Scarecrow First, the Otis books are so good and I love the illustrations! This book is a great story of how we should not judge a book by its cover or always rely on first impressions. As I said before, I read these books (over a few weeks) and each time I read one--I give the students one of these choice boards. The students can partner up and do activities or do them independently! Choice Boards I hope you enjoy these books and these choice boards! I know your students will love them! Happy Fall, Hillary Hillary's Teaching Adventures (TpT) Hillary's Teaching Adventures (10% Discount)

Well lookie there, school is about to start (or has started for some of you.) I cannot believe the summer has flown by so quickly. I wanted to hop on here and share a few COMPLETELY FREE resources for the first few weeks back to school. The weeks of starting back are hectic, crazy, expensive and oh so much fun! So grab these free resources to help make planning easier, learning engaging, and maybe hang on to your sanity a bit longer. :) First, I love these Beginning of the Year Agreements from PYP in Paradise. All you need is chart paper and post-its. I personally love to fancy up my walls a bit with the Chevron Chart Paper from Amazon, but the other stuff works great too! Have the students write down things they expect from you as a teacher. I also have mine do this as students as well. We do the teacher one first then the student one second. It is great for building community. It is free. It is engaging! Another activity I love involves candy. If your school does not allow this, you can do pom-poms or some other colored object. This is extremely fun for the kids the whole "sharing about yourself" thing a lot easier on the teacher. Now for this, you would need to buy candy (which is why I say, you can totally substitute this for something else that you already have.) I have even passed out crayons! It works great! I write this on an anchor chart on the board and then we go around sharing! I usually try to make sure all of the kids have one of each color. If not, that is okay too. Depends on how much time you have to share! Miss Decarbo has an amazing activity that you can grab for free as well! Simply click HERE and look at the PREVIEW of the resource. The PREVIEW can be downloaded and has the Magic Dough instructions and recipe for FREE. She did this on purpose, I promise. :) I encourage you to buy the WHOLE resource because it is amazing. But I promised FREE, so you can just grab this recipe for free. I did this with my 3rd and 5th graders....they loved it. Never too old for things like this. Also, we wrote about it. The kids really enjoyed making this. I also think it is important to start understanding your students. I always do this Reading Interest Inventory with my students. It is fun for the students to think about the different things they like (and dislike) about reading. I always emphasize being honest. Sometimes they want so badly to please us that they don't tell us how they really feel. This is especially true at the beginning of the year. I talk to them about my likes and dislikes with reading. This seems to help the students be more honest. I think we have all done this before but I have created free tags for the bag activity. I love this All About Me activity. All you need are brown paper bags and this free tag. I did share a Teacher Tip on Instagram last night though. I always have one of these made about me for the first day of school. I find it is the easiest way to explain it, it eases nerves and is a great conversation started with the kids! These are made to fit the bag even though they are bigger in the picture below. Lastly (because I could go on forever...) if you don't follow Jennifer Findley, she is great! I love using this free resource full of back to school (or first few weeks of school...because...life happens) activities. They are really great for multiple ages and my students are always so engaged when using these! I really hope these tips have been helpful! If you have a free resource in your shop for back to school...drop the link in the comments below! Sharing is caring! Happy Teaching! Hillary (affiliate links are provided for your convenience)

I love reading fall themed books but I do not always want them to be Halloween themed. So many children do not observe Halloween as a holiday. While I think it is okay to still talk about this holiday, I try to read books that will speak to each of the students in the classroom. […]

What activities do you do the first week of school? I get asked that question OFTEN! So I am going to share a few of my "First Week Goodies" with you! I have to say--I can't take credit for most of them but I am great at stealing ideas from others! :) First, to get the kids moving, we get to know each other a bit! I always do this version of Classmate BINGO! I have the kids find another student to sign each square then they color it in. Besides, it is a great conversation starter! Afterwards, I always ask some students to share a few things they learned about their friends! Next, we do a series of ICEBREAKERS. These are great for any grade really. The Kinders and 1st graders might need some assistance with the writing ones, or you could just take those out. I believe I may have mentioned this in an earlier post, but I love doing this All About Me Bag activity. I ran them off on orange card-stock (we are the orange hall) and cut them out. Then I stapled them to a brown bag and placed one on each child's desk for Meet the Teacher Night (or the first day of school.) The kids love showing their items and I love getting to see a piece of them! Another thing I do on the first week is read my favorite read aloud! One of my all time favorite books to read during the first day of school is Junkyard Wonders by Patricia Polacco. If you have not read this book, I encourage you to read it first before reading it to your students. I cry tears of joy every time I read it, I just cannot help it...it is a beautiful story. I am going to share a (free) activity that is great with this book and helping build community in your classroom! Here is a YouTube video reading of it, if you would like to listen to it before your purchase. I do recommend actually reading it to your students, vs. the YouTube video though. The connection with your students will be so much better! Check out my Are You Connecting? blog post to understand how to use this activity. Click the Link Below for the Activity: JunkYard Wonder Activity We also choose one day during the first week to do this digital spinner activity! The spinner spells WELCOME. The kids take turns coming up and clicking the digital spinner. Then the class answers the corresponding question on their task card. You spin until all questions have been answered. Great writing activity and awesome for getting to know your students. Another first week of school think I do is introduce my classroom management method for transitions.I must confess though, I completely "stole" this idea from the Mustache King at The Kindergarten Smorgasboard! When I saw what he was doing, I was sold! First, simply head on over to Amazon (because we all love PRIME right?) and snag a wireless doorbell! The wireless doorbell receiver simply plugs into the wall in your classroom, and the transmitter remote is easily worn around your neck, placed in your pocket, or just laid on your desk. It includes 50 chimes and no batteries are required! When you want to get your student's attention or it is time to move on to another station, center, activity, line up, etc...simply ring the doorbell and it chimes. What I really love is...the chimes are not annoying, they are almost soothing but still grab the student's attention. I will never go back to the vocal attention grabbers. I know those work for many, but for me...I enjoy this method! I hope all of these things help you out with your first few days! It's getting close! Let me know what you do for your first week! I am always looking for things to add!! (affiliate links are provided for your convenience)

Making anchor charts has always been hard work for me. In fact, I never liked making anchor charts for the classroom. I did it because it helps the kids, but I am not a fan of my handwriting, my drawing is even worse, and let's not even talk about the time it takes to make nice looking anchor charts. As teachers, we do not possess much of that thing called, "time." I mean really, I found myself shoving down carrots and ranch dressing (because I want to be healthy) then devouring allll the chocolate (because I really don't care about healthy anymore) while making anchor charts. 30 minutes later, lunch was done, anchor chart almost complete...and oops...I misspelled the title. I mean really? Rip it off the chart paper pad, throw it in the trash, and rush out the door. Unfortunately, I didn't wise up for a long time. 8 years of teaching...and a light bulb goes off. Pre-make the anchor charts. In the comfort of my own home...I make the anchor chart...on the computer. Then print, and glue! Done, done...and done. Now...I still eat all the chocolate, but now I get lunch and I am no longer in the need of anger management courses over misspelled words. I may sound like a crazy person to you...but I know you have been there too. Honesty is the best policy. :) Now, I KNOW I am not the first one that has ever pre-made anchor charts, or printed items off of the computer for an anchor chart. I am in NO way claiming to be the first to do this. But, I have been a TpT seller for a few years now and the idea just popped into my head..."if I make all of my centers, lessons plans, etc...why not anchor charts?" And there you have it. Below are a few of the anchor charts I have made and so far I love them and other teachers are loving them. I waited to do this post until I knew others found a need for these too! And yes! I was not alone! It was confirmed I was not crazy and other teachers, in fact, DO have anger problems when it comes to making hand-made anchor charts. Many people have asked what products are needed to make these. I purchased my chart paper and Astrobrights paper from Amazon. Those two things (well, with scissors and glue) are all you need! Each Anchor Chart also comes with a student journal chart as well! The students can glue these in their journals for an easy reference later! I have also completed my Writing and Grammar Anchor Chart Bundles. And newly added, I have completed Classroom Management Anchor Charts! These are also included in the big bundle...if you have purchased that, just redownload it from the My Purchases tab on TpT. I figured these would be very beneficial to make at the beginning of the year with our students then either hang them up all year as a reminder...or just pull them out to review from time to time. Just depends on the students. :) There are many more but I won't bore you with all of the pictures. I feel like Classroom Management must be explained from the beginning and reinforced often. I know these anchor charts will help keep that process streamlined in your classroom! Making these are fun and easy! Most importantly, it saves time and SANITY. Want these for your classroom? Click Here to grab them in my shop! (affiliate links are provided for your convenience)