Flash Freebie and More Winners

Howdy!

     Congrats to Rachel, Sarah and Lslouka for being chosen as Thursday's Back to School Giveaway daily winners.  If you haven't entered yet, click on the picture to read about and enter the giveaway. You have two more chances to be a daily winner and then the grand prize winner will be picked Saturday night at midnight.

I have a Flash Freebie for you today that I think could be helpful in your classroom this year.

    Lots of teachers use hand signals in their classrooms so the kids can ask for what they need without interrupting instruction.   I wanted to give them a try, but I wanted a way to make them kinder-friendly so they would be meaningful and easy to use.  I love to anchor new concepts with a book, so I created a shared reader to introduce hand signals and explain the reason for using them.

To reinforce the signals, I made a cut and paste matching activity and an emergent reader for the kids to color and read.  These both will help support the kids in remembering the signals.

To have a consistent visual reminder for the kids, I made classroom posters with clear graphics that even my non-readers could “read.”

Yippee! No more interruptions during small groups, guided reading or conferring. If you want to give hand signals a try with your kinders, click the picture below to grab a copy of the packet. Remember to hurry, it's only free until midnight!

Have a great night!  

Jammies, Daiquiris and a Freebie

     I just noticed that this is my 100th post - that's pretty cool!  Many thanks to everyone who's been along for the ride!  So. . . in addition to the usual back to school shopping extravaganza in the Target Dollar Spot and Dollar Tree, I just bought myself a little, "Tomorrow's my last day of summer vacation" present. I was going to drive half an hour to Lakeshore to get some laminating done this morning when self indulgence struck and I headed to BJ's instead. After years on my wish list, I am finally the proud owner of one of these babies:

     I'm SOOO excited! I plan on spending my last day of vacation tomorrow in my jammies laminating my heart out. I might even treat myself to a strawberry daiquiri or two - heaven! (I know, I know, I'm a dork! but these are the things that make me happy . . .)

     First on the list for some wonderful protective shininess are the labels I made for the Meet and Greet we have the day before school starts. We ask the parents to bring their supplies with them and we have them sort everything into bins for us. The labels will go on the bins (some large and some small) and everything will be tidy and organized when the kids and their parents leave. Sweet!  If you'd like a copy, grab them below the picture.

Download the Labels Here

     Well, I'm off to bed to be well rested for my glorious day of jammies, laminating and daiquiris. I hope you have a day filled with your favorite things, too! G'night.

Para Mis Amigos

     I've been chatting recently with some teachers who either teach in a bilingual classroom or work with ELL students. They've mentioned how hard it is to find materials, and how often they stumble upon something cute and useful only to think, "I wish that were in Spanish!" With all the great things floating around on Teacher Blogs, I can only imagine how frustrating that must be! So, to help out my bilingual bloggy buddies a little, I've updated some of my post popular Back to School freebies to include Spanish versions along with the originals. If you could use them or know someone who could, grab a copy and enjoy.  Many thanks to Daysi and Stephanie for their help with the translations!

Grab the Give Me Five Posters Here

Backpack Tags

Pencil Pail Labels

First and Last Day Kindergarten Portraits

Have a Great Night!

"Give Me Five" Freebie

     Thanks to everyone who left a comment or sent a note about yesterday's post. My dad is doing great and he's even got enough spunk to subject the cute young nurses to his horrible jokes! Thanks also for the amazing ideas for my name wall. I've gone from having no inspiring ideas to having way too many! I'm heading into school tomorrow for the first time this summer, so I'm going to visualize my options and ponder when I get there. I think I'm leaning towards jeeps or sailboats but I'll keep you posted.
     I'm really psyched to go into school tomorrow.  Each year, a few weeks before school starts, we host a little summer program for the incoming kindergartners.  It's called S.A.I.L. (Summer Adventures in Literacy) and it's an hour a day for three mornings in a row. We do read-alouds and crafts and it's a great way to meet the kids and let them get a little acclimated to their new "big kid" school and make some new friends. It sure makes the first day of school a little less scary for the kids (and the moms). I have my class list handy so I can scope out who I'll be spending the next 10 months with.  I can't wait!
     I have a whole bunch of stuff to bring with me to laminate since the work room should be pretty deserted. One thing that's ready to go is a new set of mini-posters illustrating the age-old "Give Me Five" behavior management trick. When making visual reminders like this, I think that for them to be effective, it's important to have graphics that really show he kids what the expectations are. I couldn't find any clipart that matched the "Give Me Five" actions, so I tried my hand at making my own.  They're not that fancy, but I think they'll get the job done. Whatta ya think? Leave a comment and let me know! You can grab a set if you think you can use them in your classroom this year. Enjoy!

Grab your freebie here.

Waiting, Debating and Creating

     It's no secret that every little girl thinks her Dad is the strongest man in the whole world.  I now also believe that most grown-up girls think so, too. My Dad just had his surgery for the Big C (I still can't say the word . . .) and boy is he a trooper! Although the anticipated 5 hour operation turned into a 9 hour ordeal, he came through like a rock star! The doctors got out everything that needed to come out, reconstructed a few vital things, then stitched him back up. He's got a long road ahead, but as long as my Mom doesn't knock him out (he's not the best patient), things are looking up. Thanks to everyone who has sent notes of encouragement, they provided a lot of much needed smiles!
     With 9 hours in the waiting room, my Mom, my sisters and I were trying to distract ourselves from worrying.  We all kind of went to our own "comfort zones." My mom did crossword puzzles, my sister Danni knitted (she's making socks for Dad that say "F$#@ Cancer" - how funny is that?) and my sister Squeebie read her Kindle. I went to my go-to place - thinking about school stuff, of course!
     The first thing that kept me occupied was my annual debate about what to put on my big wall.  I like to do something big with the students' names on them, then after taking first day of school pictures, we add their digital photos to the wall as well.  For example, last year I did big train cars with the kids' names on them, and we added their pictures to look like they were riding in the train. This is a picture of what it looked like before the pics were added.

     So, here's my dilemma - what am I going to do this year?? It needs to be something big enough to fit the names horizontally, and also be something that you could potentially ride in or sit on. I don't want to do something that I've already done (spaceships, roller coaster cars, hot air balloons, and rocketships), but I'm drawing a complete blank! Help! Do any of you genius teachers have an idea for my name wall?  I am not above begging - please, please, please leave a comment if you can help me out!

     When I was at the point where I was ready to pull my hair out, I gave up on the wall debate and pulled out my laptop and starting working on a new back to school project.  Being creative always calms me. I like to do a lot of work with names in the beginning of the year, and I like to make something name related for my bulletin board for Open House. I came up with a pretty cute Detective Craftivity that fits the bill and will also let me observe fine motor skills and how well the kids can follow directions. After following the picture directions to make their little detectives, the kids will cut out magazine letters to spell their names.  Sometimes we like to do matching bulletin boards with our 3rd Grade Reading Buddies, so I made a second version with a writing prompt inside, where the big kids can write their learning goals for the year.

      

     You can check them out in my TPT store, and I'll also send a freebie to the first three people who leave a comment with an idea for my name wall. Remember, it needs to be something I can incorporate the photos into and also be long enough for names.  Thanks for your help!

Have a great night!

A Pinterest-ing Request

Just a quickie to let you know about an update.  Now that it's Back to School time, some things that I posted last year are making their rounds on Pinterest.  I've had a bunch of requests for the First Day of School magnets that I posted last year for grades other than just kindergarten. I've updated the file to include preschool, kindergarten, and first grade versions, as well as a "good for any grade" version.  Just have the kids decorate the magnets and cut them out, add a drawing in the little paper, then attach a magnet-backed clothespin to the back.  Voila!  A magnetic clip to hang on the fridge to display their best work.  You can grab a copy down below the picture.  (For some reason, when you preview the file in Google Docs, it looks like there's a wonky gray shadow around the paper, but don't worry, it's not really there when you download it.)  Have a great night!

Click here to download

A Little Back-to-School Goodie

     Once again I find myself working on cute, little, totally unnecessary things instead of tackling something more important.  Our first day of school is a week from today, so I realize that I need to get to work on the essentials, but for tonight my inability to prioritize led to a cute little project that I thought I would share.
     If your school is anything like mine, backpack tags are all the rage.  The kids come in with so many baubles attached to their bags that they actually jingle.  You know what they say, "If you can't fight 'em, join 'em!"  So, I made some kindergarten backpack tags for my incoming kids to decorate their new backpacks with.  I'm just going to cut them out, laminate them, punch a whole in the top and add a binder ring.  (You could also add yarn to make them into necklaces instead.)  If you'd like a set, click below the picture.  Now I promise I'll move on to more productive projects. Really. I will...

Click Here to Grab a Set

I'll Meet You at the Top of the Coconut Tree

     I faced reality today and acknowledged that summer is going to be wrapping up soon and it's time to start thinking about the first few weeks of school.  Like many kindergarten teachers, I like to use Chicka Chicka Boom Boom as a springboard for beginning of the year activities.  It's a book most kids are familiar with, the illustrations are engaging and the rhyme and repetition make it perfect for shared reading.  I've done a gazillion of the favorite activities floating around out there - alphabet matching, counting coconuts, decorating giant letters with band-aids - and I've noticed that the kids always love the band-aid activities.  (What 5 year old doesn't love band-aids?)  So, I came up with this short little book to use for shared reading.  A handful of letters each show their band-aids after their fall from the tree. "P has a band-aid on its foot."  After the shared reading, the kids can make their own version, coloring in the letters and putting real band-aids on them.  They LOVE this! (There's a little picture clue to remind them where each letter needs its band-aid.)  The teeny tiny band-aids are perfect for this project - you'll need 6 for each child.  If you're planning on starting the year with Chicka Chicka Boom Boom and you think that your class might like this book, click below the pisture for a copy of the full-color shared reading version and the black/white student version.  What are some of your favorite Chicka Chicka activities?

Click Here to Download

Don't forget to enter my "Blog-iversary" Giveaway.  The winners will be chosen tomorrow at midnight.  Enjoy!