Earth Day FUN and FREEBIES!!!

Happy Sunday, Bloggy friends! Kerri here..

Earth Day is this week! I can't believe it!! Where the heck is April going??

Earth Day is one of my favoritest days (holidays? What do I call it exactly??) to teach my kidlets all about, mostly because they REALLY take it seriously and become so motivated to help keep the Earth clean. 

Here are some of the activities that I did with my class last year to celebrate Earth Day...

First, we made this super EASY PEASY (and pretty) Earth Day art and wrote about how we could help save the Earth...

Here are the dimensions, if you would like to make them with your class, along with writing paper and the Earth template for your kids to color and cut out (clipart courtesy of DJ Inkers)...

9 x 12 light blue background
5 x 12 skin color (I folded it in half, traced one my kids' hands and then cut it out once)
Earth pattern (click picture above to access this)
3 x 4 paper folded in half for the heart (I used pretty scrapbook paper)
Writing paper so the kids can write how they love the Earth (also included with download, click photo above)

We also made a little "I Love the Earth" bubble map to help us describe the Earth. This helped us when when we wrote about it (click image to download)...

Here is another FREEBIE for y'all that my kids will be using in centers this week! An Earth Day sentence scrambler, which is similar to the scramblers in my Word of the Week Scrambler Pack!!

Click on the picture to download it via google docs...

If you liked this one, you can check out the entire pack here... (click on pic to go to my TPT shop!)

We also had LOTS of fun playing with examining earthworms in a VERY scientific way after reading Diary of a Worm (I got these HUGE nightcrawler from the bait shop!)...

SO NASTY!!

Isn't his expression priceless?? This was the BEST ACTIVITY EVER!!

We also had LOADS of fun with my Earth Day Math and Literacy Centers...

Here are my kids having fun with the centers...

Counting Patterns

Graphing

Number Puzzles

Syllable Sort

They also used my Earth Day Writing center to write all about the Earth...

Finally, to complete all this Earth Day goodness, how about another Earth Day Number Puzzles FREEBIE from my TPT store! Click on the picture to download it for yourself...

Whew!! That was a lot of Earth Day fun!! Hope you found some activities that you can share with your kiddies!! Happy Earth Day, friends!!
XOXO Kerri B

Five for Fraturday!! (FREEBIES here)

Happy Saturday, Peeps! Kerri here...

Well, I am jumping back on the Doodle Bugs "Five for Friday" linky party, except that I was SO. DARN. EXHAUSTED last night that my post will have to be a Five for Fraturday post!

1. We have been hard at work in first grade and it is only the 2nd week of school! This past week we focused on our color words...

 We made our rainbow name art and they came out soooo cute!! My student teacher has AMAZING printing skills, so she wrote all of the names on the black paper for me with her mad skills, and they are even cuter than ever!! LOVE them!

 We also made a color graph counting color tiles and they kiddos did fabulous ! 

Click here for a copy of this graph...

2. We met our third grade buddies for the first time this week! They come over to our class every Wednesday after lunch since we have early out on Wednesday, and there is only a half an hour after lunch anyway. They read to my kids, help them finish work, do art projects...It is GLORIOUS!

3. We have been hard at work working with our CVC words and reviewing what we learned in Kindergarten. This week we used my Bodacious Blending Mats-cvc edition. The kids did fabulous!

4.  We have a new Math program this year called SWUN math. I started teaching place value on day 2! Yes, day 2!! 

Building and Recognizing Numbers to 100 using Base 10 Blocks is our first unit~

For some of my babies, it was HARD, but for some of them, it was easy breezy. We played the place value game with dice (roll 2 dice, see what two numbers you get-for example 6 and 2 is 62, and then draw the 10's and 1's.) It took a couple of tries but finally they were all really getting it! YAY!

5. Because we have moved to common core math this year, we needed a 120 number chart, so I decided to make my own and have it blown up to poster size through our district for $10. Costco also can make posters for about the same price. Here is mine hanging in my room...

If you are interested in this, I have attached a few different color choices for you to make into a poster size, plus a blackline if you want to print it and laminate them for your kidlets' personal use! Enjoy!!

And, didn't our Chicka Boom Trees come out so cute??

Off to my yoga mat!! See ya, friends!

XOXO Kerri B

First Day FREEBIES and Our Lastest Giveaway Winner!

Howdy peeps! Lindsay here . . .

Well, I survived. Barely.

Our school district had its first day of school yesterday, but at my school the first day of kindergarten is the "Kindergarten Tea" and the parents and kids just come for 2 hours.

Easy peasy, right?

Well, it went really well, HOWEVER there were probably almost 60 people in my room with my 28 kindergarteners, their parents, and a few little siblings as well. And combine that with the fact that my room was probably around 95 degrees, it made for a HOT AND SWEATY first day!!

I'm proud to say that this preggo (that's me!) put on her big girl panties and survived, although not without copious amounts of sweating. And waddling.

After welcoming my kiddos and their parents, their first task was a classroom scavenger hunt - which they LOVED!!  They felt OH SO  important looking around the room with their paper and clipboard! :)

Here is a closer look at the scavenger hunt itself.  You can click on the picture below for a link to this FREEBIE in my TPT store!! :)

And of course the MOST exciting part was the treat at the end that they discovered in their cubbies . . .

 . . . Smarties for my lil smarties, of course!!!

Next I had stations at my five tables where each student rotated from table to table with their parents. Each table had an activity for the kiddos to complete (a dot-to-dot, tracing the ABCs, pattern blocks, etc. - which were all great for some informal observations as to what my kiddos can already do!) and an activity for the parents as well (sign-up sheet for volunteering, filling out my "getting to know you" student info form, etc.).

At this particular table I had the parents take a lil card and write a love note to their kiddo, which I then put into their pencil boxes.  I wish I had thought to take a picture of one of the completed notes - they were all so sweet and heartfelt!  Even though my kidlets could read their love notes on their own, they were SO excited to have a lil something from mom and dad when they got their pencil boxes today (the 2nd day of school).

If you would like to use this template, you can click on the image below to link up with this FREEBIE in my TPT store.

Aaaaaaand . . . I finally gave in and jumped on the bandwagon.  Here is my "1st Day of Kinder" frame that I used to take super cute pictures of my little kidlets with!  (I am lovin those funky letters - courtesy of the "Boho Birds" set from Lakeshore!)

And today . . . well today was our FIRST REAL OFFICIAL DAY of kindergarten.  So naturally there were some tears. And a few kiddos crawling around the floor, and some others lining up with the wrong class after recess . . . but overall, I think I have a super sweet bunch this year!

Even though we were all DYING of heat stroke, we did manage to do the cover and the first page of "My First Week in Kindergarten" packet. (Click the picture below to check out this FREEBIE in my TPT store!)  I have my kiddos do this packet at the beginning and end of every year and it is such a fun thing to put out at Open House to show my student's amazing progress! 

First my kidlets wrote their name and practiced NOT "scribble-scrabbling" on their cover page.

Then we did self portraits!  Again - such a great informal assessment to see their fine motor, what details they are adding to their pictures, etc.

And then tomorrow we will be doing writing and a dot to dot! :)

Well, that's all I have to share for now!  I hope some of these FREEBIES will come in handy for your class next year!

One more thing before I sign off . . . we have a winner for our magnet board giveaway! Drumroll please . . .

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Congrats to Sue B!!!!  We will be contacting you soon about your fabulous prizes!!

Hope you all have a wonderful Wednesday night! I'm off to raid the freezer . . . surely there is a carton of chocolate ice cream in there after my long day of teaching, right??

Lindsay

Taming the Wild - One Behavior Chart At A Time . . .

Hi folks!

Lindsay here . . .

Tonight we are linkin' up with the peeps over at Blog Hoppin' once again for Teacher Week! Woohoo!

Tonight's topic: "Taming the Wild" (a.k.a. Classroom Management). 

This is an easy topic to blog about tonight, because I love, love, LOVE the behavior system that Kerri and I use in our classrooms.  It's easy AND effective! 

Part 1: The Behavior Clip Chart

I'm sure many of you have seen (or have yourselves) clip charts of all different shapes, sizes, colors and themes.  My clip chart has seven levels.  Each day my students start on GREEN, which means they are "Ready to Learn".  Throughout the day I move pins up AND down.  The first time a student pulls their pin down, they end up on YELLOW, which is "OOPS!".  There is no actual consequence for having your pin on OOPS, but for MOST kids the mere thought of having to get up in front of everyone and go pull you pin down is enough to keep them in line. Most of the time.

The ORANGE, RED and PURPLE levels on the chart are for the other 5% of the kiddos in your class who will need more of a consequence. The second time a student pulls their pin, they "LOSE 5 MINUTES" . . . this can be 5 minutes of Free Choice Time, Recess, etc.  It is really up to the teacher's discretion.  Another pin pulled equals "LOSE 10 MINUTES". And finally, at the bottom of the chart, is PHONE CALL HOME . . . which in my classroom, students know will be made from the Principal's Office.  I think I could probably count on one hand how many times I have had a child move their pin all the way down that far . . .

On the other extreme, I also am busy moving students up on the behavior chart throughout the day. I honestly think I probably spend MORE time "catching" students being good and making a big deal of moving one or two kiddos up (so that the rest of my little wiggle worms snap to attention!) than I do of pulling pins.  If I student gets moved up to BLUE (a.k.a. "Totally Awesome"), they earn a sticker.  When a student earns 5 days worth of stickers in their folder, they get to move their pin to RAINBOW, or "WOW". When a student is on RAINBOW, they get to pick a prize from the Prize Binder. 

The thing that I truly L-O-V-E about this behavior system is that students ALWAYS have the opportunity to turn their day around and improve!  When I have a student who has pulled their pin I like to give them reminders throughout the day for them to make better choices.  I am so proud when kiddos take pulling their pin seriously and really put in effort to change their behavior for the rest of the day!

Part 2: The Behavior Log

In order to help me keep track of students' behavior on a daily basis, AND to help keep students accountable to mom and dad for their behavior as well, I use a behavior log.  The behavior log tracks students' behavior and classwork every day.  (Warning: Having 30 five year olds fill in their behavior sheets the first six weeks of school is hellish. HELLISH I TELL YOU!  But . . . it DOES get better!)

At the end of every day before I have my kiddos pack up to go home (or before we clean up for Choice Time) we review the Behavior Chart.  SOMETIMES I have kids who had pulled their pin earlier in the day and reeeeeeeeeeeeeally tried hard to have a better day, so I might move them back up to GREEN.  Other kids might stay where they are. Or I may have one or two more kiddos who I want to move up to BLUE.  It just depends on the day.

Then, I send ALL of the kids to take their behavior log out of their folders at their table, color the little behavior bubble at the bottom whatever color they ended their day on (using the Behavior Chart), and they get to give themselves a happy face for "Classwork" if all of their work is finished. (More on that tomorrow when Kerri talks about teaching tips & tricks!) 

At the end of every week, I take the behavior logs out of all of the students' folders, make notes or corrections if necessary (especially in the beginning of the year!), and I file the logs into my Homework Bin so that they get sent home the following Monday in the HW folder.  That way parents can easily glance and see what kind of day their kiddo had last week.  MOST of the time parents tell me that their kiddos are super honest, and all they have to do is ask what color they ended their day on and they get a pretty good idea of how their behavior was.

Part 3: The Prize Binder

The Prize Binder was not always the Prize Binder.  Once upon a time I did have a "Treasure Chest" full of all sorts of odds and ends and random things that my kidlets always thought were cool.  But over time I felt like I was spending too much time and money keeping my treasure chest full and exciting.

Sooooo . . . Kerri and I created a Prize Binder! :)

This is the cover of my classroom Prize Binder - pretty darn cute if I do say so myself . . .

Inside the Prize Binder are also different prize choices for students to choose from when they get their 5th blue day (or 10th, 15th, etc.).  The beauty of the Prize Binder is that all of the prizes are absolutely free for the teacher to provide and usually pretty easy as well.  And there are so many choices!  Here are just a few  . . .

Ball Boss - a good choice for all those boys that ALWAYS want the ball first! :)

Stinky Feet - Kinda gross, but usually a kid favorite . . .

Swip Swap - Kiddos LOVE switching spots for the day in class.  So exciting, right?

And finally . . . Scout Out.  For whatever reason my class last year LOVED to help me scout out good behavior. We give out "Best on the Beach" certificates, and my little "scout" would be in charge of catching people showing our schoolwide character traits to get a Best on the Beach.  It was so sweet to watch - the biggest prize of all to them was to catch OTHERS doing nice things. 

 Sigh.  I love THOSE kind of teacher moments. :)

In order to make the prizes a bit more tangible for the kids (and to keep track of who picked what prize) we shrunk the prize choices down to be coupon-sized . . .

And this is what all of the different prize coupons look like in the front of the prize binder. Once a student makes their choice, they can take their coupon home to show mom and dad! :)



So there you have it folks!  All you need is a Behavior Chart, Behavior Log and a Prize Binder and you are set to go!!

Well, I am off to bed. Goodnight friends!

Lindsay