This Year Is Going to Rock! Back to School Notes

Back to school season is a flurry of activity at my house. August 1st signals the end of long days of sipping iced and reading novels by the pool and the beginning of back to school season. This means lesson planning, classroom decoration planning, back to school outfit shopping for 3 girls with extreme fashion preferences (one of whom has insisted on wearing Elmo rain boots all summer and another who has shunned the color pink, but likes glitter), and a visit to the mothership (Target) for school supplies. (Oh how I love the smell of a fresh box of crayons, the thrill of a new set of multi-colored pens, and the possibilities of blank notebook!)

But I save my favorite thing for last. My back to school notes are always the icing on my back to school cake. Every year I make a special note to my students and place it on their desks at open house. I started this tradition early in my career. When I was a poor first year teacher and I glued some googly eyes to (free) rocks I collected from the creek by my parents house. I topped it off with a sign attached to a toothpick that said, “I hope this year rocks!” I thought I was very clever, and hey it was the 90s, long before Pinterest and Teachers Pay Teachers revolutionized classroom cool.

Anywho, now that I have matured past free rocks from the creek. Each year I scour the Target Dollar Spot and the Dollar Tree to find the best possible gifts (for $0.50 or less per student) that they have to offer. Here are my top 5 picks:

This year is going to rock! 

This goes well with Pop Rocks candy, but if you are on an extreme budget rocks outside are free and available in your local backyard, forest or creek.

This is going to be a super year! 

This goes well with super bubble, any super hero item, or just as a cute stand alone note.

Thank you for popping in! It is going to be a great year!

If candy is a no-no at your school this is perfect with popcorn.

You are going to shine this year!

This goes perfectly with glow sticks (often found in packs of 8 for $1). 

I am bubbling with excitement to meet you!

This is fun with good old fashion bubble stuff! 

As I mentioned before these were designed with a teacher budget in mind. The gift notes can be can be downloaded for FREE here in my TPT store.

Speaking of great deals and awesome resources, be sure to check out the stores of my Planning in Paradise friends for all of your back to school needs!

Lolly's Locker features a locker full of time savers for upper elementary teachers.

The first month of school feels like... well, "it feels like HERDING cats!" If you can totally relate to this analogy ...you MUST be a Kindergarten teacher! It truly is the best job EVER - but that first month is just plain....EXHAUSTING! So be sure to check my Class of Kinders store for many time saving resources to keep things running smoothly! 

Check out Kindergarten Boom Boom for awesome K-1 resources to include in your Reading Workshop, Writing Workshop, and Math Block. Also a great place to find complete Science Units. 

Elaine has some great list making writing activities that are quick and easy for your centers!  

"K-2nd grade teachers- Want assessment made easy?  Check out the Math and Reading exit slips at LOL- Loving Our Learning!"

Help your students unleash their learning super powers with McCrone Love.

Create a classroom where CHARACTER counts with RESOURCES to foster

 independent problem solvers!   

Happy back to school shopping!

10 Awesome End of the Year Gifts and FREE Gift Tags

The final countdown is here. We are down to single digits of days left in the school year. While I am beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel, I feel like the these last few days are like dog years, each normal one must be multiplied by seven. So eight days feels a little like fifty-six.

At the end of the year my to do list always balloons until it is a blur of field trips, report cards, cumulative folders, summative evaluation meetings, data collection, data recording, checklists, yearbook signing, paperwork, more paperwork, room cleaning, and dealing with the piles of stuff I put in piles until I had time to deal with them (now or never). I am pretty much ready to lapse into a coma by 7 p.m. Every. Single. Night. 

In the midst of this blinding exhaustion, I also like to get my students a fun end of the year gift. In early May, I start dreaming of personalized acrostic poems for each student, a DVD I-Movie with pictures from our year, or mini-time capsule bursting with memories of all our special events. 

By the time the school year is actually winding to a close and I am so tired that no Starbucks in the world has enough caffeine to keep me awake past my (goal) bedtime of 7 and my gift ideas are scaled WAY down. By the time the last day countdown is in single digits, I am all about getting each student a fun little gift, with an adorable label, that can be assembled in less than 15 minutes, and ideally costs around $20 or less total ($1 or less per student, I am a teacher after all).

I TRY to plan in advance, but there have been years I have stopped at the grocery store on the way to school on the last day and frantically searched for something cute and fun. In an effort avoid the last minute crunch I went on a Dollar Store shopping spree and came up with 10 fun and cheap end of the year gifts. (Click on the pictures to download the gift tags for FREE, because free is AWESOME when your budget is $20 or less...)

1. Dollar store sunglasses + a gift tag = super cute and PRACTICAL!
   
   
   
2. Everybody loves Goldfish crackers and you might get bonus points with parents because they are not loaded with sugar!
   
   
   
3. If your year rocked, Pop Rocks make a fun gift!
   
   
   
4. A Dollar Store bucket and a cute tag make a super cute gift (and they can use the bucket to carry home any remaining items from their desks!
   
   
   
5. Nothing screams school like chalk and this super cute tag makes it a fun gift!
   
   
   
6. A Dollar Store kite (or glider) works well with this gift tag; it is perfect if you are a STEM classroom!
   
   
   
7. Your students will GLOW with pride when they get this Glow Stick gift!
   
   
   
8. Students will love a cool popsicle treat!
   
   
   
9. Let the fun bubble over with this super cute gift!
   
   
   
10. Nothing says summer like a beach ball!
    
    
    
    
    

Clearly, now that I have all these gift tags I will be super organized with my end of the year gifts for the rest of my teaching career. After all, I said it here on the internet, so it MUST be true!

Happy end of the school year!

"I Cans" A Test Prep Craftivity

I know what you are thinking! You are thinking that it is only a few days before “THE TEST” and you don’t have time for a test prep “craftivity”. 

Trust me, I know all too well that high stakes testing season has begun! At schools all over the country students are diligently darkening bubbles with number 2 pencils and pounding away at computer keyboards as they practice for “the big test”.

I know exactly how it feels because I have been preparing students for “THE TEST” every year of my adult life. I know the drill! We practice, give pep talks, tell the kids that testing is their day to shine, and review, then review more. As teachers we tell our students not to stress, then we lay awake wondering if we really covered angle types sufficiently or if the students really got the author’s purpose lesson we so carefully crafted. 

Last year was a game changer for me. My own daughter took “THE TEST” (I blogged about it and wrote her a letter here, about testing here). While I believe in preparation and teaching kids to do their best, I also realized we need to do MORE to encourage and uplift our students. Especially our youngest learners. 

One of the major ways I do this is by making “I Cans”. It is a can shaped mailbox, covered with “eyes” and the letter “I”. Get it? It is an ”I Can”. (See the picture below.) 

Each morning before testing the students place the “I Cans” on their desk. It is then filled with encouraging messages. The students LOVE getting messages and it really helps take the pressure of the test off!

I send a template of the “I Can” messages home for parents to fill out a few weeks before the test. I also write an “I Can” message each day, I have the principal write a daily message, and I recruit other staff members to write messages (I have each person write 1 message that I copy it for the class.) If time permits I even allow kids to write message to one another (I check all messages and usually assign a few classmates to each child so no one is left out.) I like to get as many people involved as possible (special area teachers, custodians, or any person who has a connection to the students). 

The “I Can” messages really lighten the mood. After students have finished reading the messages I take up the “I Cans” because (GULP) nothing but the test book and a #2 pencil can be on their desk. I put the cans in an area of the room where students can still see them.

A parent recently told me her child saved all his “I Can” messages from 4th grade. She said that she found the strips of paper that had filled his can for years after he was in my class and that every time he read one he smiled. After hearing that I created a template for making “I Cans” and “I Can” messages. It is free (and will always be) free in my Teachers Pay Teachers. If you have a few minutes and some card stock paper this is a “craftivity” you students will never forget! Click on the "I Cans below to download this freebie!

Pirate Learning Fun!

Hi! It's Robin here from Class of Kinders.

There are not many things more appealing to a First Grader than a pirate! Boy or girl…doesn't matter, their ears perk right up at the mere mention of the word pirate! So, I sort of used that to my advantage last week when our spelling words had the /ar/ digraph pattern in them. We made pirate hats and use our best pirate voices to read, work with, and study our spelling words like arm, art, cart, yarn, barn, harm, etc.

Here is our completed pirate hat! Arrrrr….

 (Be sure to read to the bottom of this post so you can download this little freebie!)

First, I drew a rough sketch of two pirate hat shapes out of the large black construction paper and asked my students to cut them out:

Then I gave them one of these pirate print outs:

Then, they glued the pirate to the middle of one of the black papers:

Next, they wrote as many /ar/ words as they could. Yes, even fart came out of the discussion…I wouldn't have expected anything less, LOL: 

 Finally, I walked around and stapled the hat (once on each side) while sort of measuring their heads so it fit. It was a quick little pirate learning fun, but let me tell you - they will not forget that digraph pattern!

We also used this "Carl the Shark" poem for the week! Sharks are another word that generates lots of attention and discussion... and it sort of went with pirates, right?

As promised, here is the freebie so you can do this activity with your students!

Click here download from my store.

I hope your students will have a little bit of pirate learning fun too, arrrrr!