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Rockstar Day Ideas That Will Totally Rock Your Classroom

April 18, 2021

Let’s be honest, we all want to unleash our inner rockstar once in a while.  Rockstar Day at school is the perfect time to wear those leather leggings you have stashed in the back of your closest (no? Just me?)  Okay, well dressing the part of a rockstar is definitely half the fun.  If you don’t have leather leggings no problem- here are some other tried and true rockstar attire:  Tulle in pink and/or purple will make the perfect rockstar tutu.  So cute!  Black leggings- they don’t have to be leather.  You could pair these with the tutu or without.  Whatever your little rockstar heart wants. Bandana-think Axl Rose.  If you don’t know who Axl Rose is, you might be too young to truly appreciate rockstar day. TATTOOS!!!  I would recommend temporary, but you do you.  I usually get the temporary ones for my face and the slip-on sleeves for… well obviously my arms.  I think fake long nails in a bright color would be super fun.  I am really hard on my nails and I know fake ones would last a nanosecond, so I am going with some super sparkly glitter polish. Colorful hairpieces, or spray, or gel– just…

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Stuffed Animal Day Activities In a Virtual World

March 26, 2020

Yes, yes you can host a stuffed animal day from your new virtual classroom! If you are reading this I am betting that you have found yourself setting up a virtual classroom in some corner of your home.   We as teachers and parents have had to quickly redefine what our daily life looks like. We have had to switch to home learning activities instead of traditional classroom work. With that said, I wanted to share one of my favorite digital activities from my classroom.  This blog post describes how I use stuffed animal day activities in my classroom, but it can easily be used in a distance learning situation. You can get your FREE copy of the activity at the end of this post. Stuffed animal day at school is one of our favorite days of the year.  Our school celebrates Stuffed Animal Day in September and the timing couldn’t be more perfect.  Who wouldn’t want to start a new school year by bringing their favorite stuffy to school? Stuffed Animal Day Reading Activities Read a louds and stuffed animals? It’s like PB and J-you cant have one without the other. Some of my favorite read alouds for Stuffed…

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parent volunteer

End of the Year Parent Volunteer Gifts!

June 18, 2018

I am blessed.  There I said it- Blessed!  I have a LOT of wonderful parent volunteers.  I know, I know tough problem to have.  I always want to give them wonderful gifts at the end of the year.  They deserve dinner, massages, pampering of any kind.  Yet, my teacher salary does not allow me to spoil them as they should be.  I fret about this gift for MONTHS in advance.  I am not crafty and I have limited funds.  You can see my dilemma.  This year, I think I have finally hit the jackpot.  I found a gift that I know will make my volunteers smile. How cute are these vases?  At least I see them as vases, but really there are many uses for them.  I found them at The Dollar Store.  Boom!  Budget friendly.  I had each child add their fingerprint.  I brought the vases home and turned on some Real Housewives and got busy adding details to each fingerprint to resemble an ocean animal.  Bravo binge + paint pen = adorable budget friendly, meaningful momentos to the wonderful parents that do so much for my classroom.  I wrapped them with shrink wrap and bows from The Dollar…

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Watermelon Adjectives

May 29, 2018

Watermelon is the perfect edible for adjectives (in case you were wondering).  I made this Google Slide to get my kiddos thinking about their 5 senses and how they would describe watermelon. I started the lesson my showing this on the Smartboard and we came up with one adjective for each slice together.  Wouldn’t you know it?  One of the kiddos said it would be awesome if we actually had watermelon.  That is when I produced this. The kiddos then worked in their groups to complete the Google Slide together.  Here is the final product!  If you would like your own FREE copy, just click {here}.

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lego

Lego Bag Building

April 11, 2018

As many of you know I also run our afterschool Lego club. I’m always on the look out for interesting Lego activities that will be new and different for the kiddos.  Well, my co-Lego teacher, Mr. M shared this fun idea and the kiddos had a blast.  We used these Lego kits: Each box has 3 different builds.  Mr. M pulled the Legos and instructions for each build and placed them in a baggie.  So.. each box will work for 3 separate builds.   The students could take the instructions out of the bag, but NO Legos.  Students had to build the object by manipulating the Legos in the bag from the outside of the bag.  They loved it and got pretty quick at it.  They were begging for more!!!

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If I Could Turn Back Time…

April 10, 2018

If I could turn back time… I wouldn’t have waited so long to integrate these super fun time teaching activities  nto my lessons.  Holy Cow! Game Changer!  My kiddos loved time headbandz.  One player put a digital time in their headband and their partner made the time on their analog clock.  The headband wearer read the time their partner made.  If the time they said matched the flash card in their headband they got to keep the card.  My kids loved this. Plus, there were lots of teachable moments between partners.   time teaching activities

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phonics

Looking for ‘oo’

March 20, 2018

Last week our sound was ‘oo’ as in look.  I have really enjoyed starting my phonics lessons with YouTube clips from the Electric Company.  I know I’m showing my age here, but I just love sharing these with my kiddos from “the old days.”  After the video we brainstormed ‘oo’ words for our anchor chart together.   I found this adorable activity from Smitten with First. Next up was making some special “lOOking glasses” filled with ‘oo’ words. You can find the free template for these glasses right {here} from The Teacher Wife.  Then we went on a word Hunt with our new stylish frames.  The kiddos searched the school for words with the ‘oo’ sound we’re studying.  I copied them on to bright pink and hung them around the school beforehand.  The kiddos LOVED this.

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math, regrouping

Making 2 Digit Regrouping Stick!!

November 26, 2017

Seriously, this is one of the trickiest skills to teach and there are so many great ideas out there on HOW to teach it.  One of those great ideas came from the Magic of Math by Amy and Hope.  My kids really enjoyed the process and it was a great activity to do between using the base 10 blocks and good ole’ fashion pencil paper regrouping. I began the math lesson by having a regrouping problem written large on easel paper.  Of course, I don’t have a picture of that!!!  I used the SUPER LARGE sticky note to demonstrate how to total the ones and write it on a sticky note.   I then cut the sticky note in half and moved the numbers in the ones spot under the ones and the number in the tens spot over the tens.  I did this demonstration several more times with a variety of 2 digit regrouping problems. Next, I broke the students into groups of 2.  Each pair got a sheet of easel paper, smelly markers and a super duper big sticky note.  I told the kids to come up with their own math problem and solve it using the sticky note…

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freebie, reading street

One Good Turn Deserves Another

November 26, 2017

We use Reading Street in my building and sometimes it can be a bit tricky to differentiate the small group instruction for my advanced readers.  I came up with this activity to use during small group time or with a parent volunteer.   I took the words from the T. manual (Access for All Advanced) and typed them into this worksheet.  I plan to have the kids cut the words apart and do a good ole’ fashion word sort with them and talk about the phonics pattern.   I may also have them choose a word and write a sentence using that word on a sentence strip.  These go with the story, “One Good Turn Deserves Another.” Next, I have the students read the advanced selection.  I copy these questions onto the back of the selection (Raising a House) and they work on them independently.  I use this time to go over writing in complete sentences, finding evidence to support the answer, etc.  If you want to try these you can grab both {here}.

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Halloween, science, stem

Pumpkin Catapults

October 31, 2017

Who doesn’t love some good ol’ punkin chuckin? Or the more official term of Pumpkin Catapults?  I LOVE watching kiddos design and build catapults.  I usually use this STEM activity to kick off STEM Friday’s in my classroom.  Tomorrow we will hold the Pumpkin Olympics and really test our catapults.

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lego, lego learning, lego olympics

Team Building with Lego Olympics

September 18, 2017

It’s no secret that I am a fan of legos and the plethora of activities they lend themselves too.   Honestly, what can you NOT do with legos???  When I saw Amy Lemon’s Lego Olympic activity I knew I had to use it in my classroom for team building.  I set up the 10 Lego stations around my classroom and partnered the kids up.  I had the kids work with the randomly selected partner for the first 5 rounds.  After 5 rounds, I let them choose which event they would participate in and there could not be more than 2 people at an event.  It worked well.  The kiddos were always engaged and having fun conversations with their new partners.  I don’t think this activity needs to be limited to the beginning of the year.  You could use it anytime!!!!

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