1-2-3 Come Make A Butterfly Keepsake Frame With Me
As I stated yesterday, despite the fact that summer has yet to be officially launched, I am enjoying designing back-to-school stuff. As long as I was putzing, I thought why not blog about these new items. I figure even if some sane teachers are truly on vacation, they can catch up later and scroll to their heart's content, hopefully getting some new ideas that will get them excited to go back.
My grandsons' last day of school isn't 'til this Friday the 20th, so if you too, are still in school because of those dreaded snow day make ups, perhaps you can even use this activity now.
As a good educator, one should not have the proverbial "teacher's pet" but realistically, every year there are always a few adorable students who become favorites. Even though you treat all of your kiddos equally, those children leave heartprints that become fond memories forever.
Sweet little Jenna is one of mine. Thoughts of her, as I type, make me smile. She was so quiet and shy, and bravely tried to fight those first-day of school tears. I confided to her mom that she came to me a tiny caterpillar, and by the end of Y5's she had blossomed into a lovely butterfly. Her mother agreed that Jenna had truly come out of her "crysalis" shell and wasn't afraid to fly!
She was my inspiration for this keepsake frame. I hope you enjoy making them with your students and that they tug on a few heartstrings as mommies tuck them away.
The reason this is a back-to-school item, even tho' you'll be doing it at the end of the year, is because you need to make copies of your students' first day of school photographs.
It's something that most early elementary teachers do, especially if they make an end of the year memory book. Simply make double prints to save for later, and do a photo shoot of some sort for a last week of school picture as well.
When I designed my sample, I didn't have any photographs to put in it, so I surfed the web and found "Ho ho" on Crystal's Little Bit Funky site. She was kind enough to give me permission to use her son's pictures in my butterfly frame. Click on the link to check out her helpful blog.
To make a butterfly frame, run off my templates on a variety of colors of construction paper. There are two on a page for easy printing. Trim and fold them in half. Students cut out the X-d sections and then glue their pictures behind the wings. Mount on a complementary color of construction paper.
If you think that this type of cutting is too difficult for your kiddos, have a room helper cut the butterfly frames ahead of time. Even young children should be OK to cut the leaf, caterpillar and flower out. They glue these to their frame. Students or a teacher can print the "First day of ________ ... last day!" portion on the wing sections.
For that finishing touch, I added a paper punch butterfly. To make it 3D, I used two butterflies, gluing the thorax of the top one to the thorax of the bottom one, and then bent the wings up, so that the butterfly looks like it's flying.
Click on the link to view/download the Keepsake Butterfly Frame. Thanks for visiting today. Feel free to PIN away. That's how I found adorable little Ho Ho! Until next time, rest, relax, repeat!
"It's never too late to be what you might have been." -
1-2-3 Come Get Organized With Me!
Well it's already the middle of June and the days are flying by me. I wish summer would slow down to the pace of those too-long winter days that seem to drag on. Some of my friends still have a few more days of school, and others have been out a week or more.
Summer doesn't officially start til June 21st, so there's plenty of time left for relaxing, before our brains begin gearing up for back-to-school and we have to undo the cruise-control mode.
For lack of something else to blog about, I decided to start designing new things for the fall. This is the first of many articles featuring a back to school FREEBIE.
My husband thinks I'm a bit crazy, but by the looks of what teachers have been pinning and downloading this past week, I am certainly NOT alone. I truly believe that if you have a passion for education, your "teacher hat" never really comes off, and all it takes to get us excited all over again, is to see a school supply display, smell a box of brand new crayons, or find some books and classroom treasures at a garage sale.
I was always reinventing the wheel trying to make my classroom decor more inviting, organized and just plain cool! After all, this is our home-away-from home! I absolutely love looking at photographs of teacher's rooms. If you do too, click on the link to come visit mine.
I think teachers look forward to decorating their classrooms, like children start planning their next Halloween costume on November 1st! Any hoo, even if you have banned yourself from working on "school stuff" for an appropriate amount of down-time, you can still catch up later on all of the great FREEBIES I will be making and posting through out the summer.
The little ditty I put together today, while a warm summer breeze wafted through my office window, is a cute boo-boo book basket. (Try saying that 3 times!)
Easy, simple and quick; it will help you on the road to getting organized and hopefully make life a bit easier. The Dollar Store sells a variety of these plastic baskets in all sorts of colors. So that things looked less cluttered, I used a primary color theme and tried to have all of my basket styles look the same.
Print off my signage; mount on construction paper; laminate and you're good to go. Place the basket in your reading area or classroom library section.
When students are reading one of your books and discover that it needs some repair work to avoid further damage, have them fill out an Rx form of what's wrong with the book and how you can fix it. They tuck the note on the page that needs repair, so that the end sticks out and then drop the book in the "hospital" basket.
I made up the notes, so that students can get in some extra writing practice, as well as a time saver for me. No need to figure out what's wrong and where the book needs to be repaired. If you teach preschool, where children aren't able to write, they simply use the slip of paper as a bookmark for each page that needs fixing.
Run off a bunch of copies, trim and keep in an envelope. I taped a Popsicle stick to the back of the envelope and then taped it to the back of the basket, so that it would stick up over the top of the books. Repairing books is a great job to delegate to a room helper.
There are two signs on a page for easy printing, so why not make one for a fellow teacher or your librarian, as a "Hope you have a great year!" surprise. If they happen to be your BFF, get them a basket and make up the whole thing for them. This is also a sweet and inexpensive gift, along with a book, if you're planning on having a student teacher.
Click on the link to view/download the book hospital basket packet. Feel free to PIN away.
I'm off to put on some suntan lotion and play in my garden. Blessings to you and yours, from me and mine. :-)
"A life without love, is like a year without summer." -Unknown
1-2-3 Come Do An Alphabet Craftivity With Me
So that I could get a handle on the ability of my new students, I always liked to do some fun assessing of my first graders the first week of school.
Testing and assessing students can be tedious and overwhelming for young children, as well as time consuming for you. Keeping that in mind, I designed Alpha Bird.
Precut "Alfie's" body parts from a variety of colors of construction paper. Students choose the pattern pieces that they want, and glue them to their paper plate bird body.
To expedite things, I'd fold the paper plates and staple them shut ahead of time, leaving the bottom middle open so that students can insert their alpha-bird legs.
For extra pizzazz I added several feathers for a tail. You can buy a bag full at The Dollar Store.
Students cut and glue the alphabet strips to make Alfie's legs. When everyone has completed their alpha bird, play "I Spy" by calling out a letter.
Students find and trace both the upper and lowercase letters. When they have done so, children raise their hand, so that you know that everyone is done.
With just a glance, you can see who is struggling. Call on a child to choose the next letter. Play 'til all of the letters have been traced.
Alfie offers a simple, quick and interesting way to whole group assess, while providing a nice review of upper and lowercase letters. The birds also make a stunning hallway wall border. Simply tie a yarn loop at the top and suspend from the ceiling. Caption: "We know our letters and that's something to TWEET about!"
Click on the link to grab a copy of this fun FREEBIE: Alfie the Alpha Bird.
"If plan B doesn't work, don't give up; the alphabet has 25 more letters!"
1-2-3 Come Play Some Alphabet Games With Me
I designed these cards to go along with the FREE ABC Zoo Booklet that I posted yesterday. (Scroll down to the next blog article to have a look or click on the link for the item.) Whenever I did a theme with my Y5's I really tried to find or make matching things. I'm not sure if that's the perfectionist or artist in me.
Any hoo, I thought you might like a few matching things to supplement your lessons too, so I once again used the adorable clip art of djinkers. She's one of my favorite artists and I simply fell in love with her cute critters.
These alphabet cards, can be found in my whopping 200-page Wild About the Alphabet packet in my TpT shop. For a limited time, the cards will be FREE (all this week), simply click on the word FREE.
Use the cards as a border or for flashcards. They are also great for games like Memory Match or "I Have; Who Has?" Students can match uppercase cards to lowercase ones or they can match the word card with the picture card. Have them find all three to complete a puzzle.
One of my favorite games that I played with my Y5's was "What's Missing?" I'd gather my kiddos in a circle and lay 4 small seasonal items in the center, then point to each one and we'd say the name together. They then closed their eyes and I'd take one away. To make sure there was no "peeking cheating" I held a paper plate or some sort of cover over the items, then reached under and took one.
"Open your eyes!" I'd whisper and they'd try to figure out what I took away. To strengthen their memories, I'd continue to add up to 7 items for them to look at. To reinforce standards, you could do this with shapes, numbers or these ABC cards.
Make things a bit more interesting, by giving the missing card to the person who calls out the correct answer first, then add another card and continue to play 'til you've used all of the letters. For more ideas, and games, such as "Kaboom" , take a look at the 4-page list of tips that are also included in the packet.
I've also included a black and white set of cards, so your kiddos can make an Itty Bitty alphabet booklet to color, cut and collate, then take home and share with their family. (Great home-school connection and fun way to reinforce lessons.)
Mix up the word cards and have students put them in alphabetical order, then post them on a mini-word wall, or pass them out and then flash an uppercase letter card.
Whomever is holding the matching word card holds it up and reads it. Afterwards, as a writing extension, have students use their word card in a sentence. There's a "No Lion About It" worksheet for that in the packet as well.
For letter-writing practice, there are plenty of upper, as well as lowercase "trace and write" worksheets, along with 20+ other fun worksheets to reinforce letter recognition, formation, as well as word sounds. I hope you like the packet as much as I enjoyed designing it. Wild About the Alphabet
Thanks for visiting today. As always, feel free to PIN away. Do you have an alphabet game you could share with us? I'd really enjoy hearing from you. You can contact me at dianehen@teachwithme.com or leave a comment below.
It gets rather lonely on this side of the computer screen. I often wonder what people think when they read my blogs, and if what I design truly helps make someone's life easier and more fun. Blessings to you and yours.
"I love acting, but it's much more fun to take the kids to the zoo." -Nicole Kidman
1-2-3 Come Make An Alphabet Booklet With Me
This emergent reader is a wonderful activity to do before or after your zoo field trip, as most of the letters are associated with an animal. This colorful FREEBIE is part of my jumbo (200-page) "Wild About the Alphabet packet in my TpT shop.
I have another cover that doesn't say zoo and is simply an ABC book, if you prefer that. The FREEBIE is in color, but I also have a black & white version, so that students can make their own booklet to trace, write and color.
To practice comprehension, ask students which letters didn't have an animal associated with them, like Ii is for ice cream, or which animals would they probably not see at a zoo, like a dog or cat.
The packet also includes an alphabet anchor chart/poster in color. I have a black and white student version in the big Wild Packet.
Posters can also be used as an assessment tool, or to play an "I spy" game. Simply call out a letter; children find and color the animal associated with it.
Continue saying a letter 'til all of them have been colored in. This is a quick, easy and fun way to whole group assess.
Click on the link to view/download the Animal Alphabet Booklet and poster. Thanks for visiting today. Feel free to PIN away.
"The city is not a concrete jungle; it's a human zoo." -Desmond Morris
