1-2-3 Come Make A Keepsake With Me

Since "being able to recognize your name" and "write your name" were report card standards for my Y5's, I designed all sorts of repetitive activities that made that fun.

The parents of my students particularly enjoyed their child's keepsake name booklet, where they  wrote their name each month.  To help strengthen their finger muscles and dexterity, I included a themed coloring page for great fine motor skill practice.

The booklet is an easy and fun way to assess your students' abilities. Just an FYI, remind students when you pass out their booklets, that they are to only color ONE page. The 1st time I used the booklet, I had little ones coloring whatever they wanted, or whipping through the entire book, which defeats the purpose of showing improvement.

Make a sample and post it on your white board, to show them what page they should be doing. So that absent children are not missing a page, make sure to pull their booklets so they can catch up when they return.

For easy printing, run off and cut the booklet in half for a "just the right size" small booklet. 

Click on the link to view/download the Keepsake Name Coloring Booklet.

This packet will be FREE for an entire year, after which time it will be updated and become part of my Name Activities & Keepsake Monthly Name Booklets. In my TpT shop.

If you don't want to fuss with coloring, or you want to do an additional monthly activity, I also designed 2 pages where students simply write their name.

Use these as an easy assessment tool, to see at a glance who has passed this standard. You'll also be able to see wonderful improvement, which is a nice thing to show parents at conferences.  The update version includes a black and white copy, so that students can color their own pages.

Thanks for visiting.  As always, feel free to PIN anything you think others may find helpful.  If you'd like to see all of the cute educational things that I PIN, click on the "Follow me" heart to the right.

"Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much; because they live in the gray twilight that knows not victory or defeat." -Theodore Roosevelt

1-2-3 Come Sail Away Into Summer With Me!

Are you in the home stretch and dying to scream: "Woo hoo! School is out for summer!"?  I always liked to give a little something to my kiddos on the last day.  

If you'd like to do something that won't break the budget, I think you'll enjoy the Sailing Into Summer pencil fan-boat.  I've been making little fan boats since I was a child (some 50 years ago-oh my!)

In those days, I’d use a Popsicle stick for the mast, but I thought it would be sweet to include a pencil, marker or candy pixie stick, as the pole, to add that little something extra.

I doubt many little ones will catch the play on words with "fantastic" but I just had to include it.

I've also made a template for the beginning of the year, (Sailing into a new school year...) if you'd like to make these treats for your open house or the first day of school.  You could also have your current students make these for your next year's kiddos.

Here's How:

    Run off the boat template on assorted colors of construction paper.

Cut them out; write your students’ name on the front and then sign them.   Run off the “Have fun sailing into summer. I hope it’s fantastic!” sail, on white card stock and cut them out.      

    I colored the mast brown, but you can skip that step and use a glue dot to fasten a wooden pencil, marker, or candy on top.

    If you don’t have glue dots, simply cut 2 slits and insert your treat.  For a bit more pizzazz, I colored the sunshine with a yellow marker.

Fold a sheet of white copy paper 6 or 7 times. I made my width a little less than an inch.  Cut off the excess leaving a 1 inch margin. 

Glue the “sun” sail to the top of this tab. Pinch the top of the folds and staple them together so that they come to a point at the top of the mast.

Place on your students’ desks or tuck in their backpacks on the last day of school. 

Click on the link to view/download the Sailing Into Summer (or a new school year) "craftivity."  Thanks for visiting today.  Feel free to PIN anything you think others may find helpful.  My "Pin it" button is at the top.

"In order to succeed, we must first believe that we can." -Michael Korda