Building Self-Esteem By Giving Achievement Awards!

Are you looking for end of the year awards for your kiddo’s, certificates, candy bar wrappers etc.?

Do you want a nice end of they year note home to parents or a poem?

To same you time and energy, I’ve designed some, and then did some surfing so you don’t have to!

I found several poems and notes, and revamped them to come up with two of my own. 

Click on the links to view/download them: End of the year poem: Adieu To You, End of the Year Note Home to Families

Here are some great links:

For candy wrappers I made an "Owl miss you!" packet complete with activities and a candy bar wrapper. click on the following links for other candy bar wrappers:

 Billy Bear  &  ABC Teach,

For certificates: I've designed a graduation packet filled with 16 certificates for a variety of awards, + over 100 certificates in my certificate packet.

Other sites with more certificates can be found by clicking on the following links:

Innovative classrooms offers 30 certificates!

Family education has 19 certificates

KidBibs can even send your award via e-mail! How cool is that.

dltk kids helps you create your own portrait or landscape awards using their software program and clip art.  Click on the link to check it out.

I hope you find something that suits your needs.  It doesn't take long to make a lasting impression on a child.  A simple certificate does wonders for their self-esteem.  Put a smile on a little one's face today!

Do you have a certificate or helpful website that you'd like to share? 

If we all take a moment to add to everyone's bag of tricks, how easy our lives would be.  diane@teachwithme.com  or feel free to post a comment here.

PIN away if you think anything on my website would be interesting to someone else!

1-2-3 Come Flip Over Opposites With Me!

It’s that time of year when students start wearing flip-flops!

I was looking at clip art and thinking “What can I do with flip flops?” I thought of “opposites”.

One sandal is the flip word and the opposite word is the flop; hence they flip flop.

I spent lots of time whipping together a 155-page packet so you wouldn’t have to!

I think your kiddo's will really enjoy this great vocabulary builder; it’s easy to implement and fun to do.

I know that school’s almost out, but hopefully this will get you excited for next year.

Hang up the flip-flop poster.

Choose a "flip" word for the day. i.e. "big".

Students have to guess the "flop" word "little" which they write in their flip- flop recording journal.

If you're also studying synonyms and/or antonyms, have the journal do double duty and challenge students to think up a synonym/antonym for the flip and flop words as well.

This only takes a minute, but will provide tremendous vocabulary building opportunities, an easy way for students to understand opposites as well as strengthen their understanding of synonym and antonyms.

The better their vocabularies, the better their writing skills.  By writing the words, and doing the trace & write activities their spelling will also improve!

Flip-Flops make a great addition to your "Word Work" for Daily 5 activities too!

The packet includes:

• 550 traceable opposite word cards
• Covers to turn them into Itty Bitty booklets +
• Directions of what else you can do with the cards including a variety of games like Kaboom.
• Kaboom bomb cards
• 275 traceable pocket cards, (These can also be made into a flip booklet.)
• You can also turn these pocket cards into puzzle cards.  Sample puzzle included.
• Blank set of cards to program your own opposite words, or worksheets. i.e., Write in one word and have students fill in the matching opposite word.
• A list of 550 words that make up 275 pairs of opposites.
• 3 different types of opposite recording sheets + 5 different journal covers so that students can make a Flip Flop Op Journal to record the daily Flip word activity in.
• Flip Word Of The Day Poster
• Flip Flop Word Wizard Tracking Chart-Poster +
• A certificate of praise

Click on the link to view/download Flip Flop Opposites

 I hope your students absolutely flip over these fun activities as they build their vocabularies!

Feel free to PIN anything you think might be helpful to others.

"Anyone who has not made a mistake, has not tried anything new." -Einstein

Even though we were not in school for Father’s Day, I did not want to leave dads out of my Y5’s keepsake things that they did, so the last week of school I always plugged in some sort of “craftivity” that they could easily do in a short amount of time.

I save cans that chicken came in all year long, (tuna cans, or cat food cans) also work well.

I have a Magic Chef tool that you run along the edge of an opened can and it flattens the sharp edge down so that it is smooth. I then don’t have to worry about little fingers getting cut.

My students rip and tear masking tape and slap it on the cans.  When they’re done they don a pair of rubber gloves and rub brown shoe polish over the tape.

The cans have the look of leather and make a wonderful coin/key holder for daddy.

I write their name on the bottom, and they set them in the sun to “dry” for a day.

I’ve also designed some “paper love” as well.  These make great activities for your writing center or Daily 5 time.

There’s nothing like a special coupon to give dad.

My students enjoy using their imaginations to dream up their own, as well as trace and sign the pre-made ones, stapling them into a coupon booklet and then tucking them into the I love you card.

These items can be found in  Fun Stuff To Do For Summer  Click on the link to view/download it.   Also included in this packet is a cute writing prompt about dads that makes a sweet class book.

Comparing themselves to their dad is an interesting and fun activity.  Have students do it with a Venn diagram, which can be found in Summer Fun Writing.

Click on the link to view/download it.

Finally, since the easy reader My Mom booklet, that reinforced adjectives and verbs, was so popular for Mother’s Day, I revamped it for Father’s Day.

Click on the link to view/download the My Dad easy reader booklet.

I hope you find time to remember the daddies in your students’ lives and plug in some of these fun activities.

May the rest of your time with your students be filled with sweet summer sunshine and smiles!  

PIN to your heart's content if you see anything that you feel will be useful to others!

Hope you can breeze on by tomorrow for more fun activities to help you fly through the end of the year.

Let's Get To The Point: Edible Pencils!

Even easier than the “Owl Miss You” gift for students, is this pencil treat.

I first saw it last September on Pinterest as a back to school lunch box tuck in, as well as a teacher gift.

So if you are looking for a teacher appreciation gift, or wanting to make something for all of the volunteers that helped you, this would fit the bill for that too.

Again, I saw it pinned about a dozen times, tweaked in different ways, by different people, being used for different things, so if this was your original idea, please let me know and I will give you credit and link to your site.

I too, am tweaking it, to be used as an end-of-the-year gift for your kiddo’s, and adding a poetic note that you can attach.

The above people all used Rolo’s, but I found that there are several other rolls of things that you can wrap with yellow construction paper to make the pencil.

I used Sweetarts, because I found them at Walgreens on special 2 for $1.

You can buy the 2 different flavors of Mentos as well as Rolo’s by the box at Sam’s Club too.

If you use card stock instead of construction paper and pre-make the rolls instead of wrapping a candy roll, you can really cut down the cost, by dropping 7-8 Hershey kisses down the tube, or bubble gum or whatever other candy you find on sale.

If you do use a roll of candy, measure your candy roll so that you can wrap it.

Leave enough room at the “pencil writing end” to insert a Hershey’s kiss.  The eraser end will simply remain open.

Cut strips of pink construction paper for the eraser part and glue the strip to the end of the pencil BEFORE you wrap the candy.

Snip off the flag of the kiss and put it at the other end of the pencil.

Just an FYI, when you are making your rolls, make sure that you are not wrapping them too tightly around the roll of candy, otherwise the kiss will not fit in the end.

I had a hard time shoving my kiss into the point after I wrapped the sweetarts.

The Mentos were a bit wider, but still not as wide as a kiss.  You also don’t want it too loose, or the kiss will drop out.

I ended up adding a glue dot to the end to make sure the kisses stayed put.

For a bit more pizzazz, print off the U R Sharp! labels.  Put a sheet of Avery (30-on-a-page) labels in your printer.  Trim and press on the pencils.

Run off the notes, sign them and tuck everything in a Baggie.  You may even want to include a real pencil. 

I also made "You're sharp!" 10-on-a-page praise cards that you can cut 2 slits in and insert a pencil.  This is the sweet clip art of Laura Strickland from My Cute Graphics.

Click on the link to view/download U R Sharp Candy Pencil Gift

Do you have an end-of-the-year gift that you give your students?  I’d enjoy hearing from you! diane@teachwithme.com or post a comment here.

Feel free to PIN anything you think others might enjoy or find useful.

Thanks for visiting; hope you can pop in tomorrow for more interesting teaching tips.

Owl Miss You! Sweet treats and special end-of-the-year student gift ideas...

Are you looking for a quick, easy and not too expensive little something to give your students at the end of the year?

I designed an “Owl Miss You” themed-packet of items I think you might enjoy.

I really like playing with words, and when I was surfing the net for owl clip art I came across that cute saying about a dozen or so times.

I like to give credit where credit is due, so if you are the originator of this sweet saying, let me know and I’ll post your name as well as link up to your site and whatever idea you had that you used it with.

In the meantime, candy is always a big hit with students and since I have a membership at both Costco and Sam’s Club I can buy in bulk and save.

The Dollar Store is also a great place to get goodies as well as Walmart.  Simply watch ads for Dollar Day Deals all spring and summer long too.

Buy a box of Hershey’s milk chocolate candy bars.

Run off my “Owl miss you!” candy bar wrapper on tan construction paper, leave it as is, or add some color with markers or crayons.

Personalize them by writing your students’ names on the heart balloon.

Wrap the bars and seal them shut with a large heart or smilie sticker, or print off my owl labels by putting a sheet of large, Avery (30-on-a-page) labels in your printer.

These adorable owls on the labels, are from Laura Strickland's My Cute Graphic's clipart collection. 

For added pizzazz, choose one of the owl bookmarks and tuck one inside the candy bar before you wrap it.

I also like to send home a variety of “Don’t forget!” kinds of things that my students can have fun reviewing over the summer.

I’ve included owl-themed traceable skip counting cards by 2’s, 3’s, 5’s and 10’s as well as counting cards from 1-30.

There are also cards for the alphabet, ordinal numbers, days of the week, and colors.

I've also made a note from the teacher as well.

Click on the link to view/download I’ll Be Missing You! Owl-themed packet

Scroll down for article #2, another end-of-the-year, easy gift idea: You’re A Sharp Student.

Sweet Summer Dreamin' Pillowcases

Another fun project I like to do with my students at the end of the year I call "Sweet Summer Dreamin' Pillowcases."

Just about every month we have practiced the art of stamping something with a foam stamp. 

I have collected them through out the years to use for our science units.  They make fun art projects and are great for math extensions as well. 

My Y5's self-esteem is also built, because the process is quite easy and the results are simply smashing.  They pat paint on a foam stamp and then press it onto paper and a lovely print of something is left. 

They make beautiful collages, paintings and patterns and are quiet proud of their projects. They have become quite skilled at this technique. 

Instead of doing an autograph book, I thought it would be fun for my students to autograph a pillowcase that they have stamped with all of the various foam stamps, depicting everything they have studied throughout the year.  This  makes a wonderful keepsake for them. 

I send a letter home to parents asking them to send in a plain, light-colored pillowcase and ask if they would be able to volunteer to help. 

I've found that having 4 helpers makes the process go faster and stay organized, but I've done it with only one daddy as well. 

One year I asked several 5th graders if they could come and help during their study hour when I was short on parents and they worked well with the little ones too. 

They all had been my Y5 students so that made it extra fun as they even remembered doing the project when they were little! 

I do this project on the floor in our entry hall atrium so that the children can spread out.  Lay plastic down in case of spills.  There are very few, but The Dollar Store plastic tablecloths make clean up a breeze.  I put 5 children in a row and make a large square. 

Insert a piece of tag board (I recycle them each year) inside of their pillow case so that the paint does not bleed through.  I write their name in large print on the edge of their pillowcase. 

I buy primary and pastel colors of the acrylic permanent paints that are only .59 cents at a hobby/craft store and spill a dollop of one color on a paper plate.

That paper plate, a foam brush and a stamp is given to a helper who pats the paint on the stamp and hands it to a child, they press that stamp anywhere on their pillowcase and then wait for the next stamp. 

We rotate all of the stamps in this assembly line fashion until everyone has done every stamp and every color. 

This takes about 45 minutes if I have help.  Afterwards, the children go wash up and they go outside for recess. 

When they come back in the paint is dry.  We flip the pillowcases over and everyone is given a permanent marker. 

I have 10 different colors. I remind them that they cannot rest the markers on the pillowcase as they will start to bleed into the material and run. 

I also tell them that it is hard to write on fabric so that they need to hold the fabric taught.  I demonstrate this as I "autograph" a pillowcase. 

Everyone signs their own pillowcase first, then they stand up when they are done so that I can see when everyone is finished; when everyone is standing, they move to the next pillowcase and sign their name; when they are done, they stand up again. 

We do this until they are back to their own pillowcase and have signed everyone's.  Make sure you remind them that they are writing THEIR name and "autographing" eachother's pillowcases. 

I had one little guy who was trying to write each person's name on the pillowcases instead of his own! 

In the beginning I had the children sign the fronts of the pillowcases where the stamps were, then a mom thought it would look nicer, since the children wrote so big, to sign the backs!  I've done it that way ever since. 

I don't paint the backs of the pillowcases, because the paint is scratchy when it dries. 

I type up a little note about washing directions which reads: When your child brings their pillowcase home, turn it inside out and toss in the dryer on high .  This will set the paint.  Wash in cold water on gentle cycle for years of wear.  Sleep on the side that is not painted.  I hope you enjoy your sweet summer dreamin' pillowcase and that it helps you to remember all of the fun we had learning and making these wonderful friends!

I've gotten lots of positive feedback about this project, and my students absolutely love making these pillowcases.