57 pages!

Miss Nelson is Missing, is one of my all-time favorite back-to-school books.  It's also a perfect book to tuck into your sub folder. The packet includes a variety of writing, language arts and reading activites.  Plus some adorable "craftivities" to review even more standards. This packet will be free for an entire year, after which time it will be up-dated & included in my 203-page jumbo Miss Nelson is Missing Literacy & Math packet in my TpT shop. 

 1-2-3 Come Do Some Viola Swamp and Miss Nelson Activities With Me!

“The kids in Room 207 were misbehaving again. Spitballs stuck to the ceiling. Paper planes whizzed through the air. They were the worst-behaved class in the whole school.” 

Thus begins the story of Miss Nelson is Missing, one of my all-time favorite back-to-school books.  This cute classic was first published in 1977, but is still relevant today, as a lighthearted reminder of how important it is to show our appreciation of others.

When I read the story to my students, I wore a reversible "cape".  (A lovely pastel floral print was on one side, when I became the sweet Miss Nelson.  When I "transformed" into the terrible Miss Viola Swamp.  ("...the meanest substitute teacher in the whole world!") I easily flipped it to the solid black, ugly side.  

I've also donned a plastic witch nose, along with a few long black fingernails for my left hand, while pretending to be Viola.  She is the crazy substitute teacher in three children's books by Harry Allard (illustrated by James Marshall). The books are entitled Miss Nelson is Missing!, Miss Nelson is Back, and Miss Nelson Has a Field Day. The latter is by far my personal favorite.

At the start of the story, Miss Nelson’s students are very disrespectful and naughty. They constantly take advantage of her good- natured personality, and haven’t a clue of what a wonderful and sweet teacher they really have, ’til she doesn’t show up one day and is replaced by the horendous substitute, Miss Viola Swamp.

Days pass and FINALLY, to the utter joy of her students,  Miss Nelson returns to class with a "little secret" as to her disappearence.  By this time, the children have become wonderful and very appreciative students.  I highly recommend this great read aloud, and always kept a copy in my sub folder. 

Because the book is so popular, I thought teachers would enjoy some activities to go with it.  You can do some of them with your students and/or tuck others into your sub folder, to be plugged in as emergency lessons. The Miss Nelson is Missing packet, includes a variety of writing, language arts and reading activites.  Plus some adorable "craftivities" to review even more standards.

Here are a few of the FREEBIES.

There are 76 word cards, plus a blank set to program with your own.  Great for vocabulary building.  You can also use these as an opportunity to teach synonyms, antonyms, and adjectives, while reinforcing their importance in writing. 

One way to use the cards is as an assessment game.  Students make a Popsicle stick puppet with Miss Nelson on one side and Viola Swamp on the other.  I enjoyed sketching these memorable characters, particularly Viola. 

Hold up a word card and read it. Children decide which character they think that word describes and flip their Popsicle to the appropriate face.

For added pizzazz, I glued the facial circles to pink and green construction paper and then glued them back-to-back.

The teacher then shows the correct answer and asks students if they know what the word means.  If not (s)he defines it.

Because Miss Nelson and Miss Swamp are certainly "opposites" you can have a teachable moment, and ask students if Viola's qualities are antonyms for Miss Nelson's. 

I've also included several other adjective activities as well, including a sort of graphic organizer, where they jot down words that describe their teacher, Miss Nelson, and Viola Swamp. 

The packet has 7 writing activities, including 2 class-made books.  One book is entitled The Case Of The Missing Students. 

Children write about what happened to their entire class when their teacher came to school one day, but no one else did!

The other is entitled Our Teacher Is Missing.  As with the original story, students try and figure out what happened to their teacher, and write about one of their conclusions. 

Other writing prompts have students explaining why they wouldn't want Miss Swamp to be their teacher, what qualities they feel a really good teacher pocesses, and 5 things they think their teacher might be doing if (s)he disappeared.

For good measure I threw in 2 "Is, Can, Was" worksheets for both Viola and Miss Nelson.

Students will undoubtedly compare Miss Nelson and Viola to their own teacher. To review this concept, have students choose one of 3 Venn diagrams.  Students compare and contrast the characters to their own teacher, as well as the book to a similar story. 

On the craftier side, there are 2 WANTED posters (for male as well as female teachers), for students to fill in, as well as 4 MISSING person posters. I'm sure what your students fill in about you, will be quite amusing.

My personal favorite activity in the packet is Swamp's Stocking Statements.  It's a cute way to review concepts of print.

Completed projects make a wonderful back-to-school bulletin board or hallway display.

To round things out, I included a page of discussion questions, a synopsis of the story and 2 "retell the story" bookmarks.

Finally, after you read Miss Nelson is Missing to your students, you may want them to see an absolutely "awwww-dorable" 13-minute youtube video.

Mr. Arturo Avina's kindergarten class, from LAUSD's Olympic Primary Center, did a tremendous job acting out their adaptation of “Miss Nelson is Missing”.  He’s done an outstanding job recording it, as well as incorporating music from some popular songs.

What a fabulous learning experience for these students. They are certainly fortunate to have such a creative teacher. I hope you and yours enjoy it as much as I did.  My students, no matter what grade I taught, LOVED doing reader’s theater; I highly recommend trying it.

Click on the link to view/download the Miss Nelson Is Missing packet.

This packet will be FREE for an entire year.  After which time it will be up-dated & included in my 203-page jumbo Miss Nelson is Missing Literacy & Math packet in my TpT shop. Click on the link to pop on over. 

It is one of my most useful & all-time favorite packets.  I'm confident that your kiddos will LOVE these activities!

Oh, and if you'd like a poster that's appropriate, click on the link.  It's not in this packet, but would be a cute writing prompt or discussion: "What do you think this poster means?" and... "How does it fit in with the story Miss Nelson is Missing?"

Thanks for visiting today.  By all means PIN away.  We've just added the automatic "PIN" feature to all of our pix.  Simply hover over them. 

"If you are not willing to learn, no one can help you. If you are determined to learn, no one can stop you." -Dr. Seuss 

1-2-3 Come Make A Writing Prompt Craft With Me

Summer is an especially wonderful time to ride a bike, so I thought I'd make a "craftivity" using a bicycle.  If you're a frequent visitor, you know that I enjoy designing things involving a "play on words". 

As I putzed with a writing prompt I thought substituting the word "wheel" for real would be fun.  Thus "I had a 'wheel' great summer!" was born. 

There are two templates to choose from.  One is for back to school, the other for the end of the year. Use as an interesting icebreaker for the first week of school, where students write about the places they went and the things they did over vacation. 

This is a fun way to find out about your new students, as they complete the prompt inside the spokes of the wheel. 

For added pizzazz, and to learn a bit more about your kiddos, have students write using their two favorite color markers.

Simply run the bike off on a variety of colors of construction paper. 

Students trim and glue to the wheels. (I ran off on white card stock.)  If you want them to spin, poke a hole in the center and attach with a brass brad. 

For that finishing touch, have students attach a school photo.  Children read one or two items from each wheel, as they share it with their classmates. 

You can do these in class; as an activity for open house; or send home on the first day of school for children to complete with their family.

While I was at it, I thought this idea could also be used at the end of the year, where students wrote about their favorite things, activities, subjects, etc. 

There are six wheels they can choose from, including a blank one to fill in whatever prompt you want. 

Completed projects make a sweet bulletin board. 

Click on the link to view/download the bicycle writing prompt craftivity. 

Thanks for visiting.  Feel free to PIN away. 

Do you have a back-to-school activity you could share with us?  I'd love to hear from you: diane@teachwithme.com  or leave a comment below.

8 pages

Use this cute bicycle template for a sweet end of the year writing prompt, where students choose two wheels and write about their favorite things that year inside the spokes. You can also use it as an icebreaker at the beginning of the year, as an interesting way to get to know your new students. 

18 pages.

Here's an easy and inexpensive student gift (only 10 cents per student!) that doubles as an icebreaker.  Packet also includes ways to use the labels as an icebreaker, a summary of why water is beneficial for students; plus several writing extensions, including a water drop poem and adjective activity, & bookmark.  There's also an alphabetical list of 125 words that describe water, water tags, 4 different water bottle labels, and a poster.  This is a special FREEBIE in my TpT shop.  Simply click on the link to pop on over and get your free water bottle packet today.

 1-2-3 Come Make Some 1st Day Of School Gifts With Me

Throughout my many years of teaching, I made all sorts of cute little gifts and treat bags for my students.  I especially wanted to have a little surprise to delight them on that first day.  

Because I had two classes of Young Fives, which usually added up to 40 students, I was always on the look out for something that was quick and easy, but also rather inexpensive.

One of the things I gave my kiddos every year, was a mini bottle of water.  I made labels with their names on them and stuck them to the front, and to make sure they stayed intact, I put a clear piece of contact paper over them. 

As a great fine motor skill, I let students decorate their bottle with stickers.  Because I think keeping children hydrated is extremely important, I allowed them to keep their bottles on their desks for those often hot, first few weeks of school. 

We'd rinse them out at the end of the day and then fill them up.  I had a tiny refrigerator in my room and we'd set them inside. First thing in the morning, I put them back on the tables.  This could be a room-helper job if you wanted, as it’s a great way to help children learn to read each other's names.

If you're wondering about spills, I only had one mishap in the 10 years I taught young fives.   I paid a bit more, to have the caps that didn't have to be unscrewed. 

They had the "pull up" things to sip out of, where you shoved the cap back down.  No taking caps on and off, and if they forgot to push it back down, only a little water trickled out if they tipped over.  At the beginning of the year I simply told my students not to remove the caps, and if they misused their water bottle, they would lose the privilege of having one.  No one ever lost the privilege! 

And even if I would have had some problems, the good of keeping students hydrated, far out weighs the worry about spilling (unless of course they're sitting at a computer.)  If you teach little ones, you know what a time drain it is getting everyone lined up and down the hall to get drinks throughout the day.

The need for water can hardly be overstated.  I did a few hours of research on the wonders of water.  "You don't slosh when you walk, or gurgle when you talk, but most of you is water." (60-70% depending on the source you're reading.) 

I read all sorts of studies, and articles about articles; the gist of it all, is that water has been proven to be extremely beneficial, "So don't say no to H2O!"

If you're interested in how beneficial, you can read the summary of my findings, which is included in the packet; like research showing that dehydration can affect mood and make people grumpy and confused.  If drinking water helps my kiddos think more clearly and be less cranky, then bottoms up! 

The bottom line here is that if we do something as simple as giving our students access to drinking water throughout the day, we help them avoid fatigue, headaches, irritability, confusion, dizziness, inability to concentrate and make decisions,  and a myriad of other maladies that a simple sip helps deter.

When the body is functioning at its best, students will feel better, which translates into happy campers. Let’s face it, if our students are content and focused, things run smoothly and teachers are happier as well. 

One study even showed that students who were offered water three to four times throughout the day had a boost in brain power.  Another, saw a dramatic decrease in challenging classroom behavior!  Woo hoo for water... 

All that smiling has its own benefits: "When you smile, neuropeptides are released throughout the brain that send messages to your body. Some of these feel-good neuropeptides are dopamine, serotonin, and endorphins. They help your body relax, lower your heart rate and blood pressure, plus give you an energized happy feeling!"

Enough said on the merits of giving your kiddos this beneficial gift. I’ve covered the “sense” of it, now here’s the dollar part.  This is such an inexpensive gift! 

You can get a case of forty 16.9 oz bottles of water (Members Mark) from Sam's Club, for only $3.98.  That's less than 10 cents a bottle!  What else can you get a child for only ten cents?

If you'd like to jazz up your bottles, take the labels off.  They are not glued on, and fall off as soon as you cut them in half.   Run off my "labels" on a variety of different colors of copy paper. The first line says: "I can't spell success without u."

Cut the "labels" out (but don't trim the left and right edges, as they fit around a water bottle perfectly.) A simple piece of tape keeps them snuggly in place. 

Besides the generic one above, I have 3 others to choose from.  If you visit often, you know I LOVE goofing around with word play.  I substituted the word WATER for "What are" and came up with a few interesting questions. 

Thus the water bottles are not only a refreshing gift, they are an icebreaker as well.  Choose whichever question you like best, or give your students a choice, by the water bottle that they pick. Go around the room having everyone share their answer.

I personally like "'Water' you thinking you'd like to be when you grow up?" as it's super simple and students can answer with just a few words. 

To incorporate some writing, you could have older students write "Water" their goals, or "Water" the things they want to learn, and use those labels on their water bottles.  My husband gave me that "you've got to be kidding" look, when I excitedly shared my “water” word play with him.  (Heavy) sigh...

I hope I'm not the only one who thinks this is sort of cute.  Your students may roll their eyes as well, but it's all in the name of hydrating fun and getting to know one another.  Click on the link to view/download the Water Bottle Packet.

If the "water" sharing and writing don't fit the bill, I also putzed with some picture poetry and came up with a water drop poem. 

I made a large one to use as an example and anchor chart, as well as a small one (5 on a page) that you can run off on blue construction paper, trim and attach to older students' water bottles. 

After reading mine, and/or a sample of your own, challenge students to write their own water drop poem. 

Since using “describing words” is a standard, and helps improve student writing, I also made up an alphabetical list of 125 words that describe water. 

As a whole-group activity, brainstorm a list of your own, and then have students alphabetize the list, or challenge them to come up with their own, awarding a prize of some sort to the one who thinks up the most appropriate answers. 

Can you top my list of 125?  Afterwards, you can share mine.  If you think of more, I'd really enjoy hearing from you.  dianehen@teachwithme.com or post a comment below. 

Click on the link to view/download the Water Bottle Gift packet. 

Thanks for visiting.  Feel free to PIN away. My "Pin it" button is at the top on the menu bar. 

Well that's it for today.  I sure learned a few interesting tid-bits about water consumption and hope you did too. 

All this thinking, typing, and looking at tantaliizing pictures of icy-cold water, has made me thirsty, which is a sign that I'm already dehydrated!  Oh my... time for some major slurping out of a "big gulp".

14 pages.

These 4 icebreaker games using M & M's or Skittles candy, are a great way to get to know your students, relieve tension and have fun.

 1-2-3 Come Do Some Icebreaker First-Day Activities With Me

My favorite classes in school, even up through college, were those that we had a real community going.   These were usually conducted by my favorite teachers, who felt that a classroom was sort of like a family.  They made time to make us all feel welcome, safe, and important.  I truly felt cared about.  

One of the ways they promoted these feelings, was that they spent some time getting to know all of us.  This also helped build camaraderie, and developed our classroom “family” plus a positive-caring atmosphere.

Icebreakers are a perfect way to do this, and are especially important on the first day of school, when students are a bit nervous and looking at a bunch of strangers.   They are quick, easy and a lot of fun.  I've always found that no matter what the age, most students really enjoy sharing something about themselves. 

I not only did an icebreaker on the first day, but included a simple one in the morning or at the end of the day, for our entire first week of school.  I even do icebreakers with my college comp classes.  I truly believe that if students get to really know each other, the class is much more interesting and fun, which I feel is conducive to learning, as well as a great motivational factor. 

It's always worked for me.  Thus, I’m forever searching for something new to add to my icebreaker bag of tricks and came upon the M & M's or Skittles Game, which goes by as many names as there are colors, and can be played in a variety of ways as well, so I made up a few of my own versions.

You can have students choose 2 or 3 pieces of candy and then announce that they will be sharing something about themselves.  Whatever color of candy that they chose will match a question on the poster.   Go around the room and have students share that information one question at a time.   As they share, they get to eat that color candy.

Remember to let students know in advance not to eat their candy before it’s their turn to share.  Since this may be extremely difficult for a young child, to expedite things, you can put one of each color candy in a mini cup on their desks.  

Tell students that they’re going to share the red candy question and then have everyone eat the red one at the same time.  As soon as the first person shares then the next one goes, til everyone has answered that color question.  

Remind students that you have limited time and to keep their answers short.  Most of the questions that I’ve thought of can be answered with one or two words.  Teachers need to keep things moving.

If you have a large class, and don’t have enough time to share all of the questions, you can tell your students to pick out their favorite flavor or color and then answer that question.  

I’ve included 4, different question template options, for you to choose from, (using both an M & M's and Skittles template) as well as a blank color copy of the poster, to make up your own questions. 

Remember to keep questions simple, easy to answer, not embarrassing or intrusive, and something that would be easy and fun for children to share about themselves.  

As a writing option, I’ve included a blank black and white M & M's and Skittles copy.  You can run these off and have students color their candies, and then fill in the answers to the questions that you read. 

For sharing time, they can look at their papers and choose one or two that they want to read and share with their classmates. 

Click on the link to view/download the Candy Icebreaker Game packet.  Do you have an icebreaker you could share with us?  I would enjoy hearing from you: diane@teachwithme.com or leave a comment below.  

Thanks for stopping by.  Feel free to PIN away.   It poured today, so I'm off to empty my flower pots, and rescue some drowning plants. 

Wishing you a blessed day from over here in Michigan.

"Nature does not hurry; yet everything gets accomplished." -Unknown

1-2-3 Come Make Some Back To School Things With Me

While I was working on the coloring-autograph page: "I made a lot of friends today!"  for a first day of school activity; I thought making some number puzzles that students could color, cut and glue, would also give teachers a little bit of "sanity" time, to get some of the zillions of trivial tasks done, that must be accomplished before dismissal, on that hectic first day.

The "friends" coloring worksheet was a very popular download.  It's so simple, but such a great way to give your kiddos something they can do independently, which frees you up.  When you're working with energized little ones, some of whom don't even know how to write their name, the word "independently" is imperative.

The number puzzles also double as a quick, easy and inexpensive little gift that you can have lying on your students' desks.  Be sure and write their name on the puzzle (after the word Hi or Welcome! to make things extra special for them. 

The puzzles can be pre-cut to expedite things for preschoolers.  To give yourself even more time, have students cut their own puzzle pieces (after they have colored the picture) then tell them to mix up the pieces and put their puzzle together.

To make a cool looking mosaic, have children glue the pieces to a sheet of construction paper, leaving a little space in-between the pieces. 

After they share their creation with the class, mount them on a bulletin board.  Caption: Mrs. Henderson's kinders stick together, or fit in just fine, or whatever else you deem appropriate. 

If you take a first day of school photo for a future memory book, make an extra copy and cut it into the shape of a puzzle piece, then put it along side that child's completed puzzle.  Adding a puzzle border, or scattering some real puzzle pieces through out your bulletin board, adds the finishing touches.  The Dollar Store sells a huge variety of puzzles that you can use to jazz things up.

The Back To School Puzzle packet, includes 30 puzzles.  Some of them are vertical, others are horizontal.  They come in black and white, so that students can color them, and others are in full color, so you can print; laminate and trim, then use in an independent center for early finishers. 

Make a game of it by having children choose a partner to see who can complete their puzzle first. Some of the puzzles use numbers from 1-10 for little ones, others skip count by 10's to 100, for first graders. 

I've also included little "Welcome" tags.  (There are 16 on a page.) Write in your students' names and then paperclip one to their set of number strips and lay them on your kiddos' desks as a sweet surprise. 

So that I had quiet time to check bus numbers and "going home" tags that needed to be changed,  I always had some sort of independent activity towards the end of the day.  My Y5's were exhausted, the room was usually hot and stuffy, so they were happy to simply veg-out a bit.  This puzzle packet is perfect for that. 

If you decide not to precut the strips, you may want to lay out a selection of black and white puzzles, and allow your students a choice of which one they want to color, cut and glue.  Put a variety of colors of construction paper out as well.   If you're all set for your first day, the puzzles also make a great Open House activity. 

Click on the link to view/download the First Day Of School Puzzle Packet.  For more number puzzle FREEBIES, click on the link.

Thanks for visiting today.  As always, feel free to PIN away.  Do you have a first day or back to school activity  you could share with us?  I'd enjoy hearing from you.  diane@teachwithme.com  or leave a comment below. 

Time to go water my flower garden.  I hope you're enjoying summer and making time to rejuvenate.  Blessings to you from my little corner of cyber space. 

"Your life is your garden.  Your thoughts are the seeds.  If your life isn't awesome, you've been watering the weeds." -Unknown

38 pages.

This is a quick, easy and inexpensive little gift that you can have lying on your students' desks for that first day of school.  Be sure and write their name on the puzzle to make things extra special.  These can be precut to expedite things, or to give yourself some extra "sanity" time, you can have students cut up their own puzzle after they have colored the picture.