WELCOME!  Books of the Month will always have  FREE activities for you to do with your students, + some Story Time TIPS for the featured books.  I hope that if you're new to teaching or parenting, this list of book recommendations will   be helpful to you. They are my all-time favorites as well as proven winners with my Y5's.

When I taught 1st grade I also had my students reading and recommending books. I was working on their speech skills, so I wanted them to really "sell their classmates" on their book. They received extra points if someone read their selection. Because of this, my students had more fun giving oral book reports. Click on the link if you'd like a copy of my Book Report Forms to use with your students.

Old Favorites…

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom

Authors: Bill Martin & John Archambault 

Illustrator: Lois Ehlert 

Publisher: Simon & Schuster for Young Readers

Price: $11.95 

 

The Gist: The alphabet climbs up a palm tree.

Why I love it:

• It’s silly and my students adore it. 
• It’s a rhyming book and the short text is lively.
• Lois Ehlert’s colorful illustrations pop off the page.
• I have the short video to go with the book as well as the follow up book Chicka 123 which compliment my lessons and are nice additions to the day.
• The alphabet is printed in its entirety (upper and lower case letters) in the fly leaves of the book, this is a great help if you want to point to while singing the alphabet song or play a quick game of "What's that?" before or after reading the book.
• Parents have told me that their young child has quickly learned to chant the story along with them and learned to identify the letters as well. One mom said her 2 year-old asks her to read the “Boom Boom Book”  almost every day.
  

 Story Telling Tips:

• I made a colorful set of alphabet letters, laminated them and put a Velcro dot on the back.
• I put the corresponding scratchy dots on the palm leaves and trunk of a huge 3-D hanging palm tree.
• I hang the tree from the ceiling in such a way so that my students can reach the bottom of the tree’s leaves and trunk.
• I pass out the letters to my students as we read the story and come to the letters that are climbing the tree the children holding those letters attach them to the leaves and trunk of the palm tree.
• I keep the letters in a coconut shell purse that I bought in Florida. The children think this is so cool.
• They sell these 3-D palm trees at most party stores for around $8. There is also a flat version for around $4 that you could also hang on the wall. I just think that the swinging palm tree has so much more pizzazz.
• We keep it up for awhile and I dangle a few long-armed monkeys from it. They help me review the alphabet and sing the ABC song with the children; which is a fun way to end the story.
• I also pass out magnetic letters after the story. The children look at my alphabet border on the wall and decide who goes 1^st then they  sequence the magnetic alphabet on our white board.
• My students enjoy putting on monkey masks and finishing up the story with a little monkey business. We do the Monkey Pokey, sing the ABC song, play Monkey See-Monkey Do What the  Monkey In The Middle Does. It's a nice way to get the wiggles out.

 Magic Tricks:

• I show the children that there is nothing in my change bag. I put a little banana candy in and produce a little stuffed monkey that will help tell the story, sing the ABC song (before or after) or use him in any other way I wish.
• Or …I show them that there is nothing in my change bag and produce the magnetic letters and then pass them out so that we can do the sequencing activity above.
• Or…I put several uppercase letters in and change them to lowercase letters and then transition them to an activity where they match uppercase letters to lowercase letters.
• If you read Chicka Numbers you can do the same thing with numbers.
• Or…I show them that the change bag is empty and then produce a palm leaf and letter and transition them to the art activity where they will glue their die cut letter to a die cut palm leaf and then write their name on the leaf.
• I put a piece of paper in the change bag that has the ABC’s written on it and pull out a string of paper letters. We say the letters as they come out one-by-one. (I made a string of letters by laminating 4x5 sheets of construction paper and then die cut the letters of the alphabet. Then I strung them together so that I can easily pull them out by grabbing a pull tab at the end of the string.)
• After counting the number of children I have in my class. I write down that number on a paper banana and put it in my change bag. I then put my hand in and pull out a little banana candy and give one to each “quiet” child as I count them out. This is a nice “super-duper-shutter-upper” before the story or as an incentive for during the story and a nice treat afterwards. These candies come in bulk at most bulk food and candy stores. I just put on a plastic glove and carefully pick out 20 bananas and have the clerk weigh that many.
• I put a paper monkey in my dove pan and lift the lid to reveal one of my smaller monkey puppets that helps me tell the story, recite or sing the ABC song etc.
• I also use the dove pan if my change bag looks too bulky with all of the magnetic letters.

Art Project Idea:

• If you have access to an Elison Die Cut machine they have 2 different size palm leaves, otherwise simply use my master and run it off on green construction paper. You can have your students cut it out or have the leaves pre-cut for younger children.
• Likewise, die cut their upper and lowercase initial. If you don’t have access to a die-cut, simply make initials by typing them on your computer. Cut them out in the shape of a circle so that they will look like a coconut.
• For added pizzazz I also die-cut little monkeys. You can let your students glue things where ever they want, or you can use this as a spatial direction activity and have them listen and follow directions as you tell them where to place items.
• For more projects to monkey around with, click the link for my September MONKEY MANIA Unit, and/or click this link for my cute MONKEY BOOKLETS. scroll down to see the complete collection. While there, you can click on the photo button to see my "Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Welcome To Our Classroom" hallway decorations.
• I also gave you some great Chicka Boom Boom links in my August Back -To- School Blog
  

Reading & Writing Extension Project

Chicka Boom Boom Look Who’s In Our Classroom!

Make a Big Book of your class. Here’s how:

• Run off the COVER.
• Write your name in the blank with the year of this particular class.
• Run off “X” number of pages for the Letter pages that you will need that have your students’ initials, and X number of the letter pages that don’t have your students’ initials. You will have 26 letter pages in all.
• Cut out X number of brown coconuts (one for each one of your students.)
• Glue their class photo on the coconut.
• Glue the Coconut on the tree letter page that matches their first initial.
• Write their name on the “friend” line at the bottom of the page.
• Type up colored upper and lowercase letters and cut them out.
• Glue them on their designated letter page “climbing” up the coconut tree.
• Fill in the upper and lowercase letters in the blank space at the top using a variety of colors like in the book.
• Have someone take a picture of you as if you were peeking behind a tree and glue it to the teacher page.
• I like to glue my pages on a variety of different colored construction paper then laminate the book.
• My students LOVE seeing themselves as the stars of our own Chicka Boom Boom Book.
• You could shrink the size of the book down so that you could get 2 on a page and run off a copy of the book so that each of your students could take this cute keepsake home to “read” to their families.
• It’s a nice way for them to learn their new friend’s names.
  
• I do make a copy of the booklet for my students. So that it is an extra learning extension, I make dashed upper and lowercase letters on the bottom right hand side so that my students can practice tracing and writing the letters. I have given you a sample of the A page so you can see what I mean.

Click on the link for the Chicka Boom Packet.  This will remain free through July 2011 and then it will be only .99 cents.  Chicka Boom Packet

For more Chicka Boom ideas click on the link.

Another  Favorite…

The Kissing Hand

Author: Audrey Penn

Illustrators: Ruth E. Harper & Nancy M. Leak

Price: $9.95

 The Gist:

• Chester is a baby raccoon. He doesn’t want to go to “night” school because he will miss his mommy. She kisses his hand so he will know he will always have her with him. He can feel the warmth of her kiss on the palm of his hand and as he holds it to his cheek and he’s not afraid anymore.

 Why I love it:

• It’s heartwarming and the children really identify with it as my students are 4 turning 5. For many of them, this is their first time at school too.
• The illustrations are adorable.
• I love raccoons and it’s a great story to tie in with our science study of nocturnal animals as well as a great September back-to-school, or beginning of school story.

 Story Telling Tips:

Discussion: Getting the children involved.

• I have a heart pillow that I toss to each “quiet” child. I ask them how they felt about coming to school the first day. Because we are all learning our friends’ names, we catch the pillow and say our name. When they say something, they get to toss the heart to someone else. If children are quite young they sometimes need some one-word examples: happy, excited, scared, nervous etc. Or simply a thumbs up or a thumbs down if they don’t want to talk, but still want to share how they felt. Thumbs up meaning good, thumbs down meaning bad.
• I do a magic trick where I produce Chester the raccoon out of a duck pan. He introduces the story and whispers in my ear to tell the children how much he loves school, but how he was a little scared at first. The children take turns giving him a pat.
• At the end of the story is the sign language symbol for “I love you.” I teach the children how to sign “I love you.” so that they can sign it to their parents when they get home.
• Because this is one of our first stories. I define what an author and illustrator are and do. We make this part of our vocabulary. I let them know that I will be asking them about these 2 new words every day during story time and I expect them to know them. I give Smartie Coins as incentives and show them one. I’ll ask a question that I know someone will know the answer to, and then reward a Smartie Coin to show them how the process works. 10 Smartie Coins =’s a trip to the treasure box.
• We also discuss what a character is, what the cover of the book is as well as the title and that the story has a beginning, middle and end. Concepts of print are part of our report card standards and very easy to cover with a few questions at the beginning of any story time.

 Magic Tricks:

• As stated above I produce a raccoon puppet from a duck pan. I write Chester’s name on a piece of paper. Put it in the pot, & put the lid on. The children say the magic word nocturnal which I explain to them is something that stays awake at night, and wahla out comes Chester the nocturnal raccoon.
• To further my lesson of nocturnal animals I have several other books that I read and then we list animals on a day or night comparison grid.
• I show the children that the change bag is empty. I put in the wrapper from a candy kiss. We count how many children are in the class. We clap and count that many times blowing kisses at the bag, finally saying the magic word nocturnal and wahla I pull out a chocolate candy kiss one at a time, counting as I go, giving them to “quiet” children. I tell them that they can eat the kiss after they do the Kissing Hand table top activity that they transition to.

 Art Project & Writing Extension + Skill Sheet:

• Elison has a die cut of the “I love you” hand print available. I use that and have my students glue it to the center of  a ½ sheet of construction paper.
• They put a red heart sticker in the middle and then write under the hand: ________________ loves you.
• Because it is difficult at this early stage for them to copy this sentence from the board, I have it written on their paper so they can give it a shot, or simply fill in the blank with their name. Some of them can’t even write their name, so we just go with wherever they’re at.
• On the top of the paper I have written: We read The Kissing Hand today. Ask me to tell you the story about Chester the raccoon.
• If you don’t have access to the die cut have children trace their own hand, have children partner up and trace each other’s hands, or you and an adult helper go around and trace the children’s handprints.
• Depending on how much time you want to spend on this activity, you can give the children a heart sticker to put in the middle of their hand like the picture in the story, or you can have them draw a heart and color it, or you can have them use my template and cut out a heart and then glue it on the paper, or you can pass around a tube of lip gloss and let them apply some to their lips with their fingers and then kiss their paper. My little girls LOVE doing this, but it’s “Ugh!” for the boys.

These activities will be free through July 2011 and then they can be found in the shopping cart for only .99 cents. Teaching Heart.net is a cute site that also has some great suggestions and links for additional ideas on Chicka Boom and The Kissing Hand. Click on the link to check out Colleen's site; you'll be glad you did! She has some cute Back-To-School activities too.

  NEW Book Selections:

     This month’s new book recommendations were purchased from Costco. They are only $8.49 so of course I had to buy them all. I didn’t feel too guilty though, because my mom sent me a check for my birthday. I have a personal library filled with books and it’s still one of my favorite gifts. I started “collecting” alphabet books even before I had a teaching job! I’m rather picky tho’ so if you see something listed in my “Books Of The Month” section, you know it’s top notch.

 

Publishers; Reader’s Digest Children’s Books

• IBSN #'s:
  
• Shapes: 978-0-7944-2042-0
• Counting:  978-0-7944-2041-3
• Alphabet:   978-0-7944-2043-7

Illustrated and Designed by: Maureen Roffey

Why I had to have them:

• They are unusual. I like different things that I don’t already have, that I know will grab my students attention.
• One only has to open any of these books and see the brightly-colored, very bold pictures of animals, shapes and numbers.
• Each has a special foldout flap that when flipped downward reveals a graphic representation of the letter, number, or shape. The letter is especially ingenious, as it is incorporated in some way with the original picture  (Look at the sample photo of the alligator.)
• My students will LOVE this as they try and recall what part of the alligator the letter A was.
• The number book is super for one-to-one correspondence, groups/sets of things and counts up to 20, which is great because most counting books stop at 10
• This book takes it one step higher and adds a page of  25, 50, 75 and 100. This is wonderful because we dabble with 2-digit numbers as we learn to count to 100 by 10’s, and of course we all count to 100 Day.
• The shape book also includes ovals, stars, and hearts which you don’t find in every shape book.
• The inside cover also shows all the numbers, shapes, and letters in a beautiful poster-like presentation, which makes a perfect review before and after the story, or a wonderful page to Xerox for game boards, flash cards or a skill sheet.
• They are also very sturdy. Each page is heavy duty, almost like cardboard, but not quite like a board book, and all of the pages have a high gloss finish so if little hands are sticky, the pages would be easy to wipe clean.
  
• All-in-all it's a great read and a super buy.
• So if you're looking to add a few more books that introduce and review 3 of the early elementary report card standards you'll get a lot of bang for your buck right here! And as one of my little ones once told me with a big smile: "...And we were learnin' and we didn't even know it because we were havin' so much fun!"
  
• 
  

                                                READ ON!

FREEBIES: 

     I teach around several themes for September.Click on each link for a list of my favorite BACK-TO-SCHOOL themed books,  TRAIN books,   DINOSAUR books,  APPLE books, and MONKEY books.

     To get my parents involved in reading to their children, I have a RAH-RAH program. It stands for "Read At Home." Click on the link for directions, poster, bookmarks, certificate, reading logs and a letter home.

        Each day we have a WOW day. It stands for Wonderful Outstanding Word of the day. It helps build my students' vocabulary. Click on the link for a mini-poster You can also get a mini-poster of  ZIPPY to remind your  students that it's time for reading and you need a Quiet Zone.

    I hope you have fun reading to your children this month. I ring a set of chimes that hangs from my ceiling to announce to my Y5's that Story Time is about to begin and we'll be going on a magic carpet ride somewhere special. The hanging beach ball globe will tell us what country we're off to.

    And so the excitement and adventure begins...

I use PUPPETS to introduce many of my stories. Here's my set of COLOR puppets made out of SOCKS!

Click here for a bigger pdf pix

APPLES is our main theme for SEPTEMBER.

Welcome to our Arts-Crafts & Activities section of the Blog. Each month we'll be featureing something different for you to do with your children at home, or your students at school.

Etc. Before I launch into apples,  I have a few non-apple ideas you might like to dabble in.

A SWEET SURPRISE: Why not make a treat bag for your students.  It can be for their 1st day, at the end of the first week, or some time in September after they've mastered a report card standard to celebrate the "sweet smell of success!"  I buy M&M's and Skittles in bulk at Sams or Costco and then fill the tiny zip bags that you can buy at Hobby Lobby or other craft stores.  Some teachers debate the fact that candy rewards are not good for students, but I find that one quick melting M& M or Skittle after lunch is a great incentive or motivator for positive behavior.  Click on the link above for a copy of  the poem I include in the treat bags I make.  I also made "Writing Survival Kits" for my first graders. Click on that link if you'd like to make those for your students.

Crayon Box Cuties: For a cute hallway decoration, keep the empty crayon boxes after you get done dumping the crayons into community sharing tubs. Take a 1st day of school photo of your students and insert one in each of the boxes. Type your class list on the back of the box. Mrs./Mr. _________ has a brand new pack! Punch a hole in the top and dangle from the ceiling! What a cute keepsake. For more great crayon ideas click on the link to check out my crayon unit. 

The Wheels On The Bus Are Circles and Round!  The first shape I teach my Y5's is the circle. One of the 1st songs I teach them is The Wheels on the Bus. They enjoy dabbing all kinds of round lids that I've collected in a variety of colored paint to make a circle collage. They complete their project by pasting a sticker to the top left hand corner that says: The wheels on the bus are round..  Click on the link to see how I set up their painting station as well as some samples of their awesome collages.

Denim Craft Bag: I don't know about you, but I tote all kinds of things back and forth. from school and I can never find a bag big or strong enough. When I want to take my bag to the park to work so I can get some fresh air, my pencils, scissors and other suppliies  get lost at the bottom of the bag and I'm forever wasting time rummaging around looking for them.; and often times I'm lugging books and the strap breaks because the bag's too heavy!

My solution: a sturdy denim bag and it only cost me one dollar because I bought a pair of old blue jeans at a garage sale!

• This is how you can easily make one for yourself.
• Look for the biggest pair of jeans you can find.
• One with lots of pockets and a side loop to hold scissors is a real find.You can see the loop on the right of the pix.
• Cut off the legs and save them for the strap.
• Turn it inside out and sew up the bottom.
• Cut a length wide and long enough for a strap. Make this from the pant leg.
• Sew the strap to the inside hip portion of the jeans. I sew it triple, and use a quilting stich so it is really on there good.
• Wahla! Instant tote bag.
• Mine even fits a huge drawing pad and medium-sized big books!
• I love it. I carry my scissors in the loop and all of my various supplies in the pockets.
• You can embellish with puffy paint, or hot glue oppliques on. I preferred to simply leave mine plain.

Click here for over 50 crafts 4 kids. Scroll down past their advertisement and click on a craft that interests you.

There's a Johnny Appleseed stamped towel craft at the bottom in Series 700.

APPLE SUBTRACTION SONG                                                                       & BORDER BOOKLET

• I just LOVE the Dollar Store. I'm always finding great things there.
  
• I sometimes go just to get ideas. They're currently selling borders and ours has apple ones.
  
• I tell the teachers who attend my workshops to have their new mantra be: "What can I do with this?"
•  So when I saw the wonderful array of apple borders I thought to myself, well I don't need them for a bulletin board so what else can I do with these?
• I designed a rebus reader for my students based on the song 5 Little Apples On the Apple Tree, only I made it 4 Little Apples so I could cut each of these border sheets in half.
  
• The border is the cover of the little book!
  
• Incase you can't find the border, I've made a cover sheet for you with the 4 numbered apples.
• If you do get the border, have your students number the apples.
• Click here for 13 fun pages of APPLE ACTIVITIES to go with your little rebus reader, including the fingerplay song, and several easy subtraction skill sheets. (I never call them worksheets. That gives them a negative connotation. Who wants to do work! I call them fun sheets or skill sheets and my students then WANT to do them. Wouldn't you?)
  
• There's also an Apple Annie Has An Appetite CHANT and an Apple Annie art project to make.
• Make just one Apple Annie, laminate her, attach a baggie in the back and have your students "READ and FEED" her numbers and letters that you've printed on the little apples that you cut from the border that you bought, or let them each make a construction paper Annie of their own, and have them glue it to a paper bag.
  
• Check out my other Apple Annie SHAPE story by clicking on the link.
  
• You can make HUNGRY- themed creatures each month for your students to READ & FEED.
  
• What a fun way to review numbers, shapes, letters, words or whatever other concepts you are studying.
•  
• I've also designed two apple spinner games for you. One is a color graphing game the other is a slice of
•  
• apple colors. Included in this 11 page pack is a blank graph for you to use incase you want to bring in the 3 different colored apples and have a taste test. Give a small piece of each color apple to all of your students, then graph which they liked best. Or use the blank graph for any other graphing activity of the day you have planned.  
• The last page is a list of apple trivia.
  
• Click here if you'd like an apple poster. I retyped it from a card one of my students gave me one year. I just love it and hope you get a chuckle out of it too.
  
• I put some Avery white labels in the printer and made these apple sticker labels. My children cut them apart and did addition or subtraction equations with them like the photo shown. 9+1= 10 apples. I followed it up with a reading of Seus's 10 Apples Up On Top.
  
• Don't forget to check out my Apple Unit and my Apple Art Arts & Activities Book. You'll love these quick and easy projects that nail the early elementary report card standards. My students enjoy doing them and our hallway and bulletin boards look fantastic!
• Here's a link to a preschool site that has a nice list of simple apple activities.
• Want to try your skills at APPLE "potato head"? click on the link. If you get tired of decorating an apple you can change the fruit to another kind of vegetable!
  
• No matter what art you're up to this month, I hope they are apple-iciously awesome!
• 

 

August's Recipe Of The Month

     A kid in the kitchen with you is not only great quality time, but a wonderful math extension and great learning experience for them that includes all sorts of report card standards! So start making some memories today!

     August's recipe is perfect for summer picnics, but keep it handy for school time for your lunches. I often make a double batch because it keeps in the fridge in a Tupperware™ dish for a week.  It’s one of my family’s favorites. Whenever we have a shower or pot luck my own kids say: “Mom please bring your chicken salad!” I enjoy dabbling in the kitchen and adding ingredients to recipes to make them my own and this is one that turned out especially yummy. I hope you’ll enjoy it too!

Ingredients:

• 4 large cans chicken
• 1 cup Helman’s™ mayonnaise (You can add more if you like your chicken salad creamier and less dry.)
• 2 tbs DRY Ranch Dressing (Or 1 Package if you bought the box.)
• 1 cup shredded cheese. (Cheddar or Colby Jack, whatever your family likes best.)
• 2 tbs parsley flakes
• 2 tbs creamed horseradish
• 4 stalks of finely chopped celery
• Optional: If you like “crunch”: add ¼ or ½ cup of sunflower seeds

Directions:

• Open cans of chicken and drain the liquid.
• Toss the chicken in a large mixing bowl and gently shred the chunks into shredded pieces with your fingers.
• Add the powdered dry ranch dressing.
• Stir with a wooden spoon.
• I taste it, if you think it needs more “zing” add a bit more dry dressing.
• Add parsley flakes and stir.
• Wash and chop up the celery into fine pieces.
• Add to the chicken and mix in.
• Add the sunflower seeds if you want them in and stir.
• Add the mayonnaise.
•  If the chicken salad is not moist enough for you add a bit more mayonnaise by the tablespoonful.
• Add the horseradish.
• Gently stir with a wooden spoon ‘til everything is blended well.
• Store in a Tupperware™ container
• I serve on the small croissants that Sam’s Club™ sells.

And before summer's totally gone, don't forget to make up one last batch of bubbles and blow your troubles away. Here's a cute site with some great Bubble Recipes.

 

Welcome to the Care To Share? sub category to my blog. This is where I'll pick a Hot Topic that others will hopefully give some helpful support and ideas on. It's where you can come and share your opinions with us and let us know what you or your school is doing about different things. It’s also where you can come with a question or problem and see if someone out there has an answer for of what worked for them! So sound off and let’s hear from you!

This month's topic is: How do you stay organized?

I’ve shared my organizational ideas throughout the website, but I can’t remember if I’ve shared these so here goes...

•  I put seasonal flags up in my hallway. The kind that people fly outside that say Happy Fall, Welcome etc. They're an easy way to decorate the halls. They look great against the wall or I put a safety pin in the two holes, open a paper clip and then hang it from the ceiling by pushing the end of the paperclip under the foam ceiling tile. It lays on those flat metal rods.
• I accumulated quite a few and didn't know what to do to keep them all organized, have easy access and not get them wrinkled.
• The solution: I hung a short laundry line in my basement and bought some fat plastic coat hangers at the dollar store, folded the banner in half length wise and flopped it over the hanger.
• I hung the coat hangers September through June on the rope. 
• I'm thinking that if you got an inexpensive clothesrack you could do the same thing with POSTERS. Simply clip them on WIRE hangers with CLOTHESPINS. Keep them in chronological order from September to June and then sub-categorized them according to your themes!

Big Books:

• I kept the box that the file boxes that I bought at Sam's club came in. It's tall and skinny and perfect to hold all of my over-sized big books. I covered it with  pretty contact paper. It slides easily under my desk area at school so it's out of sight. I keep the books in chronological order of when I use them. When I'm done reading it, I put it in the back of the others so that the next book will be ready.
• These boxes are also perfect for posters.  

Paper Mountain:

•  Whenever I’m surfing the net or reading my favorite teacher magazines I’m always finding things that don’t go with what I’m working on at the present moment.
• Sometimes they are months away, or that month has even past. I’d put it in a pile and there it would stay ‘til I had paper mountain!
• I HATE piles; + I wasn’t “getting around to using” that cute idea because I had forgotten about it and would be hard pressed to find it if I did remember, so I developed an easy filing system.
• I keep a crate under my desk so that it’s handy. I have 12 hanging folders with manila folders in each one labeled with the months from September to August when I’ll be needing them.
• I also have a folder for clipart, comics, recipes &  jokes-- things that I use for my newsletters.
• Now when I come across something I really like,  I simply rip it out of the magazine or print it off from the Internet and quickly toss it in the month that I’ll need it. No more piles!
• When I’m finally in that month, I take out that file and thumb through my new “ideas” to see what I want to implement for my lessons for that month, then I re-file it for the next time.
• This system has really kept me organized. It’s fun to add new things each year and this ignites my creative juices.
• My office stays neat, clean and organized and I don’t have to go through a mountain of paper looking for something.

The other thing that was making paper mountains for me at school was my students assessments, copies of notes home to parents, etc. I had thought each student needed an INDIVIDUAL file. This NOT true. This system works soooo much better and I NO longer have paper mountain.

• Instead of filing EVERYTHING individually for each child which is labor intensive I just have a few folders. ONE for PASSED assessments and ONE for FAILED assessments. I keep them in CHRONOLOGICAL order with the most recent month in front with a sheet of colored construction paper separating the months. Any child that has failed an assessment gets their name on a new one, so I know right away who needs to be reassessed when the time comes. That folder is labeled RE-ASSESS. I also high light their name in yellow on a check list with the report card standard written after it that they failed so I know who needs one-on-one help with what. When it comes time to fill out report cards, or have conferences I know exactly where my students stand and have only spent a few minutes filing.
• COPIES OF NOTES HOME go in ONE folder labeled CORRESPONDENCE.
• During the two months when we're having conferences (October and March) I'll collect my students' work for that week. They decorate a file folder that I share with their parents.  That's it for my filing and there's no more paper mountain with student information.
• Instead of portfolio's I do keepsake booklets that my students work on each month to show improvement throughout the year as well as a keepsake calendar that is an art page each month that the children give as a Mother's Day gift.

Tag! You're it! Won't you care and share with us!

     I just discovered a fantastic NEW site today and I'm adding it to my favorites. She had a great tip for adding a bulletin board to her classroom. So click on the link to see a picture and visit her wonderful site.

Hi!  Welcome to my main BLOG!  I'm so glad you popped in!

If you look to the right you'll see some of the other categories to my BLOG!

• Arts-Crafts & Activities offers several fun things to do with your children each month complete with patterns, directions and pictures.  
• Books of the Month, lists a few of my all-time favorite childnren's seasonal-books and a newer realease with a lesson, activity, + how to jazz up your story time with this book. It also includes a few skill sheets, + a magic trick that I do! 
• Hot Tips & Cool Solutions is just that, a bulleted check list of interesting information to help make your day run smoothly. The 1st three columns will start with September,  but I'll post in late August in time for BACK-TO-SCHOOL.
  
•  Right now, Dishin' Up With Diane has a yummy recipe waiting for you to try. And...
• Care To Share features a "Hot Topic" for discussion each month. August's is: How do you keep things organized? 
• So don't forget to check out the TOP side-bar!

Also featured on the Main Blog's front page each month are:

• Chuckles & Heartwarmers: Cute things my students have said. Hopefully they bring a smile to your day or warm your heart.  If you have a giggle from your classroom or home please take a moment to "grin & share it!" with us. Contact me at diane@teachwithme.com with the header: Chuckles. Thanks in advance. :-)
• Quote: I used to write one on the board every day when I taught high school. The girls in my class often wrote them down in a special notebook. Often one of those quotes became the graduating classes' motto! Consider them the "Apple Seeds" on my site!
• A Peek At Next Month: Give's you a sneak preview.  It's intent is to FYI you to get you excited about what's up-coming so you WANT to come back! I do this same thing with my Y5's. At the end of the day I tell them 1 or 2 wonderful things we'll be doing on their next day of school so they can't wait for another adventure in learning!
• Freebie Of The Month: Your little ones will have fun tracing the basic shapes each month in this adorable booklet and then have a nice keepsake at the end of the year! This feature is simply my way of saying "Thanks for stopping! I appreciate you!" And thanks to my daughter Kelli who designed this sweet smilie button for me. Look for it in the shopping cart.

I hope you're having a super summer! I know many of you will be getting your classrooms ready for school in the next few weeks. I have some terrific tips to share in my September Stuff II where you can look at my handbooks and handouts and see how I do things with my Y5's. Hopefully this will give you some great ideas to add to your own, or be especially helpful if you've just landed a job.

You can also check out my decorating tips  and TWM 500 where a picture is worth a 1000 words. I like to keep things less cluttered by having my shelving units turned sideways and backwards. When someone enters the room things look nice and stream lined. They don't see lots of tubbies with "stuff" in them, but a slim side of a unit or the smooth back with a colorful poster on it! My tubbies are all the same size and only bright primary colors. This also makes things look neat and organized and less messy. Drawer units are nice to help little ones become perfect "picker-upper's"! Mine simply pull out a drawer or tub, dump it out, and when the timer rings, toss the things back inside.

Some of you may even have your Open House in August like we do. I made mine extra fun by turning it into a Treasure Hunt! I send an invitation to my students to get them excited. They receive a list of 10 things to find like their locker with their name tag on it, their monkey on our Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Welcome To Our Classroom bulletin board, and even me! When they find me they need to introduce themselves and their family. They get a strip of stickers to paste to their treasure map and when they've completed the list they can crawl through our wiggle worm tunnel, throw a coconut bowling ball at the pineapple pins, and go for a ride around the block on the school bus.

I have the "how to" including my letter home to parents, a cool countdown to class and my summer welcome letter to my students included at TWM 432. I hope it gives you lots of great ideas to get you and your children excited for this fall too! I've been doing The Open House Treasure Hunt for 10 years now with rave reviews from kids, parents, and other teachers.  Many of my fellow lower elementary teachers have also adopted it. It's an easy and fun way to generate excitement, dispel fears, and get children to find all the things they'd need to find on the hectic first day of school anyway.

After they've completed everything on their list they get their treasure, which is a treasure box filled with all kinds of goodies like school supplies, little McDonald toys that I've collected at garage sales all summer, stickers, candy, etc. including a crayon cake! What's a crayon cake? It's a great way to recycle broken crayons and makes a wonderful coloring or writing tool because when you use it, it makes things many colors! It's great for those fall leaf rubs!.Here's How:

• To make some for your students, peel crayons and break them into small pieces.
• Spray a large or small muffin tin with cooking spray like PAM so that the crayon cakes will easily slide out later.
• Fill each hole to the top with multi-colors of the broken crayons.
• Put on the bottom shelf of a pre-heated oven at 250 degrees.
• Depending on your oven, bake for 15 minutes 'til the crayons are melted.
• Let cool and then tip over. I leave my tins lying face down. Crayon cakes will plop out.
• If they don't, run face down, so the tin is under warm water, but not hot or you will melt the crayons again. 
• I've also put the pan in the freezer for a few minutes to pop them out that way too.
• I used to use the big muffin pans, but later bought the mini ones because they take less crayons and are easier for my Y5's to hold.
• I make an extra set to use in my classroom. My students think they are "Way  cool!"
• So that I'm not spending hours peeling crayons during the summer, in June when things are winding down, I have my students help me with this project! They enjoy doing it, and it's a great fine motor skill for them.

     If you read the alphabet book Chicka Chicka Boom Boom to your class and want some adorable ideas, visit one of my favorite sites at: www.makinglearningfun.com/themepages/ChickaChickaBoomBoomPrintables.htm. My favorites are Build a coconut tree shape, and Make a paint stick flet board. Too cute! She also has a printable for 3 coconuts in the coconut tree using bingo dot markers which I use every day in my classroom for one-to-one correspondence. My Y5's LOVE them.

     For an easy Monkey Maze click here.  I tell my students that I found 4 ways to get to the banana. They only have to find 2. I just LOVE this site because it's interactive.. It's one of the places I send my Y5's on their Web Quests! (Find out more in September.) This site is Colormountain.com where your students can connect the dots and color right online. Great fine motor and computer skill practice for young children.

What’s Happenin’ ? Summer is for vacations! I hope you had a chance to take at least one, even if it was the now popular “stay-cation!” My husband’s brother got married in New York so we had a great excuse to extend our stay and see a bit of the east coast. I took some great pictures you may want to show your students if you study RAINBOWS (We went to Niagara Falls and saw a beautiful one!), then journeyed on to see PLYMOUTH ROCK, and a replica of the MAYFLOWER and later PILGRIM’S PLANTATION where we also saw a WAMAPANOAG village. You may want to print off the pix, laminate them and make your own booklest or bulletin boards or use them  in a mini slide show. They'll be great for a November unit during Thanksgiving week. I'll repost then too!

Last summer we had a chance to see the Grand Canyon (A long time on my “bucket list” of things to do.) We stopped at a piece of property that advertised: “See real dinosaur footprints!” To get my Y5’s excited right at the start of school,  dinosaurs is my first science theme, so of course we had to check this out.  (Click on the green writing to see my fun dino stuff!)  Our guide armed with a milk jug of water took us around and poured the water on the prints. He didn’t tell us what kinds of dinosaurs left them, but they couldn’t have been too big, as they were about the size of a shoe box. I have only his word as to their authenticity; but it was fun and my students enjoyed seeing pictures of    dinosaur footprints. I hope yours do too!   In the meantime I hope you enjoy the site. If there's something you're looking for, and you didn't find it, drop me a line (diane@teachwithme.com) and I'll see what I can do!

Educationally Yours,

        

          I hope you can REST, RELAX, and REJUVENATE for what's left of the....