Back to School Bonanza!!, Blog Hop and Freebie

Today I am linking up with the Blog Hoppin bloggers for What I like to teach. Actually, it doesn't really matter which subject I am teaching as long as I have a song, rhyme and/or a craft.

Since I started out as a kindergarten teacher, I was introduced to Dr. Jean's songs and lots of her wonderful ideas. Because I changed schools at one point, I ended up in second grade and now I love that age! The ONLY thing that I was concerned about was that the kids wouldn't want to sing all of those songs with me. After all, I had invested in ALMOST every CD that Dr. Jean had put on the market. (Not to mention...that I cannot make it through the day without singing.) Newsflash...The students still love singing in second grade! 

So...I decided to add writing activities to respond to some of her songs. It worked like a charm! The kids love to have the "experience"of dancing and singing with the music and then completing the literacy activity. 

However, sometimes I need to make up my own songs and rhymes if I can't find one that fits my needs. My plan is to grab (and keep) the attention of my buddies. One of them is The Plural Noun Song, sung to the tune of Jingle Bells. Each year, my kids love to belt out that one!

Another thing that I like to do is connect my lessons to a craft. Here are my latest craftivities:

I FINALLY posted this bundle yesterday. Yay! 

The start of school is a smidgen hectic. Wouldn't you agree? Even though school started 3 weeks ago in my state, someone may be interested in these activities for friendship building or for Open House projects. However, there are some teachers who have not started school yet. Bless you all. 

Or...I can just be glad that it is ready to go for the "Back to School Season" next year! 

Or...I can just be glad that I have a creative outlet that also comes in handy in my classroom. 

Nevertheless, my students enjoyed all of these activities! They even have their name desk tents on their desks still! 

As a matter of fact, some of my students continue to add color to their desk tents here and there. They are actually looking better with time!  :-) 

More importantly, name tents have helped me learn the students' names more quickly, since I have put off the task of taping flat name plates to the students desks. 

Because... I INSIST on cutting clear contact paper so that there is one big strip holding down the name tags. Not that I am particular...

Here is the camera craftivity that we made. 

I love when the students gasp as I pull out an example of the next craft that we will complete as a class. It cheers me up! 

Then, lo and behold, the students don't seem to mind doing whatever writing activity goes with it. Win, win!!


One of my favs... Post a Selfie! 

Selfies are all the rage. My first clue, well not really my FIRST clue, was the Belk ad with a girl taking a selfie. I guess it IS a big thing! 

Maybe it is a new form of art as some suggest. All kinds of people take part including my daughter's band director. He took lots of selfies with the students when they went on a band trip to Washington, DC. His slide show as a result was quite entertaining!

Here are some examples of the Post a Selfie! craftivity as well as a preview of what is in the pack.

The fourth activity that is included in the bundle is  a"How To" writing activity about How to Make a Friend and How to Keep a Friend. The lesson includes singing and acting out the motions to "Hello Neighbor," a cute song by Dr. Jean. (Also....that song is a FREE download in Dr. Jean's store.) What could be better than that? Here is a link to that section in her store. She has some other awesome free things as well. 

And last, but not least, I have a FREEBIE for your new school year.

Desk Fairy Awards. My students are super motivated to earn those awards. Click HERE to download the awards. 

(Pretend like you can see a picture of that here.)

There you have it. "What" I like to teach boils down to anything that has a song connected with it or a craft. Of course, I love Scoot games for any subject, but I will save that for a different post. 

Hop over to the Blog Hoppin blog to see WHAT other teachers like to teach. 

I have already found out some neat things about bloggers and I can't wait to try some of their ideas in my own classroom! 

Have a great day!

Carrie

You Oughta Know About These Fabulous Folders

Well, well...it's back to school time again?! 

It reminds me of the Dunkin Donuts commercial where the baker mutters each morning, "Time to make the donuts. " The camera shows him going to work and coming from work each day and he eventually passes himself in the night. Don't we feel like that as teachers sometimes? As a result, we are continually searching for better and more efficient ways of doing _________. (Fill in the blank.)

Today I am linking up with Jasmine McClain from Buzzing with Mrs. McClain. She is hosting a Blog Hop called You Oughta Know. Follow the link at the bottom of this post so that you can add some new ideas to your repertoire. 

This link up is perfect timing for me because I have been assigned as a mentor to the new teacher on our team. I have tips on my mind that she would be so happy to know about. 

The first tip is about these fabulous folders. I discovered these  folders by Nicky's Folders a few years ago. Many teachers in my school use them for sending home papers and notes. 

They come in lots of colors. The metallics are beautiful!!

There is a clear sleeve on the front so that you can customize the folder. 

There is a clear sleeve on the back as well so that you can add a homework helper page or a weekly spelling list. 

And...they are supposed to last for a YEAR! That is a proven fact in my classroom.

There are also handy dandy CLEAR pockets inside the folder, which are perfect for small notes that might need to be delivered. 

As a matter of fact, I have a set of small notes that are ready to go. Click here to check them out in my store.

I usually copy several sheets of each page on different colors of paper, so that I have some ready at a moment's notice. I keep them in a drawer of a smaller plastic organizer.

This next set is a FREEBIE that includes a set of small notes that are actual rewards for the students. Nothing fancy...just Simple Rewards. The students love them! Check them out here.

So that is my tip for the day! Hop on over to the Blog Hop to find some great back-to-school tips and ideas. 

Have a great day!
Carrie

An InLinkz Link-up

Organization and Diet Coke Boxes

Diet coke. Is the box the best part?

It's like waking up on Christmas morning!

Why do my students act giddy like they found an awesome present under the tree when I bring a Diet Coke box to school? I offer these boxes to students to use as a drawer in their desks. It keeps them "organized!" They fit perfectly inside their desks after the top is cut off. 

Actually, some of my students truly use them to organize their stuff better. Others use them to contain all of the extra markers, pencils, crayons, etc that tend to fall out of their desks. I saw it on Pinterest a while back, I think. I can't remember exactly, but where else would I have gotten a super great idea like that? I will give credit to that brilliant person when I come across it again.

As a matter of fact, my students were getting creative while waiting for the next box to come along and asked for boxes from tissues and from zip lock bags. While those were helpful, none of those boxes "did the trick" like soda boxes can. One of my students finally came around to seeing it that way. I think she will be able to find her scissors now since she doesn't actually look for them INSIDE her desk...usually. How adorable! 

The positive results? Students who have better ideas about how to organize their things...although I have several boys whose things are "squared away" at any given moment. They are my expert helpers who help some of the other students get their things in order. 

Another positive result, the desk fairy has more desks to admire. I made a new reward coupon for her to give the students for the new year. If you would like a copy, please click here.

Maybe this will spark some New Year's resolutions for my students!

Happy New Year! May all of your students' desks be in tip top shape for the new year! Now if the desk fairy would just come give me a hand with my own desk... :-)

I am linking up with Blog Hoppin for the New Year Linky for Day 5 - Organization. Can't get enough of that!!

Have a fabulous new year!
Carrie

Christmas Songs and What I Bought

Don't you love how excited the kids get when they read Christmas books and sing Christmas songs? 

During my first year of teaching kindergarten, at least one student would check out a Christmas book each time we went to the media center. So adorable! These days, my kids LOVE the little bitty Christmas carol book that I have in our classroom library. There are no pictures on the front. There are few pictures inside. However, it is filled with Christmas carols on tiny pages that the kids love to read and sing. 

I previously posted about how the kids are so drawn to that book each year. I wonder if they like it because it is a small book with small pages. Or ... do they like it because it is filled with Christmas songs that remind them of such a magical time of year? I am still not sure of the answer, but I have tapped into their excitement about Christmas and have changed the lyrics of a few of the favorite Christmas songs that tend to interest the kids year-round. 

Note to self...or anyone reading: I am not a musician, but I love to sing and I love that kids love to sing even in second grade. My goal is to match our content and standards to the tunes so that I can get through to my struggling learners and to just have fun with all of my buddies. I have come up with several “songs” over the years and decided to post a couple on TPT.

The first one is to the tune of "Jingle Bells"… one.of.the.best.songs.ever! It is called “ThePlural Noun Song,” which incorporates various spelling rules along with some examples of each rule. The kids LOVE it and sing it WITH GUSTO as if they are at a holiday sing-along {year-round}.

The stand-alone version of the flapbook

One of the interactive notebook versions

        

I have found that if I hang an anchor chart with the words to this song in the classroom, the students will start trying to sing it even if I haven’t taught it yet. Maybe I should turn every lesson into a song!

So...I added some literacy activities that include a few versions of a flapbook; one that stands alone and two different sizes for use in interactive notebooks. These can be used with each of the seven plural noun rules that are covered. (Only five rules are included in the song…I didn’t want the song to be too long.) 

There are also some graphing activities that require the students to say the singular form of the word and the plural form of the word. For example, if the student rolls the die and gets a 3, the student will say, “One baby, two babies,” or whatever words are listed in that column. He or she will then write the plural form of the word on the first line of the graph in that column. The first word to make it to the top line will be the “winner.” 

Voila! The students will have a graph made while practicing the rules to making singular nouns plural. I think that the speaking aspect and the repeated opportunities to write each plural word correctly is great for ELL students. Each graph focuses on a different rule so that the students may associate the examples of each rule more readily. I love the quote, “Practice doesn’t make perfect. Practice makes permanent.” I don’t know who gets the credit for that quote, but I really like that.

The color version of the first page with holiday flair. 

An example of one of the 7 different graphs.

An "I Can" chart to promote independence with the "Roll, Say, Graph" game. 

If you would like to check out The Plural Noun Song Pack on TPT, please click here. 

The second song that I posted is to the tune of “We Wish You a Merry Christmas!” The title is “I Wish I had a Thesaurus!” It is a fun song to sing at the end of a “caroling set.” 

I remember caroling door-to-door in our neighborhood as a child with a group of neighbors ranging from 5 years old to mature adult. Do you remember those days? We would sing maybe three songs at each house, then a round of “We Wish You a Merry Christmas” to top it all off. Of course, the host neighbor would offer cookies of some sort to the singing group as a parting gift.

So...I made up a version of that song which has lyrics that include information about what a thesaurus is and what types of things you can find in that resource. It is called, “I Wish I Had a Thesaurus!” If you are interested in that song as well, you can find it here.

Color version

For interactive notebooks

Our music teacher teaches the students about caroling and they have a sing-along in December. Maybe that is why my students sing these songs with gusto!                                                                                                              

At this point I don’t have any detailed activities to go with it, but the song is available in four formats, big book style (color and black and white), a one-pager, a half-page size, and a quarter-page size. They all have coordinating pages for examples to go with the song. What could be more awesome than having your child belt out a happy song about a thesaurus?!

Maybe..."Oh Dictionary!" to the tune of "Oh Christmas Tree!" Song and activities to come...stay tuned.

Exciting finds from the TPT SALE!

  I am linking up with Blog Hopping to let you know about the awesome things that I got at the big TPT sale.

So excited about the fun graphing activities in this pack from Anna Brantley!

This will be a good intervention tool for my RtI buddies.
 I love all of the neat subtraction activities by Susan Jones at TGIF!

These One Breath Boxes are fabulous! My students get so excited to do them. It cracks me up! These are fabulous quick fluency builders by D K Coleman.

Of course, my clipart "needs list is getting bigger, so I needed to get some from Krista Wallden who also had some great freebies this year. Thank you Krista!!!

Thank you for stopping by! I enjoyed getting to see all of the new purchases at the Blog Hoppin linky. This will make my wish list items and my cart items more "research-based." How is that for a buzz word?

Have a great week!

Carrie