Compound Words Anyone?

I found this really great way to learn compound words and how to help kids practice making compound words. The picture is pretty self explanatory so there's not a lot of explanation that is needed here:

Credit: The First Grade Sweet Life - http://thefirstgradesweetlife.blogspot.com.au/2011/02/reading-centers.html

Rolo Pencils

I just thought that this was a great idea for gifts for your students. They could be for a birthday, the end of the year, or you could use it as some sort of prize. There are so many things you could do with this. You could even put different paper, besides yellow on it to make it good for holiday gifts (for example you could put gift wrapping paper around it as a Christmas gift).

Just have fun with them and do what you want!

Credit: http://media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/14/05/cf/1405cf59bc0ff09a85f7707edcab53eb.jpg

Arty Stuff

Here are a couple of art project ideas.

This first one could be made at any time during the year. If you really wanted to have it at a certain time of year, you could just give them certain colors (for example, red and green for Christmas). All you do is put some some colors in a bowl and let them mix a little bit, dip a small balloon in it and then stamp it on the paper.

Credit: http://sphotos-e.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/1098_290238241087521_1447327650_n.jpg

Here is the second one:

All you need is black construction paper, a little white paper, Q-tips, and some scissors. This is a great Halloween activity and really cute! :)

Credit: Polish the Stars - http://www.polishthestars.com/2012/10/halloween-kids-crafts.html?m=1

Cookie Sheet Learning

Okay, this is pretty simple. Get a cookie sheet and magnet letters and numbers...then you can attach worksheets or whatever to help the kids practice sight words, math, or really anything you need to review. The magnets can just attach to the cookie sheet and the review can be done over and over!

Credit: Make, Take, and Teach - http://blog.maketaketeach.com/cookie-sheet-challenge-volume-3-sight-words/#_

Puff Ball Erasers!

This is just a random idea: hot glue those little puff ball thingy's or whatever they are called to the end of a dry erase marker and viola! You have an eraser already attached that the kids won't lose when they are writing on little whiteboards!

Credit: Splish Splash Ms. Lander's class - http://splishsplashmslander.blogspot.com/

Summer Sites!

Okay, I love this. Here is a sheet of 10 educational websites that kids can go to during the summer or even during school that will help them review what they learned and keep it in their minds! They are all free and completely safe!

Credit: A Year of Many Firsts - http://ayearofmanyfirsts.blogspot.com/2013/05/summer-review-websites-for-kids.html

1 Minute Active Activities

This is a great idea! You put small one-minute activities on Popsicle sticks and when the class needs a little break or something to get the wiggles out you draw one and have the class do what it says! They can be things like:

• Dance Party!
• 20 jumping jacks
• Seat switch!
• Pretend jump rope or hula hoop!

It can really be anything you can think of that gets them active or lets them loosen up a bit!

Credit: Keep Calm and Teach On - http://keepcalmandteachon.blogspot.com/

Division and 3D Shapes Poster

Here's a couple of other posters that would be good to put up in your room. One is help the kids remember how to do long division and the other is a poem to help them learn about 3D shapes and remember what they are and things like. However, the 3D shapes thing doesn't even have to be a poster, you could just pass it out to each student to use as a reference or just use it to teach them about the shapes.

Credit Picture 1: http://followpics.co/great-poster-for-long-division-would-be-great-in-math-notebooks/

Credit Picture 2: Meet Miss Parker - http://meetmissparker.blogspot.com/2013/03/spring-sale-common-core-math-3d-shapes.html

Multiplication Races

This is a fun math idea for children who are learning multiplication. All you need besides this is some multiplication cards. However, this could be changed to be adding, subtracting, or dividing races.

The directions say: "Choose a card. Find the product. If you are correct, move ahead one space. If you are not correct, stay in the same spot. The first one to the flag is the winner." 

Some variations: If you get it wrong you move back one space, or someone else can steal and they get to move.

Credit: First Grader a la Carte - http://firstgradealacarte.blogspot.ca/2011/07/races-continue.html

Very Hungry Caterpillar

I think this idea is adorable! Great activity after reading "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" by Eric Carle. Kind of messy but still very cute and lets children's uniqueness come out! The words say: "And the very hungry caterpillar became...(other page)...a very beautiful butterfly!"

Credit: Dana Ellis - http://danaelaineellis.blogspot.com/2011/08/very-hungry-caterpillar.html

ABC Pasta

Great inside-day activity or even just a regular day activity! This is obviously better for young grades like Kindergarten and maybe first grade. This will help them learn their ABC's or just review them and it will be lots of fun!

Credit: kiki creates - http://kikicreates.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2011-02-21T21%253A50%253A00-08%253A00&max-results=4

Reporting vs. Tattling

Here's a really good way of explaining if something is reporting or tattling. A lot of kids love to just tattle on others about unimportant things and they are just trying to get the other in trouble or get attention. This is a good lesson to teach kids to show them the difference between reporting something (like bullying or something else severe) and tattling. This would be good to have as a poster in the classroom to remind them what is reporting and what is tattling.

Credit: http://media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/b9/c0/4c/b9c04c3eb86ab0594bdd63682fc209ad.jpg 

Attention Grabbers

Here are some cute and creative attention grabbers!

Credit: I love 2 Teach (http://ilove2teach.blogspot.com/)

Some other ideas that I have heard:

Teacher: Red Robin! Students: Yum!

Teacher: Class, class, class! Student: Yes, yes, yes! (This one is fun because however the teacher says it, that is how the students should say it. So if the teacher says it really softly or with a British accent then that is how the students need to say it. Or you could even vary the words little. For example the teacher could say, "Classity, class, class" and the students would say, "Yessity, yes, yes")

Teacher: Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls.... Student: Lads and Lassies!

Things like this can work in older grades. One of my high school classes, which was actually a college class used the "Class, class, class" one and so these can be used for really any grade. However, with the older grades, you may want to change it up every once in a while. In the college class where my teacher used it, the attention grabber didn't work after a while because it got old. I think if you switched it up or had a few different ones that you could use then hopefully the students would continue to answer. 

Spotlights

Well, I'm kind of stuck on First-day stuff so here is some ideas for spotlights that you can have the kids make. Of course, these can be used throughout the year. The sunflower spotlight would be a good one for the first day for everyone to make at the same time and then share them. The other spotlight is probably better to give to 1 student a week or something.

Credit: Step into 2nd grade (http://stepintosecondgrade.blogspot.ca/search/label/New%20School%20Year)

Credit: Teachers Pay Teachers (http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Getting-to-Know-you-sheets-247683)

2 Truths 1 Lie

Classic getting to know you game for pretty much any grade (except maybe the younger grades like kindergarten or first grade). It's even good for high school students!

Credit: Slide Share (http://www.slideshare.net/mobile/ShellTerrell/10-getting-to-know-you-activities-for-teens-adults)

I am...

So this a getting to know you thing that you could have the kids make then share with the class. It is probably for grades that are slightly higher (probably grades 3-6). First graders may not be able to come up with many things that they are, but it could be tweaked so that they don't have to write as many things, like in the picture. I think that this is a really good because it not only helps the kids to be able to to learn more about each other, I think it helps them to learn more about themselves because they really have to think about what they are not just what they like.

Me in a Nutshell

This is a fun way to help your kids find out a little bit more about each other. Plus, it lets them be creative and gives the other kids of visual way of learning about another student.

Credit: Teachers Notebook (http://www.teachersnotebook.com/product/cokerfamily6/free-me-in-a-nutshell-get-to-know-you-activity)

Opening the door of Possibilities

I thought that the quote in the picture would be good for my first post. It makes me realize that as a teacher, I can open the door for many children, and that door leads to many other doors that they can choose to enter as they go throughout their lives. That, is my superpower....opening the heart and minds of children...and giving the opportunity to do what they want to, be what they want to be and most importantly, be who they want to be.