It's Almost Summer!

As we're winding down the days, I'm prepping a few things to celebrate that summer is sooooooo close! And for those of you already out - wooohooo!!! 

I plan to celebrate the uniqueness of my class this year with these fun Marvelous Medallions. 

This pack of 36 medals is easy to prep! Simply print, laminate, punch a hole and string some yarn through it! As I was prepping these this week, I could hear the buzz spreading around the room! I can't wait to share these with my kids! 

As I was perusing the Dollar Tree the other day, it got my mind wandering to End of the Year treats for my kids.  

Here's a peek at what I came up with.  Click {here} to grab these FREEBIE tags! 

Who doesn't love silly string? 

"Have a Silly Summer"

 Buy an inexpensive bug catcher & slap this tag on! 

"Don't BUG me...it's Summer!"

If your kiddos love to swim, this is a fun treat! 

"Dive into Summer"

 A wiffle ball & bat is a great way to get kiddos movin'!

"Have a BALL this Summer"

 Squirt guns are 3 for a $1 at the Dollar Tree! 

"FIRED up for Summer!"

 You can snag really inexpensive buckets almost anywhere! 

"Have Buckets of Fun this Summer!"

I hope you can use one of these goodies! 

As we count down the days till summer, I'm definitely trying to keep interest high and activities engaging!  I recently added this Flipping for School activity to my Grab Bag Galore {which is filled with a TON of random goodness!}

To make sure my kiddos hold on to all that knowledge that I spent so much blood, sweat and tears drilling into them, I plan to send home the Summer B.A.T. Book! 

This mega version of the B.A.T. Book is filled with 40 fun, but challenging, Math and Language Arts activities to review concepts during the summer months! You could also use it during the last month of school to fill some of that "extra" time, too!

I hope you enjoy the last few days with your students!

Fun Math Games!

Need a few new math games? Keep reading - I've got lots of freebies to share today!

Our district uses Everyday Math...and it's tricky! My biggest frustration is that kids rarely get a chance to learn and practice a skill completely before they're asked to move onto a new concept! 

I've made a bunch of games to reinforce the basic addition and subtraction skills! 

First up is Addition Hunt!

To make, I simply printed out the colored cards {b&w are included} and taped them up around the room. They walked around the room searching for the problems to write in the corresponding box. It is a great way to work on skills and get some energy out! 

They LOVED it and begged for a Subtraction Hunt, too!

Another fun game we play is Connect Four!

Many kids are already familiar with the concept of the board game, so they were excited to play the math version! To liven it up, I simply printed the game onto bright paper. One of these days I plan to laminate the gameboard! 

I've included an addition and subtraction version for you to use! 

For subtraction, I wrote numbers the numbers (5-10) onto blank dice so the numbers would be big enough to subtract! You can buy blank dice {here} or pick up blank foam cubes at the dollar store! 

I also introduced Rollin' Rollin' Rollin' to the kids. To play, students take turns rolling two dice and adding the numbers.  They cross out the sum. The player to cross out the final number is the winner!

Again, I'll probably copy this game board onto bright colored paper to make it a little more exciting and laminate so the kids can use dry erase markers instead! 

Another of my favorite games is Numbers Undercover and Doubles Undercover.  We play this game A LOT during math time to work on those addition skills! I've even it home for homework, too! 

Want all of these games? 

As I've mentioned before, our math program is so goofy that some lessons are short and some take forever.  Some concepts are easily grasped by kids and some take a bit more time to master.  So, I love to have a stockpile of games for kids to play as they're finishing up their work! You can read more about my Math Games Galore {here} and score a couple more freebies there, too! 

Hope you can use all these games! 

Stop...in the Name of Love! {FREEBIE}

Hey, it's Molly from Lucky to Be in First! Today, I'm here to share a Valentine's Day freebie {and some other things we've been doing this week!}

Lately, we've been practicing our long vowels...A LOT! I figured they were getting bored with our usual Word Work activities during Daily 5, so I added this little activity to the mix!

The students read the long vowel word on the heart, record it and drop it into the correct mailbox! Two days in and they're begging for more activities!

Click the picture to grab this FREEBIE! 

We also re-purposed our mailboxes for a little math fun!

The big winner this week, however, has been Happy Hearts Math! We used these mini boxes of Conversation Hearts {available at CVS!} to predict, graph and interpret the data! It was AWESOME!

 You can find these activities and a bunch others in my Stop in the Name of Love Unit! 

But make sure to head over and grab the Phonics Mail freebie! 

Happy Valentine's Day! 

Ringin' in the New Year!

I hope you all are squeezing out every single minute of relaxation from this long Winter Break! Oh how I love vacation!

I wanted to share a quick activity you can use tomorrow morning while you're waiting for your morning coffee to kick in {and scrambling to find something to fill the time!}

To start, read Squirrels' New Year's Resolution. 

Or, you can also show the quick YouTube video!

Then, share this easy to complete worksheet! It's a great place to start the conversation for new beginnings! 

Just before the New Year, I asked my sister's kids to sit down and write their own resolutions! 

I'm cracking up over SB's paper - he plans to stop "yelling!" Note his stash of Flair Pens {obviously, he's related to teachers!}

 My niece is taking another stab at beating her nail biting!

Cheers to 2015 & new beginnings! 

Hope you'll come over and visit me sometime soon over at Lucky to Be in First! Good luck tomorrow!

I'm Telling on You!

It's been a few months at school and boy are these kiddos getting comfortable! There is definitely a lot more chatting, breaking rules, and all around annoying each other {kids annoying kids, of course!}! One of my biggest pet peeves as a teacher is tattling! It drives me bananas! And now that these kids are comfortable, A LOT of tattling is going on! 

 So, I absolutely fell in LOVE with the idea of tattle notes I learned about this summer! 

I was fortunate to head to Vegas this past summer for the amazing I Teach 1st and Teachers Pay Teachers conference.  Hands down the BEST session I attended was Pat Pavelka's Creating Independent Writers. 

One of Pat's big messages was to get kids writing! It doesn't matter if they are writing notes to friends, in their journals or even tattle notes! 

So, if a kid needs to tattle, instead of telling me, I make them write it down! I direct the kiddos to this corner when they have a problem to "throw" out! {With the extra writing involved, it certainly cuts down on a lot of tattles!}

Click {here} to grab this freebie! 

 

I hope you'll pop over to Lucky to Be in First and say hi soon!