Summer Fun with Chalk Paint

Hey friends! It's me, Amanda from Mrs. Richardson's Class!

If summer hasn't arrived for you, it will arrive soon I hope! Here in Texas our school's are already on summer vacation and the heat is in FULL force!

A few years ago I shared one of my favorite activities to do at the end of the year with my students--CHALK PAINT!

I LOVE chalk paint.  I always do this at the end of each year and here is why, sweet friends!

If you are already out of school, you can easily do this at home with your little ones! It will keep them busy for a while and you can sit and relax for a bit! Trust me, I know that sometimes being at home with your own kids can be just as exhausting as the classroom! 

Need some ideas of how to use it in the classroom?  This is how I tied it to something educational every year!

And of course you can write about ANYTHING! Here is a How To FREEBIE so your students can write about how they made the chalk paint!

Click the image above to grab it! 

Buddy Classes: Watermelon Memory Books for End of the Year

Are you crazy yet? Tell me, what's on your list? End of year testing, awards ceremonies, documentation to turn in, classrooms to tear down and pack up, files to organize and weed out, cumulative folders to update, not to mention all of the adorable end-of-year projects you've planned.

Yup, we've all been there. Here's another project to add to your list!

 

One of my fondest memories from being a classroom teacher was working with our buddies. I was an upper grades teacher at the time, and each year I set up a buddy class with one of my good friends who taught first grade! We paired up our kids and met about once a month for my kids to teach the first graders how to do something or to complete a thematic activity.

At the end of the year, we wanted our kids to take some time to think about their great memories. I put together this little watermelon memory book for our kids to work on!

Each child made their own. The responses to the prompts were adorable.

They wrote about memories with their buddies,

what they wanted to remember about third grade,

 and what their favorite subject was.

Apparently, our marshmallow snowmen at Christmas were a big hit.

They wrote about what they really wanted to remember about third grade, which for many, was their buddy. Awww, how sweet.

What do you do to have students reflect on their year?

You can grab the watermelon memory book here at TPT!

Animals in Winter

Sneezing.  Itchy eyes.  Scratchy throat.  Runny nose.

You guessed it --- I've been cleaning!

Haha!

I've been going through our basement trying to get it cleared out and ready to be remodeled by my lovely hubby and I am allergic to dust.  I always tell my husband that I'm allergic to cleaning, but he doesn't believe me.  It's the truth!

So now I'm taking a little break and stopping by here to tell you about one of my favorite units we are doing in my classroom right now - Animals in Winter.  It's pretty cold up here in my neck of the woods right now.  We had a couple days last week with -20 degree wind chills.  You know when it's so cold your face hurts...

So I just figure if it has to be sooooo cold outside, we might as well have a little fun with winter inside.    Here is a quick overview of what this unit looks like and if you stick around till the end you will find a little freebie too :)  

 First up in this unit is an Informational Mini-Book for shared reading.  There is a color copy for you to use as the teacher and a black and white copy to make for students to have their own.  I packed in a ton of important information in this book so your kiddos will be learning a lot.  Good time for an impromptu observation by your principal.  
Here's what it looks like in action:

Speaking of being observed. . . I'm sure your principals like to see the Common Core standards in action. So I included a bunch of practice to hit those reading for information standards.  You're welcome!

Included in those standards is learning new vocabulary, so that's in there too.  There's pieces to use when teaching the vocabulary and then a student book to fill in.  

Next up - writing.

There's papers for your students to write about what they learned and make their own book.  There's also templates for a class book about what kind of animal your kids would want to be in the winter and why.  

I also wrote a little fact filled song called Winter's Here.  

Finally, I included some center activities and printables to complete this thematic unit.   

Even if you are in a place where the air doesn't hurt your face, I hope you will find this a useful unit too.  Click on the cover below to check it out on TpT.  

And as I promised - here is a little sampler freebie for you.  To grab this freebie, just click on the picture below.

Thanks for stopping by and joining me for a little cleaning break.  

See you soon!!!

     

Make Way for MLK: A FREE Learning Packet and Book Recommendations

Hi all.  It's Amber from School Is a Happy Place.  While I'm still totally loving winter break, I'm also mapping out all the special learning opportunities January has to offer.  New Year's, the 100th Day of School, and Martin Luther King Jr. are a few of the important themes that will shape our time in the classroom.  

Today I'd like to share a few things we'll be using to learn about Martin Luther King Jr.  Some of the activities my young learners will be doing are in my packet, Make Way for MLK:  A Martin Luther King Jr. Freebie.

This packet includes two literacy centers and two math centers (both with recording sheets), as well as a writing craftivity. 

One of the math centers provides practice with addition facts.

The other one works with time to the hour.

One of the literacy centers allows students to practice sorting sentence by type (asking or telling).

The other literacy center works with rhyming words.

My favorite part of this packet is the writing craftivity, I have a Dream Just Like Martin Luther King.  With the pattern, you can have your students create a MLK peek over or you can have them make one that looks more like themselves.  Either way can work.

You can click on one of the pictures to check any of these activities out.

There are also some really fabulous books about Martin Luther King Jr.  My First Biography: Martin Luther King Jr. by Marion Dane Bauer is a great choice for early elementary students.  The story is very simple and the illustrations are appealing.

The other biography I recommend is National Geographic Kids:  Martin Luther King, Jr. by Kitson Jazynka.  Like the book above, this one offers basic biographical information about King.  However, this text goes into more detail and uses actual photographs.

After reading these biographies, we will take a little closer on the March on Washington and the I Have a Dream Speech.  We March by Shane Evans is a book I found last summer.  It follows a family as they join the 1963 March on Washington.  The illustrations are very engaging as they focus in on individuals that were at the historic event.

My final recommendation is I Have a Dream by Martin Luther King Jr. and illustrated by Kadir Nelson.   The content of this book is King's famous speech and the illustrations are outstanding.  My copy (from Amazon) also came with a CD of the speech.

There are certainly many more activities and books that you can use for your study of Martin Luther King Jr.  I hope some of these suggestions can be of use to you as you plan for MLK learning in your class.

Thanks for stopping by.

Diary of an Elf: A FREE Writing Activity

Hi All.

It's Amber from School Is a Happy Place.

Does an elf visit your classroom?

Well, for the past few years one has came to see my kids.  They seem to enjoy spotting our elf and doing elf themed activities during the few weeks leading up to Christmas break.  

I am not very creative when it comes to staging my elf.  But, that doesn't seem to matter one bit.  Just the fact that he moves from place to place is super exciting.

One elf themed activities that I love using with my young learners is my elf journal, Diary of an Elf.

With this journal, students can record basic information about their class elf.  They can write about the elf on a daily basis, every other day, or once a week.  It is totally up to you.  

This assignment is a great way to introduce voice and perspective in writing.  The best entries tend to be when students pretend to be the elf and write their entries first person.

We start our journals on the first day that our elf arrives.  After I read The Elf on the Shelf and our class chooses a name for our elf, we complete the introduction and calendar pages.  For the next several days students write about our elf on the journal entry pages.

This activity is fun and very simple to execute.  Most importantly it engages students and works a little more writing practice into the day.  

You can click here if you would like a free copy of Diary of and Elf to use with your students.

Thanks so much for stopping by.

Happy teaching!