A Year in Writing {And a Little FREEBIE}

One of my favorite areas to teach is writing. I think that a student's writing truly shows the growth over a year. I know that in the past, I have always enjoyed going back to my childhood scrapbooks and seeing just what I was like as a child. Since I began my first year of teaching, I have always wanted to create this same experience for my students. Every year, I keep all of the writings that we complete in a big Rubbermaid container. Then, at the end of the year, we pull that container out and we sort through the students writing. This has definitely become one of our favorite days of the year. I love hearing the students reflect on all of their learning through the year and it always makes them so proud of their accomplishments. I love the fact that I can send my students into their next school year as proud and CONDIFENDENT writers.

We just started our portfolios, but I love the large size so that we can fit all of those fun projects and writings! Plus they are SO, SO easy to make! This week we will begin decorating the back and adding our writing index and possibly some memorable photos from the year!

When all of our writing portfolios are put together, we invite all of our parents, families, and school administration to a Writing Celebration Pancake Breakfast and allow parents to share in the students’ excitement about learning. It is such an exciting celebration and wonderful way to end the year!

Last year, I also incorporated a little summer prep time where my students and their parents played some of the games from their Dig into Learning Summer Review. They loved this part and I think that this time together is what made their summer review such a success.

I have put together a 44 page unit that has everything you need (minus the poster board) to create such memorable student portfolios. It is on sale right now in my TPT shop for $3.20!

If you have already created writing portfolios but would like to celebrate with a breakfast, here is a little excerpt from this unit! Click on the picture below to snag a copy!

And Don’t forget that everything in my TPT shop is currently on Sale! Enjoy 20% off until Friday at midnight! Click on the graphic below to shop at my store!

I hope that you all have a blessed week and that you truly feel appreciated! You so DESERVE it! :)

Teachers Need to be Appreciated Too! {SUPER SALE}

I am sure you have heard that Teachers Pay Teachers is full of appreciation for all of the wonderful teachers out there. Just to say a little, ok…BIG… THANK YOU for all that you do, so many of my blogging buddies are having super sales! My store will also be on sale beginning tonight at midnight and running until May 8th. You can also enter a special code {see below} for an additional 10% off! Now is the time to stock up on all of those goodies for next year, so what are you waiting for? Go get your shop on! :)

You can click on this super cute graphic below {Thanks, Erica} to visit my store, or you can scroll down to link to some of my favorite units in my shop!

The “Newcomers” to my shop…

     

     

The Math Necessities

       

  

Writing and ELA Basics

 

     

  

Math Center Collection {Super EASY math centers requiring very little preparation!}

    

     

Author/Novel Studies

 

And Coming Tomorrow…

Check out my shop for more units! Remember, the sale begins at midnight tonight so go ahead and start filling up those shopping carts! Hope you are all having a wonderful weekend! :)

Biome Book

Short and sweet for me tonight!

I have had several requests to make the biome flipbook a separate unit from my On Safari unit. Your requests have been granted and you can pick it up at TPT.

I will be back tomorrow to share ideas for end of the year writing portfolios. We have just begun and I am loving them already. :)

   

Now I have to go tie-dye shirts with the hubs for our 3-5th grade relay races this weekend and prepare for my student teachers last day tomorrow! Y’all I may just cry!!!! On a happy note…TGI{almost}F!

Dig Into Learning {Summer Review} & Gone Campin’

I have been busy, busy, busy trying to get prepared for the last five weeks of school. I know that my schedule is about to go up in flames and free time (what’s that?) will be a thing of the past! BUT…only FIVE MORE WEEKS y’all! Here are two things that will make it into our room in the next few weeks!

The summer months are upon us and those end of the year chores (as I like to call them) are filling up our plate to nearly overflowing. It is so difficult to keep up with records, report cards, celebrations, awards days…and the list goes on. It is such a challenge to juggle our everyday duties {we’ve all been there…tell me you’ve been there :)} that we can barely think one step ahead! So, consider this your one step ahead! :)

I always like to send my students home prepared to at least maintain what they’ve worked so hard to learn through the year. This way, there is no room for excuses and maybe I don’t have to dream of the word…dare I say it…regression. Yikes! I know it’s summertime and they need to have oh so much fun, (and so does their teacher) but 15-20 minutes of review can’t rain on their parade too much! Right? Right!

I have used this summertime review method for several years and have seen excellent results. In fact, I only had one student regress this past summer and my kiddos were definitely prepared and ready to enter the second grade.

Here is how it works. I buy each student a sand bucket for their end of the year gift and we spend a day preparing games and materials to stuff it with for the summer months! The student’s participation in the preparation is critical because it gives them ownership and they are super excited to use their games that they’ve worked so hard to create.

Then, I attach our tag and a little parent letter…and there you have it! Off they go! What better way to spend a day than getting your kiddos all prepped and ready for the summer?

There are many different activities included in this 137 page pack, so pick and choose what you would like for your kiddos to focus on over the break! You can also add your own little goodies to the mix!

If you need to save some much needed time, you can check this pack out at my TPT store.

Then, to keep my kiddos working hard until the end of the year, I will be incorporating my Gone Campin’ math centers next week! If you would like to see how these super easy, time saving centers work, you can check out my post HERE, or you can click on the pictures below to check them out at TPT.

 

 

What is making it’s way into your classroom over the next few weeks?

Just Keep Swimming

Oh my goodness…I seriously am trying to apply the “just keep swimming” idea from sweet Dory on Finding Nemo to my life this week! {No, I don’t watch this movie often, but we did watch it on the way to our field trip!} :) Spring fever has definitely set in with my sweet loves! I am trying to make things as hands-on as possible to keep them motivated and interested!

So, on the note of swimming, we have been working on two major projects in preparation for our big academic celebration in a few weeks. Since we have been knee-deep in our study of animals, the students are in charge of an aquatic animal and safari animal project. We have pretty much wrapped up our aquatic animal study/project that had the students researching coral reefs and the endangered sea turtle all while learning about bullets and fact boxes in nonfiction. We created a mini lapbook (if you will).

Here is a look at the front…

 

And the inside…

Then for our display, I saw these little cuties from Bishop’s Blackboard! They were just perfect, so I couldn’t resist!

 

We have also been enjoying our study of earth’s biomes. The kids are doing an excellent job on their biome flipbooks from my Safari Unit.

 

Then, during our study of the forest, I just HAD to find a way to fit these cute little hikers into our activities {Thanks, Cara Carroll}. After we finished our forest study, the kiddos wrote riddles to describe some of this biome’s main characteristics.

   

I wish I could say happy hump day or even TGIF, but sorry y’all, it’s only Tuesday! :) Ha! Hope you are having a fabulous week!