Shapes & Colors

Here are some projects that I have been working on. They are both for sale at my Teachers Pay Teachers Store.

Shapes

These would be perfect for a bulletin board and I included blank shapes for flash cards. I printed mine on 8.5 X 11 cardstock. Each shape is as large as a piece of paper. You can use any color of cardstock for the shapes.

 

Colors-Crayons 

These would be perfect for a bulletin board for colors, classroom decoration, or as book covers for class books. I printed mine on 8.5 X 11 cardstock. Each crayon is as large as a piece of paper.

 I hope you are enjoying the number ten frame cards!

Freebie Friday-Pumpkin Mathematics Center

I am linking up with TBA for Freebie Friday. 

Click here for the Pumpkin Mathematics Center Activity.

It has directions, game pieces and
two different recording sheets.
If you grabbed a copy on Thursday,
please download it again-
the clipart was not transferring to pdf very well (sorry).

In case you missed them, here are links to some additional freebies that I have posted.

Alphabet Letter Intervention

Mathematics Skills Fluency

Pumpkin Literacy Center 

Alphabet Letter Intervention

Have you ever had a student, or students, that despite getting lots of exposure to the alphabet letters, just can not tell you the names of some (or all) of the alphabet letters? They might be able to tell you the sound for the letter, but they have trouble telling you the letter name. I have had a few students like this and last year after using many strategies, I happened to try one and it worked! I basically knew that the more senses I involved and the more I engaged the students, the chances were better for them to transfer their learning from short-term to long-term memory (we call it "making it stick"). I also know that repetition is important and some students might need exposure to a letter 30 or more times before it "sticks."

So, desperate for something to work, I tried this during small group reading. First of all, I focused on two very different looking letters. Only two for a couple of days. Of course, we worked with all letters all day, but for these students, I had to break it down. The students used the dry erase boards and we wrote the letters as I sang a song (included in the packet). Then they wrote it and erased it 3 times. I gave them a sheet and they colored each letter a certain color as I said over and over "This is the letter a, alligator begins with the sound for a" and other things about the letter (I felt really silly doing this, but they needed to hear it). After they finished, I asked each student individually to tell me the name of each alphabet letter. This activity involved hearing (me over and over-repetition), seeing (the letter sheet and dry erase board) and kinesthetic movements (with the coloring and writing).

If you need another strategy for those students struggling to remember the alphabet letters, please feel free to use this. Click here for the link. 
What kinds of interventions or strategies do you use to help students?

Common Core-Mathematics Skills Fluency-Big Freebie

"Fluency" and "Automaticity"   Those are two words I hear often concerning reading and mathematics skills. The Common Core standards include the word "fluent" in many Mathematics Standards.  So the goal for our students is to have an automatic recall of alphabet letters, numbers, and quantity of numbers (among other skills). I have made a Mathematics Fluency packet which is designed like the DIBELS Fluency below, but includes Math Skills. The skills covered in this packet include: numerals 1-100, number words (0-20), tally marks (1-10), ten frames (1-20), dice (1-10), 2-D shapes, 3-D shapes, coins and time. You can print these sheets and bind them with a binder comb, or punch holes and use rings. You could also use them as individual sheets either laminated or in sheet protectors. Use them for a quick informal assessment, as a warm-up or review on a document camera during a whole group lesson, or to practice fluency for a small group.
Just click right here to download!
Here are some sample sheets from the packet.

DIBELS Fluency

During my small reading groups, I like to devote 3-5 minutes for a warm-up activity which involves practicing the DIBELS skills. I have made a packet that contains 10 practice activities for each of the sub-skills (FSF, LNF, PSF, NWF).

This is how I practice:
Monday- practice First Sound Fluency
Tuesday-practice Letter Naming Fluency
Wednesday-practice Phonemic Segmentation Fluency
Thursday-practice Nonsense Word Fluency

I use the 10 lists for 10 weeks, then rotate through them again, or sometimes I use different materials/activities for variety.
I am selling this DIBELS Fluency packet at Teachers Pay Teachers for $4.00, but you can click here to get a sample packet.

Center Signs

This is what I will be using to hang above my centers:

I will make smaller circles like the Octopus to use for my center chart.

Click here for my inspiration from schoolgirl.com.

I have been using these two sided decoration from Carson-Dellosa, but wanted them all to go with my ocean theme:

Freebie Friday-Pumpkin Literacy Center

Click here for your Friday Freebie! It is a Pumpkin Literacy Center-Beginning Sounds with game pieces and a recording sheet. I hope you like it!

I post lots of freebies - if I am making it for myself anyway, I might as well share it. So please become a follower of my blog for updates! I will be posting a Pumpkin Mathematics Center for Friday Freebies next week!

Happy Birthday Banner

Last year (and the year before and before that) my happy birthday display was nothing special. Really-just large seasonal month cutouts with my students' pictures on them that matched the month they were born. Since my classroom is undergoing a makeover, this Happy Birthday Banner will jazz it right up! I have lots of the Happy Birthday Banners on sell at Teachers Pay Teachers (button to the right). I made color families, assorted colors and a blank template so you can choose your own paper. The banners do coordinate with the Word Wall Banners. Here is the banner in assorted brights tied together with tulle (fancy, eh). These pictures do not show it's true beauty-it really is pretty.

 Here are some close-ups:

These are the month shapes that I will again put the student pictures on and then attach them to a fish net (ocean theme) mounted on the wall. See, told you it was blah...

Yeah! Another display done! Check out Teachers Pay Teachers if you want one..they coordinate with the Word Wall Banners.

Displaying Student Work-Freebie

Student work can be tricky to display if you do not have a lot of bulletin board space, or you have so many students and all their work won't fit on the bulletin board. I am planning to put this display over my cubbies to showcase their work. I use 12 X 12 cardstock so the work will fit both portrait or landscape and will add as many as I need for the number of students I have assigned to my class. I was inspired by Julie Lee's sister  and how she arranged her paper and added a border. The clothespins will have an ocean shape hot glued to them. Click here for the big polka dotted letters. 
My letters were traced from an old pattern. You can always get small letters and enlarge on a copy machine or document camera them to make them bigger.

 

 

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I have added more word wall banners to my Teachers Pay Teachers store. I added orange, yellow, purple, assorted brights and assorted primary word walls.
I hope you like the dotted letters!

Word Wall Banner-Part 2

My word wall banner has been pinned several times (original post), so I decided to make them digitally and sell them for $2 on Teachers Pay Teachers (which is way less expensive than all the scrapbook paper you would need to make it). So far, I have made banners in bright blue, bright green, red, orange, yellow, purple and assorted bright colors and assorted primary colors. Click the Teachers Pay Teachers button to shop!
Here is the banner in bright blue:

And here are some of the color schemes listed at Teachers Pay Teachers:

Please let me know if there is a different color scheme or theme (all dots, all stripes, all chevron etc). I will custom make them for you!

Linking Up-Book Organization

I am linking up with Growing Kinders to show how I organize the books I use for instruction.

I have always used the cubbies above the coat hooks for my book collection. I organize the books into nine weeks by theme and subjects (phonics and math skills).

  I have made curtains in my new theme/color scheme to hide the clutter. My students have books in the reading center/classroom library, so these books are just for me to use!

 

Reading Center Response Sheets for Phonics

I am selling these two packets on TpT. I use these phonics response sheets at the reading center. The students search through books and find words with a certain letter or vowel, blend, or digraph and then list them on the sheet. This provides accountability for the student and provides a task for students who can not read independently.
I hope you like them!

Welcome to Kindergarten Worksheets-Free

This packet was inspired by my daughters' "Welcome to Kindergarten" worksheets that they colored on their very first day of kindergarten. These precious mementos are dated and tucked safely into their Memory Books.  I continue the tradition every first day of the school year with my kindergarten students. I use a worksheet for the students to color as "morning work" while I try to figure out how they are getting home at the end of the day, collect school supplies, lunch money and take attendance. This always keeps them engaged and it is a great keepsake. It is a free download at Teachers Pay Teachers. Just click the TpT button and it will take you there!

I made a Pre-K packet, too. It is on TpT (free).

I did not forget about my First Grade Friends! Here is a Welcome to First Grade Emergent Reader. You can use it for morning work on the First Day of School. It is free on TpT.

I hope you enjoy them!

Writing Office-File Folder

I wanted to make Writing Offices for my students to use when they are writing. I always let them move and sit wherever they want to give them more space and thought maybe using these as dividers would help, too.

Here are the inside pages:

And the outside pages (the blank page will be student pictures and names):

Click here for the Colors/Shapes/Numbers  and  Word Wall

Schedule Freebies

Hi Friends! I worked on a new schedule with the polka dot theme. I have provided links for all color themes below!

These are not in pdf, so hopefully you can type in it. When I open this link, the frames do not look formatted correctly, but when I download it, they look perfect. If they do not look right after you download it, could you please leave a comment so I can correct it.

Click here for the schedule cards with a text box.

Click here for the cards with boxes for clip art.

Click here for the headers.

If you like these, please leave a comment-thank you!

Hiding the Clutter

I made one of four curtain panels today. I am using an ocean themed fabric in the blue and green color with a splash of red. These will cover up the books I use for teaching. I am using wooden dowel rods and velcro to attach to the cubbies. I did not want to put holes in anything, but velcro is allowed.

And I finished my binders. Go to Under the Alphabet Tree and visit her TpT to check out  the binder covers and spines.

What projects are you working on? I am trying to get the decorating part out of the way so I can focus on curriculum next month!

Binder Makeover

Today's project: Binder Makeover

I store all my worksheets, ideas, work samples, and anything else that goes with that week's lessons in plastic sleeves in these binders (one for each nine weeks). They are getting full and heavy.
Jessica at Under the Alphabet Tree has created these fabulous monthly binder covers and spines. They are on sell at her TpT store.

The Before:

The After: Fabulous

I mounted the cover sheet on coordinating cardstock and I also copied two - one for the front and one for the back!
One down and eight more to go! Go check this out at her TpT store!

Word Wall Banner

I made this to use for my new Word Wall. I used scrapbook papers with green in them and mounted on black cardstock. The letters are called "Dot-to-Dot" and are made by Creative Teaching Press. I plan to put it above the board with my word wall words that I purchased from Erica Bohrer. The board background will be black fabric and I ordered the green border to match her board.

I am now selling these banners digitally through my Teachers Pay Teacher store. Here is my newest post for the word wall banners. 
I have also created Editable Banners so that you can create banners in your room for anything! See mt TpT store. This packet includes all colors and 2 different sizes.

Once it is on the wall I will tidy-up the strings and shorten them. I enjoyed making this and now will make a Happy Birthday Banner for my Birthday display. I will probably try the pennant style and use sheer ribbons and netting to attach them. I am not very crafty but this was actually fun!