FREEBIE FRIDAY: Memorial Day

How many days left???

We are down to 3 which will include 2 days of field day and a half day so we don't have much time left to focus on Memorial Day with our students. If you still have time left, I have a freebie, an easy prep sentence building activity and a bulletin board idea for you.

I know when it gets close to the end throwing stations together needs to be quick and easy.

This word building activity is just that.

Just print, cut apart (kids can do that)

and let them start making words.

It's FREE so just click on the picture for your copy.

Another easy prep station is this sentence building activity.

If you make the copies your students can help cut them out.

Then they can work together to rebuild the sentences, record them on the provided worksheet and then check their answers using the answer key.

And now for a bulletin board idea.

This is a board that we did a few years ago.

We called it a WALL OF HONOR.

We had our kids (and staff) bring in pictures of their loved ones who had served and added them to our board. They attached names, dates, places and branches of service.

Everyone hung them with such love and pride.

It was overwhelming to see.

My prayer this year is that we all remember

and honor those who have served.

I thank my God every time I remember you.

Philippians 1:3

FREEBIE FRIDAY: Soldier Craft

This week's FREEBIE is in honor of Veterans' Day 

which is coming up next week.

It's a soldier craft that makes a super cute display.

You could have your kids make them and line them up.

They are especially cute if students make 

them like self-portraits.

Let them add details,

change the hair, eyecolor, etc

to look like themselves.

The file comes with all the patterns you will need

as well as ideas for variations.

You can grab your copy by clicking on the cover below.

Thank you to all who have served!

FREEBIE FRIDAY: Cross Craft

Anyone else feel like the months are flying by?

I can't believe Easter is almost here.

If you are looking for a quick, easy 

Easter craft, then here it is.

All you need is paper and a verse.

I have this posted in my store

but you could easily look at it and

 have your students do it.

I printed the cross pattern on cardstock,

glued down brown paper scraps and

then added the included verse.

I included a blank sheet in case you

have a different verse or phrase that you love.

If you want the pattern, click on the picture :) 

Happy Easter!

FREEBIE FRIDAY: President's Day

February turns us to hearts and roses and sometimes President's Day sneaks up on us. If that happens to you, I have an easy writing/drawing printable that requires no prep work.

Just print and give them a prompt (or not LOL).

The pack comes with lined and unlined choices

so they can be used for writing or picture drawing.

Either way, they would make for a cute bulletin board.

Just click on the picture and pick up your FREE copy.

A Little Bathroom Reading :)

Don't deny it, everyone reads in the bathroom.

Although many people no longer take the newspaper with them,

they do take their cell phones.

Because that's a common occurance for almost all people,

it makes sense to use it to your advantage especially 

if you are trying to get little people to practice their reading.

This is a picture of my sweet friend Karen's restroom at school.

Her philosophy is, 

"if you're going to sit in there for any amount of time,

we should put that time to good use!"

Yes, it's funny, but it's also genius.

Catch learning moments wherever you can!

Wordless Wednesday

Best bulletin board of all time, right? LOL

We've spent the last 2 weeks on state testing.

We had to cover everything in our room.

How about you?

Does your district make you hide or take down everything on the walls before the test?

Would love to hear your comments.

Cloudy with a chance.......

Our month has been sooooo busy, as I'm sure yours has too.

We are just finishing up a weather unit so I wanted to share a few things.

No weather unit is complete without reading....

Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs.

It's so funny that they kids all yell, "hey, that's a movie not a book" lol

We wanted to make a bulletin board of the 

town of Chewandswallow,

so we broke up into groups and each group made a house, store, business, etc.

to contribute to the town.

We had a "Toys R Us,"

a hospital,

a school (and many others).

After making buildings, they individually made food of all kinds.

We had all of their food "raining" from the sky over the

town of Chewandswallow.

This board is in the hallway outside my classroom and right next to the restroom.

I think it has provided a lot of conversation for kids waiting in line:)

In writing, we were working on informational writing and 

we decided to do it inside a friendly letter.

We had already gone over letters, but felt they needed a good review.

If you have not seen the writing packets that were done by Martha over at Primary Paradise, 

then you are really missing out.

I have both of her writing units and they are FANTASTIC.

That's what we used for letter writing.

First we went over her diagram, to help them remember the 5 parts

and where they go in the letter.

This is sooooo cute and helpful.

Next, we did her cut and paste activity to make sure they had it down.

Then came our class model.

Together we wrote a letter to Ms. Paula (our Science Lab teacher).

I told them that a cyclone hit our town last night and I wasn't sure if Ms. Paula

knew what that was, so we would need to tell her in our letter.

Here is our example.

After modeling, I left them all choose the kind of storm they were interested in.

We had a lot of nonfiction books from our library to help us gather facts.

After spending some time in the books, 

we completed a 4 square paper to help us organize out thoughts.

We then turned our facts into a letter to Ms. Paula.

The writing packets include papers for you to do a draft and then your final copy.

If you haven't already, go take a look at the writing packets.

You'll be glad you did:)

Hope you found an idea that you can use.
Thanks for stopping by!

Go Pirates! part 3

Have you heard?

The TpT Back 2 School sale is this weekend!!

My wish list is full & I'm ready to shop.

My store will be 28% off so be sure to head over & take a look around.
(Click on my picture for the link.)

And now.....
I think this is the end of my back to school classroom pictures.

This bulletin board is in the hallway leading into my class.

(Someone on my Facebook page asked me what the numbers represented.)

The truth is...the numbers were supposed to be their class numbers (1-18) 

but we had already cut all of them out on our die cut machine when we realized that they were too big:(  Just too lazy to cut them all over again, so we used what we had.

This is a great piece of clip art from 

and I added the pirate emblem (from My Cute Graphics),

and blew it up on our ELMO.

I had to have a Pirate player somewhere in the room.

Here he is in his place guarding our math board.

This was our first full week back at school 

so we started on a few basic skills like reviewing odd and even numbers.

We called these 2 "The Fair Pair." 

They are ALWAYS fair, always equal, always even.

I filled paper footballs with skittles (Pinterest idea) and they

ripped them open and sorted them.

They liked sorting, but you know their favorite part was eating them when we were finished.

Another fun activity we did this week was writing a 1 sentence goal for the year.

Finally, if you are doing the daily 5 and want a few sporty items to go with it,
here are a couple of things I made for my room.

This file is an "unofficial adaptation of the Daily 5 by Gail Boushey& Joan Moser". 

It is not endorsed by the 2 Sisters. To access official resources, check out http://www.thedailycafe.com/

Just click on them to pick up your free copies.

Don't forget about the sale!!!

Go Pirates! part 2

We are officially back to work!

We have 5 days of pre-planning before our students come on August 8th.

5 days or 10 days, it never seems to be enough,

and I usually head into panic mode thinking there is no way it will all get done.
I'm sure you know the feeling.

Well here is part 2 of what I've been working on.

I posted these already (they are going to be my book buckets for the Daily 5),

but I added baseball name labels to them.

I added magnets to our daily schedule and posted it in on our white board.

(I forgot to make a writing card arrrg!)

This is going to be our class wide compliment system.

They will earn one letter at a time until they spell out the word

"PIRATES."

(sorry about the flash)

I

This is on the front door of our classroom.
It is for my wish list,
all those things that we need but are not allowed to require.
I laminated the poster and will add post-its for the parents to take with them.

Classroom rules....

and a very small welcome board with all the kid's names on it.

The last thing I have is a freebie if you want it.
I love this quote with our sports theme.
I plan to print and frame it.

The artwork is by......

and

Thanks for stopping by!