Dog Days of Summer Giveaway and Freebie Extravaganza!

Hey everyone! Can you believe it is the middle of July! For us time is dwindling down to the end of of break. We report back on August 8th. It is always surprising how quickly it goes. . .however, we still have some summer left so let's celebrate! 

We are having a great giveaway over at Teaching Blog Roundup and you do not want to miss it! WooHoo!! 

We have 14 people participating in the giveaway. YAY! 

Hop On Over!

In honor of this big event I have a special freebie today for my fellow first grade teachers! A fun packet to do with your firsties the first few days of school!

Click here to download and print

Only in First Grade

I know we have been out of school for a week, I have taken the last few days to recover. My oldest son graduated from high school last Thursday, and we are still adjusting to my husband's new health issues.

I just had to share what one of my precious little ones gave me on the last day of school.

She was so proud. It was obvious that this was a creation of her own. She was soooooooo excited to give it to me. I was super glad to get it. Yes, it is a paper towel tube, and an empty box of poptarts taped extremely well to a piece of scrapbook paper. The note simply said, "I Love You."

This little one struggled for at the beginning of the year, she was certain that the clean up bell at 3:25 was the bell for the buses to leave. We spent many afternoons reminding her what the bells meant at the end of the day. She not only overcame that anxiety but made benchmark on the spring DIBELS! She has grown up so much over the past few months.

It will be a joy to watch her and the rest of my little precious ones grow up, knowing that I have had a small part in their successes as students. They remind me that I can make a difference in the lives of a few children each year. My job is the best in the world.

I think this is the ONLY job in the world where a homemade creation like the one above can make all of the stuff that makes our profession not so fun worth every minute.

Only in First Grade!

Birthdays!

Chari found a cute birthday idea on the What the Teacher Wants blog. It was a fun idea of giving kids a GIANT pixie stick on their birthday. I cut a balloon shape out of cardstock and decorated it using my cricut and scrapbooking supplies. We had our first birthday this week and it was a huge success! Here is a picture of mine. . .

BuCkEt FiLLinG!

For a few years now we have been reading the book called, Have You Filled a Bucket Today? by Carol McCloud and David Messing. It is a great addition to any classroom or management system. Well, this spring I saw an idea on another blog of using little buckets in a shoe organizer for the children to each have his/her own bucket. I can't remember which blog it was but when I find it I will put the name on here! I used Lettering Delights to make my own little "tickets" that say polite, friendly and helpful and laminated them. If one child notices another child displaying one of the desired behaviors then he/she can put a ticket in that person's bucket. The kids love this and they have become more aware of treating each other nicely. I painted an old muffin pan to organize the tickets.

Plan Book Cover and Binding

After creating a plan book to suit my own schedule, I made a custom cover using some fun scrapbook paper and a scrapbook binding machine called "The Cinch". It has been a very handy tool for both home and school and the binding is very durable! The downloads for the plan book, which can be altered, are available in a previous post.