Parent and Student End of Year Gifts

The year is winding down and I went shopping today to gather my gifts for my parents and students!  Reality is setting in that the year is almost over. I LOVE my class so much!!! I'll miss them.  But... I say that every year.  My husband gets annoyed because he says that I say every year that "this class is my favorite". :)

For my parent volunteers, I bought a large pitcher from the Dollar Tree

 and a container of Crystal Light.

For my students, I bought a box of character Band-Aids and some sticky hands.

Head over to our blog to download the tags for FREE!

Mini Autograph Book for the End of the Year!

Hi! It's Lynda from Curls and a Smile!

 

I am so excited to share this will you all! I can't believe the end of the school year is almost here! My kiddos only have a handful of precious days with me and I want to make sure that we end the school year with a bang! As an end of the year activity to go along with their memory books (by the fabulous Hope King), I made something special for my little darlings!

These mini autograph books have made the perfect companion to our end of the year memory books and has provide a great review for our language arts skills as well! I love it when that happens! I used my book to model writing a short note with correct capitalization, punctuation and grammar and it worked out like a charm! The kiddos are having a blast writing sweet messages to their classmates!

 

I am having my kids rotate the books around the room so that they have an opportunity to write in all of their classmates books but it could also be done a free activity as well.

Aren't these adorable?

 

 

I made one for myself too! I can't wait to read all the super sweet little messages from my babies!

 

You can find this little treasure in my Teachers Pay Teachers store
and for more fun, come visit me at my blog!
 

Hope you enjoy!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Happy Birthday Giveaway Ends TODAY!

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Happy Saturday!

It's Teacher Appreciation Week! Time to Share Your Shopping Carts.

We appreciate you and hope that you are having an awesome week.  By now, you have heard of the HUGE Teacher Appreciation Sale over at TpT.   Amazing deals  of up to 28% off when you use the coupon code: TAD13.

Have you filled up your carts?   Are you clearing out  that wish list?  Have you already purchased?   We would love for you to show us what your bought or what is in your chart!  Link up below and snag our graphic.

Directions:
1.  Write a blog post about the items in your cart or the items you have already purchased during the sale.
2.  Snag our graphic and link back to this direct post on Blog Hoppin'.
3.  Add your direct link to your post, using the linky below.

Happy Teacher Appreciation Week!  *Don't forget to leave feedback for your purchases, so that you can go back and do some more shopping damage with your credits :)

End of Year Writing Bundle

I can't believe that we only have 5{ish} weeks left in school. Goodness! My kiddos have state testing in 1 week {well...6 days to be exact}, so as soon as we finish, we are diving back into a normal routine. After our testing is over {finally}, we will be working through my Ultimate End of Year Writing Bundle. This pack has some super cool and easy {PTL} projects that will help your kiddos reflect on the amazing year that they have had. 

Here are the activities that we will be working on...

Since our paper bag poetry books were so super simple and since the kids LOVED them so much, I had an idea to create an end of the year keepsake...paper bag style. Love that paper bags are so stinkin' cheap! 

All you need are paper bags {lunch sacks....not grocery bags} and dollar store stickers to help your kiddos make these little scrapbook{ish} memories. 

Then, we will also be adding to our time capsules for the year. End of the year is the perfect time to bundle all of your memories up into one place for safe keeping. I have included time capsule contracts, poems, and much, much more to get you going. 

Along with these two activities, we will also work on several end of year writing and craftivities...just to end the year with a bang! 

We will be planning for a great summer ahead...

And...my favorite...letters to next year's kiddos. I always display these on our "Welcome Back" night for my newbies to read {well..until I looped!}. This helps your kiddos get a glimpse into what is ahead in the new year. Plus, it adds a little spirit to those empty walls at the beginning of the year. 

Hopefully these activities will keep my summer hungry kiddos busy after testing. 

You can pick this unit up at my TPT shop by clicking {HERE}. 

Have a great weekend! 

Rockin' Math Review (1st Grade CCSS Math)

YES! That is just what we will do the last 2-3 weeks of school (review the whole CCSS math)!  Because we don't have official standardized testing in 1st grade, I like to review the last 2 weeks of school to help my students remember what we learned and to get them ready for 2nd grade.

Here's what I've done (and it's taken me soooooooooo long to do- I even cried TWICE!!!!)... I have made a review center game for EVERY STANDARD in the 1st grade Common Core Math (some games cover multiple standards).  I know... I  am CRAZY! But, my students needed some fun ways to review and so I have been working on this for WEEKS.  This would also be a GREAT review for your 2nd graders at the beginning of next year.

There are 18 centers!

Come check it out:

Incubation Station

Remember I told you round 3 of my science obsession was coming soon?  Well......
Our chicks have finally arrived and are growing fast!! We started our chicken life cycle unit 6 weeks ago and this was one of my most educational experiences yet!  My classroom was FULL every morning before and after school with kiddos coming to see our first babies arrive!  I am attaching lots of pictures so get ready!

I surprised my students with eggs in March.  They went on Spring Break and then came back with only a week left before they hatched.  I planned it that way so they wouldn't lose interest waiting 21 days!

The chicks need to stay warm after hatching so they spent 3 more weeks under a heat lamp.  They needed to get feathers first.  My daughter named them right away.  The first one she called "Chickadee", and the second one."Hamburger".  I guess they looked like hamburger when they first hatched..LOL!  We had 4 total hatch out of 12.

Here is a short video clip of the first chick who hatched:

They hatched on day 20 and 21.  By day 23, I broke the rest open to show the students that they hadn't been fertilized.

We started an observation journal a few days before they hatched.  They loved this part of the day because they could observe them and write about how they changed each day.  And boy do they!  One week later, they were already trying to fly!

Journals

They are growing up! Sniff!

I have feathers now!

We did a little comparing with chickens and ducks.  We put together a Venn Diagram to show our learning.  They made chickens and ducks to go with it.

If any of you have been thinking of hatching eggs with your students, I highly recommend it!  They will love it!  

Here is my Incubation Station Math and Literacy Unit.  It has 141 pages of fun!  It has detailed instructions on getting you started with hatching eggs and the activities are differentiated for the primary grades K-2.  Just click the picture links to see more.  It will be 20% off today only!

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Happy Spring and Happy Hatching!