Sharp / dull pencil can labels – updated and in color

I have another post somewhere on here of labels I made for my pencil cans.  I decided to update them this year because:

1) I wanted them in color.

2) This past year, I frequently observed students at the sharp pencil can going through and pulling them all out to find one with an eraser. 

3) Having the sharp ends sticking up seemed a little dangerous at times and caused marks on the wall behind the can (I put a piece of construction paper behind it to protect the wall, which worked, but isn’t something I want to worry about).

So now, sharp pencils will be point down and dull/broken pencils will be point up.  We’ll see how it goes!

Low-res preview: 

 

And here’s the PDF: sharp:dull pencil label-in color

Thanks A Bunch

I gave this end-of-year thank you gift to my class art docent volunteers (it’s a great program funded by the PTA at my school, where volunteers teach 6 art lessons each year).

I don’t remember where I got the idea or if I came up with it myself; I might’ve seen it on Pinterest.  I blame my poor memory on end-of-school-year-brain.  The children have used up all my brain cells this year.  ;)

I used the font DJ Squared and clip art from a Grins & Giggles CD.  Here is the document with the gift tag:

As a PDF: thanks a bunch for all your help

As an editable Word document: thanks a bunch

 

Father’s Day Card

Decided to do this card too, in addition to the writing/picture in the post below.  Thanks to the teacher from whom I got this sample!

Father’s Day

What my class will be doing for Father’s Day, in case anyone else wants to use (or edit and use) this too!  In the blank upper white part, they’ll draw a picture of them and their Dad.  Simple, but based on their responses to a similar Mother’s Day writing/drawing, I know the results will be cute and funny.

And for students without a Dad (which breaks my heart), I’ll change the text to “Grandpa” or “Uncle” if they want to do one for another family member or friend.

Father’s Day (Opens as a PDF)

Father’s Day (Downloads as a Word Document)

My New Classroom!

I’m in another long-term sub position through the end of the year.  It’s a Kindergarten/1st grade combo class, and yes it’s a lot of work, but it’s going okay and I love having a class to call and care for as my own!  These are some organizational and decorative things I’ve done that I wanted to share.  :)

I copied this organizational technique from another teacher I previously long-term subbed for. It is the best method I have seen for organizing timed math tests. Since students are all at different places, this makes it easy to go through them all and quickly & easily grab the one each student needs.

Bulletin board on main door with Language Arts material on it. The kinders are supposed to say the letter and word of the week each time they leave. Spelling words for 1st grade are displayed throughout the week without taking up whiteboard space.

I learned about touch points for counting coins from another teacher, and LOVE it. Because once you throw quarters in the mix, it gets really hard for them. Using touch points, they only have to count by 5′s and 1′s. I made these posters as an “anchor chart” for learning about counting coins.

Attendance/Lunch Count system: I “erased” their names for privacy’s sake, but pretend those white rectangles each have a student’s name on it. They are all magnetic. When they come in, they move their magnet to the home or school lunch side. Then to take attendance, all I have to do is look and see whose name is still on the top part. For lunch count, I just count the number of magnets on the right side. It’s so easy! And they love it. One kindergartner’s older brother (4th grade, I think) said “Oh, they’re so lucky they get to do that!” :)

End of the year gifts

I was feeling crafty the weekend before the end of the school year, so I made a little goody bag for each student.  Each one had a note, a bookmark, star sunglasses, a Smarties candy, and a class picture (with a photo key on the back, for when they forget their classmate’s name in 10 years):

Click here for a PDF of the note.

And this is what I gave my weekly classroom volunteer at the end of the year:

It was fun to do, and they were all well-liked gifts.  :)

Must do/May do

Here’s another classroom idea.  I got this one from my Master Teacher when I was student teaching.  After giving students a task to do, slap up the Must Do & May Do lists to answer the question “I’m done…what do I do now?”

The ones in this picture were examples made for a class project, in my actual classroom I would make them cuter.  :) The cards are magnetic and can be stored on the edge of or somewhere near the whiteboard when not in use.   You can create magnets for activities that you frequently use, and write in others that are assignment-specific.

Classroom ideas

I recently joined the website “pinterest” (www.pinterest.com) because of a recommendation from a teacher friend who uses it for perusing and sharing classroom/teaching ideas.  If you haven’t heard of the site, it is essentially a virtual bulletin board where you can “pin” pictures of things that you like, and group them together by category.

After looking on it for awhile and seeing lots of blogs being referenced, I thought I’d use my blog for something practical too- some classroom related ideas.  These two pictures below are slides from a Powerpoint presentation I did as a graduate student in a class called “Classroom and Behavior Management.”  I can’t take full credit- I was inspired by other teachers’ classroom procedures and tweaked them to come up with these two ideas.  Below those two is a sample of another idea, for posting when your class isn’t inside the classroom.  Maybe in the future I’ll post other ideas I’ve begged, borrowed, stolen, created, modified, etc. :)