Clipart Challenge

Several fabulous clipartists and bloggers have come together for an amazing Clipart Challenge hosted by Primary Possibilities!  Each blogger is featuring a clipartist and a product they made using that artist's images!  This is a great way to discover new clipart creators for your summer creations.   So keep reading and following the linky at the bottom to head on to the next post!  You may even pick up some freebies along the way!

I had the honor of creating a new product using clipart from Dancing Crayon Designs. 

 I was so excited when I saw their clipart and had a REALLY hard time deciding which ones to use because they were all so great!  Click on the following links to check out some of my favorites or click on the pic above to check out all their clipart!

Warm Fuzzies (these are ADORABLE!)

Background pack (On my wishlist!!)

Fun Frames (so many uses!)

Bean Seeds, Bean Sprouts and Seedlings (would be VERY useful for a plant unit!)

Monster Mail Stamps (cute, cute, cute!)

In the end I picked these two clipart packs to create this new (FREE) product for my classroom and for you all, of course!

Tally Marks

Bright Borders and Frames

I made 6 math games/centers using the clipart focusing on the skill counting 0-10.

Here are some images from the pack:

But hey, it's FREE so download it now for FREE and you can see and have it all for FREE!  

(Did I mention it's FREE?)

Click HERE to download it now!

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End of Year Gift for Kids

SUPER cheap SUPER easy end of year gifts for your class:

*Pop Rocks from dollar store (3 for $1.00!)

*Avery Stickers #5963

(or you could just print them off on paper and tape them on)

DONE!

(Click HERE for your FREE copy.)

I was surprised how many of my kids had never had Pop Rocks before.  It was cute to watch their expressions as they ate them!

Day 1 of Summer Break for me and enjoying every minute of it! 



Dinosaurs! (FREEBIE!)

This week we've been very engaged in Deanna Jump's Dinosaur pack.  It is fantastic. . . of course!  We added a few small activities to her pack and the kids had a blast!  Here are some pictures of our dinosaur exploration:

 Here is the worksheet we used when exploring dinosaur sizes.

We compared a T-Rex's footprint with a Triceratops footprint.

We compared our feet to a T-Rex's foot.

We put our shoes on the Triceratops footprint to see how many of our feet it would take to fill it up. 

We compared lengths of dinosaurs.  This is the the length of a Triceratops.

We laid down to see if we would be the same length of a Brontosaurus if we put all of our class together in a long line.  The answer. . . NO!  We were about 3/4 the length of a Brontosaurus.

Tomorrow we will be paleontologist.  We'll excavate chocolate chips from cookies and make dinosaur fossil impressions!

For a freebie of the worksheet you see at the top and a few more extras click HERE.

Guest Blogger and Friend HoJo -- with FREEBIES!

Hey all! It's Heather - better known as HoJo - from HoJo's Teaching Adventures. Michelle has been a bit preoccupied lately with all things school (you can relate to that, right?) so I decided to step in for her.

I'm going to keep this short and sweet, but I want to share some amazing freebies with you! I currently have 58 products for Kindergarten in my Teachers Pay Teachers store, and 19 of them are FREE! I'm going to highlight a few of my favorites below. =)

Just click on any of the pictures below to get your free copy directly from TpT!

This product is one I created so student recognize a variety of fonts. It's perfect for centers, independent worksheets, and even for homeschooling parents!

This product with ask your Kindergarten students to differentiate between short and long A. They will cut the pictures apart and glue them into the correct column. This was a favorite of my Kindergarten students. {Heck - anything involving glue was!}

This activity was one my students used all year in centers. They had to cut and paste {I told you they loved glue!} the letters into the correct circles. Each circle ends up with the same amount of letters, so they're really easy for students to understand and to grade!

This is one of my Magic Square puzzles. Students match the correct short A word to the picture. The words around the outside are other short A words, but there are no pictures to match. These are great for gifted students or those who are ready for more of a challenge. 

If your students struggle with estimation, this is the packet for you! These six pictures allow you to have your students practice estimating the area or perimeter of each shape. They print great in color so you can laminate them and use them in centers for several weeks!

And finally here's another Magic Square product. This one has students match the lowercase letters with their uppercase partners. Again these are particularly good for your higher students.

There you have it folks! A few of my favorite freebies all located in one place! I'd love to hear what you think of them either below in the comments below in the feedback section on TpT.

Take care!

~HoJo~

December Rewind: How to Accept a Gift

This is a rewind of a post I did last December (2011).  It is one of my favorite lessons to teach this time of year.

  How to Accept a Gift.   

I first saw a version of this lesson taught by an awesome counselor a few years ago and have since modified it (a little) to work with my teaching style.  Here it is:

1.  I open a previously wrapped present in front of my class (I wrap up an ugly sock).  I tear the wrapping paper off without looking to see who it's from, I say mean things about it once it's open and then I go throw it away.  Reactions to this are priceless...some stare at me in shock and some laugh like crazy...that alone will tell you a lot. 

2.  Next comes the discussion.  I ask the kids, "What do you think was wrong with the way Mrs. Rist opened that package?"   Hopefully I will get a few clever kids who come up with the words "rude" and "mean."

3.  Then I open another previously wrapped package (it's the other ugly sock).  This time I model the "correct" way by using the High Five Rules:

 #1 Check to see who it's from (I say it's from one of my students and ask them to play along.)

#2 Show gratitude  (Thank you SO much for buying me a gift.  It was so kind of you to think of me!)
  #3 Open it nicely!

#4 Say thank you and mean it!  (I model again a "thank you" that looks like I mean it and a "thank you" that looks like I'm just saying it because I have to!)

  #5 Tell the person why you like it or how you will use it. (I think up all the fun ways I can use 1 sock: puppet, dusting mitt, etc.)

 4.  After my demonstration I will let a few kids try it also (I put random things into a Christmas bag b/c I just don't have time to wrap 24 fake presents!)  I'll use paperclips, scraps of paper, a single pencil, etc. and the kids have to use the "High Five" method to accept the present.

5.  Then we each get a "High Five" paper to color and take home so Moms and Dads can help their child practice.

6.  Each day I'll pick a few more kids to model for us so we keep it fresh in our minds right up to Christmas.

7.  If any of my kids bring me a Christmas  present I make sure I do all 5 steps b/c they will watch and check!  We also exchange coloring books at our Christmas party and we walk through the 5 steps when opening our presents.

That's it.  Hope you find it useful.  The handout is not cute but it gets the job done!  Click on the picture if you'd like a copy.

Holiday FREEBIES!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm so excited!  The 2012 Winter Holiday Tips and Freebies is available now!  Click the pics to go to TPT and download these FABULOUS books.  They are filled with pages of freebies from fantastic bloggers!

BIG thanks to Krissy Miner from Mrs. Miner's Monkey Business for organizing both these books!

I think I'm hearing VOICES (freebie!)

Do you do use VOICES in your classroom?

There are some things that are important but become VERY monotonous to do, even for the kids!  For example: Rote counting during calendar.  Is it important?  Yes.  Is it fun. .  .ummmm not really.

So, we spice up our rote tasks by occasionally using a "fun" voice when doing them.  They perk right up when they know they'll get to use a "voice!"

This year I'm trying to put more choices into my students' hands (mainly because this class can handle it!)

 

I use my Lucky Duck sticks to pick the student who gets to pick the voice we use.

Since I'm letting them pick this year I've made cards to remind the students what their "voice choices" are.  I'm going to put these cards on a ring for the Lucky Duck person to look at when they pick.

It makes rote things like counting, alphabet flashcards, sight word flashcards, etc just a little more exciting for everyone!

I'm also in the process of doing this for our cheers.  More on that soon. . . .

If you'd like a copy of our voices cards please click HERE.

If you use voices I would love it if you'd leave a comment and share some with me!  

Vowels (freebie)

Vowels are the glue that stick words together!

A few things we do when we talk about a vowel:

Sing the vowel song:

Caution:  your class will break out and spontaneously sing this many times during the day!

When we talk about a vowel we use our fingers and say:  

A is a Vowel (hold up 2 fingers to make a V).

It has 2 sounds (point to your 2 fingers).

A long sound (put 2 fingers together and point to the long finger) and a short sound (point to the short finger.)

Vowel exercises:

We become long and short vowels and do vowel exercises.  I'll say let's do 5 a exercises (or 3 e exercises, etc.) and the kids will stand straight and tall, arms in the air and say the long sound of a.  Then we'll crouch down low and say the short sound of a.  We'll do that 5 times.

My class definitely knows their vowels!

For a copy of these posters and a few independent worksheets click HERE.

Labeling Freebie and a Sale

Next week my class will start discussing labeling.  We'll start off pretty simple and work our way up!  Here's one of our first labeling activities we'll do.  We are reading The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything but if you are more of a There Was An Old Lady fan there's a page for you also!  Click the pic for your FREE copy. 

 If you're interested in seeing the rest of The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything packet on TPT click HERE.

In celebration of 1 year of blogging everything in my TPT store is on sale for 20% off!  Click HERE to check out the sale!

And don't forget to sign up for the giveaway. . . 2 days left!

A Fun Freebie....For a Fun Reason!

My one year Blogiversary is coming up (next week actually!)  I have a fun giveaway planned with donations from over 25 FABULOUS bloggers and TPT sellers.  I can't wait to get it started! 

BUT. . . since it's not officially one year yet I thought I'd start celebrating a little early by offering a FREEBIE. . . a gift from me to you!  

My kids had a lot of fun with this little project this week.  I started by reading them a predictable story about cereal:

After several days of reading the story, which the kids caught onto very quickly, we made our own pages:

I took pictures of the kids with their chosen cereal:

Then we added their pictures to their page.  Once the book is done (I had a few kids missing Friday. . . don't want to bind it until they're all done)  we'll read it together and the kids will complete this tally mark page:

The kids LOVED it!

If you'd like to try this with your class click:

Too subtle??????  Didn't want you to miss where to click!

Don't forget to check back later this week!  The giveaway starts SOON!