10 Simple Gifts for Teacher Appreciation Week

This week is National Teacher Appreciation Week.  What have you done to appreciate the teachers in your life?  If you are an administrator, PTA/PTO officer, parent or fellow teacher, here are 10 simple ideas to show those special teachers how much you appreciate the hard work they do each day. 

These 10 chalkboard tags can be downloaded by clicking on this link: Teacher Appreciation Gift Tags.  These tags can be used with a variety of small gift items that you can pick up at your neighborhood Walmart, Target or grocery store.  

1.   It is so REFRESHING to have you as a TEACHER! 

Soft Drinks, Water, Sparking Water, Juice

2.   Thank You to a TEA-riffic Teacher!

Bottle of Tea, Bottle of Water and Crystal Light Package of Tea, Mug or Teacup with a few Teabags, a Box of Fancy Tea Bags, a Package of Loose Tea and a Tea Ball

3.   You are all that and a bag of CHIPS!

Small or Large Bags of Chips

4.   Thanks for Being such a SWEET Teacher!

Cookies, Cupcakes, Candy Bars, Jars or Container of Candy 

5.   Thank You for the EXTRAordinary Things you do!

Extra Gum

6.   Thank You for Helping our Students BLOOM!

Flowers, Flowering Plants

7.   Let us give you a HAND. You're one of the Best!

Hand Soap, Hand Sanitizer, Hand Lotion

8.   Thanks! You're the Balm

Any type of Lip Balm

9.   An Apple for the TEACHER

Red EOS Lip Balm

10.   Thank You for all that you do! You're the Best!

Any Gift Card

Click below:

HAPPY TEACHER APPRECIATION WEEK 

Until Next Time...

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5 End of the Year Sanity Savers!

The end of the year is a very stressful time for teachers - our to do lists are a mile long. However, now is the time to start thinking ahead to next year as well (when your report cards are done, that is).  Today I am sharing a few things to do right now to make life when you return to the classroom just that much easier.  

Before I start, my best piece of advice to save your sanity in the days leading up to the end of the year is to ENLIST YOUR STUDENTS FOR HELP. I teach first grade and they are always eager to help out. Obviously there is a limit to their helpfulness, but if you teach older children then the possibilities are endless.  

Here are 5 things I have learned to do over the years to make my life just a little easier at start up in the fall: 


I learned the hard way that this is a must-do if you plan on replicating a particular bulletin board, or in my case, the word wall. I never seem to leave enough space for the words when setting up my word wall in the fall. I have such a hard time judging without the visual of the words. Enter my iphone and voila you can now look the picture you took and use it to easily get your letter headers placed with the right amount of space to add your words. Take pictures of any bulletin board/display/anchor chart that you think you might want to remember or refer to again for the next year. I am a very visual person and have many such photos on my phone. 

Do I really need this? Take time to purge! Sort out that filing cabinet. If you didn't use the papers in that file this year and you are staying at the same grade, recycle them or give them away! If you are like me then that will not be a priority when you return in the fall. I am totally guilty of an overflowing filing cabinet – take a look at my picture. I inherited files from the teacher whose room I moved into 15 years ago and they are still in there! Perhaps I have a problem!    Anyone with me??

Students love doing this job. First I have them find all the damaged books and move them into the book hospital bin. At that point it is up to me to decide if the book requires tape or if it has seen better days and is ready for the recycling. I have a number of books that will be recycled this year as they are so well loved even tape won’t help. Next, my students make sure all books are in the proper labeled basket, either guided reading level or thematic. It is astonishing how poorly sorted the book collection becomes. Very quickly those helpers start to police the other students as books are being returned. If your students are anything like mine we are bound to find a D level book in the E or F basket. I love starting out the year with my books all sorted and organized. It’s one less thing to worry about in the fall! CAUTION: I did not take time to straighten up my bins for the pictures.  This is real life at the end of the year! 

This will be a true sanity saver because systems that didn’t work probably drove you insane throughout the year! Now is the time while the year is winding down to honestly evaluate your organizational systems. Did they work for you and/or your students? Did students use the systems you put in place properly? If the answer is no, then why is that the case? How can you change things so it works for next year’s class? I have a drawer organization system I use to put all my copies etc. in for the week. I love it, but I don't use it faithfully, especially when I get very busy. I will continue to use this system though, despite my inconsistency, because it does work better than anything I have tried before. With my students I started using reading boxes a few years ago to help my students organize their read to self books. This is a system I love but I am finding the kids are really hard on the boxes this year: take a look at those tattered boxes. I think at the end of last year I only had 2 destroyed and this year it is almost half the class. This is a great system but I need to do more teaching about caring for their book boxes next year. 

These are some of my other organization hacks I implemented that I LOVE and will use again next year. Be warned, all the labels are looking very well used.  

What were some of your highlights from the year? What were some of your student’s? Have your students brainstorm about some of the things they liked best about the year. If it has stuck with them then it is probably a “keeper” activity. Take a moment and jot down some of your highlights as well. This can be pretty hard to do even at the end of the year so imagine how impossible it will be in the fall. This is also a good time to do some planning, if only in your head, about things for next year. I often plan to do this and forget, so I am hoping that the act of simply writing about it here on the blog will spur me to take the time to do this with my students. 

I hope you found some helpful pointers or simply were just reminded of things that you already do and need to do as the year winds down. I am on the final month countdown and will be thinking about these things in the coming weeks. 

Lastly, how about saving your sanity right now? As the weeks wind down it is more difficult to keep students engaged in their learning. I like to continue with a predicable routine until close to the end for my own sanity.   This Summer themed Spin and Graph center which is available in my store right now is perfect for this time of the year. Simply print and provide a paper clip for spinning and you have a center ready to go.  It's an engaging and relevant review task and a sanity saver all in one!  

Put a New Twist on Your End-Of-Year Activities

Hello!  It's Nicole from Learning Lab!

I cannot believe that another school year is winding down!  It seems like each school year goes by more and more quickly!  With summer right around the corner, I wanted to share a few end-of-year activities that I have done in my classroom.

I think almost everybody does some type of memory activity with their class.  I have found that many of my kids are bored with the usual memory books and activities.  A few years ago, I thought of a way to put a new twist on the old end-of-year activities.  

The traditional memory books involve students creating an artifact for themselves.  By the time they have been in school for a few years, the excitement for creating memory books has faded.  How about having the students use their memories to create a book for your next class?  Kind of like a guide to your classroom.  An Official Guide to ___ Grade!  

My students LOVED this idea!  They spent more time and put forth more effort that I have ever seen kids put into their own memory books.  Give a kid a real audience and they will perform!  I added additional covers so this activity is able to be used for grades K-6 and differentiated some pages for varying levels.  

Here is a Flipagram of the pages in the 5th grade book that I will be using with my kiddos this year.

                       

You will get a kick out of what your students will write on the "Meet the Teacher" page.  It is amazing, and sometimes hysterical, what they have picked up about your personality and how you run your classroom. 

A few times, I have needed just one more writing piece to get me through the end of the year.  How about a friendly letter to your next class?  Again, when you give a kid a real audience, they will perform!  My classes have never worked so hard to get a writing piece done.  The details were great and the handwriting was on point!  

If you need a graphic organizer to get your class started, this is what I use with my kiddos.

In addition to these new twists on old end-of-year activities, I changed my end-of-year gifts for my students.  In the past, I gave them new notebooks and pencils for them to journal throughout the summer.  When I talked to previous students and their families, a lot of them did not get around to writing in their journals.  The number one reason was, "I didn't know what to write about."  

This year, I created summer writing journals with writing prompts!  Now they won't have an excuse!  I also left some pages blank, just in case they find something else they want to write about.  

I hope you are enjoying the last few weeks of the school year (or your first few weeks of summer if you're already done).  Remember, this is the last time you will be with this exact group of kiddos.  Soak it all in and enjoy it for what it's worth!

For more ideas, I would love to see you over on my Instagram.  You can find me by searching for @Learning_Lab.  It's my favorite place to share school ideas, my new TpT products, and photos of some really cute kids!

See you again soon!

Shower Curtain/Tablecloth Games

I don't know about you but my bag of tricks is getting pretty low on ideas by this point in the school year. One of my last ditch efforts to refocus students on learning is by tricking them into it of course. I'm talking about Shower Curtain/Tablecloth Games!

I am here from K's Classroom Kreations to share with you a simple and inexpensive way to get learners up and engaged. Shower curtain games work great all year long, regardless if you are introducing new skills or reviewing some that were previously taught. I purchase plastic tablecloths or shower curtains during end of season sales and at my local Dollar Store.

I like to create generic game boards that can be used for many different games. For example, this round tablecloth was cut in half and turned into two matching garden themed centers. First I hand drew a few flowers onto the mat using a permanent marker. I used a die-cut machine to punch out some circles and laminated them. I also traced the petal shape onto construction paper and laminated those too. Now I just use a dry erase marker to write on the pieces. When the center is complete I can wipe off the pieces and use it all again later.

*Ideas to try:

- Number Representation- Write the numeral in the center. Have 1 different way to represent the number on each petal (tally marks, tens frames, addition, etc.). Students sort the pieces like a puzzle and put them on the flower they belong to.
- Word Families- Write a different word family on each center piece (-ap, -ing, -en). Write words or attach pictures to each petal. Students will sort and match pieces.

Here is a simple Blends Board. I have played this game several ways. The first way is to have students stand around the edges and throw a koosh ball onto the board. They then need to come up with a word containing the blend they land on. An alternative is for the teacher to call out a word and to have students move to the correct circle after listening carefully for a blend. Young readers could also search books for words with the pattern, record on sticky notes or index cards, and set word cards in the correct circle. The options are endless!

Another generic game board is in a Hopscotch format. I suggest using the tablecloths with backing for these games and also taping the board to the floor to prevent slipping and sliding. I like using this game board with phoneme or syllable segmentation. I call out a word and have students hop to show the correct number of sounds or syllables. They love it! For a math twist have students skip count by a certain number as they hop along the board.

Lastly, here is a little piggy game. Let me start by saying I AM NOT an artist (although my firsties think I am). I hang the curtain on my smartboard and trace out whatever image I would like in the center. It's a simple way to make custom boards without your little ones learning your true art abilities ;) Have students answer trivia, math facts, comprehension questions, etc. and move along the board from start to finish. This blank board can be used in any way that you choose.

I hope you were able to find a new game idea to help get through the next few weeks!! If you like what you read please be sure to stop by my blog or Instagram page to see the ideas in action.

Have you used shower curtains or tablecloths before to create games? What are the favorites in your class?

Want to put this idea in your bag of tricks for later? Pin here:

Making the End of the School Year Meaningful

Hey y'all :) This is Melanie from Momma with a Teaching Mission. I teach in a 1st grade departmentalized classroom. I work with 4 other teachers on my team, and we each are responsible for all 97 of our 1st grade learners. I absolutely love my job!!

In my school, we have about 20 school days left. The kids are wild, they've been this way for the past 2 weeks! I'm sure you feel my pain. Yet, we are required to teach through the last day. We still have a field trip, our reward days (for testing and behavior), and our field day (a day filled with water games and fun). So the question becomes, how do I make these last few weeks/ days of school truly meaningful?

For behavior, I've re-vamped my prize box, with a whole bunch of summer goodies--from glow sticks to bubbles to chalk to flashing toy rings (we have a no food/candy policy, or else that would be in there as well, because I have found candy in a prize box is a great motivator). With being departmentalized, I have a "WALL OF FAME". I have found this very easy to manage with 97 kiddos flowing through my room. For every good behavior, they get to write their name on the wall. For every additional good behavior, they get to put a star beside their name. Once they earn 5 stars beside their name they get to pick and prize, and I write their parents a note about their good behavior.

I am feeling the 'end of the school year burnout', as well as I think my kiddos are feeling it too. So I try to make activities in the classroom new and fun. Some of my kiddos have had problems reading their sight words, so I bought some scentos markers, shaving cream, and make some sight word search puzzles. Now they don't do each of these everyday, they do about one of these a week, and have loved them! They write their sight words in the shaving cream on their desk, they write their sight words with the smelly markers, and they search for their sight words within the word search.

The last thing I have done to make the end of the school year more meaningful is to really have my kiddos apply what they have learned this year to problem solve. After all, that's our main goal isn't it? We have recently finished up Silent E words and words with suffixes, so I created some sentences where the kids have to read them and decide which words makes the sentences make sentence from the word bank.

We learned about contractions earlier in the year (March), so I did a review activity with them and the students had to re-write the sentence using the contraction for two of the words from that sentence.

Best of luck to you in the end of the school year!! Remember, you've made it this far, you are almost there!!

Come visit me over at my blog! Momma with a Teaching Mission You can also find  here the Contraction NO PREP Printable FREEBIE , Sight Word Search Puzzles , and Silent E NO PREP Comprehension Sentences or you can visit me on TpT Momma with a Teaching Mission . Enjoy your summer!

-Melanie