Summer Goals Flip Book Plus 3 FREE Downloads

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My how the school year flies by! It's already Spring Break this week for my kids, which means one thing: The countdown until summer break has begun! 

We had one snow day this year, which means our last day is now after Memorial Day. I'd love to hear when YOUR last day of school is? (Leave in comments below!) 

Today I'm going to highlight a brand new end of the year activity that I'm super excited to use with my kids. Plus, I'm going to share some fun ideas and also give you three free downloads that you can print now and set aside for use at the end of the year with your students. This way you won't be scrambling at the last minute looking for something new and fun to do. 

So this Summer Goals Craftivity is fun, easy, and will go right along with the other activities, ideas, and crafts that you have planned for your kids to do at the end of the school year.

Six tabs provide a variety of goals for your Preschool, Kindergarten, or First Grade littles to make as they begin to think about planning out their summer break. Pssst... they will also be incorporating writing practice at the same time!

Let me show you  a closer look!

There are actually six different covers that you can choose from for this activity. There are ten different characters for your kiddos to pick from. 5 girls and 5 boys. Encourage them to find the one that most resembles them. They can improvise if needed (add glasses, or whatnot).

I had my Kindergarten daughter help me make a sample so that you can see the steps students need to take to complete this project. 

Start by having them pick a cover and color it. 

Then they can grab a pencil and fill out the beginner writing portions of all the pages included. The first page has the "I will eat..." and "I will read..." tabs. Nali (my daughter) plans to eat ice cream and read Pete the Cat books!

The next page gives students a place to write a goal about something they want to play. I plan to encourage my kids to think about something new to try. My daughter was not creative at all in her example, as she has been very eager for warm weather so that she can play outside!

Then, students can make a goal about how they can help someone this summer. My daughter wants to help her next door neighbor clean up her toys, how sweet!

Next, students plan somewhere they would like to visit. For this one, I suggest encouraging them to think of somewhere reasonable. This is a good opportunity to talk about making goals that are reachable! The zoo is a great goal for a place to visit this summer. The moon? Maybe not so much!

Then they will have a chance to write out five goals. They can be the same five goals they already created but now all in one easy-to-see place, or they could even be five additional goals. My daughter did a mix of both:

Time to cut it all out! Simple cutting and easy assembly allows for all students to happily succeed.
Throw some math in there, and have your students practice measuring by laying out the tabs from shortest to tallest!

Then glue the tabs together to make a flip book!

Now your students can take turns reading their flip books to their peers before taking hanging them up in the hallway!

You can get this activity here: All About Me Back to School Flip Book

Before I give you a few FREE DOWNLOADS, let me show you some other end of the year ideas I found on Pinterest that I can't wait to try this year:

I know the kids are going to go crazy over this popping balloons idea!

Check how how sweet this 'waving goodbye' idea is!

I am a huge watermelon fan and there are so many cute ideas in this theme:

With the new school year quickly approaching, I know that many teachers are already starting to get things organized and ready for this Back to School this fall. I've shared this download before, so some of you may have already grabbed it!  But these Student Information Sheets are a great way for you to print out NOW and tuck in your Back to School file folder for when it's time to think about the new year:

FREE STUDENT INFORMATION SHEETS DOWNLOAD

Another FREE DOWNLOAD I'd like to share is especially for YOU this summer!


SUMMER FAMILY-FRIENDLY DRINK & TREAT RECIPES

Ok, one more! Summer is the time to think about camping. Here are some FREE Camping themed sticker incentive charts that come in both full and less ink options. Enjoy!

GONE CAMPING STICKER INCENTIVE CHARTS

-Til next time

     

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Bek

Back to School FREEBIE Blog Hop with Kinderfriends

I'm so excited to be joining up with the Kinderfriends group to give you some Back to School FREEBIES!

Back to School TIP

As teachers, we set goals for so many things. So why not make some specifically for back-to-school days? These goals will look different for everyone. Take a few moments and think about what you would really like to accomplish most with your students the first two days of school. Jot them down real quick so you don't forget.

Now think of some goals you'd like to accomplish for yourself. Maybe you want to collaborate more with teammates. Or pack your lunch every day so your not running out (or starving) on break. Some other ideas might be to compliment students a certain amount of times for the day, or spend some time getting to better know a student (or even fellow teacher). Or how about spending just 2 minutes in complete silence with your eyes closed on a break, just to give yourself a chance to re-gather your thoughts and energy.

Meeting goals, no matter how small they might be, will make you feel successful and...HAPPY! So write them down and check them off as you complete them. Remember to make a variety of goals that range from small to large.

Back to School Essentials 

If you're looking to start the school year out smoothly, I highly recommend using Common Curriculum Everyday. I show you what it looks like and then give you some FREE DOWNLOADS you can print and use with your students.  WOO-HOO!

I first created Common Curriculum Everyday shortly after the Common Core standards came out. I needed something to use with my Kinders that included short little snippets of independent daily review that were designed around mastering the new-at-the-time LA & Math Common Core standards. I didn't want to have to dig around searching for and compiling random resources to use as review. Nor did I want to keep track of so many different resources. 

So I laid all the Common Core LA & Math standards out and made a plan, making sure to incorporate as many of the standards as I could (plus a few extra concepts as well). I spread it out over the span of 10 months, combining a few August weeks into the September pack since school around here usually begins the middle of August. 

The activity sheets that come in each months pack involve math, literacy, and handwriting skills. They were made (with the Common Core standards in mind) to be used as independent practice sheets for students to do as morning work, homework, at a center, or for use in any other way you might see fit. 

Common Curriculum Everyday provides repeat exposure to the Kindergarten LA & Math standards, allowing students to successfully master the standards. The skills and Common Core standards that are covered in each month are written out in each pack so that you can look over each month ahead of time. The handwriting skills grow with students, starting off with basic letter tracing, moving to writing words, and then moving again to writing sentences later on in the year. 

Each month includes 25 pages to print. The September pack includes an additional 10 pages to use for end of August. The entire 10-month set includes 260 pages to print.

The pages of every pack are set up in 5 different layouts (one for each week of the month) so that students can be guided by you on what to do the first day of each week and then be able to continue on their own for the remaining days. The layouts are similar, so many students will pick up on what to do after awhile without any guidance at all.

This next example pictures has a mistake...did you notice what she did wrong? These daily pages are a great way to do informal assessments as you're walking around the room! 

 

Here are TWO FREE DOWNLOADS that will give you an opportunity to try these for yourself!

The first one comes from the September pack:

September FREE DOWNLOAD

The next one comes from the October pack:

I especially love this pack because students have to search for the spider each day on the page. You can have them circle it when they find it! Did you find it?

October FREE DOWNLOAD

I like using these first thing in the morning as seat work. It give me a chance to take care of all my morning duties, while giving the kids a chance to have meaningful practice time of the concepts we've been covering.

Now head on over to Mrs. Byrd's Learning Tree for more Back to School FREEBIES!

-Til next time

       

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Bek

FREE How to Survive as a Firefly Life Cycle Flip Book

**Book images created by Erica Salcedo are used with permission from The Innovation Press**
**This post contains affiliate links.**

I was recently given a copy of the book 
How to Survive as a Firefly 

by Kristen Lootes and illustrated by Erica Salcedo. 

It was my first time seeing (or even having heard of) the book, so I was excited to read it.  Before even opening the book, I realized that I really don't know anything at all about fireflies...except that they are a ton of fun to catch in the summer at dusk! 

I found this book to be a delightful and incredibly funny informational book for kids ages 5-10. If you teach an insect unit, or about fireflies or the life cycle of fireflies, then this book is a must-have for you and your students. 

I made a FREE Firefly Life Cycle Flip Book for students to use as a fun way to gather and organize facts that they learn while reading! 

Ok, so let me tell you a little bit about the book. You can also download a PREVIEW of the book and take a look for yourself!

"How to Survive as a Firefly"  is written in a story format, having an adult firefly educate the newly hatched firefly eggs on what they will need to do throughout their life to survive. 

It covers everything in a very humorous, yet informationally accurate way. From life cycle info, to vocabulary terms, to parts of the body...it has it all! Even a glosser is included at the end of the book. 

Students can work on the companion resource before reading the book. This will give them time to gather any background information they have on fireflies, as well as wonder about them. 
Have them start out by coloring the flip book cover page.

Then they can cut out all of the pages and glue them together. It can dry while they initially read the book. After reading it, they can go back and look for information that they'd like to include in the flip book. The first page has students simply write out the four stages of a firefly's life cycle. They can add quick sketches of each stage too, if they'd like!

Then they can write down facts specific to each stage of the life cycle. Starting with the Egg stage:

Then on to the Larva stage:

And next the Pupa stage:

And finally, the adult stage:

The final page give students a chance to jot down some unique, or their favorite, facts that they learned about fireflies.

After it's finished, students can use it to review or reflect on. They can use it to study from (if there is any type of assessment over the information) or just take it home to share what they learned with family and friends! 

Enjoy How to Survive as a Firefly Life Cycle Flip Book absolutely FREE. Don't forget to leave a review of the resource. I very much appreciate your opinions and feedback on activities that I create!

-Til next time

     

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Bek

Back to School All About Me Flip Book Activity and a FREE DOWNLOAD

Back to School is coming up faster than we realize, so I wanted to give you a few ideas (including a FREE DOWNLOAD) that you can set aside NOW so that you're not scrambling at the last minute looking for something new and fun to do with your students! 

This All About Me Flip Book Craftivity is fun, easy, and will go right along with the other activities, ideas, and crafts that you have planned for your kids to do this fall for Back to School.

Six tabs provide information for your Preschool, Kindergarten, or First Grade littles to share about themselves while incorporating beginning writing practice at the same time. 

Let me show you  a closer look!

There are actually six different covers that you can choose from for this activity. There are ten different characters for your kiddos to pick from. 5 girls and 5 boys. Encourage them to find the one that most resembles them. They can improvise if needed (add glasses, or whatnot).

I had my five year old (who will be entering Kindergarten this fall) make a sample so that you can see the steps students need to take to complete this project. 

Start by having them pick a cover and color it. 

Then they can grab a pencil and fill out the beginner writing portions of all the pages included. The first page has the "All About" and "Favorites" tabs. Her favorite food is (believe it or not) "Robin Noodles".... Ramen Noodles (bleh!).

The next page encourages students to write about something they dislikes. My daughter is a sensitive soul and greatly dislikes when people are mean or use a harsh tone with her.


Next, students will draw a self portrait.


Then they will write out what dreams they have. I like this Big Dream! That's a big green dinosaur she drew.

Finally, they write 5 reasons why they are unique.

Time to cut it all out! Simple cutting and easy assembly allows for all students to happily succeed.
Throw some math in there, and have your students practice measuring by laying out the tabs from shortest to tallest!

Then glue the tabs together to make a flip book!

Now your students can take turns reading their flip books to their peers before taking hanging them up in the hallway!

You can get this activity here: All About Me Back to School Flip Book

Before I give you a FREE DOWNLOAD, let me show you some other All About Me ideas I found on Pinterest that I loved:

With the new school year quickly approaching, I know that many teachers are already starting to get things organized and ready for this Back to School this fall.
Here's a FREE DOWNLOAD for you to print out now that will be a perfect way for you to keep track of information about your students:

FREE STUDENT INFORMATION SHEETS DOWNLOAD

-Til next time

     

Read more »

Bek