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

Favorite Fall Books

I'm joining up with Kinderfriends to share with you some of my favorite Fall books! 

Our unit on bats in October is one of my favorite units to teacher, so I'm going to share some bat books that are a must have for your classroom library, or carpet time reading. I'll provide an affiliate link for each book I recommend so that you can purchase them for your own classroom!

-Stellaluna

-Bats in the Band

-There was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Bat

-It's Raining Bats and Frogs

-Ms. Bitsy Bat's Kindergarten

-Bats in the Library

-Hello Bumblebee Bat

-Bats Around the Clock

-Little Bat (Puppet Book)

There are some great resources that go with the Swallowing Bat Lady story. I posted about them a few Halloweens ago. You can read about it here. There are some additional bat crafts, snacks, and activities on that post as well!

Now you can hop on over to

Paula's Preschool and Kindergarten blog to find out what her favorite fall books are to share!

-Til next time

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Bek

Labor Day Emergent Reader and Community Helpers Activities

How can it be that Labor Day is already upon us?! My kids have been in school for over two weeks now. I'm curious to hear when you went/go back.

Since it kinda just snuck up on me, I'm going to cram this post in real quick so that you'll have a few extra Labor Day ideas for your littles.

Here is a Labor Day Emergent Reader you can use over the next few days (or even next week) to reinforce the high frequency words "I", "Can", & "See" while celebrating Labor Day at the same time.

 Each page goes through various community helpers including:
-police officer
-fireman
-teacher
-garbage collector
-nurse
-hair stylist
-baker
-crossing guard
-farmer
-soldier
-doctor

The book is 12 pages total and is created two to a page for easy copy machine copying, stapling, and slicing.


We tie in Labor Day with our Community Helpers unit.
Here are a couple of Community Helpers activities to add to your plans.

These Community Helpers Writing Activity papers are great for a bulletin board or hallway display.
 

Many occupations are included, most coming in both male and female characters.

Two different formats allow you to choose what's best for your students.

PLUS, there are blank ones so that your littles can write about what they would like to be when they are older.


Pocket chart pieces are a must for your Community Helpers unit.

These ones include:
-artist
-chef
-construction worker
-doctor
-farmer
-fire fighter
-mail carrier
-police officer
-hair stylist
-nurse
-teacher
-vet


Choose from a full color version, or a less-ink one.


Each snapshot is 4"x4.5" in size.


Enjoy your Labor Day!

Til next time,

        

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Bek

Grandparents Day Activities

Grandparents Day is just a few weeks away (September 10th) so I thought I'd share some activities that you can use with your kiddos in celebration of their loved ones.

This day is a really hard one for me to blog about, as it brings to mind memories of many dear grandparents who are no longer with us. At the time that these activities were made, a very special Great-Grandma had just passed. These resources were made in special honor of her.

Alright, let's brush those tears aside and dive into some things that will give your littles a chance to appreciate and celebrate the grandparents in their lives!

You never know what activity or craft their grandparents will hold dear to their hearts. Earlier this year, Great-Grandpa also passed. Amongst some of his belongings was one of the Love Notes (I'll show you them below) that one of my kids had written him from this resource pack! So I encourage you to encourage your students to pass on their completed cards, coloring pages, and notes to their grandparents. It will be a very special to them if it was saved and they receive it back some day.

So the "We Love Grandparents" pack includes 22 pages that you can print and use. It was made with Kindergarten in mind, but can be used for Preschool and even First Grade.

It has both Upper and Lower case Alphabet letter tracing practice. Number tracing too. Multiple mazes with no blocks give all learners a chance to succeed. Students can make it harder if they'd like by drawing in their own blocks! Phonics beginning, middle vowel (CVC), and end sounds practice has adorable grandparent pictures on them.

And here are the Love Notes I mentioned above. There are a bunch to choose from, including a foldable card! A color-by-number and also coloring sheet are included for some color word fun.

Some simple syllable and measurement activities will give students the extra practice they may need. And some simple cut-out puzzles in both black/white and full color are also available. *Note that not all of the pages included in the pack are shown here in the blog.*

Does your school host a Grandparents Day event?
If so, you may want to pull some of these activities for your littles to do with their special person(s)! This next activity is perfect for that...

Grandparents Day BINGO!
(High Frequency Word style!)

If Grandparents are coming (and even if they're not) this is an excellent way for students to show off the sight words they've learned so far. It's also an easy opportunity for their grandparents to take part in helping them if needed!

There are THIRTY Bingo cards to choose from.

And the following 48 words are scrambled amongst the various boards:

The calling cards are LARGE so that all students (and grandparents) can easily see them from the front of the room.


Enjoy preparing for Grandparents Day for your littles! I know that their loved ones will appreciate the time and effort you spend making their special day memorable!

-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