We Are At...

So, where are you at in your summer planning and prepping?  I am no where near where I'd like to be at. My summer is flying by, a whirlwind of baby craziness, if you will.  I have not got nearly enough done to be ready for... duh duh duh duh... BACK TO SCHOOL!  My new students will roll into my classroom on August 8!  Can you believe that!  Here in the Phoenix area that is just asking for heat stroke during recess time if you ask me.  I wish the school board would dub me the boss of choosing the start and end dates of school.  I'm thinking the first Wednesday in September would be a better starting time and then we should go into June a bit.  June is much cooler here than August!  Anyway, enough of my rant, I have a freebie!  YES!  In my endeavors to find ultra cute things to add to my classroom this year I found inspiration from Jen at the go to teacher.  She fashioned a fancy little sign to post on the classroom door to inform people where the class is at.  So, I had to borrow the idea and make a few signs of my own.  You can nab them for FREE by clicking on the image you want and saving it to you computer.  I made them as 8x10 images so you can send them to Costco or where ever and print them out.  I plan on dressing up a jumbo paper clip with matching ribbons to use as a marker.  I'll have to post a photo when I finish.  Good luck with your summer plans and don't stress too much.

This is the neat idea from Jen at the go to teacher.

CREDITS

fonts:  LD Frosting and Century Schoolbook

Clip Art:  Mrs.Phippen

Papers:  unknown

Ruler:  unknown

CREDITS

Fonts:  TXT Soda Shoppe and Splendid

Clip Art:  Mrs. Phippen

Papers and Buttons:  Summertime Designs

CREDITS

Fonts:  TXT Groovy Smooth and TXT Soda Shoppe

Clip Art:  Mrs. Phippen

Papers and Ribbon:  Summertime Designs

CREDITS

Fonts:  skinny jeans and TXT Menu Item

Clip Art:  Mrs. Phippen

Papers and Ric-Rac:  Summertime Designs

CREDITS

Fonts:  Scrap Loop and skinny jeans

Clip Art:  Mrs. Phippen

Papers and ribbon:  Summertime Designs

CREDITS

Fonts:  2Peas Thrift Store Chair and skinny jeans solid

Clip Art:  Mrs. Phippen

Ribbon:  Summertime Designs

Papers:  Unknown

CREDITS

Fonts:  LD Traditional Cursive and LD Traditional Cursive Lined

Clip Art:  Mrs. Phippen

Ruler:  unknown

Paper:  unknown

CREDITS

Fonts:  2Peas Duck Duck Goose and LD Delightful

Clip Art:  Mrs. Phippen

Papers:  unknown

Task Signs

I have a little post for you in honor of the end of the school year.  Do you ever have those teacher moments that aren't the ultra cool a-ha ones?  You know, the ones that make you think is anyone out there even listening to a word I say?  Well years ago I had the second kind of teacher moment that inspired the first kind of teacher moment.  I was getting frustrated that my first graders were not following my directions on how to get a project completed effectively.  I would write the steps on the board but to my dismay only a handful of the kiddos were adhering to my ever so particularly scribed instructions.  It then dawned on me that the little darlings needed PICTURES to cue them on.  Duh, right?  Well I made some task signs to use.  After years of abuse I decided to retire my old ones and I created new ones.  Now whenever I assign my students a task I display the task signs.  They have magnets attached to the back of the signs so they stay on my whiteboard.  For example, if I want the children to write their name, color the project, cut the project, then glue it onto a background paper to complete a project I display the cards in that order.  It is so helpful!  Oh, and you may have noticed in the photos that if I want the kids to use a specific tool for coloring I put the matching task sign under the color sign (i.e. color with colored pencils).  I find that I'm not having to repeat the directions over and over again.  Head over to my TPT store to check out the task signs.

The Class Store

Every class has to have some kind of positive reward system, right? Well, I have the class store. This is how it did it:
1. I got little small, plastic containers at the Dollar Tree, they're in the baby section and you get 5 for $1.
2. I put labels with the kids' names on the containers, this way they act as a name tag too!
3. I bought a giant tub of play money at Lakeshore Learning.
4. I went to Wal-Mart and purchased an over the door shoe organizer.
5. I had parents send in small items to stock the class store then I placed the items in the organizer and labeled the pockets with price tags.

How it works: When the kids are behaving I reward them with a play coin or two. They save the money in their plastic "banks". On Friday afternoons a parent volunteer comes in to help the children count their money. The children then shop at the class store. I allow them to buy one item per week so the store doesn't get depleted too quickly.

Most of the kids say the store is their favorite part of first grade... What, you mean I'm not their favorite part? ;) Tee hee!