Monday Made It- August 1st

  What?!? August 1st? How the heck did that happen? I am not ready for August yet. We only have two weeks before school starts again and I am so not ready.  

  Today I'm linking up with Tara over at 4th Grade Frolics for Monday Made It! I always love checking out all the creative things people are making/doing for their classrooms.  

  I'm seeing all these fun teacher planners out there and loving them! I checked out ordering some stickers for my new planner and they just didn't fit my needs. I needed more of this and less of that. So.... I stretched myself and figured out how to create my own! Oh I am one happy girl now with a happy planner! I did some online research on how to print, scan and then cut out the stickers. I wasn't about to hand cut all of these cute stickers! No way. So after a few attempts I figured out those sweet little kiss cuts and offset lines and I've got my very own custom planner stickers! Whoop!

I shared them on Instagram and by request, I've added them to my TpT store! If you are looking for custom made planner stickers that match your district's calendar and needs exactly, then these are for you! AND they are on sale right now with the big TpT sale! You can check them out here.

I am excited to say that I finally finished my curriculum development class last week! Yahoo! I focused on sight word development for my deaf/hard of hearing students. 

 

For extra enrichment, I made a new sight word game crate! I took all of these ideas I found on Pinterest and made 20 sight word games for my students to play this next school year. We focus a lot on sight words, so I know my kiddos will love these activities. 

In order to incorporate some more hands-on sight word activities, I plan on playing a sight word game at least twice a week. To make it more exciting, I made some craft sticks with all of the sight word activities.  We'll randomly pull a stick to choose the game.   

If you'd like to make your own sight word game crate/box.... here's a little freebie for you. Grab your own sight word game sticks here.    All of the ideas for my game crate came from these awesome pins here on my Sight Word board on Pinterest.   Have a great week everyone!   

Monday Made It- August 3rd

Hello August! How did you sneak up on us so fast?! I'm linking up with Tara from 4th Grade Frolics for her weekly Monday Made It, as I feverishly try and get things ready for my classroom. I went in yesterday and my room has not been cleaned. =( The carpets were wet, but nothing has been cleaned. Ugh. So here is a little peek at what I have been up to.

I have several very low readers in my class. Last year several of my older kiddos struggled to read our job chart. So I remade it this summer with clipart. I just love the way it turned out! I use clothes pins with name labels hot glued onto the pins. This job chart is apart of my new Simple Black and White Classroom Decor set that's on sale right now.

Those same kiddos that are having a hard time reading the job chart, also struggle with reading and writing their numbers. I really needed a reference for them to use whenever needed. So I created a number banner and hung it around my room. This was an empty space before, and now it is filled with something very useful (and cute) for my students. I just added the Number Banner to my TpT store yesterday. If you're looking for a specific color combo to match your classroom decor, just let me know.

I have a few little guys in my class coming in that cannot reach the soap at the sink. I've needed a stool for a while, so this week I made that happen. I got a little wooden stool from Joann's with a coupon and spray painted it black. Then I added my signature polka dots. That's my daughter, shown a little #redbootlove while I was taking pictures.

Each summer I donate the fabric and sew the quilt for Camp Hapitok. This is a summer camp for children with speech and language disorders. I worked there as a teen and as a staff member for many years. This summer I did a little consulting work and enjoyed being apart of it in a small way. Each camper and teen pair make a quilt square. On the last day they raffle off the quilt to one of the teen volunteers as a fundraiser. This is just my tiny little contribution to a program I hold dear to my heart. 

Whew! What a busy week! Throw a little mini vacation in there and I'm not sure how I got it all done. Two weeks until school starts. Ahhhh!

Superhero Activities and Centers

This summer was the first time I have taught ESY in forever.  I knew in January when I decided to teach, that I had to make it fun and engaging for all of us. Historically, the attendance rate has been really low, and I knew my kiddos needed to be there daily. So I decided to go with a Superhero themed classroom and lessons. What do you know, my kids were there pretty much every single day. It's amazing how you can make something exciting and fun and they don't even realize they are learning in the process.

So I started to research and plan for my superheroes in training. Seriously, what did we all do before Pinterest and Teachers Pay Teachers? I couldn't find enough superhero themed centers to last throughout four and half weeks, so I decided to design my own unit. It ended up being a MEGA unit by the time I was done with summer school. I just kept adding to it as a new need came up.

Here are a few highlights from our superhero themed summer school:

We really focused on Language Arts since that is where the majority of my students struggle. The first day of summer school we talked about our classroom expectations. Of course, summer school is not the same as the regular school year, but it was important to be clear about my expectations for them. We also thought about what areas we needed to improve on and made personal goals and superheroes to go with them. I really felt like my students were more accountable for their work when they really focused on accomplishing their goal.

I was fortunate to have my same students that I have during the school year, with the two kinder kiddos added in. We made some getting to know you capes to practice answering questions and writing. I hung these on the backs of their chairs after they decorated and colored their capes. They turned out super cute!

We read two different picture books during summer school. First was Dex, the Heart of  Hero. Oh my goodness! If you have not read this one, go get it! It is very cute! It's about this little wiener dog who dreams of becoming a super hero. He trains and works hard. Then at the end of the book he saves the neighborhood tom cat and truly does become a hero. It was adorable! I found quite a few resources on TpT for this unit. We worked on spelling, vocabulary and writing related to the book. But this little writing craftivity was my favorite. So cute!

The other book we read was written by a 15 year old girl called, How to Be a Super Villain. We talked about the difference between a superhero and a villain.  The boys got a kick about our villains. They were very into it!  After creating our anchor charts, the kids did a comparison activity using flaps, where they wrote or drew about the difference between superheroes and villains. I had Kinder to 6th grade this summer, so I had to differentiate big time. They are all working from the kinder to early forth grade level in reading and writing.

The bulk of our day was spent doing centers. I made a fun superhero power point with the centers that literally exploded when it was time to rotate. The kids loved it and I did as well. It helped us stay on track and kept the time for us. I am thinking about making one for our Fairview Learning time to use during the regular school year.

During the week the students rotated through several different centers. They read with me, sight words (for the younger kids), word work, sentence building, grammar, writing, ASL, iPad, and computers. Within each of the centers I had to differentiate for their levels. That's why I ended up with such a huge centers unit.

It was so nice to have all of my centers created and ready to go for each week. It meant I was able to walk out the door each day feeling like I could focus on spending time with my own children at home. Such a concept, right?

The students were encouraged to come to summer school each day. At the end of the week, if they completed at least six of the centers they got a little treat on Friday afternoon. That was a big deal to them. Whatever works, right?

But naturally, the iPad center was their favorite. Before summer school I explored quite a few apps and made some tutorials on how to make comic strips to go along with our superhero theme. The kids took pictures on the iPad of them in superhero poses, then they completed the tutorial. They added a cape and mask as well as fun words like Pow! Zap! etc. They really enjoyed this for sure! I need to make more tutorials using new apps for the regular school year. It gives the iPad center a sense of purpose and incorporates following directions all in one. 

At the end of our four and a half weeks, we had a fun superhero party on the last day of school. I bought some fabric and taught the kiddos how to sew a basic bag on the sewing machine. They used their bags to take everything home with them.

I set up a fun laser maze in our library area. They got a kick out of this for sure! It was pretty easy to create. I hung a few pieces of really long red yarn from the ceiling and then strung it back and forth at different levels. We watched Megaminds, made superhero masks, colored star picture frames that had a picture of the class, cleaned up the classroom, and then said goodbye until August.

I was pleasantly surprised with how easy and quick summer school actually was. I might just have to do it again next summer!

Check out my Superheroes Mega Center and Activities Unit. It is jammed packed with centers for Kinder to 2nd grade and a ton of activities for your own little superheroes in your classroom!

What's New?

Hey there! I know it's been WAY too long! Life has been a bit crazy for me since school started. Trying to balance teaching, being a mom to two busy little girls, creating and blogging.... wow! But I thought I'd try to get over here more often and share what we are up to in the classroom. I have so much to share!

Today I am excited to share that I FINALLY finished up all of the Dolch Word File Folder Activities! This was a major project that took me a lot longer than I anticipated! But they are done and up on TpT.

Not only that, but they are finally assembled, laminated and being used in my classroom! They are the perfect task for my students. We are using the Dolch words for spelling each week, so these are a great resource to practice each of their words.

As many of you know, I teach a multi-grade classroom. Well, six grades to be exact. It's crazy and I don't even know how I do it on most days. But some how we make it work. These File Folder Activities are working out well since I can just pull the words that each student is working on. But as I was using the full set last week I realized I needed a way to quickly find the words I was looking for. So I have added some dividers to separate the grade levels. Check out that little freebie up on TpT for your Dolch Sight Word activities.

File Folder Activities

I don't know about you, but I have some kiddos that really struggle with learning their sight words. For Deaf/hard of Hearing students, they cannot rely on phonics to read, they must memorize every single word. It can be very difficult for students that have memory issues and/or learning disabilities. So we do TONS of repetition and practice in my classroom.

Over the years,  I have collected all sorts of sight word worksheets for the students to use to practice their words. But frankly, they get boring very quickly. So this year I thought I'd make my own file folder activities to make practicing sight words fun.

My two little girls really enjoyed these activities. I got them out to take pictures and they wanted to do folder after folder! One of them is going into first grade, so the sentence writing and word searches were perfect for her. My other little one is going into Transitional Kindergarten. She tried them and was able to tell me if it was the word we were looking for or not on the activity page. I was quite impressed.

But naturally, the kinesthetic part of rolling out the playdoh and making the words was hands down the most fun for the girls. I can see my students enjoying this part as well.

On the front of each folder, the students use either playdoh, pipe cleaners, yarn, etc to make their word. For the Deaf/hard of Hearing students, there are circles to indicate how many signs there are for the word. After they sign each of the meanings/signs they place a little playdoh ball on the circles.

On the inside of the folder, there is a place to practice writing the word, framing the word, and then a sentence to write. The second part is an activity. Each of the activities is a little different. They might find and circle their word from a bunch of words and fonts, a word search, an I-Spy where they use a magnifying glass to find and circle their sight word, or cross out their words.

It took a little bit of prep to get these made, but I can see using them for years to come as a center activity or independent work. In my class, we learn 4 new sight words a week. Rather than the boring worksheets I used last year right after recess time, we'll be doing something a lot more fun and engaging!

I've made folders for the basic Dolch Sight Words available over on TpT. You can check them out by clicking on the picture.

Hello Summer! I've Missed You!

I swear we have the best jobs around! Sure, we work our tails off for 183 days... but then we get a nice long vacation. I live for summer every year! This year was no exception. It wasn't a horrible year. It actually flew by much faster than in the past.

But I live for flip flops, sleeping in (as much as my girls will let me), and a flexible schedule. I really enjoy these few weeks of being a Stay At Home Mom.  Honestly, I couldn't do it year round, but a short stretch is perfect. Park days, swim lessons, and picnics in the backyard. My kind of summer!

This weekend I had the opportunity to meet the sweet and talented Alison from Rockin' and Lovin' Learnin'.  She's the first blogger I have meet since I started this little blog over a year ago. Blogging certainly brings people together from all over! She was all the way out here in California from Florida and I just had to meet her! Seriously, I swear we were long lost friends! My girls swam in the pool while her and I chatted. We talked about our classrooms, families, blogging and TpT. I had a million questions for her. We could have chatted for hours, but I was crashing her little vacation. =) Mostly, she inspired me to get my bum in gear to get some projects finished and to be more active blogging. Summer is the perfect time to do that!


Let's hope this summer moves nice and slow and there is plenty of time for everything!

Thank You Gifts- Monday Made It

I am excited to be linking up with 4th Grade Frolics and her Monday Made It's this summer! Today is my first Monday of summer vacation! Thank goodness!

Last week was my last week of school. I made some little thank you gifts for the teachers that I mainstreamed with this year. I was very fortunate to have some great general education teachers that worked with my Deaf/Hard of Hearing students this year. Some had sign language interpreters that went with them to class. Another went to the general education class with an instructional assistant. I had another student that was fully included and I went into the classroom to help with one of the reading groups. It was a busy year and the general education teachers work hard and do extra when they agree to mainstream with my program.

For the male general education teachers, I put together these little bags of highlighters and added a quick little thank you card.  The card reads, "Mainstreaming in your class has been a highlight this year!" 

For the female general education teachers I made up these little simple manicure kits and a thank you card that said, "Mani thanks for a great year of mainstreaming!"

 

I put these little thank you cards in my TpT store as a freebie. I changed up the wording to be very generic and can be used for any volunteer or colleague.  

 

I also made some goodies for my students for the last day of school. Who doesn't love Pop Rocks? I was shocked that some of them had never tried them before!

 

Both of these thank you tags and Pop Rocks tag are freebies over on TpT. I know I am one of the last ones to get out of school and you all have already been enjoying summer for a week or two... so save the printable for next year. 

Happy Monday!

Lace-a-Word

Today's featured center is Lace-a-Word. I love these little lacing letter beads from Lakeshore Learning. They are perfect for activities like this and combine fine motor skills all in one. Using any word list, the students locate the letters in their word. Lace the beads to spell the word, then write their word. Simple and no prep.

I finally put together some of the centers activities I use in my classroom and created Word Work Centers for Any Word List.