2017-18 Calendars are here!

Are you starting to think about next school year yet?  I hope not!  If you are a teacher, I hope that is the last thing on your mind.  But, honestly, this is the time when we reflect about went well, what we want to do better, and new things we might try next year...  or maybe you are thinking about vacation, baseball, and beating the heat. 

These calendars are the first thing I do each summer for back to school because I have so many teachers who depend on me to make calendars for their students each year.  We all use these for kids to learn and practice writing numbers to 30 in our classrooms.  This is an activity teachers have been doing for years and it is one of the few things I have NOT kicked to the curb since common core came along.

When CCSS came along, there were so many new activities to try, new curriculum to implement, and I felt like there was not enough time for everything...  especially in a partial day kindergarten.  There were so many old activities that just had to go.  But this activity is still my go to for monthly number writing.   There are so many concepts we work on each time we do this...  of course the actual handwriting of numbers, which is TRICKY for little learners.  And of course there is the rote counting and remembering the number order.  We also do a lot of work on the order of numerals in the two digit numbers.  We look at patterns that can help us remember.  Kids also learn to use tools in the classroom to help themselves.  Many students work on perseverance, focus, and time management as well.

Even though I really do like my adopted math curriculum, it doesn't give the kiddos as much practice with number writing as they need.  So this is an important area to supplement.  If I don't send them to first grade knowing this, then I have failed.  My friend next door teaching first grade still does this in her room every year too.   The kids benefit from fine motor practice and double digit number practice.  Did I mention that the families LOVE getting these at home each month?  I have parents comment on them all the time.  I even have kids tell me where they put the calendar in their homes.

OK, so... clearly this is a tried and true learning activity.  Are you doing these in your classroom?  If not, why?

Is it because you don't have time to think up an art project each month?  I've got you covered!  My calendar product comes with art ideas for the entire year with details about how we did the project.  I update it each year with new projects.  It also has links to my Pinterest boards so you can search for new ideas.  Is it because you don't want to have to buy a new download each year?  Got you covered there too!  My calendar product is perpetual, so you automatically get a new download each year.  Just go into My Purchases on TpT, find the calendar product and download again!  Easy Peasy!

So, if you own my Calendars for Number Writing ~Perpetual~  go download it and grab your new calendars.  If you don't have it yet, you might want to consider investing in it.  I have a commitment to make these calendars through 2028, and will probably make them well after that.  The price will be going up when the school year begins, so I hope you get it this summer to save.

Let's look at some adorable seasonal art and then I will show you the new calendar set for 2017-2018.

This apple is adorable!  We did an apple unit that year and we talked about the variations in colors even on apples from the same variety.  I thought it came out beautiful!

This baby jack-o-lantern is so cute.  This little guy didn't want to do lots of cutting, but I thought he was really creative with how he did the eyes and the tiny vampire tooth.  You can find more fun and funky jack-o-lanterns on this blog post: It's Pumpkin time!

This was a fun project for November!  We just did a construction paper collage on cut paper plates for the pie.  The napkin is construction paper too.  We glued on a fort to make it complete!

This is one of my favorite projects for December.  I always have several colors of paper available so kids can make candles any color they like.  That way we honor any family celebrations or lack thereof.  The greens are just ripped paper glued on in two shades of green.  You can do ripped red paper for berries, or glitter berries too.  The flame is gold glitter.

This is my new favorite winter art project.  We did these last year for December and they all came our just beautiful.  This was a two part project.  First, kids make a tissue paper collage on card stock using a glue-water mixture.  After this dried, they cut out triangle shaped trees and glued them on the dark background paper.  Lastly, they dotted on white tempera paint using cotton swabs to make snow.  Each one came out as unique as the child that made it, but they were all lovely. 

This project was a water color resist using white oil pastels on white paper.  Kids cold draw trees, houses, snow people, snowflakes, etc.  It was an open ended winter drawing.  Then they painted over the drawing with winter sky colors like blue, purple, etc.  It is always an experiment doing water color resist with young kids.  They have to press hard with the pastels.  I just loved the way this one came out.  I like the colors and how it isn't "perfect".  It is beautiful.

I just adore these love bugs!  They made great art for our calendars a few years ago.  I used Ellison die cuts for the hearts and circles.  I cut some of the circles in half for the wings.  We had lots of different colors available for our little artists.  We also used googly eyes and oil pastels for details.

This spring calendar was also done with Ellison die cuts.  We have the flower die at school.  I made lots of those in yellow and white and the kids used tissue to make the little centers for the flowers.  They are supposed to look like daffodils... even though they aren't really accurate, they are still pretty flowers for March.

OK, this is the last one...  Earth Day art for April!  This earth template and the little Everyday is Earth Day sign are FREE in my TpT store.  They are part of an Earth Day writing activity  You can grab them right here: Earth Day FREEBIE!

Oh my goodness... that is a lot of art!  So even if you don't use my calendars in your classroom, I hope you found some ideas that you can use!  Here are my Calendars for Number Writing 2017-2018:

Thanks for stopping by!
Happy teaching!

2016 - 2017 Calendars are Posted!

I am so happy to share my new calendars with you.  I wanted to let those of you who own the perpetual version know you can go download your new calendars for the year.  I hope you love them!  I am already thinking of some new art projects to go with them.

For those of you who don't yet own the perpetual version, I just want you to know why these are worth the investment.  They are differentiated to meet the needs of ALL your students.  That means four versions for each month and five for Sept. and Oct.   They are redesigned every year with a fresh look and new clip art.  They also include lots of ideas for art projects with links to blog posts and templates.  This is meant to save you time and give you a great monthly activity that is handled and easy.  For me that is priceless.

I have been doing a little research about my retirement and I think (God willing) I will be teaching until 2028.  So, I will be making the calendars until then and possibly longer.  That means a lot more calendars coming your way.  

Go check them out:  Calendars for Number Writing ~ Perpetual~

Thanks for stopping by!
Happy teaching!

Happy Thanksgiving!

OK, so I thought October went by fast.  But, November has gone by even faster.  I can't believe Thanksgiving is next week.  I am thankful for so many things right now.  I am thankful that my parent teacher conference week went well and is now over.  I am thankful for ten hours of sleep last night.  (Should I be embarrassed about that?)  I am thankful that my mom is doing OK after her surgery.  I am thankful for the online teaching community and Teachers Pay Teachers!  I am thankful that I still love my job after 17 years and I get to work with some of the most amazing people in the world...  the five year old people in my class.  Life is good.


I am especially thankful for helpful fall resources for my classroom.  This Print and Go! Apples, Pumpkins, and Leaves is a great set of NO PREP printables that can take you from September to November in kindergarten.  I use it for independent practice, formative assessment, and homework.  This set also has a page that I use soooooooo much throughout the year.  It's a sweet recording sheet for addition with dominoes.  It's perfect for little learners!  You will have to go take a look at the product in my store to go check it out...

Here are a few of the time saving pages in this product:

Here is an example of student work using one of the pages.  You can go take a look at this helpful resource by clicking on this  link: Print and Go! Apples, Pumpkins, and Leaves or click on the image below.

I am also really excited because my Print & Go! Thanksgiving FREEBIE made it into the TpT newsletter this week.  Woo hoo!  If you haven't downloaded this yet, go grab it.  You can get it by clicking on the link above or the images below.

It has four pages of black and white printable activities for your K-1 kiddos.  There are two activities that are great for addition or decomposing numbers to ten.  It also has a sentence scramble and a writing sheet with an "I'm thankful for..." list.  The lists are half pages with two on the master.  It looks like this when you cut the pages in half:

Here is another one:

Those were written by kindergarten kids in November.  You can see they are working on stretching out words and writing the corresponding sounds.  This is great practice and I think they are doing really well so far.  I think the little darling above copied Leaves from a book cover - what a smartie!    You will often see things from nature on my students' thankful lists because I always read this book to them before we start.

 

Giving Thanks is a wonderful book if you are studying Native Americans or teaching about the first Thanksgiving in your classroom.  It is a message of gratitude written by Chief Jake Swamp and illustrated by a Native American artist, Erwin Printup Jr.  I will be honest, it is written like a prayer, but because it is from the Native American cultural perspective, it is OK to read in public school classrooms.  It is a great book for that reason when it is presented in the context of the studies I mentioned above.  It is a really beautiful message.

Those thankful lists were on a bulletin board that looked like this:

The Indian corn art was done with cotton swabs dipped in brown, yellow, orange, and red paints.  Then the kiddos attached the corn husks to make them look like Indian corn.  I had drawn out the cob shaped templates and made copies on card stock.  It was a successful little fall art project.  Here are a couple of them up close:

We also made turkeys from toilet paper rolls.  I am always looking for ways to up cycle tp rolls.  I wish I could use all the rolls we use in my household for art projects, but it is an uphill battle.  We use a lot of toilet paper and there are only so many art projects we can do in a school year.  But, these little turkeys were pretty darn cute!

First my little students painted a peice of thick paper with fall colors in whatever pattern or design they liked.  Then they traced both hands and cut them out.  Last, they glued on eyes, nose, and tissue paper waddle along with the hands on the tp roll.  Tadaaa!  Fun little turkeys for a Thanksgiving decoration at home.  We made those turkeys last year.

So I used the idea again for a variation on the theme this year.  For these turkeys on our November calendars, I used our Ellison die cut machine to make colorful leaves and the kiddos used them as tail feathers.  We used tp rolls again for the turkey body and students used markers to draw the eyes, beaks, and legs.  It was a simple and easy project for the calendars.  You can grab my Calendars for Number Writing in my TpT store by clicking on the link or the image above. 

We have also been learning about setting, characters, and beginning, middle,  and end of a story for retelling.  We used my favorite book for fall.  I have posted about it before, because it is absolutely adorable!!!

 

Fletcher and the Falling Leaves by Julia Rawlinson is a must for your K-1 library if you don't already have it.  You can go grab it at Amazon by clicking on the image above.  (If you buy it, I will get a teeny tiny bit of $ from them for going through my blog -thanks!)  That is true for any of the book covers on this post.  You can go get them with a click and if you do, thank YOU!

This is an example of how my kids do the beginning, middle, end re-telling in my classroom.

I take 12 X 18" drawing paper and cut it in half to 6 X 18".  Then I fold it in thirds and write beginning, middle, end on the corresponding sections.  It doesn't take long at all to prep that.  After reading and talking about the story, the kids draw pictures illustrating each part.  Then I take the dictation about what was happening in each part.   It works great for kindergarten kids.  When the activity is more about ideas, I use dictation, rather than writing, as a way for the kiddos to express themselves.  

Here are a few more books I LOVE to read this time of year with my class:

 

In November By Cynthia Rylant is beautifully written with rich language and images.  It is a classic!

 

Alligator Arrived with Apples - A Potluck Alphabet Feast is another great book for Thanksgiving time.  The creative use of alliteration will tickle your students ears.  There are lots of unusual foods to discuss as well.  It is also a classic and continues to be one of my favorites.

 

When Autumn Comes by Robert Maass is a wonderful book for studies about the season of fall.  It helps give kids lots of seasonal indicators other than leaves turning color and falling off trees.  It is a helpful book to use for answering the essential question "How do we know it's Fall?"

And this is another helpful resource for November in kindergarten or even older grades too...

Kids can answer that question...  How do you know it's Fall?,  they can start a gratitude journal, and write about so much more in this fun fall writing pack.  You can find it right here:  November Writing Activities - Pretty Papers and Prompts

I hope you have a well deserved Thanksgiving break.  Enjoy this special holiday with your family and friends.  May you have many gifts to be thankful for this season.

Thanks so much for stopping by.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy teaching!

Halloween Fun!

Halloween is almost here!  That means fall is really here, which makes me happy because I love fall so much!  I have been very busy and so unfortunately the blogging has not been happening as regularly as I would like.  But, today I have a freebie for you and some fun ideas for Halloween and fall in your classroom.

My friend who teaches first grade is doing monthly calendars with her students just like I do with mine.  So she is using the ones I make.  Thanks Carey!  We didn't talk about the art projects we had decided to do for October and guess what we BOTH did?  Yup, silly pumpkins!!!  Great minds think alike.  Hers are above.  They did the whole thing as cut paper art.  And of course because the students are firsties, they did all the designing and cutting completely independently.

My students started the project by painting a pumpkin independently.  I cut out the painted pumpkins.  Then, the next day, I helped them with the face parts.  I showed them lots of examples from this project by doing a Google search on my iPad for silly pumpkins.  When they sat down at my center table to do the project, they told me what shape they wanted for eyes, mouth, teeth, etc.  I drew the shapes for them and they did the cutting independently.  These always come out super cute!  You can see more from the last time I did this project here: It's Pumpkin time!   If you want to get the calendars that we have used, you can grab them right here: Calendars for Number Writing. 

I just had to show you this green one because it is so darn cute!  I was so proud of the little darling who made it too, because the cutting was a bit tricky for her.  Yay for silly pumpkins! Woo hoo!

These are some fun activities that I send home for homework in October.  We just completed our Counting Bears number books, so my students are learning the number words from 1-10.  This page is a fun way to practice that knowledge along with counting practice.  I love activities that cover both math and literacy. 

We also have been working on hidden partners from ENY math.  For those of you who don't know, hidden partners are the smaller numbers that "hide" inside big ones.  For example, 6 can have 3 and 3 or it can have 4 and 2 inside.  You get the idea...  My kids are really starting to understand this concept and many already know a lot about adding numbers together.  So, this sheet is another fun way to practice all those skills.

This monster number activity is also very fun and great practice for numbers.  They have to sort tallys, dice, and words by number to match the monster with the correct numeral.   These sheets are so handy to have around during October.  I got sick for the first time this month and you never know when you are going to need something quick for sub plans.  They are also great for homework or morning work which is what I made them for.  If you want to check out the whole pack, you can find them here: Print and Go! Halloween



This is a cute scarecrow glyph activity that I put together quickly last year and it was super fun!

The kiddos had to use purple bands on the hats if they were girls and yellow if they were boys.  They used big googly eyes if they were 6 years old and small ones if they were 5.  Lastly, they used a red nose if they love fruit more and green if they love veggies more.  We didn't do a data recording sheet for this activity, but it is so fun to see the kids looking at the bulletin board and talking to their friends about the results.

This year we have been focusing a lot on counting and numbers, so I made this little open ended activity to see how my students were coming along with that.  We were also working on drawing very detailed pictures in writers' workshop, so it was a perfect combination of what we had been doing in class.  It was a big success and I loved that the kids got to choose how many of each item they were drawing and then counting.  Don't you just LOVE drawings by five year old people?  I DO!!!

Ok, you are probably here for the freebie and if you actually read the post and looked at my ideas, I thank you and hope you found something helpful!  This is a fun counting activity I made for the kiddos to do on Halloween.  We use candy corn and the kids love that they get to eat some.

If you want to grab these counting mats for your classroom, you can go get them in my TpT store right here: FREEBIE - Halloween counting mats.  Or, you can click on the cover image below.

I hope your October is going well.  Thanks so much for stopping by.
Happy teaching!
Happy Halloween!