Welcome Back, Froggy Style!

My Welcome Back Froggy Door!

I can't believe school is already a month in and I am just now posting this, but here is my back to school door.  I decided to add Chevron to my theme this year!  I am obsessed with everything chevron!

My friend Marie, helped me cute out strips of paper to make the water splashes.

Here's to already being more than a month into school!

While perusing the world of Pinterest, I came across this little gem.  I relate to this oh, so much!  I had to share! :)  I couldn't find where the original pin is from, but I love it!

This made me think of all the little things I have taken from home, which have now become a permanent fixture in my classroom.  Just the other day, I came across a potato peeler, hot pad, and box full of q-tips  that managed to sneak themselves into my classroom cupboards.  Oh, and don't worry, I have been looking for that darn little potato peeler for a month now!

Happy Day!

    

Back To School Open House

I can't believe it is already back to school time.  The summer has come and gone and now it is time to get in the teaching groove again.  Here goes nothing ;).

I decided this year to make a little somethin' froggy to welcome my students back to school.  I found a cute template for a paper bag frog here.  I had some of my students from last year, cut out and put the bags together.  

Here is what the frogs looked like on the desks.

I put a pencil, eraser, and some small "3rd grade survival treats" inside the bag.  The kids were excited to take the bags home with them.

I also put a small cut out of a Lilly pad on the desk with a couple of get to know you questions for the each student to answer.   

Next year I am going to find green bags to use for the frog body, but I think the kids really enjoyed walking in to see a frog sitting on their desk.  I hope you had a good back to school open house, and here's to a great new year!!

  

Back to School Parent Packet

It is done!!  I am so excited!  My sister, Sarah, and I have spent hours making a new Back to School Parent Packet.  Don't you just love how fresh everything is for back to school.  The smell of new crayons, and clean desks.  Awwww.....it makes this teacher's heart happy.

This year, I decided to do a complete overhaul on my Back to School Parent Packet.  I wanted something that included all those necessary little tidbits of information we teachers need at the beginning of the year, and had that crisp back to school feeling.  Well, here it is:

See, happy smiling faces for Back to School :).

I put all the important questions I need about my students in one place.  

I also made a contact information sheet that I am going to put directly in my teacher binder.  That way, if I need to contact a parent, I will have all the information I need easily accessible.  

Keeping volunteer information organized is very important to me.  I made a detailed parent volunteer form for the back to school packet, and a cute chevron parent volunteer list to be kept in my parent binder!  So excited to have names, phone numbers and email addresses ready to use when I need volunteers for activities, field trips, parties or someone to read with a student.

Because transportation can be confusing at times, I also made a transportation form so I know how my students are getting home each day.  This is especially helpful for the little kiddos who sometimes get confused about how they get home everyday.   

This may be my favorite part of the packet.  Every year I send home a parent packet, and every year I get about half the packets back and have to BEG, barrow and bribe to get  the rest of the students to turn in their packets.  This year I decided to include a raffle ticket.  The students who bring back the packet filled out, get to enter a drawing for a prize.  A little motivation for getting everything back quickly!

Hope things are going well in your back to school preparations and MOST importantly you are enjoying a little R & R.  If you're interested in the Back to School Parent Packet, it is available on TPT HERE. 

Have a great one!

Anchor Chart

I keep seeing all these SUPER cute anchor charts on Pinterest, and decided as part of my "getting organized summer", I was going to make some anchor charts too.  Teaching about nouns happens at the beginning of third grade, so here is the noun anchor chart I made:

**VERY IMPORTANT SIDE NOTE:  my drawing abilities are very often surpassed by the abilities of my third grade students.  Third graders, I have found, are amazing little artists!

 I need to find out how other teachers have used their anchor charts in their classrooms!  How do you use yours?

Mystery Reader

A couple of years ago I was looking at the cool teaching blogs on Scholastic, and came across the idea of Mystery Readers on Beth Newingham's blog.  She has some pretty incredible ideas, and I was very excited to try having Mystery Readers in my classroom.  BOY am I glad I did!!  The Kiddos ATE IT UP!  

If I were to think of the top five things that contribute to my students becoming lovers of reading, Mystery Readers would without a doubt be one of them!

Every Friday, after lunch, I have a Mystery Reader come and knock on our classroom door.  Our class Mayor (or leader) for the week answers the door and let's our Mystery Reader in.  The kiddos are always SUPER excited to see who the Mystery Reader will be.

I try to get a wide variety of Mystery Readers to visit our classroom; parents, school personal, special community helpers and my personal friends and family.  We have even "Skyped" with one of my favorite authors in New York City.

Before a Mystery Reader comes into our classroom, I ask them to do four things:

1. To pick a children's book they love, or help me to find one for them.  If they love it, so will my students.
2. To tell my students about why they love reading and how it has been important in their lives.
3. To tell my students about the job they have and how being a good reader is vital to their job.
4. To explain to my students why getting an education was important to them and encourage my students to go to college.  

Can we say, "four birds with one stone".  That's how we teachers roll :).

Here is an example of a Mystery Reader.  One of my sweet friends works at a nearby zoo.  One year she brought a 60 pound tortoise to class and read a book about a turtle.  She explained how much she loved reading, and without it, she would never have been able to read the important books about how to take care of animals.  She also talked about getting a degree in biology and told my students if they wanted to work with animals, they definitely needed to go to college and be good readers.  

Do you think the kiddos were paying attention?  YEP!

Another one of my friends works in the athletic department at a nearby University.  She was great!  She talked about some of the athletes the kids were familiar with and then asked them the question, "What do you think is one of the MOST important things these athletes do in order to play at a University?"  The kids responded with, "Work out!",  "Practice!!" or "Run" etc...   My friend responded, "All those things are very important, but they would never be able to play at the University if they weren't good readers, and they didn't study hard everyday.  If they don't get good grades, they don't get to stay on the team."  

The little athlete kiddos in my class were listening, I guarantee it. 

Before a Mystery Reader leaves, I take a picture and put it on the bulletin board in our classroom library.  The pictures stays up all year long.  If possible, I also place the book our Mystery Reader read in a special place in the classroom.  This quickly becomes the most popular and wanted book of the week.

Mystery Readers pack a wallop!  The kids think it is great and it makes my job of getting students to love reading a lot easier.  What are some of the ways you get your kiddos become lovers of reading?

Sandwich

Dollar store find!

Yes, I am a teacher and I often find myself sucked into the cheap finds at The Dollar Tree.

In my class, we play a game called "Sandwich", which is just another version of "hamburger".  Well, shout out for the The Dollar Tree, because today they had coasters in the shape of sandwich makings.  Perfect for playing "Sandwich".

Isn't it a cute little sandwich?

The package comes with nine different pieces.  

To play "Sandwich", I pass out a package of sandwich makings for every table.  I usually put a math problem on the board, and the first table to come up with the answer on their own white boards gets a point.  A point means they get to add one sandwich making to their bread.  The first table with a whole sandwich (all the makings on the bread) stands up and enthusiastically yells out "SANDWICH!".

 It's a winner, the kiddos love playing Sandwich!!  

Think I am going to go back to The Dollar Tree and buy the little plastic sandwich holders to keep the pieces in.  Cute, right?

P.S. Right after purchasing the sandwich coasters at The Dollar Tree, I saw very similar hamburger coasters at Target.  So, you can take your pick, is it going to be a "Sandwich" or a "Hamburger" :) ?