Earth Day freebie with a religious point of view

 I know I'm a little late to jump on the Earth Day bandwagon, but here it is anyway. I hope you can use it.  Since I teach in a Christian school, we're going  to come at it from a Christian perspective, which is what we should do in all aspects of our lives. I made a ppt presentation of passages from the Bible that are applicable to the Earth and taking care of it. It's short- only like 5 slides. I have some activities that include abc order, finding words and a word search, all with a "God" theme. God's the One who made the earth, and at our school, we can celebrate that. Our activity is an Earth craft that is sitting in "God's" hands. Nothing that reinvents the wheel- just simple, but hopefully gives the kids a picture of how God does have us in His hands, taking care of us. The kids will trace their own hands and color them whatever color they think is appropriate for God's hands to be colored. I'm looking forward to seeing that!

I'm giving my kids a choice of what kind of earth they want to make. We're using dobber dots on coffee filters, ripped paper, and glitter. There are so many out there. Too many to name them all. Then they'll trace their hands, glue the earth to them, and attach the sign. We'll frame our Earths on black paper to represent space. I also am using some of Amy Lemons cute activities with it. So here's your free ppt and activity packet. 

Since our paradigm as Christ-followers is to take care of this planet that God gave us for all our needs, I would like to tie in the fact that we need to be good stewards of ALL our gifts. I'll let you know how that works out on a different day!

 

Thanks for reading!
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[Glitterfy.com - *Glitter Words*]

A word wall alphabet freebie

I've been doing a little work for next year. Nothing major, just a few decorations. I want to do an enchanted forest theme. I've been looking for graphics and backgrounds that are colorful, but not too bright. And I want cute, but not too cutesy, but also not too realistic. I  went through round 1, and my very honest sister told me they looked like Tim Burton. Sigh. Not really what I was going for. But she was right. So here's round two so far:

Word Wall letters

The beginning and end of a "welcome" banner

Another version of a welcome banner

name plates for their desks- I'm not sure which font I'll use yet.

 I'm no Melanie Ralbusky, but this is my hobby. How sad is that? But it's fun! I don't scrapbook anymore, so I do this, instead. It fills my scrapbooking void.

I'm giving the word wall alphabet letters away for free. So grab one here! I also use them for teaching phonics, centers, spelling, games, and tons of stuff, so go get yours!
Thanks for reading!
 
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Phonics assessment pages and small group reading organizers freebie

My school's phonics curriculum is included in the reading series. It's pretty good, but pretty tough to assess. I always felt like I had to re-invent the wheel when it comes to finding ways to assess their phonics skills and give them a way to practice. I made some units to help with phonemic practice that went beyond worksheets, but I haven't made any more. Maybe this summer. So finally, I came up with this:

Not exactly reinventing the wheel or creating some new, exciting revolution in education, I know. But sometimes I'm  a little slow on the uptake. Each day I use my  basal for the phonics skill we will practice, and the kids write their answers on white boards. Then I record how many they got right and am able to enter it into my gradebook. I keep the recording sheet so I have that record when parents come to me wanting to know about their child's grade.

The Small Group Reading sheet is where I keep track of my small groups. I number my students and write which  kids I met with under each day of the week. I use the chart to write notes on the reader's fluency and how they did with the strategy we discussed that week. I also keep these on file until the end of the year.

I know it's simple, and many of you have much better plans already in place. But in case you don't, here's where you can get these.

I still try to do an activity based on the phonics skill, too. This week for the ai sound  we listened to rain and made raindrops for our  garden focus wall. We sang rain songs. We were supposed to paint, but we never got to it. Don't you hate that??!!  We'll see what next week brings. It's not Sunday night at 10 PM yet. My lesson plans are still only a twinkle in my eye. (:

 Thanks for reading!
 
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Free cute graphics!!!!! Even for commercial use!

     I'm not a pet teacher. I always had dogs growing up because my Dad was the Chief of Police in a tiny little town in MN, and being the Chief, he was in charge of putting pets in the pound. Well, rather than put them to sleep, he would bring them home. First we had Mickey, then we had Sid. I don't hate animals, but I don't have pets now, which my children are very sad about. I have 4 kids and a job and a husband. My plate is full. And I don't have them in the classroom. That's just not me.  Well, my class is getting a pet turtle for a week or two. It was supposed to be longer until I found out how dirty they are. Now I'm even nervous about the week or two.
      So I found these really cute graphics while making a turtle habitat unit. And they're FREE! I found them here at MyCuteGraphics.com!!! Go there!!! You of course need to give the artist credit, but that goes without saying, even when we pay for graphics! Check out what this artist, Laura Strickland, had to say to us teachers about using her graphics:

"I do not mind teachers using my work on Teachers Pay Teachers etc. because I appreciate what you do. I'm a mom of three boys and I am so thankful for the job all of you do. I've had the privilege of helping in my children's classrooms and I know first hand how much time and energy teachers put into each day and sometimes, I know, you spend money out of your own pocket. Teachers are the cornerstone of our society. After all, without teachers we wouldn't have doctors, scientists, lawyers etc. I am thrilled and honored to help teachers and give back through my work. You may use my work either in freebies or in the lessons that you sell."

 

     Does that make you want to cry or what? Doesn't it make you feel proud to be a teacher? I was very touched and grateful for her words. And her graphics! (:  

     So the next time you need a background, or some pictures, check out  mycutegraphics.com! And thank you Laura Strickland!

 
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Enchanted Forest Classroom and a freebie of your choice

                                           My classroom theme for next year...Enchanted Forest
I've been working on decorations and labels for my classroom for next year. I have no parties to plan, and I spent some time on pinterest today, unfortunately. So instead of doing lesson plans, I started making my classroom decorations for next year. It's a sickness. I wonder if I could get a Dr.'s note for procrastination.

Anyway, this is about all I've done so far, and it took me a sadly long time. I'm thinking it looks a little Halloweeny, though. Maybe it's the purple background.  And what do you think of the glittery background? For this alphabet, I plan to include different background colors. My main color theme is blue, green, and purple. But I think I'll add some extra color in with the lady bugs and dragonflies. I also have a few other things I'll be adding later.

Word Wall, etc.

Another alphabet for Word Wall, etc.

Quotes for a Welcome banner

 I need some opinions. Too Halloween-ish? Change the fonts? Change the backgrounds? What do you think? The first three people to give me their opinions will get their choice of product from my TPT store. My husband thanks you for sparing him!
Thanks for reading, and thanks for your opinions!

 
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Space with a gardening freebie

First Grade Science Projects

Check this out!!!

                                     Her dad's an artist, can you tell? That thing is huge and beautiful. The girl painted it all herself. She's got her Daddy's talent.

The Milky Way

That one actually had the stars hanging below it. So you looked up at the glittery star scene and the stars were right above you.

                                                              The Space Shuttle Atlantis
The girl who did this one is a super sweetie. She's one of those kids that you don't want to leave your classroom. Her little shuttle was SO CUTE.

I had some really awesome projects this year. Of course I took pictures of them on the K teacher's camera, and have been too lazy to get them.

We officially ended our space unit yesterday, although I still have a couple things left to do. Isn't it sad and scary how much you cannot get through? We worked on a little astronaut project yesterday and I said it was the last time they would be astronauts, and they all went "ooohhhh". Like they were so disappointed. So funny. Yesterday we worked on our timeline of space travel. One little girl said, "How do you know all this stuff?" HAHAHA. I felt like a GENIUS. I didn't mention the facts that I just read the timeline cards, or was actually ALIVE during some of this time.

Pages from our Space Journal

This is the Saturn project's Master Creator, by the way.

 A couple times during this unit, the kids had to be astronauts and engineers and fix, make or figure out something, using only the objects I gave them. These spaceships were one of those times. I gave each group a few random things (stickers, paper, borders,etc.) and they had to build a space ship. Notice how different they are. The red one that says "NASA"  had such a cute inside. It was filled with buttons and "gadgets" (they love that word). And the seat on the inside was all decked out. And that black one totally looks like a spaceship.

                                                                A Starry Night Reproductions

Everything we used for our space unit are in my units on TPT. There are two of them. It's Spacetacular and It's Spacetacular 2.

Now it's time to move on to Gardening and Plants. The title "Gardener" just doesn't sound as cool as "Astronaut". There must be a cool name. I'll have to look that up today. We'll be making a pizza garden and using what we grow to make our own pizza! I'm hoping to have one last field trip to my favorite pizza place. That's about as cool as it gets.

Wow! This is long post. That's what I get when I don't write for 2 months. So here's a gardening freebie for putting up with it. It's an activity for using the correct article, a or an.



Thanks for reading!

 
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A space unit freebie

 Space, anyone?

We just started our space unit, and I've made some activities to use with it. It's posted for $1 for the next 24 hours. It has 48 pages of activities, games, and  printables that go along with all things space. it includes math games, spelling work, grammar activities, correct the sentence pages, astronaut logbooks, a class or individual book, journal prompts and more that I can't even remember right now! I also have another space unit coming out in the next few days that will focus more on craftivities, space information, and organizing a take-home project. They will complement each other nicely.

So the first three people to comment get it for free and the rest of you have a day to get it for a buck. If you comment for the freebie, don't forget to send me your email address.


Thanks for reading!




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