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Saturday, June 28, 2014

Fun Friday: Messy and Educational

Hello teacher friends,

So Fun Friday has moved into Slow Saturday given my current pregnancy hormones and yucky feelings :).  Since it's Summer for a lot of us, I decided it would be fun to share an outdoor activity that teaches the kids about abstract art and the modern artist, Jackson Pollack.  It also involves process art, which is very popular in early childhood education.

This is also a great activity for recycling unwanted clothes or extra rags.  I put rubber bands on various clothing items and also stuffed a few to make "ball" shapes.  The kids threw, slung, flicked, and smacked paint onto this giant butcher paper canvas.
They loved being told they could be messy.  All the paint was washable, but I do recommend messy clothes.  It was all over them.
The kids walked across the wet paint on the ground and accidentally created footprints!  It was a really cool effect.

Once the project is finished, you can use pieces for picture frame mats, wrapping paper, or you can put it on your bulletin board as a backdrop.

Thursday, June 26, 2014

Excited to be a Grandma and $1 SALE

So I got this awesome news that my sweet daughter and partner is expecting my first grand baby!
We got this call that she and her hubby Kevin were stopping by with Sweet Frog-Yum!
Tim, this handsome man in the picture started to fix us coffee and Brittany said"You should drink it in these mugs, and places them down in front of us.  Best surprise and cup of coffee ever!!!!


So, I decided to share this awesome news with ya'll and put items on SALE in our dollar store.  We put some of our most popular products as well as tried to put something from preschool up to a high school item.  They will be there all day June 26, 27.





Just go to our store and look on the left where it says Custom Categories and click on Dollar Store if you want to see if there is anything that interests you.  Also, if you do get anything, we would appreciate kind comments if you like it.  You get store credit if you do.  We would love it if you would also follow our store if you like what you see.




Here is our newest Scoot Game that is in there.


http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Scoot-Snow-Cone-AdditionSubtraction-to-20-1291380





We also have this fun Brain Bounce Game there:



http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Math-Quiz-Game-Candy-Brain-Bounce-1004173


And you can get this for Back to school: September Word of the Day Calendar:

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Word-of-the-Day-September-Calendar-829261


And there is more!:)






Please share comments about any advice you may have as a new parent or grandparent.


Thank ya'll so much!!

Sunday, June 22, 2014

The Creative Teacher Giveaway: 1 for me and 1 for you!

Stephany Dillion is the winner of Quality Quentin!  We hope you enjoy him!!



We are so excited to join these wonderful, creative teachers!  You have an opportunity to win some great crafts for your classroom and home.  We have created and made Quality Quentin to help improve behavior in our classrooms in a fun way.  Our kiddos just love taking him home!






Meet Quentin the Quality Penguin.  He is our class mascot, and helps my kiddos to be quality students.  They take turns taking him home in a bag with a journal, so they can write about his time with them at home.   The students will read the journal during our carpet time.  They have to be a quality student in order to be able to take him home.  He has really helped the behavior of my students.





My kiddos just love Quentin!  They even give him little gifts from home.  One little gal made him a belt and one little guy gave him the scarf during the winter because he didn't want Quentin to be cold:)





I also use Quentin during our class meetings.  The students pass him around as we discuss "What Quality Students are"  We usually listen and sing this song first.  It helps my kiddos to remember what a quality student is.  You can get the song in our store for a dollar.




http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Quality-Students-Mp3-Song-45074



We also sing this song about not being a bully.  Quentin raps about bully prevention.



http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Bully-Prevention-Song-Quality-Quentin-Rap-808752


I use these Quentin dollars for good behavior.  My kiddos love earning them and using them in our class store.  They are a free download at our store:
http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Quality-Quentin-Dollars-711585




We also have a book about Quentin's first day of school and how his mom teaches him the Quality Student song.







We have several products with Quentin in them.  If ya'll are interested in checking any of them out, just go to our store and look under Custom Categories under Quentin the Quality Penguin.


I use Quentin to welcome my new First Graders.  I take their pictures and put them on the ice floes.  They get so excited to see the real one in my class when I show him to them.


We are giving a Quentin away for the Teacher Giveaway.  It will just be the penguin.  The clothes aren't included.  We bought the clothes, hat and shoes at Build-A-Bear.

We will be selling Quentin puppets soon.  If you're interested,  you can follow us so you will know when they are available:)


a Rafflecopter giveaway


And here is my blog button: 

See who's next in our FABULOUS giveaway:
Burke's Special Kids


Sunday, June 15, 2014

Behavior Management Ideas and Freebies

I start my year with reading Quentin's First Day.  It is our book about a scared penguin who is afraid to go to school, and his mom teaches him the"Quality Student " song. It makes him feel better because he knows what to do now.  He also shares the song with his penguin friend Mandy.


Then we sing this "Quality Students" song which teaches us how to be quality students.  My kiddos love spelling and acting out each letter to "Quality."  You can grab it for free. We would really appreciate your kind comments when you download it.  Thanks!




We also learn about not be bullies by singing this song about Bully Prevention.  You can also get it in our store.





Next we have a class meeting where we go around the circle and say our names and what a quality
student is.  My name is...... and a quality student........


The student who is talking is holding Quentin the Quality Penguin.  Nobody else is allowed to talk.



We also write a class big book on Quality Students.





Free Download at our store.


These are our Quentin Dollars which we can earn for being quality students.  When you get 10, you can go to the small store.
Or you can save to 20 and go to the larger store.
You could also do computer time or give out homework passes.  My kiddos love the store!  I even had some of them using their dollars to buy gifts for family members.  One student wanted something for her brother's birthday and didn't have 20 dollars, so she borrowed from the bank-me:)
It was so great to use this opportunity to talk to her about a loan!

This idea has given me opportunities to teach economic concepts as well as have well-behaved students!



I have used many different behavior management ideas, but this has been the best for me.  It is easy to do and the kiddos love it!

No more turning signs.  I just take a Quentin dollar away when someone is misbehaving, and discuss how it cost them.

I also have students asking me to do extra work to earn dollars.




I send home Quentin every night in a bag with a book and journal with a "quality student"  and they write about what he did at their house.  Some of them have given him toys and books.  They have also made him things.  One kiddo sent him this scarf in the winter so he wouldn't be cold.  The deal is you have to be a quality student in order to take him home.  This includes getting your work done.  This has really helped my kiddos to be quality students. 






This poem is also a Free Download.




You can get the book and song in our store.





We have a Back to School Bundle that has the book, song, read around the room cards, Quality Student poem, activities, and printables which include questions about the book.  This igloo and small Quentins are also included.  We use this as a classroom management tool.  We put Quentins on the igloo when the class is doing well and do something, like extra recess, game day or a special treat when we earn 20.










We hope you got some ideas for behavior management.  We will be selling Quentin puppets soon if you're interested.




Be sure to check out some other awesome ideas from these other great ladies!

                                       





Friday, June 13, 2014

FUN FRIDAY and $1 SALE for Birthday Bash:)








This is our May Word of the Day Calendar and I have my kiddos to circle 5 of the words that go together and they write a story using those words.  It has really helped to improve vocabulary development as well as writing skills.





These are a few of the great writings that they did using the words.  Some of my kiddos actually wanted to use more than 5 words.  Yay!!


 I just love what this ELL student wrote about "culture"

This little ELL student couldn't write a complete sentence in September, now look at him go!








We had fun playing our Quest Game.




These are the cards included.  You can use them in a center or you can use them in the game. I chose to just use the list of words and recording sheet in the class version







I always let my kiddos study their calendar words before we play our Bounce Game.  The Bounce Game has questions about their calendar words for the month.  My students love this game!

This is my ELL teacher listening to one of my kiddos read her question card for her team.



We also have used the cards as a read around the room activity.  My ELL teacher said, "Our Word of the Day Calendar Words and Word of the Day Products have really improved her ELL student's vocabulary development.  All of our WIDA scores for our ELL students improved this year!  Yay!!

These are our Word of the Day Products we use each month.  We have all of them on sale for a $1 today June 13 and June 14 as a Birthday Bash for Brittany!  All ya'll have to do is go to our store and look under custom categories and look under Word of the Day to see all of them.







http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Word-of-the-Day-May-Brain-Bounce-Game-1218110










We hope ya'll enjoyed FUN FRIDAY and will come back Sunday for our Behavior post.

Have a great weekend!