Pumpkin Flipbooks

 

My students did a great job on our pumpkin flip books!  They had so much fun making them.  A couple of my students said they knew how to put the pumpkin cycle in order because they just thought of our pumpkin poem that we have been reading everyday.  I was so pleased to see them make that connection:)Remember you can get this and lots of other fun activities in our Fall Fun Literacy Bundle.

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Fall-Fun-Literacy-Bundle-914054

Our great Leaf Pictures inspired some great writing about Fall!

These are a few pictures of our leaf pictures.  The students did an awesome job!

Tomorrow we will do pumpkin flip books.  I will post pictures tomorrow.

"Going on a Leaf Walk"

My students had so much fun today going on a leaf walk.  We graphed our leaves and we did leaf rubbings.  They were so cute!  They said it was like magic when they saw the leaf print come alive:)

Come back tomorrow to see the pictures they create.  I know I can't wait to see them!

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Fall-Fun-Literacy-Bundle-914054


This is a FLASH FREEBIE for the next 15 minutes as a thank you for our new followers:)

Great Vocabulary idea!

My students are learning so much vocabulary from our calendar pieces.  They have their own copy of the calendar and they write the word of the day, number of syllables, picture and write about the word in a notebook.  It has been great for my ELL students because it is introducing new words to them.  Our set also includes a scoot vocabulary game to play to review the words.  Come check it out while it is 50% off and follow us to see when the next months are ready:)

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/October-ELA-Calendar-869628

20% STORE SALE:)

This is a 20 page book that teaches about kindness starring Quentin and his friend Mandy.  Included is a coloring book that my students loved coloring and keeping in their book bags!  It is on sale for 20% at our TPT store and TPT is offering another 10% at check out in celebration for their 100K Facebook followers!  Just use the code "FB100k" Check out all our quality products for 20% until Oct.14.  Don't miss out!

Great Way to get your kids writing at home:)

One of my students made a paper Quentin to go with our class pet Quentin the Quality Penguin.  Here she is reading the journal entry she wrote last night and showing what she made at home last night.  Now my class says we have a baby Quentin.  They just love Quentin!

Great Book and Coloring Book to match about Kindness:)

This is a coloring book that matches the book.  The kids got so excited about having their own copy of the story for their book bags.  I will be anxious to see how many students will learn to read the whole book:)

You can get both of these items in our Fall Fun Literacy Bundle at Teachers Pay Teachers.

My class loved our new book about  Quentin the Quality Penguin in the pumpkin patch.  Quentin learns a valuable lesson about kindness.  We had a great discussion about how we should behave and being kind.  My students said it was just like in our Quality Student song.  They wanted to sing the song after we read the story so they could listen for that part in the song about kindness.

Words, numbers, patterns all in one calendar plus a fun game!

This is our ELA calendar which has October words for each day.  The calendar pieces are in a pattern. There is a student version and a fun vocabulary scoot game or use it as a word center.  Students will have a great bank of words to use for writing with this.  Great for ELL students!

A Great Motivator!

These are our Quentin Dollars that I use in my classroom.  I can't believe how successful they have been in getting my students to behave as well as doing work.  I started giving them out for getting 80% to 100% on Accelerated Reading tests.  My students are constantly reading during any free time they get and asking me if they can take a test.  So, now I have students wanting to read and write more.  I am looking forward to seeing how well my students progress this year.  Half my class is ELL level 1 so we have a lot of work to do, but my students are motivated!

Freebie at our TPT store.

So, one of my first graders asked me if she could get a "Quentin Dollar"(freedownload at our store) if she did some extra writing.  This is what she wrote: part of our MP3 Quality Student song.  This is what each letter of Quality stands for.  WOW!  It is so exciting to be a teacher!:) She got 2 Quentin Dollars. http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Quality-Students-Mp3-Song-450741

And this was written by one of my ELL students, also from the Quality Student song.  She just wrote this on the back of another paper that she completed.

Whimsy Workshop: Entire Store Giveaway! (and a Freebie!)

Whimsy Workshop: Entire Store Giveaway! (and a Freebie!)

This is Quentin the Quality Penguin.  He goes home with a quality student every night and the student writes about what he did at their house and reads it to the class the next day.  This is his read aloud book that teaches students how to be quality students.  It is just one of the items that are included in our back to school bundle.  It also has a fun and upbeat MP3 song that our students love to sing and dance to.  Our Sept. calendar pieces have his picture on them and our students got excited to see him on them.  He is really helping us to be "Quality" students.  My students also love earning the Quentin dollars for good behavior and doing extra work.  They are a freebie on our TPT store.  If you would be interested in buying a stuffed Quentin the Quality Penguin for your class, just let us know. 

This is Quentin dancing to his new rap about bully prevention.  Check it out at our store.

This is a book that your students can illustrate as they learn to be quality students.  My first grader did a great job illustrating her book.

Already making connections!;)

My students have been singing our Quality Student song and learning vocabulary on our calendar pieces.  Today our word was understand and one of my students said,"that is u understanding towards others from our song!"  It was so exciting to see them already making connections after just singing the song a few times.  Calendar pieces and song can be found in our TPT store.  We will have vocabulary words on all our calendar pieces for every month.  October will be out next week.  

Wade into First Grade

Quentin the Quality Penguin is waiting to welcome my first graders.  I am going to take their pictures on the first day of school and  glue them on the ice floes.

Our Reading Corner

This is our reading area with our books in baskets and animals to read with.So excited to have a real Quentin to go with our book about Quentin's first day at school!  Quentin the Quality Penguin will watch over the students everyday to see which "Quality" student he will go home with.  He has a journal that the students will write about their adventures with Quentin at their homes.  We read these journal entries everyday.  My students even put toys and things in the bag for Quentin.  Quentin has helped our behavior improve 100%.   If you are interested in having your own Quentin let me know.  You can get his book at our TPT store.

This is how I found my classroom.  I even had a copier in my room. I have a lot to do to be ready for my students next week.  I guess I better roll up my sleeves and get busy.  Hopefully, the copier will find a new home.

Great Teaching Sessions!

My daughter and I presented 3 sessions of how we use our songs and products in the classroom to K and First Grade teachers today.  I was so excited to see how well the teachers responded.  Their comments were very kind and we were thrilled to have our products purchased as an extra bonus!

I was most excited about one of the men in our session.  He started out saying that he didn't feel comfortable using music in his classroom.  At the end of the session, he purchased a CD and said that he could definitely do this now.  Wow!  what a wonderful compliment to us!

It was a great experience!

These are a few sheets we shared from our coin bundle found on Teacherspayteachers.

BIG BACK TO SCHOOL SALE!

We are so excited to tell you that everything in our store will be on sale Aug.18-20!  We hope you will check out the products in our store and if you like anything you see that you will follow us at our store so you will get all the updates of all of our new songs and products:)

Stay tuned for more posts on what will be going on in my classroom as school begins.

Our future producers are looking pretty good!

We sang "Goods and Services" and completed the bundle  from our SOL Train Learning unit called "Ride into Goods and Services".   My students learned about consumers and producers and making financial choices. They had so much fun working on designs and wrote about what they would be producing at the end of the unit.  I was amazed at how well they thought about their designs and the materials they brought in to make them!  Check out the Goods and Services Unit in our store.

This one little girl just touched my heart when she "produced" this doll.  She doesn't have very much at home and was so excited to finally have a doll to play with.  So amazing how she could be resourceful with what I provided!

 This student even brought in a shell that looked like the unicorn's horn.

                             This robot  was bigger than his producer!

This student brought in red dots for the eyes of this robot that shoots out lasers.  He is standing on his spy cam. 

Take Turns to be Kind.......

We have been singing the Quality Student song in summer school and today one of my students was giving another student a cup of water.  She said she was"taking turns to be kind."  This is a verse from the song.  It is so cool to see students applying what they learn from our songs!  Wow!

Great Connections Today!

I was so excited to see my students make connections after we sang our songs from SOL Train Learning today!
We sang "Quality Student" song and when one of my students was fussing about another student's voice today, I reminded him of "U" Understanding Toward Others" and he said, "ok, I will try."
He went back to his table and continued working for the rest of the time.

We sang "Wants and Needs" and the song says," to choose one thing and focus on your needs." and one of my sweet little girls was in my reading group and she said, "I have to remember to choose one thing to get at the movie theatre this week." She had already related to choosing one thing to get and not get everything she wanted to get at the movies.  Her parents will be happy!

These are our cute community helper finger puppets that are included in our Community Helper Unit found on Teachers pay Teachers.  My student wanted me to video tape her singing our Community helper MP3 song while she did a show and she wanted me to put it on You Tube.  How cute is she!

So my students decided they wanted to do a puppet show with their community helper finger puppets today.  We used the pictures from our unit on Community Helpers and taped them on tagboard and set up on boxes.  They had so fun dancing around with the Community Helper song.

I am so sorry for any of you who tried to go to TPT to purchase this unit and couldn't find it.  We just took it down to add a couple of MP3 songs and make the unit better.  It has been activated so please try again!  Thanks!!

These are our cute community helper finger puppets that are included in our Community Helper Unit.  We made them after we sang our MP3 song called Community Helpers.  Both are in our TPT store.  My student was so excited to make them and she asked me if she could sing the song and do a show.  She wanted me to put it on You Tube. How cute is she!

Summer School Writing

Last week we started reading True Dog Stories.  We would read a chapter a day.  Then during center rotations, my students started writing their own true animal stories.  They wrote some every day.  We edited them and published them today.  The students were also very excited to make their animals to go with their books.  I was very proud of their hard work!

I know it's been awhile since I've been on here.  Wanted to catch you up on all the cool things my kids have been doing with the S.O.L. Train songs.

(Top) We learned "Spend a Little, Save a Little," and one of my kids used the exact words from the song for his piggy bank project.  I think the song really helped him understand the concept of saving money.








(Bottom) One of the students understood the concept of chores from the song and wrote a word problem.                                                                            I am so proud!

After we learned the" Community Helper" song, we made a big book.  Here are a few samples.

"Quality Students"  was one of my students' favorite songs this year.  We had fun doing the motions as we danced to the song.  My students learned all about what quality meant and they learned to spell it.  One of the students asked if we could make a book about quality students, so we did!  I was excited to see one of my ESOL students use words from the song when he did his page(top left)  He was always saying "Quality Students do it right!"

Quality Quentin

So excited to debut our quality mascot THIS SUMMER.  Join us at Empire every other Friday morning.  We'd love to meet you and see how you like the show!

S.O.L. Train THIS SATURDAY, January 19!!

Hello everyone!  We are so excited to announce a S.O.L. Train performance at School Crossing in Williamsburg, VA.  We will be there THIS SATURDAY, January 19, from 1-3p.  Come meet Conductor Brii and have a chance to win some cool prizes!!