I Would Make a Great Hibernating Animal...

Y'all... can I get an amen for Friday?  I was so stinkin' excited when 2:45 rolled around and I skipped out of the school.  Well, drug my almost lifeless body to the car is more like it.

Popping in to visit today and share a post that I wrote about hibernation and Groundhog's Day last January.  What a fun time to teach small humans, right?  This recycled post has a FREEBIE for you and some cool ideas to try in the classroom next week.... all with little prep and maybe just a quick trip to the grocery store!  Check out the pictures and click any of them to take you to the blog post to grab your freebie!  Hope you will all have a FABULOUS weekend!

Birthday Bonanza!

Hi!  This is Autumn from The Primary Techie.  I am so excited to have joined The Primary Chalkboard.  This week is my birthday so I decided to celebrate with a birthday blog!  I must confess that I do not actually enjoy birthdays at school.  Have you ever had that 2:55-getting-ready-to-leave-"aren't-you-going-to-sing-me-happy-birthday" moment?  I know I have!  While birthdays are not my favorite thing, to my kiddos they are the most important day of the year.  My school day is not really about me, it's about them!  That means I put on my happy face and make the most of every birthday.

The Birthday Celebration
Many years ago, when I taught third grade, I had an "ah-ha moment" that changed the way I celebrate birthdays at school.  We had FIVE birthdays in one week.  Did every single one of them bring cupcakes?  You betcha!  Was it also the week of Valentine's?  Yup!  Did more kids bring in sugary treats for Valentine's Day?  You know it!  We were so sick of sweets!  A couple weeks later, another birthday and another two dozen cupcakes.  We were outside scarfing them down, when I noticed one of my little guys looking very bummed out.  I asked what was wrong.  He told me that he had never had cupcakes for his birthday and he never would.  The terrible part was, he was right!  This was a kid whose family had fallen upon hard times.  This was a kid who had a difficult home life and often went without.  This kid was not going to get cupcakes and that really bummed ME out!  So, I looked at the situation.  FIVE sets of cupcakes and NO cupcakes.  Ah-ha!  The teacher light bulb flashed over my head and the birthday celebration was born!

ONE day each month where everyone with a birthday is celebrated!  I choose the day!  I always tell parents and kids about this at the very beginning of the school year.  I post birthday celebrations on our classroom calendar (which the kids take home each night) and on my class Facebook group.  Parents coordinate it so that we don't have five sets of cupcakes, we have one set and juice boxes and carrots and strawberries and plates.  I have had several parents bring in a cake with the names of all the birthday kids.  One year, I had a kid literally hopping with excitement because he had never had his name on a cake before.  There are things that many kids take for granted that mean the world to others.  This is a way to even the playing field.

Here are the pros of monthly birthday celebrations:

• Everyone is included!  We even have a celebration for summer birthdays.
• I plan it!  Celebrations are always on a Friday and are built into my lesson plans.
• We get a variety of treats instead of perpetual cupcakes.

Here are the cons of monthly birthday celebrations:

• Some parents are not good at following directions!  If I get treats on a child's birthday (not the celebration day), I send them home.  Yep!  I am that firm!  It isn't fair to all the kids and parents who abide by the rules to let the ones who don't have treats.  This rarely ever happens because it is a part of our routine and I have lots of communication with families.  Those who send treats know they are breaking the rule.  
• Sometimes nobody brings anything.  When this happens, I bring a treat for the class.  It is important to me that all students are celebrated - even if that means I have to be the one to supply the treats.  

To remind parents about this class rule, I send home a little note at the beginning of the month.  They can sign-up to bring something or decline.  Click here to print your own notes.  

So on their real birthdays they get NOTHING?  Of course not!  We celebrate that too, just not with treats.  Here are some of the ways we celebrate actual birthdays:

1) Reading Birthday Books
Have you read about how I love scanning books?  If not, click here to check it out!  I am passionate about  reading books from my board - the ultimate big book!  I have a folder on my desktop called "Happy Birthday".  I keep all my digital birthday resources here.  In this folder, I have another folder filled with birthday books I have scanned.  I have thirty birthday books.  To easily track which books I have read, I named the files with numbers.  For example "1 - How do Dinosaurs Say Happy Birthday?"  All of my students are numbered and I read the book with their number.  If Abby Armstrong is number 1, on her birthday we are going to read How do Dinosaurs Say Happy Birthday.  I am not going to lie, scanning 30 books and creating digital versions of them takes time.  I put the time in several years ago and have been reaping the benefit ever since.  It is worth the initial investment of your time.  If you don't already own birthday books, look for digital versions and save yourself the hassle of scanning.  Before I realized the joys of reading from my board, I had bought entirely too many books.  I could not justify buying digital versions of books I already owned, so I started scanning.  I can't talk about scanning without mentioning that it is only okay to scan books for your own use.  You cannot share digital copies of your books, sell them, or post them on the internet.  This is a copyright violation.  I don't want to give you a bad idea that could get you into trouble!

2) Happy Birthday Handwriting
Oh man, do I ever HATE handwriting.  SO important, but SO boring!  Kids hate it, too.  BUT, they love making things for their friends.  I made some Happy Birthday handwriting sheets.  They trace the happy birthday song and turn it into a card to give to the birthday boy or girl.  It is good practice and the kids work extra hard because they want to do a nice job for their friend. These sheets are always a big hit in my classroom.  Click here to download a freebie! FYI - I predicted that I would get requests for d'nealian and cursive, so I included those options.

3)  Birthday Themed Behavior Management
Remember that birthday file on my desktop?  It also has some of my Classroom Management Life Savers with a birthday theme.  To read more about Classroom Management Life Savers, click here.  These keep the class on-track and they are extra-special when we have a birthday in the house!  I hope I am not including too many freebies in this post, but I actually love giving things away and if you have never tried my Classroom Management Life Savers, I want you to try them out.  Click here for a Birthday Puzzle.  

4)  Smells Like a Birthday!
This one is silly, but I really love it!  The sense of smell is very powerful to me and is attached to memories.  In my classroom, we melt a birthday cake scented wax cube from Scentsy only on a birthday!  All day long, it smells like birthday cake in our room.  It is a fun and easy tradition.  The kids actually notice and remind me if I forget.

5)  The Birthday Bag
I have several take-home bags for my kiddos.  One of the most popular is the birthday bag.  When a student has a birthday, they take the bag home for the night.  Inside, there are several birthday themed books and a little birthday stuffed animal.  To make the bag, I just took a plain tote and used fabric paint on the front.  On the back of my bags, I use fabric paint to write "Please enjoy this bag tonight and return it to school tomorrow."  There is also a journal for students to write about how they spent their big day.  When they return the bag the following day, they share their page with the class.  To make the journal I used a three-ring binder and clear page protectors.  In the pockets at the back of the binder, I put enough blank journal pages to last all year.  For copies of my journal pages, click here.

For more birthday ideas, visit my birthday board on Pinterest!

Make those days special for the kiddos in your classroom!  Check out these other birthday resources created by some of my very talented, Chalkie friends.

I am celebrating my birthday with a sale in my TpT store!  Stop on by to save 15% off of everything in my store!

Do you have any special ways to celebrate birthdays in your classroom?  Share them in the comments.  I would love to read them!

Until next time,

Day 22 Advent Fun: It's a Marshmallow World in the Classroom!

Hi friends! It's Christina from Miss DeCarbo at Sugar and Spice! I'm here today for Day 22 of our Advent Fun Christmas Calendar!  I have a fun, hands on winter freebie to share with you!

This is a writing activity that is perfectly designed to integrate science engineering and the Common Core writing standards!  You can use this anytime this winter.  I think it would be perfect to use for a Fun Friday activity or on a winter day when you want to mix things up a bit for your writing and science block! :)

As you know, the week before winter break can be a little chaotic! My kids had a ton of energy and I knew I needed to channel that in a productive way!  We made little "snow houses" out of marshmallows and toothpicks and turned it into a science engineering and writing activity!  I put my kids into groups of 5 and gave them only 20 minutes to construct their "snow house."  Take a look at some of their awesome creations:

After we made our creations, we wrote about them, of course!!  

I included many writing prompts that you can use with this project. There is an informational prompt, narrative prompts, as well as an opinion prompt that you can choose from!

Click HERE to download this freebie from my TpT store. 

Or click the pictures below!

I hope you enjoy this Winter Wonderland FREEBIE!

Happy Learning and Happy Holidays!

Christina :)

Day 21 of PC's Advent Calendar!

Hi there. It's Karen from Mrs. Jones's Class!  I am here for Day 21 of Primary Chalkboard's Advent Calendar with a little goodie that you can use with your class (if, like me, you still have Monday and Tuesday left to go before break!) ...OR... with your own kidlets at home!

A Letter to Santa!

In color and black and white!

One of my readers mentioned she is using this letter writing template as a station during her party this week. I loved that idea!

And as a sidenote, I have to tell you why this freebie has a special place in my heart-- last year, a blogging friend posted this picture that was featured in her local newspaper. 

Ummmm.... OMG! There it is!  

I had a 15 seconds of fame moment.... well, more like 1 second, but I loved it still. :)

Have a great holiday everyone!

xoxo

Day 16: Advent Fun

Happy last week before Christmas break! Are you all having fun with our Advent Calendar goodies this month? I know I've been loving these sales and freebies!  I'm excited to join in on the fun with you today.

I know this last week can be crazy, but it can also be super fun. I always love the month of December! Now I know you are all thinking about Christmas break next week, but you still have this week to get through right? Well, here are some activities to have fun and keep the learning happening in your classroom.

Here is a ready-to-print option for you all. Just color in the gumdrop that makes a real word.

Can you tell we've been working on the ink, ank, onk, ink families? These are two activities that I've been using to practice. Last year I did the activity in the top picture. I used this with my small group.

This year, I used the activity in the bottom picture.   

Here's  a little video of my students practicing the ing/ink families. This was day two so it was more like a warm-up. 

Click here to get your freebie.

I also put my Christmas Ready to Go Printables on sale for HALF off today!

On the 10th Day of Christmas, The Primary Chalkboard gave to me....

Season's Greetings, Friends! 

It's Leslie from First Grade and Flip Flops! I hope that you have enjoyed our Advent Calendar of fun and freebies! 

On the 10th Day of the Holidays, I am offering you a great FREEBIE especially around this time of year! 

Click on the picture above to grab this FREEBIE!!

I know with my own children wants suddenly become needs and this is a cute little activity as a reminder and lesson about what's really important. 

I am also offering my Math is SNOW Much Fun pack 50% off! It is great for math centers with a winter theme. 

It's only $3.25!! Click on the picture to take you to my store! It will only be discounted for today only! So hurry!

Are you doing ornaments with your students this year? Yes?? Here's a cute and fun way to package your holiday ornament.

Last year, I made these:

I know our sweet Terry had already blogged about these. You can read about them here. Mine are similar but I used clear orbs and stuffed mine with snow. You can read how I did mine here. What I also wanted to do was transport them home in a safe way. All you will need is some Dixie Cups, some shredded paper (used for baskets) and some ribbon. 

You will need 2 of these for each ornament. These will work with the smaller ornaments. Anything bigger and it may not fit. By the way-- a mommy tip: this is also a great way to take home cupcake from a birthday party. The cupcakes fit nicely into the cup. I've taped them together (the cups) and when I get home I cut the sides (so that I just pull apart the side of the cup hopefully leaving the cupcake and frosting in tact!) that way I don't lose any frosting! Ha!! It's all about the sugar!! LOL! 

Put a hole punch under the rims on both sides. Stuff some of the paper on both sides. 

Then, tie the cups together (this part is hard, especially if your ribbon unravels! grrr!). You can attach a little homemade tags from the kids! SO easy and simple.

Hope you will come back tomorrow for more goodies, tips, and surprises!

From my family to yours, I hope that you all have a wonderful and blessed holiday! 

Love to you!

Leslie