Primary Chalkboard: free
Showing posts with label free. Show all posts
Showing posts with label free. Show all posts

Helping students keep track of their pencils!

I don’t know about you, but kids not having the supplies they need to do their work drives me CRAZY! Crazy, I tell you.  The problem is that I GIVE them everything they need. EVERYTHING and they lose it, eat it, leave it on the floor, claim, “It’s not mine!” and let their neighbor take it. So one kid has 6 pencils and another has none.

Enter Vodka.

Actually enter this brilliant idea! I flag my pencils with masking tape, write the child’s name on the pencil flag,  and reward the child for keeping track of their pencils until they are all used up.

No more lost pencils

So what are you waiting for? Grab some masking tape and let’s do this. Simply wrap tape around the pencil and fold the tape back in on itself. Trim the edge for a nice clean finish.  This is a great job for a parent volunteer. I have used many kinds of tape to make the flags. I have found that masking tape works best. It’s easy to work with, write on, and though it can rip, it is pretty durable! I keep about 100 at the ready all the time.

100 pencilsYou can hand out the awards in many ways. I like to give a child an award when they use up a pencil. You can also surprise the class with a pencil check. Anyone who still has their pencil gets a responsibility award.

reward them

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Last Week of School Class Compliment FREEBIE



Hi, friends! It's Blair from One Lesson at a Time, here with a super fun and meaningful way to wrap up the school year with your kiddos. Best of all? Totally free! Whoop whoop!

It's the end of the year and the finish line is ahead of us - like a mirage in the distance. It's soooo close.....and yet, right up until the very last moments, also so very far away. The last few days most of us are fighting off daydreams of late mornings in bed & sunny afternoons at the pool - and making mental checklists of all the work we're going to get done over the summer, the PD hours to fill, etc. #letsbeserious

The last few days of school are the perfect time to reinforce the classroom community you’ve worked so hard to build.  Even though most of our students share our enthusiasm for the end of the year on the outside, it can be easy to forget that for many of them - even for most of them - this transition time is one that comes with a degree of uncertainty and trepidation. What will my next teacher be like? Will I be in the same class as my friends? What am I going to do all summer? It's so important to give our kiddos time to reflect on their year – their growth, progress, and the relationships they’ve developed with their classmates. 

I wanted to give my own students a way to share their favorite things about each other and create an easy but super meaningful parting gift for one another. I’ve used “class compliments” as a holiday gift before, and it was so successful that I decided I’d do it for the end of the year as well. 





First, my students and I review how to give a good compliment:


Then we generate a list of character traits that we can use to compliment each other. After we create our own on chart paper, I pass out these charts for students to take back to their seats. If they’ve thought of more, they can add them to the back. We talk about how a really great compliment is about the person on the INSIDE, rather than the outside. Sure, it’s nice to tell people you like their shoes or you think they’re pretty, but it’s even nicer to comment on character traits.


Then, students get to work writing compliments to each and every one of their classmates. It’s a really nice way to spend an afternoon or two – I put the music on in the background and let the kids enjoy the warm fuzzy feelings that come from making others feel good. :)


After the students have all finished their compliments, I enlist a few of them to help me collate them. Each student’s compliments get slipped into a manilla envelope with a cover on the front. This is the most labor intensive part, and since doing this, I've thought of an infinitely smarter way and am now kicking myself.

So....allow me to save you a lot of time by doing not as I did, but as I thought of later:
•Put a stack of blank sheets on each student's desk.
•Put an envelope with the student's name on it on each desk.
•Have the students rotate throughout the room, writing compliments for each classmate when they sit at his or her desk.
•When they are finished writing a compliment, they simply slip it into the labeled envelope, which is already right there.
•Then, they move on to another desk.
•Slap Blair upside the head for collating these herself like a complete crazy person. *think, Blair, THINK!*

Whyyyyyyyy oh whyyyyyyyy don't I think of these things BEFORE doing them the hard way?!

Hand them out on the last day of school (no peeking!) for a meaningful gift from the heart for each and every student. Students will cherish their classmates’ words for years to come.

This activity is available for free in my TpT store - and last year I got some feedback on it that was so very powerful. I can't imagine the pain this student's family has gone through. But it is incredibly moving to know that his classmates' words were a source of comfort to them during a difficult time.




The activity is just a cute way of presenting students' own words. It's the words themselves that hold power and meaning. You don't need to print these pages to do something similar. (In fact, when I first started doing this, I've simply used cut-up scrap paper.) This feedback is such a strong reminder of how very important it is to teach students the power of words - not only that words can hurt, but also that our words can have an incredibly positive impact on the lives of others. This activity is simply one way to help teach that.

Click {HERE} to download this freebie from my TpT store!

Hang in there, my friends - you are in the home stretch! YOU CAN DO IT! And for those of you already done with school....dang! Nicely done! ;)

Thanks so much for stopping by Primary Chalkboard! Have a fab day!

photo 
Blair Turner
Blogger, Curriculum Author, and Paper Designer

Paper Goods: BlairTurnerPaper.com

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Teaching Kids about Bees- Freebie

Hello, Katie here form Teacher to the Core! Is there anything better than the Springtime? Yes, summer vacation!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  But for the moment the world is blossoming and so are our students!!!

 Bees are fascinating to children, thus making them the PERFECT material for reading, writing, close reading questions, and smart art!
Busy Bees Freebie From Teacher to the Core- Enjoy
The passage is about  a RR 16, Level H/I, and Grade level 2.0 with questions to test comprehension.  It’s a freebie for you!!! Enjoy my loves!
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If you would like to buy this unit it is on TpT. You can click {here}.
Slide1

  TPT 3


I am such a sucker for Valentine's Day stuff. The colors. The candy. The memories of trying to figure out what the choice of Garbage Pail Kids card meant from the boy I was crushing on... In my classroom, I definitely DOWNPLAY the love stuff with the holiday. I try to make it more of a friendship holiday - with pink, red, and hearts of course!

Just in case you are still looking for a quick Valentine's Day math activity, I made a short FREEBIE that includes 8 task cards for one step and two step word problems. It is perfectly aligned to the 2nd grade standards but could easily be used with some 1st graders and as a review for 3rd grade. You can pick it up for FREE by clicking here.



Enjoy!




I Think you are Purr-fect Valentine's Bookmark FREEBIE and Crafty Gifts

Hi there friends, it's Emma from Clever Classroom!

I am so excited to share some freebies with you. 

If you're looking for simple gift ideas for Valentine's Day, then you will love these!

I Think you are Purr-fect Bookmark FREEBIE and Crafty Gifts Primary Chalkboard

I have created four bookmarks and three gift squares with cute sayings that relate to Valentine's Day.

They would be great as a gift to students or for students to give to parents or other family members. 


Your file also includes black and white versions of both the bookmarks and square gifts. 

Valentine's craft for kids: Printable bookmark gifts for Valentine's Day

Here are the bookmarks in color. 

Free Valentine's Day bookmarks and MORE


Free Valentine's Day download

Free Valentine's Day download

Free Valentine's Day printables

Free Valentine's Day printables

FREE I think you're purr-fect Valentine's Day gift and more

Each bookmark is printed three to a page. 


Free Valentine's Day bookmarks I Primary Chalkboard


Putting together the bookmarks are super-dooper easy!

Free Valentine's Day bookmarks I Clever Classroom

I love you to bits freebie

Here are the three square gift craft ideas. 

They are also avialbale in black and white so that the children can trace the text and decorate them after you've printed them on cardstock. 

I am stuck on you Valentine and more Valentine's sayings FREEBIE

I also used stinky stickers with, 'I am stuck on you Valentine'. 


You are as cute as a button and more Valentine's sayings

Valentine's Day Crafty Ideas all in a FREE download


Click here to download the freebie via my Teachers Pay Teachers Store

Free download for Valentines Day by Clever Classroom

More Valentine's Day printables ready to go for February. 

Valentine's Day Printables

February COMBO 100th Day of School and Valentine's Day Printables


Thanks so much for dropping by. 


Happy Valentine's Day!




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