Primary Chalkboard

Cyber Savings!

It's that time of year to celebrate Cyber Monday and all the sales that come with it! 
All of the Primary Chalkboard members are celebrating by throwing a sale in their stores. 
Each of us have 20% off in our stores, PLUS 10% from TPT. This equals up to be 28% off our products. 

Check our stores out here! 



   

     

   

    

   

   

  

   

  

   

   

   


  

    

   
 


 

December Writing Freebies

Hi Friends!!! It's Latoya of Flying into First Grade!!!



I am here to bring you some writing ideas for the month of December!!!
These are great freebies that can be used to practice many types of writing during the holiday season.


  


  


  


  

Happy Holidays!!!

Gifts For The Holidays

Hi everyone,

I'm stopping by today to show you what my students are making for their parents this year. I love giving my students the chance to create a gift for their parents during the holidays. Moms and dads give their kids so much all year so I think it's important to allow our students to thank their loved ones with a special present.

This year, we are making coupon books!




My students are having a blast coloring all their coupon pages and are ready to help out around their homes during their holiday break.

I let them add their own ideas to their books and I think this was their FAVORITE part! 
I love the ideas they came up with :)




You can pick up your coupon book for FREE in my TPT store.


Enjoy and happy holidays,

Valerie


Christmas Lights Card and a Freebie

Hi all, it's Emma from Clever Classroom.  

I'm a little bit excited about Christmas.  How about you?  Come on, just a little bit? 

I love this time of year because after we wind down, we can spend time with family and friends and actually relax a bit!   I hope you have plans to relax too. 

I also love this time of year for the decorations and yummy food, ah the food, the dessert, the candy .... oh, I digress!

Anyway, I wanted to bring you a Christmas card idea that is really simple and only needs a few materials.

Christmas Lights Card and a Freebie

Are you making cards with your students for their families this year?

If you are and you are after something a bit different, then you might like this idea. 

I used my all time favorite throw away material..... bottle caps!

Christmas Lights Card and a Freebie

Yes, if you know me and my blog, I'm crazy for bottle caps!  I even have a Pinterest board for brilliant bottle cap ideas! 


Okay,  here's what you do to create this simple card with your students!


You will need:

one piece of paper per child, folded in half
glue (glue sticks)
scissors
ribbon (if you don't have ribbon, students could draw on the string in different lengths. 
bottle caps
paint
and glitter


Procedure:

1. Fold the page in half.
2. Cut string at different lengths. Paste on the string (not too close to the edge - see picture).
3. Print bottle caps, flat side down onto the paint and under the string.
4. Sprinkle glitter on over the wet paint.
5.  Allow to dry and write on the front and inside of the card. 

All done!




 As it's almost Christmas, I wanted to give you a little freebie to say thank you for supporting our blog.

I am so grateful that you drop by to see what we're doing here in the Primary Chalkboard blog.

We have BIG things planned for the December so be sure to pop back in.

Christmas Printables for any Word List freebie

I hope this freebie helps you plan out your centers this December.

For more Christmas resource that will surely save you time this December, pop by my store, I have dozens of Christmas resources!

Christmas resources, craft and a freebie






Make a Christmas Gift with Your Students

Hi everybody!  This is Terry from Terry's Teaching Tidbits.  As we celebrate Thanksgiving in a few days and get ready to move on to Christmas, I wanted to share a fun holiday activity that you can make with your students.

At my school, we always have a holiday party on the last day before winter break.  In order to maintain some classroom management while celebrating, we usually like to have a craft or some type of activity for the kids to do to keep them occupied.

If you're looking for a fun, easy project to make with your students, I have the perfect one for you.  Years ago I found an adorable Christmas ornament project online and tried it with my class.  It worked out brilliantly!  You can have your students make these adorable ornaments and give them to their parents as a gift.
This makes a great gift because it's personal and it is a gift that their family can take out and see again each and every year.  My parents STILL have ornaments that I made in elementary school and I love looking back at them when I come home to visit all these years later.

Here's how to make them:

1.  Choose an ornament (it can be any color, but I liked blue because it made it look more like a snowman outside.

2.  Paint the palm of the child with white paint.  I used tempera paint.

3.  Have them hold the ornament in the palm of their hand, (not too tightly) with the bottom of the ornament in the middle of their palm.  The white area that is made by the palm of the hand will appear to be the snowy ground and each fingerprint represents an individual snowman.

4.  Once the paint has dried, provide Sharpies to decorate each fingerprint to resemble a snowman.  I added buttons, a scarf, eyes, nose, mouth, and top hat.

5.  Present the ornament as a gift and hang on the tree!  :)

I hope you like the idea!  I can't wait to see what other ideas people have to share for the holidays.  There are only a few more weeks left, so have a Happy Thanksgiving, a Merry Christmas, Happy Chanukah, Happy New Year, and Happy any other holiday that you may be celebrating this season.  :)

~ Terry

Do You Need MORE Books for YOUR Classroom?

How many times have you ever said this, "I need more books for my classroom library"!  Well, I found this nice little secret a few years back while teaching kindergarten.  I am going to share it with all of you so that you can get books the inexpensive way for your classroom library.  Have you ever heard of "Book Sale Finder"?



Click on the image to take you to their website

When you get to the website you will see the image below along with many other images on their website.  Just click on the state you live in and 


you will see the next image that tells you where all of the book sales that your local library has coming up and the dates and times to visit.  


As you can see I have one to go to in Alpharetta, GA on December 6th.  At my local library I go and get a box or two of books for about $10.00 per box. (they usually run .50 each) I also find VHS movies really cheap since nobody has a VHS player anymore except me in my classroom!  If you get there early on the first day they open, or go when they have a "library card holder" preview, you can make out like a bandit in the book territory.  I then can use them to send home with my kids and not worry about them getting lost because they can be replaced at the next book sale.  

Oh yeah, I almost forgot, they have a Facebook page so click on the link below and follow them to get notifications.


        Here's to happy reading and book finding!
Deb at Fabulously First...

  

Bring History to Life for Your Students… And Integrate Reading into Social Studies!!!

Hey everyone! It feels good to be back blogging again with the most supporting, amazing, and caring collaborative group: The Primary Chalkboard! It's November, and while you shouldn't give thanks only during this time of year, I do want to give a huge shout out to my Chalkies because I am SO thankful for each and everyone one of them. Love y'all!!!!!

Now, onto business :) If you know me, I am a huge proponent of content integration. There just isn't enough time in the day to separate every subject in isolation, and students learn better when they can see the relationship between the various concepts they are learning. I also love using authentic documents to teach social studies. Which is going to engage a child more? Reading an informational text about the Declaration of Independence, or reading from the actual Declaration of Independence? (Ok, so I know they may have a hard time with the cursive handwriting but that was just an "off the top of my head" example). Which brings me to the meat of my post: 2 amazing resources you can use to find some authentic documents that will keep your students engaged and help you integrate reading and social studies. DocTeach and Digital Archives. Head on over to my blog to read up on how I use these 2 resources, and how they can help you, too!

I wish everyone a very happy Thanksgiving, and a SMOOTH last week/days with your students before the break! Good luck, y'all! 

Heather