GREAT IDEAS!

Just wanted to share a couple GREAT ideas!

On Constitution Day we learned about the Constitution, wrote our own (as a class), signed it, and made little self portraits to display by it.  Turned out pretty cool!

I believe physical activity is so important for kids.  Research provides a very strong link between physical activity and positive academic performance...  (if you want to know more about that, I actually wrote my thesis on it last year and condensed all the most interesting parts into a short little document and added in a bunch of practical fun ways for teachers to get kids moving in the classroom HERE!). I teach half day K this year so we're only together a brief time, but I still make sure they get 15 minutes of "recess" because I have always learned "play is children's work!"  Anyway- we like to get outside if whether permits, but when we're stuck inside on rainy days, we get out the trampoline and they love bouncing away!  It's the most popular thing!  You're probably saying- I don't have a trampoline- but just tuck this idea away and keep your eyes out for one and you'll find it ... I found this one at a garage sale for $3!  THREE DOLLARS!  I let them wear their shoes (to keep it simple) and they each gets  1 minute turn to bounce their little hearts out.  

 I taught them how to use the second hand on the clock to time for 1 minute... and my para also had this slick 1 minute timer form lakeshore so we've started using that, too.  Great for teaching turn taking, timing, and most of all- getting some energy out! btw, when we're not using it, I store it sideways behind a bookcase it it's not even noticeable.  

Do you have your emergency sub plans set?  Want to get a week's worth done just in the time it takes to make some copies???  My BEST SELLER on TPT is a wonderful week's worth of sub plans... do yourself a favor and check it out!  I put all mine together last week (see the picture below for some of them, all bundled up and ready to roll) and wow- it was so simple and such a relief to know that if I have a kid get sick in the night (I have 3 little ones so it totally happens), or if I'm suddenly not well, or even if I have a planned absence and don't have time or energy to make up something fabulous,  the last thing I have to stress over is sub plans!!  I have a binder that explains the procedures and basic schedule of my room and then these plans give the sub and students plenty of quality, meaningful, fun stuff to work on!  I feel SET for the entire year!

Listen to what other teachers are saying, just in the past couple weeks about these: 
"FINALLY!!!! THIS IS FANTASTIC!!!"

"A GREAT way to work smarter not harder!!! Easiest emergency sub plans ever!!!!"

"As a parent of young kids, it is so nice to know I have amazing sub plans set up in case I need to be out. What a huge time saver. Thank you!!"

"Very thorough plans. I love that I can simply print and copy and I'm ready for a sub. I appreciate all the hard work that shines through this resource."

This zipped file will provide you with 5 entire day's worth of projects and educational activities that you can easily leave for a sub. These 5 days could be consecutive OR spread across the entire school year... it's just nice to have some activities laid out and ready to go if and when those last minute emergencies or sick days pop up. I always keep a set of Super Speedy Sub Plans in a folder on my desk all ready to go... just in case! It's a huge stress-reducer!

Plans are based around 4 popular children's books you probably have in your classroom library or you could easily find in your school library:
1. The Mitten by Jan Brett
2. Pinkalicious by Elizabeth & Victoria Kann (2 days worth!)
3. Brown Bear, Brown Bear by Bill Martin Jr.
4. If You Give a Mouse a Cookie by Laura Numeroff

Everything is appealing, VERY clearly explained, and spans across many subjects/skills: math, reading, writing, health, listening, art, teamwork, class books, and even games just for fun!

I've personally used all of these in my all-day K classroom with subs and they've been a huge hit! I taught 1st grade for 9 years and know these would transfer well to 1st grade, too. 


Okay, one more great idea worth sharing!  I got this from some super experienced pre-school teachers who I was teaching VBS with over the summer and I thought "Wow!  I can't believe I never thought of this!"  So here ya go!  Any time kids were cutting, they put ice cream buckets in the center of the table for them to drop their scraps in!  No excuses for not cleaning up and no need to walk all around the room.  It's a LITTLE thing (like I never thought having kids simply walk to the recoiling bin was a big deal) but it's actually really convenient and saves some time!
So far, I've just been using some little plastic containers and we call them the "mini recoiling bins."  Kids love it... works like a charm!  

one of our "mini recycling bins"

All Ready to Read!!

Here's a list of the words I included! 

I'm back!  Over the summer I spent a long time creating a really awesome way to teach "Popcorn Words!"  I poured over lists and lists.. district lists, other school's lists, Fry lists, Dolch lists, on and on!  I came up with 93 of the most commonly occurring words, put them in a logical order and created all kinds of cool resources to use with them!  Assessments, word wallets (love these!), word finds, games, roll and write sheets, trace and color, mix and fix sheets, and other word work sort of activities so EVERYTHING is ALL ready to go!  For the ENTIRE YEAR! Interested?  Check it out here!  I'm even giving away the whole 1st month of school for FREE so you can really check it out and see if you like it (I think you will!). 



And then I got inspired to go even further and I created these SUPER duper cute little emergent reader books!  I made 10- enough to do 1/week for the first 2 months of school!  They're sold separately and  coordinate perfectly with the words I'm teaching in the popcorn word power packs (and even if you don't use the power packs, you'd still love the books because they are great for emergent readers and cover the MOST common words in English!)!

These are just a few of the books... fun!

They all have picture cues to guide little readers (if they're stuck on a word, they can look at the picture for guidance), the text flows, many even rhyme, and they all have fun endings!  The pictures are adorable (Thanks to KPM Doodles- my fave!), AND they're really slick and simple to run through the copy machine and have done!  I just run mine double-sided with it set to staple on the side... they come out of the machine, I slice them in half (there are 2 books to a page), and wah-la!  All ready to read!

This little guy wasn't quite done coloring, but see the butter on the popcorn words?!  :)

I have kids "butter" the popcorn words (highlight them) on each page, color the pictures, and then keep the books in their book box or send them home.  We did the first one this week and it was a HIT!

So I just wanted to share and make sure you know about the SALE!  Only $5 for 10 books!  Super deal!  Oh- and you can buy them individually, too!

I hope to get back on here later with some classroom pictures and more fun ideas!  Have a great school year everyone!

 

More Classroom Library Inspiration... Get Organized!

Summer!!!  Yessss!

The perfect time to tackle those projects you've been putting off... things you've wanted to do, but didn't have time to... until NOW!  I'm totally with you!  I organized my classroom library last week and it was SO fun!  If you're in the mood to do the same thing, I'm sharing all the labels I used on TpT at HALF-PRICE (only $6 for everything!) during the month of June!  

The ultimate classroom library organization kit includes 106 different, 3 x 3 inch labels for your book bins, baskets, or boxes (however you arrange your books will work!  You can see I use a hodge-podge of different baskets, bins, and shelves... mostly hand-me-downs, misc., or $1 store stuff...), and 58 sets of different labels for your individual books that are 0.6 x 1.5 inches.

Here's a little snapshot of some of my library

I tried to include a lot of popular options so you'll have everything you need (you'd use most of them, but probably not all), but if there's something you would like to see included that I missed, please send me a message and I'll be happy to whip it up for you! :)

So here is what's included:

Book labels for:
General Topics:
Friends
Family
Pets
Plants
Weather
Animals (if you like to think big, but if you like to be break it down, read on...)
Mammals
Reptiles
Amphibians
Birds
Fish
Dinosaurs
Bugs
Ocean
Farm
Space
Earth
Human Body
Silly
Poetry
Books We Can Sing
ABCs
Math
Transportation
Mystery
Sports
USA
Biography
Disney
LEGO
Informational
Fairy Tales
School
Teacher Favorites
More Fiction (the catch-all spot for your leftovers that don't really fit anywhere else, but are too good to not include!)

I found these little plastic sleeves at a garage sale once... but sure you could buy them at an office supply store!   Or just plain ol' laminating or taping will work great, too for the box labels!

Seasonal and Months:
Spring Books
Summer Books
Fall Books
Winter Books
January Books
February Books
March Books
April Books
May Books
Summer Books (I lumped June, July, August here) :)
September Books
October Books
November Books
December Books


Favorite Authors:
Eric Carle
Robert Munsch
David Shannon
Laura Numeroff
Audrey Wood
Cynthia Rylant
Dr. Seuss
Kevin Henkes
Mo Willems
Jan Brett

you can see about how big the book labels are actually on the books... perfect size!   And actually, they're also just a  tiny bit less wide than a piece of packing tape, so they're extra easy to tape on with one quick piece.

3 x 3 inch box labels include ALL of the above, PLUS these popular series labels in a black bordered option or a color coded option (purple = authors, orange = series, and blue = general topics). I feel it would be redundant to label the following series books individually because they already all clearly state the name of the series and have a picture of the main character on the cover, (like I'm not spending time putting special Froggy labels on all the Froggy books that already have a great big picture of Froggy and say "Froggy" on the cover- ha!  I think even my tiny Kindergarteners totally understand that)...  but they definitely need a special place in your library if you have them, so here are the box labels:

Biscuit
Froggy
I SPY
Magic Tree House
Magic School Bus
Black Lagoon
Berenstain Bears
Fancy Nancy
Clifford
Curious George
Henry and Mudge
Five Little Monkeys
Fly Guy
Little Critter
Franklin
Amelia Bedelia
Pinkalicious
Arthur
Junie B Jones
A-Z Mysteries
Calendar Club
Diary of a Wimpy Kid
Judy Moody
Little House on the Prairie
Jack Stalwart
Ivy + Bean
My Weird School
Rainbow Fairies
Boxcar Children
Zac Power
Ready Freddy
Big Nate
Nate the Great
Jigsaw Jones
I Survived
39 Clues
Clementine
Horrible Harry
Geronimo Stilton
American Girl
Harry Potter
Chronicles of Narnia
Encyclopedia Brown
Ramona
Percy Jackson
Nancy Drew and the Clue Crew



Please note that these pages are not designed to fit on a certain size of sticky Avery labels. IF you're a huge label fan though, you could easily print these on full-sheet labels, trim, and stick them on the books. 
I prefer to print on paper, quickly snip them up (everything is lined up so it's really quick and simple... you could totally recruit a parent volunteer to do this, get students to do it if they're old enough to cut neatly, or do it yourself while you're watching TV or something!), and then use packing tape to stick them on. Here's why:

When I have just used plain labels in the past, they wear or peel off and I always end up taping over them anyway. :) If you want to make it last, use tape! To give you an idea of how long it takes, once the labels are cut out, I was able to label a box of about 50 books in 10 minutes. Pretty quick and very rewarding!

I am SO excited about this project! If you love organization, you're going to LOVE your results! You'll end up with a gorgeous library with no more misplaced books... even the littlest learners can match pictures and learn to put books in their proper places. Thanks for stopping by!

JACKPOT! My FAVE collection of online brain breaks & educational, ad-free games! Just had to share!

Thanks for checking out my teacher blog!  But wait!  There's MORE!  If you visit www.HOWYWOOD.com, you'll find my collection of online treasures to use in your classroom with your students!   Under the "Math" and "Language Arts" tabs I've picked my favorite, high quality, AD-FREE educational games for ~K-1.  All kid-tested and approved!  They love it!
"Just for fun" is full of popular kid's sites... not necessarily ad-free, but they're familiar places like Nat Geo, Disney, Nick Jr, PBS Kids, LEGO, American Girl, and much more!  Be sure to look at 1HappyBirthday.com... they have free personalized birthday songs thousands and thousands of names! My class loves finding and playing the song for the birthday kid!

And now for my personal FAVORITE... the place I visit every school day- Brain Breaks!  There are so many good ones out there, right?!  I got tired of saving a few to my favorites and having to look them up- or googling what I wanted...  So I put them all in one place!  

I've also got a few iPad app ideas and  links to digital story books.  

I can't keep a good thing to myself- so I'm sharing and hoping you and your students can benefit from it!  Have fun! 

The SUPER MEGA PACK of Sub Plans! 4 Awesome books, 5 Fabulous days!!

Big news!  It's finally here!


HOT! Looking for some time-saving, efficient, hassle-free, 4-star, best-selling sub plans? You've come to the perfect place!! 

This zipped file will provide you with 5 entire day's worth of projects and educational activities that you can easily leave for a sub. These 5 days could be consecutive OR spread across the entire school year... it's just nice to have some activities laid out and ready to go if and when those last minute emergencies or sick days pop up. I always keep a set of Super Speedy Sub Plans in a folder on my desk all ready to go... just in case! It's a huge stress-reducer!

Plans are based around 4 popular children's books you probably have in your classroom library or you could easily find in your school library:
1. The Mitten by Jan Brett
2. Pinkalicious by Elizabeth & Victoria Kann (2 days worth!)
3. Brown Bear, Brown Bear by Bill Martin Jr.
4. If You Give a Mouse a Cookie by Laura Numeroff

 

Everything is appealing, VERY clearly explained, and spans across many subjects/skills: math, reading, writing, health, listening, art, teamwork, class books, and even games just for fun!

I've personally used all of these in my all-day K classroom with subs and they've been a huge hit! I taught 1st grade for 9 years and know these would transfer well to 1st grade, too.

There’s so much to choose from here that once you add this to your usual routine (morning meeting, specials, recess, lunch, etc.), you’ll certainly have several “leftovers" that you could use yourself when you get back to make your transition back to school a little less crazy! I've never had a sub get through a day's worth of plans in one day (which is GOOD because you don't want them to run out of things to do!).

Being sick is hard enough-- don’t stress about being gone, don’t stress about coming back. :)

So there are 2 ways to do this: Can’t make it to school all of the sudden? Just email this file to a teacher friend who can print a copy for you and hand it to your sub.
Or if you’re planning ahead, pop this baby in your “emergency sub folder” and it’ll be there when you need it. You or the sub will need to make a few photocopies (black and white is fine), but that’s all. No other materials (besides the book and basics like scissors and crayons) are required. It’s really simple and super fun!

Read the awesome reviews of the mega pack here!

This SUPER MEGA PACK saves you the most money and gives you access to every set of 4-star plans I've created so far. I think it's a great way to "stock up" for the school year, but these plans are also available for individual sale in my store if you're just looking for 1-2 days worth. There's also a "MEGA PACK" for sale that includes everything except the 2 days of Pinkalicious (but I think Pinkalicious is some of my best work- just sayin! So once again, this pack here is really the BEST deal, but you have options!). :)
So just sit back & relax… Super Speedy Sub Plans has everything under control.

WANTED posters & POWER names!

Looking for a cool project to spice up your hallway or bulletin board?  

These WANTED posters are fun and easy to make.  I like to do this project around Open House or Conference time when I want my room/hall to look extra cute!  There are 2 parts: WRITING 

  

 and DRAWING (I like to guide them through the process-- ideas for things to have them do are included). 

 Check out some sweet finished products!...

 

If you want more details, writing sheets for boys and girls, and the drawing sheet, you can scoop it up at my TpT store today!   Brand new and hot off the presses!  Yee-haw!

 

Btw, have you ever heard of Power Names?  It's an awesome thing our school does, inspired by a guy named Larry Bell.  We associate a positive, strong adjective with each child's name... we choose one that begins with the same letter as their first initial because the alliteration makes it extra catchy!  You can see a few of mine in these pictures.  We use them to refer to the kids throughout the day and they LOVE it!  They really become what we call them... hard working, creative, kind, loving, leader, victorious!  Try it out and see what happens!  Do you have a jar of popsicle sticks with kids names on them?  Write them on there to remind yourself to use their power names!  It's an easy way for you to brag on your kids and what they do well and it really helps you build a relationship. 

Happy Valentine's Day FREEBIE! Teacher Valentines!

Just spreading the Valentine's Day LOVE!  Print these off and give them to your students, from YOU!  15 different options, something for everyone... even specific poems to attach a pencil or piece of licorice to!

Here is how I'm putting them together- just printed on pink paper, adding some stickers (aren't these cool- came in  pack of 24 tiny sheets from Lakeshore?) cause I'm kind of against giving out sugar and bam!  Ready for Valentine's Day!



Grab the entire file in my TPT store!

We LOVE our class!

I drew a faint heart on paper and had my kids all line their hands up around it!  It's not perfect, but it's kind of cool! 

Rollin to the library!

Just popping in to share another quick, fun, CUTE classroom idea today!  This one is good cause it also solves a problem!  We get to visit the school library once a week and I've handled the task of physically carrying the books many different ways:  everyone has carried their own, I've unloaded little stacks into the tiny arms of quiet kids, I've just carried them all myself in a basket... but THIS right here is the ticket, folks!  Ready?

Find yourself a little shopping cart, jazz it up a bit, and BAM!  BEST WAY TO RETURN LIBRARY BOOKS.  Hands down. Parents and other teachers will squeal with delight as you pass them in the hall. And of course the kids love it, too.  It's too cute.


I found this sturdy one at a garage sale for $2.  I'm still kicking myself for not snatching up the sweet, metal Pottery Barn Kids one I saw once for $10 at someone's sale... cause that would have been way cuter, but oh well.  Live and learn.  :)

 

action shot!

So there ya go- just another fun idea I loved and wanted to share with the world!  

THANK YOU notes!

 

Thank you notes: what a fun, simple way to totally make someone's day! It's paraprofessional appreciation week here and I have three wonderful paras who make our class a GREAT place to work and learn!  So I had the kids take a few minutes and write them each a note.  They were precious... I edited these to not show the kid's names... but you can get the idea.  

Who wouldn't LOVE to get a stack of notes like that from some sweet, tiny Kindergarteners or 1st graders with adorable inventive spelling?!

I thought other people might be having paraprofessional appreciation week  and be interested in something like this, too!  You could actually use it for a W I D E variety of occasions... some ideas include: 

* to thank volunteers after a party or field trip

* to write to friend's around Valentine's Day

* for Mother's Day, Father's Day, Grandparent's Day

* for paraprofessional appreciation week

* for secretary appreciation day

* to thank school workers (custodians, cafeteria staff, principal, etc)

* at Thanksgiving time-- you could put this in a center and kids can write notes to anyone they want!

If you like it, you could pick this little item up on my TpT store today for only $1!  

 Go make someone's day! :)

Joyful Journaling!

Hey!  I think it's so important for kindergarteners (and all kids!) to be writing everyday!  The last few years I let them write about whatever they wanted in their journals, but this year I tried giving them little prompts a few days a week and they love it!  They STILL get to write about anything they want on "Free Choice Fridays!" and also in the Daily 5 writing journal, but it's been cool to read their responses to different questions in their journals.  I love the way it's transforming their journals into little scrapbooks or time capsules-- tiny Kindergarten scribblings about who they love, what they've been up to, all their favorite stuff and more!  Parents (and kids!) are going to LOVE looking back on all this!

So each day over lunch I was quickly typing up a little prompt... or sometimes I'd get ambitious and do a few day's worth to be EXTRA prepared -ha!  I kept a few in my emergency sub plan notebook, but I was mostly living day to day or week to week.... until...  FINALLY last weekend I took the time to write up enough prompts for an entire year!  Oh yea!  Over 100 different prompts!  We do "what did you do over the weekend?" almost very Monday and Fridays are "Free Choice Fridays!"  But then the other 100-ish prompts can fill in all the Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays of our school year!  I made 30 copies of each individual prompt all in one document (10 prompts on a page = 327 pages or so!)... so that all I had to do was press PRINT ONE TIME this year and wah-la!  I'm DONE and ready for the entire school year!!  No more copies needing to be made or trips run to the printer.. everything is all right there.  SO exciting to be so prepared and organized!!

If you like to give your kids writing prompts from time to time, you might find this handy, too!  It could save you tons of time and it's all available at my TpT store!  Since it's brand spankin new, I'm offering it at a nice discount so get it while it's hot!  :)  Ha!

Prompts are organized by similar topics and you can jump around in them however you'd like:

* "A few of my favorite things" (like "What is your favorite thing to do with your family?")

* "What did you do over the weekend?" (or break)

* "Write about a time when..." (like "Write about a time when you were sick." Ick, I know, but kids LOVE writing about that! Ha!)

* "That special someone" (like "Write about the youngest person you know.")

* "Wishes" (like "What do you want to be when you grow up?")

* "Lists" (like "List two things you could do to help someone today!")

* "Why?". (like "Why is it important to brush your teeth?")

Wanna see how it looks all set up?

So I just printed it up, three hole punched the pages, and popped them all in a three ring binder.

I know I'll use "What did you do over the weekend?" every Monday so I popped a bunch of those in a baggie in the front pocket (along with a few others I'm planning to use this week, all paper clipped and ready to roll).



Then just pick any prompt you want to use on a given day, rip out the pages with that prompt (each prompt is 3 pages total - 10 prompts on a page so you'll end up with 30 little strips of paper) and take a few seconds to snip them apart.  Easy-cheesy.



 Lay them out for the kids to grab (journaling could make GREAT morning work to do as they come in to class?) or I often like to stick the prompts in my pocket and dramatically whip them out as I reveal today's idea and get them all excited to write!

Finally, kids just glue stick the prompt to the top of their journal page and get writing!  Want to see how sweet they turn out??

football!

sweet picture

Is that inventive spelling awesome or what?  So brave.

melt my heart

"a fixer"... don't ya just LOVE Kindergarteners??

Thanks for stopping by!