Interactive Notebook Labels

It's back to school time!!!! Time for organizing and getting ready to start the new school year.  This month I'm linking up with the ITeach August linky party where you can find freebies, teaching tips, and a fabulous giveaway to help you get your school year off to a great start. If you use interactive notebooks in your classroom, you'll want to check out these labels!

I made these labels to help my students identify their notebooks.  These really helped out when I couldn't get 24 notebooks of one color!  I made interactive notebook labels for language arts, math, science, and social studies.

These labels are designed to be printed out on 3.5x5" sticky labels (4 labels per sheet).  I use these labels HERE.  Just print, stick, and go!  You can find these labels by clicking on the picture below.

And don't forget to enter our BTS giveaway below, where you can win one of three $50 TpT gift certificates!!!

     a Rafflecopter giveaway

An InLinkz Link-up

Favorite Book Characters

This week I'm jumping back into the blogging world by joining Minute Mommy's Summer Reading Stash blog hop.  My absence was due to having a sweet baby boy last fall.  Life with two little ones has kept me busy.  I've missed blogging, so I was super excited for the opportunity to join in on this hop!

This week we are all sharing our favorite book characters.  I LOVE books!  Reading to students has always been one of my favorite things to do as a teacher.  Here are 5 books with some of my favorite characters.

Junie B. Jones by Barbara Park
This was the first character I thought of when I started to think about this post.  I've read at least one Junie B. Jones book to each of my first grade classes.  Students LOVE her, and so do I!  I own the complete series.  The series is told from Junie's point of view as a kindergartner and first grader.  She is hilarious and the kids totally relate to her.  They are short chapter books and I like to use them as a read aloud after lunch recess.  I found this to be the best time for me to read them to my class because the students need some time to settle down and refocus for the classroom.  Because the students enjoy the books so much, they have a more vested interest in getting back into classroom mode.  They can't wait to hear what Junie does next!

If You Give a Mouse a Cookie by Laura Numeroff
I'm sure every K-1 teacher has read this book, but if you haven't it's really a must read.  Students love this sweet mouse and all his shenanigans.  There are several mouse books, as well as other animal characters in the "If You Give" series.  My favorite of those books to read is If You Take a Mouse to School.  You can find a unit of activities to go with this book in my store or by clicking the picture below.

Elmer by David McKee
Elmer is a unique elephant who thinks he wants to be like everyone else.  He soon realizes he loves the way he is, and so do all the other elephants.  A great character building book.  There are several Elmer books but the one above is where you should start!

Stella & Sam by Marie-Louise Gay
Stella and Sam are brother and sister.  Stella has a wonderful imagination and her relationship with her brother is so sweet.  They are a great example of getting along with others.  There are 5 Stella books and several Sam books.  Stella, Star of the Sea is the first book.

Fly Guy by Tedd Arnold
All of the Fly Guy books were immensely popular with my first graders, especially with the boys.  They were almost always checked out at the library.  This endearing book is about a boy who enters a fly into a pet show.  Fly Guy is smart and impresses everyone with what he can do.  There are over 10 books in the series.

I hope I've introduced you to some of your new favorite characters!  Click on the button below to head on over to Kay's blog and read all about her favorites!

An InLinkz Link-up

Tot School: Red Week

Hi friends!  I am linking up this week with #TeacherMom's new tot school linky.  One thing my kiddo needs more time with is learning her colors.  So last week we focused on the color red!  Since red reminds me of apples, I made this apple sensory bin.

This was really easy to make!  Here is a list of things included:

- bin - Target Dollar Spot

- apples - Michael's Craft Store (don't forget to use the 40% off coupon!)

- oats - any grocery store

- apple trees - toilet paper rolls, construction paper and red marker for the apples

- animals, farmer and fence - Little People Farm play set

(Pictured Below)

- tongs

-box for apples - from a Melissa and Doug play food set

The only thing I had to buy for this activity was the apples.  I got them 40% off at Michael's with a coupon.  Everything else we had at home.

The animals loved eating the apples!

She used the tongs to transfer the apples from the bin to this box.  

Isla loved reading these cards from Preschool Homeschool.  They are simple sentences about things that are red.  Preschool Homeschool has sets like this for every color and for other themes.  They come in color and black/white.  In this picture Isla is using an apple pointer to track while "reading" the sentences on the cards.  We kept them up all week and she could go read them whenever she wanted.  

Coloring the black/white version of the cards with a red crayon.

We used red play dough to make things that started with the letter c, one of our focus letters for the week.  

This cat themed lunch was more about the letter c than the color red, but I did use a red plate!

I made this dot the letter page for more letter c practice.

This FREE count and clip center from Teaching Tykes was so fun!  The center has cards up to number 20, but we just used the cards up to number 10.  

I hope you enjoyed reading about some of the activities we did this week.  Check back next week for more color themed ideas!   

$100 Teacher Appreciation GIVEAWAY!

I love gift cards, and I'm sure you do too! We are showing our appreciation for teachers this week over at iTeach First by having a gift card giveaway from some of our favorite stores! We are giving away $25 gift cards from Target, Starbucks, Amazon, and Teachers Pay Teachers. 4 chances to win! Here are some things I'd love to get with these gift cards.

Target: I think my favorite thing about Target is the dollar spot. You never know what goodies you'll find there. I love looking for seasonal math counters in the form of table scatter or mini erasers. I've also found some great nonfiction readers there! 

Starbucks: ahhhhhhhhh, Starbucks. If you're a coffee drinker, you most likely have your go-to Starbucks drink. Wouldn't it be nice to have that treat on us?  If you don't drink coffee, I recommend the chocolate croissant. SUPER yummy!

Amazon: We looooooove Amazon at our house! We've had Amazon Prime since we had our daughter 2 years ago and it has been a lifesaver.  My latest purchase from Amazon was this set of Bic Velocity Pens. They are my new favorite pens, highly recommended!  

Teachers Pay Teachers:  There are so many great resources on TpT.  You may want to grab my newest Activity Pack if you don't already own it!

You don't want to miss this giveaway, so head on over to iTeach First and enter!  This giveaway ends May 2nd and the winners will be announced on iTeach First on May 3rd.  Good luck!!!

Happy Birthday Doc!

"A person's a person, no matter how small." - Dr. Seuss.  

I've been having a lot of fun introducing my daughter to the world of Dr. Seuss.  Here are a couple Dr. Seuss themed activities and snacks we did this past week.  

Count and Match

This was an easy game to put together!  I picked up the Dr. Seuss cards at the Target Dollar Spot, and made the mat with construction paper and a sharpie.  I gave Isla one card at a time.  She counted the number of Seuss characters on the card and then put the card under the matching number.  The card set came with numbers up to 20, so this game can easily be differentiated.  I plan on laminating the cards before we use them again.  I think we will get a lot of use out of these and I don't want them to get destroyed!  

Green Eggs and Ham Counting Games

Target conveniently has 12 packs of green plastic eggs in their Easter section, which is where I got these.  We tried out different ways to play with them.  In the picture above Isla is opening up the eggs and counting how many hams are inside.  I only put between 1-5 hams in each egg.  The hams are from some clip art I had.  (My clip art collection is so big now I never know what I may find!)

The beginning of the video is cut off, but she did start at one.  I'm working on my video skills!

The biggest hit was simply transferring the eggs back and forth between the egg carton and a bowl.  She LOVED this game!  She is very into "I do it!" these days, and this was a game she could enjoy independently.  It went on for quite a while.  A great way to practice one to one correspondence!

 Cat in the Hat Pizza

I knew I wanted to make a Cat in the Hat Pizza, but couldn't find an example with a cat anywhere online.  So, I made up this pizza design myself!  I used a crescent roll for the the dough and cut it into the cat in the hat shape.  Then I added tomato sauce, some Italian seasoning, and covered it with mozzarella cheese.  I used pepperoni for the hat and olives for the face.  When I showed Isla she knew exactly who it was, so I guess that means I did a good job.  It was easy to make and didn't take long at all!

Cat in the Hat Snack

I saw these cat hats somewhere (I don't remember where), using a lollipop stick to hold the strawberries and bananas together.  I had pretzel sticks so I used those instead and added a blueberry for the face.  Then added a few colored goldfish crackers to it and it was done!  

I hope you have a great time celebrating the great Dr. Seuss!

Ss is for Snowman

This theme was so much fun!  Lots of snowman themed activities and the letter s.  Here's a look at what we did:

Snowman Color Sort

For this snowman color sort activity we used pompoms, a clothes pin, a tea strainer spoon and the snowman color sorting mat (included in the download below).  I gave Isla both a clothes pin and a tea strainer spoon for picking up the pompoms and she mostly used the spoon.  I liked that both options were good for building fine motor skills, and using them made it more fun!  She practiced naming each color and played this for quite a while! 

Dot the Letter Ss

Once again Isla LOVED dotting the letters!  This activity was great for recognizing the letters and practicing saying the letter's sound.  "When you find an s, say it's sound!"   

Stamp the Letter

I looked ALL OVER for my snowflake stamp, and it's still nowhere to be found :(.  Any who, Isla didn't notice or care what the stamp was.  She was just happy to stamp!  

Q-tip Painting the Letter S

For this we used washable Crayola paint.  She loved it!  This was the first time she ever really got to paint.  The idea of painting the letters was abandoned after about 8 seconds, but she had a great time!

Snowman Sensory Play

When I found this idea on Pinterest I thought,  'How PERFECT!  Isla will love it!  It will be so fun!'.  So... you see the picture above?  That's as much that little had ever touched the "snow".  She absolutely refused to give it a go.  I had to really convince her to even do that much, lol!  But if you're interested in giving it a try, you can check out the link and how to HERE.  

Snowman Puzzles

Isla had a fun time putting these puzzles together.  I've included two more (not pictured) in this week's Ss is for Snowman FREEBIE.  You can download all of the freebies you see in the pictures above by clicking HERE.  The fun didn't stop there though, check out our snowman snacks and meals below!

Snowman Snack

I made this snack using banana for the bodies, pretzels for the arms, raisins for the eyes and buttons, and carrots for the noses.  

Snowman Pizza

Just looking at this pizza makes me want another one!  I rolled out a can of crescent rolls and cut out the snowman shape (adding the cut off pieces back into the snowman).  Then I spread tomato sauce all over and sprinkled it with Italian seasoning.  Next I added shredded mozzarella cheese.  I used olives for the eyes, mouth and buttons.  The nose and scarf are orange, yellow and red bell peppers.  Super yummy!

Snowman Pancakes

Our week wouldn't have been complete without these snowman pancakes.  I free handed the snowman shape on the griddle.  The eyes, mouth and buttons are raisins.  The nose is a slice of strawberry.  The snow is banana and the scarf is a slice of bacon.  I made the bacon bend like a scarf while it was fresh out of the oven and pliable.  We topped this off with some organic maple syrup from Trader Joe's.  I don't know about you, but using organic maple syrup somehow made me feel much better about the sugar that's in it! Haha!  I've seen lots of snowman pancakes that use whipped cream and chocolate chips (which sounds delish!), but I wanted to do a version with less sugar.   

I hope these ideas and printables will help you in your home or classroom.  Do you have any snowman activities you like to do with toddlers?  I'd love to hear about it! 

     

M is for Martin

Today I was searching for my snowflake stamp when I found my beloved MLK Jr. stamp!  It HAD to be used today.  So I made this little MLK Jr. themed letter m page for my daughter.  We are all about learning the alphabet these days!  Hearing her say "Martin! /m/-/m/-/m/!" totally melted my heart.  She loved stamping Martins inside of the m.  If you don't have a stamp like this, (because really, how many people have MLK Jr. stamps lying around?)I would use scrap pieces of paper and glue them onto the m.  You could also pick a color to reinforce your color of the week.  You can grab this letter m freebie by clicking HERE.    

Graphics from Creative Clips and A Sketchy Guy.

We also talked about who Dr. King was and read the book Martin's Big Words by Doreen Rappaport.  I love this book because it has a simple message and nice illustrations.  I paraphrased the book for my daughter and she enjoyed it! 

If you are a K-2 teacher you may also like my Martin Luther King Jr. NO PREP Pack.  You can find this in my TpT store by clicking HERE.