Teacher Bits and Bobs (2024)

Happy weekend folks! Lindsay here . . .

I just can't even wrap my mind around the fact that there are only six weeks left of school (for me) folks! It's just not possible. Where did this year go???

I am convinced that my school district is the absolute veeeeeeeeeeeeery last to get out of school each and every year. No seriously. I get to see all the "HOORAY SCHOOL IS OUT AND I AM ON SUMMER BREAK!!!!!" Facebook posts . . . again, and again. And. Again. Argh!

This year we are out on June 19th (See?! I TOLD you it was so late!) but I am trying my darndest to stay on top of things because I know these last few weeks are just gonna fly by!

Let's see . . . What's left to do . . . (Insert mental checklist:)

1. OPEN HOUSE
2. Report Cards
3. End of the year assessments (before report cards - duh)
4. Practice for Kindergarten graduation
5. One last field trip
6. Beach day (cuz my school is at the beach - you should be jealous!)
7.End of the year gifts for my sweeties
8. Thank you gifts for my classroom volunteers

Oh . . . and the end-of-the-year awards.

Let me just tell you, these awards are one of my most FAVORITEST things. I don't care if that's not even a word. I love them THAT much.

The last day of school in the classroom with my kidlets is always so precious to me. One. Last. Day. That means one last day of making memories. One last day to tell those kiddos how much I love them. And best of all, one last day to affirm my kidlets for all of the things that make them so unique and wonderful.

Every year I have come up with special awards for my kidlets in the style of "Mr." and "Little Miss". For example, someone is always "Mr. President" or "Little Miss Stick-To-It".

One thing that is so great about these awards is that not only does it have a cute title (Hello Mr. Small-But-Mighty!) . . . but they ALSO have a little explanation at the top. SoI can literally say "For caring & loving deeds, the Mr. Big Heart award goes to . . .". It really helps each kiddo understand what their award from me means.

When the time comes to give out the awards, I always remind my kiddos how special and unique they are, and the fact that we are celebrating the things that make them extra special! For a little extra added fun I like to read off the name of the award and have the kids guess who will be getting it . . . and you know what? They are usually right!!

I decided it would be super fun to put these awards in my TPT store for other teachers who might be looking for a way to celebrate their kiddos at the end of this year! This set includes 35 different awards, each one available for either a boy OR a girl! The awards are ready to print and the set also has a handy planning sheet included to keep you super organized! (I just L-O-V-E a good checkoff sheet!)

If you want to check it out in my TPT store, just click on the cover image below:

I know that your kiddos will LOVE to be affirmed and celebrated on the last day of school as much as mine do!

Well, that's all I've got for tonight! I'm off to work on the aforementioned to-do list (and hopefully catch up on my Law & Order: SVU). [I heart Olivia Benson]

Goodnight y'all!

Lindsay

Happy Sunday, friends!! Kerri here...
I am feeling just a wee bit bitter this morning, because although I love that it will be getting darker later now, I DO NOT appreciate an hour of my life being sucked away in order for it to happen. Yuck.

I'm also bitter that I have 16 report cards left to do BY TOMORROW, and whole bunches of you are already on Spring Break! So not fair! Our Spring Break is 5, count them, 5 weeks away!

So, instead of getting my report finished, I am sitting here doing what I do best, procrastinating by blogging. My favorite past time when I have something SUPER important to finish. I think this drives my husband crazy! He's one of those "get the job done, never procrastinate, line the paper clips up neatly in a row" type of guy. You know, the kind that makes me throw up a little bit in my mouth? :)

This week, we will be diving into all things Irish. I have my latest Erin Go Bragh! set of centers laminated, cut out, and ready to roll!! Here is what we'll be working on for the next 2 weeks...

SO. MUCH. GREEN!! Of course, the laser printer at school started to lose ink as I was printing these, and what color was it that was running out? GREEN!! So some of the centers have that faint limey, yellow look instead of the vibrant green color. DANGIT!

We will also be making these art projects and working with our March words...

Lucky Leprechauns

Tear art rainbows

My March Words writing center

If you would like a copy of the ROY G. BOV paper above, click the rainbow below to get your very own copy!!

We will also be doing some "Taste the Rainbow" Skittles math activities this week, which I'm sure my kids are going to be VERY excited about!! I think I might have posted this as a freebie last year, but here it is again, just in case you missed it!!

Okay! I'm off the enjoy the beautiful weather before I hunker down to finish my report cards! GAH!!

XOXO Kerri B

Good Morning, Friends! Kerri here (again)...
Lindsay is busy caring for her sicky baby (stomach flu-YUCK!) so you get another Wintery type post from me again!

I spent the better part of this weekend cutting out my Snowman Soup Centers so my kidlets can have all kinds of Snowman Soup fun this week. Here is a sneak peek of what we'll be doing...

MATH CENTERS

Snowman Soup! Bar Graph

Snowman Spinners! Addition and Subtraction

Frosty Fact Families

Polar Brrr! Turn Around 10's

Blowing Blizzard! Number Match

LANGUAGE ARTS CENTERS

An Avalanche of Antonyms

Wintery Friends! Long Vowel Sort

Snow Day! ABC Order

Hot Cocoa! Write the Room

Chocolatey Compound Words

Whew! That's alot of Wintery goodness!I cannot wait to bust these out during centers this week. I just know my kidlets are going to love them!

Last week, we read The Mitten as part of our Jan Brett Authors Study and I decided to make a little "Mitten Spin and Tally Math Center" to give them some practice with tally marks. I thought I would share it with you, since my kids had so much fun using it! Click on the picture below to access it via Google Docs. :)
(clipart from KPM Doodles)

Finally, here's a fun little snowflake art project that we will be doing this week from the TLC Winter Art book...

Simple and so pretty! 3 turquoise strips of paper, die cut shapes, or the kids can cut their own (that's what my kids did) and then glitter, which makes all the difference! We are going to write a poem to go with it, and VOILA! A Winter wonderland in our room!!

Have a great Sunday, friends!!
XOXO Kerri B

Good Evening, blogging buddies! Kerri here...
This past weekend was pretty rough for me, and I was so happy to get back to my kidlets this morning (after hugging my own kidlets extra extra all weekend). Even though they have FULLY embraced the HOLIDAY spirit (if you know what I mean...), I am still so so thankful for each and every one of them, and my heart aches for the families in Connecticut.

We are in the final stages of our HOLIDAY EXTRAVAGANZA SUPER CRAZY WEEK over here in my neck of the first grade woods. Here is a little peek at our Parent gifts (all finished, thanks to my FAB student teacher!!), as well as the Magic Elf letters we wrote today...

I gave them choices and they almost ALL chose snowmen!! Can't say I blame them...I heart snowmen too!!

Our Magic Elf letters were HILARIOUS! My kids took it sooo seriously, and most of them want Magic Elf to write back. YIKES! Maybe we have a little problem??

I love this: "Can you tell Santa that Santa is my favorite guy?"

Question of the day: "Am I on the nice list??"

This one was the best: "This is what I want for Christmas. A dog. A girl dog. So my cat Maury can have a stepsister." CLASSIC!!!

I am also gearing up for the Loooonnng month of January when we come back, and I will be using these fun Wintery centers that I created last year (click on each picture to take a closer look)...

Arctic Life...

Winter Games...

Winter Words Writing Pack...

And coming soon soon soon, to feed my obsession with snowmen...

I cannot wait to get these ready for my kidlets!!

Finally, here is a little Dice game FREEBIE if you are still in school this week like me. Since my kids are SOOO full of the Holiday Spirit, I thought a little dice adding, ornament coloring activity would keep themquietengaged and learning for maybe, possibly, 20-30 minutes (hopefully? Fingers crossed??)

Click on the tree below to download your own copy via Google Docs!

3 1/2 more days for me, friends!! And then, on Saturday, for my Hubs and my 14th anniversary, we're going to see the Hobbit and dinner (giddy squeal!!)
Hang in there, peeps! Unless you're already on vacay, well then, whatever! Jealous...

Kerri B

Happy Friday, friends! Kerri here...
Oh. My. Snaps! Praise Jesus that it's finally Friday! Was this not the longest week EVER?? And, we had no kids on Thursday due to a staff development day, but it was STILL the LONGEST.WEEK.EVER!

I was super excited today, because A-Some of the staff got together at a fellow teachers house after school and had a...ahem...beer. Am I allowed to share that? Did I really have a beer today? I haven't had beer since my wild college days involving 40s of Miller Lite and parking lots outside the restaurants where I worked. Gross.
Anyway, back to today's beer story. This one involved my mom, who came with me since she helps out in my classroom every Friday, but did NOT have a beer (she only does White Zin-the 2 buck Chuck kind), and a kegerator at my colleague's house. Yes, you read that right. A kegerator. This guy is SERIOUS, peeps. He has a kegerator AND a pool. Now that's living!!

Here is the other reason I was excited. I got to have a real live date with my Mister, without the children! YAY!! But here's how pathetic I am. We sat in our car in our driveway for like 5 whole minutes because I COULD not for the life of me decide where to eat. Cheesecake Factory (too far), BJ's (too busy), Mexican (over it already). We settled on Stonefire Grill because it is DELICIOUS, and guess what's right next door?? LAKESHORE!!! You bet I dragged my Mister on over there after dinner! Darn straight!

Guess what I found whilst at Lakeshore?? These little gems...

WORD RALLY!!!! It's like a little baby boggle game that is 2 inches square! I am SOOO excited!!
These babies were only $2.99 at Lakeshore and I cannot wait for my kidlets to make oodles and oodles of words with them. I was going to make a worksheet to go with them, and I still might, but then I might just save a tree and have them use their wipey boards to write the words on. Either way, LOTS of spelling and learning is sure to take place! Here is a closer-up view...

Aren't they TOTALLY WICKED AWESOME?? I know my kidlets will think so! So Hurry Hurry Chicken Curry over to Lakeshore, or google it, and get your own Word Rally cubes!

Here is a FREEBIE for y'all to help your kiddos with sequencing. We are using the 6 traits of writing this year, and to help our kids with organization (specifically Opening, First, Next, Last, and Closing or as we call it "The Hamburger" style of writing), we created a story sequence activity. For this activity, our kids will have to cut out the sentence strips, glue them in the proper organized order, and then illustrate each sentence in the boxes below.
I made 3 different ones for them-A Day at the Beach, Getting Reading for School, and Making Lunch. I plan on making more of these for them, if they do well and seem to enjoy it. Of course, I will be sharing with all of my blogging buddies, so stay tuned!

Click on the picture below to download your ownSequencing setvia google docs...

Well, I've gotta jet. Gotta get ready to watch my Gold Rush! Is anyone else as obsessed as me with that show?? I LOOOOOVE that show, and last year, when I went to Oregon, I seriously considered stalking the Hoffmans, who live right near where we were staying. Isn't that so creepy? That's how obsessed I am!

I'll be back tomorrow with a sneak peek of my newest set of Lit and Math centers (which are soooo close to being finished, I can almost taste it!)...

This pack is chock full of Thanksgiving goodness...and it is turning our SUPER cute!! I can't wait to tell you more tomorrow!
Toodles!
XOXO Kerri B

Happy Friday, Peeps!! Kerri here...

Can I just say "TGIF!!"" with ALL CAPITAL LETTERS! My word, what a week! Let's just say that I was at school 2 days in a row at 7:00 a.m. (One of the days for a leadership meeting, the other day I THOUGHT we had a leadership meeting, but we did not. DANGIT!) and another day I had to take my parents to the airport at 7:00 a.m.
And then there was the massive allergy attack that hit me yesterday morning in the middle of our AR time and lasted the entire day! My kids were seriously freaked out by all of my sneezing and snotty nose running. It was disgusting. Suffice it to say, last night I was asleep on the couch at 7:30. My poor husband, having to deal with a tired, snotty nosed, crabby wife!

Today was better because A: IT'S FRIDAY, Y'ALL!! and B: I have all my pull-outs on Fridays, so I basically teach all of 5 minutes (well, after centers and AR of course!) the whole day. It is GLORIOUS! Combined with Baja Fish Taco for dinner (DELISH!) and frozen yogurt, and I am one happy lady!

Anyway, back to the blog post at hand. Yesterday, amidst all of the sneezing and nose running, we managed to make some pretty hilarious goofy pumpkinheads that I first saw from Kacey over at Doodle Bugs Teaching(I LOVE her blog, by the way!!) I knew that we HAD to make them since they were sooo silly. So, introducing our Goofy Pumpkinheads!!

Aren't they a HOOT?? We also practiced writing this poem in our VERY BEST first grade printing...

Mr. Pumpkin

Pumpkin, Pumpkin

Round and fat

Turn into a

Jack-o-lantern

Just like that!

Here are the dimensions that I used if you would like to your little pumpkinheads to make these next week:

Pumpkin- 12 x 9 orange cut into a magic circle with a little V cut out of the top.

Stem- 2 x 1.5 inch dark brown. Cut one corner off the top and cut both sides wavy like a pumpkin stem.

Eyes- 3 x 6 inches folded in half. Cut the folded paper into a magic circle and then cut one of the circles smaller than the other.

Eyeballs- 3 x 1.5 black folded in half. Cut the folded paper to make a magic circle and again cut one of the circles smaller that the other.

Mouth- 3 x 6 inch black. Cut the bottom 2 corners and make round.

Teeth- 1.5 x 2 white. Fold paper in half the long way and cut in half. Cut little rectangles out of both strips of paper and go to town gluing your teeth in the mouth (This is my favorite part, of course!)

Here is a copy of the poem writing paper (via Google docs) if you are interested in that as well...

We will be well into the Halloween Spirit next week using these centers! Can't wait!

I'll be back this weekend to announce the winners of our Educational Insights Giveaway...stay tuned!

Have a happy weekend, Peeps!!

XOXO Kerri