Expand an Image Art Project

I have a few artists in my class this year.  These guys love to draw.  I mean, they spend their free time looking up pictures on the internet and in books and re-creating them.  I was thinking this activity would go over great with them.  But, of course, the day I had planned on completing the activity, most of my artists were absent!  Luckily, even the kids who struggle with drawing were successful and seemed to enjoy themselves in the process!

Opposites!

Wow...I made this unit last summer and finally got around to using it with my class this summer.  That is just kind of sad!  It makes me really excited for this upcoming year, however, because my kids did great with it!  I was hoping on doing some more grammar-like units next year for my most advanced students, but this unit went over so well, I'm thinking more kids could participate than I originally thought!  This unit is available on my TPT store (click here).  This unit covers 20 opposite pairs (i.e. hot/cold, tall/short, day/night, young/old, etc.).  Included in this packet are: Flash Cards, Memory Game, 9 Worksheets, and Opposite Bingo.

Favorite Pins Friday

One of my goals for the summer is to be a more collaborative blogger...I spent most of the last year in my own blogging world, but now that I have a little more time on my hands, I am excited to do some more link-ups and guest blogging type things!  

On that note, today I am linking up with First Grade Parade for Favorite Pins Friday!  The 2 major things I use Pinterest for are Food and School Ideas.

Labeling Your Classroom Stations!

At the end of the year, it was so hard tearing down all of my classroom Labels!  Many of them were in great shape, but they are doing so much work in our classrooms this summer, I figured they wouldn't survive.  So, to get ready for next year, I re-printed and laminated them.  

I use these labels in each area of my classroom so my students know where to go and what is expected of them.  My students who have picture schedules, use corresponding pictures to match the labels when they go to each station.  Most areas in my room are meant for only 1 station...however many of these areas can address a variety of topics.  Stations like "Science" usually only  have work related to one topic (i.e. our monthly science topic).   However, stations like "Group Time" occur at the same time each day, but can address a variety of topics and cover many types of activities from games to guided reading groups.

ALL ABOUT ME 2

One of my top-selling items on TPT has been my All About Me book (check out my blog post about this here).  So, I decided to make some additions to the book this summer!  This new product consists of 4 new ALL ABOUT ME WORKSHEETS!! Check it out HERE on TPT!!  Or click the photo below :-)

Math Games with FREE Printables!

Today in summer school, we used some fun math games from Kidscount1234.com.  I had pinned several of her math center ideas on Pinterest...and was super excited that when I clicked on them, they led to FREE printables! Todayl, we used 2 different counting games from this site and made them competitive.  They went over well with the kids (only a few whimpers/whines when a kid lost....we are working on losing gracefully!).  Whenever anyone loses, we cue them by saying "Shake it off....oh well."  We have the kids shake out their body, then shrug and say "oh well."  It is pretty funny, because now if any of my kids starts whining when they lose, another kid will say, "Shake it off."

Awesome Following-Directions Activity

I think I may be in love with this new following directions activity I stumbled across on TPT.  The activities are from Primary Techie (check out her TPT store here).  This activity works on so many goal areas at once...numbers, colors, reading, fine motor, and direction following.