New Chevron Word Wall Headers!

Oh my goodness!  This is kind of crazy!  I am doing two posts back to back.  I felt I had too much information with the farm to put it all together in one.

I have been making things like crazy!  It seems like a lot, but I need to get this all done very quickly.  I start back at school on Friday, which I can't believe is almost here!  I spent yesterday and today at an amazing training having to with best practice of teaching native americans.  It also include information about their history and today we went on a field trip to different sacred sites, which was very cool and a great experience.  Tomorrow I will be organizing my classroom, because everything is in boxes and I have no idea what materials are already there.  I have an idea, but I need to really figure it out.  It will be amazing if I can start decorating, but I am not sure if that will happen.  Anyways, it all needs to be ready for open house by next Thursday!  Which is crazy!  So if you were wondering why I have been posting something everyday on teachers pay teachers that is why.  I finish it for my classroom and then I put it up, so hopefully others will want to use it in theirs as well.

My newest thing is my word wall headers, which you can get on my teachers pay teachers site.  Yes they are chevron and match my job chart and center signs.  I did mention I'm a tad obsessed with chevron right?  I think they will look great and I made them a great size to go with my word wall cards.

These are the colors of the word wall and a few pictures.  I love the print, since it goes perfectly with Zaner Bloser handwriting!  Also the pictures are super cute.  I purchased the clip art from scrappin doodles and kpm doodles.  Both have super cute clip art!

I really hope you like these.  Like everything please let me know what you think!

Farm Unit

I have finally put up my farm unit on teachers pay teachers.  It's a little ridiculous that it took me so long, since it was done in the spring.  I just had to combine everything into one pdf file, but it is done an I am hoping people will like it.

I love doing the farm unit.  I think it's the Iowa country girl inside me that is excited to share it all with the city kiddos that have no idea of a farm.   I feel like I do some pretty cool things for this unit that I am going to share.  Yes it's August and no where close to farm time, but I thought it would be good timing to share this now when I posted the unit and I'm sure I'll have new stuff from my new class when the farm theme happens again in spring.

In my farm unit I have:

3 different complete the pattern sheets with pieces to go along with the patterns.

Make your own pattern sheet.  That I made 2 and had students use the farm animal counters from Lakeshore to make their own pattern.

Here's a picture of the students trying to make their own pattern.

A farm patterning worksheet for extra practice!

This is one of the 4 barns in my beginning sound game.   There are 4 barns each have a different animal on the barn door.  It also comes with picture cards of pictures that start with the same beginning sound as one of those 4 animals.  You put the barn together and then the students take the picture cards and find the barn that they go into.  The kiddos loved this game!  It was fantastic, because they need to work more with alliteration!

Farm initial letter activity.  Students can use a dry erase, wet erase, or letters to write the initial letter.

(There is a worksheet that goes along with this as well.)

Farm animal writing pages.  Wet erase markers work the best when you laminate the cards.  There is also a worksheet to go along with this.

These are the farm letter cards where students count how many letters are in the word. 

I also used these cards to let students write the words below the cards with magnets.  They really enjoyed doing that.

There is also a rhyming game that goes with the set.  In the barn there are two doors, which you use to put two cards that rhyme.  The kiddos get to choose the words they want to rhyme by using the color cards that go with it.

They really enjoyed playing this game, since they were pretty awesome at rhyming. :-)

This cool worksheet also comes with it.  There are 2 pages for it, but this should give you an idea.  The last thing is a simple creative writing where kids draw what they would be if they lived on a farm.  I encourage the kiddos to try to write what they drew and then I go around and dictate what it is and why they choose it.  Unfortunately I don't have a picture of that sheet.

I hope you like this unit.  Again if you would like to purchase this unit go to my teachers pay teachers site!   Please let me know what you think!  Good or bad.  I would love the feedback!

First Time Products on Teachers Pay Teachers! (Center Signs and Job Chart)

I did it!  I finally have put up two products on teachers pay teachers.  I have been wanting to do this from a few months now and have finally done it!  I am very excited for both of these products!  I am obsessed with chevron and bright colors, so I made a classroom job chart and center signs.  I am excited to put these in my classroom and am hoping that others will want to as well!

Here are a few pictures of my center signs.  More picture to come of the final product once I get to a laminator and into my classroom again.  You can find my center signs at my teachers pay teacher site.

This is an example of the large center signs.  In the pack is a  variety of colors (yellow, lime green, purple, pink, orange and blue).   You can use these to label your centers or you can also use them to manage your centers.  

I use them to manage my center.  I printed them on card stock and cut them in half.  Then I added star stickers to signify the number of students that can be at each center.  Each student has their own clothespin that they use at centers.  They then choose what center and put their clothespin on a star.  The students know that if there are stars they can play there if not they need to choose another center.  I do a very open center time.  Where I let the children choose where they want to play and they can play there for as long as they like.  I believe that children need to have the opportunity to develop their play, which takes a lot longer then 15 minutes.  Below is a picture of what it will look like with the stars.  

Here is a picture of the small center signs.

Here are a few pictures of the classroom job chart pictures that are on teachers pay teachers.  Like my center signs, more pictures will come once I get to the laminator.  I saw a very cute job chart on pinterest that used ribbon to hold it together and I plan on doing that!

I hope you like them!  Please comment and let me know what you think, since they are the first things I have made and I am considering doing other backgrounds if people seem to like them.  :-)  

I am also working on two things for teachers pay teachers and my classroom.  The first is putting together everything from my farm unit that I did in the spring.  I am almost done writing up explanations and putting it in a packet.  Look for my next blog post to include the unit and the pictures I had from the spring.  (I know it's late, but I do have an 8 month old. :-) )

The second is my word wall cards.  They will be chevron of course! They need to match the rest of my stuff. :-)  Those will be coming hopefully soon as well.  I want it all done by Wednesday, so we will see if I make that goal.

End of Summer

I can't believe how fast this summer has gone!  I still have so much to do before the school year starts and am trying to spend as much time with my baby girl as possible!  I am currently working on my job chart and center signs.  Yes I am the person that has made new center signs every year, because I want something different.  They are both going to be chevron themed.  I am a little obsessed with chevron.  Hopefully they will be done tomorrow, but we will see.  I am also hoping to put them on teachers pay teachers!  It will be my first time selling anything, which is exciting!  I have been working on putting my farm unit materials together as well, but have not been the fastest with that.  I have focused my summer on getting the house put together and spending a lot of time with my 8 month old, Izzy.

Tomorrow I will finally be moving all of my teaching stuff out of my living room and into my new classroom.  I am very excited about my new position, teaching all day pre-k at a native american immersion school.  I know I have a lot to learn and a lot to do.  I don't think you realize how much stuff you have till you can't walk in your living room and boxes are stacked.  Hopefully, it will all fit in the classroom.

I was finally able to see my new classroom yesterday and I am super excited to get everything organized.  Might sound weird, but I love setting up a classroom and getting everything in place.  It's a lot of work, but definitely rewarding when it's all said and done.  Pictures will follow once I get everything situated.

I have decided to do a chevronish theme.  I found some cute chevron boarders at lakeshore that go great with the crate seats I already had.  They also had this new pattern called calypso, which was very cute! I bought the polka doted and the striped boarders to go with my teal and green chevron.  I am thinking it will look great!