Most Used Resources This Year

At the end of every school year I like to take time and reflect back over the year and think about what activities worked well and what I need to improve.  This year I found myself in new role as the primary resource teacher.  I worked with grades K4 - 2nd grade in the classroom and pulling students who needed one on one instruction.

I started out the year assessing the new four year old students to see where they were at and checking up on their progress throughout the year.  I created this assessment binder to grab and go when it was time to assess one of the little ones.  I have everything I need in it to check in on their progress all year long.

These name bags were a hit at the beginning of the year and again in the middle of the year when I added their last name.  I used these with the little four year olds and they loved setting up their names.  I had these bags on the table as they enter the room.  It was the first thing they did.  It was really helpful because they referred to the letters in their name all year long.  We even referred the letters in our friends names as well.

We played these Bingo games all year round.  I put the capital letter bingo and lowercase bingo back to back and we switched it up.  I did the same with the number bingo as well.  At the beginning of the year I played the number bingo 1-30 with the 5 year olds and towards the end of the year I was playing the 1-20 number bingo with the 4 year olds.  I also used the number and letter cards to play other board games as well. We switched up our markers to holiday markers throughout the year.  This was a favorite that they begged to play each week.

Oh my gosh the kids loved the letters on the stones.  They loved putting them in order and they loved using them to match pictures and letters for beginning sounds.  I used them with the K5 and first graders to do making words exercises.  I think it was a texture thing.  The kids loved the smooth cool feeling of the rocks.  I even made a second set with capital letters to match up. 

These sensory cards were a free item I got from Oriental Trading Company and they were a hit with my four year old students.  They loved touching them and we made up lots of activities with them however their favorite were the sandboxes.  They loved tracing the letters and then drawing the letters in the sand that I found at the dollar store.

Stick Bang is a game that cost little money to make and the kids love to play it.  I made so many different versions of this game.  However I think the favorite was this lollipop version I made for the four year olds.  

My Mystery Number Box was a huge hit.  I found these number cards in a Math Packet I had already purchased on TPT.  I printed them and mounted them on card stock and laminated them.  Then I found an empty Kleenex box and that's where I put the cards.  I used these cards for so many activities:  Number Identification, Greater Than/Less Than, Put the numbers in order from Greatest to Least, from Least to Greatest.   Grab a number and then find one more/one less/ten more/ten less, number of the day,  adding and subtracting activities. 

I looked and looked and I couldn't find where I got these cards from but I know they were something I found I TPT. 

These reference folders were something I used daily with a lot of my older students.  I have math activities on the outside and language activities on the inside.  I found this idea in one of the kindergarten classrooms at my school and I used resources I already had and found free resources that I could use to complete my folders.  

My Favorite Teaching Ideas of 2016

2016 was a year of big changes for me.  I went from a full-time classroom teacher to a part-time teacher who helps out where needed. I love working with students one-on-one or in small groups however the biggest change for me was the paycheck.  I only get paid on the days I work and no holiday pay.  That means I had to cut WAY back on my school spending.  I no longer have money to spend on activities for school.  I need to make do with what I can find for free. Luckily for me I had a fairy-god-mother this semester. 

 In January my class made this beautiful snowflake tree.  My students were so proud of their snowflakes.  They would touch them as they walked by them each day.  Honestly when they took home their snowflakes you would have thought I was sending each of them home with a bar of gold.  

 Our Chinese New Year Lanterns turned out so adorable this year.  We used water bottles to stamp the flowers and sharpies to add details. They turned out so cute and colorful.  We used red, orange and pink paint.  Our room was so colorful at throughout the month.  

 I don't do a lot of directive drawing in my classroom however at the end of the school year I was looking for something cute and simple to go with our US Symbols lesson.  This was perfect.  I also found some wonderful books to go along with the unit.  

 This is a lesson I am always trying to instill with the variety of children I am working with....stretch out the words.   Give it a try ....give it your best try.   I always try to get them to sound out a word first before I help them. 

I updated this alphabet book at the beginning of the year and I think it turned out so cute. They kids love to read it.   

 I have spent a lot of time this year creating qr codes for the listening centers in the first grade classroom.  Right now they are by author but I hope to add holidays as well.   

 I created these name bags at the beginning of the year for my little four year olds that I has working with.  They loved them.  They would work through them each time they saw me.  They still think through their names to recall letter names.  

 These alphabet stickers on rocks is one of my most used items this year.  My young students love them.  The four year olds put the rocks in abc order and the five year olds create cvc words with them.  They love how they feel.

I bought these Tieks shoes because so many teachers said they were super comfortable even on the first day they wore them.  I struggle with shoes, if fact I hate shoes.  First I purchased a gray pair and LOVED them.  Then I got navy and black and for Christmas I got a pair of bright pink.  

 This bag on wheels was another gift to myself.  I was carrying around a bag with so much stuff in it for all the different kids I work with.  Then I got this bag and now I can find all my stuff and it is all organized.  

These three games are all similar and they work on number recognition and counting.  I put these games together for the four year olds I work with.  I was lucky enough to have the frogs and turkeys from years past.  However the christmas dice and gingerbread men were a gift from the wonderful people at Oriental Trading.  

When I first downloaded my original CCBB Bingo games I was disappointed with the fonts and colors of some of the letters.  The kids were struggling identifying the letters as well.  I decided to remake it which was a big project because I didn't save the original document. However it was well worth it.  I purchased some new graphics and jazzed it up a bit and now it is amazing.  The kids are lovin' it too.  I did draw "hats and shoes" on the Uppercase I after I printed it. The kids pick this every week as one of their activities.  

 OMG...every since I received the sensory cards and put together the lego activities these have been a HUGE hit with the students.  I have enough activities now that I can give them some choices and the sensory cards/sand boxes and lego alphabet are always picked first each week.  

The Sensory Table is something I just started to explore with.  My little sweetheart is at the perfect age for this type of an activity.  We found the perfect table for her at Ikea and we can have two different activities going at one time.  She is learning a lot by playing at this table.  

I have learned so many new things this year I can not wait to see what happens in 2017!

My Favorite Teaching Ideas of 2015

This was my month long project to add technology to my reading center/stations.  The kids love listening to each other read.  

I just loved the focus on kindness and giving my students had during Advent with our Advent Angel.  

I can not say enough times that Christmas Card exchange with other classrooms is a wonderful experience.  This year I added using Google Earth to the lessons.  My class did well in the Social Studies test.  They had a good understanding of the vocabulary needed in the unit.    

 I love Story Maker at ABCYA.  My students were able to apply a lot of the computer skills while creating their turkey books.  

This lesson was my first attempt at using qr codes.  I can not how much fun my students had doing this spelling activity.  

Our prayer rocks have enhanced our prayer time at the end of the day.  Lots of time the students pick a work that represents what we are taking about that day.  It is a nice way to wrap up our class time together.  

This was not my idea however it has worked out for me.  I always called this the "Unfinished Pocket."  But my class was calling it the "Catch Up Pocket." So I gave in and renamed it.  It is important to see what work the students still need to finish each day. I send home all unfinished work on Fridays.    

I went back old school this year and wrote my poems on chart paper. Love this idea....we are reading the poem more as a class and I notice the students reading the poem more as they wait for me to begin a lesson on the carpet.  

 Love...Love...Love the writing folders.  The students are using them as resource to find unknown words.  We even added a list of juicy words.   .  

I loved this art project last year.  I do want to add some kind of writing to the activity.  I have more ideas here on the link.

 This was another great idea that made a great first day of school and lead to some good discussion.  I had my 2014-2015 class put together a book to tell the new first grader what to expect during the year.  It had illustrations and photos.  I thought is turned out cute.  

A cute last minute idea I threw together was to have the class make an ornament to remember their first grade year.  

My Favorite Ideas of 2012

Favorite Ideas of 2012

I love these adorable penguins.  I cannot wait to make them again in January.   It was one of those projects that were so colorful and fun you could not help but smile when you looked at it.  The original penguin was from First Grade Blue Skies.  

 Love! Love! Love! These colorful Rainbows.  They were super simple to make and brighten up the room.  My class was so sad when I took them down.  I don't remember were I found these but these are wonderful.  

The addition of i-pads to my classroom had made a lot of changes in how things operate in my classroom.  The children listen to stories, practice and review math each day on them and we use them for handwriting review.  

I love the character banner my students made for the reading area.  Another simple and colorful project for the classroom.  

This was a last minute idea....move my reading center away from my calendar area.  Wow!  This turned out to be a great idea.  I love how I can have many children reading quietly in this area and I was able to keep their reading boxes under the bench.  

Adding the number words above my numbers was a wonderful ideas, I still need to do more work on adding math vocabulary in my classroom.

On the left in two sets of drawers in the leftover crayon drawer.  This is a lifesaving classroom organizing idea I found on Pinterest from Miss Squirrels.  It makes finding and putting away lost crayons so easy. This is a must do idea!  

I finally added white contact paper and big dots to the back of my file cabinets.  Looks Marvelous! 

As one of my organizing projects this past spring I put new covers on my lesson binders and new labels on the side of my binders.  Another project that turned out great and looks wonderful!

I just love these owls outside my classroom at the beginning of the year.  I know I had the owl theme two years in a row but the owls are sooooooo cute. 

This is one of those last minute ideas.  After reading the story, We Are Alike, We Are Different, my little ones made these cute faces.  Ummm where should I put them, how about around the poster from eighteen24.  

This was so adorable, my paraprofessional put this Pilgrim House together to add to my pilgrim dramatic play area.  They kids loved looking out the window.

Adding a home connection to my Advent story this year was a great idea.  Each day the children walked in the door asking, "What will we make today?"  I loved that they were thinking and asking about the Nativity story and not focusing on Santa.

I loved this Christmas Card Exchange and the connection with classrooms around the country.  I sure hope I can do something like it again next year.   

If you have a favorite idea from your blog, I would love to read it.  Please leave me a link below. 

Thanks for reading, Sue