Each year I pull out these adorable Halloween Directed Drawings and my students get so excited! They are always a fun addition to our writing center and the students love learning how to draw October related items! Included in the pack are two versions of directed drawing/writing formats for the following: Cat, Bat, Owl, Witch hat, Pumpkin, Jack-O-Lantern, Leaf, Candy Corn, Ghost, and Spider!
These are great for first, second, and third grade students! Even my little first graders love giving the more challenging drawings a try! They try their best to create the drawings and are so proud of their work! You can check out the October Pack here! I also have a pumpkin freebie if you would like to try it out before grabbing the whole pack. :)
September is the month of apples. This is the month where teachers delve in and teach the life cycle of the apple tree, conduct apple investigations, and explore fiction and non-fiction books surrounding the delicious subject. To enhance the apple studies in my classroom I have developed a craft that will help culminate our learning of all things apple.
While the construction of the apple looks somewhat challenging, when given direct instruction of each step of construction, first graders in my class have risen to the challenge and successfully constructed these adorable fruits! They are great helpers when someone at their table gets stuck on a step and I of course monitor them and help when needed.
Check out these adorable apples here. Card stock is not necessary, just regular copy paper works great. What is also fun is the ability to copy them on green, red, yellow paper so there is a variety of apples on display in the classroom. They look adorable hanging in the classroom and brighten up the space before all the fun fall projects begin.
What a time to be an educator! With all the uncertainty of Covid-19 and starting schools, it has been a wild ride for teachers! My school district decided on a hybrid model (at this point). We will have two cohorts A and B alternating instruction two days at school, three days at home. It is still unknown at this point what the remote cohort will look like while we have a class of kiddos in front of us. My district has also provided an opportunity for remote only learning.
Many other districts, however, decided on opening the year utilizing only remote learning due to Covid numbers. But how do we build relationships and start the year with primary students remotely? Well... we will need ALL the digital resources!
This is where "All About Me" activities will change. I have created Digital All About Me activities that will allow you to get to know your students, even though they are at home learning! I have created 8 designs that work with many digital platforms. It is created for Google Drive, but can be altered to fit Seesaw, OneNote, and many more.
I think I am still going to try the 3-D route for my hybrid students, unless of course we need to go 100 percent remote.Take a look at the Digital All About Me Activities below! Grab them here! If you want ideas for 3-D All About Me Projects that are not digital, click here! I also have some 3-D activities with the digital version included. How is your school starting the year?
With the school year fast approaching, I have been in back to school prep mode! While I have no idea what the beginning of the year will look like with Covid still rampant, I have decided to prepare materials for the classroom as well as distance learning!
The latest and greatest project is this new All About me 3-D Rainbow Poster! I have had a colorful classroom theme for years now and these will be perfect whenever we are allowed back for "in person" instruction. Just in case we are still distance learning, I also have a digital version included! Check out the rainbow poster below!
Here is an example of the digital "About Me" project that can be used with most learning platforms such as Google Classroom, Teams, and Seesaw.
To grab the poster and digital All About Me Rainbow click here!
No matter what your "back to school" experience will be, I wish you health, happiness and the best of luck in the new school year ! :)
If rainbows aren't your thing, check out these other exciting "All About Me Posters" here!
I'm happy to share my latest in 3-D All About Me creations! For those owl lovers, I have created an owl all about me with pop-up features and feather flaps. I also included a bonus Owl Report resource in the file as a little extra! Check out the owl below and grab it from my TpT storehere.
Here is the All About Me 3-D Owl Poster.
This is the free owl report file included with the All About Me poster.
You can also use the template for a fun art project. Have your students color in nature colors, or create whimsical colorful owls!
Check out the video tutorial below!
Remember if you want to grab the resource, click here!
If owls aren't your thing, be sure to check out my other 3-D All About Me Posters in this blog post!
This past year was a whirlwind! I moved across country from California to North Carolina and embraced all the changes that came with such a big transition. A week after I moved hurricane Dorian hit... it was a little scary... and a little exciting, as I had never experienced a hurricane before. Little did I know that wouldn't be the last of the adventures I would have in my new home of North Carolina!
I applied for a NC teaching license and went about looking for jobs. I was very fortunate to step into a second grade position in October at a wonderful charter school. I LOVED it! The kids were amazing and I had so much fun jumping into another year of second grade. I felt for the students because I would be their third second grade teacher from August-October alone, and I knew another teacher transition would be challenging for these 7 year olds. The students welcomed the new procedures and routines, and before long we had a well-oiled machine running in our classroom. I use a lot of technology and digital resources in my teaching and they grasped the new methods and techniques with open arms.
We had a blast with all sorts of exciting content and lessons and before we knew it, spring was here! Along with spring, came COVID! I heard the inklings of it coming and I sensed a large change to education in our country. During the previous school year I implemented the Seesaw digital learning platform in my classroom and my students and parents LOVED it! I hadn't used it this year because I had thrown so many new things at the class since I took over. But as I saw what what happening with schools beginning to close, I knew I had to STOP everything and implement Seesaw into my daily classroom routine.
On Thursday March 12th, I stopped all of our normal routines and taught the students how to use Seesaw. I put all of our assignments on Seesaw and taught the students how to use the tools. Boy am I glad I did! Little did I know that would be the last day I saw my students in person for the remainder of the school year.
Seesaw was a saving grace during the closure! The students were able to complete interactive lessons that were created by me, along with some that I found in the lesson database. I was able to record videos and embed them into my lessons. I was also able to link external sites to my lessons to make them even more interactive. I could have my students record their reading so I could hear their reading progress. They uploaded videos and digital collages. Although face to face teaching is so effective and ideal, we found a solution that would enable our learning to continue. I even was able to post some items that all students could access while connecting with their classmates who they missed so much!
Not only was Seesaw allowing us to continue learning with high engagement, but it was also a safe platform where my students had access to a password protected journal of their work. Seesaw also has a parent app where parents can see their child's work and progress.
I really enjoyed being able to interact with my students. I could record myself talking and editing work with various tools to show them what they needed to fix or help them grasp a tricky concept. Interactive slides with realtime writing, drag and dropping, and recording made the process very easy for creating engaging activities. Check out the clip below for a preview of an activity I created.
Another thing I love about Seesaw is they offer free accounts. The plus version is definitely worth it for the extra features! If you want Seesaw Plus free for 30 days scan my code below! It offers an activity scheduling feature, drafts and editing feature, and allows you to save more activities in your library! So worth it!
Check out the video of me teaching my students how to utilize the tools in Seesaw!
While we have yet to know what school will look like in the fall, I am confident with my knowledge of Seesaw and I know whether we are 100% digital, 100% in the classroom, or somewhere in between, Seesaw will be an everyday part of my classroom!
To check out Seesaw click here! If you have any Seesaw questions drop them in the comments below!
Sooo.... after one year teaching 4/5 and two years teaching second I am thrilled to announce that I am going back to my favorite grade... First! Each grade level I have been fortunate enough to teach in my 11 years has provided me with an educational balance. I have learned so much from each grade level I have taught, which happens to be all grades K through 5. From varying content, to extremely different classroom management techniques, each grade has special characteristics that have made me a better teacher.
I will say though, that I do have a favorite, and it is first grade! I love the sweetness of the age, I love the growth that the kiddos make, and I love the challenges you face while trying to get things to click for kids who all learn a little bit differently. I am so excited and can't wait for my first graders!
Stay tuned for the fun we have this year in first grade!
