What Are Your Plans for Valentine's Day?

     Tomorrow will be a fun filled afternoon. Not only is it going to be a  full moon on Valentine's Day, but it is also the last day before our winter break. Our class has been busy this week making Valentine Animal Creatures, doing some Valentine writing assignments and leaning some new Valentine songs. Tomorrow, I  plan on  reading some Valentine stories to my students and we all are looking  forward to exchanging cards. To get some of the wiggles out, I am planning on showing a couple of my Brain Break videos from Pinterest.  My students just love to get up and dance along with these videos. Best of all they are not only fun but educational.  They have been a life saver during all these cold, snowy winter months in which we can's get outside for recess. You can check out my  video collection of my classroom videos board by clicking the Pinterest link on the right. Our school does not allow food during celebrations. Years ago, we used to have students come in with lots of party treats such as cookies, brownies and cupcakes. Since there are so many food allergies, we no longer have celebrations with food in our classroom. At first, I thought that this took all the fun out of celebrations, but now I don't mind it at all. I no longer have to worry about the ton of  food that gets thrown away since the kids can't possibly eat that much junk food. I don't have a huge mess to clean or worry about the sugar high the kiddos get after eating all those goodies. It is important after all that we encourage healthy eating. "Food Free"  makes celebrations so much simpler. I would love to know if your school still allows party food coming in to your classroom. 
      As a last minute art project, I am also planning on having my students make Valentine cards for their parents with the "I LOVE YOU TO PIECES" idea that I found on Pinterest. It is a great way to get rid of all that extra scrap paper and  it makes an adorable card that I think the parents will treasure. What are your plans for tomorrow? Do you have anything special planned? Please comment below. I would love to hear your thoughts.  Enjoy Valentine's Day with your class and especially your family.    

Giveaway Celebration! Enter to Win Lots of FabulousPrizes!

     A couple of years ago I discovered TPT and I became a buyer. I found so many creative activities to help enhance my classroom. I thought about becoming a seller so I could share some of my own creativity with teachers and students. As a seller I began my journey with the online teaching community a year ago during my February Winter Break. What an awesome feeling it is to be able to create an activity and know that teachers from far away places are using it in their classrooms with their students. I have loved each and every minute of this new experience. I am meeting so many supportive and brilliant teachers out there. The creativity is astonishing! I am also celebrating 300 wonderful followers this week. I appreciate each and every one of you for supporting my store. Once I found some success on TPT, I also decided to open a new store at Teacher's Notebook to share my ideas with even more teachers. I am just getting started with it and I hope it begins to get some more recognition.  

     I love giving back to other teachers. I feel like so many people have helped me along the way. I am hoping this giveaway is one way to give back to other teachers. Several amazing PreK-2 teachers have generously joined in on the fun and donated a product. I will be hosting my giveaway during my winter break which is Feb.16-18 on this blog using Rafflecopter. Be on the lookout for this exciting Giveaway to begin. I will be posting direct links to the fantastic products in this giveaway, so you can further preview all the fabulous prizes that are in store for the lucky winner. Feel free to share this giveaway with all your teacher friends. 

Do You Have A Classroom Website? It Is Easier Than What You think.

 

 This year I put together my very own classroom website. It was much easier than what I thought it would be. Communication with your parents is vital to the success of your students. Parents can use the website as a learning tool, a source of information, and a way to stay connected. Yes, as teachers we all stay connected with notes, logs, newsletters, emails, phone calls and conferences but by creating a website can also bring a whole new level of communication to your parents.
     I used Weebly to get started. It is free and very user friendly. You can have your site up in no time. Several teachers across the country have found success using Weebly.  There are several other sites to help you get started but I thought Weebly was pretty easy to navigate through with tutorials that can easily get you started. You can post all those newsletters that you send home, classroom rules, word lists, and so much more. One of the  benefits of having a website is that you can post direct links to helpful educational websites or video clips for your students.  I do usually give a hard copy of my monthly newsletters to my students but they do sometimes get lost. Now, parents can simply log in and check on important information that they might have missed. There is no excuse for students claiming they do not know the classroom rules when they are posted on the site. You can post lots of helpful hints for parents on your site and not worry about wasting massive amounts of paper. I even set up a separate Pinterest account just for my classroom. This set of boards has tons of video clips that are categorized to help support learning at home. Parents have access to this special Pinterest account through my Weebly Website simply by clicking on the P which is a direct link to these special boards. You could also post some photographs of your students busy at work in class. Parents would love to see what they are doing. This is something that I have not done as of yet. I just want to clear it with my principal. I do have permission from all my parents through the photo and internet forms that were sent home.  
      At the beginning of the year, it is helpful to send a questionnaire to your parents and be sure that they have access to the internet. This way you will know which students need a hard copy of certain documents. If it is really important I would definitely send home a hard copy to your entire class.
     You may already have lots of older newsletters and documents that you send home and just tweak each year to accommodate the needs of your students and classroom already saved on your computer. Simply copy and paste your documents from Microsoft Word or wherever you store them and add to your site. It is really that simple. You can easily fancy things up with some clip art and you have a professional looking website. Do you have a classroom website? I would love to check it out. Here is a link to my website.
http://mrsfrazierskinders.weebly.com/
 If you are thinking about starting one, I hope this site can inspire you with some ideas. I am hoping to check out some of  your classroom websites and find some new fresh ideas as well. Please leave a comment with links to your site or if you found this post helpful to you.  

Who Can't Resist a Box of Chocolates?

Yummy!!  Don't you just love all the special treats you get during Valentine's Day. I especially love receiving a box of chocolate. "You never know what you are going to get until you take a bite." You can tell I had food on my mind while designing these two Valentine activities. I think my students will adore this fun-filled Valentine Bingo Game as they devour up pieces of chocolate and read sight words.  I still  have some students who struggle with sight words. They need lots and lots of repetition and practice.  I've included 43 sight words in this activity. I also put together the Valentine Popcorn Activity as my students need practice blending (cvc) words. Our class just completed DIBELS testing and my students are now required to read nonsense words. The only way students will get better at blending sounds to read the whole word is by continuous practice. Students do need to be exposed to nonsense words often to help them prepare for DIBELS. Reading nonsense words really do force students to use their phonics skills rather than just reading familiar words through memory. I think my students will love the three dimensional popcorn bags as they read and sort real and nonsense words. With every activity or game I design, I always like to include a recording sheet with kid-friendly lined paper. When students record information they are learning, they are also embedding that information into their brains as well as sharing what they have learned. Using recordings sheets and lined paper also helps support proper handwriting and helps students organize information in a meaningful way. I just uploaded these two Valentine activities on my TPT and TN stores.  If you have students who need work with sight words or CVC words, you may want to check these out. 

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Valentine-Sight-Word-Bingo-Fun-1077983

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Valentine-Popcorn-Real-Nonsense-Word-Sort-1073697  

or

http://www.teachersnotebook.com/product/123kteach/valentine-sight-word-bingo-fun

http://www.teachersnotebook.com/product/123kteach/valentine-popcorn-real-and-nonsense-word-sort

. Happy Valentine's Day!! 

Giveaway! Lots of Cool Prizes!

Check out Techi Turtle Teachers 100 Followers Giveaway. I donated one of my winter products to her fabulous giveaway. She has 21 prizes in her giveaway.  You can check it out by visiting the following link  http://techieturtleteacher.blogspot.com/

Good Luck!

Winter Fun!

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Winter-Fun-Bundle-Pack-1064697

or

http://www.teachersnotebook.com/product/123kteach/winter-fun-bundle-pack

     Do you need fun filled activities that will keep your students busy during these cold winter months that align with the Common Core?  Bundle up for winter and enjoy this bundle of savings. You can save lots of money purchasing this set. In fact it is like getting two of these products for free. I will keep this priced down way low for all my wonderful followers for just a limited time. Three of these products are Print and Go worksheet booklets to make it "super easy" for you  as you will not need to cut or laminate anything.  
     My Winter Sleigh Ride Number Fun Activity is the only activity where you will need to cut, paste and laminate some pieces to make these adorable sleds as your students learn many different ways to represent numbers in a hands on activity.
     I hope you are staying warm this winter. It looks like we are heading for another cold snap here in New England in the next few days. At least I was able to get my class outdoors for recess a couple of times this week. They need to run and get some of their high level of energy out. Do you see a difference in the afternoon after your students have had the chance to blow off some of that energy outdoors versus  the days when students need to stay inside due to inclement weather? Please leave a comment. I'd love to hear your thinking.  Also, I'd love for you to share at what temperature is too cold for outdoor recess.  
   

Happy New Year! Get Your Class Ready!

Wishing all my followers a happy, healthy and prosperous New Year!  I hope you all enjoyed your winter break and spent quality time with your families. Today, I've been busy shoveling out snow in this frigid cold weather. After I take down some of my holiday decorations, I will be busy working on activities for my classroom. I am sure this weekend many teachers are scrambling around trying to get ready for the busy upcoming weeks ahead. I've decided to kick off this New Year with a sale at both  my Teachers Pay Teachers Store and Teachers Notebook Store. Enjoy an extra 15% off the entire store. I've recently posted many new winter products that are easy to prepare and align with the Common Core Standards. 
               Enjoy these final few days of the holiday break.