First and Last Day of School Signs

Hello Friends.

Kids grow up fast and as much as we try to savor each moment, some of these memories get lost in the busyness of our days.

My kids are 8, 11, and 13 and I hate the I already can't remember the things that they were into just a few years ago.

Because of that, I started making the beginning and end of the school year signs as a way to:
1. capture what they looked like at the time
2. remember the things that they loved, their friends, and their favorites
3. irritate them love on them

Ok, seriously, look how ADORABLE they are! My older sons did give me some eye rolls as I was taking TONS of pictures.

JK. They know better than that. They want to live. :)

Where was I again? Oh yea. School signs.

One thing that ALL of them do appreciate is looking at the previous years and reminiscing of things that they used to be into and how cute and adorable and squishy they all were. Or maybe that's just me....BUT either way, they DO love looking back at their "younger" self.



I ended up creating a FIRST and LAST day school sign because I had people wanting the same sign for the beginning and end of the year.

I also have a printer friendly version with a white background.

To be honest, I just take mine to Staples and for just a few dollars, I get an AMAZINGLY vibrant printed sign that will last for many years. Just take a look below.

CONFESSION:

For the LAST day of school, I have my kiddos use the sign below. There was no reason why. I guess it's because I had always done it that way and then about 2 yrs ago, I had a lot of people request for a Last Day sign that looked like the First Day Sign. That's when I created the bundle.


Anyways, here is what we use at the end of the year.

We LOVE LOVE looking back and reading the "FAVORITES".

"Science used to be my favorite subject?? I love reading so much more now!"

And of course, some things never change. This boy still loves soccer. Look at him over the years.

Whichever sign that you choose, it'll be one of the things that you and your kiddos will look back on year after year....laughing, remembering, and thinking about all the similarities and differences throughout the years.  ((tears))

 Blessings,

April Fool's Day Fun

Hello Friends.

Do you do anything with your kiddos for April Fool's Day? Since it's just around the corner, I wanted to share an easy and fun thing that you can do with your class that takes NO PREP.

NO. PREP.

My favorite words, especially this time of year. Although I'm not in the classroom anymore, I home educate my own kiddos, and BELIEVE me when I tell you that I am dragging... no.. craaaawwwling towards the finish line. And that's just with 3 kids!

April Fool's is on a school day this year. Our family is full of jokesters. We've had plastic wrapped toilets, water cups positioned to spill when cupboards open, fake emergencies...... you get the picture. I wanted to do something fun while not taking away from the learning that needs to happen during the day. That's why I'm pulling out my favorite resource for April Fool's again this year!

My middle son loves gems and minerals so it was perfect that we read about pyrite and why it is called fool's gold. After reading it, we did a little comparing and contrasting on an organizer.

We also had fun with our Fooling Facts!

The idea here is that you follow "Prankster Pete" around as he travels around and messes up all sorts of grammar and math skills.  I love this packet because there is something for everyone since it has 2 levels.

My little one got to practice racing to 20 with addition and subtraction

While my other one got to work with money and making change.

We even reviewed some language arts

I'm excited to use this resource again so that we can have some "safe" pranking during school hours.

 After school?

Well, I can't promise that everyone will be safe from a house full of jokesters. I've already caught my kids Pinteresting some good pranks, so I'm going to need a few tricks of my own. :)

You can grab a copy of my April Fool's Day resource here:

Parts of a Volcano

Hello Friends.

I want to share with you a fun {and YUMMY} learning activity that I did in science with my kiddos.

Science has never been my strong subject. Because of that, I try and make it interesting when I teach it so that the information will stick with my kiddos.

We were learning about the parts of a volcano this past week. Although it's pretty straight forward and not a tough concept, I took advantage of creating a sugary project since I had not done one with them in a while.

I have to be honest here. I HATE giving my kids sugary treats. We don't keep candy around the house and for the most part, my kids know their limit (except my little one. She has NO sugar limit). So when it comes time to do a project like this, or this, or even this, I have their FULL attention, and THAT makes this teacher mama happy!

Here are the candies we used:

Starburst - lava
Sour Punch - vent
Cotton Candy - gases
Crunch/Crushed Oreos - dirt for volcano

Here is what I did:

1. Draw a volcano on a piece of paper. This gives them a guideline of where to stay inside the volcano.

2. Unwrap about 2-3 Starbursts and put them in the microwave just a few seconds to melt so that it's moldable. I put it on parchment paper.

I melted ours too much so I just let it cool a bit to solidify it.

3. Mold the magma chamber

4.  Use the Sour Punch for the vent

If the vent is too long, I'm sure that your kiddos will be more than happy to shorten the vent

 PERFECT!

5. Unwrap more Starburst and use it to add lava to the side of your volcano

FAST FORWARD A COUPLE OF STEPS. Sorry! We were having so much fun that I forgot to take pictures of each of the other steps, but here they are...

6. Add Sour Punch to the crater of the volcano.

7.  Add Crunch bites/ crushed Oreos as dirt for the volcano.

8. Add cotton candy for the gases

9.  Add labels. I just had the kids place them on top of the candy.

10. Before they could eat their volcano, each of them had to name each part of the volcano and what it did.

 Of course, my oldest son decided that he wanted to add lava shooting out of his volcano. I'm no fool. I know that was really him thinking, "The more candy I put on my volcano, the more I can eat!"  

11. Time to eat! It's just SO sad that they don't enjoy this part.

When you're so desperate for candy that you don't even care that there's paper stuck to it.

ANIMALS!

In the end, my kids really loved this project! I know that activities like this stick in their heads and they were excited to share with our principal (dad) the wonderful project they did today. 

Better Than Equity Sticks: Animated Decision Wheel

Hello Friends,

Growing up, I always loved watching The Wheel of Fortune... wondering what space the wheel would stop at.

The sound of the wheel beeping FAST... then getting slower ... and sloooower. The anticipation of where it would stop. GAAAWH! It would kill  me! The suspense of it all.

I still love that feeling. That's why I am so excited to share with you a new resource that I just posted in my Teachers Pay Teachers store.

Do you use equity sticks to randomly choose your students? I did, too! While I did love those little sticks, I do wish that I had this resource when I was in the classroom because it's fun! Don't get me wrong. Equity sticks are great. I just think that we can sometimes lose the engagement of our students as we dig into the jar to pick a popsicle stick. 

There is just something mesmerizing about the spinning of the wheel and the sound it makes that captures the students' attention. 

Don't believe me? Take a look for yourself!

PLUS, there spinners are EDITABLE! Yay! 

Here is a sneak peak into the resource. 

 Let me explain this resource as I show some close ups.


Here are some spinners for student names.  ALL the fonts are embedded so that you do NOT have to download any fonts. Just type the name right in! The 25 part spinner comes in color and black/white.

This is a great Brain Break / indoor recess / get up and move activity! "What should we do?" (Spin the wheel) "Ok, let's do some jumping jacks!" You can also have students chant their word wall / spelling / high frequency words / math fact using this wheel.  In this case, they would chant while they did jumping jacks!

There is also a story elements wheel where partners can pair share, and a game wheel.

Here is another wheel choice. Spin to see which table is chosen. Then spin again to see which student at that table gets called. You would label your students at each table with a letter.

Again, these wheels are EDITABLE. So you don't have 6 tables? No problem. Change it. :) It's your way right away, Baby!

The "Say It This Way" wheel above is a FUN one! When I was in the classroom, we used many different voices and accents to review our spelling words, spell out our word wall words, and high frequency words. My kids LOVED this. Spin the wheel. Review math facts, grammar skills, etc without moving your lips!

 Don't see a spinner that you need? Make it with my EDITABLE templates! There are 3 different color schemes with and spinners with 4, 6, 10, and 20 sections. Don't want to count the sections of each spinner to see which one you'll need? I got you covered.  Just take a look at the bottom right corner. The number there tells you how many sections that wheel has.

See? I got your covered. :)

Oh, did I also mention that this resource also comes with monthly templates? This is the amazing thing..... ready for it? You'll need to sit down.

ALL the decision wheels are able to be COPIED and PASTED into the wheel of your choice! WHAAAAT??!! I KNOW, RIGHT????!!!

So that means that you can write you student names in a wheel ONCE and just copy and paste them into the monthly template that you want! 

 Imagine reading my lips. YOU DO NOT HAVE TO CONTINUE WRITING STUDENT NAMES OVER AND OVER WITH EACH NEW MONTH. 

Copy and Paste is your new BFF. (What will you do with all your extra time?)

After you have copy and pasted your wheel in, you can move the arrow to point to any part of your spinner.  

This resource is a game changer. It's seriously fun!

If you still don't believe me, I'd love for you to try it for yourself. You can grab this resource by clicking the picture below.

Thanks for reading, Friends!

Blessings,