Building a Classroom Community during the Holidays!

Hey Y'all! It's Erin from The Elementary Darling. The holidays are upon us. I am so excited to spend some family time over Thanksgiving! During my Thanksgiving break, I always plan my December lessons and make a wishlist of items that I will need to complete crafts, snacks, or activities with my students.I send home my wishlist before December. Some may say that I over plan, but the holidays are crazy enough as it is. We MAP test and benchmark test in December. Add that to the crafts (that you strategically matched to your standards) and the excitement and it gets a little crazy in the classroom. So today, I am going to share my favorite idea to build your classroom community during the holidays!

With all of the business, my students started getting stress some of my friends needed a little reminder to be nice and thankful. I wanted to spread joy and love throughout my classroom while building our classroom community, because let's be honest, we work on this ALL.YEAR.LONG.

So I decided we would build our classroom community by writing nice things about our friends on our paper chain. TWO in ONE deal my friends! You get classroom decor AND kindness from students in one fell swoop.

We filled our room with these strips. Each day, the students would receive two pieces of paper. They were encouraged to write to different people each day, We filled them out in our "spare time" and I asked them to watch their friends to see all of the wonderful things that each of them were doing during the day. I read them and the kids loved hearing all of the fabulous things people were saying about them. I filled them out as well so that all of the students would have great things said about them.

Each afternoon, I would add the strips and the students would watch our chain grow and decorate our classroom. They loved it, and so did I. It really brought out all of those good Holiday Feelings. The best part is, you can do this for very little cost! You can use cut strips of construction paper. If you don't want to do that, you can get the ones that I used from Oriental Trading. They have some really cute ones here or the plain red and green ones here.

How do you build your classroom community during the holidays? Leave us a comment and let us know the wonderful things that you do in the classroom! Happy Holidays, Friends!

-Erin from The Elementary Darling

9 Things You Need from the Dollar Spot This Winter

You may think it's a little too early to be talking Christmas, but in my humble opinion, it's totally not too soon! In fact, Target (our favorite store) dropped their holiday merchandise THIS WEEK, so you have to stock up before the Dollar Spot is completely picked over!

Here are 9 things you could grab from the Dollar Spot before you miss your chance! 

First and foremost, you NEED these blank books in your life! My students L-O-V-E them, and so do I. Both of the book sets pictured below are too cute, but I chose to stock up on sets with more neutral covers since I can't do Christmas in my classroom. $3 for 6 blank books is a steal, in my opinion.

Want to help your students write neatly in their blank books? Grab my templates, which are FREE in my store!

I don't know about you, but I use mini erasers for ALL KINDS OF FUN THINGS in math! They are the perfect manipulatives to get your students excited about learning and practicing math. I most recently used fun erasers as a nonstandard unit of measurement. The opportunities are really endless. Snowmen, Christmas trees, penguins, oh my!

The next items can also be used in so many ways in your classroom. I use dominoes in math for fact families, addition, subtraction, and more. I thought the tumbling tower pieces might be good for STEM. If nothing else, they make easy, fun, and cheap games for indoor recess!

Clothespins can be found everywhere in my classroom. Most of my clothespins are boring, but the ones currently for sale in the Dollar Spot are just the opposite!

I found chalkboard clothespins first - how clever! You could use them to label stack of papers... "to grade," "to copy," or even "throw away after the kids go home." (Let's be real.)

Target had some pretty cute mini clothespins in the Dollar Spot too, which I've seen many teachers use for centers activities.

STAMPS! and INK! Just take my paycheck, Target! I bought myself some ink because, well, it was only a dollar, and I'm always needing an ink pad for some reason, so why not? The stamps were super cute, too! On second thought, maybe I should go back and get some...

I definitely did not buy any loud, jingly musical instruments for my classroom, but maybe you want to for yours! For only a dollar, a tambourine, triangle, or jingle stick would make a great gift for your students. If you put on annual performances, STOCK UP!

Because Target always seems to have us teachers in mind, you can find "shatter-resistant" clear ornaments in the Dollar Spot right now. Just look on Pinterest for lots of super cute ideas for ornaments that students can make as gifts for their families.

Do any of you have VIP caddies or VIP supplies as a behavior incentive? The Dollar Spot has plenty of festive pens and pencils to stock up on. I personally was obsessed with my own 6-color pen when I was a kid!

Primary teachers, these last items are for you! These magnetic letters, shapes, and numbers are super cute and would look great on your whiteboard! I came close to buying some for myself although I definitely don't need them.

What do you think? Are you running to Target now, or what?!

Have you seen anything else in the Dollar Spot lately that is perfect for the classroom?

Let me know in a comment below.

Happy holidays, and happy shopping! 

- Kristin from School and the City 

Sweet Treats: A Love of Regrouping

Hello February and Hello Friends!

It's Erin from The Elementary Darling and today I am thrilled to be sharing a fun math freebie with you all today!

First, I want to share a freebie with you that you can use this week!

We have been regrouping our little hearts out over here! I created this sheet that you can use with basically anything! All you need are some little hearts or other form of Valentine container. I got mine from the Dollar Tree a few years ago, but Target has had come cute containers in the Dollar Spot lately!  You could even just decorate a cute paper bag with a numbered heart! Inside each heart you put a problem. You only need six problems for the center. I used regrouping with addition and subtraction, but you could put any type of problem that you are working on in the hearts. I added a page without the directions for regrouping, so that you can put regular problems in the hearts as well.

Click on the picture below to grab this freebie!

Now, check out this fun idea my sweet firsties did this week!

This was a fun activity my students completed this week. I cut some hearts out. (They loved that.) So easy and simple!
I made three bags
1. Signs (addition and subtraction)
2. Two digit numbers
3. Three digit numbers

This is how I differentiated. Some students took two numbers out of bag 2, some took two numbers out of bag 3, and some students took one number out of bag 2 and one number out of bag 3. This allowed me to challenge some students with three digit, while others just practiced two digits.

The students glued the numbers on and the sign. This helped them practice lining up the numbers in the correct columns.

They had to complete one and get it correct before adding to their heart. They turned out so cute!

Happy Valentine's Day, Friends!








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1st Day of Christmas-One Seasonal Holiday Craft

The last day before holiday break CAN BE chaos, so let me help you bring a bit of good drama and fun into the holiday party.  Do you have plans for a holiday party in your classroom?  Do you freak out every year because you have to figure out what to do during that hour of "fun"?  Maybe you are the teacher and room parent rolled into one.  Are you are the parent to a fabulous kiddo and search for more fun during the holiday? Anyone of any age can create memories and traditions with today's freebie on the Primary Peach's Twelve Freebie Themed Days.

On the first day of Christmas, the Primary Peach gave to me,

 

Hey y'all, this is Valerie from Georgia Grown Kiddos.  Today I have my MOST FAVORITE holiday craft for the kiddos to enjoy creating.  

 

My favorite seasonal activity is Sleepy Potion.  Every teacher needs that special something to give their students during the holiday season. This helpful and inexpensive activity will keep you in the children’s hearts for years to come! 

This activity can be completed in a few minutes at the holiday party, is a unique gift you can give to the kiddos, and with enough drama mixed into the potion, it will help the children fall asleep on the night before Christmas! Simply follow the recipe and add LOTS of drama! Adults know it as hot chocolate, but the kids will revel in the excitement of the special magic that can only be seen by those who still believe!

 

I hope you have a restful and relaxing holiday.  Unplug and be in the moment.  Merry Christmas and we at the Primary Peach wish you happy new year!

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Blessings y'all,

Valerie