Frankenstein Red Ribbon Week Door

It is one of my favorite weeks, to be able to decorate my door for Red Ribbon Week!  I was inspired by A Cupcake for the Teacher's Frankensteins to use as my theme.

The Red Ribbon Week Door says, 

"Frankly speaking, drugs are SCARY!"

We made our little Frankies and then wrote about how we stay healthy.  My favorite sentence from one of the students was, "make sure you stay healthy and don't get fat.  Or you will hate yourself when you get older..."  That about sums it up, right? lol!

I couldn't fit all of the writing and Franks on the door, so I decorated my window too!

To see some of my other Red Ribbon Week doors check out HERE or HERE.

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Happy Birthday Freebielicious!!!

 

Have you heard? Freebielicious turned ONE this month! This last year has been amazing and we are so happy with our Freebielicious family.  This little blog has twenty-five amazing authors…teachers with hearts of gold! Our only goal is to be a blessing to primary teachers.

Welcome to our party! Everyone is invited. We are SO excited to host a birthday party like no other. Don’t worry, we won’t ask you to buy us a present (we do love chocolate though). Instead, we want to help tech up your classroom with a pretty sweet giveaway. Follow our blog, FB, and pinterest to enter to win. Easy peasy, lemon squeezy. You can win a prize package valued at over $500, which includes an iPad mini! Sweet deal, right?!

Fill out the rafflecopter to enter. You have three chances to win. Follow Freebielicoius on Pinterest, Follow Freebielicious on Facebook, and Follow Freebielicious Blog by email. Enter to win by October 30, 2013 at midnight. Winner will be drawn on October 31^st, 2013 and announced on Freebielicous. One entry per person and entries will be verified. 

Happy Birthday Freebielicous!!!

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Five for FRIDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Does it feel like Sunday to anyone else??!?!  To celebrate the longest week ever, I am going to link up with Doodle Bugs Teaching to share five photos from my week!

 

We had Jr. Kindergarten reading buddies and we did a skeleton craft with them this week!  We gave the students q-tips and let them get creative and build their own skeletons. 

 

This is Hercules.  This little Goldendoodle melts my heart.

 

Miss Kindergarten and I are presenting at the Southern California Kindergarten Conference in Pasadena, CA, this February!  My favorite part of this weekend will be the BLOGGER BASH, where we are welcoming all teachers and bloggers to meet up and hang out!  To sign up, go here.

 

 

We celebrated Red Ribbon Week at our school this past week!  I LOVE this spider door, decorated by my neighbor!  (I will share mine this weekend)

 

 

We needed a little review on contractions, so I made this popcorn themed contraction center!  I will post it soon in my TpT Store.

 

Hope you all had a wonderful week, let the weekend begin!

 

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Scarecrow Craft for Primary

Scarecrows are a fun craft to make during the fall because you can make them during October or November!  We made scarecrows with our reading buddies this year.  The little ones LOVED making their scarecrow!  Here is the final scarecrow bulletin board...

My favorite part was watching them get creative with where they put the hay to add more detail!  I love seeing them get creative with the projects!

If you want to make this with your students, I have this Scarecrow Craft available in my Teachers Pay Teachers Store.  

Included in the pack are:

-a scarecrow craft
-3 writing prompts about a scarecrow (on two different paper styles)
-Can, have, is sheet
-a printable to make a list of what "makes a good scarecrow" (two versions)

Happy Fall!

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Googly Eye DIY Math Center

Eyeballs and bats....oh my!  I found some foam bats at Michael's and wanted to make a fun matching game out of them.  I was trying to think of what I could glue on them, that would be fun for the kids to count....GOOGLY EYES!!!!!!!  Who doesn't love googly eyes?  

To prep this eyeball counting center, I just glued on googly eyes to the foam bats and puffy painted a matching number for each.  It took me about 10 minutes to make a whole counting set. 

The kids get to count the googly eyes, and match it to the correct number.  Whenever I am first teaching the little ones how to count, I make them touch each item they are counting.  This helps them make sure they they don't miss one.  

This hands on math center is fun for them, perfect for a seasonal center, and SpOoKy enough to keep their attention!  

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A Scarecrow Craft With a Little Research Project...

I am bound and determined to make 4th grade fun for me for the kids.  I think it's the kindergarten teacher in me, but there NEEDS to be a seasonal craft up in my room.  But the question remains...can we do crafts in 4th grade?!?!?!  Welp, I tied it in with a little research project, so I am going to say YES!  I haven't put the project up on the bulletin board in my room yet, but I am too excited and needed to share this idea with you before I had all of the photos ready.  We made a scarecrow craft AND did some research on the history of a scarecrow!  I made it available in my TpT Store if you want to try it out with your students.

I have been struggling in 4th grade because I feel like I am either making the assignments too difficult, or too easy for the kids.  I haven't found my rhythm yet to know exactly what they need.  BUT this was perfectly at their level AND they were completely engaged during the whole assignment.  

Ahead of time, I searched "the history of a scarecrow for kids" and found this link. (If you want a more detailed document to go with this specific link, click HERE, you can download it for free!  The one in my scarecrow pack is more general, but this one is detailed to the link above.)   I was so excited because it is a link that hits a dead end, and there isn't any type of advertisements on it.  I had the kids answer the questions to guide them in their research.  They loved being able to use the computers to find the answers, instead of reading from a book.  

Once they finished their research, they had to write a summary of their findings.  We still are going to complete the other activities I made, which include writing a journal entry from the scarecrow's point of view and comparing and contrasting scarecrows in different countries.  

Here is our scarecrow bulletin board.  I posted their research project on the bulletin board next to this one.  Overall, the kids really go into it!

You can get the Scarecrow Craft and Research Project HERE.

I also have a Kindergarten version of this craft in my TPT Store!!!

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Confetti Quotes and a Winner!

I have been a little nervous to share my 4th grade ideas because I don't consider myself an "expert" yet, and I feel like I am still getting my feet wet.  I shared this idea on my Instagram (@applesandabcs) and I got some positive feedback, so I am feeling brave and want to share it on my blog.  After a month in 4th grade, I was noticing that the students get confused on where to put quotation marks and punctuation when it comes to writing out dialogue. 

I was at the Dollar Tree, and saw some confetti that reminded me of quotation marks and periods.  The confetti inspired the idea to have the students write spooky sentences and then 

glue down the punctuation!  

Take a look at our SpOoKy SeNtEnCeS!

We kept using the phrase the "bats like to hug the sentence," and they had to remember that the pumpkin doesn't like to be left out!

We did this as a whole group lesson, but I am going to have it in my center rotation for next week for the kids to keep practicing their punctuation.

Last but not least, the winner of the Scotch Tape Giveaway is...

I already emailed you, Heather!  Thanks for participating!  

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A Surprise Sale!

Happy Saturday!

 Teachers Pay Teachers has hit 100K likes on their Facebook fan page! CONGRATULATIONS TpT!

They are celebrating with a sale today and tomorrow only! 10% off!! You can enter the code FB100K and get the 10% off...WAIT...we aren't done yet!! The Freebielicious gals are joining in the celebration! You can get an EXTRA 20% off everything in our stores!!!  Hop over to Freebielicous to link up or to find some sellers participating in the sale!

Here are some fall resources on SALE!

Fall 10 Frame Counting Centers

Fall Emergent Readers

Fall Language Arts and Math Unit

Fall Journal Entries 

Turkey Craftivity

Also to make sure to enter my Scotch Expressions Tape Giveaway to win a 15 prize packs of different tape!!!

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Scotch Expressions Tape Classroom DIY Ideas

Washi Tape has been my new obsession lately!  Scotch Expressions Tape sent me some goodies to try in my classroom (see giveaway below!) and I can't stop taping things in my room!!!  I swear, it was like Christmas morning when the box of tape came in the mail!

Each Friday, a couple of my coworkers and I take turns getting Starbucks for each other.  It was my turn to treat the group, so I added a little washi love to their coffee sleeves!  I'm sorry, but this might be my favorite way I used the tape!

I was obsessed with the bright, neon colors that Scotch sent me, and I desperately needed a cute Box Top container.  I was tired of them floating around my desk, or sitting in an ugly plastic bag.  I found this medium sized container and made it look so cute!  Now the students like to bring in their Box Tops to place in our colorful container!

I am a big fan of putting the students in groups and giving them table points.  This works for all ages, and I use it for just a season each year.  For behavior management, I feel that it is important to change up your reward system, but I started the year out with group points.  Look how dull it looks...

Until I used the Washi Tape!

I've seen people decorate clipbaords on Pinterest, and I wondered if it was really as easy as it looks...and it is! 

I bought a cheap clipbaord from Michael's, and the hardest part of the whole process was choosing which tape colors to use!

All you have to do is layer the tape in the pattern you want, leaving a little bit hanging off each side.

Once I was done, I took an X-Acto knife, and sliced along the edges.  It left a perfect edge along both sides.

I loved the way it turned out, and now ALL of my students want to take turns using it. :)

I also had a little fun decorating some binder clips!  These were super easy, I just wrapped the tape around each side!

Now a treat for YOU... enter below to win a 15-roll Prize Pack from Scotch Expressions!  If you want more Washi Tape ideas, make sure to hop over to Miss Kindergarten to see some of her ideas, too!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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