New Years Bulletin Board

The New Year is a wonderful time to take a moment and pause to reflect on the past year and to make resolutions for the year to come.  It can be the same way in the classroom!   I love coming back from winter break and reflecting on the school year so far.  I like to invite the students in on this process, too!  You can even designate a bulletin board to celebrate the New Year with your students!

Grab this New Year bulletin board in my store!  Follow this LINK to grab the board! 

My favorite part of this New Year bulletin board is the writing portion that goes under the disco ball! There are a couple options:

-assign the students a creative writing response

-invite the students to reflect on the school year so far

-make a resolution and set goals on how to achieve it

Grab the New Years bulletin board in my store!

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Christmas Bulletin Board Ideas

December is such a magical time of the year and it can be a fun opportunity to celebrate Christmas in the classroom.  First and foremost, it is important to know your students and families, celebrating or recognizing all holidays that are important to your families in your class. It is super important to create an inclusive environment for all students.  It is a great learning opportunity to incorporate and recognize all cultures and celebrations that are apart of your students' lives.  In my teaching career there have been some years where all students celebrate Christmas and we go WILD with the Christmas theme.  Other years, I jumped straight to a "winter" theme and touched on all celebrations that were represented by my students.  Part of being a teacher is making your students feel known, safe, and seen.  So when it comes to Christmas, it is our responsibility to make sure no one feels isolated because of the holidays they do or don't recognize.  

This blog post is dedicated to classrooms that celebrate Christmas.  All of these boards have been designed by my bulletin board templates.  Enjoy the bulletin board eye candy below! ;)

First up are Elf Bulletin Boards.  I was never a believer in "elf in the classroom" until one year my staff played this huge joke on me... and each day I entered my classroom in the month of December there was some elf mischief I would walk into.  It was fun, magical, and super playful.  (AND it took the whole month to figure out who was in on it, lol).  There have been about 4 different years I have decided to do "elf in the classroom."  There wasn't any sort of "Santa is going to report your behavior," I just simply moved the elf every day to a new location for the students to find him.  Then the very last day, the elf left them a little treat. 

Grab the link to my Elf Bulletin Boards in my store!

My personal favorite have been the Christmas Bulletin Boards and seeing how creative everyone has gotten with the display.  I provided the letters and flip crafts, but everyone else put their spin on how to design the board.  Check them out below!

What I love about these Christmas bulletin boards are that they are versatile so you can use them to decorate your bulletin board OR use them to decorate your door! 

Grab the link to the Christmas Bulletin Boards in my store!

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Pie Craft

What is more perfect than a PIE CRAFT for Thanksgiving?!

I decided to make a apple and pumpkin pie flip craft with a writing sheet under it.  

The Amazon links do contain affiliate links which means I make a small percent off of any of these paint that you purchase.

The craft itself is super simple.  The students paint or color the top pie piece and can add a "thanksgiving tag" to the center if you want.

Under the pie craft the students respond to a Thanksgving writing prompt.  They glue the craft to the top of their writing so they can flip up the pie and see their respond under it.

I decided to pair this pie craft with my FAVORITE paint by Kwik Stix.  These paints are bold, vibrant, and bright.  They are kind of like a "glue stick" but in paint form.  They are basically mess-free and perfect to leave at a station or for independent work.  I highly recommend Kwik Stix!

Grab the pie craft here!

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Letter Mats to Build the Letters

I am constantly looking for ways to use mini erasers and manipulatives in my classroom.  Learning to form the letters can be tedious when just using a pencil and paper.  A engaging way to memorize how to make a letter is by BUILDING IT with Letter Mats.  

This pack of printable is designed to help you teach the letters A-Z.  Use these letter mats to create your own STEM or STEAM center in which the students can build each letter using manipulative you already have in your classroom.

There are circles inside each letter to guide the students where to place the manipulatives to create each letter.  These are also great if you are using paint dabbers so the students can aim for each circle with their paint marker.

Have the students place pom poms in each circle to create each letter.  Try using pinchers to squeeze each pom pom to place in the circles.  This strengthens fine motor skills by using muscles to pinch the pom poms and placing them accurately in the circle.

These mats work perfectly for the millions of dollar spot erasers that you have.  You can keep the mats in your center rotation but switch out your seasonal erasers to make building letters fun all year long!

Grab the Letter Mats HERE!

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Halloween Picture Books

It is time for an October Read Aloud Round Up!  I am going to share with you some of my favorite books to read during the Halloween season.  Please note that each picture is linked Amazon so you can easily add the book to your card.  You can either click on the picture or on the name of the book in the post to link to Amazon.  These links Amazon do contain affiliate links which means I make a small percent off of any of these books that you purchase. :)

I thought it would be perfect to display my Felt Letter Board Message Set to showcase the Halloween picture books for the month of October! How cute would it be to switch out the little letter board each month to display new seasonal books!?!

The Hallo-Weiner is my FAVORITE Halloween book!  This story is about Oscar who is upset about his Halloween costume because the other dogs are making fun of him, but he ends up saving the day!

If You're Spooky and You Know It is perfect book that you can sing along to!  Each page is a different verse of "If you're happy and you know it" but it is a spooky version!

There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Bat

Ten Little Monsters is a great book for Kindergarten when you are teaching counting to 10! It is also a creative way to incorporate subtraction because the book counts down from 10-0.

If you are a Corduroy fan then Corduroy's Best Halloween Ever, is definitely a book you should add to your collection!

Goodnight Goon is a twist on the ever popular Goodnight Moon

.  This is a fun book to read if your students are familiar with the original Goodnight Moon!

Don't Push the Button! A Halloween Treat is a cute book that is all about that little monster "not pushing the button."

The Spooky Wheels on the Bus is a Halloween spin on the popular The Wheels on the Bus song that every child should know!  (if not, sing it to them ASAP! lol)

Room on the Broom is a great story to read to practice sequencing.  The witch adds more friends to sit on her broom throughout the story.  It is fun to have the students try and sequence the friends she adds along the way after you read the story! 

Five Little Pumpkins is a simple book to practice counting and retelling a rhyme.  I normally start with that book in October!  I just found a sequel to it called Five Little Pumpkins Come Back, which is great to read at the end of October when you have exacted the first one! lol

How Many Seeds in a Pumpkin? is my favorite book to read when I am carving pumpkins with my class.  This book is all about counting seeds so it is perfect to read before any seed counting activity! 

It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown is a Halloween classic!

Pete the Cat Trick or Pete is perfect to talk about what your students are going to wear as their Halloween costume!

The Spooky House is great for toddlers, preschool, or TK students! Each page has interactive flaps where the young readers can flip open a flap and see what is under it!

The Legend of Spookley the Square Pumpkin is another wonderful Halloween book that I read every year.  It is about this little square pumpkin that is not "perfect" like the other pumpkins.  His unique square shape ends up saving the day!

(This link is to Barnes & Noble)

Spooky, Spooky, Little Bat is also great for young readers! You stick your finger through the bat puppet as you read the story and you get to watch the child's face light up as the bat wiggles around as you read! 

To shop all of my favorite Halloween books click HERE to view Apples and ABC's Amazon Store Front!

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