Woo Hoo!! I Some Followers! Let's Celebrate Freebie

Woo Hoo!!  I am so thankful to my first followers.  They must remember what it was like starting out. It feels great to see more people checking out my blog.  I love to create things, so here is a little Spring Math Grid packet for FREE.  There are 7 differentiated printables for your students to practice moving on the axis.  This will surely tell you those that still mix up left and right.  In my first grade class, I had a few that needed a little more practice with this.  Here is a sneak peek.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD AT MY TPT STORE

Link Up Party

Spring Shopping This Weekend.

Stop by Mrs. Lirette's Site for a list of Blogs open for shopping.  Freebies and Ideas are waiting to be grabbed up.

Be sure to become a follower of Mrs. Lirette's Learning Detectives  Blog and a follower of this blog, Classroom Companion.

Have Fun and Enjoy.

Click on the link below to get your Shopping List

Mrs. Lirette's Learning Detectives 

Click here for these Freebies at TPT

Pick and Choose or Grab them all!

Thanks for Stopping by!

Is your shopping bag full yet?

Free Easter Noun Sort

If you like the activity pictured in yesterday's post, you can get in now and much easier than yesterday.

Like I said I am new at this.  I have found that sending files with lots of graphics by email does not work.  My files are too big and I use a service that is great, but it takes you the teacher too long to download the file. I am so impatient. So to make it easy for everyone, I upload the Easter Noun Sort to my TPT store.  It is easy to download free from there.  I was wanting to see what kind of traffic and comments I would get here on my blog versus my store, which is getting lots of downloads.  So head over to my store where everything is free right now.  Thanks for your patience.  I would love comments and followers.

 Click Here to get to MY TPT STORE
for Free Noun Sort

FREEBIE! NOUN SORT!

Here is a little preview of a new center I created.  Since I am new at this and trying to get people to my blog. Please become a follower and tell others.  I plan on having lots of freebies and pictures to share.

Just email me at  swideman123@gmail.com

and I will send this little 14 page center pronto!  

Or leave me a comment, with your email address and I will get it to you quickly. 

 This is a great Word Work center if you do the Daily 5.

Below is a copy of all the pages you will receive.

 Thank you for visiting!!

Risky Business! Not this Lemonade Stand!

Open for business.  My first grade class could hardly wait to say that after a week of preparation.  It all started when reading in our Social Studies book about goods and services.  One of the students noticed a lemonade stand in one of the pictures and commented, "we could have a lemonade stand."  And that one little comment snowballed into a week long project culminating with a real lemonade stand in our classroom.  I had one condition, they had to do everything to run the business.  We started with a KWL chart.  What did we know about running a lemonade stand?  The class generated 2 1/2 pages of questions we needed to answer or learn about before we could have our stand.  After discussing each question, brainstorming ideas, and answers, they would take a vote to decide on each issue.  They decided to have 2 sizes; medium and large, 2 kinds of lemonade; pink and regular, the cost would  be 50 cents and 1 dollar, and the money would be donated to the charity they voted on, which was the Humane Society. It was so interesting to sit and listen to them discuss ideas, but sometimes difficult to keep my mouth shut and not intervene.  The hardest decision was figuring out the cost of the lemonade.  They started out with $10 a cup! WOW! I thought these kids have no idea what things cost.  Here we are working on money and they really have no concept of pricing.  But think about it, when do kids nowadays see money.  They see debit cards and credit cards.  They came down in cost to $5 and I could not stay silent any longer.  I asked them what a drink would cost at McDonald's or Burger King, but they had no idea.  I had to tell them.  Then they came up with $1.86 and other odd amounts.  I'm thinking it is going to be a nightmare when they have to make change on every single sale. I made a comment about them having to count the money and making change and luckily one wonderful child shouted out, " How about 50 cents and $1?" We voted on the cost including the $10, $1.86 and a few others.  I crossed my fingers and sighed when they chose the 50 cents and $1.00. After a day and a half of discussing, debating, and voting, we were ready to get started. They had decided to form 4 committees; advertising, supply, stand design and build, and scheduling. Everything we did over the next few days tied to our curriculum.  Students wrote letters and sent emails to get the lemonade donated. They learned about advertising  by deciding what was important to include on the signs they created, and the fliers they made on the computer. They created lists of items needed, created jobs, made schedules, practiced counting money and making change, measured water and lemonade and wrote thank you notes to every class for attending.  We were ready! The other first grade class came first to be our practice class.  After they left, you should have heard the comments.  "Can we sit down now?!" "This is hard work?"  I just smiled and said, that was only the first class, you have 12 more classes and 3 1/2 more hours to work!  Boy were they tired, but they loved it!  They were so proud of themselves.  The big 6th graders gave them so many compliments. Here were these tiny 1st graders hustling and bustling and selling tons of lemonade.  When it was over and all the money counted, they made a WHOPPING $284 for the Humane Society.  They felt so good inside and so did I.  This was a true community service project tied to our curriculum and initiated by the students. I'm so proud.

Word Work Freebie for Easter

I just uploaded an easy word work activity for kids to do for Easter or Spring.  All you need to do is add a dozen plastic Easter eggs.  Grab it Free at my TPT Store.

                      Click HERE for this center.

Freebies Coming!

I am on Spring Break and one of my goals is to work on this blog and post some items to TPT.  Creating and uploading past projects is way more fun than Spring cleaning. I can already hear my husband when he comes home tonight "What did you do all day?"  He'll notice the foyer not waxed and my project to redo and install cabinets in the laundry room not done.  But he    knows me, after 30 years of marriage, he just smiles.  He knows I would much rather be creative and make things for my kiddos at school.  I am really 
trying to post as many items as I can on TPT over the next week.  Over the years, colleagues have encouraged me to write a book or share my items. So I will be working like a mad woman over the next week to get the hang of posting materials on TPT and on this blog.  If you are patient with me as a newbie, I hope you will gain some fun activities for your class. Check back often.  I am practicing my linking and everything for now is FREE!  That is the best word to any teacher. 


I just uploaded a 15 page Goldfish Math Activity Packet. 

 Get it HERE for FREE!

Barefoot in the Park Freebie

Spring is in the air!  For some reason it made me think of walking barefoot in the grass.  So I created a pair of feet with some darling little grass clip art from The 3am Teacher. Two feet, two words, great for a cute little activity with antonyms.  It was quick and easy, and students loved brainstorming different word pairs to use.  Each child chose their own set of antonyms or opposites.  You will see below some even came up with unusual pairs as in "piano" and "forte".  If  you would like a copy to try out with your class.  The packet includes the printable below and opposite cards to use with your students for this project of other centers.
Just click HERE.

               

Dads are Special!

At my school dads are always special.  With Father's Day in June and students at home for summer vacation, we needed the opportunity to honor the truly amazing dads we have.  Each year our school presents a special assembly just for dads in late winter.  Students sing, dance, recite poems, and perform for our honored guests.  Teachers try to decorate their rooms and halls with heartfelt writings from the students.  This year I created an "iDad" instead of "iPad" for a bulletin board in the hall.  It was a hit.  It was even very simple to create.  Black background, some pictures of apps downloaded, and a writing page to fit under the apps, and that's it. One interactive "iDad" for kids and dads to read. Considering I don't even own an iPad, I talked with my students about what apps we should put on display. They gave me ideas of what apps their dads used the most.  Facebook, Twitter, The Weather Channel, Scrabble, ESPN, Google, and Temple Run were some of the favorites. The bottom row of apps I created using an eyeball, a heart, the letter U, and a picture of a dad with a #1 dad ribbon.  I downloaded images, laminated them, and attached them to another blank piece of tagboard at the top.  Each child wrote a story about why their dad was special to them.  I taped the stories under the apps on top of the blank tagboard. Parents and students from all over the school would come and lift the apps to see what was under them.  The bottom row of apps read " I Love You Dad!"  I put up some letter that read "We 'app' reciate Our Dads!"  Students came by and peeked under each app over and over.  My class was so proud to show off their version of the iPad.

Lift the flaps and it reads
"I Love You Dad!"

Our iDad Bulletin Board

Grab Some Awesome Graphics!

I know I am a newbie to blogging and I am sure there are plenty of others like me, so I found some help.  I love creating things for my classroom and my kiddos.  Getting started, finding graphics to use, following the terms of use, and putting it all together can be a daunting and exhausting task.  I hit the jackpot when I found The 3am Teacher.  I loved the name immediately, since I am often up at 3 or 4a.m. on my computer creating.  You have to check out her blog here at The 3am Teacher.  Or you can click on her button on the left.  Awesome, Awesome graphics!  I was searching for some borders on TPT and stumbled across her borders and graphics.  I just purchased her Seuss-Inspired Set and St. Patty's Day set last week on Teachers Pay Teachers.  Check out her store at TPT Here.  Thank you Michelle for your creativity and making it easy for us novices!

Seuss on the Loose

We have spent the last week doing our author study of Dr. Seuss. We began our week with Green Eggs and Ham, and ended with the much anticipated The Lorax.  From there to here, and here to there, we had funny things everywhere. Our classroom hallway walls were decorated with a tribute to Dr. Seuss.  Everyone loved our Thing 1 and Thing 2's parading above our lockers.  My class even told me how they wanted their arms and legs to move.  Using brads to attach the arms and legs made our "Things" more whimsical.  Each child's Thing was named with their corresponding number from our class roster.  Their smiling faces are in the center cut out circle.  Much cuter than drawing a face or adding googly eyes.  Plus the kids love seeing themselves!  I scattered some of Dr. Seuss's famous quotes along the wall.