Spreading the Love

Spreading the Love

With Valentine’s Day right around the corner we have been focusing on put ups instead of put downs in 1^st grade!  I love having a Valentine’s Day party with the kids.  We focus on writing letters to each other, completing a project with our family, and finding the good in each of us.  A few weeks ago I sent home a letter telling about our party and a project to complete at home.  Each child was asked to work with their parents to make a Valentine’s mailbox.  Here is a peek at a few of the mailboxes.  I love to add a home component to school units. 

Next we have been working on writing each child a Valentine at our writing center!  Students are able to use the paper they want and supplies!  They have really had a great time thinking of special things to say about each person.  I love how this week is a great reminder of how to fill each other’s buckets!

Here is a writing template freebie!

Put a New Twist on Your End-Of-Year Activities

Hello!  It's Nicole from Learning Lab!

I cannot believe that another school year is winding down!  It seems like each school year goes by more and more quickly!  With summer right around the corner, I wanted to share a few end-of-year activities that I have done in my classroom.

I think almost everybody does some type of memory activity with their class.  I have found that many of my kids are bored with the usual memory books and activities.  A few years ago, I thought of a way to put a new twist on the old end-of-year activities.  

The traditional memory books involve students creating an artifact for themselves.  By the time they have been in school for a few years, the excitement for creating memory books has faded.  How about having the students use their memories to create a book for your next class?  Kind of like a guide to your classroom.  An Official Guide to ___ Grade!  

My students LOVED this idea!  They spent more time and put forth more effort that I have ever seen kids put into their own memory books.  Give a kid a real audience and they will perform!  I added additional covers so this activity is able to be used for grades K-6 and differentiated some pages for varying levels.  

Here is a Flipagram of the pages in the 5th grade book that I will be using with my kiddos this year.

                       

You will get a kick out of what your students will write on the "Meet the Teacher" page.  It is amazing, and sometimes hysterical, what they have picked up about your personality and how you run your classroom. 

A few times, I have needed just one more writing piece to get me through the end of the year.  How about a friendly letter to your next class?  Again, when you give a kid a real audience, they will perform!  My classes have never worked so hard to get a writing piece done.  The details were great and the handwriting was on point!  

If you need a graphic organizer to get your class started, this is what I use with my kiddos.

In addition to these new twists on old end-of-year activities, I changed my end-of-year gifts for my students.  In the past, I gave them new notebooks and pencils for them to journal throughout the summer.  When I talked to previous students and their families, a lot of them did not get around to writing in their journals.  The number one reason was, "I didn't know what to write about."  

This year, I created summer writing journals with writing prompts!  Now they won't have an excuse!  I also left some pages blank, just in case they find something else they want to write about.  

I hope you are enjoying the last few weeks of the school year (or your first few weeks of summer if you're already done).  Remember, this is the last time you will be with this exact group of kiddos.  Soak it all in and enjoy it for what it's worth!

For more ideas, I would love to see you over on my Instagram.  You can find me by searching for @Learning_Lab.  It's my favorite place to share school ideas, my new TpT products, and photos of some really cute kids!

See you again soon!

Building Friendships on Valentines Day

Hello everyone!  This is Lisa from Pawsitively Teaching and I am excited to be sharing a simple, meaningful idea with you today.  I know it is only January, but I wanted to share one of my favorite teaching ideas for February with you today so, if you wanted to try it out in your classroom, you would have plenty of time to prepare.

Does this look familiar?  Will your room be full of these next month?  Although some of these cards are cute...I like to have my kids create something a little more personalized for their classmates for Valentine's Day that helps to strengthen their friendships.  

I begin by sending home a note to my parents during the last week of January asking them to help their child create a mailbox from a shoe box that reflects their personality.  

Next, we review the format for a friendly letter and I place a sample letter template in our writing center. The students spend the next several days writing letters to their classmates during writing time.  

Here is a peek at a couple of my students' letters from last year.  Once the letters are completed, they are placed inside the receiving child's Valentine box.  The letters are not read until our Valentine's Party.  During the party, the kids have a chance to open and read each letter that was written by one of their classmates.  It is so sweet to see the smiles on their faces when they read the words written about them by each of their classmates.  

If you would like to try out this activity in your class, you can download the template that my students use by clicking on the image above.