Celebrating Birthdays in the Classroom

I’m so excited to finally be able to share this with you – this has been in the works for a very long time. It was my ‘when I get a chance’ project,  and now it’s complete and uploaded and ready for use! My Birthday pack.

I don’t know about you, but I love celebrating student birthdays in the classroom. For a lot of kids these days, it’s difficult for their families to throw big birthday parties or gatherings for their classmates. Oftentimes, it’s just a few friends who can go as families try to save money. By celebrating in the classroom, everyone joins in, everyone gets to participate and the birthday child feels like the center of their friends’ worlds for the day.

My birthday pack features a whole lot of decorative elements for your classroom as well as simple printables that can be completed by the birthday child and their peers as memorable keepsakes for their special day! All of these are activities or elements that I have used in my classroom over the last six years of teaching Foundation and Foundation/Grade 1 classes. (Tried and tested, if you will!)

Classroom Decorative Elements

Balloon Pencil/Straw Toppers (BLM and colour)
Birthday Display Bunting (BLM and colour)
Birthday (Month) Display Balloons (BLM and colour
Printable Stickers/Badges (Colour only)
Pencil/Straw Flags (Colour only)

Birthday Keepsakes

Birthday Bracelets (BLM only)**
Birthday Hats, 2 Designs (BLM only)**
Birthday Lanyards (BLM and colour)
Birthday Books, Half-Page (BLM and colour)
Birthday Books, Full-Page (BLM and colour)

** each design contains a generic birthday greeting, as well as ages from 4-8 years.

I love preparing birthday books for all the students in my class, ready for each student to fill in a page for the birthday child. I find that the books make a beautiful keepsake for the child and their family. A memory of the time spent with their class in their first year of schooling.

I hope that you have the opportunity to take a look at my Birthday Pack. It’s 50% off for the first 24 hours, so if you’re looking for some birthday activities for the classroom, grab it while it’s on sale!

So excited!

I have a random sort of post for you today, but I can’t help myself – I just have to share!

Today I had new tables arrive for my classroom!

Now, my old tables were big, round and the spacing between the legs was terrible when I had to sit 5 or more kids on each one. Everyone was just a bit too cramped.

I’ve had those old tables for 5 years and nearly got rid of them 2 and a half years ago before they ended up in my room again (and people, there were tears when they reappeared – they’re just not Prep friendly!).

And now…

Now I have fun-coloured desks that work well in a pod and can be separated, too!

The kiddos were very disappointed they didn’t get to help unstack them this morning (when they arrived), but I promised they would be set up for tomorrow morning and they are!

If you could see me now you would see me bouncing up and down like an idiot! ❤

What’s your favourite piece of classroom furniture?

Another peak in the classroom!

Hello, friends!

Today was my first day back for 2014 – a student-free day while the staff had meetings during the day. It was busy, but I did manage to get my Word Wall up today, which is very exciting.

I have an entire wall of pinboards at the back of my room – dubbed the Rainbow Wall because I covered it in different lengths of coloured cotton. This year I have decided to section off parts of it for permanent displays like a word wall and a Maths Focus Wall. (The maths wall hasn’t been finished yet – hopefully a job for tomorrow!)

However, the Word Wall is good to go and I wanted to share it because I’ve never (please contain your gasps of horror!) had a traditional word wall before.

It’s quite large, but I figured if I was going to use it effectively, it needed to be large enough for my kiddos to use and find words easily.

At my school we use the Magic 100 Words program and I used all 200 words from this high frequency word program to add to the wall (because I have some Grade 1s this year who are working into the second hundred group of words). Each word is attached to a colour level, and I’ve copied the words onto corresponding colours.

Do you use a word wall? What’s your favourite activity for your word wall?

P.S. Don’t forget about the awesome deal on Writing materials for K-2 classrooms on Educents! Click the link below to check out the day’s awesome deals!

New School Year

I have one more day left of Summer Break before returning to work for the 2014 school year (Jan-Dec). 2 student free days, then my Grade 1s return on Thursday and the Preps commence on Friday for a half day.

Life’s about to get REALLY busy!

I’ve spent a bit of time in my classroom, preparing it for the new year. It’s not completely finished (I’ll have some late nights Tues/Weds finishing it up), but I’m getting there. I thought I’d share some photos. I’m still in the same classroom, so no moving around for me, but I do like to change things up each year.

This is (one of) my photo booth signs for the first day of school – the Grade 1 dates are in because they start back first. I’ll switch it out on Friday for the Preps. I’ll also probably take out the glass in the frame for the photos so I don’t get the glare.

This is the table by the door to the classroom – my reading groups will have a Very Hungry Caterpillar theme this year (can you tell?). Our take-home reader boxes will go here, plus the kiddos blue communication folders. I have some charts to track reading that will also be on display.

The black tubs underneath the big board are for all our workbooks (which we’ll keep communally this year) and the pinboard (doesn’t it look pretty!) will become our CAFE board this year. I don’t run Daily 5, but I am going to try and get better at consistently and explicitly teaching reading strategies this year. It’s a movable board because none of my permanent board space is near the front of the room where I teach Guided Reading. This was I can always have the board handy! (More pics to come when I finish setting it up!)

Remember my post on Wet Days inside? Here are my little rainclouds (cute clipart by Graphics from the Pond) stuck on containers the kiddos are allowed to access. There’s about 12 different tubs all around the room!

3 (out of 4) class tables and the rainbow wall! The green and blue panels will be my Maths Focus wall. The bottom half of the pink/green/purple panels will be my Word Wall and the rest of the space will be used for student work.

This chalkboard (given to me by my sister and her partner) hangs near the door. I decided to use it as a permanent notice board this year, even attempting my first chalk art! It’s only simple, but I like it. Now I can add last minute notices on it in the morning for parents. Plus, I also have a hanging pocket chart underneath it now, to hold spare notices and newsletters.

My pencil tubs for the tables this year. I got these art caddies from Kmart. They’re really easy to pick up and move around.

Another work in progress space. This is just above my teacher-computer station. My brand new calendar pocket chart! I’ll change up the theme of the cards each term, and I’m in the process of making some special event cards as well! Underneath I will add a ‘Days of School’ counting chart!

My new Writing display board. Using the Writing Center Starter Kit by A Cupcake for the Teacher and the awesome giant pencil from The Teacher Wife. I’ve also got a blank display chart hanging to block out space for our anchor charts. (I’m going to have the same space blocked out on my maths wall, too!) This way I can just clip up new charts and have everything in the one spot!

My IWB, guided reading materials and seasonal book display. The carpet blocks out the space and is nice and bright and colourful!

Sorry about the lighting in this photo! This is my reading corner – one chair, two beanbags, a car mat and a whole host of classroom reading buddies! And BEYOND that you can see my classroom’s deck – which is huge and I am going to make a diligent effort to use this as a learning space more often this year. After all, who doesn’t love working outside!

And finally, here’s a few pics of my books. They’re a bit messy (forgive!) after last year, but I’ll get to them soon!

WOW! What a long post! ❤

Don’t forget, Educents has a fantastic Writing Bundle up for purchase for the next 12 days. PLUS, for this weekend only you can get 10% off all purchases using the sale code SALE10 at checkout! Click the picture below to check it out!

What have you been up to this weekend?