New Year's Resolutions for the Classroom

As teachers, we have two new year celebrations - January 1st and the First Day of School.  That means double the resolutions, but also double the number of fresh starts!

Are there things that you still want to accomplish this school year, but haven't yet?

Are there things in your classroom that you really want to change when you go back to school?

Now is your chance to make those changes!  Both you and your students are coming back refreshed from a long break, and it can be a great time to set some New Year's Resolutions for your classroom.

I have created these Teacher New Year's Resolution sheets to help you set some teaching goals for yourself in the next year.  The sheets ask you to set goals for your teaching, your class, and personal and professional goals.

As I was creating these with teachers in mind, I also thought that it might be a great tool to use with your students as well, so I have included student goal sheets as well.

Best of all?  They are a freebie! Click here to grab it!

Teacher Goal Ideas

• Make Learning Fun
• Incorporate More Technology in Your Lesson Plans
• Read 1 Professional Development Book a Month
• Reflect on Each Day
• Organize Classroom Supplies
• Take a Class
• Involve Parents More
• Cultivate Relationships With Your Colleagues
• Incorporate 1 New Teaching Strategy
• Improve Writing Instruction (could be changed to math, reading, science, etc.)
• Increase Self-Care
• Try Co-Teaching Strategies with Another Teacher for a Lesson
• Send Home a Weekly or Monthly Newsletter
• Increase Time Conferencing with Students
• Incorporate More Vocabulary Mini-lessons into Lesson Plans

Student Goal Ideas

• Read 20 Minutes Each Night
• Study My Math Facts 10 Minutes Each Night
• Choose To Sit Next To Students Who Don't Distract Me
• Take Notes on My Reading
• I Will Remain on Task
• I Will Finish My Work On Time
• I Will Share My Ideas
• I Will Check My Work
• I Will Be Responsible for My Belongings
• I Will Work Well With Others
• I Won't Give Up
• I Will Finish My Work Before I Talk to Others

Don't forget to grab your freebie!  

I would love to hear how it goes and to see your goals!  Email me at kellys3ps@sbclobal.net to share!

My Students Are Amazing Back to School Door Decoration

Every Valentine's Day, I decorate my classroom door with Reasons Why I Love My Class.  My class is always so excited to read each of the new reasons as I post a new one each day.  I shared this freebie, so that your students could enjoy them as much as mine did.  Several of you asked for me to make them for ALL of the months.  So, that is what I am working on now!  Here is the classroom door display for September (Back to School Apples)!

This post contains affiliate links. I earn a small commission each time someone makes a purchase using one of my links, which helps to support the blog.  All opinions are my own and I only promote brands and products that I have used myself and truly love. 

I made a sign that said My Students Are Awesome.  Then I printed an apple template on several pieces of card stock and cut them out (I printed on red, yellow, and green card stock since those are the colors of apples).  I wrote various reasons why my class is amazing including:

They are smart.

They are kind.

They always try their best.

On the first day of school, I will hang up the My Students Are Awesome sign and the first apple.  Each day of the month I will hang up a new apple.

In addition to the My Students Are Awesome signs, I also created grade specific signs as well (K- 6th are included in the freebie).  Here is the 4th Graders are Awesome sign:

I also have two different font choices available to best suit your students!

I have made a freebie for you just in case you wanted to try this project out with your own students.  You can download it here.  

Here are the other monthly versions that are already completed.  Check back for new postings each month!

February

March

April

If you decide to do this project, I would love to see pictures!  Please email me at kellys3ps@sbcglobal.net or tag me on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter!

And... before you go, make sure to visit my Giveaways page to enter our weekly giveaway to win a $25 Teachers pay Teachers gift card!

 I would love to hear from you! ❤️

Have a question? Idea for a resource you might find helpful?

Be so kind and leave a comment below.

March Teaching Resource Round-Up

March Teaching Resource Round Up! 

Looking for some awesome resources to use in the classroom this month?  Check out this growing list of blog posts, freebies, pins, product suggestions and more!  Feel free to add your own suggestions in the linky below!

Give your students a shout out for St. Patrick's Day! This freebie is a great way to give your class shout-outs during the weeks leading up to St. Patrick’s Day. Simply print out the template on colored paper and write down the shout-outs you want to give your class. I posted one new shamrock each day and my students raced to read each new one.

This activity is featured in my blog post Shamrock Shout- out. Head on over if you want to see more about how I used it in my classroom.

If your students need to practice math facts, you will love this St. Patrick's Day themed treasure hunt activity.  You can read all about it and grab the freebie here!

This print and play game from 180 Days of Reading  will have your students rolling and reading!  Perfect for those students who need practice with blends and digraphs!

This great little freebie from Teaching Super Kids includes March themed reading, writing, and spelling activities!

These poke cards from The Chocolate Teacher are a great way to help students practice telling time to the hour and half hour.  They are self-checking so are perfect for an independent center.

Math facts are always something my students need practice with!  This addition to ten freebie from Debora Marines TeachMagically is perfect for that extra practice!

This math activity from Sparking Children's Thinkibility puts your students in the driver's seat as they create their own math problems!

These St. Patrick's Day Reward Punch Cards from Little Red are a great classroom management tool!  The resource is editable, so it can be used for so many skills or habits that you need to have your students work on from remembering to turn in homework, to books read, to being kind to others, to???

This flip book was designed by the Speech Attic to be a companion to How to Catch a Leprechaun by Adam Wallace and Andy Elkerton. This book companion addresses a variety of language skills such as comprehension, describing, sequencing, following directions, vocabulary, and more! 

If you are looking for more St. Patrick's Day resources, check out my Holidays in the Classroom - St. Patrick's Day Pinterest Board with over 260 resources!

If you celebrate Pi Day in the classroom, you will LOVE these Pi Day bookmarks!

If you have other resources for March, feel free to add them to the linky below!

Once you are finished checking out all of these amazing resources, head over to our giveaway page to enter to win a Teachers pay Teachers gift card!

Inlinkz Link Party

Reasons Why I Love My Class - Valentine's Day in the Classroom Freebie!

I wanted to do a little something special for my class this Valentine's Day, so when one of my friends posted this Valentine Heart Attack post from Skip to My Lou on Facebook, I knew I wanted to adapt it for the classroom. I wanted to share with my students all of the Reasons Why I Love My Class!

This post contains affiliate links. I earn a small commission each time someone makes a purchase using one of my links, which helps to support the blog.  All opinions are my own and I only promote brands and products that I have used myself and truly love. 

Here is what I came up with:

I made a sign that said Reasons Why I Love My Class.  Then I printed a heart template on several pieces of card stock and cut them out.  I wrote various reasons why I love my class including:

They are smart.

They are kind.

They always try their best.

On February 1st, I hung up the Reasons Why I Love My Class sign and the first heart.  Today, I hung up the second heart. 

 My students were racing to the door to read what the new heart said.  

I printed out all of my hearts ahead of time on colored card stock and will be hanging up a new one each day until Valentine's Day as a sort of countdown.  Here are a few of the other hearts:

I have made a freebie for you just in case you wanted to try this project out with your own students.  You can download it here.  

You can start a few days late and add hearts as you go, or put up the whole display on Valentine's Day instead.

If you decide to do this project, I would love to see pictures!  Please email me at kellys3ps@sbcglobal.net or tag me on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter!

Here are a few pictures from other readers:

This display is from 3rd in the City - I LOVE how she displayed in on a clothesline bulletin board!

I love the first reason Ms. Cullia shared with her Pre-K kiddos - "They come in with smiles everyday!"

If you would like to see the other months' projects you can find them here:

March

April

September

Before you go, head on over to our giveaway page to enter our current giveaway!  Every week one lucky winner gets a $25 Teachers pay Teachers gift card! 

Sidewalk Scoot End of School Year Activity

It is so difficult to keep your students focused and engaged those last few weeks of school when they are already dreaming of summer and being outdoors.  If you are looking for a fun end-of-the-school-year activity, you will want to check this out!

I was checking out Pinterest when I saw this amazing version of Scoot from The Primary Gal.  I knew it would be the perfect way to get my kiddos outside while still working on content.

This post contains affiliate links. I earn a small commission each time someone makes a purchase using one of my links, which helps to support the blog.  All opinions are my own and I only promote brands and products that I have used myself and truly love.  

We have been working on elapsed time in our class, and it has been very tricky for some of my kiddos, so I decided to use this activity to give them a little more practice.

First, I had each student create their own elapsed time problem on an index card.

I checked their work and gave them a number on their card that corresponded to the answer key that I made with one of the sheets.

Then I had the students take their card and NEATLY write their question using sidewalk chalk on a section of the sidewalk.

After everyone wrote down their question, it was time to solve the problems SCOOT style.  Each child moved from question to question answering them on their recording sheet.

You can grab a free copy of The Primary Gal's recording sheet by visiting her blog post here.

I love how versatile this activity could be!  You can use it to review so many different skills.  I am looking forward to trying this again with other subjects and skills.  A few ideas I am thinking about include:

* Practicing Long Division

* Double Digit Multiplication

* Math Facts

* Perimeter and Area

* Parts of Speech

* Idioms and Other Figurative Speech

What skills would you use it for? 

Before you go, head on over to our giveaway page to enter our current giveaway!  Every week one lucky winner gets a $25 Teachers pay Teachers gift card! 

End of the School Year Checklist Freebies

There is nothing that strikes panic and fear in teachers more than the principal handing you a packet of year-end procedures as you look at your already overflowing calendar and wonder how you are going to get everything done! Well, take a deep breath, grab your beverage of choice, and join us for a summer countdown blog hop filled with tips and freebies to help you have a smooth ending to the school year!

My tip and freebie for saving your sanity is to plan out your last few weeks of school with the goal of getting it all done without staying at school until the wee hours of the night!  If you are really ambitious, you might be ready in advance!  Wouldn't that be nice?

Step 1:  Create a list of any and all task you know you need to do in the next few weeks. I have listed a few possible tasks below to help you get started. If you can think of anything I might have forgotten, feel free to leave a comment below (your comments will also get you an extra entry into my giveaway!)

• Report Cards
• End of Year Awards
• Student Gifts
• Volunteer Gifts
• Memory Books
• Next Year Prep (binders, lesson plans, etc.)
• Cumulative Folders
• Packing Up Classroom 
• Field Day
• Field Trips
• Assemblies
• End of Year Parties
• Shred IEP forms/send to new teacher
• Return borrowed supplies
• Supply Inventory

Step 2:  Grab a calendar and start plugging in deadlines and due dates for all of the items you came up with in Step 1.

Step 3: Break down tasks by the weeks you have left.  Plan smart so that you won't have to stay late, but you'll also be able to get everything done in time.  You might want to schedule several sessions for tasks that are particularly tedious like grading, report cards, or student gifts.

Step 4:  Hold yourself accountable to getting the things on your list done, and reward yourself if you do accomplish them.  (My favorite reward this time of year is an iced latte from Starbucks).

You can find the checklists pictured above along with a few others in my freebie for you! 

 Download it here.

Now, enter to win a $25 Teachers Pay Teachers Gift Certificate, and then follow along with our blog hop to get more tips and to collect your other freebies!