How do you leave school freebie?

Whoa! Where has time gone? I've been suppppper busy, like all of you. I do have so much to share though.  I know many of you are starting soon (if you haven't already started) and since you've given me so much inspiration, I felt I needed to give back. So in between all the trainings, meetings, and time putting together my disaster of a room, I got to thinking about how I know which way my students will go home. So, I made Dismissal Cards:

I'm putting these in my 'Welcome to School' postcards I'm sending out. I'm asking for them to be back the first day and then I'll laminate, punch, and put them on a ring to hang by my door. Handy for a sub or for anyone in my room at dismissal time!

I'm going to put the change of dismissal in the parent's 2012 - 2013 folder that will go home on Curriculum Night. I'm hoping this will alleviate any random notes/E-mails/phone calls! I'm going to stress this as well with the parents.

Want them? They're yours: how I leave school and change in dismissal!

 How do you keep track of your students going home?

Off to go fill my cart even more in anticipation of tomorrow's TPT sale... I seriously think I'll be going broke! I'm in love with soooo much stuff!

Happy Birthday!!!

I love celebrating my students' birthdays! I try to make it as special as I can.  First of all we always sing... I'd post a video of me singing our songs, but you're actually going to be thankful that I didn't!  We all sing the traditional Happy Birthday song, and then 2 birthday songs that run in our family. I always teach these songs on the first few days of school... I'll pull in a specials teacher to practice with. Kids LOVE it. 

Then, the students write their name on the board, and I pass out birthday letters to the kids. Each kid writes a letter to the birthday student. It's the cutest thing ever... especially when you see your big tough kids beam when they see what their peers have written. It makes my day!

I have a few versions of the birthday letters for you... Kindergarten, Primary, and Intermediate.  I hope you can use them. The images are from KPM Doodles. She always has the CUTEST graphics. Love them!  

I also write a student a letter and give them a present.  It isn't much but the kids love them. Staples pencil box, pop a point pencil (found mine at Target for $1), birthday bookmark, and an eraser (from Staples). Target has super cute stars in their Dollar Section that would be perfect for this.  Next week at Walgreens those same boxes will be 39 cents!!

My birthday boxes.

I'm toying between getting these from Really Good Stuff:

Aren't they cute?!?! They come in sets of 32 for $8.99. Since I hate to buy anything that's not on "sale," I haven't made my purchase yet... just waiting on a coupon!

Since I'm going to first grade, I was thining about doing something similar to Rachelle's birthday bag over at What the Teacher Wants!  I like the idea of the students writing at home. My birthday is one of the first weeks of school, so I think they would have a good model.

What do you do for your students' birthdays?

Week's Worth of Work

Passing out papers can easily become overwhelming for a teacher and lack any meaning for the students. Plus who knows if the papers even make it home!! I never liked those conversations with parents about those "lost" papers, so for the past 7 years, I've established a routine that's easy to follow. I call this "Week's Worth of Work."  The title comes from an amazing teacher I studied under during my undergrad, Mrs. D!

The first thing I do is make a folder for each student. This is a 9 x 12 folder with a cute piece of paper  laminated (this way they last the entire year). My fourth graders have been pretty good with them.  These are ready for the first Monday - the day I have the students pass out the papers.  I've chosen Monday's because it usually gives me the weekend to catch up and on Friday, the papers get lost in the shuffle at home with the weekend. Here's what the folder looks like:



Cover Sheets

Then the students pass out all the papers from the previous week. Yes, the students. It takes about 20 /30 minutes at the beginning of the year and by the end 10/15 minutes. They get so good at it and here's the BEST part -  THEY LOOK FORWARD TO IT!

The most important part, is the reflection time and sheet. After all the papers are passed out, I have the students reflect using this reflection form.

 At the beginning of the year we review/brainstorm the possible learning targets from the previous week, and those are the targets they use. Sometimes the kids go back to a target we worked on in small groups or during a 1:1 time.   After they're done reflecting, I staple the sheet to their work, and they put them in their mailboxes. They return the reflection sheet the next day. Love it.   Get your sheets here and here.

I'm working on some new cover sheets - what would you like?

Now, as I transition from 4th to 1st, I could use some ideas on how to pass out papers to my firsties. Any ideas or suggestions? What's worked for you?