Ice Cream Stack-Its

Ice Cream Stacks-Its are one of my favorite activities to include in my math and reading centers. They take a little prep time on the teacher's part: print, laminate, and cut. However, they're so worth it because the kids love them and they're pretty self explanatory! These games can be printed in color or black and white on colored paper!

When my students have a bucket of games to choose from, stack-its are always their go to choice. They're great for partners or small groups to work on too. They encourage cooperation and teamwork. You can also print the PDF pages in black and white to make a self-checking key.

KINDER- FIRST

These ice cream match-ups come in a variety of subjects, difficulties, and grade levels. In Kindergarten I liked to use the beginning sounds match during our work word time! Students have to match 4 pictures and the lower case letter to the capital letter cone. In math centers, we love to use the number sense stack-its! These help students recognize numbers to 20 in multiple forms: dice, base ten blocks, word form, ten frames, and fingers.

FIRST- SECOND

My second graders love the place value stack-its! They vary in difficulty. You could start the kids off with numbers to 20 and then challenge them with numbers to 100. Students match the expanded form, word form, and base ten form to the standard form ice cream cone. They love to show off their work for photos. I like to put these types of photos on Class Dojo to give parents a glimpse into our learning.

Another great set for second graders is the 3D shapes stack-its! These are fun and allow students to match the typical 3D shapes they see at school to 3D shapes in the real world.

Back to School Hacks

Hard to believe 'back to school' is just around the corner from now. Let's be honest, we all wish setting up our room was as simple as asking Alexa to make it happen... but, alas, it's not. Here are a few hacks to make the transition a little bit smoother.

1)  I love to give my new kiddos some back to school treats. These could be given out at meet the teacher, on the first day of school, or as a "congrats you survived the first week" reward. Really we both deserve something for that last one! I love these simple pencils tags and these free bookmarks! Cheap & yet fun to receive!

2) Last year I spruced up my student cubbies with two different colors of contact paper from Dollar Tree. Such a cheap DIY project to revive some old and boring cubbies. If you measure and cut them all at once you'll get the hang of the accurate peel & stick quickly! Look what a difference it made!

3) Beside my beautiful cubbies is where I house our book baggies for Reader's Workshop! These hooks were a life saver this year! They kept bags organized, off the floor, and anyone could put a classmates bag away in the correct place. These hooks were originally not being used. There were rows and rows of them in our copy room. I put in a work order and voila- here they are! I snagged these bags on Amazon and stamped each kid's name on theirs! They were cheap and lasted all year. They were also great for sending home lots of miscellaneous things the last week of school. Just another thing I gift my students with!

4) Have you ever made a class directory? It's a game changer! I include a release form with my back to school paper work. All families are given the chance to opt in to the class directory with mailing address and/or email address. It's so helpful for referencing when you need to contact parents. You can share it with any other teachers that work with your students- SPED, EIP, ESOL, OT, etc. I know I am always being asked "Do you have an up to date phone number for so and so?" The best part is, parents can mail out birthday invites directly and they don't get passed out at school! haha Obviously, run it by your administration to make sure it's allowed at your school. My directory is pictured in the bottom left corner of the pin below.

 5) Freshen up your supply baskets with a magic eraser and some new labels! I have found these to be so helpful! The kids can easily keep their baskets organized throughout the year. For a teacher who is a bit of a neat freak, this is a god send! Within this product there are lots of options and pairing. You're bound to find something you need!

 Best of luck with the start of the school year! You're going to nail this year! If you have hacks I need to know about, please drop them in the comments below.

Back to School Bookshelf

I've been teaching 9 years and I've developed quite the love of picture books! Especially those that teach character education and support a strong classroom community! Here are a few of my favorite back to school books! My students and I read these during the first couple weeks of school. During our readings we review classroom & school wide expectations. We will also role play what to do in some of these situations and talking about problem solving skills. 

The Bad Seed
The Good Egg
The Invisible Boy
The Sandwich Swap
Spaghetti in a Hot Dog Bun
Lacey Walker Nonstop Talker
First Day Jitters
The Name Jar
Same, Same but Different
My Teacher is a Monster

These books are so memorable and we reference them each time we encounter the same problems that the main characters do! We think back about how it was handled in the story and consider whether we should take the same approach or try something different. I hope you enjoy these books for the beginning of the school year. Do you have favorite books for back to school read-alouds? Comment below with your suggestions! I'd love to hear them!

Also, people always ask how these books are being displayed on my white board. If you're wondering the same thing... hop over to Lakeshore Learning and purchase the Magnetic Display Tray- Set of 6. They're a must have! I use them throughout the year to display our Lucy Calkins books or holiday books that we'll be reading during the week. The students love seeing them and are constantly asking, "When are we going to read ________?" I also allow them to choose books from the shelves AFTER it's been read to them.

End of the School Year Suggestions

The end of the year is such a busy but treasured time! It's our last opportunity to reteach content & love on our munchkins. But, if you're like me, you're also craving summer break something fierce!

One of my *NEW* favorite end of the year activities is taking chalk pictures with my students. I posted these on Class Dojo for the parents and also on Twitter to share with their future third grade teachers. Parents & admin loved them! They were such a hit!

I originally got the idea from @mathandmorein104 on Instagram. She was inspired by @ourelementarydaze who has some other cute chalk art photo ideas. I've also seen this done as a Mother's Day gift! This was so easy to accomplish. I took a couple minutes to draw this during recess and grabbed the students a couple at a time to take their photos. I have two key suggestions if you do this....

1) Draw an X on the ground where you want them to place their head. It also helps to gather a couple kids at a time so they can learn from the person ahead of them.

2) Make sure they're wearing sunglasses. We discovered this tip mid photo shoot and I let them all wear mine... and then Clorox wiped them. haha

Another one of my favorite end of the year activities is an awards day complete with a red carpet for students to walk as they accept their awards! I've done a number of different awards but this year I used the Bitmoji Student Awards by TeachCreateMotivate! My students loved them. Ashley Marquez' directions for downloading the Bitmoji Chrome extensions were very easy to follow & now I use my bitmoji for so many other things! Here are a few examples I made this year!

Best wishes for a smooth, fun, and memorable end of the year with your sweetheart students! We pour so much into them, it can be hard to say goodbye at the end of the year. I enjoy remaining at the same school with hopes of watching them succeed year after year.