Bubblicious Borders

Well... since enjoyed making my first two sets of borders, I decided to attempt some more. I created a set called "Bubblicious Borders." It took me several attempts to get them right, but I think they turned out pretty darn cute. Check them out below. My hope is to create more doodle style clip art in the near future, so we shall see how artistic I can get.

I posted them in my Teacherspayteacher.com store in two separate sets. I want to see how well they sell before I decide to combine them into a MEGA set. Check them out at my TpT store (click on the images below)...

Click on the image below to get your FREE sample of my Bubblicious Borders. Enjoy!

Helping Hats

In my quest to reduce the time consuming task of checking student papers I came up with an idea for students to help out. I realized I could put to use those students who always finished their assignments first. These student could feel empowered and take a leadership role in the classroom by helping their fellow students (while helping me out at the same time). I decided I needed some kind of indicator the other students could see as to who could help them with their work or check their work for them. I developed the "helping hats." The way this works is that a student who finishes their work first will come to me and have their paper checked. Once they have completed their assignment correctly, they then become a helping hat. They will put on one of the foam hats from out "helping hat" bin. This hat shows the other students that this individual student can check their work for them or offer some help. The students are explicitly taught how to help other and check papers. Below is a picture of one of my students checking another students work.

As you can see he has his paper (which as been corrected by myself) and he is cross check it with another students. The "helping hat" students cannot give answers. They can show the students which items they have wrong, and then provide assistance in helping them think through the problem. Once a student has their paper checked by a helping hat and get their paper correct, then they can become a "helping hat" as well. 

After a student gets their paper correct they may choose a stamp OR a sticker from my "stamp or sticker station." They will then use their paper to check other papers and eventually put their paper in their mailbox to take home. It is so nice not having papers pile up on my desk that I need to check. The students get instant feedback and can take it home the same day. It also allows parents to see what is happening in the classroom day by day. I highly recommend having this system in place in your classroom. The students really love it and it gives them a sense of pride (especially those at-risk students).

**I purchased the foam hats at the Dollar Tree. They were 4 for $1. I keep them in a basket labeled "helping hats." 

First Attempt at Digital Clip Art...

First of all let me start this post by saying that I am obsessed with clip art, digital backgrounds, and fonts. I have been very intrigued by how people create these wonderful products. I began to wonder how I could do it myself. So I am not really an "artsy person"... creative... yes... but artsy... no! I am incredibly jealous of all those teachers that have been given the artistic gift of drawing and are using that gift to create wonderful clip art. I really wanted to at least learn how to create my own clip art. So through research and some self-teaching, I learned how to create clip art. There was a lot of trial and error in this process, especially the clip art set that I drew by hand. Check out my two attempts below (click on the pictures).

I hope you like them!

Solve the Bathroom Pass Problem

Over the years I have found that students like to abuse the privileged of having a bathroom pass available in the classroom. Amazingly they need to magically use the bathroom once work time begins. I wanted to create a way to monitor and reduce bathroom usage in the classroom. I created a two pass system. The students are allowed to use one pass in the morning and one pass in the afternoon. These passes do not include any "class bathroom breaks." Let me describe the system I have in place.

Here is what it looks like...

The students have to "check out" when they need to use one of their passes. The "morning pass" is a bathroom pass used before lunch. The "afternoon pass" is a bathroom pass used after lunch.

The students will choose the proper stick and place it behind their cards on my behavior management "card moving" system. Yes... I have it pulling double duty. Not only can the students monitor their consequences, they can monitor how many times they are using the bathroom.

From this picture you can see that Lana has used her morning pass and Jibril has used both his morning and afternoon pass (Jibril has used all his passes for the day). Once the students place the proper stick behind their name, they must then place the "boy's pass" or "girl's pass" on their desk. This allows me to see who is in the bathroom and keeps them from taking the pass into the germ infestation we call the bathroom. This system has really worked out well over the years and really helps minimize extra bathroom visits. Students do understand that if they have an "emergency" they may go even if they have used their passes. But just asking the simple question "can you wait five minutes?" will reveal if the students is truly having an "emergency" or not. 

100th Day of School

The 100th day of school will be here before we know it. It is such a crazy time trying to plan centers and activities. Half the time I am running around trying to gather everything I created in the past. I feel that I never find everything I created or used in the past, so I decided to compile all my 100s day activities into group of centers/activities. I put this product in my TeacherspayTeachers store. Click on the picture to check it out...

Download my free preview to check it out!

Winter Wonderland {Math & Literacy Centers}

So I finally completed a full set of centers. While looking ahead what I will be teaching when I return from winter break, I noticed I did not have centers for some of the concepts. I decided to create Winter Wonderland {Math & Literacy Center}. These centers are aligned to the Common Core Standards. Check them out here at my TpT store (click on the image below):

In this pack of centers you will find:

Literacy Centers:

• Winter Time Rhyme
• Snowy Syllables
• Frosty Fun (Medial Sound Practice)
• Snowy Sentence Scramble
• Wintery ABC Order

Math Centers:

• Fact Family Friends
• Snowman Addition (Adding 3 Numbers)
• It's Wintertime (Telling Time to the Hour and Half-hour)
• Even & Odd Igloos
• True or False Number Sentences

Also, here is a FREEBIE from this pack of centers:

I hope you enjoy it!