Teachers love to share their creative ideas, so why not take advantage of someone else's creativity?The internet is a great resource for finding ideas and printables for classrooms at little or no cost. I've compiled a list of my favorite places I go to find teaching ideas and freebies.
1. teachertipster.com
I LOVE this site! Here, a first grade teacher named Mr. Smith offers creative, interactive ways to teach your kiddos just about everything. He is very entertaining, and I'm sure he's the teacher every student hopes to get. Mr. Smith has several videos that I highly recommend you watch. He also has free worksheets as well. And, of course, you can find him on facebook. Check him out!
2. teacherspayteachers.com
I love this site too. You can find anything you need on here, much of which is free. These are all teacher created materials that you can immediately download. You can also set up your own virtual shop and sell anything you have created for your classroom. This site is a great resource and I check it weekly for freebies. If you want to check out what I have in my shop, click here.
3. teachersnotebook.com
Same concept as teachers pay teachers, just a different website. I also have a shop here.
4. http://www.classroomfreebiestoo.com
Every "Manic Monday" new educators post freebies available for download. Check back weekly to see what's new!
5. pinterest.com
Where else can you find everything you ever dreamed of and more? Pinterest has a wealth of creative ideas I guarantee you've never thought of.
**If you have a website you rely on for help in the classroom, please share in the comments section below!**
Saturday, March 16, 2013
Saturday, March 9, 2013
I'm having a sale!
Sunday, February 10, 2013
Vote for a low income school to win a life changing grant
I had the opportunity to work at Ohio Avenue Elementary school for five years. My time there was very rewarding. Please take the time to vote so this well deserving school has a chance to win a grant that would expose their students to the arts in a way that has not been available to them before. read on to fidn out more about the grant. You can vote once a day!
Ohio Avenue Adaptation Integration & The Arts Enrichment Project
Ohio Avenue Elementary School
Columbus City School District
The Ohio Avenue Adaptation Integration & The Arts Enrichment Project would bring together teaching artists and educators to enrich student learning through providing an ongoing arts-integrated curriculum for our students. The project would provide opportunities for our students and staff to engage in and experience the power of the arts through collaborative teaching and learning with a variety of community artists and teachers at the school. The inclusive project would bring together all students of both regular and special eduation. It would expose our students to various aspects of the arts through integration into the curriculum and would provide opportunities for performance, engagement with the community, and encourage creativity.
Impact of the Grant:
Currently, students at our school have visual art and vocal music once a week for 30-60 minutes depending on their grade level. We have one third grade class that is participating in a dance residency in which they get dance once a week for 60 minutes. If our school was granted the NBC4i Make a Difference Grant we could utilize the financial support to increase the number of students and the amount of time that our students have with the arts while enriching our curriculum and thus learning for our students. Our staff believes strongly that we should do everything in our power to provide enriched and meaningful learning opportunities for our students during the school day since there are many factors that we cannot control when our students are not with us. We have seen the impact of the dance residency partnership with community organization VSA (The State Organization on Arts and Disability) with one of our third gradeclasses this year and
we want to expand the program to reach more students and to engage more
teachers. The collaboration between community artists and teachers would also
develop capacity and understanding of the arts and integration so that our
teachers could continue arts enrichment even after the project has completed the
funding period. The grant would allow us to have at least 4 teaching artists for
the upcoming school year.
Ohio Avenue Adaptation Integration & The Arts Enrichment Project
Ohio Avenue Elementary School
Columbus City School District
The Ohio Avenue Adaptation Integration & The Arts Enrichment Project would bring together teaching artists and educators to enrich student learning through providing an ongoing arts-integrated curriculum for our students. The project would provide opportunities for our students and staff to engage in and experience the power of the arts through collaborative teaching and learning with a variety of community artists and teachers at the school. The inclusive project would bring together all students of both regular and special eduation. It would expose our students to various aspects of the arts through integration into the curriculum and would provide opportunities for performance, engagement with the community, and encourage creativity.
Impact of the Grant:
Currently, students at our school have visual art and vocal music once a week for 30-60 minutes depending on their grade level. We have one third grade class that is participating in a dance residency in which they get dance once a week for 60 minutes. If our school was granted the NBC4i Make a Difference Grant we could utilize the financial support to increase the number of students and the amount of time that our students have with the arts while enriching our curriculum and thus learning for our students. Our staff believes strongly that we should do everything in our power to provide enriched and meaningful learning opportunities for our students during the school day since there are many factors that we cannot control when our students are not with us. We have seen the impact of the dance residency partnership with community organization VSA (The State Organization on Arts and Disability) with one of our third grade
Monday, January 28, 2013
Saturday, January 26, 2013
Publish a Classroom Book for Free!
Every year my students and I create a story, where everyone gets to contribute their text and illustrations to our classroom book. I bind it together with the plastic spiral binder machine we have at school and it looks awesome. The kids are so excited to read the book that it's always a popular choice during silent reading time. Because of its popularity, the pages begin falling out shortly after the first few reads.
This year I decided to take advantage of an offer from Snapfish. Using the coupon code HPREWARD you can get a FREE (up to $12.99) custom photo book. Sales tax and shipping will be added to your order, but it's still a great deal. I plan on scanning my student's illustrations and uploading them into a cute soft cover book that will surely last through multiple readings. If you're interested, you need to hurry! This deal ends 1/31.
Tuesday, January 15, 2013
It's Time!
My second graders are just beginning to tell time and are super excited about it. I'm super excited too because the sooner they can tell time the sooner they stop asking me what time it is:) They created these cute clocks today to help them learn how many minutes each number on the clock represents.
I created a template that you can get free here, or click on the teacherspayteachers.com widget to go directly to my store where you can download it for free. First I had the kids fill in the lines on the inside circle with the numbers they saw on our classroom clock. Next they filled in the lines on the outside circle with how many minutes each number represents. I let them color the hands any color they wanted. While they were in gym I laminated each clock, and when they got back they cut it all out and assembled it with a brad. I had them keep them in their desks to pull out when we are practicing telling time. I might have them take their clock home to practice as well. This was a very easy project that all of the kids seemed to enjoy.
Sunday, January 13, 2013
Dollar Store Deals
I'm a sucker for bargains. I can't help it. I'm always on the lookout for something inexpensive I can use in my classroom. The dollar store is a great place to find some deals. So when I found a bag of clear glass stones, I snatched them up knowing there just had to be something I could use them for.
I decided my students could make words with them. I used a permanent marker to write the letters of the alphabet on the back of each one (I quickly realized I had to write the letters backwards). I made sure to include 3 or 4 of each vowel as well as some of the other more common letters so my kiddos would have enough letters to spell all kinds of words. I put the stones in a fabric softener container with a flip top lid that I was getting ready to recycle and voila! I had an instant literacy center.
Here's what I have my students do with the stones: they sprinkle out a few at a time and try to form words with what they have. If the letters they have don't spell anything, then they sprinkle out a few more. As they build, the kids make a list of the words they create and then turn it in to me when they're done. It's a fun, self directed center that takes no time at all to set up.
Now, if only I could figure out what to do with the giant fly swatter I bought...
I decided my students could make words with them. I used a permanent marker to write the letters of the alphabet on the back of each one (I quickly realized I had to write the letters backwards). I made sure to include 3 or 4 of each vowel as well as some of the other more common letters so my kiddos would have enough letters to spell all kinds of words. I put the stones in a fabric softener container with a flip top lid that I was getting ready to recycle and voila! I had an instant literacy center.
Here's what I have my students do with the stones: they sprinkle out a few at a time and try to form words with what they have. If the letters they have don't spell anything, then they sprinkle out a few more. As they build, the kids make a list of the words they create and then turn it in to me when they're done. It's a fun, self directed center that takes no time at all to set up.
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