End of the Year Gifts that Promote Learning

May 17, 2017 by Ashley Leave a Comment

School will soon be out. HOLLA!!! I love summer break! However, there’s one part of summer break I DON’T like. A long summer often equals a LOT of learning loss for our students. The last thing I want is for my firsties to regress and go to second grade unprepared. Here are some tips to help your students retain what they’ve learned and promote learning over the summer! I’ll also share some end of the year gifts that promote learning.

Send home these learning logs to help prevent summer learning loss.

Summer Learning Loss

What exactly IS summer learning loss, and how bad is it? Here are some alarming summer learning loss statistics from a study published by Carson Dellosa.

Summer Learning Loss Infographic

Barton Reading also provides some eye-opening statistics on summer learning loss.

Summer Learning Loss Infographic

Keeping Them Reading (and Learning)

When I considered the profound issues that can arise when students take the whole summer “off”, I knew I had to come up with a way to keep my students learning AND having fun throughout the summer. I came up with two challenges: A Summer Reading Challenge and a Summer Learning Challenge. These challenges are parent AND kid approved. They’re easy to implement and keep kids engaged and excited!

Keep them learning all summer long with this summer learning challenge and summer reading program.

Mix in a little Astrobrights Paper, some Target Dollar Spot stickers, and some bubble gum and these fun and engaging challenges are ready to send home with your end of the year gifts! My end of the year gifts are amazing bargains I lucked up to find. These BPA bottles were on clearance at Walmart before Christmas for just $1 each (regularly $5!). You better believe I snatched them up lickety split! 😉 I also ordered some books from Scholastic for $1 each. Next Stop Second Grade was the perfect title for my firsties.

Fun end of the year gifts for students

Prevent Summer Learning Loss and Keep Students Reading All Summer Long

The Summer Reading Program is actually a FREE resource I created in conjunction with DJ Inkers. You can read more about it and grab it on this post.

Students work with their parents to determine a reward they’ll earn at the end of the summer in exchange for reading 20-30 minutes each day. They have a calendar for each month they’re out of school, and they add one sticker to the calendar each day they read. I’ve also included a parent letter, suggested books for 1st through 3rd, and instructions.

This summer reading calendar freebie is the perfect way to keep your students reading all summer long....and it' free!

What Can Students Read This Summer?

Asking my students to read is one thing, but what will they actually read after they’ve exhausted their personal supply of books? I have a few suggestions for y’all!

EPIC virtual library is a great resource for e-reading. For only $4.99 per month, students have access to a library of over 20,000 e-books on a variety of levels. It’ a great investment! Read more about it in this blog post.

Encourage your students and their parents to visit their community library during the summer. Most libraries have fabulous summer reading programs. Our local library has a different fun even each week–including magicians, artists, and animal shows.

Have you seen The Reading Rainbow Ipad app? Love it! I love that it’s called a “SKY-brary”. 😉 In fact, here are my top ten reading apps in a printable list for parents! You can get this printable (for free!) here.

Free printable list of the 10 best reading apps for ipads

A Teachable Teacher has a FABULOUS summer reading challenge that encourages students to read in a variety of settings with a variety of genres. I love it! (And it’s FREE!)

This FREE summer reading challenge encourages students to read all summer.

Programs to Help You Motivate Your Students to Read

With Barnes and Noble’s Summer Reading Program, students can be rewarded for their summer reading by earning a FREE book from the company. Read more about this program here.

Books-a-Million will reward students with a cool prize when they read 4 recommended books from a huge reading list.

What kiddo doesn’t love Chuck E. Cheese? The company will give 10 free tokens to kids who read daily for two straight weeks!

Half Price Books’ “Feed Your Brain” summer reading program rewards kids with a $5 gift certificate for reading 300 minutes.

Rosenberry Room’s Bookworm Challenge awards children with a Champion Reader Certificate and a chance to win a $25 gift card to Roesnberry Rooms!

I’m sure there are other programs out there. Be sure to search for “summer reading programs” in your area!

More Fun {FREE} Ideas for the Summer

I love this summer reading bingo board from Simply Kierste Design.

Free Summer Reading Bingo Board

How Does She has a fabulous Summer Reading Kit that’s perfect for moms to use with their kiddos. Check it out!

This FREE summer reading kit is perfect for you to use with your children!

What gifts do you send home with your students? I’d love to hear your ideas. Leave me a comment!

Be sure to pin this post so you can always find these fabulous ideas!

Make your end of the year gifts meaningful AND educational.

End of the Year Countdowns Kids Will Love

April 30, 2017 by Ashley Leave a Comment

We’re in the home stretch, y’all! It’s time for our End of the Year Countdown. I have four weeks of school left! I wanted to share some fun ways you can count down to the end of school.

These end of the year countdown ideas are fun and easy to implement!

Counting Down with Your Students

Deanna Jump and I have teamed up to create a totally adorable spaceship craft that my students will be completing the last 10 days of school. They’ll add one page to their book each day. The book pages are arranged like a countdown to blast off…List 10 adjectives to describe your year; list 10 words to describe your teacher, etc. There’s also a second version of the pages that include room for a short written response and a drawing. That version is perfect for K-1.

This rocket makes the perfect End of the Year countdown craft for the end of school!

These are the pages included in the first version of the booklet:

This rocket makes the perfect End of the Year countdown craft for the end of school!

These are the pages included in the second version of the booklet:

Students will have a BLAST {pardon that pun!} with this craft and it’ll be a fun keepsake for years to come.

Whole Class Countdown

One fun visual for counting down the last ten days as a whole class is my Kite Countdown. Each day at the close of the day, we cut one ribbon off the kite’s tail. When we get to the body of the kite, summer’s here! I always pick a well-behaved student to do us the honors of cutting of the tail and they always look forward to earning this privilege!

This FREE countdown kite is a great visual for counting down the last 10 days of school!

You can grab this FREEBIE {here}.

Alphabet Countdown

Another fun way to count down is to use the letters of alphabet to count down the last 26 days of school. Each letter represents something about that day. It might be an activity students will complete, a snack they will eat, or something they can bring or dress like. I’ve made an Alphabet Countdown calendar that’s free of dates so it can be used year after year. It also includes reminder slips that you simply print and send home the day before so parents and students know what they’ll need to bring or do the next day. You can find this packet {here}.

Balloon Pop Countdown

I’ve seen variations of the balloon pop countdown, and I just love them! Miss 5th had a beautiful display for her balloons. The students’ names are inside of the balloons; the name that pops out of the balloon is the student she celebrates that day. The class writes all the things they love about that student, they have access to VIP supplies, they may trade seats with another student in the class (students may only have their seat traded twice), and they also get to have lunch with Miss 5th.

The awesome gals at Eighteen 25 have a fun 7 day balloon pop idea, too! This would be fun to do at home with your own children.

How does your class count down to the end of school? Tell me about it in the comments! Pin this post so you can find these ideas again!

These end of the year countdown ideas are fun and easy to implement!

Classroom Organization ~ Fun AND Functional Ideas with Oriental Trading Company

April 24, 2017 by Ashley 3 Comments

Do you struggle with classroom organization? Many of us do. I don’t just want my classroom to be organized, but I want it to be beautiful as well. Small manipulatives are especially tricky to keep contained (pardon the pun!). I found the perfect solution with Oriental Trading Company.

The Solution

I fell in love with these Pacon Interlocking Storage containers as soon as I saw them! They’re so functional because they take up very little room. Since they stack and lock together side by side, they take up much less space than the plastic tubs I was previously using. I chose to put my most colorful manipulatives and craft supplies in them to keep the bright theme I already have going on in my classroom. I’m envisioning an entire shelf of these beauties by the time school starts next year!

How to Use Them

The lids keep the manipulatives securely inside, but they’re easy for even little hands to remove. I printed round labels on these full sheet labels, cut them out with scissors, and adhered them to the front of each container.

The containers are VERY reasonably priced and are just plain functional and FUN!

I think they would also be fabulous at home for storing hair bows, sharpies, ribbon, and more!

Please note: Oriental Trading Company provided these containers free of charge in exchange for an honest review of their products. I do not endorse any products or companies unless I believe in them whole-heartedly!

Which Oriental Trading items are your classroom organization Must-Haves? Leave me a comment and let me know!

3 Methods for Managing the End of the School Year Madness

March 11, 2017 by Ashley Leave a Comment

Has the end of the school year got you like….

We’re approaching the last nine weeks and, yes, the natives are restless. Yet, we still have TONS of learning that needs to take place, and standardized tests are coming up! How do we ensure that our students are still learning and engaged when all they can think about is Spring Break…or even Summer Break? I’ve reached in my teacher bag of tricks to give you THREE classroom management tips and tricks for the last few weeks of school. You’ll be able to get them as a FREEBIE at the end of this post!

Mystery Messages

In this fun incentive, students have a set of goals or behaviors to achieve each day in order to earn a letter for the day. I like to post the focus behaviors on the board so students can read them and remember them throughout the day. Be specific to the issues your class is facing or the types and ages of students you teach. For example:

Each day that students as a whole seem to achieve these goals, they earn a random mystery letter from a bag. Ahead of time, you will have cut and scrambled up the mystery reward into individual letters and placed them all in a bag. Students try to earn one letter each day, and when they have earned all the letters, they unscramble the word and earn that reward. I sometimes use a monthly mystery message as well.

Popsicles are a cheap, easy reward you can have on hand in your school’s freezer at any time.

At the end of this post, you’ll be able to grab a FREEBIE with 3 different mystery messages you can use (Movie, PJ Day, and Popsicle).

Secret Spy

Each day, randomly select one student to be the Secret Spy. It’s their job to spy for good behavior and report back to you at the end of the day or at the end of the designated period. I like to ask the student to spy on good behavior so all the other students are trying their best to get caught being good. Plus, I don’t want to turn this into an opportunity for the Secret Spy to be a glorified tattletale! LOL! Display this classroom sign reminding students that the Secret Spy is on the prowl.

Team Tournament

My students sit in table groups. Inspire a little friendly competition by encouraging each table group or section of the room to compete against the others. Post the rules or judging criteria on the board. The criteria can change from week to week or even day to day depending on the needs of your classroom. Tell students how long the tournament will last (one day, one week, all month?) and what criteria they will be judged on. Explain that they will earn points for meeting those criteria. You can decide if one point per day is up for grabs or if you want the flexibility of giving out points throughout the day to any team who earns them.

You’ll also want to decide on a reward. Will there be a reward for the team that finishes with the MOST points? Will the first team to achieve 10 points win a prize? Or will EVERY team who earns 10 points get to partake in the reward? It’s all up to you. Laminate the team signs and place them on the board. Each time that team earns a point, add a tally mark.

The Team Tournament will really appeal to your boys and any other active or competitive students!

How would you like to have all 3 of these Classroom Management tricks for FREE? Check out the end of this post! 🙂

Subscribe to my newsletter below to grab these FREEBIES!

It’s time for the May Pinterest Pick 3 Linky!

May 3, 2016 by Ashley 9 Comments

We’re in the homestretch y’all! It’s officially MAY! We get out of school on May 27th, and while I’ll miss these precious babies (that I’ve had in BOTH K and 1st!!), my mind, body, and spirit are in need of a little recharge!

I’m linking up up with my sweet friends, Lisa at Pawsitively Teaching and Marissa at Inspired Owl’s Corner for our monthly Pinterest Pick 3 Party! Feel free to snag the link-up graphics and link up with us!

This would make the perfect Mother’s Day card, wouldn’t it? Tracing the children’s hands would be a precious keepsake!

There’s just something I love about birds–and bird crafts. I love these paper bag bird nests and tiny pompom birds. Adorbs!!

How cute are these end of the year gifts for students? I can tell you that my girls, especially, would FLIP over these custom clipboards!! So sweet!

Y’all be sure to link up with us! Share your favorite May Pins!

An InLinkz Link-up

I Appreciate YOU! {A Teacher Appreciation FREEBIE!}

April 24, 2016 by Ashley Leave a Comment

Teacher Appreciation Week is coming up the first week of May, and in case you didn’t know it…

I’m so thankful for the ways you impact the world and the difference YOU make! I’m also thankful for my friends at The Primary Peach. We’re celebrating our One Year Blogiversary and we thought what better way to celebrate than with all of YOU! We’ve put together some fabulous FREEBIES to show you just how much we appreciate YOU and the difference you make in the classroom and the world!

For my FREEBIE, I’ve put together a fun, low prep end of school flipbook! Give your students the chance to respond to a variety of prompts as they reflect on their school year and think ahead to the upcoming school year. Enjoy this FREEBIE! You may snag it by clicking {HERE}.

Be sure to head over to The Peach to enter for the chance to wear an Erin Condren Gift Card!

Why you Shouldn’t Wish Away the Last 80 days of School

February 7, 2016 by Ashley 10 Comments

My daughter and I enjoy a nighttime routine. We giggle, watch TV, cuddle, and talk. We had just recently finished our big 100th day of School celebration, so this was fresh on my mind. I think all of us teachers breathe a collective sigh of relief when we hit the 100th day. It’s kinda like the hump day of the school year. We’ve finished the uphill climb, the kids have gotten more independent, we’re finally seeing progress, and our blood-sweat-and-tears are paying off. I think we all secretly (or not so secretly) begin counting down the last 80 days…even if it’s in the form of an X on our planning calendar or a top secret sticky note we peek at in the corner of our top desk drawer.

80 days left…

79 days left…

78 days left…

I mistakenly pulled my little second grade daughter close and whispered, “Guess what? We only have 75 days of school left!” Then I grinned from ear to ear expecting her to follow suit. Instead, her milk chocolate eyes filled to the brim with tears and she quickly pulled the covers over her head, not wanting me to see her cry. “What’s wrong? What’s wrong?” I quickly asked. *Sniffle* “I’m just not ready to leave Mrs. Hazel. I only have 75 days left with Mrs. Hazel.”

Melt my heart. This girl isn’t counting down the days like I am because she can’t imagine not spending them with her creative, fun, loving, sweet, inspiring teacher, Mrs. Hazel.

I decided to adopt a new mindset. I won’t have a secret sticky note countdown in my desk drawer. I won’t X days off on my calendar. I won’t remind my students daily how many days are left.

I’ll soak up and treasure each day God gives me with these littles.

For some, I’m the mama they wish they had–the one who gives them rules to follow, the one who expects a lot out of them….but also the one who loves them unconditionally and tells them how proud of them I am. For some, our school lunches are the best meal they’ll have. They wake up each morning dreaming of the food they’ll get at school, not worrying about empty cupboards and penniless parents. For some, the lessons I spend countless hours preparing for are sheer magic that they can’t get enough of. Every day is the “best day ever” and they can’t wait to come back the next day to see what tricks I have up my sleeve.

We’ll pack every ounce of learning and fun and memory-making magic we can into these next 75 days.

And I’ll treasure EVERY.SINGLE.DAY.

Summer Learnin’: Had me a Blast! (PLUS a FREE Graduation Cuties Craft Template)

May 20, 2015 by Ashley Reed Leave a Comment

No one wants to see their students go through the summer slide. All that hard work down the drain? No way!!

Any summer slide will REALLY stand out to me since I’m looping up with my Kinder-kids to first grade! I can’t wait!

I decided to put together some bubble-gum themed learning packets to send home with my kiddos. They cover 10 weeks (in case you get a nice, long summer!) and each two week page features ten learning activities. They activities are quick, fun, and educational! Best of all? They’re entirely editable, so if you don’t like the activities I included, you can make up your own. This will allow you to differentiate based on your students’ needs as well!!
Each time a student does an activity, they color in a bubble. I also printed off Lyndsey Kuster’s helpful website list and included it in the packets I’m sending home!

Along with the packets, I’m sending each child home with a copy of the book On Our Way to First Grade–which I snagged from Scholastic book cubs for ONE DOLLAR y’all!!

You can buy the book here:

https://clubs2.scholastic.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?storeId=11151&catalogId=10001&langId=-1&productId=85099138

All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy….so I had to give those babies some bubbles, too! These come in packs of 5 for around $3 at Walmart and they blow the best bubbles! I made some cute free gift tags for K-5th grade that you can snag here:

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Bubble-Gift-Tags-K-5th-1864675

You can get Lyndsey’s helpful website list by clicking here:

http://ayearofmanyfirsts.blogspot.com/2013/05/summer-review-websites-for-kids.html

AND you can grab my editable Summer Learning packet for just $3.50 at TPT:

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Dont-Stop-Lets-Pop-Activities-to-Bridge-the-Summer-Learning-Gap-EDITABLE-1812230

How about one last end of the year treat? I’ve seen these Graduation Cuties all over Pinterest but couldn’t find a template, so I created a FREE template just for y’all to use! Snag it here:

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Graduation-Cuties-A-FREE-Craft-Template-1864693

If you enjoyed all these fabulous freebies, leave me some love in the form of TPT feedback, please! 😉

The Countdown is ON!! End of the year Freebies!

May 13, 2015 by Ashley Reed Leave a Comment

My little cuties and I get out of school May 29th! I think we’re all ready. This has been an amazing school year but we’re all T.I.R.E.D. and ready for a break!!

Here are some of the fun things I have planned for the last 10 days of school to help us countdown!

Our Countdown Kite is a fun, colorful way to mark off the days. I laminated the bows and kite and attached them to string. Starting on Day 10, we’ll snip off one bow each day. When we get to the kite, it’s the last day of school!

You can grab the kite as a FREEBIE here:

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Summer-Countdown-Kite-FREEBIE-1842777

I’m also sending home this countdown activity calendar for the last two weeks of school. The kids are so excited!! 🙂

You can snag the editable template for this as a FREEBIE here:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_CfsL3_vt5lakEwaTlVazA1TzQ/view?usp=sharing

Last year, my first graders completed these Blast Off to 2nd Grade Rockets! We did one page a day. They were super fun!

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Blast-Off-to-a-New-Year-An-End-of-the-Year-Craftivity-and-Reflection-684687

How are YOU counting down the final days of school?

It’s the end of the year! Holla!!!

May 21, 2014 by Ashley Reed 1 Comment

It’s the end of the year. Can I get a Whoop! Whoop!!

I love my firsties. But, alas, I love summer also!

This week I’ve been prepping my firsties’ end of the year gifts. I’m giving them a book of Aesop’s fables, a water blaster from the Dollar Tree, and a Summer Challenge Packet from Foxwell Forest.

I love everything Becca creates, and this packet was no exception! I’ve got them copied, prepped, and put in folders for my kiddies. They’ll complete 50 fun learning assignments over the course of the summer and return them to me in the fall for a prize! Yep, I said it…a prize! Who doesn’t love a prize? There are activities like visiting the library and reading a nonfiction book, drawing a robot with specific shapes, writing about the Fourth of July, and more. It’s the perfect balance of fun and educational.

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/The-Ultimate-Summer-Break-Challenge-1233167

If you’re short on paper or copies, there’s a version that only includes the calendars to save paper.

Since we just wrapped up our animal research unit, I gave out Becca Foxwell’s Animal Awards today. The kiddos giggled uncontrollably when I called their name. They grinned from ear to ear and were so proud! Each one proudly posed as I took pictures. This was an informal classroom award before our Honors Night tomorrow night.

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/End-of-the-Year-Awards-1248295

The awards come in color and black/white, and there’s an award for every ability, skill, and personality imaginable in a classroom!

Last year we did these fun rockets but we didn’t get to fit them in this year. They feature a countdown of things your students loved about school, learned, and did this year.