Giving Back!

Being a teacher is HARD work! There are just so many demands on both your time & your classroom budget! Since I launched my Teachers Pay Teachers store in August last year it has been rolling along nicely, so I thought it might be time to give back with some free products!

Here's the first one - it's kind of a double give back, because I made it for my son's dual immersion Spanish Kindergarten class. This one is a 'Sílabas con a' product, and has some cut and paste activities as well as a game for little Spanish language learners!

Sílabas con a

Oh! And if you do head over there to download it, please leave me feedback and follow my store! Many thanks!

...And if you're looking for more Sílabas pages - there's a 48 page pack which includes worksheets for all the sílabas here:

Sílabas con A E I O U

Want to see more free products in my store? Leave me a comment below!

Happy Teaching!

Amanda

Homemade Rekenreks

Last year there was a huge delay on the delivery of some new common core math materials to our district, and we were faced with a few months wait for rekenreks. Well, that didn't fit too well with the lesson planning, because we needed them right at the start of the year.  The solution? Homemade rekenreks! These are made out of blind strips, cut with sharp scissors into sections of around 8" long.  I punched out four holes, and added some elastic found at the fabric store.  The beads are the Perler Biggie Beads, as they seemed just the right size for little fingers, and they come in some nice bright colors. Hey presto - rekenreks for the whole class without the wait!

School Garden Box Makeover

So what do you do when your son's classroom garden box looks like this? 

Well, give it a makeover of course! His teacher had just taken over this room, complete with unloved garden box, so we set about giving it a mini garden makeover! The first thing we did was to weed it, and then add in a whole lot of soil conditioner, so the new plants would have a chance of survival. Once the wood surrounding the top of the box was replaced and painted a vibrant green, it began to look brighter.  We added the fencing, which the students painted red, and attached it to the back of the box.

Here's how it looked once the box was finished, and the students had added the first few plants:

The students each painted one of the butterflies which are glued to the fence, and we added a double-sided sign in the middle - the class has the Hungry Caterpillar theme, so we went with painted saucers to make a caterpillar on each side, and attached them with liquid nails.  By the end of the year, there was quite the array of plants blooming (including some California poppies which apparently liked their new environment).  We even had cherry tomatoes for the students to sample.  Now wouldn't it have been nice if I had remembered to take a picture once it was more mature?! Oh well, you'll just have to use your imaginations... 

Healthy Body, Healthy Me!

My first TpT product which went on sale was my Healthy Body, Healthy Me! packet, all about the five food groups, choosing a healthy plate of food, and following healthy habits.  I am working on some new products right now, but I decided it was time for the first one to have a bit of an overhaul.  I have learned a lot of things since I first posted this original product, and hopefully the update benefited!


Here's a quick peek at just some of the content included in the new version:

Enjoy the changes! And if you haven't bought it yet - you can pick up a copy here:

Healthy Body, Healthy Me! A Food Groups, Nutrition, and Healthy Habits Unit

Animal Fact Files & Research Report Templates

It's hard when you are trying to build up your library with enough books for students to read, and also use for reports.  Of course these days the internet has put a new spin on research reports, but that's only if you are lucky enough to have access to good technology.  Anyway, this was the thinking behind this new product I made.  I decided to make a packet where I could assign students an animal research report and also give them a pre-made fact sheet with basic information and some fast facts to get started.  I made some templates and organizers for them to use to gather and sort their information.  Here's how the sample turned out.  Hopefully the finished reports will be cute too!

Animal Research Reports

You can pick it up now on TpT:

Animal Fact Files and Research Reports

New Community Helpers Foldables

Well, it seems my life is just full of cute little foldables right now! I was thinking of some new additions to my Community Helpers product on TpT, and decided it might be fun to have a foldable for a few of the different jobs in the community.  These fun little friends have a cut and paste section for the inside, and a picture on the front.  They're added to my product over on TpT now, along with some graphic organizers I added to the set.  Hope you enjoy them!

If you want to grab the set over on TpT, click the link below
Community Helpers Bundle

Layers of the Forest & Forest Habitats

I've been working on a Forest Habitat packet recently.  It comes complete with a Layers of the Forest flip book, some cut & paste reading comprehension pages, a reproducible book all about forest habitats, and another few bits & pieces. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out!

To pick up a copy of this product, head on over to my TpT store, here's the link:

A Forest Habitat - A Home for Plants and Animals