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First Grade Gallery- Lessons for Little Learners

A blog for creative classroom ideas and lessons for K-2 teachers!

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End of the Year Projects~ Keepsake Pizza Box and Memory Book!

Boy this year just flew by! I can't believe that next week we start our end of the year projects! I am sitting here this evening printing the pages I need to make our oh, so cute pizza boxes! This is a tradition of mine and I consider it and the contents inside (like a DVD of class photos) to be my gift to the students and families! 

End of the Year Projects~ Keepsake Pizza Box and Memory Book!

My mom did a lovely job coloring this example for the photo shoot, don't you think? She had fun making it! Mom comes in every year at this time (and weekly too) to help me. She assembles the boxes and passes out all of the children's treasures I have been saving.

One project from each month and all sorts of goodies like pick sticks, cubby tags and other special items get sent home in the box. The kids have a blast looking through all of their crafts while remembering all of the fun themes we had throughout the year! The parents go crazy when they come home and absolutely LOVE the boxes!

I took a trip out this weekend to Gordon Food Service to pick up some small white boxes. I was happy to walk out of there with 50 boxes for $15.00! Local pizza places will often donate boxes too if you smile and tell them you are a teacher! 

What else is in the box? When you lift the lid, there is a cute page of ABC's through the year. I type up some special things that we have done during the year that begin with that first letter. Inside is a sentence completion page about the year too. I always personalize a special poem for each child to include. All of those pages are in the Pizza Box Craftivity

End of the Year Projects~ Keepsake Pizza Box and Memory Book!

End of the Year Projects~ Keepsake Pizza Box and Memory Book!

NEW THIS YEAR... I thought it would be really cute to add a slice of pizza to the box in the form of a shape book! 

End of the Year Projects~ Keepsake Pizza Box and Memory Book!

As we look back at the year, we will use the brainstorming sheet that is included to generate some ideas for writing on each page of the book. 
There is one page for each slice, or month, of the year! 

End of the Year Projects~ Keepsake Pizza Box and Memory Book!

End of the Year Projects~ Keepsake Pizza Box and Memory Book!

Here is how my example turned out:
End of the Year Projects~ Keepsake Pizza Box and Memory Book!

End of the Year Projects~ Keepsake Pizza Box and Memory Book!

 It looks good enough to eat! I printed mine in color, but there are black and white covers for the students to color too. Covers are created for Kindergarten, First, Second and Third Graders.

FLASH FREEBIE ALERT!
This brand new item will be free for the next two hours! 
Head over to my store and grab a copy to try out with your class! 
I hope you like it! :)

I like looking back with these kinds of activities as much as the kids do. 
We always end the year feeling wildly accomplished!






Behavior Management Thoughts and a Freebie

Wouldn't it be dreamy if all students did exactly what they needed to do, made good, kind choices and respected the learning environment? 

In years past, I have used a token economy, rewards, praise, incentives, special tickets, coupons and more.... the popular red, yellow, green color changing cards in a pocket chart and table cards and points, marbles in a jar, the traffic light reporting system and all sorts of plans and combinations of plans. Last year I found this cute We Show Great Bee-havior chart by Really Good Stuff and decided to try that out. 


Behavior Management Thoughts and a Freebie
I loved the fact that the bees were magnetic, that it was cute and it worked out perfectly on my whiteboard. I was excited too that the colors went with my traffic light take home card and chant for the end of the day:


Red on Top
Green below
Red says stop
Green says go
Yellow says wait
Even if you're late


 I wrote each student's name on the bee with a marker as recommended and all went well for a few days....


A side note;
I have a thing with displaying names on a behavior system. The counselor in me wants to protect the self-image of all of my little ones. Even if it is posted in an inconspicuous place, everyone in class knows every bee that was moved. A few students who had difficulty on a regular basis almost seemed to relish in the attention of moving their bee. 

 But in a matter of time, the names began to rub off anyway. I really did not want to have to purchase replacement magnets year after year, so avoided writing on them with a sharpie. Instead, we had nameless bees and the students were required to take responsibility for remembering which color they were on at the end of the day. This worked out pretty well and my little ones were very honest, so that part was not an issue.

Once their bee had moved, I struggled with the decision to let the children bargain, as they tried to do, for a chance to improve and move their bee back to green. (I am thinking that they may have been able to do this in kindergarten). Part of me thinks that in real life, the choices we make, good or bad, have consequences. We do not always have the opportunity to make amends, especially when our choices affect or hurt others and the damage is done. Everyone needs to stop and think about those consequences before acting and that is something that has to be learned.  The problem with not allowing my students to move back was that some "frequent fliers" lost motivation to make better choices and "gave up" for the day. I hated to see that happen and then created a separate plan for those children. 

 I still would highly recommend the chart to anyone who loves their red, green, yellow behavior system! 


After doing some reading and research, I've decided that I like the philosophy on behavior management offered by Rick Morris and want to give it a try. I think my second graders next year will like it too! You can read more about the clip chart behavior system at his site:


http://www.newmanagement.com/ebooks/pdf/clip_chart_ebook.pdf


The only downside I can see is that many students will be moving clips up or down throughout the day and that takes the focus of some students away from the task at hand as they are watching others at the chart. We will have to see how that goes.

I made a clip chart for my room similar to the one Rick recommends. I've added it as freebie on Teachers Notebook. You can grab it there if you'd like to get in on the clip chart system! 



Behavior Management Thoughts and a Freebie
Behavior Management Thoughts and a Freebie
Behavior Management Thoughts and a Freebie
Behavior Management Thoughts and a Freebie
Behavior Management Thoughts and a Freebie
Behavior Management Thoughts and a Freebie
Behavior Management Thoughts and a Freebie
Behavior Management Thoughts and a Freebie
Behavior Management Thoughts and a Freebie

The last last line is for students to reflect on choices made during the week and to set goals for themselves. I am a firm believer in learning from mistakes:)

***I'd appreciate it if you could take a minute to rate it if you like it!

It coordinates with my new Classroom Decor Set~ Classroom Colorful Swirls and Curls! This is the one I'm leaning toward...

Behavior Management Thoughts and a Freebie

Behavior Management Thoughts and a Freebie

Here is one that I made to match the polka dot owls set:

Behavior Management Thoughts and a Freebie

Behavior Management Thoughts and a Freebie
Behavior Management Thoughts and a Freebie


Behavior Management Thoughts and a Freebie


I found some cute ideas for decorating the clothespins that I thought I'd share! I think we'll have a clip decorating day at the start of the year. Each child can decorate their clothespin however they like. They will know which one is their own, without a public display of names. Eventually, I will know the owners of the clips I need to know! Names may go on the back side just in case!

Behavior Management Thoughts and a Freebie

It would be easy to glue a doodad or two on them and make them more special! I'll start with colored clothespins and go from there! 


Behavior Management Thoughts and a Freebie

These images are from the public domain.

 If you are using a clip chart, I'd love to hear how it has been working out in your classroom as well as any helpful hints you'd like to share!!


Enjoy the freebie!



SmartBoard Calendar Math~ Back to School, Sale and a Freebie

It's not even been a week that we've been out of school and I'm already anxious to begin creating items for next year! I'm super excited now because I just found out that I'll be moving back to second grade! I will miss teaching first grade but love the second grade curriculum and the fact that second graders are more independent. A plus is that I'll be working with a fun team of teachers that I have worked with before!I will have to say goodbye to my First Grade Gallery blog...

In the next month, I will have my custom blog up and running! I am very happy with the elements that I selected and can't wait to see what the designer can do with them. I will let you know where to find me when the time comes!

This is my latest creation that I think is just too cute and I hope you will too! Those of you who have worked with SMART Notebook files know that it can be very time-consuming to create activities but so worth it because the kids are wildy motivated to use the SMARTboard! There are fun links to other sites in this file and I animated some of the pages to include cutting paper sounds for ordering months and days and glue drop sounds when they are put into place. If you have favorite songs for calendar time, directions for how to add those to the page are also included!

Here's a link to Calendar Math on Teachers Notebook:

I'm running a sale on Teachers Notebook! Grab what you like at 20% off!

SmartBoard Calendar Math~ Back to School, Sale and a Freebie

SmartBoard Calendar Math~ Back to School, Sale and a Freebie
SmartBoard Calendar Math~ Back to School, Sale and a Freebie
SmartBoard Calendar Math~ Back to School, Sale and a Freebie
Free Common Core binder covers for Math and ELA are available too and remember to download doodle journal paper preview freebies on TPT!




My students had a great time making their Father's Day Scrapbooks! I wish I would have taken a picture of the inside pages of their books because they are all so different and creative! I recruited Moms to help out and it went very well! I'm sure the Dads will love receiving them today!

SmartBoard Calendar Math~ Back to School, Sale and a Freebie

 If you missed my previous post, here is a link to the item:


SmartBoard Calendar Math~ Back to School, Sale and a Freebie

Enjoy your special day with Dad!
End of the Year Projects~ Keepsake Pizza Box and Memory Book!Behavior Management Thoughts and a FreebieSmartBoard Calendar Math~ Back to School, Sale and a Freebie

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