EOY Activities and a Giveaway!

My students finally finished up their writing yearbooks and today, I bound 36 books! My first and second graders (next year I'll have kindergarten complete them too) have been working since September on these yearbooks.

Every month, they completed a page and I used it as a writing assessment. It is fun to see just how far they have come in writing and I'm sure their parents will appreciate the keepsake.

Here are some examples from second grade.

This story was 3 pages long!

We also finished up our memory books. Here are some examples from first grade.

My students think I'm so clumsy! Sadly, I really am!

And, finally, my kindergartners finished up their interviews. I promised them I'd bind them all into a book, but I didn't get to it yet. Here are some examples.

The finished product is front to back.

Front

Back

There is also a planning sheet, but I left those at school!

If you are interested in doing any of these activities with your students, here are the links:

Click here for the writing yearbook.

You'll notice I updated it for next year.

Click here for the memory books.

And click here for the interviews.

8 more days!!

Oh, by the way, I'm having a short giveaway on my facebook page.

One of my blogging buddies, Tessa, from Tales From Outside the Classroom, has donated her Everyday Essentials Bundle. It's chock full of digital papers and frames. If you enjoy creating like I enjoy creating, this is a must have! Click the image below to enter!

Summer Bucket List

Miss Kindergarten, A Cupcake for the Teacher, and A Modern Teacher are having a Summer Bucket List Linky Party! Link up and tell all about the fun things you have planned for summer vacation!

This summer, I will be learning all about the Daily 5. I'll be teaching kindergarten and first grade reading, writing, and social studies next year and I am really excited to become a Daily 5 teacher! I am looking forward to sharing my Daily 5 journey with all of you!

This year, I started doing some Whole Brain Teaching techniques and my students loved it and responded so well to it. This summer, I would like to learn more techniques. If you haven't heard about it and want to learn more, just click on the image above to go to the WBT website.

Personally speaking, I plan on exercising every single day. Really! I do! My trusty treadmill sits in front of my big screen TV and I have been recording great shows all year, like Law and Order SVU, Criminal Minds, and Mike and Molly. I haven't watched them yet and I can't wait to watch them all this summer, while huffing and puffing and burning those calories! As soon as I clear off all the things I piled on my treadmill, I'll be good to go!

After I'm done getting all sweaty on the treadmill, I'll hop in my pool to cool off!

Perhaps the thing I'm most looking forward to, though, is having lots of free time to create new activities for my class. (And, for anyone else who is interested! LOL!)

I just became a Mac girl and haven't created anything new yet. This is a serious change for me. I've had Dell computers forever. Now that I have learned how to use it, for the most part, I can't wait to make my first creation. What shall it be...?

I have some little trips planned, but, for the most part, my summer will be all about doing what I like best. And, in addition to reading some books, and cleaning and organizing my house, these are all the things I like best. 

What's on your summer bucket list? Link up and divulge!

Pray for OK...

Showing our Appreciation with T-Shirts for Teachers

We at Freebielicious are so excited to announce teaming up with A+ Teacher Images (the greatest t-shirt company for teachers and more, in case you haven't heard of them!). We all received the fanciest custom designed t-shirt we've ever owned AND now we can give away a t-shirt of the winner's choice from each of our individual blogs.

I just love my t-shirt because it is so much more than just a shirt.  It represents friendships, fun, and business relations (oh wait and STYLE, of course!) all in one "blinging" design.  Where else could you get all that from one t-shirt?  A  special thanks goes out to Doug from A+ Images.  He worked with us to make just the right shirt to represent our company and is still giving us a shirt to give one lucky winner for each of our blogs!

We have made this giveaway super easy for you to have many chances to win one of 23 t-shirts.  It is a blog hop, so you can enter as many or as few giveaways you would like!  The contest begins Saturday, May 18th, and ends on Sunday, May 19th, at 12:00 a.m. EST.  Winners will be announced on Monday.  Easy peasy, lemon-squeezy!  Start by entering my giveaway here:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Next, you will head over to my friend Jennifer's blog, First Grade Blue Skies, and enter there and keep going until your fingers are too tired to hit click (that is how simple we made it for you!).

Here's more good news! Just enter this code: FREE20, and get 20% off your order of $20.00 or more! 

Go to our Freebielicious Facebook page and like us so you never miss a freebie or giveaway like this one!

Reusable Dry Erase Pockets...LOVE!!

One of my favorite companies, My Binding, asked me to review their Reusable Dry Erase Pockets. The primary colored pockets come in a pack of 5 and have really come in handy in my classroom.  Although I've used them in a variety of ways these past few months, my favorite way to use them, is to put fun activity sheets in them, and let the children practice a myriad of skills. My students really enjoy using dry erase markers and erasers!

Here is an image of some word wall activity sheets my students love. I put the sheets in the pockets and put them in a container, along with all the words we've learned this year, and let the children have at it.

This activity sheet has the children put words in ABC order, write a sentence using one of the words, and draw a picture.

They get to choose their own words and love to do this activity over and over again. It's one of my activity sheets from my Writing Station Activities for Young Learners. I have different ones in Part 1...

And, Part 2...

Sometimes, I make hard copies of these sheets because I like to send them home and sometimes, I just let the children use them over and over again. It saves me paper and allows the children to practice these important skills often.

My students really love completing Annie's Draw and Tell Sheets, too. Actually, I think I own everything Annie has ever made!

Children LOVE to draw, right? Well, these sheets are so much more than just drawing! To learn more about them, just click on the image below. I'm sure you'll love them as much as my students and I do! There's even a freebie on Annie's blog!

I highly recommend these reusable dry erase pockets. They have really come in handy. Just click on the image below to check them out at My Binding.

Fun Games!

Now that we are wrapping up the school year (16 days left!), my students are enjoying some really fun games. They haven't realized yet, though, that these fun games are helping them review and practice some important skills that they learned this year. Shhh! Don't tell them!

Here are two games they have been playing. The first one is a digraph game.

*Please note that I updated the game after the pictures were taken.

There are 6 colorful game boards, a spinner, and 130 self-checking digraph word/picture cards. You can put them all out or as many as you need for the number of players playing the game.

Students take turns spinning the spinner and finding the digraph cards. The object of the game is to be the first player to cover the board. But, there are some interesting twists and turns along the way.

If you land on "give a card" you have to give someone else a card from your board.

If you land on "take a card" you can take a card that you need from someone else's board. There is also a "free space" square, where you can put a card with any digraph.

The game is self-checking. Just print the answers on the back of the digraph pictures.

Here is the lucky winner!

This is the CVCe edition.

*Please note that the updated version includes a cute image

 on each card that matches the word.

It contains 6 colorful game boards, a spinner, and 141 self-checking CVCe picture/word cards. Each player spins the spinner and finds a CVCe word on the table that matches the pattern on the spinner. For example, if the player spins _a_e, they can choose the word late. The answers are on the back. The game can be differentiated to accommodate all levels. For an easier game, the cards can be word side up. For a more difficult game, you would keep the side up that has the missing vowel. 

Then, they would flip the card over to check their answer.

This game contains the same twists as the digraph game.

Give a card!

Take a card! Yes, the sweetie in pink is trying to talk her out of taking one of her cards! But, she took it anyway! LOL!

And, here is the happy winner!

So, there you have it! Two fun games that help reinforce valuable skills. The games are fun AND meaningful. Here's a direct quote from one of my students: "Seriously, Ms. Rosenberg, you must make more of these games! Thank you, thank you, thank you!"

The games also come with recording sheets. 

If you would like to see the games in my store, just click on each image below.

UPDATED...

Here are more versions of this super fun game!