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My Favorite February Activities (plus FREEBIES!)

My Favorite February Activities (plus FREEBIES!)




 Who doesn't love February? We finally make it through gloomy January and make our way into the month of love and kindness. I'm a little late with this post since it's almost Valentine's Day, but I thought I'd still pop in and share some of my favorite February activities!

1. I love, love, love making heart maps with my kids. I'm not sure where this idea originated, but it's something my kids always enjoy. I decided to put an artistic spin on it and use water colors for the different section of our hearts. They turned out amazing! Everything has to be traced in crayon (not marker) if you choose to use water colors. 



2. A fun activity for math time is making love bugs or love monsters. For the love bugs, I teach the kids to make hearts and other symmetrical shapes. They then measure the love bugs. This makes a cute bulletin board! Grab the FREE resource HERE.



Symmetrical Love Monsters are also super fun and a great way to sneak in that lesson on symmetry. Just get all the construction paper scraps and go for it!


3. I obviously love spicing up math time with thematic activities. Math crafts are definitely a go-to every month (really, every other week.) They're a great way to practice math facts and can be easily differentiated. You can grab the February Math Crafts in my TPT store. You can also grab the heart craft freebie HERE!




4. Once a month, I have parents come in for "Creation Station." They read a story and bring all the supplies for a fun craft! Last year, we made these adorable jewelry boxes. She found the heart boxes on clearance at Micheal's, and they glued on the jelly beans and other candies. They had so much fun and gave the jewelry boxes to their moms for Valentine's Day! She sprayed them with a sealant when they were finished to *hopefully* hold everything in place and keep the ants away. :) 


5. I recently added a new product line- Monthly Math Puzzlers. These math puzzles are also differentiated so you can have students working on different skills while still creating the same picture. I love it, and they're perfect for Valentine's Day and Presidents' Day!


Thanks for stopping by! 
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LA 5-a-Day

LA 5-a-Day




I’m so excited to introduce you to my FAVORITE language arts resource! After teaching  1st grade for 11 years, I felt like I needed a quick way to review previously learned LA skills throughout the year. The LA 5-a-day is a spiraling review of phonics skills, spelling, grammar and more! And the best part is that it fits on ONE PAGE per week. After having so much success with the 1st grade version I created one for Kindergarten and 2nd grade to use in my current role as a campus reading specialist.

ttps://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/5-a-DayKINDERGARTEN-Spiraling-Review-Great-morning-work-2606442

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/5-a-Day-LA-1st-Grade-Weekly-Spiraling-Review-Great-Morning-Work-2203705

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/5-a-Day-LA-2nd-Grade-Weekly-Spiraling-Review-Great-Morning-Work-3295696
The skills are spiraling so the same skill will be reviewed for 2-4 weeks. This helps students understand the concept, as well as, gain confidence. I've used these whole group and as a warm up for my guided reading lessons. I've had success with both and hope you will too! Please let me know if you have any questions about the LA 5-a-day!

Customer Reviews:
Using this for homework has been a lifesaver!! Goes over things that need the reinforcement!!

I'm super excited to use this resource with my 2nd graders this year. Your 5-a-day resources are excellent! They're comprehensive, easy to manage, and the perfect spiral review. Thank you for your hard work!

I love using these spiral reviews as a starter in my small group. It gave my students a minute to get there brain ready while I grabbed books or put out fires. Great review that made students pay attention to directions. Fantastic resource! 

You can find all the LA 5-a-Days in my TPT store



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Literacy Centers

Literacy Centers




I love using center games in my classroom. These activities are sure to help your students review phonics patterns and early reading skills while they think they're "just playing." It's a win win!!! My monthly literacy centers are great to use in your guided reading groups, intervention groups or for other students to do independently while you're working with a group.


I usually spend a couple of days introducing the games during our small guided reading group. Then when I feel confident that the students understand the procedure I let them work independently.
Here's a break down of what's included each month. There are 6 games in each month. Most games include a recording sheet and several have a color or black/white printing option so you can save ink if needed. The following games are included in each month: real vs nonsense words, sight words, phonics cover your letters, and phonics race game. The other 2 games vary each month depending on the skill (punctuation, verbs/nouns, syllables, rhyming, word families).


Each activity includes a cover page with directions. I glue the cover to a large mailing envelope and laminate it for durability and keep all the materials inside. The colorful seasonal clip art keeps my kiddos engaged! It's safe to say these games are one of my students FAVORITE things about our day!
Customer Review:
Great center activities. My kids love these centers and the fact that the games remain mostly the same each month is so helpful in routines for our centers. They can really concentrate on the skill and not so much the rules after a few months of these. Thank you!
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Phonics-Fun-CVC-CVC-E-Words-3284918
Check out the FREEBIE here!






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Monthly Math Crafts

Monthly Math Crafts







Are you looking for a fun and creative way for your students to practice those oh-so important math facts? Do you have some students working on basic addition while others are ready for 2 digit subtraction? Monthly Math Crafts to the rescue!


As a teacher, I love these math crafts for many reasons. Fine motor skills are so important, and kids still need to cut and glue and practice special reasoning. I also love that I can give my students something fun that they enjoy while practicing math skills on their level. I usually have 3 differentiation options available with each craft. I let the kids choose the level they want to work on, and I'd say 90% choose exactly what they need. For those that choose something too easy, I encourage them to choose a different level and go for a challenge!

 All of my monthly math crafts include at least 2 craft options and 16 differentiation options. These include 2 levels of addition and subtraction facts to 18, 2 digit addition and subtraction without regrouping, 2 and 3 digit addition and subtraction with regrouping. 3 levels or multiplication, and 3 levels of division. You can also get the Bonus Differentiation Bundle for even more options!



Save with the bundle!

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5 DIY Projects for the Classroom

5 DIY Projects for the Classroom




Hey friends! I'm super-excited to link up with Tara from 4th Grade Frolics for Monday Made It! I have been having a blast this summer with the DIY projects for my new classroom, so I thought I'd share a few (plus a couple of oldies!) If you follow us on Instagram, you've probably seen a few sneak peeks of these. If not... click here so we can be BFFs!


My first two projects were from last summer. I saw the cutest fabric strip table skirt from Marsha at A Differentiated Kindergarten. She has an amazing tutorial that you should check out if you want to do one!

 I started out picking some cute fabrics from Hobby Lobby. These matched well with my newly covered teacher chair (coming up next!)

 I then used fabric scissors and cut the fabric in strips.

The fabric is then tied around a ribbon the length of the table you're covering.

Ta-da! Final product! Again, check out Marsha's tutorial for instructions.

Next up is a project that I blogged about here: my comfy, cozy teacher chair! I've now had this chair for a year, and it has held up perfectly!

Check out the blog post for specifics!


Now onto my current summer projects.
My first project of the summer was a new eraser storage organizer.


I love everything about Target erasers. It's a problem. My kiddos love using these seasonal erasers as manipulatives with our math centers. I started to realize I had WAY TOO many erasers, so I ordered this toolkit drawer system from Amazon. I sorted the erasers and then hot-glued one eraser on each drawer for easy access.


What I love the most is that I still have room for more erasers! Ha!
You can check out how we use these erasers here.

 I am all about a deal, and when I saw these ikea stools (6) on Craigslist for $20, I jumped on the deal. Of course, I couldn't just leave them the way they were!


A little light sanding, some spray paint from Target, and voila! I used trash bags around the legs to protect the legs from the paint.







Finally, my FAVORITE project so far, my new classroom kindness table.


I started off with an ikea coffee table that I bought off a neighborhood Facebook page for $10.
I knew it would be perfect for a flexible seating option.
I started off by sanding the table and spaying it with primer.



I then painted the sides white and the middle teal. I used Devine Color Spray Paint from Target. You can find them here


Once all the painting was finished, I found a design that I could print with my Silhouette Cameo. I've always loved this quote, so when I saw it, I knew it would be perfect.
 The quote was in the Silhouette Studio Store. It's a digital download. You have to have a Silhouette and the software to access it, but I'm sure you could find something similar on etsy.


And here's the final product. I can't wait to share it with my students! I'm hopeful that this will be a positive reminder for my students each time they sit at this table.


Thanks so much for stopping by! I hope you've found some inspiration. Be sure to head back to 4th Grade Frolics to check out some more Monday Made It blog posts!


Wanna save this forever and ever? Pin this image. :)





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