Teacher by the Beach

Top 16 Posts of '16

Friday, December 30, 2016

I can't believe it's the end of 2016.

Here's to another "Top Posts" to wrap up the year!

So, the top posts of the year are the ones that have the most pageviews and "shares." Sometimes, I'm not sure why, but I just roll with it. ha!

1) Class books for the year - my kids LOVE doing class books!

2) Organizing your Classroom Library - I LOVE organizing, so I'm glad this is one of your favorites too. lol

3) Hellooo, February - prepping things for the new month!

4) Getting Ready for February - apparently, February is a popular month?? ha! Or... maybe I blogged more that month than others?? haha! That one is probably it.

5) Morning Routines - I absolutely LOVE my mornings. I'm so glad this was a popular post!

6) All About Plants - the model is pretty cute, don't you think!? ;-)

7) Fun with Frogs - I love little froggies!

8) Getting Ready for Reading Week - I love dressing up for Reading Week! Fun little freebie to download over on that post.

9) Spelling Journals - A Classroom Lifesaver.... and still true, to this day!

10) Math with Unifix Cubes - my kids LOVE doing math with cubes!

11) Making Phonics Fun! - A weekly routine of our phonics.

12) Learning with Worms - one my kids' most FAVORITE weeks!

13) First few days of First Grade - honestly, I think I post about this every year, but I seem to forget EVERY year the first few days... or even weeks. I feel like it's child birth. The giving birth is not so fun (aka - the first few days of 1st grade) but the outcome of the birth is beyond wonderful (aka - October through May)... haha!

14) Math Centers for the 1st week.

Again, same concept as above - haha!

15) Gold Medal Students - my version of a "Student of the Week."

and finally...

16) All About Me week!

If you want to see previous years' "Top Posts" posts...

Top 14 in '14

Top 15 in '15

Also - just to end the old and start the new with a bang - I'm having a New Year Sale!

Everything in my store is 20% off!

Mistletoe Madness

Wednesday, December 21, 2016

Every month or so, we do a "theme day" where the parents come in and help man a station.

September was http://www.teacherbythebeach.com/2014/10/apple-week-fun-with-freebies.html and Tedddy Bear Day

October was Pumpkin Day

November was Thanksgiving Performance

This month was "Mistletoe Madness."

I've done this in years past. You can check them it out HERE.

I've never been overly excited about our stations for our Mistletoe Madness....until THIS year. I loved them ALL.

So here they are....

1) Measurement Trees. This idea originated from {Julie Lee}, but I have since adapted it with scrapbook paper, paint, and glitter! The glitter really did add the POP it needed. I do them on black, purple, or blue background paper...and the glitter just POPS.

Next up was a handprint paint activity.

I didn't think about it beforehand, but thankfully the art teacher had a hairdryer!

They turned out SO cute!

Another station was the snowmen socks. Oh. My. Lanta. SO STINKIN' cute!! This idea came from Reagan. You can see how to do them HERE.

Our last station was our reindeer hats! We have to have hats for pretty much every theme we do. I love hats.

I would have loved to have had a 5th station - and I probably would have done a pine cone activity or something...because we have a PLETHORA of pine cones around here.

And I always wear my reindeer dress on mistletoe madness day. Unfortunately, this day was like 80 degrees. Oh well, the things we do to be festive, right?

Check out the other ideas I've done before HERE.

Winter Minute to Win It

Tuesday, December 20, 2016

We are in the LAST few days before winter break!! Survival mode, my friends.

One of my favorite days at the end of the year is our Minute to Win It games we play (see the games we play, from Reagan HERE), so I decided that we should definitely be doing some of these games before Winter break too! The kids just love them.

I did these games for 2 minutes each round, 5 rounds. The stations were all pretty self-sufficient, I just had to help the Rudolph nose; giving them their new sticks and putting the petroleum jelly on their nose.

So - here are the games, in pictures.

1) Jingle Toss

I made these little "pong" boards...lol. I used foam boards and hot glued the mini solo cups. We used medium bells. Looking back, I would have made 4 boards, because most groups had 4 people, so we needed 2 teams playing at once.

2) Red Tree Stack - give them a whole bunch of Red Solo cups and see who can build the tallest tree. It was pretty windy that day, so it was pretty funny. haha

3) Ornament Scoot - I got some small ornaments and they had to scoot them down the track. You could just use tape to mark the start and stop points. The ornaments were glass, so a few did break, but they're cheap... no worries.

4) Rudolph Nose - tie string to a Popsicle stick (each student gets a new Popsicle stick) and tie a red pom on the other end. Put petroleum jelly on their nose and they try to get the red pom on their nose.