End of the Year Gifts and Fun

I can't believe I only have a few days left with my kiddos! This year has flown by, although these last few days seem to be crawling. I started putting together my students' end of the year gifts. I decided to keep it simple, yet cute, this year.

I stopped by my local dollar store and purchases green and blue cups and crazy straws. Last night I wrote all my students' names on the cups.

Inside the cups I will put the straws and my 'Summer Survival Kit'. I was able to pick up a few items for the survival kit from the dollar store, but I still need to get the candy.

I plan to put the survival kit in a bag, tie the adorable label on top, and stick it in the cup.

 Click on the picture above or here to get the Summer Survival Kit tag for FREE!

What else have I been up to? I just picked out the awards I am going to give each child. We have our Awards Day next week. My school makes it into a big celebration. All of 2nd grade will go to the cafeteria, sing a song (Diamonds - Kidz Bop Version), watch a slide show of pictures from the year, and finally receive a few specialty awards [Honor Roll, Math Superstars, and Million Minutes]. Then, everybody, including parents, head back to the classroom. I give out my classroom awards while the parents look at the students writing (aka our Authors and Artist celebration). Yes, that's a lot for one morning!

Anyways, I snazzied up my awards from last year. For the next three days (Friday, Saturday, and Sunday) they will be on sale at my TPT store! Get your set now! The set includes 31 different awards with 2 versions of each award. Usually they are $3, but they will be 15% off! Click the picture below to check them out.

SALE! SALE! SALE!

There is a big sale on Sunday for the big game! Before watching the Super Bowl on Sunday check out my store on Teachers Pay Teachers!

 

It's Been A Long Time Coming

 

Once again, here I am… updating my blog months later. I have been super busy, but needless to say I have really neglected my blog over the past few months. Well, let’s do a little catching-up!

August 2012: I started my fifth year teaching! This is the first year I did not have to move schools or classrooms. I thought setting up my classroom would be a lot easier this year, but boy was I wrong. Since I did not move I decided I needed to do a little redecorating. Yes, that was fun but time consuming.

My class is very sweet and we got off to a great start. I quickly learned with my state switching to Common Core that there is no time to play around. We get a lot done, and I do my best to make it fun.

October 2012: I took 3 days off at the beginning of October to get married! It was truly the happiest day of my life. I won’t bore you with wedding details since this is a classroom blog. I was excited to return to my kids with a new a name: Mrs. Shurbutt.

I will admit I was a little nervous about how my students would react to the name, I expected lots of giggles, but they were quite mature about it. One student did make the observation that my name was a compound word: ‘sure’ and ‘butt’. Some of my students still have not committed to calling me Mrs. Shurbutt, some still call me Ms. Stephan, and some even call me Mrs. S.

 

December 2012: We survived the first semester! I was beyond ready for winter break! Not to mention the day after we got out of school my husband and I left for Jamaica on our honeymoon.  Absolutely amazing!!

Of course throughout that time I did a lot of creating! I really enjoy making items for other teachers. Teachers Pay Teachers has become my hobby. There is just something about sitting in PJs creating resources for myself and others. I have a ton of Common Core items in my store for grades K-3. Don’t worry fourth and fifth grade teachers out there.. I will get to you too.

 

I would love to make something for you!! Please feel free to send me an email or comment on this post if there is something you’d like.  If you request it, and I do create it, your copy will be free! J  

 

Check out some of my newer products!

 

 

Common Core Galore!

Wow! It has been a long time since my last post!! Needless to say I have been busy, busy, busy! I have spent my summer moving into a new house with my fiance, going to the beach and to Nashville, working on wedding details, and creating new items! I still have a good bit on my to-do list, but I did not want to neglect my blog any longer.

Georgia is switching to Common Core this year and I have spent a lot of time getting familar with the new standards. After attending a math training early this summer I decided I needed to create some SNAZZY common core items. The first thing I wanted to make was fancy vocabulary cards for my math word wall. Once I posted these on TPT I recieved requests for matching Essential Questions posters and "I Can" statements! I had never recieved requests before.. but, boy did it feel great! So, EQs and I Cans were my next task. Both sets come with black and white full page posters and color half page posters. I also created ELA EQs and I am in the process of creating ELS I Cans.

Click on each title page to get your own set!

                                                    This is what the EQ posters look like in black & white and color.

Just a sample of my vocabulary cards! This set includes over 90 WORDS!

    

OH! And in case you have any first grade friends, I have created a set of 1st Grade Math Vocabulary cards too!

I am not done yet! I said I had been busy this summer and that was not a lie! I also have matching word wall sight words for Pre-Prime, Primer, and Kinder in my store, as well as, a set for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Grade!

That's all of my updates for now. Hopefully I will get ELA "I Can" statements up soon. I hope everybody has enjoyed/ is enjoying their summer!!

End of the Year Wrap Up!

I don't know about you, but I only have 21 more days of school!! Oh, it is bittersweet. I have really, really, enjoyed my kids this year and I will be sad to see them go. Summer brings free time... time for me to do some serious wedding planning (166 days to go!), play with my new Cricut, and hopefully purchase a house with my fiance. I know it will be a busy summer.

Well, to help prepare for the final days of school I have made some goodies I would love to share with you!

Summer Survival Kit Tags

At the end of the year I always give my students a small 'Summer Surival Kit'. Inside a small baggie I put: Sidewalk Chalk, Smarties, Pencil, and Tootsie Rolls. These little tags explain why each item is needed for summer survival. You can get these tags for FREE in my TPT store! Borders from this item is from Graphics From the Pond, check them out http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Graphics-From-The-Pond

End of the Year Awards

I created 31 one unique awards to give to students at the end of the year. They are something the students will cherish.

A Few of My Favorite Things Booklet

My students have been working hard on this booklet. They will be presenting it to their parents at Authors' and Artists' night. This is a great activity for students to write about their favorite things about their year.Some pictures they drew, some picture I printed from my camera. It was a great little yearbook! There is a cover page and last page for every grade level K-5

Thanks for taking the time to check out my blog. I appreciate all of my new followers. I hope to do better about updating my blog... I know I was a little MIA the past few weeks. Happy Sunday!

A bit of it all!

I've been busy, busy, busy... focusing on everything that I don't need to be working on. For example, I'm getting married in less than 7 months (wow!) and I should probably be selecting invitations or a baker, but instead I am happily typing this post. I have become addicted to TPT and have found myself spending a lot of time creating items. I really enjoy it! Well, have sold a few items on TPT and decided I would open a Teacher's Notebook store too (Click the link to check it out).

I played around with creating a banner for my Teacher's Notebook store, but I just can't seem to get it right. Any suggestions? What program do I use to create it?

Anyways....We started our fractions unit today and I am really excite about 2 units I purchased for TPT. One is a fractions book from Amy Lemons and another is a unit from The Teacher's Wife. Make sure you check them out - they are both excellent resources. These ladies inspired me to create a little fractions unit.

In the packet there are mini-anchor charts (numerator, denominator, halves, thirds, fourths, fifths, and whole), fraction cubes game (3 nets that make cubes..fractions, color, and shape) and corresponding worksheet, equal parts coloring activity, naming the number of equal parts activity, fractions of a set with colored goldfish activity, fractions mini-book (each page requires students to write the fractions identify the number of equal parts, and divide shapes into equal parts to show the fraction).

 I can't wait to play the game with the fractions cube, color cube, and shape cube. Students will roll all three, then find the shape on their paper and shade the fraction using the color they rolled.

You can get the unit on either site: TPT or Teacher's Notebook

A closer look....

One of my popular items has been my subtraction with regrouping posters! They were made a few months ago, and since then I have learned a lot about making classroom displays. My skills have grown! So, I decided to update these posters and make them a bit SNAZZY-ER! :) ha!

 Again, they are available in my TPT and Teacher's Notebook stores.

Can you tell I love From the Pond's borders? And congrats to Mel at From the Pond on her new arrival of her little boy!

I LOVE anchor charts! I created these Good Readers charts as a reminder for my students. I wanted something they could refer to and monitor their use of reading strategies.

I bet you can't guess where to get them.... TPT or Teacher's Notebook

Ok... last but not least. I created this types of nouns review pack. Great for identifying common, proper, and plurarl nouns.

TPT or Teacher's Notebook ... Please check it out.

In other news, my dad told me he sold our boat today. We've had it for 14 years!! I'm a bit sad that I would be able to go up to the lake and cruise around with him this summer, but I'm sure we will find something else to bond over.

Ok, ok.. that's all for now. I am tired and I should probably grade some papers... but I think I will go lay on the couch.

March is Coming!

March is next week! Really? Yup! I don't know about you, but I am READY for spring. It was 80 degrees in Georgia today... oh what a tease. Anyways, we had a long weekend (Friday and Monday off - yes!) so I used my time wisely and prepped for March's arrival.

I created a fun-filled St. Patrick's Day Literacy Pack! Here is what is included:

*Spring Writing Prompt
*Pot o' Gold writing prompt
*Letter to a leprechaun activity
*Rainbow acrostic poem
*Leprechaun & St. Patrick's Day word building
*16 St. Patrick's Day word cards
*ABC order activty
*Syllable sort
*How to catch a leprechaun writing

Click HERE is get it from my TPT store.

Speaking of TPT... I feel so blessed that my store has opened and if off to a great start! Thank you to all those who have purchased my items or even checked them out. Thanks to everybody for even reading this post... it you guys that keep me going creating!

Alrighty, it's dinner time! Have a great weekend!

Erin Stephan