Teachers Pay Teachers

First of all, let me say how impressed I am with all of the teachers who keep a consistent and up-to-date blog out there! Bravo! I clearly lost my gusto amidst lesson planning, assemblies, and keeping my 5th graders focused on their year long goals.

I did start spending more time on crafting items for TeachersPayTeachers, so if you get a chance, please take a look at some of my items. Everything that I make, I use! If you have something that you'd like made, please don't hesitate to ask me.  Here are a few of the items I've made and rational behind them. (If you click on the images, they will take you to my store!)

I hope you enjoy!

~Ms. Michelle Louise

I have been leading an after school activity for first graders for 2 years now.  I call it "Stories and Me!" and it is a great way to have fun with little ones while still putting an emphasis on reading.  Each session starts with a healthy snack, roll call, and then a read aloud. After the book (filled with lots of active engagement and funny voices) we do a craft activity related to the book, clean up, then have a sweet snack, and go home.  This all takes place within an hour and is just plain fun!  Since I'm moving to a new school this year, a friend asked if I could pass on my binder of activities so that she can carry on the tradition.  I decided to type it up for her (since it was a little scattered about) and then decided other people could benefit from it as well. So here you go! 15 Weekly Book Activities!

My new school is a huge advocate for parent volunteers. In fact, rumor has it that parents get into arguments about how limited their time is in the classrooms! I am a little worried about managing such...helpful parents, so I created this binder.  The idea is that volunteers can come in, open the binder, learn about our class, fill in a sheet about their role and responsibility, work with the learners and then give me feedback so that I know where to go next. Hopefully this will be a fabulous tool in the classroom!

I love persuasive writing and I love seeing what my learners feel passionate about to try to convince other people to believe what they believe.  I made this poster (and learner notebook) pack because I didn't like the boring typed posters we had for our 5th classrooms. I also wanted something engaging and interesting looking for my learners to put in their writing notebooks. Thus, this was born!

These two sets of reward cards have been my best sellers by far!  I was getting tired of food or store bought rewards for individual behavior, so I created these two sets of cards that were big hits in my classroom!  I laminated them so I could reuse them again and again. The kids really like them and so does my wallet!

These book labels were made out of sheer necessity. The classroom I inherited had poorly labeled and organized book baskets. They were ugly and unappealing, I couldn't imagine any child going over and choosing a book from the baskets that were (at the time) on the shelves. These labels were the very first things I made when I got into my 5th grade classroom and I feel that they accurately reflect most upper elementary school classroom libraries.  

Once I had my book basket labels made, being the OCD person I am, I had to make classroom labels that matched. These are the results.

The last item (other than a free poster) is one that I created for my lower elementary friends.  They wanted a cute and friendly "Star of the Month" poster which learners could fill in share with their classmates. This pack includes a poster for each month, sheets to nominate different stars, and student fill-in forms. I think it's very chic and may use it in my new classroom as well!