teacher resources
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Cyber Monday Sale on TPT
Don’t you love my fourth grade school picture (1996)?! the worst part is, other than the bangs and much better sense of style, I don’t look all that different 🙂 I’m sharing this beautiful picture to let you know that Teachers Pay Teachers is hosting their annual Cyber Monday (and Tuesday) sale! I love to take a minute to share what’s on my TPT wish list with you, so here are the products that I can’t wait to add to my cart: I have been a huge fan of Erin Bradley designs for as long as I’ve been creating things for my classroom (long before I started me TPT store!)…
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Friday Freebie – Planner Pages
Happy Friday! I usually try to make sure that the freebie I share with you on Friday is either related to the other posts I’ve written that week or seasonal. So I have to apologize because today’s freebie is neither of those things. I know it’s the wrong time of year for a new teacher planner, but I saw these free pages, and they were too cute not to share. Plus, they’re gold, which is apparently my weakness at the moment, although I suppose it’s better that I fell in love with gold planner freebie pages and not a piece of gold jewelry… Download your planner freebie pages from Student…
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Explaining Classroom Centers
As preschool teachers we spend a lot of time defending the importance of play. We know exactly how much learning is taking place in our activity centers during “free play” because we designed them specifically to encourage learning, social interaction, and inquiry. Parents and family members don’t always understand that. I designed these labels to identify the different types of learning that takes place in each center. Display them in a photo frame or attach them right to your shelf and parents can rad the brief description while waiting for their children to finish up their work. I wanted to share them with you, so I designed them in two…
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Friday Freebie: Evidence Checklist
Happy Friday! It’s that time of year when the weather is perfect and the last thing I want to do on the weekend is stay inside, so my goal is to be super productive today so that I can enjoy my weekend! Yesterday I shared some thoughts on informal assessment, and I mention using those observations as evidence for your formal assessments. Here is a freebie checklist to help you keep track of all of the evidence you need to collect – it’s pretty basic, but you can white out the fields if you want to personalize it to your own assessments. Download your copy here and enjoy your weekend…
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Preschool lesson plan webs
I use webs ALL OF THE TIME. Seriously, I’m a very visual person so it always helps when I can organize my ideas on a piece of paper. Once I can see it all in writing it seems to make more sense, and I am more likely to remember my ideas and thoughts. There are so many different ways to use brainstorming webs in the classroom; planning for themes or projects brainstorming activities that meet early learning standards planning for IEP or IFSP goals for specific children organizing ideas for classroom centers brainstorming ideas for special events and family activities The best thing about a web is that it can…
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Friday Freebie – Portfolio tags for student selected work
Happy Friday! Even happier Friday to those of you who are celebrating Labor Day weekend! I am ready for a three day weekend, I have a to do list of fun projects that I haven’t had time to do all summer, and I’m looking forward to getting it all done. This week I’ve spent a lot of time talking about assessments and portfolios to help you get some systems in place. Up to this point I’ve talked about the work that you can do to begin preparing portfolio systems, this freebie is something you can use to encourage children to take an active role in compiling their portfolios. Make multiple…
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Systems for tracking anecdotal notes
Anecdotal notes are incredibly helpful, they provide evidence that shows which skills children have mastered, and which skills need additional practice. They also give teachers the opportunity to write down direct quotes from children, which can be insightful, hilarious, and adorable. Being able to access all of this information when it comes times for conferences is invaluable, and parents love to hear what their children have been up to. The main issues with anecdotal notes are; storing and organizing all of those random little notes remembering to write them in the first place When it comes to remembering to write them down, I’ve found that it works best if you…
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Sharing Positive Messages with Families
Kids do great things during the day - they share, they tell funny stories, they help without being asked, they melt our hearts with their sweet comments. In an effort to share these great moment with parents I created Happy Notes, which you can download for free! I really need to be better about sharing great stories with parents, so the idea behind Happy Notes is that you can write down something great right when it happens, then share the note with the child, and they can take it home and share it with mom and dad. These are a great way to reinforce positive behavior, and a perfect way to let…
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Back to School Products for the Preschool Classroom
It’s the end of July, I know, how did that happen?! I swear summer gets shorter every year! Many of you are preparing to head back to school (and if you haven’t started prepping, you’ve probably started thinking about it) so I thought I would share some of the things that I’ve created that might help you out this year – make sure to read the entire post because there are freebies throughout! Inspire Emergent Curriculum: This standards-based curriculum is perfect for programs that implement the Reggio Philosophy or the Project Approach. Circle Time Mega Pack: Start the year off right by implementing successful, developmentally appropriate circle time from…
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Making Circle Time Easier (and Developmentally Appropriate!)
I am all about setting up systems to make everyday classroom activities easier – especially when it means that I won’t have to spend as much time planning! I wanted to share my circle time system with you. It is designed to make sure that circle time is enjoyable for everyone, which means that I am able to get through the content I want to get through, the children are able to move around a little, and the whole thing is over in ten minutes or less so we can dig into our centers. The first set of printables are for calendar. I don’t spend a ton of time focused…
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