Back To Back Freebies

One of the things we do for oral language development is called "Back to Backs."

This is how it works. Two students sit back to back with the same piece of paper and the same colors of crayons or markers. Limit the colors to about 5. They can use something for a hard surface to write on. Child #1 tells child #2 what word shape to color and what color to color it. So at that time they BOTH color that same word the same color. They do NOT show each other the word or their finished coloring. They don't peak either!

Then child #2 tells child #1 a word and a different color to color in that shape. They repeat the same as above. This activity continues until they are done with all the words and colored everything in.  The picture won't look good because they may have chosen colors to use that won't compliment the picture!

Only now do they compare pictures. If they listened well, and IF they can read well, and IF they know their colors, then their pictures should be an exact match. This is a fun activity and well . . .  a bit noisy because everyone is talking at the same time!

But when they are done, it's fun to see who truly was listening and who wasn't. I have more of these and will post more, if you think they are worth while for your students.

Click here for the link.

Patty

Locker Fairies Freebie

If anyone ever says that kids don't like to come to school, have you watched them come in from recess? I noticed today that many were running moving as fast as they could to get into the classrooms! So if they're scooting in so fast, they must love us and love school. . .  .

I'm  sticking with that thought . . ..

But then watch the teachers as they are returning from lunch. . . . we are all just strolling along and we'll get there when we get there! Yup! We are just as excited as they are to get back into the classroom. We just show it differently!

At our school we have something called Locker Fairies. Locker Fairies leave things in lockers everyonce in a while to only a few children. It's always a surprise and it's usually something that child really needs. We (yes, the teachers or other adults at our school are the Locker Fairies, but shhhhhhh! don't tell anyone!) put things like books (if they say they don't have many books in their homes), school supplies, fun things, socks, coats, and even P.J's. We listen to what the students are saying and if we notice a child who is in need of something, one of us will take care of it. We also stick one of these attached signs on the items, so they know where the stuff comes from.



There are times when those who don't get a surprise say they want something from the Locker Fairy and we just say, that WE want the Locker Fairy to visit us too!

It has been such a heart warming thing to share with our students that I thought you too might want to do this with your students. Please grab the Locker Fairy sign here. You don't need to log in, it's just a pdf file.

If you grab it, let me know please.

And now on to the Bachelor! My favorite reason for Mondays!

Patty

An Award? For ME? and a Freebie too!

OMG! (that means Holy Moly Some one Thinks My Blog is Good!)

I've been given this award by Vicky from Traditions and Happily Ever After

Thank You SO much Miss Vicky! You really made my day!

What a great feeling to think that someone else has stalked looked at my blog and likes what they see PLUS they noticed that I had under 200 followers so that's one of the requirements to get this award. WHATEVER! I now have an award! Whooo oooooh! One question. . .  who is Liebster?

The rules say that I have to highlight 5 other new bloggers and pass this award on to them. Do you know how hard that is to do? OMG (that means I've searched blogs for a long time now to find some newbies!) But I did find you! And here are the new blogs that I think you'll agree are worth giving a look at and following.

We teachers are all so cooperative and easy to get along with. So share that love and visit them too.

http://thirdgraderockstar.blogspot.com/
http://applesandabcs.blogspot.com/
http://oodlesofteachingfun.blogspot.com/
http://adventuresoffutureteacher.blogspot.com/
http://funintitlemath.blogspot.com/



And now those new bloggers must follow these directions and keep the warm fuzzies going. Good Luck and Have Fun!

The goal of the award is to spotlight up-and-coming blogs with less than 200 followers. The rules are:

1. copy and paste the award on your blog
2. thank the giver and link back to them
3. reveal your top 5 picks and let them know by leaving a comment on their blog
4. hope that your followers will spread the love to other bloggers

And Now for the Freebie. I was so inspired by Jen from The Teacher's Cauldron when she made some scramble sentences for with the "Medical Cat's Daddy" theme (Apparently we are not supposed to be using  _octor _ uess unless we have a copyright permission) My first and second graders loved them and it was good practice for them. So Miss Jen gave me permission (because it's always polite to ask first!) to make more and give them away! Now wasn't that just so sweet of her! Yea I love sharing!

So here are my creations of scrambled sentences. One word per card, print, laminate, cut apart (isn't that ALL I've been doing lately at night!) then mix them all up. Let the kids sort by picture then try to fit them into a sentence that makes some sense. . . I sure hope they do, and if they don't, would someone please let me know!! I also didn't include any capital letters or punctuation because I wanted them to have to think harder to see which goes at the beginning and end.

Click here for the cards
That's all for today! Thanks again for the award and making me feel so loved! Have a good week everyone!

Patty