Student Valentine Gifts for a BUCK! {and a few freebies!}

Love is in the air and, thanks to this cheap gift, the money is still in my wallet!  I only spent a dollar per student for a great Valentine gift and you still have time to run out and make them!

22 kids for $22?  Yes!  It's true!

I just finished making my students' Valentine gifts and only spent one dollar per kid and I guarantee they are going to LOVE (with all the heart eyes!) these gifts!

I got clipboards from the Dollar Tree and personalized them for my students.  We use clipboards often in the classroom for write the room activities, writing, and other work times when students are not at their desks.  And now each kiddo will have their own clipboard to use during these work times!

Check these out...

Super easy.  The hardest part was unwrapping the cellophane around each clipboard.  Once that was done, this part was easy-peasy!

I had paint pens at home, which is what I used to personalize them, but Sharpies would work perfectly too!

I can't wait to give these to my kiddos on Thursday!!!

My kiddos will also get a Valentine brag tag.  You can download this freebie by clicking the picture.

Looking for an easy card holder?  Here is my favorite!

And... here's a quick bulletin board freebie too!

I may use my Valentine Hershey wrappers too and give them a candy bar... if I get to Target in the next few days.  And, let's face it, I'll definitely be at Target in the next few days!

Or, if you're looking for a non-candy treat that your kiddos will love, surprise them with a Valentine homework pass!

How are you celebrating Valentine's day with your students?

Bulletin Board Freebie!

Can you believe I whipped this up all during my 30-minute planning period?  True story!

Each 3rd grade classroom worked to come up with 10 things they liked about 3rd grade.  We hung them up and... instant, engaging bulletin board!

I made the word "LOVE" with some garland I happened to have on hand... and the large heart at the top is actually covering up a spot where I didn't have enough of the bulletin board border!

You can snag the printables for this bulletin board on TpT for free by clicking the pic above!

Enjoy and happy Valentine's Day!

Looking for other fun Valentine's Day goodies?

Check out the partner play in this winter play pack...

Candy bar wrappers... this file even includes an editable Powerpoint so you can add your students' names on the back of the wrappers!

And homework pass goodies!

Valentine's Day is Coming! {Blog Post & Freebie Rewind!}

Valentine's Day has snuck up on me... I have to get busy making these little babies...

Hershey Bars with personalized wrappers!

You can learn all about them and other Valentine's Day ideas (and freebies too!) by clicking the tape below to do a Valentine's Day blog post REWIND!

Valentine Goodies for Students and a Chance to Win!

Please tell me I'm not the only one who waited until the weekend before Valentine's Day to think about what to give my kiddos?

I decided to make my own candy bar wrappers for my students!  I have done something like this in the past, but my wrappers needed a face lift.  So, last night I bought regular sized Hershey bars and today I made the wrappers... it was fast, easy, and much less expensive than goodie bags full of stuff... which is what I usually do for Valentine's Day.  I got the candy bars at Target and it was something like $2.62 for 6... which I thought was super cheap.  Of course, I needed 25, but it still ended up being about $15.00 for all of them.

Here's how they turned out... I LOVE THEM!

I just put the finishing touches on a pack of wrapper for each holiday and you can win the set!  Just comment with your favorite easy student gifts for any holiday and I'll pick a winner on Monday... so that the winner has time to use the V-day wrappers if they want!

Check out these cuties on TpT
or on Teacher's Notebook

What are you doing tomorrow, Array freebie,... & Dr. Seuss SOS!

Happy early Valentine's Day!

What classroom plans do you have?

We are partying for an hour... and during that time, my kids will rotate between stations.  They will be...

1.) making my Valentine's Day flippy book
2.) playing JINGO and using candy hearts as their BINGO chips
3.) decorating their Valentine card holder

4.) doing a craft that has been planned by a classroom mom... I don't even know what this one is!  :)

We're having a pizza party for lunch and then moving on with our day.  I always think I'm going to do some real teaching on party days... and I'm still hoping that can happen.  But... just in case it can't...

we're going to do math with our candy hearts.  We usually sort and graph them, but this year we're going to do some array building to reinforce the concept of repeated addition.  Even my first graders are going to get in on that action because who won't benefit from practicing addition?!

Here's the worksheet I made... quickly.  I'm going to have them use their candy hearts to make each array and then draw the array (using Xs) in each box.  This could also be totally un-Valentiney if you can't use it tomorrow!  It's a *smidge* holiday-y, but I still think it could work on any day.

I've put all of the items in my shop on sale... just in case you're still in need of anything for V-day tomorrow!  ;)  Check out my Teacher's Notebook shop for more info!

As for the Dr. Seuss SOS... if you purchased my Dr. Seuss party pack from my shop, please re-download it.  Page 19 had an error on it and I am SO sorry!!!!!!!

Craft Time!

Updated 1/28/13-

I'm linking up with Mrs. Orman's Valentine Freebie Linky party to share this quick project with you in case you missed it last year!

I had a few minutes today and some really noisy kiddos.  We needed a break from desperately trying to work to just enjoy ourselves or someone (me) was going to explode.

So, we made these cute hearts:

And I hung them across our window while my friends were at music:

If you need a fun activity in the next week or so, you can download a copy of the pattern!  It's a definite "try it before you ask your kids to do it" type of activity!  Just give each kiddo two copies of the pattern in different colors, cut them out, and weave the "strips" to make the heart!  It was a little tricky for some of my kiddos... but the ones who "got it" were quick to help others!

Click below to download:

If you use it, I'd love to hear about it in my comments!  :)

Do you know who Taylor Lautner is?

...well, one of my firsties sure does because today when we did this adorable craftivity from First Grade Blue Skies...

this is what she wrote:

Yes.  You read that right.  Because he has a 6-pack!

Hope you enjoy the chuckle!

Check out my bloggy friend Patty's new blog over at Second in Line.  She teaches to the east of me and I am so happy she's venturing out into the bloggy world too!

Got Milk (jugs for Valentine's Day)?

If your students are anything like mine, your kiddos will walk out of your room on Valentine's Day with loads of cards and goodies.  I love to have my kiddos make their card holders out of milk jugs!

I ask my students to bring in clean, gallon milk jugs with all stickers removed.  I cut the tops off, write their names on the front in my best cutesy handwriting, and then put them out as a station at my Valentine's party for them to decorate.  We use permanent markers and stickers to make them all lovey-dovey... and then we attach a ribbon to the handle just for kicks!

At the end of the party station rotations (because I have to have my parties done "centers style" for organization and calm) we pass out our goodies into our newly decorated holders!  They are super sturdy, easy to carry, and can be made into fun planters or storage thingies when the kids get home.  It's a win-win... great holder and a reusable!

Here are 2 pics of mine so you can see what I mean.

We've just started collecting milk jugs... and it helps to cut the tops off a few days before you plan to decorate them and I usually spray in some Febreeze then too... sometimes they come in a smidgen damp or the teeniest bit smelly... but letting them air out for a day or two and spraying in some good smelling stuff takes care of that!

What do you think?  Hopefully it's do-able for you... we love it!  :)  Since I looped up with half of my class, I debated doing them again... but they're just perfect.  My kiddos were so pumped when I told them we needed to start bringing in milk jugs and a few even said they are using theirs from last year at home still!

You're Gonna LOVE This Giveaway!

Ok, friends, to celebrate FRIDAY, I have paired up with Ann-Marie at K & K Designs to offer a fantastic giveaway!

All you have to do is make sure you've "liked" both of our Facebook pages and leave a comment letting me know about it.  Next Wednesday (just 'cause I like mid-week giveaways), I'll choose a winner by random number generator and you'll get a customized super cute tumbler glass from K & K Designs.  Here's a picture of mine and I *LOVE* it!  I think everything tastes better when it is 1.) in miniature form (ie. mini-candy bars, baby carrots, etc...) or 2.) can be sipped from a straw (ie. how fountain soda tastes a billion times better than when it's from a can).  So, this giveaway satisfies the "straw" component!

And here it is in action filled with Diet Dr. Pepper... YUM!

And I am going to send the winner my set of themed Valentine cards!  This pack has over 100 pages of Valentine cards in 29 different themes!  It's currently on sale at my Teacher's Notebook store, along with all of my other Valentine themed items!

Ok- so that's it!  Just let me know that you liked K & K Designs on Facebook and my class blog page on Facebook and you're entered to win!  If you spread the word about this giveaway on your blog or Facebook page, leave another comment for an extra chance to WIN!  Click the links below to head over to K & K's FB page and mine too!

 

Room 10's Lovely Friends!

Well, I had a crummy weekend.  Pretty much as bad as they come.  Yeah.  It was bad.  And I wasn't feeling too kind or nice this morning either.

So, I knew I had to get myself out of the gutter... so...

... we did a little bulletin board project that had all my kiddos smiling from ear-to-ear which just warmed my heart and really did help turn my day around!

A few weeks ago, I raided the Dollar Spot at Target and got all this great loot.  So, each kid got a large foam heart and a variety of the foam/felt heart stickers.

Then I passed out these copied on red and pink paper:

I had already written each kids' name at the top of one heart and it was random who got who in the classroom.  My kiddos had to think of a way their person had been a good friend and write it in the space.  Then sign their name and use the materials to decorate it.  We did brainstorm a list together of ways people had been good friends to us and I put it up on our LCD projector so they had some ideas.

When everyone was done, we sat in a circle and everyone went around and read their heart to their friend.  The smiles and blushing cheeks were SO nice to see and hearing the "thank yous" at the end was even better!

Then I hung them on a slightly un-balanced bulletin board in the hallway... I'm trying to get over the uneven distribution of the hearts... it's hard!  I love to make a sign for my bulletin boards that a student colors, so I usually do that instead of cutting out letters.  They enjoy having a hand in the bulletin board too!  So, a couple of my boys decorated the sign.
 

        
And how could my day not turn around when one of my sweeties shared the one she did for me:

So, if you're looking for a way to add some sunshine to your students' day... or even to your own... do it!  :)

Here's to hoping for a better week for myself! 

Fab Target Finds for Valentine's Day!

Oh Target. You are a teacher's dream!

This weekend I hit up my favorite dollar spot and found some awesome items...Now, I did spend a great deal of time adding text to that picture to explain what each thing was and, for some reason, my text isn't appearing and, of course, I couldn't be bothered to SAVE it.

So, I'll have to tell you:
*100th day crowns and bookmarks
*these crazy balloon things for Valentine's Day that are flat but if you hit them, they blow up!
*all sort of craft stuff- big foam hearts, stickers, foam stickers, felt stickers, confetti, paper
*and two little cardboard buckets that were just too cute to pass up!

I LOVE TARGET!!!!!!!

One more thing- if you happened to pick up the 1st grade phonics fluency packet in my Teacher's Notebook store, you should head back in to your account and re-download it. I added a potential parent letter and I added a 2nd file for non-Treasures users that has the phonics skill each week is focusing on, rather than having the weekly story title on each list. I hope that makes sense! The extra file also doesn't say "Treasures" on the cover sheet!
I added a "making change" math center to my store last night. My 2nd graders will be using it to practice making change. I'll give a free copy to the first comment! Leave your e-mail address please! :)Back to school tomorrow! Blog at ya again later in the week, friends!

Valentine Freebie & Share Your Party Ideas!

I've been working this morning on themed stationery for my Teacher's Notebook store (which is having a 20% off sale through the weekend!) and I thought, since Valentine's Day is right around the corner, you might enjoy a Valentine's Day themed stationery freebie! Click the image to download the primary and intermediate versions of this paper... the top is even fillable so you can create custom assignments, writing prompts, give vocabulary words, reminders... whatever you want! :)I would also like to put together a free Valentine's Day Party handbook like the Christmas one I did in December. I would LOVE LOVE LOVE it if you would share your Valentine Party games, student made card holders, crafts, food, activities, anything so I can make another handbook! If you don't know what I mean, check out the link to the Christmas party handbook. Please share in the comments below!

And, last but not least, don't forget about the giveaway I'm doing for free flippy books. There is still time to enter if you want to!