Celebrating Birthday's in the Classroom!

I love to recognize my students’ birthdays during the year and I finally found a simple to do that! I made a bouquet of silly straws with flowers that say “Happy Birthday”. I put them in a cute tin pail and set them on my desk. I also wrote out certificates, bookmarks, and “no homework” coupons for all the students. So now when I have a birthday in class, all I have to do is grab the certificates and stuff and let the student choose his/her silly straw flower.

I saw this idea on Pinterest a while ago and I finally tried it this year. I looked for the original one that I saw a few years ago, but had little success, so I created my own. If you are interested, I have it as a Birthday Bundle on TpT.

Constitution Day is Coming!

This week, Constitution Day is on Wednesday, September 17^th. Since I have a half day, I am going to spend the day doing activities from my Constitution Day – Across the Curriculum activity packet. It has lessons covering reading, writing, math, social studies,  science, and more.

The reading activity includes a reading piece which has questions, websites, and additional books to read incorporating research.

The math activity compares the populations of the colonies when the Constitution was written and word problems.

The activities for social studies and science explore interesting facts about the Constitution and activities about temperature.

Other fun activities are also found in the packet – art activity, ABC book on the Constitution, and a word search. 

You can find this product at my TpT store – Applejacks Teacher.

First Day of School!

Tomorrow is my first day of school! I am teaching 5^th grade this year. Here I am sitting in bed about to fall asleep and excited about tomorrow. A week ago, I returned to set up my classroom. I had bags everywhere after arranging the desks. I had to reorganize my library, put things away, and label all the supplies for the students. It doesn’t sound like much – but it is!

On Saturday, I was able to leave with the pleasure of knowing I was all ready for Tuesday and I could enjoy my holiday too. Here are some pictures of my class room set up. 

I also decided to use binders for the students again this year. I have had more success with the binders. The folders were getting all bunched up in the desk. Plus the students would wrinkle the papers as they closed the folders. I label my binders with tabs for each subject – Reading, Writing, Math, Social Studies, and Science. I feel I have a good handle on the binders after doing it for a year.

Well, good luck to those who are starting tomorrow! I know a lot of teachers have already started, so I hope all is going well for you too! I will be back next week to let you know how my first week went and the fun things we did.