Primary Flynn

Well,  I'm in the classroom and slowly setting up.  I'm taking the time to go through everything in the classroom and see what I really need and what can go.  I've gotten a few new things for the classroom that I am excited about.  I found this at Michael's Craft store this summer for 50% off!!!   I'm putting my art supplies that I tend to use more often in the drawers and I can use the 2 shelves for various bins.  Here is a toy storage I bought this summer at Canadian Tire. So my students keep their books in their desks in a ziplock bag but I found many of the kids would make holes in the bags and I would have to keep replacing them.  So this year I saw these magazine holders at the dollar store (2 for $1.00) and I'm going to have the students keep their books in them.  I have set them up on the shelf and tomorrow I'm going to hot glue gun clear name tag holders on the front so the kids can decorate name tags and place them in the front.  Thi

Here are the calendars that go along with my Read At Home.  These go in the students B.E.E. binders in a clear plastic sleeve.  I have the parents fill in the month and then hand the calendar in to my at the end of the month.  I keep all the calendars and calculate all the minutes together to show the children how much they are reading.  The students get really excited.  We try to beat the minutes from the month before.   Calendar Minutes Enjoy! Kemble :-)

Just starting to think about my to do list before school starts for me (September 5).  Just thought I would share the Read At Home letter I place in my student's B.E.E. binder.  I photocopy one for each student and place it in a clear plastic sleeve that is kept in the B.E.E. binder all year.  It is a word document so you can edit if if you like. Read At Home letter Enjoy! Kemble :-) P.S. - You may have to change the margins or the spaces in between the paragraphs.  

When a student has a birthday, I give them a ribbon that I got at the Dollar Store and a certificate.  This coming year I am also going to give them a sticker/label for them to wear for the day so other people can see it's their birthday and wish them a happy birthday.  I have made 2 different ones both in colour and black and white. I use Avery 8923 labels and I do have a colour printer.  Here are the links to the files: Happy Birthday (card & balloon colour) Happy Birthday (card & balloon black and white) Happy Birthday (cupcake & balloon colour) Happy Birthday (cupcake & balloon black and whtie) Enjoy! Kemble :-)

I introduce 4 sight words every week.  For the past 3 years I have been doing different word chants with each of the sight words and my students really enjoy the movement as they learn new sight words.  For next year, I wanted to add to this routine so I have come up with these worksheets and activities within this package.  I have gone through the Dolch words and tried to put them together in a way that would make sense to the kids and helpful at the same time with their reading and writing.  The Pre-primer and Primer list divided evenly into 4 words per week.  The Grade One list I had to make 8 lists with 4 words and 3 lists with 3 words.  The Grade Two list I had to make 10 lists with 4 words and 2 lists with 3 words. I have made posters with the words I will be introducing that I will put up for the week so the kids remember what words we are working on that week.  My sight word routine will be the following: Monday – Find, Colour! Worksheet & Colour and Decorate the S

Hello,  I cannot believe I uploaded my plant journal in 2012!!!  I have been using this plant journal with my students for 12 years!!! My students still get excited when they get their journal and investigate their plant growth.   For the past two years I have started the Bean Greenhouses where my students put a few beans in wet cotton balls, place them in a ziploc and we put them on the window and watch them grow.  This year I have created a quick journal for my students to observe their observations.  I always give 3 beans to each student because the ziploc is rather small for any more.  This year my students will be able to get their Bean Greenhouse journal, put down what day it is of growing and then colour in what stage they see their beans. They can also colour in the weather - sunny, partly sunny or cloudy.     Every year I do a living things unit and plant a radish seed with my students.   However, I have never felt the kids have had a great plant journal to keep all their no

I find I skim over Earth day and this past year I finally got frustrated with myself and sat down and designed a few games for the kids so that by playing all the games, my students would really learn about reduce, reuse, and recycle.  At our school we have different bins for recycling but the kids seem to have some confusion what goes where.  I found after my students played these games for about 2 weeks, they really knew what things were recyclable and what items they could reuse again.  And I found the kids asking each other instead of me and that was just awesome to see!!!  I did save the games for Earth Day but I think this year I will get the kids to play it at the beginning of the year(because shouldn't every day be Earth Day?) so it will help them learn about recycling and in turn help recycle properly at our school.   So this package includes 4 different Earth Day games the students can play during centre time or just on their own after learning about Earth

I have added to the levels in this package.  The package went from Levels A to P.  I have now included labels from levels Q to Z.   You can find these labels in my TPT store at the following link: http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Levelled-Bin-Labels-A-Different-Take OR my TeachersNotebook shop at the following link: http://www.teachersnotebook.com/product/kemble_flynn/levelled-bin-labels-a-different-take Enjoy! Kemble :-) Last year I went to a professional development session on an Active Young Readers (AYR) Kit all the Primary to Grade 3 teachers received.  The kit is amazing and the books are beautiful.  At one point in the session we were going through the assessment resource guide and the instructor pointed out one section in which it described leveling you classroom library a different way.  I know a lot of parents and even students get focused on the reading level (Is my child on level A or D?  What are the other kids reading at?)  This sectioned focuse

Here are some flip books I created at the end of last year for my geometry unit.  These flip books can be used in small groups, whole class, guided math, or even math stations.  There is one book for Slides and Flips using two-colour counters (16 pages).  The second book is for slides, flips and turns with different shapes and letters (37 pages).  You just need to photocopy, cut and staple.   These books are aligned with the following Atlantic Canada Mathematics Curriculum outcomes: Primary - E8 make transformations of figures and shapes Grade 1 - E9 recognize, name, describe, and represent slides and reflections of 2-D shapes Grade 2 -  E11 recognize, identify, describe, and represent reflective symmetry in 2-D shapes Here are a few pictures of the books and pages: You can find these flip books in my TPT store with the following link: http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Math-Flip-Book-for-Slides-Turns-and-Flips OR in my TeachersN

I am always looking for activities to add to my math tubs/centers and I find flip books work really well. I have created nine flip books: 4 addition flip books, 4 subtraction flip books and 1 addition/subtraction flip book.  I have created books with both words and symbols.  The following describes each book: Flip Books Two-sided Counters Addition – Give the students 10 two-sided counters in a cup.  Have the students first predict how many yellow and how many red will appear once they spill the counters.  The kids always need to predict first.  Then have them shake the cup and spill the counters.  They colour in their results and write the addition sentence. Unifix Cubes Addition – Give the students 2 towers of six unifix cubes and one die.  Have the students roll the die once and colour that many unifix in the flip book (they can show on one of their towers too).  Then have them roll a second time and colour in that many unifix in the flip book (they can show that roll on th

Here is the form I have created to document any communication I have with parents.  I photocopy one for each student and place it in the front of my student information binder/duotang.  I add another sheet as needed for each student.  You can download it below: Parent Contact Log Sheet Hope you find this helpful. Kemble :-)

I taught grade 1 a few years ago and created these templates for one of the outcomes I taught.   This game is aligned with the Atlantic Canada Mathematics Grade 1 outcome A1 compare two sets for size in a variety of ways.   Student A gets a set of coloured counters and Student B gets a set of different coloured counters.   Students take turns rolling a die.   They cover any one square that is one more than the number on the die.   The player who first covers three in a row is the winner.   It's a fairly simple game but the kids love it.  You just need  to cut and laminate each board.  You can download the game at the following link: Dot Bingo Enjoy!! Kemble :-)

Every year I try to revamp my tracking system of my students and their letter identification and to try to make it more efficient for me.  I came up with this sheet and I have found it to be more efficient last year and easy to see my students improvement in their letter recognition.  My running records and other student assessments are in one big binder with each student having their own section (I use dividers).  I photocopy the lower and upper case identification recording sheet for each student and place it the binder.  I then laminate the Upper and Lower Case Identification Sheet and have the students read off that sheet while I record on mine.  You could give each student a cue card with a hole cut in the middle so they can focus on one letter at a time.  I also use a different coloured pen/maker for each month.  I have also included another tracking sheet where you can record both letter identification and letter sound recognition.  You can download the sheets below: Letter Id

I'm going to participate in my first TPT Back to School sale for 2 days on Aug.12-13.  I'm really excited.  I've chose 4 of my products that I feel would help you start off the school year.   The following products are on sale: 1 - My Plant Journal for Science 2 - Shape and Space: Geometry Worksheets 3 - Math Flip Book for Slides, Turns and Flips 4 - Pre-Made Board Game Templates Enjoy!!