Back to School Organization! 

Thematic Unit Binders

School is right around the corner... and can you believe that summer is almost gone? Have you been thinking of how your going to organize and set up your classroom? I have and I cannot WAIT to get started! One part of organization that I'd like to share with you today is about how I set up my Thematic Unit Binders. I have  a shelf in my classroom that I store my binders, typically behind my teacher desk for easy accessibility. I have them labeled on the binding what each unit is. I have about 30 of these binders. I know it sounds like a lot, but they have really saved me time and energy trying to track down assignments, craftivities, or photos of my classroom from the year before. Here are my binders that I had set up last year: 

Thematic Unit Binders

Inside each binder, I try and put photos of my classroom and how it looked during that unit. For example, if my theme was Owls, then I would put a photo of my owl theme center so I can remember how I organized it. I have theme centers for EVERY theme! But that's a whole other blog for another day!

Owl Theme Center

For the tabs inside the binder, I organize them by subject: Reading, Writing, Math, Science, Social Studies, Craftivities, Vocabulary Cards, and Lesson Plans. This is a quick and easy way for me to find something during a team meeting, or if a teacher comes and asks me about an activity or copy from last week, I can easily find it.

Binder Tabs

I might also put some books that I read to the students inside the binder, if I used a specific book for a specific lesson, to remind me for the next year.

Inside the binder...

I decided to create some really cute Thematic Cover Pages for each unit. And, I took pictures of all of them to show off! They are really cute and I can't wait to use them this year.

Title Page of Packet

August and September Units: 

Back to School/All About Me

Weather/Apples

October Units: 

Bats/Columbus

Owls/Pumpkins

November Units:

Native Americans/Thanksgiving

December and January Units:

Christmas and Celebrations/Winter and Snowman

Arctic and Eskimos/Antarctica and Penguins

February Units: 

Valentine's Day/Heart and Body

Groundhog Day/Presidents and America

Objects in the Sky/Texas


March and April Units: 

St. Patrick's Day/Easter

Insects/Rainforests

Earth Day/Spring

Plants/Fairy Tales

May Units:

Mother's Day/ Oceans and Sea Life

Rocks and Volcanoes/Summer and End of Year!

And that's the whole year of thematic units!
I hope you got some organizational tips and tricks for the new school year!  Have a wonderful and smooth first day of school!
If you are interested in checking out my thematic unit cover pages, click here:

Thematic Unit Cover Pages for Every Month and Holiday

Love, Kara

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 Linking Literature with: The Kissing Hand

                                       By: Audrey Penn 

Are you ready for the first day of school? Have you been writing your lesson plans yet? If not, this might spark your interest! I've used The Kissing Hand book for years, and it is still a class favorite. I love to watch the students' faces as I read this book. 

I absolutely LOVE this story! It's one of my favorites to read to my first graders on the first day of school. It is sweet, sensitive and really hits home with the students. If you have this book and haven't used it yet... you're in for a treat! I've created a packet full of fun and engaging activities to accompany this book. 

Cover Page

Even though I read it on the first day of school, I carry it over to the 2nd and 3rd day if I have to.  This packet includes a lesson plan that tells you step by step of what to say to the students and what questions to ask. I also follow the first activity with making a Text to Self Connection. I think this is so easy for the students to connect to since Chester the raccoon shares their feelings about going to school. 

Lesson Plan

These are the anchor charts that put into the packet for different activities: Text to Self Connection, Cause and Effect, Write From the Heart and Graphing.

Anchor Charts

After using these anchor charts for a mini-lesson, I created some templates for the students to use for reading: Text to Self Connection and Cause and Effect. All of these templates in this packet are in color and black and white. You can either use these as an interactive notebook activity, or glue it onto the craftivity.

Reading Templates

The craftivity is called Chester's Heart. It is literally made of hearts! I've created all of these templates for the students to cut out and glue. I've also included materials, directions and an example. This is my favorite part... because you know I LOVE to incorporate art into my lessons! I added the Text to Self Connection to the side of the craftivity to have a writing too.

Chester's Heart

I've also written two poems in this packet. One is an acrostic poem of Chester, and the other one is called "How Are You Feeling?" Both of these poems can be completed in the students' poetry notebook with an illustration. Again, both poems are in color and black and white.

Poetry

Aside from the feelings and connections, there's another avenue that I decided to take on this book...Nocturnal Animals! Well, that's not surprising since this book is about a raccoon and he goes to school at night! I've created some vocabulary cards of nocturnal animals to help you have visuals for the students: 

Vocabulary Cards

Following these cards, I've created some activities in math and science. You can have the students complete an interactive notebook activity where they glue the animals onto their habitat. These are also in color and black and white.

Interactive Notebook

Or, you can have the students complete a graphing and problem solving activity with nocturnal animals. Also in color and black and white.

Graphing Nocturnal Animals

Whatever you have your students do for this book... they are sure to enjoy every bit of it. If you are interested in checking out my Kissing Hand Packet click below. I wish you and your students a fabulous first day of school and hope that it goes smooth!

Linking Literature: The Kissing Hand Grades 1-3

Love, Kara

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Are You Ready for Some Poetry? 

I'm so excited about my new and improved Acrostic and Focus Poetry packet! I've added some new "Zing" and "Color" to it and I can't wait to share it with you! I hope you like it too! 

Poetry Cover Page

By the way, you have to drink some coffee while your reading this post. It will help you pretend that you're in a coffeehouse and listening to poetry... ok not really. Lol

Last month I blogged about how I incorporate poetry into my themes. I teach one poem a week and have it hanging above my poetry center. The poem goes with the theme that I am teaching. This is a poem that I wrote about Martin Luther King Jr. It is called "Dreams".  I've used this poem with first grade and third grade! They always get a kick when they see my name at the bottom. They cannot believe that I actually wrote it!

Dreams

In January when we study MLK, we read this poem and learn about the punctuation and parts of speech. If you notice on the side of the poem are index cards hanging down. These are my ladders. I call them my parts of speech and punctuation ladders. On each index card is a skill that we find in the poem. I make sure to not go over the skill until after I have taught it. This is great because I can spiral skills all year long and what a fun and easy way to review parts of speech and punctuation! Poetry lends itself to so many skills: creating mental images, connections, rhyming, fluency, comprehension, author's purpose... the list goes on!
I've made new ladders in my poetry packet so they look cuter than before. I love polk-a-dots, so I used all different colors for the backgrounds. Here are some of the punctuation cards. You simple print, laminate and cut apart. You can hang them on the way beside your poem, or shrink down and put them on a ring.

Punctuation Ladder

Here are some of my cards for the parts of speech ladder.

Parts of Speech Ladder

Another thing I added to this packet is having the poems in color and black and white! This way the teacher has a choice of which template is better for her students. My preference is, the black and white ones. I LOVE to have my students illustrate the background and color the pictures on the poems. It makes it more student friendly this way. But, I do know of some teachers who like to print in color and they are so beautiful! So the choice is yours! Here are some of the many poems in the packet. These are originals that I wrote for my students.  All you need to do is shrink these down about 80% when you copy them for the students so they will fit inside their poetry journal.

Poems in Color 
And... in black and white!

Poems in Black and White

I also did the same thing to my acrostic poems. I've written acrostic poems for every holiday. These are so fun and easy to teach. I teach acrostic poetry at the beginning of the year, but it's also something I spiral with other themes and craftivities. You can teach this cross curricular in social studies and math too!

Acrostic Poems in Color

Acrostic Poems in Black and White

I hope you got some great ideas on how to incorporate your poetry in your classroom this year! If you are interested in checking out my new and improved Focus Poetry Packet click below.

Love, Kara

Acrostic and Focus Poetry for Every Holiday: Grades 1-3

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Launching Literacy Centers for the Fall in the K-2 classroom

Check out my new and improved Literacy Center Packet! I've added a lot of new and helpful tools to this packet to launch your centers in the fall! Keep reading if you want to check out the new stuff! 

Cover Page

In this packet I've included a number of things: photos of my classroom centers with materials and directions, "I Can.." cards to laminate and put on a ring for directions in the centers, Large Center Icons to laminate and display in the center, Small icon cards to put on a rotation poster, and center activity pages in color and black and white for the students to complete in each center. It is jammed packed full of fun and colorful stuff!

In my classroom I have 24 centers:
Library, Theme, Read the Room, Write the Room, Math, Science, Museum, Drama, Finger Puppets, Felt Board, Geography, Art, Word Wall, Author Study, Construction, Games, Listening, Calendar, Word Work, Research, Overhead, Computer, Poetry and Writing.

I LOVE to see real photos of classrooms, I just think it is so cool to see the real thing! And, since I'm a very visual person, I like to see how the classroom is set up and organized. That's why I took photos of all of my literacy centers to give you a visual.

Drama Center

Felt Board

Museum

Writing

These are just 4 of the 24 centers that I have in my classroom!  The rest of the photos you have to see in the packet!

I also included large center icons- to copy, laminate and cut out! You can display them on the wall or table of your centers so the students know where each center is. They have the center name and the picture to go with it.  I LOVE using chevron in my classroom, so I used it around the border.

Large Icons 

Large Center Icons

I also included small icons to copy, laminate and cut out as well. These are small enough to put velcro on the back of them and stick onto your center rotation board or poster.

Small Icons for Poster

For each center I wrote "I Can..." cards. For those of you who don't know what this is, it is so helpful for the students! A lot of times when the students get to a center they forget or are confused on what to do there. These cards can help! They are step by step instructions on what the students can do at each center! Mine are very simple. Simply print, laminate and cut them out, then punch a hole in the top corner and attach together with a ring! You can hang these alongside the center icon or have it somewhere in the center for the students to read. I always have my students clean up there center when they are finished, so that is also a part of what they "Can Do!"

I CAN cards

At each center I have an activity page for the students to complete. I've made these in color and black and white!
These are the pages that stay inside the students' center folder for later rewards!  

Math Center Activity Page

Other Center Activity Pages

Literacy centers are so fun to have in your classroom. It's a wonderful way to spiral your skills and concepts taught during the day! If they are fun and engaging the students won't even know they are learning at the same time! And, there are a million different ways to launch them, these are my tips and tricks. If you are interested in my new and improved Literacy Center packet, click below.

Launching Literacy Centers: I Can cards, Icons and Templates

Love, Kara

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