Groundhog Day in first grade is always so much fun! I want to share some cute handwriting pages I just made with you so you’ll be ready for February 2nd early this year! Click below to grab a freebie with some cute groundhog jokes in cursive and print versions.

image credit: TeddyandMia/shutterstock.com

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At this point in the school year our classroom crayon supply has been through a lot of trauma! I’m planning to surprise my first grade friends with fresh new boxes on Monday morning.

I wrote the little poem above and plan to put one copy on each new box. I printed my labels on full size label paper (Avery 5353 size works great) and then cut them out so I’m ready to start sticking them on the crayon boxes. I also made a copy of the poem for the kids to trace for a little handwriting practice morning work while we all get situated after winter break.

I was having so much fun with the whole “New Year, New Crayons” theme so I made some quick & ready to use math & literacy activities. Click the image below to check them out in my shop:

Click below for your freebies!

As you get ready to face your Monday,  check out this post some tips to ease your way back into the school routine as well as another no prep freebie to help out with your planning:

Happy New Year!

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Looking for a quick Valentine’s Day treat? You’ve come to the right place! My mom needed a quick favor for our church group so we made these fun stickers. I made 3 different treat bag toppers that you can use for your kisses.  Here’s what we made for our church friends:

Here’s what I’m thinking about making for my class this year. I love Valentine’s Day at school. It’s always such a cute day at school and way less stressful than Halloween!

And one more version for your treats. Leave a comment below if you have another phrase you’d like to see on a bag topper and I’ll add it to the file. Happy Valentine’s Day!

Click the image below to download this free printable:

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I hope that everyone has been basking in winter break! Mine has been filled with gingerbread, latkes, & lots of cheesy Hallmark movies. Sadly I’m already getting mini panic attacks at the thought of being back at school. I’m trying to ease my way back into school mode slowly with some baby steps. Hopefully we will all have a smooth transition back to school in January!

Start with the easy stuff. Plan your outfit- for me that involves conquering a mountain of laundry so all the better to start now! Pack your teacher bag. Clean out any remnants of holiday treats. At this point I think the bottom of my teacher bag is pretty much coated in glitter from sweet cards from students and candy that escaped from our gingerbread trains on the last day before break. It’s time to avoid an ant infestation! Plan & pack your meals & snacks for the first day and be sure to go to bed early.

One of the things that helps me through the first day back after any long vacation is to remember that it’s like a mini first day of school all over again. Someone will be super late, some kids will be absent, someone will cry at some point, you might be lucky and have no bathroom incidents but it’s good to be open and prepared for the craziness. At the very least your students will be very excited to see each other again and want to spend some time chatting.

I always try to start the morning by letting each child share one brief memory from our winter break as part of our opening circle time. After we share we’ll complete this cute page to get in some writing about winter break. Click the image below to get a copy to use with your class:

Another thing that helps me on days like this is to manage my expectations…. which to me can mean going into the day with low to zero expectations and then having a lovely surprise when your class behaves wonderfully! January gives you a great chance to reboot your behavior plan or try something entirely new to keep your students motivated & on task.

When all else fails, plan some fun surprises for your students. Last year I bought 2014 glasses at a party supply store the day after New Year’s Eve on sale. We took hilarious class photos wearing them. I’ve also done a New Year’s toast with sparkling cider or with actual slices of bread toasted. This year I’m thinking about using ring pops to “ring in the new year” Check back later this week for some free printables to go along with these New Year’s treats.

It can be so depressing when you head back into your classroom in January to see empty, bare walls instead of glittery bright holiday projects everywhere. I haven’t decided which project we’ll tackle first but there are so many bright & cheerful ideas on pinterest to choose from. Here are a few of my favorites:

Image Credits: Nancy Nolan’s Kindergarten, First Grade Blue Skies, Mrs. Crosbie, Happy Holidays, Artsonia, The Vintage Umbrella

I love this post from Krissy Miner about being a performer in the classroom and it is so relevant throughout the entire school year. The more dramatic you are the easier it is to draw in your audience, aka your students. This is harder and harder to do the more tired you are which is what can make January feel like such an exhausting battle. My mantra at this point is just keep smiling!

The first day back is a great day to read engaging books that are a bit longer. I find that my students can sustain their attention for an amazing story for much longer that they can keep working on more independent academic work at times like this. Here are a few of my favorite series:

Just like on the actual first .day of school it’s always best to over-plan and over-prepare for everything! You’ll be ready for anything unexpected that comes up but you’ll also be ready for the next few days of school if you don’t end up using everything on the first day. Click below for some quick and ready to use activities for January:

Another thing that has helped me on days like this is to be flexible with your schedule. Follow your class’s lead and shorten or lengthen work periods depending on how things are going with your individual students at that moment. This is something I try to do throughout the year but especially on days when your kids might be feeling a little bit more squirrely!

My favorite tip for any first day back at school or really for any day in gloomy January is to plan some rewards for yourself. Give yourself something to look forward to no matter how small it might seem… a new magazine, nail polish, candy, or a new relaxing TV show (hint, hint… there’s a new Bachelor season starting January 4th!)

And last but not least go home as soon as you can!

image credits: Shutterstock.com/Sandra Cunningham/Patryk Kosmider/ Skylines/Annette Shaff/Luxe/Epic Stock Media/Dora Zett/Soloviova Liudmyla/Alis Leonte/Utekhina Anna/Neil Lockhart

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December is always crazy. The kids are beyond excited and get more squirrelly by the day and there are so many extra events happening. This year I’m determined to be more organized and hopefully maintain some semblance of calm amidst all of the craziness and all of the fun. Keep reading for some free holiday printables!

One thing I’m attempting to be better about this year is getting organized earlier and letting parents know about special class events with lots of advance notice. I like to kick off the month of December with a special family tradition sharing homework assignment so I sent this note & student page home last week so my kids would have plenty of time to prepare. I use the recording page to create a holiday tradition bulletin board right away which gets our classroom looking festive quickly right when we’re back from Thanksgiving break.

For the past two years I have used this fabulous freebie from Susan Moran with my students and it has been so much fun. I enlarge her stocking pattern on the copier, run 2 copies on colored paper, and staple it together to make a stocking that is “stuffable”. I have my kids use the cute notes included in her freebie to write a sweet note for each classmate and they also have the option of bringing in a small stocking stuffer to share as well.  It has been a really nice community building activity for my kids. Here’s the note I send home to the parents to let them know about the stockings.

I’ve always done some Grinch themed activities in December and this year I’m planning to have an entire day devoted to grinchy activities. At this point I have way more ideas than we could possibly fit into one day so I need to start paring things done. I thought it would be a fun dress up day for the kids too so I wanted to let everyone know now with plenty of time to plan Whoville inspired hairdos!

Click on any of the notes above to download your own copies. I hope it helps you get on track for December! I have my fingers crossed that this early planning will keep me from having too many holiday meltdowns!

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What a busy week! 100th Day and Valentine’s Day ended up super close this year with only one day in between. We had fun but holy cow I was tired by the end of it all! Keep reading for a few highlights of our 100th Day with a few freebies too!

Click the picture below for freebies!

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Aren’t these the cutest? After taking down all of my December bulletin boards I was getting depressed by all of the empty walls. I’m glad to finally have something Januaryish up even though it’s just in time to switch to Valentine’s Day- but I’ll celebrate what I can! Now I come in my room and see happy skating penguins thanks to Kendra’s Kindergarten. I knew we had to make these little ice skaters when I saw them in her shop- so we added some first grade business in with a bit of fact family practice.

Click the picture below for some freebies:

Be sure to pick up a copy of Kendra’s Kindergarten’s cute penguin craft!

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How cute are these little Martin Luther Kings? They are from Katie Knight’s fabulous American Heroes unit. I love how the faces all turned out. We had a great discussion about this quote and then colored this fun page from Don’t Eat the Paste:

We followed that up with some writing about how we can  help others. Click the picture below for some freebies.

Happy 3 Day Weekend!!

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Being back at school after winter break has me feeling a bit like this baby post-sneeze. Only much less cute, I’m sure! But seriously this baby has me hypnotized…

Which leads me to this cute book that I learned about last January from the always amazing, Deanna Jump. Check out her adorable Sneezy unit on TPT!

We did some of the activities from Deanna’s unit yesterday in class and this afternoon I had Sneezy on the brain and made a few more fun activities. Click below to download these freebies & be sure to get yourself a copy of Sneezy AND Deanna’s unit.

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