I am determined to enjoy the last few weeks of summer vacation (and I think I’m doing a pretty great job enjoying them!) but I’m also getting excited thinking about my new class & the start of a new school year.

Easing my way into back to school planning, I stumbled on some great quotes for teachers that I wanted to keep in mind as this back to school season gets underway. They are definitely motivating me to start things off on a positive note!

If you or some of your teacher friends are in need of some inspiration check out this tear sheet. You can post it around your campus to spread the positive feelings around your school or just in your classroom. Just snip on the solid lines before posting & you’re ready to spread some teacher happiness!

Click here to download this freebie!

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Happy 4th of July! This is my favorite time of year and not just because it’s summer vacation!

Besides, summer vacation doesn’t keep this teacher from stalking Instagram for activities that my first graders would love to do during the school year.

I’m just filing them away for Constitution Day in September, which I am totally counting as working on lesson plans in the summer.

Here are my favorite Instagram posts that are perfect for July 4th (or September 17th):

First up is this amazing donut flag! I am new to the world of donut walls and clearly I’ve been missing out on things! This was made by Kristen of the blog, Capturing Joy. Now I just need to find an occasion worthy of my own donut wall. I’m thinking about all those fun 100 chart mystery pictures- you could totally use one as a pattern for a wall. If you passed out rubber gloves the kids could even help put it together, getting a little math in there with their donut decorating too! Be sure to follow Kristen on Instagram by clicking her name in the blue below & find her on Facebook, Pinterest, & Twitter too!

A photo posted by Kristen Duke (@capturingjoyblog) on May 27, 2016 at 5:00am PDT

First graders love paper chains! They are one of my go to ways to calm a super wiggly group. But it never occurred to me to have my students make patriotic paper chains. That brilliant idea is from Lindi on her blog, Love the Day. I’m so glad I saw this cute printable and I know just where we’ll be using them to decorate our classroom. Go follow Lindi on Instagram for lots more cuteness! Check out her Facebook, Pinterest, & Twitter too!

A photo posted by Lindi Haws (@lovetheday) on Jun 20, 2016 at 8:40am PDT

I love this adorable stamped flag from Brittney at her blog, Preschool Savvy. Painting with legos & other blocks is such a fun idea! I know that my students would be beyond excited to do this project or to pretty much stamp anything using legos. Basically, legos make everything better! Go follow Brittney on Instagram for more wonderful early childhood ideas!

A photo posted by Preschool Savvy (@preschool_savvy) on Jul 2, 2016 at 6:38pm PDT

How cute are these collage flags from TK kids in Mrs. Transitional Kinder’s Class!? I love how unique each one turned out. Getting to tear up paper & use stickers in one art project? That makes for a very engaged group of students! Check out Mrs TK’s Instagram for tons more awesome teaching ideas!

A photo posted by Mrs. TK (@mrstransitionalkinder) on May 21, 2015 at 4:26pm PDT

I hope that you have added these ideas to your patriotic files and found new Instagram accounts to follow for even more inspiration! Happy 4th of July!

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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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The end of July always has me feeling a bit anxious about all of the work ahead of me to start a new school while simultaneously trying to squeeze as much relaxation from summer break as possible. I don’t think I’m the only teacher who feels unsettled at this time of year (at least I hope I’m not alone!).

Instead of stewing about my worries, I decided to re-watch one of my favorite TED Talks- Rita Pierson talking about relationships. I think it is impossible to watch Dr. Pierson speak and not feel inspired and ready to jump into any new challenge.

If you haven’t seen it, stop & watch it now!

Now don’t you feel better? I also found this amazing sketch note from Sylvia Duckworth with all of Dr. Pierson’s main points:

If you’re not already following Sylvia on Twitter you are missing out! She has created many inspiring sketch notes for teachers that you should check out. One of my favorite parts of Dr. Pierson’s talk is the mantra that she gave to her students. Talk about having a growth mindset! Last year my kids would recite our class agreements together each morning. I’m thinking about introducing a first grade version of Dr. Pierson’s statement instead.

At the end of the yr many teachers countdown the days for school to end. LET’S DO THE OPPOSITE #CountdownToGreatness pic.twitter.com/O5rmPHdFBV

— Kara Welty (@kara_welty) July 26, 2015

A few days ago I stumbled across this amazing tweet from Kara Welty. Even though I’m having some back to school anxiety I really am still very excited to meet my new class. But I’ve never thought about officially counting down with excitement to the first day of school as opposed to my usual panicky, “I have how many days left to do all this work?!” countdown.

I love this idea and I have already been working to shift my mindset about back to school countdowns. I wanted to leave you with one more amazing quote from Dr. Pierson. This one is getting printed out and glued into the front of my plan book!

 Image Credits: Shutterstock.com/Sunny Studio, Rudchenko Liliia, Mark Herreid

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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!

The post Getting Ready for December! appeared first on Happy Teacher, Happy Kids.

I have officially made it through the first week of school! My class is adorable and I can already tell that it’s going to be one of those special years. That doesn’t mean that I am not completely exhausted though! I have lots of fun back to school goodies I plan to share with you but for right now I wanted to get these cute bag tags up in case you haven’t had your first day yet.

Click the image to download your free bag tags!

I always love reading The Kissing Hand near the end of the first day of school. Many of the kids will have read it at home that morning or the night before with their parents and it’s a sweet way to connect with your new kiddos. This year after reading it I looked out to a whole carpet full of first graders holding “kisses” on their palms firmly to their cheeks- it doesn’t get much cuter than that!

After reading, we made Julie Lee’s fun Chester the Raccoon crafts. This project is the perfect first day craft. It’s simple but turns out adorable and makes everyone feel successful. While we were busy crafting I had each child come and hold a stuffed animal version of Chester for a cute photo. When I recover from my week one exhaustion I’ll post some pictures of how cute our little Chesters turned out.  Click the image below to check out Julie’s craft:

To make your own bags of kisses you’ll need regular sandwich size ziplock bags, chocolate kisses, & enough tags printed out for your class. I put 5 kissed into each bag and then just stapled the tag to the front. I left a blank spot near the bottom for you to sign your name. Easy & cute! I hope your back to school season is going smoothly! I’ll have more cute back to school freebies when my nap is over

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