Pete the Cat: I Love My White Shoes Companion Pack!

My mind has just been swirling with ideas for the first day (week.. month..) back to school! I have to admit, everyone's favorite groovy cat is the heart of my first month back to school ideas right now!

Have you read Pete the Cat I Love My White Shoes with your class yet?

It's an adorable, fun introduction to colors (and resiliency! Social skill bonus!)

I cannot wait to share all my grandiose ideas for incorporating Pete into my opening day activities!

In the mean time, you'll have to check out this companion pack for the adorable I Love My White Shoes!

Check it out here!

It comes with a ton of student centered activities for practicing color recognition. Check out this recording sheet below!

This bundle includes food cards to post around the room like Write the Room- only this time, students are practicing color recognition and coloring the matching sneaker. I can't wait to show you some pictures of it in action once school gets started.

Similar in nature, the bundle also includes a create your own food die. Students LOVE rolling the die, and coloring the appropriate shoe in a playful game with a partner!

How great is this sequencing sheet? Simple cutting skills necessary and also includes color recognition. Great story retell activity for students to access their knowledge from a read aloud.

Can your students recognize the food, label its color, then create a pattern? I love this extension for my higher level thinkers.

However, my favorite part of this bundle is hands down the class book! Each sheet comes in black and white coloring book style as well as with colored graphics! There are different choices for pages as well. Plus, inside the download is a starter page and closing page as well as a family comment page to take turns sending home the book! Take a peek below!

Remember- you can download the entire bundle here!

What are some of your go to read alouds for the start of the year?

Keep your head in the clouds!

First Day Series: First Day in K!

Hi Friends! Can you believe it's August 1st? Or in my world, the *OFFICIAL* start of Back to School readiness! I always think of August 1st as the pinnacle day in beginning my prep for next year! I'd love to say I've already gotten into my classroom, but there is literally, NO FLOOR in there yet. Trying to stay glass half full and remember, I'm getting a brand new *tile* floor (no more rugs to makeshift clean up spills, drips, and drops anymore!) even if that means getting into my room at the tail end of summer!

In the mean time, I'll continue to prep some of the materials I may need for the start of the year. Back to School is what got me my start in the TPT world and blogosphere. By far, my most popular product has been First Days in First Grade- the very first product I ever made!

You can read some more about it in my early days here! Can you believe how dated that old cover looks from just a few years ago? I like to think I've stepped my blogging game up since then!

However, as I know far too well, grade assignments are constantly changing, and I'd love to get resources out to teachers of as many grade levels as I can! As you may have seen before, Seconds into Second Grade debuted this past spring!

You can read about the details of the product in my previous post here.

This summer, I decided to add another to the series. Introducing, First Day in K!

Come take a peek at some of the activities you'll find for your sweet kinders to do during the first week of school!

I love to discuss First Day Feelings on the first day of school regardless of grade level. It's important to acknowledge the plethora of emotions students may feel as they embark on a new adventure with many new faces- including their teacher's!

There's also they very adorable Put the Kind in Kindergarten! A great way for the littlest learners to think about how to be kind to one another. This is an excellent extension activity for the very popular Bucket Fillers theme. It also flows well from talking about feelings on the first day to general feelings of students everyday.

Coloring pages in Kindergarten are an excellent warm up. Most students have positive experiences with crayons and coloring and it helps ease tensions on the first day. Plus- it's a great Pre-Assessment and wonderful to save for portfolios to compare to the last day of school art masterpieces!

 How simple is this color word K sheet? You could do this whole class or individually!

Finally, the First Day in K flip book! SO simple to make, even for the littlest learners! Plus, it's an adorable way to share All About Me facts and another opportunity for students to get to know each other and make connections. Plus- it's another great portfolio keepsake! I love this one! I can't wait to use it!

Remember, you can purchase the entire pack here in my TPT store!

What are some of your go-to activities for the first week of school?!

Keep your head in the clouds!

xo

SaveSave

The Kissing Hand: No Prep Freebie!

Now that my new air conditioner is installed and up and running (YES- I lost air at the start of the summer! EEK!), and I've gotten my fair share of good reads in at the pool (was I the last one to read Me Before You?) I've got another bundle that I'm really excited for!

One of my FAVORITE read alouds for the little ones is The Kissing Hand by Audrey Penn! It is the sweetest story about little Chester Raccoon and his first day of school. His Momma kisses his hand and tells him her kiss is always with him! I'm not even a mom yet, and it makes my heart melt!

Since I read it EVERY year, I figured it's about time I began to add some new activities to go along with the beloved read aloud. And now, the best news of all, it's NO PREP and.. drumroll please.. FREE!

The pack includes these First Day of School Certificates- they look fantastic printed on neon paper!

This sweet poem can go with any handprint art you may make!

You can find my craftivity that goes with it here!

Color by numbers are some of my favorite things to do in the first week of school. It's fairly straightforward, fairly independent, and coloring is a great way to ease nerves for the little bubba staring up at you! Plus- instant fridge art for home!

From my own experience, children tend to be fascinated by the fact that Chester Raccoon goes to school at night. I figured this year I would go into nocturnal animals just a bit to help them understand better and give them great knowledge to share at home! Plus- another coloring page for independence and calming butterflies in the stomach!

You can download the whole freebie here!

If you're riding The Kissing Hand train like I am, take a peek at my other Kissing Hand products! 

(I'll be blogging about them throughout the week!)

Keep your head in the clouds!

(and your toes in the sand! Summer is flying by!!)

xo

SaveSave

Cooking Up a Great Year in Kindergarten! - {A Back to School, All About Me Unit!}

I know, I know. Summer vacation should be about rest and relaxation, but I'm already getting inspiration for beginning of the year activities! I have had a Cooking Themed classroom for the last few years, so this only seemed fitting for me to create:

Cooking Up a Great Year in Kindergarten!

Check out the major craftivity of the unit below: A Menu of Me Lap Book!

The Menu of Me is a lift the flap craftivity that allows kiddos to share about themselves: What makes them special, Their house, Their teacher, Their Family, What they want to be when they grow up, What they do outside of school, and their favorite subject!

How fun are those "Favorites" flaps?! 

There's also this adorable Hopes and Dreams craftivity. For those of you who aren't familiar with the Responsive Classroom, students start the year documenting their hopes and dreams for the school year, sharing, and displaying them in the classroom. Keeping with the theme, the lift the flap plate cover allows for an adorable way to display your student's hopes and dreams around the classroom! These are so sweet, I may keep them up all year!

There's also Chef Self Portraits! There is a boy and girl version with the face already done- just needs to be colored as well as a boy and girl version with a blank face for students to draw their own. As an integrated teacher, it's always important to me to try to develop ways for all students to participate in the activities despite their learning styles. (There's differentiated options for the hopes and dreams as well!)

And of course, how do you end the first day without creating your own chef hat to wear while holding this first day of school sign?! I cannot wait to hang them up and compare them to our future last day of school pics! Cute factor overload!

Check out your own copy of Cooking Up a Great Year in Kindergarten!

As for me, I'll be at the pool! (I can't create ALL Summer Vacation, can I?!)

PS. This also goes great with my

Keep your head in the clouds!

xo

Catch a Wave to Summer!

Am I the only one counting down the days to summer vacation? (four weeks, three days...) In an effort to keep my head in the zone and continue to give my 100% for the remaining four weeks (and three days!), I decided to make some summer themed activities I can contribute to my classroom.  So let's hang ten and Catch a Wave to Summer!

Recently I've been working on grade specific summer and end of year work, but the more I look at my kiddos, the more I see they are all on their own individualized levels. Why not work on making activities that can vary for the different skill sets in my classroom?  Personally, I think it's best for preschool, Kindergarten, and First Grade, but ultimately, if it's your student's level, go for it!

Now- how adorable are these popsicles?! I may or may not have asked my fiancé to bring me a grape popsicle after making this activity. Yum!

Activities are varied through literacy and mathematics and are very hands on! Take a peek below!

You can see the entire product here in my TPT store!

Keep your head in the clouds!

xo

Sea You in First Grade!

Sea You in Kindergarten was such a great hit, by popular demand, I just had to bring you Sea You in First Grade!

You can download it here.

See You in First Grade is intended to be a summer packet for students exiting Kindergarten and getting ready for First Grade. It could also be used as great review for the end of Kindergarten or even as baseline data for the start of First Grade!

Check out some samples below and see if it looks like something you'd want to check out!

You can download it in my Teachers Pay Teachers Store!

Keep your head in the clouds! 

xo

Shine in Kindergarten! {freebie}

Okay friends, I can't help myself. I am loving the Kindergarten readiness skills in my Sea You in Kindergarten bundle, that I cannot help but share parts of it with you FOR FREE!

Check out Shine in Kindergarten!

You'll get the parent letter and Kindergarten Readiness Skill List FOR FREE!

Download them here!

And remember, if you like those, you'll LOVE the complete packet!

Download it here!

Keep your head in the clouds!

xo