Sometimes publishing a writing assignment on a special piece of paper adds some extra incentive and interest. Here’s a simple printable you can use for the final publishing step of a friendly letter assignment. Or if your kids like the idea of “from the desk of” letterhead, have them design their own.
Click here for the free printable: Letter Template
I’m a firm believer in teaching kids to thank others and give compliments. This printable is intended to give kids a space to write a short friendship note to 3 classmates. You can do this activity for Valentine’s Day, the end of the year, or whenever your class needs some bonding. I recommend printing one page for each kid so they can write 3. You may even consider assigning one or all of the recipients to ensure everyone gets one. In addition, It may be a good idea to read them before they’re distributed just in case…
Click here for the free printable: Friend notes printable
The end of the year can be such a fun time… testing is over and summer is near! Thank heavens! But how to keep your students learning when they’d rather be at the beach? Here are some of my favorite ideas:
Review games. Fun distracts kids from the fact that they’re reviewing! I’ve tried this in a tournament style, where teams compete in a variety of games for a big prize. Try these fun review games!
Field day activities outside. Many teachers don’t have time for lots of physical fitness activities, so use the end of the year to help kids enjoy the outdoors while working on team building and leadership skills. Here’s my post on 21 Dr. Seuss themed ideas and this post about a fun water game I learned.
End of the year awards. Your class can vote anonymously on the awards or you can assign them. Check out my collection of 44 printable awards or my blank star awards.
Book Reports. Each student in my class had the opportunity to share their favorite book from the year. I let kids make come kind of visual project or display, which they seemed to enjoy making and showing their classmates. This is one report template you can give your students if you’re looking for a springboard.
Yearbooks and Year-In-Review projects. I absolutely loved this one. It might be my all time favorite. You can assign each student to write one article, or have each student write each one for themselves. Ask parents to bring in or submit pictures from throughout the year. Students can draw pictures or create artwork to go with the writing. This is also a great review of the parts of a paragraph and the writing process. Here are my two printables for this idea: 10 page printable yearbook or 1 page end of the year round up.
Awesome art projects. All those art projects you’ve been dying to do with your class but you don’t have time? Do them! Here’s a cool mask idea for upper grades.
Click here to view more end of the year ideas I’ve written about!
Transitions can get boring really easily… especially if kids only know one or two transitions for each purpose (introduce, sequence, etc.). Here’s my printable transitions poster. It can go on the wall in your classroom, or you can have students put one in their literacy journal. Enjoy!
Click here to view the printable poster: transitions list poster
Here are some printable math flash cards that I made using the Microsoft Word 2013 templates. (Can you tell I’m a big fan of the new Office suite!?)
Click below to view the free printable math flash cards:
Addition Flash Cards- back side
Addition Flash Cards- Front side
Division flash cards – back side
Division flash cards – front side
Multiplication Flash Cards- Back side
Multiplication Flash Cards- Front side
Subtraction flash cards – Back side
Subtraction flash cards – Front side
I know it’s not even close to Valentine’s Day, but I just found this and I’m excited about it! Here’s another gem I found in the new Microsoft Word 2013: printable Valentines for kids!
Click here to download: Valentines for Kids
In case you didn’t know, the new Microsoft Word 2013 has tons of cool templates! For all kinds of things, all kinds of occasions. I found these ABC cards completely made and ready to print. Awesome!
Click here to download: Alphabet Flash cards
I like how this door includes a picture of each kid dancing, since dance is the theme of the door. That could make for a really cute bulletin board also. Choose a verb and take a picture of each kid doing the verb. Use the photos as the decoration on your bulletin board.
This also reminds me of how important it is for teachers and their students to show gratitude to others. I used to allow my kids to make thank-you cards for staff and teachers as fast-finisher activities sometimes. It’s so important to teach upcoming generations about gratitude. Hopefully we are each doing our part to show thanks ourselves and teaching younger people to be thankful.
Squarehead Teachers 