Adopt an Elf

My students had the BEST time with Adopt an Elf a few years back and it has quickly become a favorite!  Adopt and Elf is a resource I purchased from Firstieland on teacherspayteachers.com.  It includes letters from Santa, an Elf Baby Book, writing exercises and so much more!  I ordered these adorable elves on Amazon, put them in sturdy gift boxes (which I also ordered from Amazon.) Santa sent them to our school and the secretary brought them to our class in a BIG drawstring Christmas bag from Dollar Tree.  Each box had a student's name, so they knew Santa had chosen that elf especially for them!  The kids read to them, played centers with them, brought them everywhere and took excellent care of them.  It was such a fun and engaging activity.

Of course, they needed a babysitter when they had sports activities, dance practice, etc.  So I created ELF BUCKS for them to pay their babysitting fees.  They earned the bucks with good behavior and hard work.  What an incentive!  By the time we reached Christmas break each child had accumulated quite a few extra Elf Bucks, so we had an Elf Shopping Spree.  I bought little things from Target Dollar Spot and Dollar Tree for the store and the kids spent their bucks happily!  Those ELF BUCKS worked magic in my classroom!  Every teacher knows how crazy the month of December can be but these kiddos worked hard to earn bucks!  They can be used as an incentive alone or with the adopt an Elf resource.  My choice would be with Adopt an Elf!  SO MUCH FUN!!!!!  I'm adding links below each picture to both resources.

Adopt an Elf

Elf Bucks

Solve and Color???? I gotcha covered.....

My students LOVE solve and color worksheets!  I try not to pull them out every day because I want them to be special and always look forward to them.  When you find unique and engaging worksheets, it's hard not to get excited.  I have a TON of Solve and Color worksheets in my TpT store....multiplication, addition, subtraction......  Follow the link below the picture to shop!  You'll even find a few FREEBIES!

Dovie Funk's Solve and Color Worksheets

Solve and Color.....with a Twist

I also have a different kind of worksheet called Solve and Color with a Twist.  Click the link above to find those unique resources!

Let's Hear it for Writing Journals!

This resource is another favorite!  It can be used as a journal or as individual worksheets, but my students love journals that they can work on all year.  There are 100 journal prompts which include the writing pages.  Students write about the topic and illustrate at the top.  What a surprise for them when they look back and see how far they have progressed with writing!

100 Writing Prompts Journal

Who Doesn't LOVE Bingo?

I never realized the power a simple BINGO game could have over a classroom full of children.  It can silence the most chatty of all kids because they are on a mission.  Whatever the subject of the BINGO game they will stop in their tracks and focus because they love to win!  This Fall CVC BINGO game is a great introduction to BINGO for first graders.  By the time Fall rolls around they can sound out CVC words and spot them pretty quickly so it's great reading practice! You can also use it in centers and have a student call out the words to their group.  The set includes 30 different cards.  There is a link below the picture that will take you straight to that adorable Fall CVC Owl BINGO.

Fall Owls CVC BINGO

HALF OFF of ALL New Resources??? Seriously???

You read that correctly!  If you are one of my followers on TpT you will automatically have access to ALL new resources at HALF OFF for the first 24 hours! Just click the "Follow Me" on TpT and get notifications when resources are added.  Only my followers will be notified. Click the link BELOW the picture to FOLLOW ME.

FOLLOW ME on TpT

All Things Johnny Appleseed

Do you learn about Johnny Appleseed in your classroom?  Johnny Appleseed Day is September 26 so it's time to start preparing!  The first thing you need to do is find a good read-aloud that tells about the life of this folktale hero.  There are so many to choose from but I like to use my EPIC app to find books about specific subjects we are learning in class.  (EPIC is like Netflix but it contains children's books and educational videos.  It's free if you sign up using your school email address.)

I have several different resources available to use after you have read about Johnny Appleseed to your students.  The first resource includes a printable book for each child that they can color and take home to read to their families or have their parents read to them.  It also includes several other activities like a color by number, word search, color by sight word, write the room activity and a comic book page for retelling the story.  (My kids LOVE making the comic book page!)

Johnny Appleseed Booklet and Activities

The next activity is a Johnny Appleseed Book Report Project.  This is great for teaching basic story elements like title, author, setting, characters, author's purpose, beginning, middle and ending. This project fully assembled is two feet tall so it would make a great bulletin board or wall display for open house!

Johnny Appleseed Book Report

Next is a Math Solve and Color with a Twist Activity.  It has two project pages with several worksheet options for differentiation.  Students work the math problems on the first page, then use their answers to find the code to color the picture.  These are always a favorite!

Johnny Appleseed Solve and Color with a Twist

If you want to get ALL three of these resources at a great price I have a BUNDLE available!

Johnny Appleseed Bundle

Enjoy your Johnny Appleseed Week!  Happy Reading!

Johnny Appleseed Math FREEBIE

Are you ready for my latest FREEBIE??? This is a Johnny Appleseed Solve and Color with a Twist Project.  Students answer the equations on the first page (there are several to choose from so you can differentiate) and use their answers and the code to color the picture.  My students cheer when I bring out any Solve and Color with a Twist Project!  I have several available in my store.  Just look at my custom category called Solve and Color with a Twist.  I will also add some pictures and links below.

Johnny Appleseed Math FREEBIE

Fall Scarecrow Solve and Color with a Twist

School Solve and Color with a Twist

Johnny Appleseed Solve and Color with a Twist

Animal Selfies Solve and Color with a Twist

Turkeys Solve and Color with a Twist

The Lost Art of Board Games

The Lost Art of Board Games

Every year before school lets out for summer break our students have Game Day. They are allowed to bring a board game from home and the kids play games all day with a spelling bee and math bee mixed in as well.  The children look forward to this day with much anticipation.

A few years ago my coworker and I started noticing that the kids didn't know how to play the games or even how to interact with each other during Game Day.  With the popularity of video games and tablets, kids weren't socializing or even interested in those games.  We decided it was our responsibility as teachers to change that.

There is so much value in playing with board games:

• basic math
• language/communication
• socialization
• logic
• strategy
• cooperative learning
• winning gracefully
• losing with dignity and kindness
• ......and the list goes on......

I started out by using smaller simple board games during center time at my small group table.  I would work with four kids at a time playing a simple game I created.  We worked on taking turns, going in order, rolling dice, moving the correct number of spaces and so on... When we got to the end of the game and there was a winner we discussed the proper way to act if you won and the proper way to act if you didn't win. It only took a day or two for the kids to be able to play without my assistance.

The games started to catch on and the kids really enjoyed playing them.  When it was rainy or cold outside they would ask to play our games during recess.  I had to create new games to keep up with them because they genuinely had a great time and got along so well. That made this teacher's heart so happy!

Let me encourage you to teach your students how to play board games.  You don't have to spend a lot of money on them.  There are many available on Teachers Pay Teachers that can be printed on card stock and use your own dice and mini erasers for playing pieces.  I've listed a few below that I have available with links under each picture.  At the end there is a free set of clip art where you can create your own games.  Enjoy!!

August and September Math Centers

Build A Turkey Math Game

Fall Math Centers

FREE Game Boards Clip Art

Johnny Appleseed Book Report Project

Can we just take a minute to discuss the possibilities of this adorable Johnny Appleseed Book Report Project?  The finish product is two feet tall so it would make a great bulletin board or hallway display for Open House.  Simply choose your favorite Johnny Appleseed read-aloud to read to your students, then use the project to teach basic story elements - title, author, characters, setting, beginning, middle and ending.  The kids then fill in the information, color, cut and glue their project together.  My students LOVE doing book reports when we use projects like these!  You can click the link below to find this FUN resource!

Johnny Appleseed Book Reports

I am so excited to announce that I have now started making clip art for TpT.  This is something I have wanted to do for years but being tech-challenged I wasn't sure how.  Thank goodness for Google!  After watching a few tutorials I was able to figure it out and have been busy making clip art every day since.  You can see some of my resources below.  If you want to try some of my clip art I do have a few freebies available in my store.  Just visit my store and click on Clip Art under my custom categories and you will see all of my FREEBIES and paid products.  NOTE: The products pictured are paid products.  Follow this link to see all of my clip art:  Clip Art by Dovie Funk

NEW FREEBIES for PreK and Kindergarten Teachers

Check out these new Alphabet Sampler FREEBIES for PreKindergarten and Kindergarten:

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Alphabet-Fun-for-Pre-Kindergarten-PreK-Sampler-FREEBIE-4324112

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Alphabet-Worksheets-for-Kindergarten-Sampler-FREEBIE-4323605