Teacher's Pay Teachers Archives - Page 53 of 72

Classroom Themes and Transformations the Students Will LOVE

August 12, 2019 teachersbrain Classroom Decor, Door Decorating, Teacher's Pay Teachers

Pick a theme or color scheme that you will love all year!

Themed Classroom Decor

Picking a theme that not only you love, but inspires your students to learn is one of the most important decisions for a teacher! Your classroom decor sets the tone for your students all year. Teacher’s want it to be warm, inviting, and materials to be easily accessible to the students. Keep your theme calm, yet fun. Nicole Woody’s camping reading area is warm and inviting! What student wouldn’t want to curl up with a good book in a tent next to a camp fire?

Create a STEM Area

STEM Classroom Decor — Lisa Taylor Teaching the Stars

If you love a particular subject, make sure you incorporate your favorite subjects in a way to make you feel happy and inspired. Not only will you walk in to your classroom with an instant feeling of happiness, your students will see your passion and follow suit! Check out Lisa Taylor’s STEM area for ideas in your classroom. She also creates amazing STEM products in her TpT store! It is bright, happy and screams “MAKE SOMETHING GREAT” with the way she organizes using accessible bins with various items. This also makes clean up a snap for students to easily put materials away.

Imagination

Amazing Classroom Decor — The Fairy Tale Teacher – Kirstian Bryant

Check out The Fairy Tale Teacher’s classroom where imagination meets blooms of color to engage her students and set a happy tone to the school day! Using your imagination to design your room is a great way to model for your students how they should use their imagination. Not sure what theme to pick? Consider leaving the room a blank canvas and let the students choose a theme and maybe even a class name. You can invite the students help create the decorations or help write a grant to obtain materials they want for their room.

Classroom schedules can help spruce up your classroom and be a helpful tool to help students with transitions during the day. Check out this editable schedule for primary or intermediate classrooms!

Flexible Seating Board — Rikki Heyman
@MissHeymaninThird

Objectives in the Classroom — Rikki Heyman
@MissHeymaninThird

Bulletin Boards are the best way to spruce up a classroom! Rikki Heyman has utilized hers to make a “Smart Spot” and another to place her learning objectives, so students can clearly see the targets they should be aiming for during lessons. She said, “Creating a learning environment is a lot of work, but well worth the community I get to share it with…” Do you have a spot in your classroom for placing learning objectives? Her “Smart Spot” board is used for students to be able to locate flexible seating choices. What child wouldn’t want to be in this class?

Add Some Color

Sometimes all you need is some great colors to brighten up the walls of a dull classroom! I love the way this room utilizes colorful pompoms, blue hanging paper lanterns, various forms of lighting, and the cute chalkboard table stands. Adding pennants and lanterns are fantastic ways to transform a classroom into a positive environment for learning.

Don’t forget about your doors. They are the first thing your students will look at in the morning! Either decorate your door, or for younger students, have a choice for them to pick for a MORNING GREETING (Grab the freebie!) or GOOD BYE. If you don’t have time to greet the students in the morning, let that be a student’s job. It can change the mood of a student who had a rough start at home.

Travel the World

Tropical Classroom Decor — Teacher’s Brain -Cindy Martin Tropical Themed Classroom

Want to bring Hawaii with you into the classroom for the year? Use this tropical themed classroom decor set that includes watercolors and real photos of Hawaii. Decorate some palm trees for holidays. Create a warm environment by using bamboo, beach colors and tropical decor in your classroom. Students can relax in beach chairs in the reading nook.

Colors make a Difference

Paint Cans as Table Markers and Pencil Holders

Find you local home improvement store to find paint color sample strips. This will help you pick some colors that really go together, if you want to transform you classroom without having a particular themed room. You can find empty new paint cans there also. Use the paint cans as pencil holders, flower pots, spray on some chalk paint to easily use chalk to write table numbers, and use the lids for students to practice tracing circles. You can spray the lids with the same black chalk paint, add a magnet to the back and write your class schedule on the lids. So many possibilities! Whatever you decide, make it feel like your second home, because that is really what your classroom is to you and your students.

TpT Site Wide Sale has STARTED

August 6, 2019 teachersbrain Teacher's Pay Teachers

How can you get everything on your wish list? I will show you some ways!

It’s that time of year. Back to school is full swing when you see that TpT is offering up to 25% off of resources by using the cod BTS19 at checkout.

First, let me begin by telling you about my TOP 5 picks for primary teachers.

TOP 5 Teaching Resources

The Mega Guided Reading Bundle is full of activities for K-3 students. It is geared for teaching reading all year for K-1, but certainly can help support struggling readers in 2-3.

Guided Reading Activities | Reading Blocks™ MEGA BUNDLE — Guided Reading Activities

2. Tropical Hawaiian Beach Classroom Decor Bundle – This is my favorite decor pack that was designed using real Hawaii photos and watercolor images. Why not have that vacation feeling all year long?

Classroom Themes Decor Bundles | Tropical Pineapples and Palm Trees — Classroom Themes Decor Bundle

3. This kindergarten and 1st Grade Science Bundle is a MUST HAVE for teachers who lack curriculum or support materials in science. One buyer referred to it as “Science EVERYTHING” in their feedback.

Science BUNDLE kindergarten and 1st Grade

4. Do you need something more for your students to practice writing skills? Check out the K-3rd Writing Prompts Yearlong Bundle. This has 12 monthly themed journals with writing prompts, practice with opinion, narrative, letter writing and more. Each prompt has a Self Check Rubric at the bottom of each page.

5. Social Studies is another area that teachers lack materials for in K-1. The Kindergarten and First Grade Social Studies Bundle makes finding materials that meet the standards a SNAP! Also, there are journals, interactive notebook pages, home activities and crafts included in this mega bundle all hitting the standards.

Kindergarten & First Grade Social Studies Curriculum Bundle — Kindergarten and 1st Grade Social Studies Curriculum

TEACHER GIVEAWAY

I mentioned there could be a way to get all of you favorite TpT items. Check out the raffle going on UNTIL MIDNIGHT tonight for one lucky teacher to win $475 to Teachers Pay Teachers! They will pick a winner who can shop the sale tomorrow morning. Next, try checking your Teachers Pay Teachers account for previous purchases you might have forgot to leave feedback on because they will give you store CREDIT! (A lot of people don’t know about this FREE money.)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

The Power of Visualization

April 28, 2019 teachersbrain Teacher's Pay Teachers

Have you ever heard about how powerful visualization can be to help people with their confidence, business, or personal life? Well, there is science to back it up! One of my favorite examples of visualization was listening Jim Carey talk about seeing his future. He would visualize being successful in detail when he had nothing. It made him feel better. He wrote himself a check for ten million dollars and dated it for 1995 for acting services rendered. Years later in 1995, he found out he was going to make ten million dollars on Dumb and Dumber.

That is a perfect example of how powerful your thoughts can be to your real life.

Why don’t more of us use this tool?

I found many scientific studies that show that the brain doesn’t differentiate between a real memory and a visualized one. If you visualize an item, an action or moments, your brain chemistry actually changes as if it was real. Your mind records the memory.

Become Confident

I used this technique many times when I needed to build my confidence. One time I had to talk to someone I feared, so I visualized the conversation before it happened. I found that I dominated the conversation and had the outcome I desired. If I didn’t visualize it, it could have left the conversation open to the other person to dominate. I would bet that the outcome would have been different.

Visualization is a skill I used when I first became a teacher. I feared talking in front of students. Even reading a book in front of them caused me a little anxiety. I would practice in my mind. The emotion of joy would fill my body as I could see the students gaining understanding from my lessons and giggling at my tone. It helped me get through my first year. Repetition turned my fear into something that is as natural as breathing for me now.

The trick is to pretend like you already have what your are wanting and attach an emotion to the event. This will ease your fear and anxiety of an event you might feel dread about attending. It will boost your confidence about following through with something you may fear.

PROOF

Many studies show that using visualization is effective to improving skills. Some studies showed evidence of visualization being just as effective as real practice when it comes to improving skills. This is why athletes’ use it in their training. It works well!

HOW To Visualize

Here are the techniques that are effective.

Close your eyes, mentally state your goal or your intention of the visualization.
Imagine the situation or event with all of your senses.
Place a STRONG emotion with the images. Feel as if it is real so your brain can record all the images while you feel the emotion.
Focus on breathing calmly. Repeat the whole process until it is clear and easy to imagine.

I hope these tips for visualization are helpful for you to gain confidence, take control of your life and change your mindset to achieve your dreams.

Girl, Bed, Hair, Bedroom, Relax, Person, Indoors

Literacy Night Ideas

March 24, 2019 teachersbrain Teacher's Pay Teachers

If your goal is to include families to be engaged in your family literacy night at school, you need to be creative. You will find some great ideas here. We will also focus on a Dinosaur Themed Escape Room that the entire school can participate in during Literacy Night. Here are some ideas, tricks and tips for a successful family literacy night.

Know your GOAL

First, you will want to think about what your main objective is for the night. Do you want to build family and school relations, connect the student with the parent, build and excitement about literacy, sell book fair books as a fundraiser or support parents with helping their children at home with literacy skills? Once you know your goals, it will help you think about your activities for the event.

Theme

Know your audience. What challenges will there be? Knowing your challenges ahead of time will help you prevent any mishaps during the night. Are there kids with needs, language challenges, or is it difficult to get your families to participate in school events after hours? Picking a great theme can motivate families to participate. Here are some theme ideas:

Camping
Reading in Pjs
Movie Night
Trunk or Treat
Superhero Books
Hollywood
Dinosaur Hunt Escape Room
Sports Jersey Night
Around the World

Activities

Selecting a theme will help you come up with some great themed activities. For example, if you are doing a camping theme, have tents up, have a special reading about camping, make s’mores at a station, a reading picnic or a photo booth with them catching a BIG FISH. The BIG FISH could be a book. All of the themes could have photo booths, professional storytellers, giveaways and stations full of literacy activities that include the parent.

Help and Reminders

Finally, sending home reminders regularly will increase the participation. Written invitations, phone messages, texts, calendars and emails are all great ways to remind families to participate in the Family Literacy Night. Most importantly, make sure you send a reminder home the day of the event. It helps to provide some incentive of a book giveaway that is high on the student’s interests meter or gift cards.

If you need help running stations, request parent volunteers. You can offer child care where a teacher watches siblings for the parents who are volunteering. You should encourage teachers to participate. One way is to let teachers know the theme, and let them pick an activity they would like to do with families. It doesn’t hurt to offer an incentive to the teacher volunteers either.

Dino-MITE Escape Room for Literacy Night

Kids love dinosaurs! What better way to get parents engaged with their children than an Escape Room with a dinosaur theme that they all can enjoy. Even teachers have fun with this Literacy Night theme! This escape room can be used for literacy night or for a single classroom to reinforce sight words, blends, problem solving and teamwork. They will have to open a box with surprises to escape their room! No need for locks or fancy boxes either!

This escape room is editable, but it comes with two activities that are differentiated. Students will solve 3 clues in order to solve the mystery, find a baby dinosaur and break out of the classroom. There are step-by-step directions, but you can easily change things around to fit your needs. The sight words, blends and riddle are all editable, if needed. It takes about 45 minutes to set up, 30-40 minutes to solve all the clues and 10 minutes to clean up! You will find invites, homework passes, reminders and photos of the easy set up. Check it out!

Escape Room Sight Word Mystery Literacy Night — Escape the Room Dinosaur

Want to learn about how to set up your own classroom Escape Room? Check this blog out HERE.