HUGE Spring Giveaway

Hello Friends!

We are so excited to get to team up with some AMAZING Teachers Pay Teachers authors to bring you an OUTSTANDING giveaway!

During this giveaway you have 3 chances to win gift cards to say THANK YOU for all you do for your students! We will raffle off a $200.00 gift card, a $125 gift card, and a $100 gift card of your choice to Amazon or TpT!

We would LOVE for you to follow our blog or join our mailing list while you are here.

Here is the link to the giveaway:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Best of Luck!


This promotion is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with Teachers Pay Teachers or Amazon. 

Painting in the Classroom Made Easy

Do you love seeing your class paint but fear getting the water out? You start to vision spills, ruined artwork, and unhappy students. This was me but not anymore!

This trick may help solve the spilled water issue for you!
It is great for home, too!

Reuse your beverage carriers!
You can get them for free and it is a great lesson on reusing materials!

One thing we have found works best is using smaller cups in the holder.  We also removed the lids on the watercolors so they would fit in the tray easily.

If you need classroom sets of watercolors, here is the link we have used. (affiliate link)

After you give it a try, come back and let us know how it worked for you! We love to hear from our readers!
Happy Painting!

This post may contain affiliate links for your convenience. View our full disclosure policy here.

Shop Amazon Items We LOVE!

To check out items we use in our classroom and LOVE, click the link below:

Planet Happy Smiles on Amazon

Happy Shopping!

Valentine's Day Giveaway!

Hello! We love sharing our products with teachers from all over the world.  We appreciate you all so much! Please enter our giveaway below to win two of our Valentine's Day items!
Click the picture below to enter:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

If you didn't win, you can grab them here:

  

Thank you for taking part in our giveaway!

Happy Teaching!

8 Hands-on Math Stations with a Snowman Theme!

BRRRR! It is cold out there!

When we are learning about winter, we love to bring the snow into our Texas classrooms! Here are some snowman stations your students will love and they are very easy to prep! We can't wait to bring them into our classrooms this week!
The kids will be so excited!

Ten Frames:

One activity that never gets old in our classrooms is our ten frame station.  There are several activities you can do with ten frames!  Just changing out the counters makes it exciting for our young students!

Place Value Puzzles:

Practicing place value is important for our young learners. These puzzles make it extra fun for them! We made 30 puzzles using numbers between 0 and 999. That gives them some numbers that may be more challenging!

Comparing Numbers:

Our students need lots of practice comparing numbers! These cards are great because they have numbers between 0 and 999 to help challenge our students, too!

Shapes & Solids:

We know our students will love these puzzles, too! They are similar to the place value puzzles, that makes explaining them a snap!  The matching pairs are a little harder depending on the student's reading ability but they have their journals and anchor charts to help them! We combine these two sets together into one station!

Counting Money:

Counting money is another area that they need to work on! We designed these mats for them to record what they used when they counted the change. We also made some money puzzles to go in this station!

 Telling Time:
Telling time to the hour and half hour are review skills.  We added these as an assessment to see who remembers what they have already been taught from the previous year.  We do not start telling time until later this year.

Numbers 1-100:
Our students use thematic number cards in a variety of ways! They love putting them in order from 1-100 in the pocket chart station! They also use them for card games, place value actives, counting, etc.  These cards get a ton of use every month!

We hope you enjoyed checking out some of our stations for math! You can grab this new pack in our TPT store by clicking the picture below!

Stay Warm & Happy Teaching!

How to Make Absent Student Paperwork Organized With Ease!

It is that time of year when several of your students are getting sick. You have absent students and lots of papers to organize for them.

We are going to show you variations of our system for making organization a snap for you and your students!

Materials You Will Need To Get Started:

*Paper Folders, Hanging Folders, or a 1" Binder
*Clear Plastic Sleeve(s)

*Divider Pockets (Binder Option)

*Astrobright Paper, Cardstock, or Regular Copy Paper

Options for Organization:

Option #1: One way you can organize all of their papers is to have several identical folders prepared ahead of time. When a child is absent you simply place one on their table. You can have a helper place the items in the folder throughout the day. We have our “Table Captain” do this job.  When the absent child returns, they will take it home or complete any activities that need to be done at school.

Option #2: Another idea is to make one binder for the entire class that is kept in an accessible area.  As papers are handed out, you simply write the absent child’s name at the top and put it in one of the pockets. You can have as many pockets as you feel necessary. I know I have had more than one out at a time. This will eliminate the need for multiple folders. You then staple all of the pages together with the note on the front. This idea works very well with papers that can not be sent home to complete.

Option #3: You can also use hanging file folders in a plastic file tub. As students are absent, you can add the papers behind the student's name/number. When the student returns, they can remove the items from their folder and take them home in the "Absent Work" folder. I will try and remember to take a picture of this one when I return this week.

We hope this gives you some easy ideas of how to set one up! 

If you want to make it easier, grab our file and print and go!  

Absent Folder for Make-up Work
http://bit.ly/AbsentFolder

Happy Teaching!

Plenty of Pumpkin FUN in Our Classrooms!

We LOVE Pumpkins!

Here is a picture of my kiddo in the pumpkin patch with his cousin. Such cute kids!

Pumpkin time in the classroom is so much fun!  The kids love exploring pumpkins!

Here are some of our FUN, hands-on activities:
(click on the pictures below)

           
  

We hope you have a perfect pumpkin season!

Happy Teaching!