DIY Personalized Beach Pails

At a relatively cheap price, you can create these personalized pails. They make great end of the year gifts for students or favors for birthday parties. The personalization is an easy and quick way to kick them up a notch. 

Supplies

• Pails : The one used below came from the 99 cents store for $1.49. There is no reason to spend more. A plastic pail is a plastic pail. 
• Elmer's Painters: I purchased these on Ebay in assorted colors. All craft stores sell them. 

* Keep wet and dry paper towels around to clean up mistakes. If you make a mistake (like I did) you can wipe off the paint right away and start over. 

I gave these out to my second graders right before summer vacation. On each pail, I wrote the 

student's name and drew a picture. My co-teacher and I also filled the pails with books, and candy. The kids were so excited.

My TPT Store: Math In Focus

Does your school use Math In Focus? I have taught the program for the last 3 years (kindergarten, first and second grade) and have a love/hate relationship with it.

The program is great in that it teaches concepts really in depth. It also challenges students (beginning in kindergarten) to think about why math works and what it's real life implications are.

However, I feel it sometimes expects students to jump into difficult problem solving before they're ready. The assessments often present the problem in a different way than the students were taught and expects them to be able to make the connections without guidance.

For some students, it works. For other students, they're left feeling unprepared and discouraged that despite their best efforts- the test in front of them might as well be written in another language.

That's where small group work comes in. I use these resources with the students that need help making these connections and walk them through the steps. Click on the link to download from my TPT store.

My Teachers Pay Teachers Store

Teachers Pay Teachers FREEBIE

As a teacher, I constantly find myself needing things that don't exist or needing to tweak resources that don't quite fit my needs.  I'm always thinking, " this would be so much better if"..the lines were bigger/ the page was more spaced out,  if there were more visuals, etc.

One resource that has been life saving is Teachers Pay Teachers. If you don't know, it is a giant marketplace where teachers from all over the world offer their resources for free or a small charge. You can find the most creative visual aids, behavior management systems, worksheets, homework, etc. on this site.

However, there has been plenty of times when what I am picturing in my head- does not yet exist- even on TPT. After years of making my own resources to fit the needs of my students, I opened up my own Teachers Pay Teachers store so that I can share my creations with others.

Below is my most popular product. Writing Paper.

It has already been downloaded over 400 times!

By clicking this link, you can download my most popular product for free. This product is ideal for students in kindergarten or first grade and features a student self assessment checklist on the bottom to help students build independence while working on perfecting their writing conventions. There are also different versions (smaller/no picture area) available at my store.

What are your favorite teaching websites?

My 5 Favorite Fonts {for Teachers}

 

Below are the links to my 5 favorite fonts for teachers.

1. KG This Is Not Goodbye by Kimberly Geswein

This font comes as part of a package. Over 230 awesome fonts for free!!

 

2. KG Part of Me by Kimberly Geswein

This font is part of the package mentioned above. If you choose, this one is available individually for free download by clicking the link.  

 

3. Hello Millionaire by Jen Jones

This font, like the previous two, resemble handwriting. Really neat and clear handwriting. I love using these 3 for word walls, and notes home to parents. This font is part of a package. It is free to download!

 

4. Stanford Kinderprint Dashed by Jessica Stanford

This font comes as part of a collection. For $10 you get 37 different fonts including this one. I love to use this when making worksheet for my students or activities for the Smart board. The print is clear and the dashed line helps students to trace.  

 

5. Janda Manatee by Kimberly Geswein

This font is great for charts and for sight word worksheets where students color the word. It's also by KG fonts and free to download by clicking the link.

Back to School: DIY Personalized Pencil Case

September is just around the corner and back to school sales have already started. This is a tutorial for a personalized pencil case. There's not much to this really. Once you have your supplies- you draw. That's it.

 

Supplies:

• A plastic pencil case. This one was from Staples.
• Elmer's Painters paint markers in assorted colors.

*Keep wet and dry paper towels close by. If you make a mistake with the paint marker, it will easily wipe off while it's still wet.

 

 

Step 1: Use your paint markers to draw a design. I chose a character from Frozen. I recommend googling simple pictures of your idea as a guide. Once you choose your image - keep it close by for reference. This part will take you the longest. As seen in the picture, paint your lightest colors first and let dry before layering other colors on top. It takes a few minutes to dry completely.

Step 2: Write the name. This was tricky for me. The middle part of this pencil case had a glossy finish and some of my paint markers did not hold very well. I wiped them off, and tried another, eventually going with white.

Step 3: Decorate the rest of the box. I used super simple snowflakes. (intersecting lines)

Finished Product