Health Explore Tubs - Safety

The second theme topic I cover in October is Safety. We talk about playground safety, bus safety, and fire safety! I use activities from my Interactive Health Journal, my School Bus Safety Unit, and my Fire Safety Unit. Check these out on TpT:

    

This theme only covers a couple of weeks, so the Explore Tubs will be easy to prep and use. Here's a look at the safety tubs!

*Safety Books: No Dragons for Tea, Stop, Drop, and Roll, Sparky the Fire Dog, Miss Mingo and the Fire Drill, Let's Meet a Firefighter, A Day in the Life of a Firefighter, Fire! Fire!, The Gingerbread Man Loose on the Fire Truck, Staying Safe on the School Bus, Staying Safe on the School Bus, Safety Dave and Daisy Ride the Bus, Safety on the Playground, Staying Safe on the Playground, Please Play Safe!

*Bus Safety Game {from my School Bus Safety Pack}
*Fire Safety Game {from my Fire Safety Pack}
*game markers
*dice

*Melissa & Doug Giant Fire Truck Floor Puzzle {from Amazon}
*School Bus Floor Puzzle {from Scholastic many years ago}

*Bus Safety Cover Up Game {from my School Bus Safety Pack}: Also available in colour.
*Fire Safety Cover Up Game {from my Fire Safety Pack}: Also available in colour.
*Do-A-Dot Markers {from Amazon}
*dice

*Fire Safety Playdough Mats {from twinkl.co.uk -- need a membership to access}
*Play-Doh {from Amazon}
*Play-Doh Town Fire Truck {from Amazon}
*Play-Doh Town Firehouse {from Amazon}

*Hot or Not Sorting Activity {freebie from me here}
*Stop, Drop, Roll Cards {freebie from me here}: Students can practice putting the cards in order and practice their stop, drop, and roll!

*Fire Safety Bingo {from me on TpT}
*cubes of bingo chips

You can read more about my other Explore Tubs here:

What Are Explore Tubs?

Daily Schedule: Theme

Science: Weather & Seasons Explore Tubs

Science: Five Senses Explore Tubs

Science: Objects & Materials Explore Tubs

Science: Living Things Explore Tubs

Social Studies: Canada Explore Tubs
Social Studies: I Belong Explore Tubs

Christmas Around the World Updates!

Hey folks! I'm back again! I'm here to share with you an update of my best selling item--my Christmas Around the World Scrapbook & Craft pack! This update has been a year in the making and I've finally gotten around to it!

I have added 8 new scrapbook pages, crafts, and suitcase stickers for Canada, U.S.A., Hawaii, Kwanzaa (U.S.A.), Russia, Ukraine, Diwali (India), and Hanukkah (Israel).

I've also added a new, full colour answer key for all the countries that has the map, flag, fill-in-the-blank answers, and a sample picture to draw in the circle. No more research for you--it's all right there!

And lastly, I've added bulletin board decorations so you can display your trip around the world in your classroom! I added a country card to the bulletin board after each "visit" and even used push pins and string to show the location of the country on the large world map!

If you have already purchased my Christmas Around the World Scrapbook & Craft pack, you can redownload the unit and find the new additions for no extra charge! Just login into your TeachersPayTeachers account, go to My Purchases, search for Christmas Around the World, and redownload the file. The new and improved file will be there waiting for you!

*Note* If you purchased the Christmas Around the World Interactive Slideshow or Informational Text or Christmas Around the World Bundle, I am currently finishing the updates for the slideshow and will post them soon! I will add the updated scrapbook pack to the bundle when I am done the slideshow! Thanks so much!

Social Studies Explore Tubs - I Belong

Explore Tubs were a huge hit in my classroom last year and I can't wait to bring them out again next year! I've been putting some finishing touches on my Social Studies and Health Explore Tubs so I'm ready to go when I return from mat leave next fall. The first theme I teach is Social Studies "I Belong". We talk about the groups we belong to, our family, our culture, friendship, conflict resolution, and emotions. I use my Social Studies Interactive Journal to teach the lessons and then students are free to play with the Explore Tubs when they are finished their journals. September is a pretty busy month and we are just learning our routines and procedures, so I kept these tubs pretty simple. I didn't want the tubs to need much of an explanation, so I kept them pretty play-based. Here's a look at our first round of Explore Tubs:

*I Belong Books: Families, The Family Book, Family, Families, Who's in a Family?, Where I Belong, We All Come from Different Cultures, What Is Culture?, Making Friends Is an Art, How To Be a Friend, and Scaredy Squirrel Makes a Friend

*Play-Doh Body and Face Mats {free from picklebums.com}: Students can decorate or dress up the people/faces on the mats by using Play-Doh and various other pieces.
*Various Loose Parts (beads, pipe cleaners, pom poms, sequins, wiggly eyes, etc.)
*Play-Doh {from Amazon}

*Colourful House Sorting Mats {idea from playtolearnpreschool.us}: Students can sort or graph the family counters.
*All About Me Family Counters {from Amazon}

*I Belong Board Game {freebie from dancingintofirst.blogspot.ca}: Such a cute idea for students to practice talking about groups they belong to. Check out Dynelle's blog to see other game and centre ideas for Social Studies!

*Good Friend/Not a Good Friend Sorting Activity {free from me here}

*Inside Out Game of Emotions {free from printablecrush.com}: Students move around the game board. If they land on a circle, they have to share a memory.
*Inside Out Box of Mixed Emotions Books {from Amazon}
*Inside Out Mini Figures {from Amazon}

*Feelings Bingo {from me on TpT}
*Emotion-oes {from Amazon}

You can read more about my other Explore Tubs here:

What Are Explore Tubs?

Daily Schedule: Theme

Science: Weather & Seasons Explore Tubs

Science: Five Senses Explore Tubs

Science: Objects & Materials Explore Tubs

Science: Living Things Explore Tubs

Social Studies: Canada Explore Tubs

Monday Made It - August 1st

Hey everyone! I was kind of hoping that baby boy would make his appearance already so that he could be Made It #1, but he's still hanging out. I'm exactly 39 weeks today. One week til my due date!! Big sister Zoe is getting pretty excited to meet him and so are we!!

Well while I am waiting for little mister to get out of me, I'm linking up with Tara from 4th Grade Frolics for her weekly Monday Made It!

Even though I am currently on mat leave, I never stop thinking about school or buying cute things for school. Well the last few times I was at Michael's I saw this adorable tip-out drawer unit in pink and teal. I thought it would make a perfect little teacher tool box. The first few times I resisted buying it. By the third trip though, I had to have it. I bought it with a 50% off coupon and made these cute chalkboard labels to go on them. I had some interest on Facebook and Instagram, so I thought I would share the labels with you. You can find editable labels for free {here}. Make sure when you print them, you un-click "Scale to Fit Paper" so they are exactly the right size for the toolbox! :) 

I always loved having my polka-dotted "Where Are We?" posters hanging outside our classroom door so that parents, specialists, or anyone else could find us in the school! The only thing that bugged me was it didn't match my classroom decor anymore, so I made a new version in my Chalkboard & Brights theme! I can't wait to hang these up!!! (Next year.... when I'm done mat leave.... lol)

My next two made-its are not school related. I've been busy getting the nursery already for baby boy. The first project was recovering the cushions on my glider. I was never a big fan of the light pink, but it worked fine in Zoe's room. When I brought it into the baby's grey nursery, I just couldn't leave it pink!! I had some grey fabric that I bought for a DIY headboard that never got made, so I used it to recover the glider cushions. I love how it turned out!!

I had ordered fabric to make some curtains for our new house way back in November, but I finally just got around to sewing some of them. I found this awesome tutorial from Two Twenty One on how to make tabbed black out curtains. I made some pink polka-dotted curtains for Zoe's room to match her Minnie Mouse bedding.

Then I made some navy chevron curtains for baby boy's room. I am loving how his nursery turned out. My husband is a big Winnipeg Jets fan, so we did a hockey/Jets themed nursery. It's pretty cute if I do say so myself!

Well that's it for me! I've got a few TpT products on the go that I am hoping to get up by the end of the summer, but we will see how that goes! I'm sure life once baby gets here will be a little on the crazy side! ;)

Oh, but don't forget that there is a big TpT sale going on right now! Today and tomorrow everything in my store is 20% off and you get an extra 10% off when you use the promo code: BestYear. Happy Shopping!

Classroom Decor Products -- Chalkboard & Brights, Rustic Burlap, or Rainbow Polka Dot!

The end of this school year has me full of mixed feelings.... I'm so excited to finally be on summer holidays and doubly excited to get to spend all of next year on maternity with Zoe and Baby Boy (who is due in 3.5 weeks... say what?!). But at the same time, I'm sad that I don't get to set up and decorate my new classroom! If you saw my classroom reveal last year, you saw that I had to move out of my classroom and into the junior high science lab because of construction at our school. Here are some of pics of last year's classroom:

It turned out to be an amazing space and I loved the chalkboard & brights theme that I created and decorated with. Well the construction finished up in mid-June, so after students were done on the 28th, a bunch of us got to move classrooms. (I think it was a total of 8 teachers moving classrooms, 3 teachers moving to new schools, and 4 new teachers moving in... All in a staff of like 18 teachers. lol. Craziness!). The two kindergarten teachers got brand-new classrooms and I got to move into one of the old kindergarten classrooms. It is so big with sooooo much storage! Unfortunately I don't have any pictures yet... that will have to wait until next summer! ;)

I'm planning on sticking with the chalkboard & brights theme when I go back, but will probably create some new things for it. I started by making a chalkboard & brights version of my "Where Are You? Hanging Posters" and "Dolch Sight Words". If you are interested in any of my chalkboard & brights products, click here!

I had some requests for some of products in a Rustic Burlap theme with a D'Nealian font. They turned out so cute if you are doing a rustic/farmhouse themed classroom. These are the products I've created so far. If you are interested in any other products in a burlap theme, send me an email (firstgradegarden@gmail.com) and I would love to create something for you! I can also do any of the D'Nealian products with a regular type of font if you are interested. :) Check the products out here!

I also have some rainbow polka dot themed products available as well!! Click here to check them out!


What is your classroom theme going to be next year? Are you changing things up or staying with the same? Leave a comment below with a link! I'd love to see all your classroom pictures. :)

Kwik Stix & Pencil Grip Review & Giveaway

Hey everybody! Having a great summer so far? You know what would make your summer even better... a giveaway! The lovely folks over at The Pencil Grip company sent me a couple of their products to try out and are offering one of my readers a little prize as well!

One of the products they sent me was a 12-pack of Kwik Stix. I had seen these on a few other blogs and was really excited to try them out!

Kwik Stix are tempera paint sticks in a marker-like form. They need no water, dry super quickly, come in tons of vibrant colours, and are SUPER easy to use! 

On the second last day of school, my students were having some free time at the end of the day, so I put out the Kwik Stix and some regular white paper and invited my students to try the paints out. I instantly had about 10 kids swarm the tables to try them out. They loved how easy they were to use and how smooth they were to write or draw with. 

Because they dry so quickly (it says 90 seconds, but it's almost instant!), the students were able to layer the colours to make some really interesting paintings. One boy drew an amazing night sky with the black and white paints. 

One of my sweeties also wrote me a little good-bye note with the paints. "Have a good baby!" Hehe. Love it!

The Pencil Grip company also sent me their 3 Step Training Kit. The kit contains three different grips: the Crossover Grip, the Pinch Grip, and the Pencil Grip. I didn't have a chance to use it this year, but I will definitely keep it in mind for my students next year! It's a three-step system to correct a student's pencil grip. This will definitely be helpful with the students who need some help with how they hold pencils. 

The Pencil Grip company is generously offering to give away one pack of their Kwik Stix 12pk in Assorted Colors. This will instantly become an essential classroom tool! I'm even planning on letting my 2-year-old create some beautiful artworks with them!

To win this pack of Kwik Stix, visit both First Grade Garden and The Pencil Grip, Inc. on Facebook. The giveaway will end in one week. I will announce the winner on Saturday, July 16th. Good luck! Enter on the Rafflecopter below.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

In addition, everyone has the opportunity to get 15% off their total purchase at thepencilgrip.com. The coupon is good until 5/27/17. Just go to the www.thepencilgrip.com. Shop for any of their awesome products (I'm looking at the neon and metallic Kwik Stix next). Then enter the coupon code: YOUWIN15 at checkout to automatically receive 15% off your total purchase.