The Primary Gal sure was right when she said, "What teacher actually takes the summer off?".  Totally true.  I am linking up with the Facebook Free For All group and giving away some goodies in the Classroom Decorations category { with a freebie sneak peek at my Math Manipulative Bin Labels thrown in for good measure :) }.  Here goes...

In honor of my birthday this week (June 16th- any other Geminis out there?!) I decided to put my birthday bulletin board PDF file on the link up.  I use these files along with adorable little cupcake cut outs to create my decorative classroom birthday bulletin board.  I find it helpful that these labels are smaller.  They can fit nicely on a small cabinet rather than taking up a precious bulletin board that could be used for student work.  This file contains the months of the year labels pictured below plus general classroom labels {finished/unfinished work, sharpened/unsharpened pencils, book bin labels, supplies etc} and a little freebie action with a few of my Math Manipulative Bin Labels.  

Below is a picture of how I styled the Birthday Bulletin Board.  


And here is a sneak peek of my math bin labels.  There are 15 labels for you to choose from, each with a clear color photograph of each image.  

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Quickie blog post here for those of you still battling through the last few sweltering days of school... I was cleaning out my "teacher books" today (aka the books I store up on a very high, very out of reach shelf) and stumbled across this FABULOUS book written by Jamie Lee Curtis.  I just love all of her social/emotional books; they have such a great message.  How did I forget that I bought this book way back when?!  So glad I came across this treasure.


This one in particular is so fitting for the end of first grade (sob).  I threw together a little response to literature activity to go along with this precious read aloud.  You can grab the FREEBIE  here,

I read the book to the kiddos and then talked them through a meditation.  By "meditation" I mean, they close their eyes and I talk them through the relaxation process.  Then I shift their focus to whatever I want them to ponder.  I have the say, the quality of work that I get after a "meditation" is remarkably better than when I don't do a meditation.  I usually do these with response to literature activities or a writing activity.  I have to say, I am pretty proud of the finished (and not quite yet finished!) products.

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