Fun Back to School Chalk Portraits

Looking for a fun and creative way to capture your students' or child's First Day of School?  Try these chalk portraits for a bright and cheery memory keepsake!

I started with a couple of boxes chalk from the Dollar Store...  I got a few extra boxes just in case!   Next, look for a clear spot of sidewalk; I took my son's picture so I used the sidewalk near our home.  But if you're using this method for your school students, your playground should have a big area you could use.

Next, think of what kind of text you'd like to have on your portraits:  Back to School, First Day of ______ Grade, Happy New School Year, etc..  There's a gazillion things you could use for these.   My son is in third grade this year, so I chose the saying, "Hello 3rd Grade".

Now, I have to start with my son HATES to take pictures.  And I'm a perfectionist that loves to take photos, so I have to keep taking them until I get just the right one!  So here's some of the 12 or so I took...

Then he started to get tired and just went wild...

Finally, we ended up with the Back to School portrait for the year...

I would recommend you plan out first where you want the child to sit and when you have your "masterpiece" drawn on the sidewalk, have them sit right in that place and no where else.  Otherwise, like my son, they'll want to touch and play with the chalk and get it all over their new white shirt we got for the pictures.  So plan out the entire picture taking experience in your head first!

Start the Discussion:

• What did you do for your first day portraits?
• What did you use... a printed poster, chalk, handmade sign?
• What are your suggestions for taking perfect Back to School portraits?

I'd love to hear you comments to the questions above or about anything you'd like!

Until Later My Friends,

Yay! Or Yikes! Honest Feelings About Back to School

You know it's Back to School time when you have to buy supplies for 19 students and everything is sold in packs of 18.   Or how about when you realize the school's most "notorious" student has finally managed to get up to your grade level and is on your class list...

Hello Friends!   Today we're talking about our honest feelings about Back to School.  It's ok; we're all going through it and have those love-hate feelings about all the different aspects of finally saying goodbye to the last day of Summer and walking back into the classroom.

Here's my thoughts about Back to School:

Reminds me of...  Back to school always reminds me the week before school started like when I was in Elementary School.  I was SOOOO nervous!  Isn't that strange how after so many years in school (both as a student and teacher) we STILL get nervous about that first day of school?  Does that ever go away?  I don't think so.  I know picking out that first-day outfit is always the hardest for me... Am I the only one that just can't decide?

Makes me want...   Back to school makes me want to pull all my hair out.  The worst part is all the professional development meetings we have to attend as teachers, when we NEED to be in our classrooms putting up bulletin boards and setting up desks.  But, no!  We need to sit through meetings that really sometimes don't seem that necessary; or the information could be passed along through an email.

Drives me to...  Back to school drives me to drink more Diet Coke.  Friends, I'm addicted to Diet Coke.  I admit it.  I need a group to join or something because when school starts, I swear, the first thing I do is fill my mini-fridge with Diet Coke.  My students look at me drinking it with this stare like... "Please let us go get a drink" and I'm like "Not until Bathroom Break time!"  Sometimes I feel bad, but they drive me to drink it.

Makes me need...  Back to school makes me need to drive to Target and Walmart to go get a gazillion more supplies because they added a student to my list.  Then took one away.  Then added two more.  Then took three away.  Long story short... I still need more darn supplies because the package only has 32 and I have 34 students!  I HATE that!  Does this happen to you too?  Or you need to make yet ANOTHER name tag for the student they added and you ran out of name tags.  OMGosh!  Or you use yellow notebooks for your journals and no store in your city has yellow notebooks anymore because they're sold out.  So you have one student with a purple journal and the rest are yellow.  I will stop right there because I could go on and on...

Causes me to...  Back to school causes me to learn how to get up before the sun comes up.  What?  It's pitch black outside and I have to get up?  What's wrong with this picture?  We're so spoiled in the Summer when we can sleep in.

 Makes me think...  After all is said and done, when those cute little faces walk through the door on the first day, back to school makes me think I'm so lucky to be their teacher.

I'd love, love, love you to take a little time and share your Back to School feelings!  If you'd like to link up, please use the image below.  Save it with your information and use it in your own blog post.  Make sure to link back to my blog and then come back and join in the link up below!

An InLinkz Link-up

Until Later My Friends,

Rid Your Students of Tattle Tongue

Do you ever wish you could wave a magic wand and your students would lose their voices for a few minutes?  I actually have a magic wand pointer I wave in class when I have a secret wish I'd like to come true.  The kids wonder what I'm doing when I come over to them and wave it over their heads, but the physical waving of the wand seems to make things a little better for me to handle...

One of those times I need my wand is when little Keisha comes over and needs to tell me what Marisa is doing wrong.  Or when Jamal has to tell me that Ethan took his pencil and won't give it back.  Oooh, those are magic wand moments for sure.  But now, in those times, I simply say, "I think you're growing a tattle tongue!" and the students get the picture.

Read on to learn how to 

Back to School Freebie and Halloween Graphics

Good Sunday to you my friends!  

I'm taking a break from trying to finish up some wonderful products I've been working on and wanted to pass along this freebie to you!

I know some of us are already back to school and many are on their way here pretty soon.  So I came up with this School Supply Glyph that I thought you might like.  It will be perfect for those first days when you need to keep your kiddos busy for a few minutes while you keep house!

And this is the glyph that goes with the picture!

Click Here to Download Both Printables

And I also finished another Halloween Graphic Set!  This has to be one of my favorite sets of all that I've made.  I love the way the ghosts and witch turned out especially!  All the graphics you see below are included in the set.  You can get them half off for today only, here!

I tried to use brighter colors than you would usually see on Halloween, and I like how the colors turned out together.  The name of the set is Sabrina the Teenage Witch and Her Friends.

And don't forget that tomorrow is the HUGE TpT Back-to-School Sale!  It's on Monday and Tuesday and make sure to use the code: BTS14 to get an extra percentage off your total purchase.  This is one of the biggest sales of the year so grab everything on your wishlist you can afford!  I know I am!

Have a great day friends,

Magic First Day of School Dust & Solving Messy Desks: Part 1

If you're like me, you probably have a Nervous Nelly or Nervous Ned at home the night before school (and I'm not talking about yourself!)  My Garyn is always scared of that first day and I've found the solution to at least calm him enough to get him off to sleep!  Found on The Educator's Spin on It,

the following First Day of School Magic Dust may work for you too!

To prepare, you'll need a small amount of glitter (any color) and a small baggie.  You'll also need a copy of the following instructions and First Day of School, Magic Dust Poem.

Print these directions and poem onto colored cardstock and include with the bag of glitter.

Click Here to Download the Instructions and Poem!

These are a perfect gift to give parents to calm "them" before school at your Back to School Night.  Then they can use them with their own children before school starts.  Hopefully, then you'll have a class of a little less nervous Nellys and Neds!  Package it up real cute in a mesh bag with a ribbon and perfect Back to School Night for the parents that they'll for sure remember and score you some extra points from the starting gate!

 Today marks the kick-off of my week long series about how to keep your students organized and tidy in the classroom, mainly their desks.  But hopefully today's Bright Idea will be used all over the room.

Trust me, your kids will LOVE to use these mini-brooms and will think they're all that if they're the one to get one.  They'll try extra hard to clean-up good enough for their peers' approval.  They work especially good for those desks that have all those pencil shavings in the bottom.  I know you know what I'm talking about!  Try it and trust me they're worth the small investment from the Dollar Store!

The three winners of my Half-Way There, Back-to-School Giveaway are:

~PJ Pempi

~Suzy Palmer

and

~Teresa Stanphill

Ladies I'll be emailing you your prizes soon!  Thanks to all that entered and here's to a great back to school!

Have a wonderful weekend,

Half-Way There Back-to-School Giveaway

Back-to-School is right around the corner for most of us... Some of us have to go back in August, while my district doesn't start until September!  Nonetheless, I'd like to celebrate? this time of the year for us educators by holding a HUGE giveaway!  

I've asked some of my wonderful blogging friends to donate some of their most-loved products for Back-to-School, and you'll see all of them below.  There are products from 23, yes, 23 talented teacher-authors and clip artists!  Wow!  What a way to celebrate "Half-Way There" to Back-to-School, right? 

Check out these exciting products you have the chance to win:

And there's more...

We're not done yet...

What?  There's even more?

 Three winners will be chosen and the Half-Way There giveaway runs until Friday.  So enter today and good luck to you all!

The beautiful apple graphics are from my talented friend, A Little Peace of Africa!  Visit them on TpT for more wonderful clip art.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Free Back-to-School Printables!

So many of us are close to that bittersweet phrase, "Back-to-School".  There's a wonderful excitement when starting a new school year with new students, but feelings of sadness arise because it marks the end of Summer.  The much needed Summer we all deserve I might add!

To help prepare for Back-to-School, I have a great set of printables available for you today, in celebration of Worksheet Wednesday.  This Wednesday's celebration is hosted by The Teaching Tribune.  Make sure to stop by there later to snag up many more wonderful printables just for you!

Click here to download these printables

These printables are for students to draw their portraits on the first day of school.  As a bonus, I've even added printables to capture their last day of school, so you can compare their growth!  They are available for Preschool through Fifth Grade.  These would be perfect for student portfolios to keep throughout the school year.  I hope you can use these printables!

I'm also teaming up with Wordless Wednesday.   My photo for today is of Garyn making a contained mess!  We were making Oobleck (Dr. Seuss Slime) for a guest post I'm doing for my friend Laura.  I'll let you know when it gets posted so you check out all our messy Oobleck adventures!

Have a wonderful worksheet  and wordless Wednesday friends!

The Best Back-to-School Portraits and Worksheet Wednesday

I have a fun idea for Back-to-School photos for your students or own kids!  I wish I would have thought of this sooner; I would have started when Garyn was old enough to "like" something and express it.  What a keepsake it would be!  But better late than never.  
So this year we'll start with

Have you ever heard that joke, "You know your Mom's a teacher, when you have pizza for dinner and she just has to talk about fractions?" Well, I said to Garyn, "Hey, let's fill out this sheet about how awesome you are!"  "Do I need a pencil?" he says.  I nod my head.  He gives me a look like, "Woman, we're on Summer Break.  Give it a rest already."  This is what we he had fun completing for me...

After we finished that and he went back to his video game, I took his answers, sat down at the computer and made this Back-to-School Portrait of him:

Then I thought, "This would be awesome to do for students as a Back-to-School Portrait for their portfolios or a Mother's Day present!"  So that's my plan and I'm going to take one of Garyn every year around this time of year every year to keep as mementos of his growing up and different favorites.

Here are printables you can use with your students or your own kids (there's one for girls and one for boys)

Click Here for These Printables

I'm linking up with The Teaching Tribune's Worksheet Wednesday, so follow the link below to find more wonderful worksheets!

Yesterday, I finally finished a graphic set for this Autumn, The Fall Kids!  Included are 21 images, 12 PNG and 9 Line Art.  These will be perfect for the upcoming Fall season.  I just love how the pumpkin girls and apple boy turned out!  You can find them here.  And they're even HALF-OFF for today only...

Peace Out, 

Back-to-School Product Swap

Hola Friends!  I'd like to extend an invitation to all you Bloggers to a Back-to-School, Product Swap I'm hosting.  Basically, you choose one of your products (it doesn't have to be a Back-to-School product) and you'll be matched with another blogger.  You'll swap products, try them out, and then blog about your experience!  Sound like fun?  Please read on below...

Click Here to Sign-Up for the 2014 Back-to-School Product Swap!

There are some teachers already signed up and ready to swap, but we need YOU to make this a successful event.  What an excellent way to promote your product and gain some viewers for your blog!  We'll have a Swap Linky when all's said and done, to see each others' wonderful reviews.  So make sure to sign up before June 30th.  Matches will be made then.

Wonderful Monday to You...