A Charlie Brown Valentine

Love is in the air! Love is in my classroom! February is such a short month but it is such an important month!

My firsties love to learn and they love to get to experience new things! For Valentine’s Day I transformed our room into a Charlie Brown valentine!

At this age they love to make crowns to wear and make their valentine day boxes! I love the Charlie Brown collection from oriental Trading! 

What I loved about the crowns were they had adhesive on them so my kiddos could do them on their own! No staple needed! Win win situation today!!!!!!!

Here they are all completed! They are soooo cute!!!

Don’t you love the valentine card boxes!!!!!!!! These are so amazing and it makes it so easy for them to pass out the Valentine’s and bring them home!!

They made Charlie Brown character lollipops!! 

The lollipops were the heart lollipops from oriental Trading! The Charlie Brown lollipop pieces were also from there! 

They went Gaga over the valentine treat bucket! This was at each seat and it was their materials for the day! They then took them home!

 In their buckets were Charlie Brown pencils, erasers and crayons!!! They loved these!!!!

Of course, I had to make a photo booth! Snoopy table cloth hanging on the wall with a snoopy be mine sign and snoopy cut outs hung around! There was also a giant snoopy stand up!

So this is how my Classroom looked for Valentine’s Day! 

I love how oriental Trading has all that I need!

I am a blogger with oriental Trading and I receive materials in return for my honest reviews! These opinions are my own and are not impacted by any other entity! 

Camp Iwanttoreadalot

I now have a favorite area in my room! This is thanks to +Oriental Trading ! I absolutely love my new reading area! I have called it Camp Iwanttoreadalot! 

When I began to think about redoing my reading area, I had so many ideas in my head! Then I looked at the education catalog from Oriental Trading and saw the camping stuff for classrooms and fell in love! 

I had to get the background! They have so many awesome backgrounds to fit all of your educational needs! Just check out their catalog!

I fell in love with the trees and the stump!!! 

Here is my reading area redesigned!!!

The teepee and the rug are from +Target . The pillows in the teepee are also from +Target . The polka dotted pillows are from +Kohl's ! 

All the awesome materials I received from +Oriental Trading was easy to assemble, hang up and coordinate. It added so much to my classroom! 

Please go visit Oriental Trading for all of your classroom needs! 

Class Dojo does it again!!!!!

I know you have heard this over and over again but I loooove  +ClassDojo! They are amazing!! We, meaning teachers, ask for changes and additions and they do whatever they can to accommodate us! What other company does that!!!!!!!!!

First, they add groups! What a lifesaver!!! 

 Then they add Class Story! Love this and so does the parents! This is a great way to keep parents informed!!!!

Now they add.........

BRAND NEW USER FRIENDLY AND MORE POSITIVE ICONS for behavior!!!

These icons are for both positive and needs work areas! There are no longer red and green ones. The only thing that is red and green are the circles the points are in! I love this! This makes it an even more positive experience!

So thank you Class Dojo! Thank you for listening!!! Thank you for all of these awesome additions! and mostly thank you for my Mojo!!!! I just love him!!!!!

Learn Like A Pirate Chapter 8

I am blogging about Chapter 8 in this amazing book about Student Led Classrooms written by Paul Solarz. If you do not have this book, click on the book below and it will bring you to Amazon! Buy this book, I promise you, you won't be disappointed!!!

Paul Solarz is discussing the importance of empowerment! The importance of Passion! It al starts with the classroom environment! Be honest with kids. Create an environment where they are safe, safe physically, emotionally and safe to take risks!

So what is Passion Time? Passion Time is when the kids can work on a research project or something that they feel passionate about. Paul mentions Maker Spaces and I couldn't agree more. Maker Spaces are amazing. These allow the students to create and explore! These spaces are what puts grins and excitement back into education.  Paul had an after school club for maker Space but since I teach First Grade and really can not have an after school club, I will be having a Maker Space area in my classroom where they can explore on Fridays!!!

What does passion ignite in kids? 

I have created a sign that I will be hanging on my door for those who enter during Passion Time. Feel free to download it if you would like!

Thanks for stopping by and reading my post! This is a book that I recommend all educators read at some point during their career! I absolutely loved it! It has provided this 22 year veteran teacher some awesome ideas to implement into my classroom!!!