Nyla's Crafty Teaching

Free Teachers Appreciation Week Decorations and a Sale!

2013-05-05T16:30:00.002-07:00

Let’s enjoy our Teacher's Appreciation Week and make our classrooms festive! I made these free classroom decorations which can be used as wall posters or ceiling drops to send out the message that it’s Teacher's Appreciation Week!

Just print and laminate, then cut out the shapes. You can punch a single hole at the tops and tie through some curly ribbon then hang them from the ceiling or over the doorway.

I really caught the TAW bug this week and I 'went to town' in my classroom with these other Teachers Appreciation gift ideas seen below.

Last week, the highly anticipated annual store-wide Teachers Appreciation Sale was held from Tue 7th May to Wed 8th! Yep! Two days of jaw dropping, cart filling, deals for you! My own products were on sale last week at 20% off too. This is a sale that many teachers look out for every year because added to the discount that each store provides. the site also give and additional discount of 10% upon checkout! This is what teacherspayteachers.com does to give back and show their appreciation for teachers.

These are some popular activities that I put on sale from from my store:

The pictures above are clickable. The first two are illustrated card sets for prefixes and suffixes, great for visual learners. The blue one is all about adding up word cards to make complete words which include the prefix + root word + suffix, e.g. un+approach+able.

Illustrated Collective Noun Matching Cards. In each set, students match the collective nouns to the groups to which they belong. My students fell in love with the pictures of animals, people and things and learned about the collective nouns for each group, e.g. a litter of pups, in fun way!

Homophones - The first is a matching game that you play like dominoes, the second is a collection of illustrated homophones and the third is a word wall set with really cute pictures of each homophone.

I hope you had a wonderful week because as teachers, we deserve to have some goodies and a little recognition for what we do!

Teacher Appreciation Week - Gift Ideas

2013-05-04T02:59:00.000-07:00

Image by write-stuff.com

I saw the most beautiful teacher's gift idea on Pinterest. I looks like a tiered diaper cake but instead of the diapers, it's packed with useful, colorful, classroom stationery. There are notebooks, crayola crayons, glue sticks, index cards, and markers! I'll tell you this though, if I would ever receive such a gift, I would treasure it for weeks before I actually use it because it's just so beautiful! The nice folks at write-stuff.com made the one you see above and you can download their easy instructions manual to make one yourself.

Ooh la la! I'd love to have this! Chocolate, cookies and Teaching Joke-Books. If you are short on time and need a ready-made teacher gift, then this would be perfect for you. I saw it on amazon.

Here are other teacher gift baskets that caught my eye from Gift Basket Village by Great Arrivals Gift Baskets...

World's Best Teacher gift basket

Teacher Appreciation Gift Basket

#1 Teacher, Gift Basket

You may also be interested in these Teacher Appreciation Thank You Cards...

Teacher Appreciation Week Sale at Teachers Notebook!

2013-05-04T01:30:00.000-07:00

Did someone say 'Sale'? Yes, you heard right! Starting from Today, Saturday 4th of May, you are invited to come and see all of the fabulous sale offerings from many of your favorite shops at Teachers Notebook! Just click on the picture above to see all of the shops that are participating in the sale. And also I would really appreciate you stopping by my own store-wide sale that I'm throwing to celebrate the best teaching week of the year - Teachers Appreciation Week! You can click on the picture below to see the deals you can from me! I almost forgot to mention that in addition to my discount, Teachers Notebook will take an additional 10% off of whatever is in your cart!

Thank you Cards for Teachers Appreciation Week or End of School Year!

2013-05-04T01:21:00.001-07:00

This is a complete D.I.Y craft that makes a wonderful gift for a teacher. These cards can be used for Teacher Appreciation Week or to say ‘Thank you’ at the end of the school year. It comes in pink and yellow for the female teachers and blue and purple for male teachers.

Each card says 'Thank you for...' (written above the pocket)

Each card has a special pocket on the inside that has sweet little messages on smaller cards just for the lucky teacher. These little cards come in a variety of colors and shapes to match their message. These massages are all of the things that you are thankful for.

Here are some examples below:

Thank you for 'sparking my ideas' - written on a bulb

Thank you for 'teaching me to reach for the stars' - written on a star

Thank you for 'steering me in the right direction' - written on a steering wheel

Thank you for 'sparking my ideas' - written on a bulb

You can see each one much clearer in the pictures below.

I can suggest these on the left for the female teachers and these on the right for the males but you can mix and match them!

All of the messages are expressions of thanks for all of the many different things that teachers do!

It is available at my TpT store as an 18-page digital download complete a tutorial and all of the cards and shapes you'll need to make one.

BONUS!

Here's a really cool thing I discovered, all of the card inserts can make a really spectacular Teacher Appreciation Week gift idea that is so easy to make (even easier than the card!). All you'll need are thin craft ticks or skewers, clear tape, a marker, a disposable cup or small plastic flower pot, small erasers or paper clips and my card inserts. First, think of the inserts as little signs or posters, then tape them onto the craft sticks. Arrange them into the disposable cup which has already been filled with erasers or pepr clips (these will hold the craft sticks in place). Use a marker to write 'Thank you for...' on the cup.

These are pictures of what I used...

...to make this!

Happy Teachers Appreciation Week!

Why I Love Construction Paper Projects!

2013-04-28T11:23:00.000-07:00

I discovered construction paper during my first year of teaching and I will never stop using it. We refer to it as scrap book paper or craft paper because at my school, that's what we use it for - art, craft, cutting, folding, gluing, etc. It's not only the students using it, I use it too! Why? Let me list the reasons:

1. The many different colors (even black)! I use them to make classroom posters that need to project different layers. Each color would represent a different part of the concept and bring a lot of color to by display area. See the different parts of a flower being represented in the poster above?

2. You can get it in loose pages or already bonded in booklet form. I love the ones that are already bonded because I let my students use these to make their own books as an end of year project. Click here to see an older post I did showing the books my students created about butterflies. The pictures above show the symmetry books my students made. To see more of the symmetry books they made, click here!

3. It is firmer than regular paper but is still easy for little hands to cut and it is available in different sizes to suit any purpose. The very large sizes can be folded down to a quarter of its size to create greeting cards that are quite sturdy. I still love using felt and card stock paper but construction paper is the easiest paper for students to handle, especially if cutting is involved. The picture above shows one that comes with cut-outs of objects from different themes.

I'll say that when it comes to cutting, construction paper is definitely a cut above the rest!

Food Chain and Food Web Vocabulary Words - Literacy Station for Science

2013-04-24T00:03:00.001-07:00

What is a food chain or a food web? What is a carnivore, herbivore, omnivore or scavenger? To answer question like these I made a set of food web science definition cards for my students. Each card has a picture of an organism to represent each term along with a simple, easy to understand definition. See the sample picture below. It is a total of eighteen cards available at TpT and Teachers Notebook for $3.00. I color coded each card so that the words match the colors of the theme in the definition. What do I mean? For example, the green cards have words like producer, herbivore, and photosynthesis. These cards encourage reading and will be a great addition to your science literacy station. Here is a list of all of the food web terms in this set: habitat, organism, producer, herbivore, carnivore, omnivore, consumer, scavenger, decomposer, predator, prey, food chain, food web, micro-organism, fungus, energy and photosynthesis.

Speaking of reading, I also have these word wall cards that have the following terms: habitat, organism, producer, herbivore, carnivore, omnivore, consumer, food chain, food web, scavenger, decomposer, predator, prey, energy, and photosynthesis. This illustrated word wall set is perfect for helping your students to remember the spelling and meanings of key food chain and food web terms. I used cute but realistic clip art of animals, plants, and micro-organisms. Some of the clip art used were created by Oxana at Teacher’s Clipart. Here's a preview (below) of one of the word wall cards - the food chain card. This one shows the words 'food chain' along with an actual food chain starting with a leaf that is by a caterpillar which is eaten by a bird which is eaten by a snake. Wait till you see the food web card. Yikes! You can click here (TpT) or here (Teachers Notebook) to see more sample pictures of this set.

If you need some books that you can have as supplementary information for your students, you can check out the full range of food chain book series available at amazon. I saw these "What if..." books that will take learning to a deeper level as students discover the calamity that happens when one organism is removed from the food chain. These are some of the books below.

What if there were no Bees? What if there were no Sea Otters? What if there were no Lemmings?

What if there were no Gray Wolves?

Here are some other things that can be included in your food chain science station...

Food Chain Bulletin Board Set Food Chain Craft Kit

Cut out each piece and make a food chain! I love this idea for younger students.

Chomp! - Food Chain Card Game

This won the Gold Seal award for best educational toy.

I will be doing a new post soon which will teach you how to teach students to make their own food chains and food webs so look out for it. It should be really helpful.

Eco-Friendly Classroom Stationery for Earth Day

2013-04-13T10:46:00.000-07:00

You can you show your students that they can reduce their carbon footprint by choosing eco-friendly stationery. I'll start with the most basic tool we use - the pencil. No trees were harmed to make these because they are not made of wood. They are made from recycled newspaper! You can read more about these here and save a tree by making the switch.

These are color pencils made from recycled newspaper. Did you know that the newspaper protects the graphite better than wood pencils? This will give you a longer-lasting, high quality pencil.

Don't use batteries if you don't have to! Solar power is clean energy. Most student calculators are now solar powered - these can be large and colorful for younger students or pocket sized and sleek as a credit card for teens.

Free Math Board Game for Square Roots!

2013-04-10T14:29:00.000-07:00

It's time for games this time of year! (Educational ones.) Now that the concepts have been taught, even the topics you taught back in Autumn and Fall, you can drill them over in a fun way using card games or board games. I keep my board games organized in sheet protectors in a ring binder. To store my card games, I re-use Q-tip containers and soap dishes (you can read more about that here). As long as they are organised neatly, you students can come in their groups and rotate from station to station during class revision time or weaker students can stay in at lunch time if they need the extra drill time.

This is a new game I created specifically to get the boys in my class to revise the square root number facts. Rather than to have them recite these facts till they are bored to death, it's always better to use a game so that they get their drill and practice but without the monotony. The boys in your class will love this because it's a big car race around the track. Players get to turbo up when they correctly answer the question cards given. I got the inspiration to make this from the new movie 'Turbo' - with the speed racing snail'. This game will also help them to remember the reciprocals of the square root facts which are the squared number relationships.

You too can make games for your students. Just think of what they need to learn and other books, movies or sports they are passionate about. Find a creative way to combine the two, try it out with them to see what works, make your modifications, and try it out again. You can read more tips about it here. It's fun and it's even better if you let your students help you with the process!

I have other math games that I made at teacherspayteachers.com. This one seen above is my fraction domino game. It is played just like regular dominoes but you can match up the same fraction values. Click here to see it! Do you need more free top-notch math games for your students? Well, you're in luck! This post is featured in collaboration with other blog posts about using math games and you can click here to visit and grab more free math games and ideas for your class!

Shades of meaning for the verb 'Say'

2013-04-07T08:21:00.001-07:00

There are many words we can use in place of the words 'say' and 'said' which would be more suitable in some sentences than others. It’s all about using the right word in the right place. These words are: explain, grumble, answer, mutter, plead, reply, shout, ask, exclaim, cry, drawl, sputter, stammer and whisper.

I created a bulletin board set and a card game to introduce my students to these new words. It fulfills the CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.2.5b which is for students to distinguish shades of meaning among closely related verbs (second grade standard).

The set includes:
- illustrated vocabulary matching cards which come with a complementary storage box.

- a bulletin board poster set to brighten up your walls. It creatively displays the new vocabulary words in colors of your choice. (See picture at the top of this post)

- an illustrated word wall

If you are in need of something like this you can preview it here by clicking on the orange 'Download Preview' button on the page.

The 'If you were a...' Book Series for Math, Grammar and Vocabulary

2013-04-04T14:51:00.002-07:00

I ordered these books online for my students (the ones for parts of speech and vocabulary) and during that process, I realized that there were also books math in the same series too... Very interesting...

If you were a noun (with a Space theme) If you were a verb (with a frog theme)

If you were a pronoun (with an ocean theme) If you were an Adverb (with an 'at the park' theme)

If you were a preposition (with an animal theme) If you were a conjunction (with an animal theme)

I had to buy these vocabulary ones...

If you were a Synonym If you were an Antonym

If you were a Prefix (word fun) If you were a Suffix (word fun)

I saved the best for last! These books below will help with mathematics because each book is filled with real-word examples for meaningful learning.

If you were a Quadrilateral If you were a Fraction

If you were a Polygon

Free Fraction Families Bulletin Board

2013-04-03T14:31:00.000-07:00

I made this bulletin board set for fractions last month for my students and use it as part of my fractions bulletin board but you can also use them as flash cards for both fraction families and equivalent proper fractions. Click here to get it as a free download from my Teaching Resources Store at TeacherspayTeachers.com.

My Classroom Library Journey

2013-04-03T02:21:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone! As you know, I'm an islander (and it's great to be living in paradise) but that means that I have a very limited access to classroom resources. For example, books - my school uses the same primary reader that I used when I was little. This has caused my students to hate reading time over the years. I adopted a few strategies over the years that I'll share with you. Some worked and some didn't work. The trick is to always keep trying new things until you find what works.

Ever since I've started teaching, I would visit used book stores for bargains on old books that are more interesting to read. I would collect anything from crossword puzzle books to kids Bible books (the Bible books are usually free). Anyway, I've built up a classroom library of shabby old books but at least it was better than nothing. The students would gladly read at reading time. After one term however, the older books started to fall apart (beyond the point of repair) and these old books were affected my allergies! So I had to get rid of them.

I decided to have a meeting with the parents to explain the need for interesting books that their children would want to read. Each parent was to donate a book to the classroom library. While some parents obliged I'm still waiting on donations from other parents who happen to be in the majority.

Over the years, I got more and more books and now I have a new source for getting books - online! I am able to afford it by using my TpT sales money - you can read more about that here. Anyway, buying books for my students is now a habit. I see it as being part of one of my God-given duties. Now, even the children from the other classes come pouring into my classroom at lunch time to read books!

Geometry Picture Books

2013-04-02T17:15:00.001-07:00

If your students like to read humorous books, then use books that have both humor and the desired content that you need them to learn. I first have to introduce 'The Greedy Triangle' by Marilyn Burns because it teaches the reader not only about polygons but it has an important moral in it as well. Here are a few other worth taking a look at...

What are your favorite geometry books?

Free Illustrated Homophone Word Cards

2013-04-02T08:32:00.000-07:00

Many students and even adults still mix up the words 'there' and 'their', 'here' and 'hear' and other easily confused words. I have been looking for ideas online to to help my students with this but I couldn't find anything so I decided to try my hand at a little doodling to create this free set of illustrated homophone sight words. I tried to make the words artfully represent their meanings and in some cases emphasize the letters that are positioned differently in each homophone pair.

My favorite is the 'there' and 'their' homophones. They both start with the letters 't-h-e-' but as I tell my students, the 'r' in 'there' is easily distracted and is pointing over the 'e' to see way over there. In the word 'their', the 'i' is a person surrounded by his family, so each letter is a person and they are living together in their house.

Download yourself a free copy here from my Teachers pay Teachers Store. If you are not yet a member of this site, just sign up first, then download!

I hope this method is helpful to your students and I would like to make more word cards like these. I have a few ideas but I will have to see if it will work with my students first so look out for more! Feel free to leave other troublesome words in a comment below. They do not have to be homophones.

I'm loving Bloglovin'

2013-04-01T16:19:00.000-07:00

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Books for Boys - A reading list of books boys love!

2013-03-16T09:11:00.002-07:00

Most boys will tell you that they hate to read because 'Books are boring!' or 'Reading is for girls!' Have you heard similar sentiments from your boys? I'm sure you have. This problem is easily solved by giving them books that they would want to read. Use a reading interest survey to find out what they like. Each child is different but I've found that most boys love superhero themed books, books about cars, biographies about sporting heroes, and books about science fiction.

Also, these books need to be filled with illustrations and humor. Comic books are really easy to read because the art work really engages the reader attention and they make great use of alliteration. Joke books are another favorite. There are joke books which are based on a specific theme e.g. sports, school, animals, etc.

Here are a few of my suggestions below, click on each one to see excerpts from each book. My students love them all... well, just the boys.

National Geographic Kids: Just Joking

National Geographic Kids Just Joking 2

National Geographic Kids Just Joking 3

Ordinary Boy - The Hero Revealed

Ordinary Boy-The Return of Meteor Boy

Ordinary Boy-The Great Powers Outage

Batman - Batman's Friends and Foes

Superman - from the Phantom Zone

Spider Man versus the Green Goblin

Collective Nouns for Animals, Persons and Things

2013-03-03T15:45:00.000-08:00

Here are some collective noun matching cards that are played like dominoes. Most of the collective nouns in each list below are found in the card sets above. The entire card set has eighty illustrated collective nouns. They can be played as a whole set or in three separate categories; animals, persons or things. Each set is also available separately at TpT. Click on each picture below to view an individual set in one category or click on the picture above to see the complete bundled set which will give you an automatic discount of $1.00 off.

Technology in the Classroom

2013-03-02T13:06:00.000-08:00

Great news for teachers with iPhones and iPads! I saw this online and I just had to share. Check out this mini HDMI Pocket Projector from Brookstone... I think that this is such a neat idea. Computers and even laptops are really becoming a thing of the past!

Easter Clock Craft - It's Easter Time!

2013-02-28T00:26:00.000-08:00

If you need an Easter craft activity, I've got eggs-actually what you need... an Easter clock making kit complete with numbered eggs for the hours on the clock-face and the hour and minute hands have cute Easter chicks on them. It can be printed out in color (Easter pastel colors) or in blackline (there a black and white version for students to color). This activity is not just decorative but is the creation of a printable classroom manipulative that can be used over and over again. Students can use it to demonstrate their knowledge of time and can use the interactive hour and minute inserts (included) which can be used interchangeably with the clocks. It is available here at my TpT store for $2.00. Happy Easter!

You may also be interested in this math/craft lesson plan - How to Make a Clock

The Organized Classroom Magazine

2013-02-20T08:16:00.000-08:00

I found out today about a new magazine for teachers that has been recently launched by a very familiar name - Charity Preston from The Organized Classroom Blog. I got to preview the very first edition and it is really helpful with tips for getting rid of excess paper clutter. This premiere issue will be free so... need I say more? Grab it here at Charity's Blog!

Free St. Patrick's Day Clip Art

2013-02-17T10:59:00.000-08:00

If you're searching for free St. Patrick's Day Clip Art, you've come to the right place! I've put together a list of free downloadable rainbows, shamrocks, leprechauns, pots of gold and more. Just click on the images below to see more.

Carnival Time in T & T

2013-02-10T12:59:00.001-08:00

It's Carnival time here in Trinidad and Tobago! It's a time for us to have fun and express our creativity. On the Friday before Carnival my school hosts it's own Carnival show consisting of a Calypso and Ol' Mas competition and a another competition for the flag-waving posse of each class. The picture above shows the infant department with their Ol' Mas portrayal.

First, I should introduce you to a few Carnival terms that I'll be mentioning often. Ol' mas is a dramatization of current affairs done in a comical way (without speech, you can only use props). Most of our portrayals had political themes since we just had our local elections in January. Soca is a form of calypso that is really upbeat and makes you want to party.

This year I was really inspired by one of the soca songs hitting our local airways. It is sung by Super Blue, a veteran calypsonian, the name of the song is Fanstastic Friday. We all dressed in blue as a way of paying tribute to this musical icon and our theme for our flag-waving posse was 'Fanstastick Friday!' We purposefully added the 'k' to 'Fantastick' so that we could wave fans and sticks along with our blue flags. You get extra points for creativity.

I was all dressed in blue for Fantastic Friday!

Some of my students getting ready for the Flag Waving posse

These are the extra stuff that we made for our 'Fantastick Friday' theme.

We placed first for the Calypso competition and third for the Ol' Mas. The standard-five class placed first for the flag-waving posse - a well deserved win. They were the only other class to dress in blue but they also incorporated other elements from from Super Blue's song like water and powder. We'll beat them next year and defend our title as Calypso champs.

For now, we are enjoying the real Carnival (outside of the classroom) and school will resume on Ash Wednesday.

Countable and Uncountable Nouns - How Much vs. How Many

2013-02-10T11:47:00.001-08:00

When should you say 'How much...' and 'How many...'? First you have to know about countable and uncountable nouns. Countable can be counted just as they are. Uncountable nouns are tricky business to count because a unit of measurement is always required to gauge their quantity.

For example: 2 pens, 7 cars, 12 boys, 3 islands - these are countable nouns.

Now check this out: 2 jars of ink, 5 buckets of sand, 4 spoonfuls of sugar, 6 bowls of soup - I can't say 2 inks and 5 sugars so these nouns are uncountable because I cannot count them as they are; I need to use a suitable unit of measurement.

I made these countable and uncountable noun sorting cards, they focus on the use of 'how much' and 'how many'. We say 'How many...?' for countable nouns and 'How much...?' for uncountable nouns.

Tips and Tricks for Learning Multiplication Tables

2013-02-10T08:39:00.002-08:00

The key to speed in mathematics lot of practice and knowing maths facts. The challenge for upper grade students is learning those multiplication facts. I found the following tips on Pinterest for you.

Just click on the images below.

I made these Multiplication flashcards for my students and use another copy as award bookmarks. They are priced at $2.00 and also include a large poster version.

Another great way to help students to memorize these facts are through music. Check out these multiplication songs on CD.

If your students love reading but hate math, use these:

Free St. Patrick's Day Craft - Making Decorative Glasses

2013-02-07T11:57:00.000-08:00

Celebrate St. Patrick’s Day with this free green-themed glasses template. They can be worn at reading time or can be used as a reward for a good accomplishment in the classroom. Students who wear tested lenses can wear them on their hair.

You can download the free template here from my Teachers pay Teachers store!

Clip Art images by Nyla’s Crafty Teaching and textured fills by Sassy Designs, Inc.