A to Z Community Helpers

As a culminating activity to our study of community helpers my class made the cutest A to Z community helper class book. We brainstormed a community helper for each letter of the alphabet. Then the students told me what that helper does and I typed up their information. Each student had a page to illustrate. Here are a couple pages from the book.

Click HERE for the list my students came up with.

Parent Helper Gift

I have ten parent helpers this year and needed to come up with an end of the year gift that was affordable. I found these cute little pots at the dollar store and wrote with paint pens on each one "Thanks for helping us grow!" I got the flowers at Trader Joe's. Each morning for the last 10 school days the students have written a thank you note to each parent thanking them for their contribution to our class. I've stapled the letters into a book. It's not much but I did want to show each parent how much they have been appreciated.

I have truly been blessed to have all the help this year.

Community Helper Book

We've been learning about "Our Community" and have been working on a "Community Helper" book. After I've read a story we make a circle map of the information we've learned about that particular helper. Then the students write about that helper. Finally we do a directed drawing lesson that shows the community helper doing their job. The students love seeing their own little face in the picture.

These words get written on the left side of the page an a thin sheet of paper that can be glued in below the hole for the face.

Here are a couple of the other pages we did.

 We finished the book with: When I grow up......

Daily 5 Library

I'm gearing up to begin "Daily 5" next year so I've been working on organizing my library. I found these wire baskets at Target for $2.50. They are perfect for organizing the books and attaching a label on the front with little clips. The beautiful bookshelf was custom made to fit along that wall by my youngest brother (a cabinet maker by trade). I'm so spoiled to have him. Thanks Tom! So far the library has stayed in perfect order due to the labels and students are quick to discover if a book is out of place and find it's correct home. My students have been highly motivated to read now that they can easily find books of interest.

Thank You

I find that I often need to write a quick thank you note to one of my students or parents. I made these little cards to keep handy in the cupboard so that I can jot a thank you before I forget and weeks have gone by. I printed these on cardstock and have a stack ready to go.

Click on the image to download

Mother's Day Book

I have my students write this book for their moms each year. I'm never disappointed. They can melt the heart or make you die laughing. Their little perceptions are so cute.

Click here for the templates

Mother's Day

Mother's Day will be here before we know it. So here's my favorite Mother's Day idea. I dress the girls up in a big floppy hat, a scarf draped over their shoulders and some pearls. They hold some flowers and I snap the picture. For the boys I dress them in a man's coat and a hat. They hold flowers too. The kids think it's fun and the pictures are usually great. I turn the pictures to sepia tone and print them. Jo-Ann's has little $1 frames that I stain a light brown to put the picture in. 

I have a book that the students make about their mom as well. They're sweet and pretty funny. I'll share them with you in another post.