More Labels to Share

Since I shared my Later Gator labels a few days ago, I thought I would share a few more things that I have used the last few years.  Jodi over at Fun in First Grade has been sharing her awesome binder covers for communication folders.  Her great work reminded me about the labels I created for our students' take home folders.  A few years ago during a summer afternoon of surfing the web for great ideas, I came across the idea of MOOSE binders.  I knew instantly I wanted to do one based on our school mascot which is a tiger.  I created an insert page for my fifth grade students at the time and they loved the look.  When I moved to first grade, I knew I had to make the design more appropriate for the little ones.  I have shared both designs below. The other item I am sharing is my label for the students' center work folders.  Again, I used 2X4 label sheets for printing. 

First grade TIGER folder labels (printed on full sheet sticker paper so you get 2 per page)

Fifth grade TIGER binder covers                               Center Work folder labels

Later Gator...a freebie

Wow...time sure flies in the summer!  It is amazing at how fast time goes when you are NOT at work!  I can't believe it has been so long between my posts.  I know I am probably breaking many proper blogging rules of etiquette.  I wish I could say I have been out of town or super busy on summer tasks, but nope...just relaxing! 

Since it has been a while, I thought I would return to blog world with another freebie.  I create labels for all of my students' folders.  I did this for their notebooks too when I taught fifth grade.  I felt it kept things consistent.  In addition to the labels, all of the folders and notebooks HAVE to be the same color for the subject.  I know that is a little over the top, but it is so much easier to say, "Get out your poetry notebook.  It is the green one," with little ones.  Even the bigger students needed the color cue because they were to lazy inconvenienced to read the label! 

Since last year was my big return to first grade (yippee!), I had to consider what folders and notebooks the little ones would need.  My teaching partner mentioned that she had a folder for students to keep unfinished classwork in so that they could come back to it later to finish.  She called it their classwork folder.  Well, that name was just to boring for me, so I came up with the idea of Later Gator folders.  (These had to be green by the way!)  She loved the improved name and stole borrowed the idea for her own folders.  I always tease her about stealing my stuff!  Students really bought into the idea also and loved reminding each other to put incomplete work into their Later Gator folders so they could finish it later. 

Click HERE to get your copy of the labels I made for the folders.  I used the 2X4 labels and the picture is something I found somewhere on the Internet doing an image search. 

How About a Freebie?

As I have mentioned in earlier posts, I am learning about this world of blogging a little bit at a time.  Today my goal was to figure out how to post a document so others could download it.  I think I found a way with google docs which is now called google drive (?). 

Last year, I piloted the Singapore Math program in first grade.  Our building was doing several pilots in order to determine what program would best meet the needs of our students.  The committee and administration decided to adopt a different program, however I am thankful for the time I spent exploring the Singapore philosophy.  I believe my math instruction has improved due to my work with Singapore, and I plan to use many of the same practices within the framework of our new program.  Because Singapore is very limited in support material for teachers, my teammate and I had to create many things ourselves to use in the classroom.  One of the items I created was Ten Frame Posters to display in the classroom.  The posters have the ten frame, the number, and the number word.  I know that many other math programs are using ten frames as well, so I thought this might be a nice freebie to share. 

Click HERE to download your copy of the Ten Frame Posters.  The last page will have the headers TENS and ONES that I used for a place value t-chart.  Below is an example of how one poster looks.  Each is a full sheet of paper and there are grid lines around the dots on the posters.