Teacher Tips

Redeeming Credits on TpT

by Leave a Comment

It is never too late to leave feedback and earn credit within Teachers Pay Teachers. 
Check it out! 
I am always surprised to hear that most teachers do not know about this amazing feature on TpT! 

This is how TpT explains it:

“How it Works: Earn TpT Credits for purchases on TpT. You get one TpT Credit for every $ you spend on TpT. Thing is, you only get Credits after you provide feedback — both a fair rating and a fair comment — on the items that you purchase. We will round up for you, too! If you provide fair feedback on a $.75 item, you will earn 5 credits. Every 100 Credits is worth $5 that you can apply towards future TpT purchases, but there is no need to wait until you have 100 to redeem them. 50 credits is worth $2.50 for example.
The program is retroactive to feedback provided on purchases since August 1, 2011
How to redeem TpT Credits
You can keep track of how many credits you have accrued here or on the top of the site after login. When you check out, you will be given the option of applying your TpT Credits to your purchase, thereby discounting your purchase price accordingly.”
All you need to do is click on the arrow beside the words Redeem TpT Credits and a drop down menu appears where you enter the total amount that you want to use. 
I loved originally learning about this as I was able to buy a few products for free immediately! 
Now I try to rate my products immediately after I purchase them to make sure I don’t have to go back and rate them in the future to earn the credits! 
Happy rating!

Pets in the Classroom. What Works and the Benefits of Having Them.

by Leave a Comment

Animals provide engagement for students and are opportunities for authentic learning.

Being able to see science in action is a life long experience that many children will never forget.

The social-emotional gains are tremendous as they build bonds with animals, discuss and collaborate together about it. At first I was hesitant. I had concerns but then I tried it and now I firmly believe that the benefits outweigh the cons.

1. The opportunity to experience the life cycle

Most urban children never fully experience the life cycle on a regular basis like children in rural areas do. I firmly believe this is an important experience for children to learn about it and that it is normal.

No matter if it is a butterfly going through metamorphosis, watching ants live in their colony or watching chick develop from an egg in the incubator and then move onto the a farm these memories will last a lifetime! Not all eggs will hatch or a chick may be born injured. They need this exposure too. How can we problem solve to help?

2. Animals engage all children, especially boys

We are always challenged with finding authentic experiences for our students. Experiencing the life cycle is highly engaging for all students!

3. Animals provide authentic writing opportunities

Making predictions, describing observations, journaling and writing about the life cycle. There is a never ending list of authentic opportunities to write!

4. It  supports oral language development

Every parent tells me that they come home full of stories of the adventures that we have each day.

5. Animals help to develop empathy

Children see how small, fragile and vulnerable animals are. By watching them learn how to stand, walk, eat and drink they develop a new understanding of others.

6. Animals will help to calms your classroom

Have a loud class? Reminding them that the animals are like babies and have very sensitive ears will help reduce the volume in the classroom.

7. I have found it is the best way to keep students engaged until the end of the school year.

This was our classes biggest surprise at the end of the year.

We had the chicks until the end of the second last week of school. All of our students were motivated and engaged in class until the end of the year due to the chicks. My students parents were shocked how they never stopped wanting to come to school like many of their older siblings!

8. You can always “borrow” a pet from a family!

Don’t want to have the expense of a pet?

You may have a family who will let you “borrow” their pet for a month (like a hamster).

One year we had a family go away for a vacation and they let the class take care of it during that month. The class thoroughly enjoyed it and the family was very appreciative that their pet was being taken care of while they were away!

If you want to learn more when we had chicks in our classroom this past year check out the following post: Having Fun with Chicks in the Classroom

Classroom Friendly Animals

Ants can be purchased and mailed to you from Ants Alive. I have used their “AntsWork” Gel Habitat and love it!
Butterflies {can be purchased in the fall from a local nursery}
Fish {beta fish are a great option from a pet store}
Hermit crabs {pet store}
Chicks {you’ll need to find a local hatchery to purchase your eggs from. Ours were $20 for 12 fertilized eggs. We could only fit 8 in our incubator} 2 Weeks MAX as they quickly get too big and messy
Ducks {local hatchery} 2 Weeks MAX as they get quickly too big and messy
Hamsters {pet store}
Lizards {pet store}

What other animals have you had in your classroom that you’re children have loved? How has it benefited your students?

Celebrating Birthdays in Primary Grades

by Leave a Comment

Children need attention and acknowledgement on a regular basis.

They crave it even more than we do.

As a result, I believe it is very important to recognize all student birthdays in my classroom! We have a routine. It isn’t big but I wanted to share it with you. HINT: There is a lot of singing!

1st: During a whole group time we call birthday child up to the front

2nd: We sing “How old are you now?” to the tune of Happy Birthday and count up to the number and stopping when the birthday child yells “stop!”

3rd: We sing “Bonne Fête” to introduce some French in our class.

4th: We sing “Quel age as tu?”  and count in French stopping at “arrêt!”

5th: The birthday child gets a crown!

 I used to use bulletin borders as crowns or a blank crown which they would colour and design any way that they wanted.

I recently changed this up as I didn’t want to worry about cutting the crowns out in the middle of class and I wanted my students to do it independently.

To prepare, at the beginning of the year, I cut out strips of poster board to go around their head and stored them in a safe location in the class. I then let them choose from a variety of pre-designed crowns which they get to to cut out and color.

They love bing able to pick from a wide assortment of abilities and wear their crown proudly all day!

Click below if you want to see what we use!

10 Tips for Kindergarten Parents Before School Starts

by Leave a Comment

1. We cannot wait to meet your child! 

Teachers are looking forward to meeting your child just as much as your child is excited to come to school!

We love kids and want them to feel welcomed, loved and to develop a love of learning!

2. Backpack size.  

Make sure the backpack is big enough to hold their lunch container, a mail bag, a large sized library book or possibly two as well as a large bag of soiled clothes!

Little “cute” backpacks are never large enough and children end up awkwardly carrying home numerous bags just to make sure that their belongings   get home safely.

3. Our thoughts on shoes.

Teachers are very busy during the day.

We wish we did have time to constantly tie laces that are constantly coming apart but would rather spend time teaching them and connecting socially and emotionally.

Teach your child to put their shoes on independently before they come to school. 

We don’t expect that they have mastered the skill but when you have 30+ students in your class we greatly appreciate it when your child has some independence. The pure joy children have when mastering putting on their shoes is amazing.

Your child will beam with pride! Need some tips? Check out this blog post!

4. A large sturdy water bottle is a necessity! 

Many classes do not have sinks that are easily fillable by students with small water containers.

Having one realistically large enough to last for a good portion of the day will help your child immensely.

5. Please leave all personal belongings at home. 

If your child came home with a Pokemon card it was likely not traded for something else with parent consent. Many things get misplaced by little ones.

When something gets lost it is devastating for us to see how disappointed and sad your child is and this really upsets their learning. Please help prevent these mishaps and keep treasures, no matter what the size, at home.

6. Start the year with a spare change of clothes in a labelled ziplock bag.  

All students have accidents at school.

This is normal.

It may be a painting accident, a mud puddle or even a bathroom accident.  We are used to these and are not upset when they occur.

But we NEED a spare change of clothes to help your child.

7. Develop some independence in the washroom.  

Schools do have Educational Assistants who help toilet students with special needs but teachers can not enter the washroom to help your child.

Practice these skills so that it is not something new.

They do not need to be masters of it, but should be familiar with the routines (aka, know how to wipe and flush). A nightly bath routine will help ensure cleanliness!

Knowing how to take clothes on and off is an important skill for them if they have had an accident.

8. Please label all of your Childs belongings. 

Schools throw out multiple backpacks, shoes, hats, mittens, pants, shirts, underwear, socks, snow suits and sandwich containers.

The list goes on and on.

Basically everything you send to school!

Often children will say, “Mine is at home!” even if it is clearly labelled with their name! Label using your last name only if you have multiple children!

9. Practice cleaning up at home. 

You may be shocked but by the end of the school year your child will be an expert tidy upper and helper of others!

Start with some simple jobs at home, such as taking their plate to the kitchen sink at home. It might be a “grown up” activity that they look forward to doing instead of being reminded to always pick up after themselves after playing.

10. We are here for you! 

Have a question? We want to answer it!

Don’t be afraid to ask your teachers any question you may have. We are here to help.