Using cut-outs for games and activities

I have been playing with the new

10", 6" and 1" cut outs.

I used the 10" penguins to make 

this sorting board.

The words and idea are from

a book called Word Sorting.

Just stick the word ending on 

the penguin and sort the word.

On the next board the words are again from

Word Sorting.

I used the 10" pencils

cut into thirds.

Each third has one part of

a contraction.

Match the words and match up the pencil.

The next game is on a magnet board.

The big bubble bee is from the 

10" bugs cut-outs.

The cards in the stacks have 

addition and subtraction 

problems on them.

Use the little bugs (with magnets on the back)

to illustrate the problem.

12 bugs were sitting on a leaf.

6 bugs came to join them.

How many bugs were on the leaf?

These words are from one of the 

Language Games Galore books.

All of the Games Galore books are

great for match-ups.

This homophone game uses

the 10" and 1" pencil cut outs.

There are two magnet strips down the middle.

Magnets are on the backs of the words.

Buttons Buttons was one of our first 

Learn to Read books.

I used it as the framework for a child-made

book using the 1" buttons.

The buttons come in different colors and shapes

so it is an easy book for kids to make.

The buttons also come in stickers if 

you want to make even smaller books.

Almost all of the 1" cut outs are also 

in sticker form so you can use them in 

lots of projects.

Stickers or 1" cut outs are great from graphs.

Mr. Noisy's Book of Patterns  is a great model.

Then you can use a calendar printed on the 

new B/W computer paper to record the 

weather each day.

The 1" cut outs are stored 

in the B/W library pocket.

What's the Weather Like Today? 

is a great model book.

Did you notice one raindrop is upside down??

I hope that doesn't represent a tornado!

Next week I will be in Baltimore at 

National School Supply and Equipment Association.

That is were all you local school stores buy 

the great stuff for next BTS.

I will let you know if I find any really cool stuff

.....besides the cool CTP stuff 

that will be there, of course .

Friendship

   

Hope is one of the most powerful feelings I know.

Hopelessness is one of the loneliest!

Is there someone that you can "be there" for today?

This is a friendship quilt that we made in first grade.

We used the new quilt 10" cut outs.

Each child wrote his name 

and drew a picture of himself 

in the center of the square.

The kids wrote important things 

about themselves 

in each of the four corners.

What do you do well?

What is your favorite color?

What is your best subject in school?

What do you like to eat?

Then, they passed around their squares.

Friends wrote words on another friend's square...

words that complimented the person

words that described the person

words that affirmed the person

Rachael is happy, nice, funny, helping.....

"Be there" for a friend today.

Let him or her know how you feel.

Affirmation brings hope!!!

How to fill someone's bucket...

A few months ago I did a post
 about filling another person's bucket.


I ran across this poster on Pinterest
and thought it was a perfect way 
to teach kids about being a friend
and about bucket filling.


How do you fill someone's bucket?


  BE POLITE

say hello

offer help

HOLD THE DOOR

S M I L E

PAY A COMPLIMENT

use “please” and “thank you"


CTP has made bucket filling even easier. 

Now we have "real" buckets 
in the form of 6" cut outs .

Kids can write a compliment to a friend 

on a strip of paper and put it in 

their friend's bucket. 

In this display I slit the top of each bucket 

so the strips of paper would slip easily inside.

Kate told me they do this in her class.
At the end of the day the teacher collects 
all the strips and reads the compliments 
along with the name of the bucket filler
to the class. 


They are making a chain 
from all the strips of compliments. 

Their goal is 5000 links in the chain 
by the end of the year.

Have you filled a bucket today????
Get your buckets from CTP!!!
www.creativeteaching.com

If you are looking for a friend

you will find they are few.

If you are looking to be a friend

you will find them everywhere.

Celebrate Birthdays in Black and White

Today I spent a little time exploring

the new B/W Birthday Bulletin Board Set.

This is how it looks when it is displayed. 

There are lots of extra pieces that 

tease your imagination.

How could you use them???

 The resource guide included in the kit 

suggests making a class book for the

birthday child.

I chose one of the pieces from the kit 

and added Rachel's picture

for the cover .

There is a reproducible page 

in the resource guide.

Each child can write a

birthday message to the special person.

Just bind the pages together with ring-its

and you have a class book that makes

a great birthday present.

What's Black and White and fun all over!!!

The Black and White Designer Collection

D is for Designer

Each year the creative folks in Product Development

at CTP come up with a "designer" look for the classroom.

The colors for the designer look are chosen

after much research into what colors

are popular in the marketplace. 

This year our Designer Classroom look

is Black and White with a splash of color. 

I went to Target and Hobby Lobby

to do my own market research.

Look at all the Black and White!

B/W boxes

B/W with a splash of purple

B/W gift wrapping supplies

B/W kitchen stuff

B/W for the bath

B/W bowls of every size

B/W plates and napkins


CTP took B/W to the limit!
I made a sampler of some of the new products
from the new B/W Designer Classroom Collection.

Featured in the sampler are 4 different borders
including one of the new pennant borders,
6" picture frame cut-outs,
two name plates and two name tags.

There are lots more B/W products.
Check the CTP website to see them all.
http://www.creativeteaching.com/

If you choose to have a Black and White Designer Classroom
you will have plenty of other pieces help spice up your classroom.
Just check out Target or Hobby Lobby
or any other shopping spot close to you. 



All the B/W patterns look great with a splash of color.

This year CTP is Black and White
and fun all over!!!



ABC Book

THE ALPHABET...
one of CTP's versatile new mini bulletin boards

You could use The Alphabet to create a word wall,
or to reinforce letter/sound correspondence,
or like we did to simply display the letters.

A few weeks ago I went to Premier Academy with
Jennifer from Teach Mart, a local educational store,
to do some decorating. 

She had furnished the entire center with their
furniture and educational toys and supplies.

We decorated some of the rooms

 to thank them for their business.

Of course, all the rooms were decorated
with the new CTP products.

In this room for three-year olds,
we used the letters to surround the windows.




Later, I decided the letters with the cute art would make a great alphabet book.

The 10" Jumbo Poppin' Pattern
cut-outs were perfect for the pages of the book.

I used the pictures to construct the text....A is for alligator, B is for bear.

I just looked at the pictures and made the text match the picture shown with the letter.




I added a few of the
1"mini star cut-outs to each page.



Ring-its hold the book together.

See how versatile The Alphabet can be!!

The Keeping Quilt

Challenge of the Week!

      



The challenge was to take these two products
and build a lesson around them. 

At the top is one of the new 10" quilt squares.

The second  product is a new mini bulletin board kit
Literacy Elements
which contains teaching ideas for several lessons
including characters, characterization, setting,
theme, mood, symbols, and more.

I spent today with a fifth grade class.
We made a quilt based on Patricia Polacco's
The Keeping Quilt.



From the mini bulletin board kit I chose

three elements to discuss....

characters, characterization, and symbols. 

I gave each person in the class some post-it notes.

As I read the story we identified each character. 

Someone would write the name of the person on a post-it note

and attach it to the character piece of the bulletin board.
The quilt passed through 5 generations so there were several characters.

Anna is one of the main characters of the story so we did the "post-it note thing" to identify the character qualities of Anna.  She was brave, smart, poor, happy, hard-working, loving, and more.

Then we talked about the symbolism of the quilt....again with the post-it notes! We decided that the quilt symbolized many things including faith, love, comfort, joy, family...... 

We had a great time

Here are our pictures. 


In each of the four corners we wrote
something that the quilt symbolized.



In the center square we wrote
The Keeping Quilt
and the names of some of the characters.

Each person added details to the square.

I "quilted" the pieces by attaching them together
with "mavalus" tape (the world's greatest tape!).

We had so much fun!!!

We challenge you to make your own quilt!

The kids offered to write testimonials

 about how much fun they had.