Back to School Fun

Okay, I am one of those moms who always has her kids pose with a 1st Day of School sign each year.  I usually forget to make one until the night before around midnight but it always got done.  This year, I thought ahead and decided to create the signs for all ages to give away as a freebie!

I made Chalkboard inspired 1st Day signs for all ages... Preschool, Pre-K, Kindergarten and all grades 1st - 12th!  Yes, you have to make your Senior in high school pose with a sign.  I will!  It will always be tradition no matter the age!

I have two ways to grab them... I am usually very computer savvy but I can post my pictures for you but cannot make it so they are easy to print so you can either click and save as a download or go to my Teachers pay Teachers site to grab them all for free!

Our First Day and a Happy September!

Our first day of school went well... very few tears!  I have a great group of sweet kiddos this year - 9 boys and only 3 girls!  We spent the first few days just getting used to new friends, new teachers and new things to learn.  

Two of my favorite books to read at the start of a new school year are The Kissing Hand and Elmer.  We enjoyed reading the books together and doing a fun craft for each.  

For The Kissing Hand, we read the book, discussed how we felt on our first day of school, had fun with a coloring sheet and did our very own handprints for our parents.  The kids also went home with a special bag of "kisses" from us at the end of the day.

For Elmer, we read the book and the kids had fun making their own patchwork elephants.

We also began learning our September color, number, shape and letters.  I have so much fun teaching these with the fun posters I create!

We also do "First Day Handprints" each year which the parents will receive at Open House next week.  The chalkboard sign was used for each child to have their picture made on the first day!

Fun Times With New Friends

We are back and we are having tons of fun!  We are taking things slowly and learning all about each other.  We went into learning all about our monthly themes, letters, color, shape and number.  This month, we are learning:

All About Me                               Letters: A, B, E

                  Friends & Family                               Color: Red

                 Fall & Scarecrows                            Shape: Square

          Apples & Johnny Appleseed                        Number: 1

We kicked off the year reading many books and doing activities with them such as The Kissing Hand, Elmer, If You Take a Mouse to School, Chicka Chicka Boom Boom and The Crayon Box That Talked.  The kids had so much fun listening to all of them and doing fun crafts and activities also.  

Our Elmer Craft we did:

The kids love our stuffed Elmer:

The Kissing Hand Puzzles we made our parents:

Our Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Handprint Trees:

We jumped into Friends and Family learning all about our new classmates and talking about who is in our family.  We had fun with activities and songs all about these themes.  We also began doing a few activities about our letters and a keepsake for our parents!  

Our Family Glyph:

Our Friendship Flowers:

We also did a few activities for fun involving all about ourselves, colors, alphabet and our first day!

A is for Apple Jacks

Our First Day Handprints

Look At Me Glyphs

I hope you all enjoy our fun crafts and activities we do in our Giraffe Class!  As we finish up the month of September with Fall and Apples, we will be sharing much more with you!