Flamingo crazy

I may have gone a little flamingo crazy this year. It all started when I found this flamingo tablecloth at Joann's for 70% off and then I couldn't back away!

I got a few of the tablecloths and hung them for a display in my classroom to hang work.

 

I couldn't stop with the puns or the flamingos... so I didn't.  I embraced the theme this year! Of course, I haven't taken any other photos of my classroom... but I do have a couple of little flamingo freebies that I wanted to share. First up, some flamingo hall passes. I got these lanyards for my kids to wear when they need to go somewhere. The only passes that are not included are bathroom passes. I use hand sanitizer bottles for bathroom passes, so I just needed passes for other possible places students may be traveling. In the past I haven't used passes because our kids had agendas that we would sign, but this year we have been asked to have passes.

 

These are perfectly sized for the ID badges I got from Amazon. They have simple black lanyards that attach. 

If you would like to download this freebie, click on the picture below:

Last year I grouped my kids according to seating chart and they collaborated most frequently with shoulder partners at their tables. In an effort to use different collaboration strategies, I also made some flamingo Kagan Strategy tags for desks. They fit perfectly in the Target clear adhesive pockets from the dollar spot. Of course... I don't have a photo of these tags in action, but I do have the file available for you to download for free! Just click any photo below to be directed to the download.

I hope the kids embrace this flamingo obsession this year too!

When its been a year....

A whole year has passed. 😬

I survived a year of middle school and I'm going back for more! Actually, the middle school transition was a complete success....I loved working with this age group. We are headed back to school in the next few weeks, so I've been really focused on revamping a few things that I don't think I spent enough time on last year. There were so many parts to teaching middle school that I wasn't expecting that a lot of my normal procedure stuff became an overview and there were a few kids that didn't embrace procedures and routines quite like I wished they had.

Last year I also started with growth mindset. We revisited it a couple times throughout the year, but it wasn't as prominent in the thinking of some of my math students as I wish it had been. So to start out this year, I really want to make a big push for it a big focus. Like most of you, I also like doing collaborative activities at the beginning to get the kids excited and let them leave their mark on our classroom. But, with 90+ students its not super easy to hang everyone's work and change it frequently.

So, as I started thinking about how I will approach growth mindset this year and what I want the kids to get out of it, I first thought of all the nice growth mindset coloring pages I've seen and thought they would look great hanging up in the classroom. So, I decided to make my own...

One of my favorite places to download coloring pages is from Doodle Art Alley. So I did a little powerpoint magic and made a few quote posters. (If you haven't been on Doodle Art Alley.... go now! Or at least when your finished reading this post! So much to see and use in your classroom!). So I 😍 the posters! But, then I saw this post a while back on instagram from @studyallknight

My mind wandered to an activity I did with the kids before open house last year. It was similar to this- a big poster made from smaller parts of a picture. After seeing Danielle Knight's ridiculously smart idea, I thought- I wonder if I can turn my coloring sheets into that...... The answer is yes. With the help of a website called rasterbator. Weird name... but the site has the capability of taking pictures you upload and turning them into very large posters. One of the main things I liked about Danielle's activity is there was a place for student's to write and respond to a prompt.

I decided to just make four different "growth mindset" versions of this for my classes. Since I teach 4 sections of math, each class can make a different collaborative poster with a responses. I love this idea because the posters can be hung up all year and referred back to when things get tough.

So, here is an example of one of the posters. I plan on giving each student one section to respond to the prompt and color, then it will all get glued down on a big piece of butcher paper to display. Each poster has a different writing prompt that corresponds with the quote. 

If you want to use these posters you are more than welcome to them! For each file, click the poster below with the prompt listed on it. 

 

Each file contains all the pages you need to cut out and create the poster to match. Each page has a letter/number combo in the corner telling you where that section goes in the poster. The letter represents the column and the number represents the row. I'm planning on printing two to a page so that my posters are a manageable size. 

If you just want to use the coloring pages, you can print the images at the beginning of the post. 😀

In other news there is a big TPT sale happening today and tomorrow! Get all the goodies that are on your wishlist for up to 25% off with the code BTS2017.