Grants and Funding

There is a great program called Adopt a Classroom where you can submit a request for your classroom to be adopted. Then a company looking to donate money to your classroom will adopt you (they get a tax deduction to do so by the organizers of Adopt a Classroom). The website handles all the logistics, all you have to do is type up your wish list and when you get adopted, you get to choose materials from various online stores, such as Staples. I did this one year and it was amazing -- so easy to do and we got so many great supplies -- the students were excited when our packages of materials started arriving and we were so thankful. It is a win-win situation because the companies can also get a tax deduction for helping your classroom. Click here to go directly to this site.

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Creating your own wordsearches, crosswords, boardgames, etc

There is a great free website called Puzzlemaker where you can make and print your own crossword puzzles, wordsearches, etc to supplement your lessons. Click here for this website.

To create your own boardgame, you can go to the Bare Books company and and purchase a kit that has a blank, durable game board (just like real boardgames), spinner, money, cards, and any other item you can think of. Great too for if you want to create your own family boardgame, you can even print out digital photos of each family member and attach that to the playing pieces to move around the game. (See more about the Bare Books company in my section about Publishing in this same post).

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Reproducibles and Worksheets

Try going to the scholastic printables page for ready to use reproducibles and worksheets. Click here for this website.

There is also a site for games as well as reproducibles (worksheets, awards, etc) at http://www.primarygames.com/ You can go to the Print Zone section and print out the reproducibles.

A site called abcteach has worksheets, writing prompts, and more (note some resources are available to members only, usually the ones at the bottom).

A similar site called A to Z Teacher Stuff has reproducibles for teachers. There is also a useful link for Character Education materials here.

Another site is called http://www.ezschool.com/ and has resources for various subjects and grade levels.

At the http://www.gradebook.org site there are a number of resources for teachers (ranging from worksheets to awards). Click on Primary teachers or Secondary teachers depending on what you teach.

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Now it's your turn...I would like to hear from you :).

Click on the comment link at the bottom of this post to share other resources that you have come across. To email this post to others, just click on the email link at the bottom of this post (icon looks like an envelope).

New Teacher Store

I just added a new feature to this website. It is an Amazon product store that features:

• Children's Books
• Children's Songs
• School Supplies

Check it out by clicking on the box right here:

Beginning of the School Year Activities

Here are some beginning of the school year ideas and activities.

First of all I have a checklist that I created to help myself make sure I am prepared for the start of the school year. It is divided into the following categories: classroom management, procedures and routines, organization, first week activities, and materials.

If you would like this free checklist, you can get it from the Teachers pay Teachers website where it is listed as a free product. Click here for the free product. This is a website where teachers can sell their own materials and buy other teachers' lessons and activities. Membership is free and you just need to register and then you can access free items like the one I mentioned.

It is also a good idea to create a welcome or introductory letter to the parents. I address the following in my letters: who I am, supplies needed, homework policy, rules and discipline, grading, and curriculum. I also use these same categories when I create a Back to School Night powerpoint for the parents (this of course I only could do when I had a projector at one of the schools I worked at -- otherwise you can distribute the letter instead).

I also created a textbook scavenger hunt where students fill out a worksheet that asks them what page they can find certain sections of the textbook and why that section would be useful to them. It helps them get familiar with the textbook and think critically about how each part will help them throughout the year.

Good luck with the start of the school year and hope these ideas and activities can be of help.

Now it's your turn...I would like to hear from you :).

Click on the comment link at the bottom of this post to share other resources that you have come across. To email this post to others, just click on the email link at the bottom of this post (icon looks like an envelope).