Camping Room Transformation {Free Literacy Centers}

Hey friends! Every year, I spend the last few weeks doing a camp out. Since I didn't have a class of my own this year, I did the same theme with my tutoring students. They LOVED it! It was so easy and cheap to transform our library into a CAMP OUT! The students really enjoyed this easy camping themed room transformation!

We read some amazing stories! During guided reading groups, the kids read Froggy Goes to Camp, Flat Stanley Goes to Camp, Just Me and Dad, Curious George Goes to Camp, Amelia Bedelia Goes Camping and The Berenstain Bears Blaze a Trail

Books pictured: Camping Day, Arthur's Camp Out, The Campout Challenge, Pony Scouts The Camping Trip, Danny and the Dinosaur Go to Camp, Just Me and Dad

These little activity mats were a huge hit. I was able to see who really understood what they are reading!

For this activity, I just used the die cut machine to make stars. I wrote sight words on the stars and placed them around the room. Since I had K-2nd grade, I  kept each grade level of words in the same area. The kids had to "write the room" and then use the words in a sentence. The recording sheet is in my free camping center packet. 

 For this part of the room transformation, we just covered the book shelves with butcher paper. After day one, I put up the kids "Happy Campers" cover from Cara's Unit. We used SEVERAL literacy activities from Cara Carroll's  Camping Unit. I  was so busy, I didn't take that many pictures! 

For the tables, I just used picnic table cloths, campfire center pieces and tea lights from the dollar tree. The table cloths and tea lights were originally purchased for my book tasting. I need to share that with you! 

 The jumbo cut out signs came from Oriental Trading. They were only a few dollars, but really gave that "camp site" appearance. 

For literacy centers, we used Cara's unit and this unit. 

Click the picture to get your FREE Literacy Centers

Thank you for stopping by to read about our camping room transformation! 

Spicing Up The End Of The School Year

Hey friends! I wanted to take a minute to chat about our last few weeks! The last two weeks, we've done Cara Carroll's Camping Unit! My kids LOVED this unit. I actually didn't even get to my favorite part--the skunk creativity! I wanted to take this time to review all our writing traits that we've learned this year. 

We made these adorable little camping books! My kids LOVED doing this. It was a win-win because I gave them several prompts and they just had to pick three to include in their books! You can get your free copy here

 I left a few pages blank so that you can use this product to fit your classroom needs better :) 

To spice up our guided math centers-- I whipped up these easy bottle cap math mats. I used different colors for odd and even numbers for spiral review. I have the students draw their math sentences in their journals and write a sentence telling me which numbers are even and odd.

Click HERE for your guided math freebie!

What are some ways you spice up the end of the year??

Summer School and TpT Finds

Summer School is going so great! It's half days, so that is a huge plus :) We finished up our camping unit. I used so many different packets! I used No Monkey Business Michelle's Story-Maps-Collection packet. I also used Primary-Graffiti's alpha cards. This really helped since I have such a variety of academic levels. We have six rotations and they are all over the place.
Last week we worked on Main Idea. I didn't have pictures so I wanted to share a few. I used Amy Lemon's Whats-the-Main-Idea Packet! This is such a wonderful packet!!!!!

This week we are working on Synonyms/Antonyms. So we made these adorable Synonym Flowers!

Here is the template I used to make the flowers:

With my younger group of kids, we've also been working on my Buggy-For-Blends-Literacy-Packet.

  

 My TpT Finds:  be sure and check out this FREEBIEApple-Double-Facts-Addition.

Now that I am only working half days, I am able to really prepare for next year. The very first thing I began to work on was my decor. What theme did I want?? As I looked around, MOST of my things were polka dots...so I found this ADORABLE packet from Kreative in Kinder Colorful-Polka-Dot-Classroom-Decor-Set! I've been printing and laminating every since I got it. And she has tons of other themes too!! Crystal is SO talented! Check out her blog, she is simply AMAZING!

I am also gearing up to reach 100 followers. I am giving away a $25.00 GC to iTunes!! All you have to do is comment with your E-mail, grade level, follow my blog  AND follow my TpT store!!

Be sure to check me out on FB as well :)

Till Next Time!!

~Ashley~

Does anything ever go as planned??!

We finally have our house listed on the market! It has been one thing after the next trying to find the time to finish all of our little "projects" but...we are done :)


This week was a busy week, both in the classroom and in real life :) First and foremost! My husband Re-Enlisted in the Navy for 6 more years. This will finish up his career. It was a such a beautiful ceremony and I am so very proud of him!


                                 

Now to the stuff ya'll came to see :)

This week we were supposed to start our camping unit. The back bone of my plans came from Cara From The First Grade Parade. However, I ordered a bunch of books to go a long with the unit, and they didn't come in time. So I had to come up with other ideas as the kids were pumped about starting this unit.

First we started off with Amelia Bedelia! You can never go wrong with Amelia Bedelia!  We read Amelia Bedelia Goes Camping. The kids loved this book! 

This week, we can start out camping unit as I originally planned. The kids are so excited about this unit.

Last week we started  Long O words. 

I am used Made For First Grade's Long-Vowel-FUN Packet!  I love this packet! I needed more station activities though, so we started using my Long O Packet. The kids really love these cute rock stars! They thought it was such a blast.  Check out my LONG O Packet on TpT! It's on sale! Long-O-Rock-Stars



And Since I had such a WONDERFUL Week, My Circus Literacy Packet, is FREE :) Go over and get your copy of my  Circus-Literacy-Packet and rate my products!

Another GREAT TpT Find this week---Fun-in-the-Sun-Literacy-and-Math-Center-Game-Packet This packet is soooo adorable and I can't wait to put it to use soon!