Can You Guess Who I Am {freebie}

Just  a few days ago, I was racking my brains trying to figure out just what my kiddos would do on the last day of school.  I read my kiddos Sideways Stories From Wayside School earlier in the year and planned to show the Nickelodeon cartoon movie while I was passing out Student Council awards at the big kids' awards ceremony, but that was about it.  

So I did what I did pre blogging/Pinterest,  I searched my End of the Year files, both paper and electronic, for what I've done with my classes in the pass.  Lucky for me that I did, because I found one of my favorite last day of school/end of the year activities!

 

 Click {here} to download!

I have my kiddos write down five facts about themselves, and then I shuffle the papers around, and I read the kiddos clues aloud, one student at time. Each student has a copy of my class list and the recording sheet and they write down who they think the clues describe.  Once all the clues have been read, then I start with the first page of clues and reread them, and then have the students share who they thought the clues described and reveal which student wrote the clues.  

 

My kiddos always LOVE this.  I have them put up privacy shields and everything when I read the clues and they are such attentive listeners, you could hear a pin drop during this activity! Plus it's always a hoot to see how my students describe themselves and their reactions when they the mystery student is revealed! 

Some years I offer a prize for the student who guesses the most friends correctly, and some years I don't.  Prize or not, my kiddos LOVE this activity, and I hope yours do too.

Don't forget my School's Out for the Summer Sale at my Teacher's Pay Teachers and Teacher's Notebook stores is going on through Saturday!

 Have a great weekend! :)

Partner Grouping Management Tool Freebie

Well, I survived my first day back after break.  Did anyone else go back today?  If you did, did you have HORRIBLE attendance?

One of the teachers in my grade had twelve kids absent today! Twelve! I guess parents decided since it was a federal holiday, there was no need to send their kiddos to school.  We also had an unexpected light snow that made roads slippery around the time elementary buses were running and apparently some buses couldn't run their routes.  Things like that can only happen on a Monday. 

However, once I got home, I got some fantastic news.  I was one of the winners from Kristin's 1000 Followers Giveaway.  I'm so, so excited! I'm not just saying this because I won her giveaway but if you aren't following A Teeny Tiny Teacher now, you should.  Her posts always put a smile on my face. 

Another blog I love is Ginger Snaps Treats for Teachers.  Ginger is so creative and even has some of the cutest digital art available in her new Etsy shop.  I can't wait to purchase some of her adorable digital frames.  They will be perfect for the winter unit I am currently working on for my class.

One of the my favorite management tools, actually came from Ginger's post on easy partner grouping.  However, being the Smartboard junkie that I am, I tweaked her chart into a Smartboard file, so I could easily manipulate students' names and use it all year long.  When closing the file, I just make sure to NOT save my changes so then next time I open the file, it's clean and new.

I use the Happy Meal Groups below for my partner groups of three and the Milk and Cookie Groups for groups of two. I LOVE this and so do my students because not only do my students know who their partner is, they know where to complete their work.   This cuts down on transition time tremendously, making my students more productive and efficient.  Besides, they always get a kick out of who is the milk or who is the cookie, etc in their partner group.  Even my principal giggled when I pulled this file up during my observation. 

 Since this is a Smartboard file, I have upload it to my Teacher's Pay Teacher's store, as I can not upload it to Google Docs.  All you need to do is download it and fill in your student's names where it says students and change the spots to what works best for you and your classroom.  You can easily delete spots and extra student names by using the cut feature.

Click here to get your own FREE copy!  If you would be so, so, so kind, let me know in a comment below if you downloaded your freebie and what you think of it. :)  It's quickly become one of my favorite classroom management tools and I hope you can use it too.

Happy Monday!