Book Tailgate {A Book Tasting with a Sports Theme}

Get your students excited to discover new books with a book tailgate! 

A book tailgate is a new twist on the book tasting! This is a book tasting with a sports theme! 

You can even add props to your tailgate to add extra fun for your students! 

Place books in coolers, set up grills {no fire} around the room, roll out a green carpet of fake turf, and add college fight songs! Voila, a book tailgate that is sure to get your kids ready to set their own game plans for reading!

Head over to my TPT for everything you need to create your own book tailgate!

Here is what is included:

-Book Tailgate Invitations

-Book Tailgate Game Day Poster

-Tailgate Labels {Numbers 1-6}

-Genre Labels {nonfiction, fiction, realistic fiction, historical fiction, mystery, fantasy, biography, science fiction, traditional literature, graphic novels, horror, poetry, autobiography, animal novels} Don't see a genre you need... email me and I can add it!

-Tailgate Menu {Students will use the menu when "tasting" their books. They will read a few pages and/or the summary. Then, they will write what they think about the book and if they would like to continue to read the book.}

-My Game Plan {Students will record titles and authors of books they would like to read. This will serve as their "Reading Game Plan" and next steps/goals.}

Happy tailgating! 

Opinion Letter Writing with The Day the Crayons Quit

Opinion letter writing has always been one of my favorite things to teach my second graders! There is just so much you can do with it! From fairy tales to writing to a crayon who you don't want to see leave your crayon box. Enter opinion letter writing with The Day the Crayons Quit!

Students will brainstorm their favorite crayon colors and everything that they can draw/color with that color. Then, they will choose one color to brainstorm what they especially like about that color. Their goal is to convince the crayon not to quit!

Next, you can use the letter writing journal page to teach your kiddos the parts of a letter or to let them write their rough draft to practice writing each part of a letter.

Finally, they will write their final draft on letter writing paper. You can have them attach a paper crayon to their writing for extra cuteness! 

You can check out this product here. Pin the image below to save for later!

April Behavior Coupons

Just one more week until Spring Break! That means doing all.the.things. to keep my kiddos engaged and keep their behavior in check! I created these behavior coupons as an incentive to continue working hard despite my their Spring Fever!

I took some Easter eggs and filled them with coupons.

You can grab these here in my TPT shop! When is your Spring Break? Are you feeling that Spring Fever yet?

St. Patrick's Day Goodies

It's almost St. Patrick's Day and I'm so excited because it's one of my favorite holidays! Who am I kidding? I love all the holidays!! I wanted to share the new gift tags I whipped up this week to use when making small little gifts for teachers and students.

Lucky Charms filled treat bags!

Who doesn't love water colors?!

This was last year's teacher gift! Twizzlers and Rolos!

Trix cereal in a snack sized bag!

You can snag all of these tags here in my store!

If you need a last minute St. Patrick's Day idea, this tear art craft is a freebie in my store. You can find it here.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

February Activities for Little Learners

February almost slipped by without me posting this resource! Luckily, because of winter break, I was able to have some time to finish it up and post it before the end of the month! 

To see the why and how behind this resource, you can check out this blog post.

I love sensory bins because they provide so many opportunities for learning through multiple senses! You can also be creative when setting them up and use whatever you already have around the house!

My little one loves the binder! I think it's the novelty of the activities being in a binder that he loves the most. Ha!

Flipping through "flash cards" is always fun! Sometimes I leave them off the ring so he can spread them all out.

If you're interested in these activities for your little one, you can find them here! To see other random posts about what I do with my toddler, make sure to follow me on Instagram at Teach Dream Inspire!

Valentine Gift Ideas

I updated my February Gift Tags product with three new tags that I'm using this year for student and teacher gifts.

This "Valentine, you're the bomb!" tag is for little man's teachers. The bath bomb is so pretty and is from Target!

Little man is giving his classmates these bags of Animal Crackers.

My students are getting these pencils for Valentine's Day. The pencils are from Target also.

You can grab these tags here in my TPT store!

Valentine Book Recommendation Exchange

Looking for an alternative to regular Valentine exchanges? I created this resource to be just that! Students write about what type of books they like to read. Then, other students make recommendations based on the type of books their peers are looking for. 

I plan on having my students write about the type of book they would like to read. Then, they will leave it at their seat, so their classmates can read about what kind of book they are looking for. If someone has a recommendation, they will write the book title on the "cupid's recommendation" paper and leave it at that person's seat. Kind of like a Valentine exchange! 

You can grab this resource for free in my TPT store!

Feel free to pin any of the images or the image below!