Sharing is Caring! Giveaway - Fluttering Through the Grades

Happy Thanksgiving Friends!

Our list of things to be thankful for grew just a bit this year…From our Facebook Page, Pinterest Boards, TpT, to this bitty Blog of ours, this sharing community of educators we have found picks us up when we’re down, humbles us when we’re up, and just keeps us putting one foot in front of the other each day.

We are so thankful for each and every one of you!

Thank you for challenging us to be better teachers after 15 years of teaching.

Thank you for making us laugh instead of cry.

Thank you for keeping it fun instead of boring.

Thank you for reminding us why we’ve always wanted to be teachers and how even in the face of budget cuts, teacher layoffs, etc., etc., we can find a silver lining.

We can persevere and keep providing our students with the highest level of education despite the yuck challenges.

Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you from the bottom of our hearts!

In the words of our Mothers…

Ohhh, we just quoted our Mothers…EEEK! Well, they do say we all turn into our Mothers, eventually…Right? But, in the World of Teacher Blogging and First Grade, Mom was right…Yes, we said it…MOM WAS RIGHT! We are so thankful she was…

We have that little poster up there hanging in our classroom. It just makes us feel better…when we “forget” to share. Or care… Click {here} if you’d like to grab a copy for your own class.

See…Sharing IS caring!

In this theme of sharing, we just wanted to share a few highlights of our own class Sharing Page Program, some tips, freebies and a quick GIVEAWAY too! Yay!!

And, that’s before stuffing ourselves silly with turkey, turkducken, or tofurky…Whatever your pleasure. 🙂

Our Sharing Page Program is a monthly writing a public
speaking program for kids. In our humble opinion, speaking in front of a
group is a skill that is necessary, but kinda scary. The sooner we
start, the better! Starting them young has proven in our own class to
get them comfortable out the gates. It also builds their writing and
illustrating skills quickly.

Our Monthly Writing Pages for Class Share time each provide 8 writing page topics to choose
from, class book covers in full color and print friendly options, parent
letters, sharing schedule options, and a full explanation on how to
implement it in your own classroom. You can read more about it in our
intro post {here} perhaps between turkey and pumpkin pie, apple cobbler, or chocolate cake? Whatever your pleasure. 🙂

We use our sharing pages as part of our weekly homework, assigning each student a permanent “Sharing Day” for the year. Sharing Pages go home in their Homework Folders on Monday. We share Tuesday through Friday, with 4-5 kids sharing per day. The whole thing takes about 10 minutes a day, and they remind us if we forget!

Our favorite challenge is the “shy” kid…We use quotes because by now, we are seeing them flourish-They are not so “shy” anymore {And the teachers, snap, snap, snap and wag their heads!}. Of course we support them along the way…In fact, we came up with the poster below to hang in our classroom for them to share like Pros.

For us, it is not just about reading a paper in front of the class. Presentation and comfort ability are important too!

Plus, we cannot exactly teach them the, “Pretend everyone is sitting there in their birthday suit” trick just yet, so these steps help them prepare their little bodies and minds for successful share time.

We’ve added this Sharing Pros Poster to our TpT Store.

Grab one for yourself {here}.

Lots of you are using our Sharing Pages in your own ways too! We love that! Thank you for sharing…cuz we are caring!

As our students share each day throughout the week, we have them turn their papers into our “Sharing Basket”. We print and mount the covers on and 18″ x 12″ piece of construction, laminate, and chop in half to make a front and back book cover. At the end of the week, we gather all the pages and bind them together to make a class book.

We’ve just finished up January. But, before we add it to our TpT Shop, we’re giving them away along with November and December to 5 Lucky Friends!