Summer of Manipulatives!

This summer has been tremendously productive for me concerning both my personal and work life!  I've done so many great school projects that I never have time to do during the school year and I am so excited to put them to use!  I've posted some of my creations (some from my own imagination and others I've found thanks to Pinterest. . . my new obsession!).  Please take any ideas and make your own!  Also, keep in mind that I am a floating K-5 French teacher and thus I work from a cart. . . my ideas are geared toward making my life easier with maximum learning results.  

Bon courage!

1. J'ai fini. . . bucket filled with ideas for students to do when they are finished early (some of these ideas are mentioned below).   I used paint markers to do the writing.  I plan on having my students pick randomly so the tasks are printed on the back.  

2. J'ai fini. . . ideas. . . 

                           - I have a French Magnetic Poetry Set.   I took a cookie sheet, a permanent marker and voila!

                        - This task is a combination of ideas from Pinterest.  I took free paint samples and divided them into colors.  Each color represents a part of speech.  I wrote down many different words for each color and laminated them (this took a little while).  This is the resulting activity! 

                  

                   - French Word-of-the-Day study (mine is more kid friendly like the one below but I got it in France) and Allons-y Magazine (I have a bunch of these).  

3. Weather station (I love this!) and it is perfect for a traveling cart! I used graphics I found on TPT (here) and I spray painted a cookie sheet ( I am really loving the cookie sheet this summer).  I made the thermometer myself.

4. I spent some time at the printers this summer and got some posters made from some great graphics I found on Pinterest.  I made enough copies to put in each classroom.  This is where I found the graphics.  Here were the results: 

5. I am big on doing a great warm-up with all my classes.  I have songs and dances for the days of the week, months, Ca va expressions, etc.  I made a great looking warm-up container from tins and stickers I found at Michaels.  

6. From these same tins (multiple colors) I made a "Pick Me" for each class.  I decorated the tins (each class differently) and at the start of the year I will write every child's name on a Popsicle stick for fair and balanced name picking.  I will keep each tin in each classroom so it's easier for me to keep track of them.  

7.  I made these dry erase boards out of colored Popsicle sticks and plastic plates.  I also numbered each one so I can keep track of them easier. 

8.  I had fun taking my niece to Five Below and I found some fun school stuff.  
This hot potato game has been a favorite with ALL of my students for years.  I use it in different ways to elicit vocabulary words from students, as a sentence builder or even as a points game.  For $5 it will be the HIT of your school year.  

 I also found this cute shirt I want to wear the first week of school!

Finally, I got this combination of nail polish.  I want to paint my nails to look like a pencil top!  See the tutorial below!  

Pencil Nail Art

9. The Dollar Store has been a great resource for me this summer.  I bought these pre-cut sentence strips.  I decided I wanted to label the school in French so these were perfect for that!  I laminated them after.  

10.  I do a unit with my Kinders that goes over emotions, colors, and shapes.  Each "shape person" is a different color, shape and emotion.  This makes the vocabulary a lot easier to introduce.  I found these balls at the Dollar Store and decided to put my "shape people" onto each one.  Not really sure how I am going to use them yet but I love them.  The best part. . . they are scented! 

11. Going along with the ball theme, I also found this at the Dollar Store.  I decided to divide it up and put key questions in each section.  The students will catch the ball and answer the question that their right thumb is on.  Not quite done with it yet! 

12. I love these easy to identify commands so I made a sheet for each classroom and laminated it.  

13.  This is what I'm calling my "boite magique". . . I am not quite done with it yet but its turning out cute! I found the plain, wooden box at Michaels.  A bit expensive so wait for a coupon!

14. I printed and laminated this to hang in my office.  It's great to help remember the steps in vocabulary introduction.  

15. I made myself a planner this year.  I found the template on Pinterest and I made a copy for each week and had it bound at the printers.  I think it's the best planner I've seen in a long time!  It even includes home planning.  Here is the template .

16.  I took the spinner off of my old Life board game to use this year during games.  I thought it may be good in conjunction with this Roue du Vocabulaire .

17. I'm calling this my "Valise d'Art".  My mom found this cute little vintage-looking suitcase at a thrift store. I put cardboard cups in it and numbered them.  They will be perfect to put markers and pencils in (each table will have a number).  I'm even thinking about labeling my markers based on their cup number.  The suitcase is super easy to throw onto my cart when I need it!

18.  I made these cute little blocks (I found the blank blocks at Pat Catans).  I also used Mod Podge.  The link for the graphics is found here.