Stickers from Eyelike, Melissa & Doug and Sweet Scents available on Amazon.com
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Rewards in my reading class are in the form of bookmarks, of course! I cut up an array of bright colored copy paper into bookmarks and have my students pick a color and then write their name on the top. At the end of each lesson, each of my students gets to pick a sticker from my collection. Once they fill both sides of their bookmarks with stickers they get to keep them and use them.
These stickers are different from other stickers and that is why my students like them and never tire of them.
The Eyelike stickers come in a book and are reusable with background scenes to use right in the book. My students do not use them as reusable stickers, but the quality of them is nice. There are some absolutely beautiful nature stickers featuring animals and fish. Some of the stickers are very large. I reserve those for birthdays. When it is one of my student’s birthdays, or half- birthdays, they get to choose one of the big stickers. Sometimes that even warrants a new bookmark so the big sticker can fit!
Find them here:
Eyelike stickers Ocean pack
Eyelike stickers Animals pack
My students love the Melissa & Doug stickers, too. This pack provides many unusual choices. Favorites are the rescue stickers, construction stickers, dinosaur stickers, and pirate stickers. They are ALL wonderful. And the gross stuff stickers are really gross.
Melissa & Doug Sticker Collection Book: Dinosaurs, Vehicles, Space, and More – 500+ Stickers
My students were always asking for “smelly” stickers. I ran out of the ones I had so ordered these Sweet Scent stickers from Amazon.com. They are brightly colored regular sticker-sized stickers, but they are scratch-n-sniff. And there are over 450 of them! My students are delighted by the scents. The two scents we have tried out so far are applie pie scent and fruit punch scent..
Sweet Scents stickers
*See my post about teaching reading and laminating things like bookmarks here
Fellowes Ayla 125 Paper Laminator from Amazon.com
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Laminating is very handy for home office tasks and school room tasks. I laminate many of my worksheets, flash cards, homemade bookmarks, and reading sheets. This little Ayla 125 paper laminator from Fellowes sits proudly on the counter in my home office. It is always plugged in and ready to go. I have a box of extra pouches, so whenever I want to laminate I can.
I like to reuse all of my sheets and flash cards so having them laminated helps immensely. I like the ease of being able to write all over laminated items with dry erase markers and then just erase and start over.
This machine has made my life easier and helps me be creative in prepping for my classes.
Find this little gem on Amazon.com:
https://amzn.to/3wEWNLchttps://amzn.to/3wEWNLc
Pure Vanilla Extract from Penzeys
Vanilla is my favorite baking ingredient. For some reason I feel decadent using extra-strength vanilla. Usually when I am baking I end up spilling in a little extra vanilla because it overflows the measuring spoon. Now I just write that right in to the recipe: “1 teaspon vanilla plus spill in a little more.”
We used Penzeys pure vanilla extract in our recipe for Acme Brownies that you can find here.
Shop Penzeys for your vanilla:
Pure vanilla extract from Penzeys (double-strength)
https://www.penzeys.com/online-catalog/vanilla-double-strength/c-24/p-1519/pd-s
Pure vanilla extract from Penzeys (single strength)
https://www.penzeys.com/online-catalog/vanilla-single-strength/c-24/p-1514/pd-s
Summer Skills Books from Tri-C Publications
Summer vacation. Over the years I have learned to keep summer school work simple. I always allow a few weeks “off” in the beginning of summer vacation. My four kids like unscheduled time, so after about two weeks “off,” I start gently bringing out the summer review school work. Every summer I order math review workbooks from Tri-C Publications, Inc.’s Summer Skills series. These are paper and pencil workbooks (much appreciated after a year of online learning) that help students review skills they learned the previous year or years.
The 2022 Summer Skills order form just came in the mail today! You can download it here
No summer school work on weekends!
These Summer Skills review workbooks are wonderful. One of my children will be in high school this year and will be going in to Algebra II. I ordered the Algebra I Review workbook since it has been a couple of years since he has been in an Algebra class. This book has 33 lessons in it. I usually try to have my kids do one lesson, which is one page front and back, at least four days a week. But not on weekends!
The great thing about these workbooks is that all of the solutions to the math problems are in the back of the workbook. Additionally, the books contain pages of “cheat sheets” that list all the formulas students need. The Summer Skills books for younger math students contain handy items like hundreds charts, manipulative punch-outs, and flashcards. These workbooks make it easy for parents to help, even if math was not their strongest subject. I want summer review work to be easy and just a little challenging so that the kids will cooperate with doing it. Each lesson does not take long to complete–maybe 30 minutes or less. Students can even correct their answers themselves!
Shop Summer Skills for your summer skills workbooks:
Betty Crocker’s Cookbook for Boys and Girls 1975
Retro recipes are our current favorites. The basis for our Acme Brownies recipe is from our favorite retro kids’ cookbook, Betty Crocker’s Cookbook for Boys and Girls published in 1975 by General Mills. This cookbook is so 1970s. The kids pictured in the cookbook have classic clothes and hair, and the recipes in the book are seventies quirky. Check it out here.
My sister and I received this cookbook as a Christmas present most likely in 1976. We went on a baking extravaganza. We were transfixed with the idea of Rootbeer Cookies, and our mom made us the ghost cake with glowing eyes for our Halloween birthday party.
You can find our full Acme Brownies recipe here:
https://alcoveshome.com/acme-brownies-are-a-back-to-school-treat/
We found Betty Crocker’s Cookbook for Boys and Girls here: