Flat Stanley Project

A fun way to teach geography to your class is using Flat Stanley! My students mailed Flat Stanley out to a relative or friend anywhere in the world. The Flat Stanley returned with a new outfit, information about where they visited, pictures, and so much more! We tracked every place he had visited using a map and string. We had strings connect from Arizona to every single place he went to, measuring the farthest place and more.

Have You Filled A Bucket Today?

This book is the perfect tool to help create a positive classroom environment! I read this book on the first day of school to my kids and talk about how we all have invisible buckets.  We work all year to be "bucket-fillers" and not "bucket-dippers."  I use a bulletin board to create a "bucket" for each child. The children have to write 5 bucket-fillers a week and deliver them to each child's bucket.  At the end of the week, we all check our buckets. In order to avoid children not receiving notes, we have a checklist of the students we have written notes for, and the students have to make they check everyone's name off before they can repeat a student. Students may NOT look in any one else's bucket! If you want to fill a bucket, you can do it during any independent time. We talk about what happens if our bucket is empty (sometimes this happens, but we just keep filling others buckets).

Watch this video to see how the book takes shape in a classroom: 

A sample fill the bucket form to use:

The Copycat Teacher!

The Copycat Blogger

Hi! I am so excited to create a place for all teachers to come to and find ideas to use in the classroom! I am an elementary school teacher in Scottsdale, Ariona. I am currently teaching first grade, but have taught in second and third grade too! I love adding creativity and spunk to my classroom. I am always on the internet trying to find new and exciting things to do in the classroom! As a young teacher, I am always trying to find the latest teaching methods and styles that appeal to kids these days! This is the main reason why I created this blog. I have learned, the best of teachers are copycats! Simply put, we learn from each other. Instead of reinventing the wheel for every subject, lesson and activity, why not browse the internet and find out what has worked for other teachers!  Most people don't want to admit they copy other teachers' ideas, but I excited to say I do! So please, if there is anything you like from my blog, copy it, take it, use it, and make it work for you!