Must Have (FREE!!!) Resource for English Language Learners

One of the most difficult yet most rewarding moments in my classroom are the times in which I have a hand in teaching a child to speak English. At my school, we have a large population of Hispanic students, many of which enroll with no English proficiency. Over the last several years, I have had the privilege of welcoming these students into my classroom. However, there are difficulties with the language barriers we face... one of the most common being that the only language spoken in these homes are Spanish. Several weeks ago I was racking my brain trying to figure out a best way to provide support for my ELL students at home, even though their parents have no English language background. I came across this resource that has been a GAME-CHANGER in my ELL students' learning!

My most recent find (and possibility my most favorite now) is www.readconmigo.org. The best part... it is FREE! This site provides many different bilingual books that I send home with my ELL students, as well as use in the classroom for those brand new kiddos who speak little-to-no English.

When sending books home, I ask my students to read the English text aloud to their parents... while doing so, parents can read the Spanish part for their own understanding. Parents can then discuss the story with the child!

The website allows you to sign up for free, then gives you access to over 30 bilingual books which feature both English and Spanish text! Most (if not all) books are available for tablets, smartphones, Amazon Kindle, and as a PDF file. ReadConMigo also has a Kid's Corner offering flashcards, coloring pages, word searches and more! There are also apps available on the App Store.

If you give these books a chance, please let me know how they work out for you and your students! If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact me at eberryhill@gmail.com.

Friday Freebie!

Today, we flew out to Vegas for a girl's trip! To hold you over until my next Google Drive post, I wanted to share a new freebie with you.

Who uses Brag Tags in their classrooms? I have not yet, but plan on starting this year! I've started making several that I will be using for the beginning of the school year, and would love to share my Back 2 School tag as a freebie! Click on the picture below to download!

If you are not familiar with Brag Tags, they are a great incentive for students and can be kept either on a ball chain or key chain.

Do y'all use brag tags in your classrooms? What has been your students' experiences with them?

Five for Friday & a Freebie!

Let's get right to it!

On Wednesday, I bought this amazing thing! I got right to work laminating everything in my BoY BIG Bundle for my new zebra print classroom! Needless to say... I am obsessed. It's the little things!

I spent some more time working in my new classroom this week. It is slowly (but surely) coming along! I am trying to finish all of the "decorating" before I leave for Vegas next week. This will help ease the stress of coming back and will leave more time for lesson planning/creating.

I am LOVING the brights and zebra print in this room! I'm hoping to get some curtains up over the top of those windows. I scored a couple of zebra print sheets from a local thrift store for about $3 each that I'm going to rig up there somehow!

I have limited storage space in this classroom (my last one I had a huge closet), so I have labeled my math resources by strand and put them next to my math manipulatives and center activities.

The computer backgrounds are possibly my favorite part of the room so far! I'm a sucker for organization and all things in order... can you tell??? I used PicMonkey to create the wallpapers then set them as my desktop background. SO easy!

I made my first EDITABLE product this week! It is so easy to make an editable product... First, create the template you want in PowerPoint. Save that template as a PNG, then in a NEW PowerPoint use that PNG as the background. I am listing this Zebra Print Labels product FREE in my TpT store, so go grab it!

This week, I passed 150 followers on Facebook! This probably doesn't seem like much to some... but considering it's only been two weeks, I'd say I'm doing pretty well! Are you following me on Facebook??? Click the picture to go to my page!

Last but most certainly not least... This is happening this weekend...

The Fireman surprised me with tickets to see GARTH BROOKS in NOLA! I absolutely cannot wait. We grew up listening to his music and I know it will be quite the experience!

What have you been up to this week?  Go check out Doodle Bug Teaching's blog to see all of the other Five for Fridays link-ups!

FLASH FREEBIE | Behavior Clip Chart

Until 12:00pm noon TOMORROW (7/3/15) get this Behavior Clip Chart flash freebie! I just finished this new version of my clip chart for my new BoY Big Bundle coming SOON! Be on the lookout!

The Berry Hill - Behavior Clip Chart