Dr. Jean Celebration Cards

I am so lucky that I get to see Dr. Jean now and again when I present at conferences.  Talk about someone who has touched a lifetime of teachers and impacted so many children all over the United States.  She even inspired me to write my own songs.

Oh my!  I just found Dr. Jean on Teachers Pay Teachers and her amazing celebration cards are a FREE Download.  YAY!!! What are you waiting for?  Your students will love doing them!  What a great way to finish the school year by providing instant celebrations with your students.  And I use them in so many different ways as meaningful print. So what do I mean by meaningful print? Songs are meaningful print. Favorite books are meaningful print. Classroom labels are meaningful print. Your school creed is meaningful print.  And Dr. Jean's Celebration Cards are definitely meaningful print.  I place the cards in a pocket chart very close to my easel.  The students get to choose a celebration for good behavior, amazing work, exhibiting school character traits (respect, compassion, etc.).

I use meaningful print to teach fluency, phonics, phonemic awareness, letters and sounds, and sight words.  The sky is the limit.  The children have buy-in because they are familiar words and sentences that they hear every day.

For this literacy center, I copied the celebration cards onto regular

copy paper.  The students took a card then highlighted "What they 

noticed" on the card.  Letters, little words hiding in big words, word

wall words, phonics, blends, digraphs, silent e words, vowel teams, 

diphthongs, word endings (suffixes - ing), prefixes, word families.  

Your students will love playing detective.

Try these ideas with her cards.
Put them in a handwriting center and let the students make their own celebration cards to take home.  My students get so EXCITED to copy them and create their own artwork to go with them.  Start a celebration to the last day of school.  How many celebration cards can you make for your house before the end of the year?  Give your parents some great ideas for celebrating at home too.

Put them in a "What Do You Notice" center.  Copy and laminate the cards and place them in a literacy tub.  Put in some magnifying glasses.  Give your students a recording sheet to write down words that they notice.  It's differentiated because all children are at different stages of literacy at different times.  Some children will notice the letters in their names.  Some will find little words hiding in big words. Some will notice your word wall words in the cards. Some will find letter blends, digraphs, the silent e, vowel teams, word families, prefixes, suffixes or word endings (Common Core).  Have them share what they found.

Put them in a fluency center along with some PVC pipe phones.  Throw in some minute sand timers too.  Let your students practice reading the celebration cards.

Click on these links to take you to Dr. Jean's celebration cards.  And don't forget to leave her feedback and tell her how amazing they are!

Set #1

Set #2

Set #3

Set #4

Thanks for stopping by!