retelling....swap....can you say AMAZZZZING? and a give away?!?!

I have talked about my small share group of 15 teachers in the past and I can not wait to show what these amazing ladies have been up to this time. We had a RETELLLING CHALLENGE where you had to create a retelling center to go with  a book that we would use in kindergarten.  I was so excited because at the same time Scholastic had a dollar sale. I picked up 15 copies of The Day Jimmy's Boa ate the wash and created this:

I provided each teacher with a large boa to retell the story on . My little ones looooove this!

You can win one of these....just follow this blog and leave a comment. I will chose 1 winner (or maybe more) next weekend!

This amazing Jimmy's Boa clipart is from Lauren at The First Grade Diaries and you can go to her store on Etsy here: http://www.etsy.com/shop/TheFirstGradeDiaries . She was so nice and her clipart is adorable.

Do you know this story? The Grumpy Morning was another one of the scholastic dollar specials....and my friend Toni created this retelling center for all of us. She found the adorable animals from Scholastic printables and she DREW THE BACKGROUND!!! I know how cute it that?!?!

This retelling center works very similar to the snake with the children placing the animals in order until the get to the farmer's house!

I loooooove this book  Little Pea.....if you do not know this book you should really look into reading it to your students! It is about a little pea who is forced to eat "healthy" but he does not like candy! His parents make him eat 1 piece of candy every day! My friend Brittany made this using felt and iron vinyl! Seriously this picture does not show how stinking cute this really is!  I am also in love with little pea container that all of the pieces store in!

The crayon box that talked is always a great story to share with our little ones . My friend Missy made this for each person and I LOVE the scene that she DREW (yep, you read that right) for the students to complete as they read the story!

I also made everyone in the group Mouse Count out of felt. I love how the iron on vinyl turned out for edge of the jar. I made this on my day off for President's Day....I was actually surprised how quickly I could cut out 150 mice! :)

I have more amazing retelling to share with you later! I can not wait til you see what my crazy teacher friends created. I am pretty sure you will be impressed. I love my share group.....do you have a group of teacher that you swap items with?!?! How does it work? I would love to know what other groups are doing!!!

Must read books

I had a SNoWDaY this week and I enjoyed every minute!!! I used some of my extra time looking on Pinterest and I found this pin.....http://www.edexcellence.net/commentary/education-gadfly-daily/flypaper/2012/the-kindergarten-canon.html

It was titled 100 books that you should read before Kindergarten!

I have 3 year old that is my world and a huge  book lover. As a book lover myself and I consider myself to have a very nice library in my classroom.....I wondered....what was on this list!?!

After reading the list....some I agree with others.....I would replace with other favorites. I wondered what would you say is your 10 MUST read books each year?!?! Yes, I know we love way more than 10 books and this will be hard for a true book lover :)

Here are 10 of my favorite books ( in no special order)
1. Pete the Cat....my little ones love this book/song
2. Doug's colorful day... My son loves this one
3. Are You My Mother?!?... My 16 yr old 'read' this every day at 2!!
4. Owen... Such a sweet story
5. Mrs Wishy Washy... It is fun to say and read!
6. Dr Seuss .... I saw it on Mulberry Street
7. There was old lady....any/all
8. Wide Mouth Bull Frog..pop up version
9. The Jacket I wear in the snow
10. Harold B Wigglebottom :)

300 followers GIVE AWAY.....did someone say prizes?!?!

I have recommitted to this blog for the 2013 year. I am trying to post every week...so far so eehh good?!?!

I am excited----so excited to have 300 followers (almost) and I wanted to give away my new monster CVC word packet. This packet also includes sound boxes for decoding and......

.......... probably my favorite part a super cute finger puppet!  I found these adorable finger puppets on Etsy and I had to order them for my teacher friends. I love them. They are found in the BubbleGumMonkey store and Ashley is so nice...she quickly whipped up 50 of these for me!!!! You can find a link to her store http://www.bubblegummonkeys.etsy.com/

So here is the good part...this item is  available on my TPT HERE(and is one sale for one week)...but you can grab it for free along with a free monster puppet to help  your little friends to decode CVC words. All you have to do is...
1. Follow this blog! (I chance to win)
2. Leave a comment....
3. If you blog about this on YOUR blog I will send you the TPT file for FREE!!! (comment with link)
4. Stop by Ashley's page and follow her shop and you get 1 extra chance to win! (make 2 comments)

I will do a random number drawing on March 10!!!!   I will chose at least 3 winners... tell your friends because....more comments...and I will chose----- MORE winners!!!! 

100th day of Kindergarten Shirts

We celebrated the 100th day of school a few  weeks ago and I was SOOOOO impressed with my families and the creativity that they showed with their shirts! I took a few pictures to share with you! 

DOuNOT miss this great FREE printable!

A few weeks ago I got together with 15 of my county's amazing kindergarten and first grade teachers including Karen Stamp from



 We did a lid challenge and center swap! Everyone had to make an activity or game out of lids and they had to make 15 of each of them so we could all leave the session with 15 new ideas!!!

Last week, Leilani shared her President's Day lid game! ( how cute was that?)!! This week I am sharing my friend and colleagues Brittany's super cute donut game! ( the title makes more sense)

This donut number center is really 3 number activities in one. The first one is number word making with the number. The second activity is number order 1-30 and the last one is filling in the missing numbers.

To make this number center all you need is this printable and 30 lids. We used soda bottle lids or white water bottle lids!  You can grab this printable for free in my TPT store here!

Are you collecting lids yet?!? I think you should be if you are not because over the next few weeks I am going to share with you about 15 more things you can do with lids for FREE or almost free!

Who Wants to WIN???? President's Day and A little Pete the Cat from Leilani's Guest Blog

I love a great give away....simply follow this blog, follow Leilani's TPT store and leave a comment. We will  then randomly select 3 winners and the PRESIDENT GAME AND PETE RETELLING BRACELET WILL BE YOURS! ALL YOURS!!!!

 Hi! I am Leilani and I have gotten the pleasure to work with Kelly and attend her S.H.A.R.E. (Staff Have Awesome Resources for Each Other)  class. Kelly and Karen Stamp recently hosted a class at the beginning of the month. The theme of the class was to create a "fun" educational game using any type of lids. It was AMAZING!! It was wonderful to hang out with a bunch of creative teachers who are willing to go the extra miles to help their students learn in ways that they will enjoy over and over. Who would of thought that you could create so many educational games using a simple lid of any kind. We left our exchange with 18 new games made from lids....and many of them will be posted here in the next few weeks...so make sure you check back!

    I love making teaching fun for educators and learning fun for students  The game that I created was a George Washington and Abraham Lincoln lid game.  This is what the game board looks like. I put one of five facts about each president in each star. 




This is what it looks like. (sorry it's sideways)

  The game pieces are simple. I just made circle little Lincolns and Washington's. I laminated mine, cut them out, and hot glued them on water bottle lids.

  

The object of the game is to match the President with their fact. (example: "Father of our Country" George Washington) Ta-da..see how simple this is to make. The possibilities are endless!!

   

 I also have a Teachers Pay Teachers store and have posted this game on it. Feel free to come and visit. Not only do I have this game but I have also made story retelling bracelets. My recent story retelling bracelet is Pete the Cat I love my White Shoes by James Dean and Eric Litwin. Here is a peek at my Pete the Cat Story bracelet.:

     I wanted a cute and fun way for the kids to retell the stories we read in class so I created these. I also have done other stories. If are you interested please feel free to drop by my Teachers Pay Teachers storehttp://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Browse/Search:leilani+sayasithsena

   

Well, I hope you enjoyed my post. I'd like to thank Kelly for letting me be a guest on her blog. 

Remember, teachers who love teaching, teach children to love learning. Have a wonderful day!


 

I heart Valentine's Day when centers are this MUCH FUN!

I love making new centers for my little ones! I just made this amazing new center for students and you can too!  I bought a box of conversation hearts and with the help of my computer tech friend at school the logo was wiped out and popcorn words was inserted.  We have a color poster machine so this is about 2 foot by 3 1/2 foot...I KNOW .....we are very L-u-c-k-y! I made this game for all of the other K teachers at my school AND I think they love it as much as I do!

Then we added the current popcorn words! I used our school die cut machine to die cut hearts in "conversation" colors and then added the same popcorn word to the heart. The students simply read the word and match up.

I found these super cute heart shaped containers at the Dollar Tree and Target in the dollar spot along with heart shaped table scatter at both places.




Then I used my Cameo to die the sight word for the outside of the container with vinyl and added the same letters to the individual hearts. The students the build each word into the heart container.
PSSSTT...don't tell my team but I spent a little time today making this for each of them!!!


The last Valentine Center that I really like and I made it for FRREEE with the help of a Facebook Request to my friends and a quick note home to parents. I asked for all of the extra Valentine's they had at home or in the pack they had bought for that year. Most packs  come with more students than are in our classroom--or less so parents bought 2 packs. Then I  glued the valentines on pink construction paper and searched for sight words that my little ones knew. They used a dry erase marker to circle the words right on the Valentines and they love this because of the fun characters.

I have been a little MIA but I am committing to more post in 2013!!!! I look forward to reaching my 300th follower so I can have a give away!!!!