Must Have Mondays!

I am linking up with Blog Hoppin  :) for  my L-A-S-T week of the summer :( !!!

         I loooooove my Cricut!!!!!! AND my Mickey Font!!!! 

 I  also can NOT imagine life with my personal laminator! I use it every week in my classroom. If my students are going to manipulate and really work with some game pieces or activities, I HAVE to hard laminate them! You can pick this laminator up for around 30 bucks at Wal-mart, Target or online!

I do NOT buy the pouches at these places. You can get the box of laminating pouches at Sam's Club for 21 dollars for 200 sheets! That is a way better deal than 7 dollars for 25! 

I also am addicted to Diet Pepsi.....I gotta have it! I try to start my day with water but I usually give up by 9! :)

Step-by-step Printing on Burlap!

Hi all! My name is Brittany! I teach with Kelly and share her passion for making things for CHEAP! :) I was asked to do a guest-post to teach everyone how to print from your home printer on burlap, or any fabric! 

First of all, I will admit... I am obsessed with burlap lately!!! I have been so inspired by all of the cute things on Pinterset!


Being pretty crafty, I figured I would make these myself, for next to nothing! Here is how I did it...

1. You will need your fabric, FREEZER paper (not wax paper!), an iron,  scissors, an 8.5 x 11" piece of paper, a pencil, an inkjet printer, and a little inspiration!

2. Rip off a large sheet of freezer paper. Trace and cut so your freezer paper is exactly 8.5 x 11".

3. Cut out a similarly sized piece of fabric. Place your freezer paper SHINY SIDE DOWN onto your fabric. Iron on the highest setting just until the paper begins to stick (make sure your iron is dry, with no steam, or the paper will get soggy!). 

4. Cut around your piece of freezer paper so that the fabric is exactly the same size. Do NOT peel off the freezer paper; that's what will help your printer feed it through evenly!

5. Create whatever design you would like to print on your computer. I used Microsoft Word, but any program you can print with, will work!

6. Insert your 8.5 x 11" piece of fabric/freezer paper into your printer, just like normal paper. Make sure you know which side it will print on (I recommend doing a test run on paper!) I have an Epson All-In-One inkjet printer. I imagine it will print the same on any inkjet, but have not tested any others. Please print at your own risk! I personally have not had any problems with jamming or anything else, but it is always a possibility!

7. Click "Print" on your computer... and be amazed! I left all print settings the same as normal, but you can change the quality to "best" for a heavier ink saturation, if you wish and if you have it as an option.

8. Enjoy!

I have been creating quite a few of these since I figured out the process! They make SUPER CUTE personalized wedding gifts, classy prints for kitchens and bathrooms... and the best thing is you are only limited by what you can create on your computer! Happy CHEAP crafting!!! :)

VA blogger Meet-Up This Saturday 8-11-12

Calling all VA bloggers....My friend Karen from Mrs. Stamp's Kindergarten and I  are SOOOOOO excited to meet other local bloggers!!!!!  This weekend is the big day! 
If you can join us please comment HERE so that we can be prepared at the restaurant!!!! 

We can NOT wait to meet you all! Please feel free to blog about this on your site! 

We are meeting next to Potomac Mills......shopping anyone?

WELCOME BAGS and a Free printable

I love welcome bags. I always make them for my little ones for the meet and greet when they come to drop off their supplies and meet the teacher! I have seen lots of welcome bags in the my years of teaching. I think I got the original idea (if possible) from Dr. Jean a lonnnnng time ago.

I do not like to give Kinders a cotton ball, rubber band,  penny....ect. I want the items that I give them to be FUN and EXCITING for a 5 year old.

I do  a theme every year and this year I am doing Dr. Seuss. Target had almost everything I needed in the Dollar Spot to make my welcome bags. This year I found Dr. Seuss silly bands and added them into my bags. Last year that spot was gummies :) I always see what I can find and make my bags around that....some of the things like smarties and starburst I use every year! 

What do you need to make your very own, super cute Welcome Bags?

1. Starbust, 2. Smarties, 3. Stickers, 4. Erasers, 5. Silly Bands, 6. Small Bags this year I used the cute red crippled paper because I had recently got a gift with that was packed in it! 

You can grab this printable HERE!!!!!! (without my name of course!!!) * I will update this as soon as possible**

What do you put in your welcome bags???  I love new ideas! :)

Kindergarten literacy exchange= 18 new centers

Yesterday I had the privilege of hosting a literacy bag exchange. WHAT???? Earlier this spring I held a toddler busy bag exchange for my 2 year old with neighborhood moms and I was blown away with the new activities my little guy got! Then I took  my new bag of treasures to school and showed my amazing team. ****Then the literacy bag idea was in full planning mode.

WH0: k and 1st grade teachers in our county
HOW:
We have 6 members on our team but only 4 were returning so the four of us invited 3 people each. Then to get some people that we did not know before the exchange, each of our invited guest was able to invite 1 person as their guest!!! We had the potential of having 24 people participate in the exchange. We had 18 people confirm and committ to making 18 games to share with the group!!!!!

I am going to share some the 'are you kidding me?' creative activities that we got at the exchange!  I am always impressed with the creative genes that are in teachers and the desire to make learning fun!

My game was simple--- or should have been! I bought the cutest alphabet clip art on Etsy and made beginning sound clip match up!  To jazz up my game I bought wood clothes pins and dyed them 'sunshine orange'. (messy and I have to say my color choice did not look too different from wood grain in the end)  Then I added one letter on each clothes pin!
You can grab this printable on my new TPT store for FREE.....Here;)

Here is a QUICK over view of a few of the games I got yesterday!!!!!!   This is sight word pancake flip!!! I love that she included the spatula too! :)

I am a blog stalker and a I am always on the hunt for a new game....BUT I have never seen this one...IF you have please tell me! This is from a new and super creative teacher. You play by driving the skateboard over the words as you read them!!! HOW fun? I know my little ones will love this!?!?!

This is an old but a goody!! :) You can sort your letters multiple ways! My sweet little ones love to do this at the beginning of the year.

Power Towers are ALLLLLLLL over the web and Pinterest! My friend made this work sheet that goes with 4, 3, 2 and 1 letter words. Then she wrote the letters on the bottom of the cups! I loooove the super cute pink container....(run to the Dollar Tree NOW)

Everyone loves Roll and Record games. AND I love things that are color coordinated. (This maybe why Lakeshore is not a place I can visit too often) I love how she matched the BRIGHT colored paper to the cube with sight words! 

This was a SOUND sort...I like how she put the blends into the same spoon. I feel like I may need to invest some more money into spoons. The game possibilities are endless!!! 

This game was made by a K teacher at my school and she shares my obsession with vinyl. SHE is super creative and really particular about her activities....(SHE SOUNDS LIKE THE PERFECT TEAMMATE....HUH)   I love her amazing sort games. She made several of them ending, middle sounds, vowels and she shared this one yesterday. I love the way the vinyl looks on the tray AND I love how she put a red trim on the sort cards! 

Mystery words.... I know it will be LOOVED by my sweet little ones. First you take a piece of card stock and write the word with liquid glue. Once it is dry you seal it in the envelope. Then the students use their Mysterious Sight Words book to rub over top the envelope and see what the word is!!!! This is way easier to prepare than painting over white crayons because it reusable! 

I don't know about you BUT I am impressed! There were some amazing games presented! I am blessed to work in a school district that allows us to work together and learn from each other! 

I know what you are thinking...this is NOT 18 games...YEP you counted right...I will post about the other games later! :)