2nd Annual Literacy Swap=18 New Literacy Centers!!!!

This week I had the privilege to host our 2nd Annual Literacy Swap! I was so excited and it really did feel like Christmas! So....what is a literacy swap? Each person makes their center/game 17 times and then when we leave we all have 17 new COMPLETE centers!!! **If you have any questions about the games feel free to leave a comment and I will explain the game in more detail**

All of these word works sorts and items were completely prepared! 

I can NOT wait to use them in my word work center!

Have you seen  this on Pinterest? I have...I even pinned it! NOW I have it!!! All I have to do is add the words I want my little ones to work on!

This game is so cute and I know my students will love it! This will be a great addition to the vowel sorts when we start working on them..... I also love it a little bit extra because she made it into a lid game and we all know how much I love lids!!!!

This snake game as already been tested and APPROVED by my 3 year old! He loved that he could look for the snakes in grass! Do you see how she wrote the sight words on the snakes? AND she provided us with 2 different levels....seriously HOW cute is this game and MY little man! 

We love tong games. They are so great for fine motor and my students love them.

 With these cute little tongs I know this game will be a hit!

Syllables can be a little tricky so the more practice the better! 

This fishing game came complete with POND, FISHING POLE AND FISH! How much fun will my students have with this...oh and this was tested and approved by little guy too! 

I love the idea of my students up and moving during centers. They will love this sort game but really this golf game could used for anything that has 2 different ways to sort. It is a little hard to see but she glued 2 cans together with clothes pins on top to show where they have to put the ball when they pick a card. 

Another item that I have pinned and never made were these paint bags! NOW I have them TOOO! Ohhhh and the hands belong to a teacher that was a little rough trying out her new center...she ripped the bag!!!

This teacher is the only one who does not work in my county! 

We met through blogging! I love the beginning sound space sort! 

CHECK out this...haha...I crack myself up! I love that she used vinyl to die cut the letters for the checkers. They stick on great and I can't wait to use this!

Guess who sight words!!!! WHAT......HOW much fun will this be? Does your words have a "t" etc....every teacher quickly opened this box and  was excited to try this out! 

This is my friend Karen from Mrs. Stamp's Kindergarten 

and she made the cutest little ice creams to sort with the most adorable monkey plates!

This is me and my Beginning, Middle and Ending buses....these are available in my TPT store here and they are currently on SALE!!! I also made the Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Trees with vinyl. Each person got a set of upper case letters to match up!

THANK YOU, THANK YOU for another amazzzzzzzing swap! I am already planning the next one....MATH GAMES Anyone?!?!

 

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! :) 

Made It Monday :) Alphabet Spoons

Everyone knows that I love to make literacy centers! I really love to make them out of things that are free or almost free! This year I saw this post on Pinterest. 

I looooove this idea! Not only for my 2 year old at home but for my sweet little ones at school too! I used my Cricut, some vinyl (my newest obsession) and WOW! How cute are these!!!!

These were super simple to make! First you need a clear spoon and a colored one. I  picked white so that my vinyl would show up better! I cut the letters with  one color vinyl for the upper case and a different color for the lower case!  I used my favorite Cricut Cartridge Mickey Font!!!!! And I cut the letters .75 in size...so just under an inch! 

I don't know about you but I am in LOOOOOOVVVE!

Happy Monday Friends!!!!  I hope you enjoying linking up as much as I am!!!!!

Spooky House ABC lid game with FREE Download

This week I got the cutest email from a friend at a nearby school. She had made a new lid game and wanted to share! And with her permission I am sharing it with you!!!!!!

I then took my love of lids and my love of my Cricut and made these cute lids! You can easily just write the letters with a sharpie!

 I made my game lower to upper case match up and I am going to make a word match up for my readers!

For your free copy click HERE for the ABC one or HERE for a blank one you can program yourself!

Enjoy!!!!

Falling for Letters!

Fall is here! Wow! It is hard to believe that we have now completed 3 weeks of Kindergarten! I am in love with my sweet kindergarten class!  I love to make new games for them too! SO in honor of FALL here is a new game idea for you too!

1. Get bag and leaves (I got both at the Dollar Tree)
2. Write the letters on the fabric leaves and add a few extra FALLs on some of the leaves
3. Put the letters and fall leaves into the bag

4. The students pull the letters out one at a time. They color in the letter they pulled out on their recording sheet. If they get FALL they lose a turn!

Sounds FUN???!!? Grab your copy of the printable recording sheet here!~