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!

Environmental Book with Free Printable

I love the beginning of the school year with my little ones! This is the start of my 3 week of school and the introduction to our first sight words! My little ones are always quick to tell me "I can't read!" YES-YOU-CAN! I love showing them that they already have so many skills!

This book of environmental print with simple sentences is a GREAT way to practice beginning reading!

You can grab this free printable Here!!!!!

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! :) 

Eggcellent Words! With Free Download

I love to have my student practice their site words lots of ways. This keeps them excited but allows me to get the practice that they need to master the new words. I love Roll and Record Type games and I made one that is played the same way with an empty egg carton container.

How do you play?
1. Write the site words in the bottom of the egg carton.
2. Add 1 or 2 small pom poms that the students shake to new spots and then close the container.
3. Provide each student with a recording sheet that has the same words across the bottom.
4. The students shake the egg carton and record the words on their sheet....repeat until a word makes it to the top!

This is a sample of a completed recording sheet.

This is a printable that you can cut in half and glue to the top of your egg carton to label your game and make it a little more cute...WHO does not like CUTE??

Empty Recording sheet you can add your own words! :)  This game cost about 5 cents to MAKE...how exciting is that >??!?!?!?!?!??!

Vowel Tree with Free Download

This summer I saw this great idea on Pinterest from My Montessori Moments. Go the her site here!  She has  free download of the vowel tree but I did not realize that before I made my own.

This is simple way to practice word work. You can use this printable for word families, CVC words and to stretch out words. My students love seeing the word change when they slide the letters down the vowel tree. I use magnetic letters with my tree but if you do not have letters My Montessori Moments have a printable with the letters on it. 

You can grab my printable HERE!

Twist and Shout CVC word with FREE download!!!!

This summer I saw this amazing idea on Michelle's Charm World and I knew that I was going to make it!!!!! 

Here is the original post: click to go to Michelle's site 

Then I made the following cards and recording sheet to go with this fun idea!

This is the recording sheet. There are 2 versions to chose from depending on if you want to use the word family cards. 

Print, cut and put the cards into a container. The students pull out one card and read the word. Then they can twist the word with the nuts and bolts and then record the word on the sheet! 

You can grab these FREE and FUN printables HERE!

Please let me know if you love this and I will continue to add free printables on this site! :)

Shake, Rattle and Read!!! Fun and FREE Download

I was at Party City recently and they had these super fun bowls....They look like the smaller gumball containers. They were only 1 dollar and they came in fun colors!

I knew that I was going to use them for something! I quickly grabbed a few and I my mind was buzzing with ideas! I decided to do a real and nonsense game with them! 

I also found these cheap and cute foam cubes at the Dollar Tree!  I made my sheet with the colors cubes on the recording sheet. My students learned quickly that the cubes always went in the color order blue, orange, and green.  So the word above would be FUG....and a nonsense word.

You can grab this printable by clickining HERE!!!!! (I will have to update when I get home from Spring break...the file is not wanting to pull up) :(

Who Am I? Free Printable and Literacy Idea!!!!!

SOOO I have been gone...ALOOOONG time! I have been so busy but I am going to try to make it up to you guys!!!! I found this cute pack of  bugs at Target today and I loved how they were all different! I made a new game to go with them! SO run don't walk to Target and make this game too! 


This game is easy to make!! It has 4 simple steps.
1. Buy the bugs at Target for 1 dollar!!!
2. Print the WHO AM I cards.
3. Glue the completed WHO AM I cards to the back of the blank ones!
4. Have your students read and determine which bugs go with which clues! 

Then the students pick a card. They read the clues and pick the bug they think matches all of the clues! Next they can see if they are correct by turning the card over and checking the completed side of the WHO AM I CARD!!!! YOU can grab this free printable here! 

Candy Candy Candy!!! Free Printable

Our Students love Halloween and Candy! Who does NOT love Candy? I have each student bring in 10 candy labels and we sort them by  letters. I put the pages into sheet protectors so that if I find candy throughout the year I can add them to our class book!

Grab yourself a cover to your class book HERE!~

We also sort the labels by color for a tree map! There is so much fun to have with candy...oops I mean candy labels! :) Happy Halloween Friends!

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!~