March Magic of the Leprechaun

MARCH IS MAGICAL IS KINDERGARTEN!!

What do you do to bring magic into your classroom? I love sharing joy, excitement and magic with students.  This year, I am bringing a little more magic into my classroom with centers that are easy to create and FUN for my students. 

This center is super easy to put together. 
1. print the rainbow paper
2. add salt of sand 
3. add sight word list (rainbow ones are magical)

ENJOY

We are also using PLAYDOH!!! Not just any playdoh but GREEN to make it a little bit more magical. I also added some super simple and CHEAP  cookie cutters.

Rolling playdoh is SO great for fine motor skills. I love these cards, Students can use this a model on how to roll each letter. This is a great alternative to using playdoh stampers. 

I could not find green sand (hello small town)  Did you know you can dye salt?!?!?!  Look how beautiful it turned out! 

March Hands On Centers

click here for more information on this  product 

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!!!

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!!!! 

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!!!! 

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!!!!!

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!!!!!

I spy....

A few months ago I talked about these great gumball container bowls from Party City. Click here to see this post!!! I also used the same containers to make the cute....I SPY bottles! 

These were simple and CHEAP to make! 

1. I looked around my classroom for items I already had.

2. Pick about 10-15 items for your container.

3. Take indiviual pictures of each item (like the duck below)

4. Fill your I SPY bottle with something to hide the items. 

I used egg noodles instead of rice because I was making

this for my 2 year old and I wanted it to be light.

5. Glue the edges of your container closed.

6. HAVE FUN!!!

I am going to make some Alphabet ones for my classroom! I know the kids will love them. The fun shape of the bowl it easy to hold and fun to shake!

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 >??!?!?!?!?!??!