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! :) 

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!!!!!

Made it Monday.....

I am Linked Up with Fourth Grade Frolics for the first time this summer!!!!

I am excited to participate this week in Made it Monday! I have been making things like crazy this summer! I love to use my cricut and make things for my classroom! A few months ago I saw this SUPER cute idea on Pinterest.... 

It is from the great site of  Make Take Teach.....you can go there HERE!!!! And the best part is she has so many great printables including these vowel sort pictures!!!!!!

Here is my version!!!!!

I got the metal containers at the dollar tree!!!  Then I used the sunflower shadow from Stretch Your Imagination and OF COURSE I used my favorite Cricut Cartridge....MICKEY Font!!!

Happy Monday Ya'll!