An amazing Giving Away!!!!

 My Friend Karen From Mrs. Stamp's Kindergarten is celebrating 300 give away! Make sure you stop and enter to win her amazing give away with 18 holiday packets!!!!!


Click on the picture to take you to her site!

Thanksgiving is Here....

and I am Thankful for my blogging friends! I have been MIA for....well AWHILE! Sorry about that. I am going to make blogging fit into my busy life! I AM!

I am going to start with a post from one of my favorite people! My friend Leilani made this and said I could share with all of you!  Here is a Native American craft and the best part is that is  FRRRRREEEEE!!!!

You can grab this printable on my TPT store here! 

All of the pieces needed to make this adorable Native American is included in download! I hope you enjoy this craft as much as we do! 

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!!!!!

Counting Fall Leaves

 I love that Fall is in the AIR! It is starting to get cooler and the leaves are starting to change colors. It will officially be fall soon!
Do you want a fun and simple way to practice number ID and Counting? This set of number cards go up to 12 and include printable leaves to use as manipulatives.  You can grab this fun fall math activity here! 

I found this super cute Table Scatter in the Target Dollar Spot for $2.50 but it is enough to share with a friend or 2!!!!!

I would LOOOOOOOVE to give away 3 sets of this printable! Leave me a comment and I will pick the numbers that are SPECIAL (birthdates of my little ones and they are spread out in the first 31 numbers)  ....:) If I have more comments that that I will randomly choose one from the higher numbers too! Good Luck! 

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! :) 

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!

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!

VA Blogger Get-Together!

My friend Karen from Mrs Stamps Kindergarten and I have been chatting about having a VA Blogger Get Together!  After being inspired by the Kindergarten Conference Blogger Meet Up I can not imagine a better way to spend my day!!!!! I hope that you can join us! 

Please comment on Karen's site  HERE if you can join us... and don't forget to include your email address! Can't wait to meet some local bloggers!!!

Five Little Monkeys.....way TOOOO cute!

Today (go there NOW) I was shopping at the Dollar Tree and I found these SUPPPPPER cute monkey plates! They are a steal with 12 monkeys being in each pack!!!! :)

They were screaming for me to buy them! I bought a set for my whole team!!!!!!! Then I made this to store with the puppets.

I wanted to print a few 5 little monkeys poems to store with them when I found this adorable book on Carls Corner! Click here to grab this: 

I am going to use these plates for retelling and story props! I love these cute little monkeys! 

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