Cutsie It Up!!

Normally at this point in the summer, well---maybe a week from now, I wander in to my room with the excitement for new furniture arrangements, new decor stuff, and DREAD. I absolutely dread removing my furniture from a huge heap in the middle of my room. It's heavy, bulky, odd shaped, and there's so much of it. I love re-arranging, don't get me wrong....but that big heap of tables, chairs, bookshelves, etc. is so overwhelming at first. 

This year, however, our maintenance staff was AMAZING! Those ladies sure know what they are doing, and I cannot thank them enough! They took pics of my room and put EVERYTHING back exactly where it was. Even my "teacher space" on my counter (I don't use a desk). It looked phenomenal. And soooo clean! I'm excited to see them again & thank them repeatedly-----they made my coming back so easy! 

I only re-arranged a little bit this year, and moved 2 centers. With the extra time the maintenance crew saved me, I was able to tend to my I-feel-like-organizing and cutsie-it-up mood! Here's the results & if you want the EDITABLE labels, too....click on the photo(s)! Lord knows we all have these plastic drawers in our classrooms!!!!!

These are the drawers I use to keep my copies or anything that gets handed out to the kids. I used some washi-type tape (not really washi, but some off brand or something from Walmart. LOVE IT!) to adhere it to the front of the drawer. This little decorative tape is one of my new favs! 

I think this is my new favorite spot in my classroom. I really wanted comfy places for the kids to read this year. I know there may be some arguments over this one---but we'll get it figured out! I have a lovely 31 consultant/teacher-friend who feeds my addiction to cute bags & bins! 

Here's a bunch of little odds and ends that you'd probably find in a teacher's desk. Like I said, I don't use a desk, so I keep my randomness stored in these drawers on the counter. Also----as of last year, band-aids are a kid-accessible item. I got WAY to tired of fetching band-aids at inconvenient times. Fostering independence here, people! 

I LOVE my new Ikea 3-tier cart. It's stocked with everything I need for small groups/reading instruction---including my new personalized binder I'm using for assessments! If we have to assess all the time, it might as well be easy on the eye! 

More places to store my stuff! I'm a big fan of chalkboard labels & chalk markers! 

Oh yes....we must have a place where completed work should land. 

Now, it has a matching label! 

Here's my new Ikea rug, more labels for types of paper that the kids will need access to. Last year was such a whirlwind, it never got labeled. They managed....but this year, I'll sleep better knowing this is done. HA! 

I also keep my activities sorted for lang. arts and math by skill. Shown above is a box of word work activities for short vowel & cvc word blending. Look REALLY close in the bottom right corner of that tote and you'll see the cute little logo/graphic from my friend Julie at Make-Take-Teach. She makes some GREAT products, and that's where I keep all those bad boys! 

Another show of my "teacher space". And another 31item. 

Love me some fold-n-file boxes!! 

And finally, here is my new trash to treasure----the bookshelf! 

YES! It's one long bookshelf a colleague threw out, and I snatched it up! 

So lucky!!! 

Happy Back To School & Happy Decorating!!!! 

The Goodies Are Rolling In!

The goodies I've been ordering for my classroom have been rolling in! Don't you just love a box or two on your porch this time of year?! I know I do! Thank goodness I'm home to grab them before the husband sees, and tries to guesstimate how much I've spent....only to be shocked by the credit card bill how much it actually was. It's better he just sees the bill, freaks out & I'm like, oh yeah....I bought some stuff for school. By then, it's stashed in the trunk of my car or somewhere around the house, and there's no going back....only forward....to my classroom! So here's what came 2 shipments ago. This isn't even the latest stuff I've bought. I went on a girls day on Monday with some relatives to the Spa & there happened to be a Melissa & Doug store in the resort. All I can say is that I LOVE Melissa and Doug----and my own 3 children scored some sweet pool toys/diving games & my classroom will reap some rewards from that little shopping trip as well! More on that later....

Back to my Amazon goodies.....

Take a good look! You will see....

1. 1. My "Mrs. Powell" monogramed binder from Zazzle.com. It's BIG. And cute! All my assessments info. will be put into this binder this year. I always use a binder to store my running records, MLPP testing (letter/sound knowledge, concepts of print, etc., sight words data, DIBELS info., and DELTA Math info.)....it seems as if I have my Data Binder out every day, so this year I wanted to make it super cute. And for a reasonable price, I snagged this binder!
2. GIANT Magnetic Base Ten Blocks. I was really wanting some of these last year. I mentioned it to my principal as he did a walkthrough last year while I happened to be trying to model with base ten blocks that it would be really great if I had some that I could put on the whiteboard at our group area. Is it super sad I didn't even know they existed?!??! I'm ashamed to admit it. Glad I googled that one! It led to my wish coming true! 
3. Foam Bath Letters & (not pictured) the crab letter links for the water table. I bought two sets of the crab letter links and 2 sets of the foam letters. I figured I'll rotate sets so that the kids stay engaged/interested in them & purchasing 2 sets of each will ensure that there are enough vowels for kids that are spelling a variety of lengthier words! Check out this FREEBIE for your students to practice their sight words at the water table! Just post it on the wall above your water table. 

   

   Click HERE to grab this FREEBIE!
   
   

   

   Click HERE to grab this FREEBIE! 

4. Soft Number Dice. I also desperately needed these last year. What a perfect math station to just roll & add. You could add 2 numbers or 3 numbers. You could graph how many times you rolled a number. There are so many possibilities. Check out this FREEBIE for you using number dice. Don't want to purchase number dice? Simply download a template online, or use a sharpie and write numbers on a wooden cube.....I'm sure you have some of those! If you happen to like the number dice freebie I gave you, you can get LOTS more for your classroom in my Number Dice Activities Pack

5. 

   Click HERE to grab this pack! 
6. Belkin Rockstar headphone adapter. I'm very excited to get some of my audio books on an iPod or iPad this year so that the kids can listen to them digitally. That's a whole blog post for another day....but I am seriously excited about this little techy purchase. I'm such a geek! 
7. Letter Beads. These are great. I am very excited to add these to my word work station this year. I do have beads already, but some are old, some too small, and the pile has dwindled over the years. I'm re-stocking & plan to use them with my new items from A Differentiated Kindergarten! Thanks, Marsha!! 

  

Grid Games & A Manic Monday FREEBIE!

Today's Freebie: GRID GAMES!

It's nearly the beginning of the school year, and for you PreK-K teachers like me, don't you think it's amazing how we seem to forget just how little the children are in those first few weeks (okay, MONTHS) of school?! They come from all walks of life, all sorts of backgrounds and experiences...including no experiences, for some of them! 

So...let's bring them in, put them in a room full of 16, 18, 20+ other children their age and begin to form  a cozy little family! HA! Easier said than done, sometimes. 

There are a million little details, activities, games, and ice breakers that you will no doubt implement in order for you to get to know your students, and for them to get to know one another. One (of many) of my favorite ways to get children working together is to sit down and play a little grid game. If you are looking for a great small group activity in the beginning of the year, grid games are great for your youngest and most inexperienced students - AND play can be modified to meet the levels of your higher learners. As the year progresses, your students will be able to play these grid games in a center, at an independent station, in pairs, or other small groups. 

What is a Grid Game?

A grid game teach is a type of board game that teaches one to one correspondence, counting, numeral identification, and even work on addition. To play a grid game, children roll a game die, identify the numeral (or count the dots) and count out that amount of manipulatives. Each manipulative is placed over one picture in the grid. Each player gets their own grid mat. Children play until the whole grid is full. The first person to fill their grid wins/that round is complete. Continue play as long as time/interest allows.

Why Grid Games?Board games are the original turn-taking games, and a grid game is one form of a board game. They can be played without having to remember a lot of rules, they are fairly fast paced, and it does not take long to wait for your turn to come back around----perfect for little ones learning to take turns and build patience.

Go ahead and grab your grid game freebie here! I hope you give them a try if you haven't yet used them with your students. If you are familiar...you know kids love these games, and it's nice to have different game mats to play with!   

Your students can practice counting, 1:1, number recognition, addition, and taking turns with this fun grid game!  There are 5 game mats with 10-frames & 5 game mats with 20-frames to use with your students' various abiltiies/levels.

These are great for a small group/center activity. Laminate and cut out game mats.

What you need: Printable game mats & 1-2 dice (either with dots or numbers). That's it! With the 10 frames, students will only need 1 dice; with the 20 frames, students can roll 2 dice and add them together if you choose.

Cover the spaces with glass stones, pom poms---anything small enough to fit inside each box. First person to fill up their grid, wins! Play again and again as long as time allows! :)  

Kindergarten Concepts & A Freebie!

Hey all! This is Jessica from Under the Alphabet Tree! 

I am so excited to be blog swapping with Keri today!

Today I'm going to be sharing with you an idea I got from my co-worker, Lisa! I was lucky enough to get new tables in my classroom my 2nd year of teaching! I started naming my tables by coins because my students had such a hard time with identifying coins. But since that is not a kindergarten standard anymore, I wanted to make some new signs that I can change out through the year to help reinforce some big standards that my kiddos NEED to have mastered before 1st grade!

The table signs are a great tool to help teach kindergarten skills in every day situations! These will be great in calling by tables to come to the carpet, to line up, to earn points for following directions or to call attention when need be! These can be switched out easily if you hang them from some fishing wire and a paper clip! I will slip mine into a sheet protector and hang from the paperclip... like pictured here:

They can easily be switched out through the year! The barrel of monkeys you see pictures above were used to reward tables who were following directions as a whole! When they earned 5 monkeys, they got a prize from the treasure box. But when you download my freebie, be sure to check out the last few pages because I created some small pictures that match the table signs. You can tape them on your whiteboard, and mark the tables with tally marks as they are modeling good behavior! =)

Some rewards you could use could be:

5-10 minutes of free play at the end of the day
First dibs on computers
Read with a friend
Prize from treasure box
Stickers
New, fun pencil and more!!!

I am sharing my table signs FOR FREE with you and in return I hope you follow my blog! I post freebies all the time! 

Table Signs

I also just opened my TPT store recently! I just posted my student's organizational S.T.A.R. binders last night, so be sure to check them out!

Now, if you have any other ideas of how my signs can be used, please be sure to share by commenting! And if you have any other suggestions on skills that can taught towards the end of the year, be sure to let me know! I always welcome suggestions!

Thanks so much Keri for letting me post on your blog!

Sincerely,

Jessica

ABC Baseball

Here's a really fun game you can play at the end of the year with your preschoolers, or any time of the year with older students (the big Kindergarteners!). When I taught Kindergarten, I used to play this game with one of my grade level teachers, and our classes loved the friendly competition, socialization, and added physical activity during the school day.

We all know that if there is a way to make a game out of learning, your students will buy into it---creating a highly engaged group of students with a high interest activity. All you need is the baseball letter match game (which is a complete set of upper and lowercase letters), a dry erase board & marker (or something to keep score), bases/home plate and an excited group of students!

ENTER FOR A GIVE-A-WAY ON MY TEACHER'S NOTEBOOK SHOP!

Starts May 31, 2012 and ENDS at midnight!

10 LUCKY WINNERS WILL RECEIVE THIS PRINTABLE----FREE!!!



Click Photo



So....once you have printed the baseballs, you will want to put a number (1, 2, or 3--to represent the value and what base they could run to) on the back BEFORE you laminate. It's up to you, but I put a 1 on easy letters, a 2 on more difficult letters, and a 3 on the letters that are typically most difficult for students to identify. Then, laminate & cut out.

Now, you are ready to take your students to the gym or outside for a game of ABC baseball! I found some great bases and a home plate at the Dollar Tree, but I've only seen them there twice in the Spring over the paste few years. You could always make your own, or borrow from your P.E. teacher!

Set up your bases and divide your class into 2 teams, or bring another class to play against you! You will not need any players in the field. Simply have your students sit on the baseline until it is their turn to "bat" (no bat needed, though!). The teacher is the pitcher! :)

Have your baseballs in hand, and call one student up to bat. They stand at home plate and you tell them if it's a single (1--1st base), a double (2--2nd base), or a triple hit (3---3rd base). Then, "pitch" the ball (show them the ball with the letter on it). If they identify it, they run to their designated base. Next batter, do it all again. Every time a player crosses home plate, make a tally mark for a run for your team.

The team with the most runs at the end is the winning team!!

Shake it up! How to vary the game depending on each child's needs. When you pitch you can:

* show only uppercase

* show only lowercase

* mix it: sometimes show a capital letter, sometimes show a lowercase letter 

* ask for letter sound

* ask for a word that starts with that letter

* ask for a word that ends with that letter

* only use the letters in the child's first name



I hope this game is a HOME RUN for your class!

Have FUN!

Super Organizing Saturday! ---Printable Games

It's Super Organizing Saturday----and I mentioned on my FB page that there would soon be a tip for how to store all these cute little printable games that are flying around Teacher's Notebook (TN) and Teacher's Pay Teachers (TpT).

So, here's one *TIP* for storing your printable games-----but first. Guess where it came from?!

Yep----one of my favorite teacher supply places----the Dollar Tree! 

So you know it only cost $1!

What could it be that costs a dollar and can store my games in a really great way? 

A shoe box? Nope---too bulky.

A basket? Nope---they don't have lids.

A zipper pencil pouch? YES! 

I love using these zipper pouches to organize my printable games. They are just the right size for most things that I make or buy on TN and TpT. The clear pouch allows you to cut to size the cover page of the printable game so you know what is stored in the pouch. Don't let those cute cover pages go to waste! 

Then, put all of your game pieces inside---voila! Sleek and neat storage that does not take up much space. Perfect! 

In the bottom 2 pouches, you can see that there are not cover pages. The tiny cards on the left are labeled upper/lower case matching games for St. Patricks' Day.

The one on the right are story pieces for retelling Goldilocks and the Three Bears. I need to make a cover page for this! 

Also---because most of my games/activities are theme related, AND I store most everything in themed binders....these can go right the corresponding binder---like this! 

Want to know what ELSE you can use these zipper pockets for? Storing vocabulary cards! I am always changing out the vocabulary cards in all of my pocket charts throughout the room - at the ABC Center, the Writing Center, the Library Center, etc. Storing my story or themed related vocab cards in individual zipper pouches allows me to easily grab and go. No digging in a box or envelope, or rubber banding cards together. 

Again, throw it in the themed binder - and everything is on one neat and tidy space! 

Please click HERE if you want to browse around my shop! 

To become a Facebook fan and stay current on tips, games, and what's happening with The Sweet Life of Teaching, click HERE! Invite your teacher friends and continue to help this blog grow! 

PS - the Letter Match and Easter Egg Rhymes are FREEBIES at my shop! Go grab 'em!

Peep, Peep, Peep!

I am gearing up for my upcoming science project - in which I fully immerse my students in a cross-curricular study of all things chicks! Yes, chicks!! For the past three years, my associate teacher and I have thoroughly enjoyed playing mother hen by caring for sweet young chicks! Ok, honestly...I don't like to touch the critters---they kinda creep me out. But I LOVE the growth/development study, and the peeping from inside the egg, and the excitement that bustles about the ENTIRE school on hatching day!

It's a good thing you can't hear my squeal through the computer when my associate teacher/friend put one on my desk! Ewwww! And yes, we do let the kids hold them and watch them walk around....but I'm the photographer---ONLY! :)

We begin with fertilized eggs---typically gathered by other local teachers/farmers (the beauty of living in a rural farming area in a midwestern State!), an incubator, and 32 VERY excited young scientists! Put that all together in my classroom - and we have a perfect science experiment with so many activities to boot!

Each day we observe any changes in the eggs inside and out. I LOVE the model eggs that show detailed illustrations of what's happening on the inside.

We chart their progress on a photographic timeline (so it can be read and deciphered by our little ones), and much, much more! 

But before I go on forever about this project (my all time favorite of the entire year!!), I'll toss a math FREEBIE at you! It's spring time, and whether you hatch chicks or not---these little cuties can't be passed up! 

(Click the photo)

If you grab this game, I just ask that you leave me a comment. 

I love your feedback and reviews!

Welcome to My New Blog!

Welcome to my new blog! You may know me from Planet Preschool, which was turning into a hybrid blog for both parents and teachers. I thought I'd try it for a little while, and see how it worked, but it wasn't really giving me the opportunity to expand and grow in the blogging world of fellow educators. I know I said I'd wait until summer vacation---but here I am on spring break, and I just couldn't wait!

So....with that said, welcome to "The Sweet Life of Teaching"! I am happy to have a new place for educators to follow me, grab ideas, and network with me along my teaching journey. I love, love, love that technology has given me instant access to so many great teachers, and I'm hoping to give back just a little bit of what I have taken from so many of YOU!

Of course, this blog is brand new, but Planet Preschool was not....so if you are looking for any archives, be sure to check there. This site will move forward from here on out!

Because I am so happy you are here to visit me, I am handing out some "house warming" FREEBIES! Be sure to drop me a comment and let me know if you grabbed one of my games---I'd love to hear from you!

I'm still working on by blog button code (why does it have to be SO hard?!)---hang in there and check back soon!

Enjoy!

Click HERE for "Going Buggy!"

Click HERE for Letter Match

(be sure to look for the lowercase letter match freebie, too!)

Click HERE for Easter Egg Rhymes!