Owls

Found the idea for these owls on Pinterest (where else?) so I made one for each table.  I found the paper lanterns at the Christmas Tree Shop for 2/$1.00, and they had colors that matched with my theme, so that was the perfect price.  A little scrapbooking paper for the wings, some construction paper for the rest of the details, a little glue, and voila! I put a small clothespin hanging from each one so that I can label the tables and change the labels.  I might start the year with numbers, but I'd like to name the tables something like "Fantastic", "Super", "Terrific", etc.  Might be a good time to do that when we talk about synonyms and using more interesting words in our writing! 

 

I'm so glad I got the entire number line and all of the owls hung today.  Hopefully I won't need to drag the ladder out again!

Daily 5 - Word Work

In preparation for the new year, I wanted to get my Word Work centers all set.  When I did work work in Kindergarten, I felt like I was in a never ending race to find new centers for the kids to keep up with the new concepts that were being introduced, and by the end of the year, my word work shelf was an unorganized mess with way too many choices!  So, I wanted to keep it simple this year, using a set of centers that could work all year long, allowing kids to practice their own individual list of words.  But even that might get a little too boring, so I threw in a few extras that students could work through during the year or that would be based on vocabulary from other units being studied.



After scouring the internet and looking back at the centers I had done in Kindergarten, this is the list I came up with (there are other centers that I was thinking of including, but we also give word work options for homework, so centers such as rainbow writing are ideal for that purpose, and are not included in the centers used in class):

Individual - using spelling list
-Whiteboards
-Stamping Words
-Word Worth
-Place Value Words
-Scrabble Spelling
-Type It
-Words in Words

Partner - using spelling list
-Sign Language
-Secret Codes

Individual - no list needed
-Boggle
-Shake It Up
-Cup Stacking
-Mystery Words

Partner - no list needed
-Pyramid Pile Up

I ordered a set of replacement Scrabble tiles from the Hasbro website, which was $6.50, and I am getting a few old keyboards from old computers at school.  I already have whiteboards and letter stamps, so the only other thing I will need to buy is plastic disposable cups for the cup stacking center.


I put the entire set of Word Work Centers, which includes all of the printables, recording sheets, instructions and reference sheets on my TpT site!

 

Word Work Cover and Secret Codes recording sheet

 Word Worth recording sheet and Place Value Words reference chart

 Boggle letter tiles to hang on wall and Mystery Words to be cut up and placed in envelopes

Mystery Words recording sheet

Common Core Posters - Math

I finally finished the Common Core "I Can" posters for Math.  There are no recommended additions in math for New York, but these match the ELA set that I created, which does include the NY state recommended additions.  You can find them on my TpT store.

Crate Seating

So I had seen the cute crate seating that others were posting on Pinterest, and wanted to make some for my classroom.  Lucky for me, my friend who teaches second grade wanted to make them too, so we were off on a hunt for the cheapest, yet most durable supplies we could find.  Here is what we used:

Crates - I had a bunch of milk crates at school which I was planning to use, but unfortunately they were actual milk crates and didn't have the lip inside for the seat to sit on.  So, we picked  up crates at Target for $3.49 each when the back to school stuff came out.  Sadly, I went back a week or two later and saw them on sale... but I'm going to just try to forget about that part.

Plywood - We are lucky to have a really great maintenance guy where we work, and he agreed to use leftover scraps of wood he had at school and to cut the plywood seats for us once we bought the crates!  He even cut little angled corners so there would be room for the fabric in the corners.  Did I mention how lucky we are to have him around?

Fabric - We went back and forth on what to use to cover the seats.  Shower curtains would be easy to clean off and seemed better for those unfortunate lice outbreaks that happen, but they didn't seem very durable.  Regular fabric seemed too thin.  We thought that outdoor canvas type fabric would be ideal, but it was $20/yd.  Lucky for us, JoAnn fabric ran a sale where it was 60% off, and I had a coupon for an extra 25% off.  Seemed like a good enough deal for us.

Foam - Knowing how expensive those foam sheets can be, we opted to go with a mattress pad, which we picked up at Walmart for about $11.  It was enough to make 7 crates (3 for her and 4 for me) stacking them two high for extra padding, with some left over.

Ribbon - to create the pull tab
Staple gun and staples

We doubled the foam on top of the fabric and stacked the plywood on top, then stapled it all down, being careful to tuck the corners in as much as possible.  After it was all stapled, we tacked on the ribbon loop.

Here are some pictures of the finished products for the Second Grade room.  We still have 4 more crates to finish for Third Grade!

Common Core Posters - ELA

Originally, I was just going to buy a set of the I Can posters from Teachers Pay Teachers, but then I realized that I wanted something that had the New York recommended additions included... and I couldn't find anything.  So, I set off to create my own set of posters.  Here is the first set for the ELA standards.  The Math set is yet to come!  You can find this set of posters in my Teachers Pay Teachers store, on sale to coincide with the TpT sitewide sale

Happy Birthday

I love walking through the clearance aisles trying to find something I can use in the classroom.  I was at Kohl's and found this photo holder, which was on sale for $1.99.  I had been planning to buy a little sparkly party decoration to sit at a child's spot when it was their birthday, but this turned out even better!  I created some little pictures to go on the side of the cube, modge podged those and some little confetti stars on the base, and then bought a premade bow and tied it around the top.  It still has the picture holder stems, which is where I plan to put a homework pass (created with Vistaprint) for the birthday student on their special day!

 

Kindergarten Freebies

Here are a few little freebies from Kindergarten that I put up on my TpT store.  One is a Roll a Sight Word game, which makes a great word work center.  The other is my 100th Day Celebration Tickets, including instructions for how I used them, pictures of some of the activities, and printables, when applicable.  Enjoy!