Journeys Linky Party! {and a freebie for today}

Hi friends!  I am linking up with Ms. Kerri and her Krazy Kindergarten to share my Journeys resources.

This is my ABC Bump that follows the order of the Journeys letters.  I used it as a review game after learning six letters.  My cuties loved it and enjoyed playing it every few weeks as a review game.

Click the pick above to grab it for FREE today only!!!

Click Ms. Kerri's button below to link up any Journeys resources you have created or know about.  

Giveaway at Mrs. Kelly's Klass!

Happy Tuesday friends!  My new blogging friend, Sam, over at Mrs. Kelly's Klass is having a HUGE giveaway!  Sam is a very organized and creative teacher and I know you will LOVE reading her blog.

She taught second grade last year and is moving to kindergarten this year.  To celebrate, she is having a Kindergarten AND a first grade giveaway.

Click here to enter and good luck!

Made it Monday!

I am linking up again with 4th Grade Frolics for another Made it Monday!

This week I started on more bee stools for my bee themed classroom.  I made two of them two summers ago and my cuties love them!  The inspiration hit me when I was walking through IKEA with my friend Brandi and she and I laughed that the trashcans could be tiny stools.  We even turned them upside down and wiggled on them.  They are sooooo sturdy.  Then the lightbulb went on!  I COULD use them as stools AND I could paint them very easily because they already have layered sections.

Here are my first two:

So I started on making four more this week so that I have a set of six for my small group instruction table.

To make them, you will need

IKEA trash cans

Krylon yellow paint FOR PLASTIC

painters tape

Start by taping off the top section of each trash can and every other layer.

Once each section is taped off, use the Krylon yellow paint FOR PLASTIC to spray the entire trash can.  I used three coats of paint.  Also, standing back a ways makes it look better.

 I would recommend wearing gloves because your hand looks like this afterwards.

Let the paint dry (I watched an episode of Pretty Little Liars and ate Doritos while waiting - love that show!) and then remove the layers of tape.

Voila!

(If any of the yellow paint runs onto the black, just use a black sharpie to cover the yellow.)

If you want to add some eyes, just click and print the eyes below, cut them out, and laminate them.  Then hot glue them onto the stools.

 Since I am showing you bee stools, I wanted to also show you my adorable, new basket to hold our BEE folders:

Isn't it C.U.T.E.????  It was one of my {many} freebies from my Thirty One party that my friend Melissa and I hosted two weeks ago.  It's a perfect addition to my bee room.  I ordered other cutie patootie things for my classroom and home.  Thirty One products are FABULOUS!!!!

Mystery Readers

This past year my cuties absolutely LOVED Wednesdays because it was Mystery Reader day.

This was one picture I snagged for our weekly Mystery Reader visits.  Mystery Readers are people who are special to the students in our classroom, like moms, dads, siblings, etc, who surprise us by reading our story for the day.  

I would send home notes asking for clues from the Mystery Readers and they were always so awesome to keep their identity a secret from their child.

I organized our Mystery Readers with the documents I fancied up and placed for sale in my TPT store:

This little pack gives you:

Family letter

Sign up sheet

Confirmation note

Question form (for clues) and a reminder note

Teacher preparation form

Door sign (telling the Mystery Readers to wait patiently outside the room until we are ready)

You can click here to purchase it in my store for only $2 for the rest of the week.  Then it will be back at regular price.

I will give it to the first five people to leave their emails for FREE!

Happy 4th of July!

Pumpkins Update!

I made some updates to my Playful Pumpkins unit on TPT.  

If you already purchased it, make sure you grab the updated version.

If you would like to purchase it, click here.  It will be on sale for $4 until Friday night.

Blocks!!!!

I mentioned last month that I accepted a new position as a PreK teacher this fall.  I am super excited, but also sooo nervous.  It's hard to change grade levels.

Anyways, I have been doing a lot of searching for meaningful social centers activities since this will be a large part or our learning.  

I have found many ideas through Pinterest {of course} and have fallen in love with another Texas teacher's PreK blog called PreK Pages.

To help move things along with preparation, I created these block center labels and visual discrimination cards:

Click the pic above to grab the Google doc.  Just click on the printer icon in the corner to download it.

I hope you enjoy them!

Made it Monday!

Happy July and happy Monday, peeps!

I am linking up for Made it Monday.

I made these little syllable caterpillars:

 

I found this idea from PreK Pages.  (Her blog is fabulous!)

To use them, students will start with three pool noodle pieces and the caterpillar.  I will show a picture and students will add the number of pool noodles to equal the number of syllables in the word.  Then we will say the word and push the noodle pieces toward the head of the caterpillar as we say each syllable.

Ta-da!  Simple and fun!

Have a happy Monday!