Must Read Monday: Rhyming

Linking up with Kindergarten Planet and The Kindergarten Connection to share my list of Must Read Monday books.  This week's category is rhyming.  I love rhyming! I sometimes struggle with how is the best way to teach rhyming, but I definitely love reading books about it.  I have picked 4 books that I enjoy reading that contain a rhyming aspect.  

1. Little Blue Truck

 This story could have also been on ,last week's link up for compassion. It is the story of a sweet little blue truck and his animal friends.  They help a dump truck even though he wasn't so polite. There is also a companion story: Little Blue Leads the Way.

2. Rhyming Dust Bunnies

  This story is just silly... and SO fun to read with a class. Dust bunnies are in a house filled with things that might get them, but one has some trouble with figuring out what it is.  Good story to make learning fun. 

3. Don't be Silly, Mrs. Millie! 

Mrs. Millie is the teacher we all wanted, and all want to be.  Her class loves her and she has a good time at school.  She says silly things like "Time to put on your goats and kittens!" To which her class responds with the correct "coats and mittens." Fun way to get students excited about rhyming.

4. Fox in Socks

I mean really, what kindergarten teacher doesn't love this book?! It's my all time favorite Dr. Seuss book and while it's definitely a tongue twister I always look forward to reading it. and did I mention it has rhymes. :) 

Join the link up next week! Here is a list of future Must Read Monday topics!

Spotlight Saturday: A Differentiated Kindergarten- Dramatic Play

 It's Saturday.... Spotlight Saturday with Erin from Kindergarten Dragons! So excited to do this post and really do some tpting and pinning research about Dramatic Play.  I'll be honest... I have a secret board on Pinterest board for Dramatic play I want to do in my classroom this year.  I know I won't be able to do all of them, but I can dream! I made it secret so that if I didn't manage to get it all done I would be the only one that knew... until now. So now I have people to keep me accountable (that's you!). In all my "research" I found a few pins that led back to Marsha at Differentiated Kindergarten.  Her philosophy is EXACTLY what I'm trying to do in my classroom: Create a fun, engaging, developmentally appropriate classroom.

My plan is to do around 10 different dramatic play spots. They will be put out at the beginning of a unit and will stay out until that unit is over (3 weeks).  There are a couple of ideas I have that will only be out 1 week because they go only with the topic of that week.  The play area will be used as a center 2 days per week for three weeks and also as a Friday Fun spot.  

So here are my projected Dramatic Play Areas: 

- Birthday Party

-Construction Site

-Travel Agency

-Entomologist Lab

-Pizza Parlor

-Flower Shop

-Farmer's Market

-News Room

-Pet Store

-Space

-Recycling Center

-Science Lab

-Bakery

I told you... Big ideas! However, I'd rather start with big ideas and not be able to accomplish them all than only have a few planned and wish I had done more.  I'll DEFINITELY be posting about how I'm using this in my classroom this year so stay tuned! 

Washi Tape Crayon Caddy

When you walk into a kindergarten classroom most of the time you'll see a theme of Dr. Seuss, monkeys, frogs, etc. to make it a kid friendly space.  However, in my classroom I hated doing a theme.  I got sick of it after a few years and had to buy EVERYTHING new.  After doing that a couple of times I decided I wanted my classroom to be a place students loved, but also a place I loved to spend time (since we all know we spend way more time than 8-3!) So I started doing a more mainstream look in my classroom.  I use black and primary colors.  this way if I want to throw in some fun things I can, but don't have to redesign my whole classroom. 

Anywho, I wanted something to house my crayons and found this project.  SUPER cute and I was very excited to try it since I was sick of having all of my crayons just dumped into a storage container for kids to sift through.  But the more I thought about it I just couldn't decide if that was the design I wanted.  Then, I was given 10 rolls of WASHI TAPE! The rest is history! 

The start of my project! I bought two different drawer sets because I knew I would be ok putting a few colors together. 

Above are the 10 Washi Tapes I was given.  I knew I wanted to use some of these but not all. So that called for a trip to Hobby Lobby!  Below are the items I got there: Washi tape (came with two rolls), labels, and paint pen. 

I just started at the top and worked my way down! I wasn't careful about the edges at this point.  Make sure when you're putting it across the little dip in the middle of the drawer you pull up the tape and press it down. Don't just pull it all the way across then press it.  I tried that and it kept popping up in spots. 

 My hubby was nice enough to cut the edges so they would look nice! 

Here's the finished product! I love, love, love it! Perfect for kiddos to access new crayons but pretty enough I want to look at it every day too! 

Shop til you drop!

One of my favorite back to school activities is shopping with my mom, who also happens to be my grade level partner.  We get along great and it gives us tons of time to collaborate out of school too.  For the past three years we have made a pilgrimage trip to Lakeshore. We were BEYOND excited to find out there would be one less than 2 hours away from where we live.  

Isn't it pretty!?

Here is part of my haul.... 

This year our trip had a couple other stops and my 4 month old was a real trooper! He was in a good mood the WHOLE day!  

Our first stop was Staples for some great deals on composition notebooks, crayons, folders, Post-its (all different sizes!!) and Sharpies. 

Next we headed to lunch at a local Pizza place and tried their bacon and Gouda  pizza, and Margherita pizza.  They were DELICIOUS! 

Next came the lovely Lakeshore store that is just so full of fun things and good deals.  I love going there because I can actually see what things look like instead of just looking at a catalog and having to guess. In my cart at Lakeshore was: All About Me charts (I'm planning on doing a student of the week with them), number line, Velcro tabs, Happy Birthday stickers and certificates, Holiday stickers I plan on using with my  new calendar folders (I'll blog about that later this year!) and money stickers, and 5 storage tubs (yellow, orange, red, blue, and green: I'll be using these for supplies) and to tie it all up they give away a free plan book with a 20 dollar purchase! 

Our next stop that day was a teacher sale. I found out about it through Facebook when the Here we Grow Again group had a kids sale this spring.  They then advertised that they were having a teacher sale (teachers can sell their things for profit!) and I won pre-sale tickets! Meaning my  mom and I got to go the night before it was open to the public.  Lots of stuff and lots of people in a small building (while carrying a baby in a pouch) made for a hard time looking through things but I still managed to come away with some great things for cheap: road rug ($9), metal shelf ($5), cash register ($7), clear binder sleeves ($2), and 4 paper punches ($8). 

We then headed to Target for our final stop that day. I came away with two pocket charts, a Crayola colors game and counting cards, Popsicle stick colors, Crayola colors book, Tropical Flair pens, and two sets of lights (don't ask me where I'm going to put those :) Wrapping up our day and getting us home at 10:00 when we left at 11:00. Needless to say we aren't fast shoppers. 

The following day I knew I wanted to work in my room and would need a few more things before I could get started (I know, I know, how could I possibly need more! but I did.) So we headed to Dollar Tree, and Wal-Mart.  

Dollar Tree Haul: 20 (or so) colored/clear shoe boxes for storage, 2 red and 2 orange tubs. 2 red/blue/green containers with lids, 1 lanyard, 1 teacher notebook, and 10 photo albums. I have ideas for all of these too!

At Wal-mart I got a crate to make a Sub Tub, 20 mini crayon boxes, 3 large crayon boxes, more crayons, green and blue plastic folders, Ticonderoga pencils (pre-sharpened) and Astrobrights paper for back to school flip books.

Overall I am VERY pleased with my purchases and writing this blog about what I bought reminds me of how much I have to do, and how much I have to share with everyone about my ideas! So stay tuned so you can see what I do with everything! 

Spotlight Saturday: Creative Clips

It's Saturday! So it's time to team up with Kindergarten Dragons and spotlight another awesome product! I have soooo many products in my downloads folder... seriously, look at this! Look how little the scroll bar is! EEEKKK! But my point is, I have so many products that I love, I'm going to be able to do Spotlight Saturday until I'm 90.  

Anywho.... Getting to the point. The product I have chosen this week is the wonderful, talented, amazing Krista Wallden from Creative Clips. Her work is awesome and while I don't know her personally... she seems pretty awesome as a person too. haha. I am currently obsessing over all of her rainbow clip art sets.  For some reason this year I am realllllllllllly excited to teach colors. Hence, my new colors pack :)  I show some of her work in that pack and most of them came from her rainbow sets. Here are a few examples of her sets.

I mean really... HOW CUTE ARE THESE!?!?!  These are just a few of her sets, she has MANY more that go with the rainbow sets and they are all just as wonderful! Each one includes all of the colors seen and a black line. I just love these sets and can't wait to collect more. They can be used for so many things! Follow Krista on Facebook and Instagram to find out when she is having deals too... I got several of these sets when she was running sales for just ONE DOLLAR!!!! WOW! 

50% off Friday- Colors Pack!

Today, and today ONLY I'm teaming up with A Dab of Glue will do to offer my brand spankin' NEW colors pack for 50% off!

I am seriously so excited to offer this product and use it in my own classroom this fall.  It offers so many options... check out my earlier blog HERE to see what all is included and stay tuned for real pictures of how I'm using it in my classroom. It is the perfect beginning of the year product for Kindergarten (and even first grade!) students.  It offers fun pictures, familiar songs, and fun activities to get them excited about colors, writing, and back to school. 

Spotlight Saturday: Blog Planner and Social Media Calendar

Today I'm linking up with Kindergarten Dragons for her Spotlight Saturday! This is a great way to find some new products and see how people use them before you buy them! Today I'm spotlighting Sweet, Sweet Primary's Blog Planner and Social Media Calendar.  

Since I've just recently (like three weeks ago!) started this blogging and social media venture I wasn't sure how I was going to keep track of what all I needed to do when I came across this awesome product! It goes from July 2015-July 2016 so I can plan out a whole year! It will help me keep track of when I need to do each social media venue: Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter and my blog. I have already written out a framework for my curriculum and know approximately when I'll be doing each unit so I can also keep track of that if I'd like or at least know that there are certain ideas from my classroom that I want to display through my social media.  It also has a place for notes, and End of Month numbers to keep track of how many followers you have and your TPT sales.  

Here is my work in progress as I'm starting to write things down in my planner along with my Krista Wallden (Creative Clips Paper you can buy on Etsy!) and my new FAVORITE pens available at Walmart or Target or other office supply stores haha. 

If you are new (or experienced) I would definitely recommend this product to help keep (or get!) you organized for all of the potential with social media!