It's That Time Again! B2S Sale 2013

 Sign Credit:  Dragonflies in First

It's that time again sweet friends .... Back to School Sale time!  Use code BTS13 to get 28% off at my store today and tomorrow.  Happy Shopping!

Boho BIrd Classroom Decor

This year I decided to decorate my classroom with the Boho Birds by Carson-Dellosa.  I loved how there were alot of primary and bright colors that I thought would be great for my kindergarten classroom and I love how it has turned out so far!  Here's a little peek inside my classroom.

 

 I have 2 bulletin boards on either side of my big white board/promethean board at the front of my room.  I decorated them both the same.  One will serve as my calendar board and this one will most likely be used to display anchor charts.

 

I bought the Boho Birds Birthday Set and used it to decorate one of our bathroom doors.  Thank goodness they fit perfectly.

 

 

Coming up with a behavior system to keep with the theme was more challenging.  I ended up using pieces from the Boho Birds Bulletin Board Set  , Boho Birds and Birdhouses Bulletin Board Set , and these bird cutouts.  I attached each little birdie to velcro.  I'll write everyone's name on a bird and each day they will start at the green birdhouse and move down to the next branch if needed.   And YES there are 27 little birdies because that's how many little friends I'll have next year.  That is if no more show up to register:)

 

Here's the outside of my classroom door that you see when you enter the room.

I reused my trees from last year and replaced the apples from last year with birds.  
 

 

On my back wall I have my word wall.  It's hard to see in this pic but each piece of colored paper has a letter above it.

I'll use these in my cubbies.  I made the name plates and added the bird stickers to each one.  
 

Here's a view above the board at the front of my room.  A letter set, number line and classroom helper cards are displayed.  Students' names will be added under the job cards using magnetic tape.  It's an editable file so you can insert your students' names if you want to check it out here or by clicking the product pic below.
 

Monday Made It: Kitchen and Fireplace Makeovers

 

I'm linking up for the first time with Tara at 4th Grade Frolics for Monday Made It.  Last summer this linky provided me with inspiration for making all sorts of things.  Now .... a year later... I'm ready to join in the fun. 

 I have a "home made" it this time to start off.  Today was my first day of summer break so I need a wee little time to get away from school thinking. I'm sure you saw the lovely kitchen at the beginning of the post.  When we bought our house we decided it had good "bones" but needed some cosmetic TLC.  That kitchen was too much for this gal to handle so we ripped off all of the rainbow fish tiles and pulled up the old countertops. 

 

And.... here's an after picture.  New tile, countertops and hardware for the cabinets completely transformed the kitchen. I did the backsplash all by myself and was sooooo proud. 

 

And to keep with the theme of the house and to unify the kitchen and living space, I'm assuming, the former owners tiled the fireplace in the lovely rainbow fish themed tile.  No kidding... neighbors have told us that they had fish rugs in front of the fireplace.  We took down all of the tile.....

 and I tiled it up with a more neutral color.  The tile was super cheap at Lowe's and I think it only cost around $200 to resurface the fireplace.  Now we have a made over kitchen and fireplace. 

Don't forget to go check out all the other Monday Made Its.

TPT Teacher Appreciation Sale

 

 

Don't forget the sale that starts tomorrow!  My entire store is 20% and by using the discount code TAD13 when you checkout you can save up to 28%.  Just click the pic above to head to my store.  I hope you get some great things at some great deals!  Happy shopping friends! 

 

 

 

Mrs. Wishy-Washy and Giveaway

One of the first books I ever "taught" a lesson with was Mrs. Wishy-Washy while doing a practicum in college.  I loved the book and the students did too.  Since then Mrs. Wishy-Washy has been dear to my heart and is always read each year with my kinder sweeties.  When Hameray Publishing contacted me about doing a review of a Mrs. Wishy-Washy book, I jumped at the chance. 

We began by reading Wishy-Washy Clothes.  Then it was time for a little acting to help us retell the story.  I made these little necklaces for the "actors" to wear to show their character from the story. 

After everyone got into character, we did a quick reread of the story to remind them of their parts and we got to acting.  They had a ball and it was amazing how quickly they were all able to retell the story after a couple of act it out sessions.

Wishy-Washy Clothes was also a great book for us to talk about onomatopoeia and practice it during the act it out sessions with "Moo!", "Oink!" and "Quack!".  We were also able to locate a few past tense verbs that went along great with our grammar lesson we've been working on.

The other book we read was Mrs. Wishy-Washy and the Big Wash.

We used this book to practice our summarizing skills by telling who the story was about, what happened, when it happened and where the story took place.  Here's our summarization chart for the book.  **Excuse the error in Washy on the chart please and the blurriness of the photo.  I didn't even notice that I had written Mrs. Wishy-Wishy instead of Wishy-Washy until I got home and uploaded the pic so I tried to "fix" it but it's not looking too great.  Sorry about that! 

Then we use the chart to write a one sentence summary. 
Our sentence was:  Mrs. Wishy-Washy, the cow, the pig, and the duck left the farm and went to find water during the day at the bookstore, music store, bakery and car wash.

You can also win a Mrs. Wishy-Washy big book by following my blog and leaving a comment.  Make sure you include your email address.  I will use random.org to choose a winner tomorrow, April 23rd. 

To find out more about Hameray Publishing, Mrs. Wishy-Washy, and other fun activities check out the following links:

http://pinterest.com/Hameray/

http://www.hameraypublishing.com/

https://www.facebook.com/Hameray

You can also enter the Joy Cowley Classroom Giveaway by clicking the picture below.

Hameray Publishing is also offering a 20% discount for anything on their website if you use the code ZJCC13.

Disclaimer:  I received complimentary products for this review;however, all opinions are my own and this is not a compensated post.

Butterflies in the Sky....

Or in math centers?  Whatever it takes to motivate and inspire learning!  Right?  Our butterfly larva will be arriving this Monday and it never fails to excite my kinder sweeties so I always try to tie in some of our centers to the theme that we are studying.  Here are our math centers for next week.

Counting Quantities on Double Ten Frame

Sums to 10

Patterning

Measuring Items from The Very Hungry Caterpillar

Building Addition Fluency to 5

You can pick these activities up here or by clicking the pic below.  Have a great weekend friends!

The Easter Bunny's Assistant Activities

I can't wait to use this next week when we read The Easter Bunny's Assistant by Jan Thomas.  I know the activities and book will be a big hit with my sweeties!  You can check it out here.