Tissue poms on bulletin board corners

I saw all of the poms that teachers were making on different blogs and wanted to make smaller ones that I could put in the corners of my boards. I found a cute, bright polka dot tissue paper print at the party store that went well with my Eric Carle theme. I used 8-10 sheets and only separated the sheets until I made half of a sphere. You can Google directions and find a ton, but here is a link to how to make your tissue poms. I love them!

What to do with book jackets...

If you are anything like me, you think that having book jackets with little ones just.doesn't.work. They have difficulty handling the book with it, and it ends up hanging off most of the time.

I had a wonderful professor for the Children's Lit course for my Reading Specialist cert and I asked her what she thought, especially for the award winners with medals on the front. She suggested cutting the teaser and the info about the author, and especially any awards, and use shipping tape to put them on the inside of your books. Try it and see if it makes your library organization easier!

Sorry about the glare from my phone:)

IKEA in the Classroom

Over this past summer, I finally purchased some IKEA shelving units for my classroom. I went with the Trofast ones, planning on using them for centers and organizing manipulatives and some leveled texts. If you happen to be thinking about if it would be worth it to make the investment of buying the units, it is so worth it! I love mine:) My kids are able to be independent with getting the bins and they hold all of the materials needed for each center. The only thing that is still on my to-do list for these shelves is to change the Reading center bins to be labeled A through E, keeping the Math ones numbered.

Another fabulous find was this under-bed storage bin decorated with numbers. It holds my 3D Touch Numerals perfectly and slides right under the SMARTboard so the kids can access it during center time.

There are also wonderful storage nets (6 compartments) that hang on the wall. I used command strips to hang mine. I have one behind my kitchen area and two on the back of the bathroom door holding random teaching tools. They come in an orange/red set as well.

It was a lot of hauling out of my car this summer, but I'm done with it now and will reap the benefits of it each year! So worth it!

So glad I did this over the summer....

I purchased some of the Sterilite organizers from WalMart when I was in the classroom setting up in August. I made a label for themes and seasons and pasted it to cute cardstock (cut in half it fit perfectly!). This has held all of my thematic materials since the school year started. They fit perfectly above my kitchen area cabinets. I have three on one side and four on the other and could use more for some other themes! So I don't have an empty drawer during a theme, I put all of the centers materials (worksheets, laminated items, etc.) into one of two of my Target green handle bins.

It was so worth the effort to get them filled and up there this summer!

Retelling Sticks for Big Books

I use the Journeys Big Book series for my class. They have great color retelling cards with prompts to use for helping kids retell as independently as they can. I have been making color copies at 25% to shrink them, laminating and using Velcro to attach them to a paint stick. Kiddos hold them during the story, following along with some verbal prompts as I read. Sun a great thing to keep all kids engaged! If their hands need to be busy, I am glad they are holding something that relates to what I'm presenting!

Fun for Dental Health!

We had a local dentist office come and run a great centers activity in our cafeteria. They were so good with the kids!
This was a fun activity that we did using laminated teeth, dry erase markers and Dollar Store toothbrushes. One side of the room were the "Cavity Creators" (marking up the tooth with the marker) and then the other side used the toothbrushes to be "Cavity Busters" (erasing with toothbrushes. It was fast paced, fun and active!
(Sorry for the blocks over faces, I need to Google how to cover them with happy faces as I see on other blogs!)

Letter Sorting Trays

Love Dollar Store purchases that make a center easier!
I got veggie trays from the Dollar store and put foam letter stickers on each well. I purchased letter beads from Amazon (I like the shape of them), but you could use any small letter manipulatives that you already have.

This works best for my kiddos on the floor, I spread the letters out on the floor and make sure the letter trays are spaced out well so the kiddos have a lot of room to move. It is a great independent activity!