Sensory Fun! (+ a freebie)

This coming school year I will be starting my fourth k/1 loop. Which means I'll be starting my fourth year in Kindergarten (It will be my 10th year teaching which is completely crazy to me.). I have had a sand table in my room each year in kindergarten and I haven't used it once. It grosses me out for some reason. It has a nice cover so I've always just used it as a table. But I read this post over at Pre K and Sharing by Marsha from A Differentiated Kindergarten and I started to think of ways that I could incorporate it into my class. Click her to go to that post.  So after that post I started a pinterest board all dedicated to Sensory learning. Check it out here.  My friend Mary from Mrs. Lirette's Learning Detectives also has a couple of good posts about sensory activities here. 
One of my biggest challenges was figuring out what I was going to replace the sand with. There is something about sand that I'm just not a fan of. Plus this sand hasn't been played with or anything for who knows how long. After seeing some other people use rice. This is what I decided on. But I can't do just ordinary white rice. I had to make it rainbow and fun. So yesterday after keeping my niece all morning I headed to Dollar General to get some supplies. I decided to try out the kool aid dying method. It thought I would have more choices in colors. Unfortunately the dollar general only had a few flavors to choose from.

I headed to the grocery store this morning and got a few more packets of kool aid to dye the rest of the rice. I wasn't crazy about the yellow. I used the whole pack of kool aid for it and it isn't too vibrant. but I think it will look good all mixed together. I had posted on my facebook page that I was getting ready to do this and I had a few questions. 

The rice dried pretty well and none of the color rubbed off on my hands. Now the red bag in the last picture was an experiment. I put a whole packet of kool aid in it and only had a little rice left. The dye was pretty strong in this one and some of this dye rubbed off on my hands. I don't think it will be an issue once it dries.

The colors are not that bright but I like them. I don't know if I had used food coloring gel if it would have been different. I don't have access to much more than what my local grocery store has. Cost wise I think kool aid was the way to go. I got each pack for 20 cents so all my colors for a $1.00. I also really like that the rice smells nice. 

One of my projects this week is to empty the sand out and get this rice into the table. I'm thinking I might need another 5lb bag but we will see. For the kids' first experience with this table, I'm going to put some letters in with the rice. I'm thinking I'll use magnetic letters, foam letters and these letter cards that I've made. I found this great letter clipart from Dancing Crayons. Here's a freebie for you to use in your own sensory tub. 

Click here for the freebie.

Included is upper and lowercase letters and an I can poster to display with the literacy station. 

I would love to hear about your sensory tub activities and if you download this freebie. 

Monday Made it!

This is my first time all summer to link up with 4th Grade Frolics for Monday Made it. I finally made it to Hobby Lobby to get a few supplies. It was a trip for sure. I took my almost  3 year old niece. She was a little wild. She kept pretending to eat the fake grapes that are apparently all over Hobby Lobby. I would tell her to come on and her response would be just one more grape. But we needed to get supplies for my craft projects and supplies to make bead bracelets for her.

My first project is one for the house. I've been wanting to make a burlap wreath for a while. I saw this pin on pinterest that had burlap and chevron. So I finally found the burlap ribbon that I needed.

I wasn't really sure what I was doing. I cut the burlap into strips and then looped it through the wire frame. I eventually had it the way I wanted. Then I painted the B. Here's the final product. It needs something. I'm thinking some chevron ribbon all around it would pull it together.

My next project was one for the classroom. I had seen a pin of a no name board and decided I wanted to make my own. I already had wooden letters and clothespins. I'm waiting to figure out where I'm going to hang it before adding a ribbon or something to hang it up with.

I'm hoping this will help with the annoyance of no name papers. I'm sure that I won't be putting this to use until a little later in the school year since I have kindergarten.
Those are my Monday Made its. Be sure to head over to Tara's blog and see what else people made. I love looking at all the projects.

I'm heading to school today for the first time and I'm a little nervous about what I will see when I get there. Everything was moved out of my room on the last day of school and new floors were installed. I hope that all my stuff was returned.

I had a reader ask for my guided reading slides so they could download them. I hope to make them available tomorrow. Last night my hubby was on the computer writing skits for next week's VBS at church. We only have one computer. 

Monday made it on Tuesday

So I really thought I was going to link up yesterday. I had my projects all done and my pictures taken and everything. But yesterday, I had a workshop all day and then one of my good friends was visiting for California and I still had one more little project to finish that I wanted to share. So here I am early Tuesday morning blogging. Today and tomorrow we have our annual staff retreat. Sounds like it should be relaxing but it really isn't. We talk about testing a lot and standards a lot. But we do get fed really well. My principal is big on feeding us well. He even grills out some fantastic hamburger and hot dogs for us one of the days .And it is nice to catch up with all the other teachers. One of the great things is we get our inservice hours in before school starts so we don't have to worry about it during the school year.
Yesterdays workshop was fantastic and I can't wait to share some of the websites I learned about for science and social studies. That will be a post later this week. Ok, so I should probably quickly share my projects and then go get ready for my day.

 I shared these letters last week but I got them put on the wall and really like them. Although looking at the picture I see the T is crooked. Oh well. I had to hot glue them up there. They are above my math table. I wanted a "corner" with a book shelf but I couldn't find another bookshelf and I really don't need to buy one. I'm still working on getting this area the way I want it.

I had pinned this project earlier in the summer to do. I finally got it done last week. You can get the label here.     I had saved icing containers last year to put games and stuff in. So I covered one in scrapbook paper and the label and voila! I'm hoping that this will help my kids remember to put their name on their papers.

I'm really excited about how these quotes turned out. I found these frames from Dollar General for $2 each. I couldn't resist but I wasn't sure what I was going to do with them. At first I thought I might but my standards on them but then I saw these quotes from Technology rocks, Seriously. I knew that this was what I wanted to do. I added some scrapbook paper as a background and then hot glued the frames to the walls. There are more quotes and she has some great stuff. So be sure to check her out here.

My last project is for my niece Sophie. She's turning 2 on Friday. If you read my blog, you know I love my nieces more than anything. And they are both super cute. I found the iron on i am 2 at Hobby Lobby and the idea was born. I didn't do any sewing for this project. I used the heat bond adhesive for the ribbon. I'm pretty excited about it. My sister and her family are headed to the beach for Sophie's birthday so I won't get to see her wear it, but I'm sure she'll send me a picture. Anyway, those are my projects for the week. I'm hoping I can continue to link up with some Monday made its when school starts. I have a week from today before I'm officially at work. Although, I think I pretty much am this week. I didn't read any blogs yesterday and I've already got 449 posts to catch up on. Oh the joys of back to school. Be sure to check out the other projects over at Tara's.

Monday made it on Tuesday!

I go back to work 2 weeks from today and I don't know where the summer went. I've been at school a little bit each week for the past month and I don't know what I've been doing. I am starting to feel like I need to get it in gear. I have a slight problem in that I need a couple more bookshelves. I have used all my bookshelves for my classroom library and now I'm trying to figure out how to make a math corner. And what to do with all the random knick knacks the kids have given me over the years. I used to use a tall bookshelf to keep all these things and my teacher's books but I'm trying to give my kids more of the room.I'm trying to put into practice some of the reading I've been doing in Daily 5, Debbie Diller, and Reading Workshop. I'm trying to make my classroom more about my students and less about me. But I do like having all the knick knacks. They remind me of the students I've taught and the impact that they've had on me and me on them. So I guess I just need to get creative. Since my last Monday Made it, I've worked on two craft projects. Here is the first one:

It isn't as cute as some of the ones I've seen on pinterest. But I found this frame at Hobby Lobby, and had another craft I wanted to make with it. I'm wanting to turn this into an earring holder by putting window screen in it. So I just hot glued the letters on there and hope it will work for the first day of school.The second project is below.  I covered these letters in scrapbook paper and added some ribbon. I wanted to make the read letters that I've seen all over pinterest, but I could never find the letters. So I thought I'd try it with Math. It would go well with the math corner I'm working on putting in my class this year.

So I uploaded those pictures using my blogger app on my phone and they are not cooperating with me so let me tell you about them. The first one is my author's corner. I'm focusing on one author a month as an author study and hope to do a take home bag of this author as well. (Look for some upcoming posts on this topic). First up is Kevin Henkes. I'm pretty excited about it. I need to do the research part to find a picture of the author, some facts, and then make a list of the titles to let the students vote.Sorry these pictures are really terrible. The second picture is my word wall all done. It already has words on it because those are the words from Kindergarten and their names. We put those on last year when the kids were in kindergarten and we'll add to it in first grade. I used the word wall letters from Holly at Crisscross applesauce in First Grade. It looks great with my theme. I wish I had thought to put black paper behind them before laminated but oh well. I'll be reviewing another one of her products tomorrow as part of the product swap. I'm excited.
The last picture is my super work board. It really looks good in person. I added clothespins I had hot glued thumbtacks to. The last touch will be their names on stars. I'll be sure to show a picture when I do a classroom tour.
So that's what I've been making. Check out other Monday Made it's by heading over to Tara's blog.
And before I've got another random question for all my friends out there. I'm working on making a new play list of music for my students to start the day off. I want it to be energetic not necessarily typical kid music. So give me some suggestions please.

Monday Made it, just a little late plus a flash freebie

So I've been meaning to link up with this party all week long but I still had finishing touches to put on a few projects. I still have 3 weeks until school starts back. I've been slowly working on getting my room together and I'm making progress. I try not to put a lot of pressure on myself until August. I made all these things to go with my black, red, and blue them, like a voice level chart, transportation chart, scheduling cards, and clock numbers. Well when I went to print them out on Tuesday with my new ink cartridge from Amazon, all the red printed out yellow. So while it isn't what I was going for, it doesn't look bad. So here's a peek and what what I've been working on.

I made these tags and used ribbon to attach them to bubbles. I have one small problem. I only have 12 things of these bubbles. I'm still on the hunt for more of them.

Here's my version of the transportation ribbons. I have boys and girls club, car and bus. These were suppose to be different colors but thanks to my printer, I have what I have.

I also got my Teacher's notebook all set up so I'm ready for school start. Again, the yellow was suppose to be red. You can get all these freebies, by going to this post.  If you download these freebies, please leave me some comment love.

This is a recycled crystal light container. I saw this on What the Teacher Wants blog. Check out the post here. I bought her Journals through the year pack last week and I'm excited to use it. It's going to be what my students do when they come in the room each morning. She put her prompts on Popsicle sticks. I just printed mine on cardstock and laminated them. They are to be used when the kids can't come up with anything. I've found a variety of prompts from other blogs that I will add to this collection.

Here's another freebie that I've been working on. This will go on the top of my work bulletin board. I had big plans of getting all this put up before posting but I decided I didn't want to go into school today. I just wanted to hang out at home. This freebie can be found here.

 These are some schedule cards I made. They were suppose to be red, blue and teal instead of mustard yellow, teal and blue. They don't look bad but they weren't what I wanted. I also realized I left some things out of the line up like lunch and our special classes. So I'll be adding those.

I'm really excited about this project. I have had a voice level chart pinned forever and I'm finally gotten around to making one of my own. I printed them out on cardstock, then lamintated, cut them out and attached them together using ribbon. Again, these were suppose to be red and black, not yellow and black. Now, imagine these numbers around a clock. I'm excited about this one too. I have had some apples I made like 7 years ago surrounding my clock. So these will be a nice change and they printed the right color.
I've made a few other things to go with this theme but they will be shared better put up. I made some objective signs and signs for an author corner. I'm thinking about bundling all these projects together and selling them. Would anyone be interested?

Ok on to the flash freebie portion of this post. In honor of my one year blogiversary extravaganza, I'm offering a flash freebie each day until Saturday. So check it out. I'm a little discouraged. The freebie I offered yesterday was downloaded over 100 times and only got 3 feed backs. One of the feedback was not so positive. It hurts to hear sometimes that your product isn't what people want. I took the feedback and made a few changes. So if that person happens to read my blog and wants the updated copy, please let me know. I printed the numbers off and hung them up in my classroom. They look good to me.

Click here to get my Puppy Ten Frame Scoot game for free at TPT. I would love it if you would follow me on TPT and leave me some feedback or at least a comment. This product will be free until this evening, most likely. Hope you enjoy it!
This item was free from July 26th 2012 at 11:59 until July 26th 2012 at 5:15 pm.

Monday Made it on Tuesday again!

So I'm excited to be linking up with 4th Grade Frolics Monday Made it party for 2 weeks in a row. My goal is to link up each week for the next few weeks so I can get some of my projects for school done. Although, I keep finding more projects I want to do so the to do list is a little never ending. I can't seem to link up on Mondays because I keep my niece Sophie on Mondays and I'm exhausted by the end of the day. Plus we have Vacation Bible School this week and I'm helping in the nursery so I was doubly exhausted last night. Anyway on to my projects for the week.
I had pinned this making words folder a long time ago and put on my summer project board. I got the templates from Teacher Bits and Bobs. I love making words and I'm always looking for easier ways to do it. I've only made one folder but I'd like to make a class set. I wanted an example so maybe I could find a volunteer to make the rest of them.

Next up are some clipboards. I have been seeing all the clipboard makeovers all over blog land and I decided I'd update my clipboards a bit. I tried covering the first one in duck tape but I didn't really like that it had bumps on it. So I decided to use scrapbook paper and duck tape to do the rest of them. I'm focusing on the colors red, black and blue for most of my decorations and things in the classroom.

I need to get some more clipboards so I can have one for each kid. I'll be putting that on my wishlist for my parents.
I was inspired by Tara's post last week with some scrapbook letters she used in a project and how she organized them. So I decided to do the same for my magnetic letters. I found some organizers at Hobby Lobby for $1.99 and used stickers to label each compartment so there would be a place for each letter. I still need to make some task cards to go with the letters.

I went to school today to try to get some more done on my classroom library. (I just noticed that my foot is in the picture above. How funny!) I got all the baskets labeled and placed on the shelves. I used zip ties to attach the labels to the baskets. It was a little tedious but I think they'll stay on the baskets rather than just using tape. Here's a picture of my library so far:

I decided to add some fabric and border to the back of the book shelf. I'm thinking I'll put up my I pick poster on this space.
I finally finished my bulletin board borders with the tissue paper. I also spiced up my calendar a little bit. I saw this tip over at Clutter Free Classroom. She suggested using ribbon to change up the calendar. I used some striped red ribbon on the border of the calendar and made my own month tags. I made some super hero ones but they didn't really match my colors. So I made some more. I think the month needs something around it but I'm not sure. I'm up for some suggestions.

So those are my projects this week and what I'm working on in my room. I need to get some things put away. I've just made mess after mess in my room so tomorrow I'm going to need to put things away and find a place for some of it.
Hopefully I'll get caught up on my book study of Daily 5 and some suggestions for Math Work Stations. VBS is wearing me out though so we'll see.  Be sure to check out the other projects from Monday Made it.