Contact Paper Makeover

Do you ever just feel overwhelmed? Well I do and that's probably because I have put so much on my plate (thank u Pinterest). They are turning out great though! So here are the ones that are competed. 

I will post the link to this tutorial soon!

And here is my desk.... 

I am redoing my cubby as well with extra scraps of contact paper I have left.

Sensory Bin

I had planned on doing sensory bins last year during centers but it didn't happen. Since I have had a TON more time to plan this year, I decided to finish it. 

VIOLA!!!! 

This wasn't NEARLY as easy as Pinterest made it look! (It rarely is that easy)    

BUT... It's done! I will be starting with nursery rhyme sorting cards. Something I picked up from one of my FAVORITE bloggers. Greg Smedley of The Kindergarten Smorgesboard. 

I will change this out for number match... Ten frames etc. I'll post the link to his product as well! 

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Nursery-Rhymes-A-Back-to-School-Math-and-Literacy-Center-Creation-1368375

Alphabet Sorting Center

A cute alphabet sorting activity that I found on Pinterest. The sorting tubs that you get at the teacher stores will run close to 200$. 

This was about 40-50$ I ordered the tub from homedepot.com and the erasers on Amazon. I found this little DIY  here

http://www.theresourcefulroom.com/2012/06/beginning-sound-tubs-redo.html

So I cannot take credit for this but it turned out so cute! Her labels are free!

Organization DIY Makeover

I have thoroughly become obsessed with Pinterest lately. We have a love/hate relationship. I feel like I've put so many projects on my plate before school I don't know how I'm going to finish them all... but I think I can get it done.

Here is one of my projects... 

Before... You can see where I have already put some of the black foam board in the back of the shelf. 

After

I used scotch poster tape and ribbon to outline the shelves. I got those cute white labels on Pinterest for free… If I find the link to them I'll post it to make sure the creator gets credit. The black labels are from Tunstall's Teaching Tidbits and can be found HERE.

(white labels found here on this blog)

The baskets are from dollar tree!!!

Project #2 is the infamous #teachertoolbox

These labels were also free and when I find the link I'll post it!

HERE IT IS!!! It is FREEEE!

I used purple spray paint on the toolkit and it worked fine.

Up next... Redoing filing cabinets and  alphabet sorting box. 

Count The Room Christmas Freebie

Much needed rest and regroup over Thanksgiving.

I am off all week and thrilled. Although, many know that a teachers work is never done. I'll be getting things together for the upcoming weeks. Here's my latest mini counting activity. Download for free here.

-oxox

Red Ribbon Week (2014)

So grades due, six week testing, red ribbon week activities, and Halloween. Crazy crazy. It's fun to dress up though and pajama day was so comfy! 

Pajama day!

Crazy hair and sock day.

And costumes! 

Glad it's over though!! Ready for some rest!!!

Today we read Pumpkin Soup and did some pumpkin activities. 

Then we used thekindergartensmorgasboard "Smashing Pumpkins" activity. 

Then we did some pumpkin crafts with orange paper plates and black glitter to make Jack-o-laterns. 

Forgot to take pics of the work >.<

Have a happy Halloween!!!!

Halloween and 6 week Tests (2014)

Have a busy week! 6 week testing (yes in Kindergarten and it's much harder than it sounds) and report cards. Trunk or treating, activities all week, a staff meeting(our grade is doing snacks) AND we are getting a new Kindergarten teacher. HOORAY! Here's some fun stuff for tomorrow, courtesy of teacherspayteachers.com 

I cannot take credit for these goodies. They are from "Franken-core" on tpt.com but none other than Mr. Smedley. Can't wait to use them. 

The sight words we've learned. Spooky style. 

I read this book to the kids yesterday and they liked it but SKELETON FOR DINNER was the best! I may make an activity to go with it! Loved it.

I  am going to read this with the Frankenstein themed activities I have today. It's very cute. 

Listening Centers!!!

I am very excited to have my mp3 players ready for listening centers.

Listening centers has been kind of a headache over the last month so here is some info to learn from my mistakes.

 I don't have a stereo that splits in my room because they ones at our school are broken. I also wouldn't want to use that anyway because my class never does well with cooperating and a huge reason workstations and centers fail is that each child isn't given a choice and their OWN center/workstation. 

So I decided I would do individual CD players. Well those aren't cheap. I was shocked. They were running 18-30$ a piece. No way. So then I found some 8$ ones from Walmart and I ordered 4. 

NONE OF THEM WORKED. Then I read the reviews and everyone was returning them for that same issue. -_-

So I returned them and got some DVD/CD players that I thought would work. It turns out that those didn't have a head jack. -_- Not to mention they were already 15$ a piece.

I decided to look at MP3 PLAYERS as an option because I was already getting higher in price than I wanted. I found some very cute 15$ mp3 players on AMAZON that looked like mini Ipods. 

They didn't work either so I sent them back! Total JUNK. I was hoping the reviews were wrong but they were junk.

 Finally I just decided to spend a little more on something that would work and got these APGPTek MP3 players and they seem to have worked fine in letting me load the music and album image which is a big deal and I'm hoping they last.

This is the main screen when you turn them on and the kids push the play/pause button in the middle.

This is the next screen which they again press play/pause.

Here's how I have them set up. I numbered each book and numbered the songs (most of my kiddo's can't read well enough to look for the title.) They will be able to match the number on the screen and the number on the book. Then they press play/pause. 

Then the image of the book will come up once they pick the right # so they know they are on the right one. I am super excited about this.

I have 4 total!!!

Each has its town list of books that are number and color-coded to its own bin.

After they have listened to the book they must fill out a little sheet on whether they liked it or not BEFORE they move on to the next book. This helps with writing and comprehension.