Hot gluing paper backed products without them tearing!

Ever had one of those moments that feels like a stroke of genius??  Here's mine!!  We do a lot of hot gluing to our walls, because that's basically the only way to get things to stay on our walls with this great Florida humidity.  The only problem with hot gluing, is you have to have things laminated before gluing so they come off of the wall without tearing the paper...  Well, the laminator is not always available, and something cannot be laminated.  So my stroke of genius?  Tape!!!

 I put a strip of tape on the back of the paper plates and other paper items I wanted to hang....

 Then I hot glued right onto the tape!  This way, it's LIKE being laminated, but you don't have to wait for when you can use the laminator.  Not to mention, you can't laminate paper plates!!!

Classroom Setup!

 One of the most difficult and exciting times of the year is the transformation of the classroom at the beginning of the year!!!  Since I am changing my whole theme, I started at the very beginning!!  Took EVERYTHING off of the walls and completely started over!!!

 The beginning stages....

 My calendar/math board.

 I got the idea of this calendar from this teacher, and am very excited for a new way to do calendar!

 This shelf was really ugly when I got it, so I invested in that special primer and some yellow paint, then mod-podged the fabric on the back board.  I'm in love!!!!  :)  The bright colors are awesome.  This is going to hold my math supplies for calendar and some center choices.

 

 My word wall.  :)  The letters are on plates with coordinating ribbons, we will be clothespinning the words to the ribbon to make it more accessible to students.  I will post more later.  :)

 My awesome sister came in and helped put the color word wall together.  We put up these great posters I had from years ago.  Then she used my BIG circle hole punch to punch out different colors from paint chips (and I had some leftover circles of construction paper from a past activity), and she hot glued them all around.  :)  So fun!!!

 My vowels plates - Filling wasted space and giving the kiddos a visual reference.  :)

When I graduated high school many years ago...  I was given a super comfy reclining chair.  This chair has been OVER loved in my classroom for all of these years!!!!  I have tried (and failed) to keep this chair clean...  EW!!!

 I finally have found a way...  Cover it up!!!!  :)

 I found this beach towel at Walmart for $4 on clearance.  I folded over the top and bottom and stitched them up the sides, creating a sleeve.

 Then I just slipped it on over the chair and voila!  A polka dot themed chair cover that can be WASHED!!!!!

 My book boxes for Daily 5 on the left.  I will be putting the alphabet cards on the pocket chart for the beginning of the year, and then move on to Phonics chunks,  The plates with ribbons are for Daily 5 sign ups.  :)

 My final Math board.

 I used bulletin border scraps with Index cards and dot stickers to make labels.  :)  I hung this clipboard by the door.  Inside that sleeve will be the dismissal lists with bus numbers and student names.  I put it in a sleeve so that I can use the Vis-a-Vis marker next to it to make any transportation note changes or whatever for the day. 

My classroom from the front door.

Along the back of the classroom...  Book Nooks for reading and lots of book bins!!!!!

My Daily Five anchor charts on the front board.

Trying a "deskless" space this year.  Only the computer desk and filing cabinet!  Please work!!!!  I hate the clutter of a desk!  The table to the left is for my volunteer.

Writing station area and behavior chart.  Used my teacher desk for this area.

Our classroom timeline for the year.  :)

I bought this frame at a yard sale for $1.  :)  Primed and painted it.  My friend added the words for the kiddos to use for the pictures.  These were my helpers for the day.  :)

My table tubs for shared supplies.  Magnetic Muffin tins painted white with Mod-Podged stickers.  I hot glued magnets to the bottom of the cups.  I will be hot gluing another magnet in the bottom of each muffin space to give just a little stronger connection, I think.  We'll see how they work.  :)  I got tired of the big bins!!!

I have decided to downsize classroom furniture.  Behold my reading table and student desk combined.  All set up for parent orientation.

 The outside door.  :)    Here's to a great year!!!!!

Freebies for Beginning of Year

Well, I figured it's time to get back in the swing of things for the fall.  I worked third grade summer camp all summer, so I really didn't have much to add to my Kindergarten blog.  But I'm getting all prepped for the fall, and I thought I would share my freebies that I got from VistaPrint.  :)  I'm all about getting stuff for free.  I only paid $13 dollars in shipping and got all of the following:

 Personalized sticky notes.  :)  Who doesn't love sticky notes?

 140 blank return address labels - I'm going to use these to label things in my classroom.  I could have gotten these personalized, but I would rather leave them blank to write on.

The front and back of my post cards I'm going to give out to students.  (I got 100 of these puppies!)

My very own business card!!!  :)  I'm going to stick magnets on the back of these and pass them out to parents so they can keep my information handy.   I got 250 of these, so they'd better keep me around at the school and not move my grade any time soon!!!

 

A self-inking stamp I can start to stamp all of my classroom books to so that they can actually find their way home.  (theoretically, at least)  :)  It says,  "After enjoying, please return this book to Mrs. Stuart"

Yay for free stuff!  I'm getting super excited about all of the fun stuff coming up this next few weeks.  I'm going to try to start getting pictures up of my classroom and some stuff going on in there.  :)  

Slap That Word!

So the other day, I met with my kiddos and wanted to play a game with them to see which words they knew.  I've seen some variations of this online on chart paper and such. 


I laid out the word cards of the words they were supposed to know (added in some letters for the kiddos who have a harder time).  I handed each kid a fancy fly swatter I got at the Dollar Tree.  I called out a word and they had to slap it first before the other did.  The person to get it first got a cube to see who could make the tallest tower.

They were giggling and laughing the whole time.  And at the end, they gave each other a high five and said "great job!"  :)  Such fun!  Happy slapping!!!

Mother's Day Tiles!

Years back, I was waiting for my nephew in a family bathroom down in a mall in Tampa.  They had this wall that I absolutely fell in love with made of square white tiles and children's handprints.  I knew I had to find a way to make these....  For something....  Somehow.... 

Then, Mother's Day started inching closer and I realized, that's the something I was waiting for!!!!  So I got ahold of some tiles, a paint roller and some paint and went crazy with my students!!!

I've now been making these tiles every year and they seem to be a huge hit!!!!

Here's what I do:

I make a trip to Home Depot/Lowe's and buy a box of white 6x8 ceramic wall tiles (there's around 30 in one box, but I do it for my class and my friend's).  I already have a small paint roller (one made for edging, I think...), acrylic paints, and an acrylic clear coat.  I have been using the same materials for 4 years now and am just now thinking it's time to get some more paint.  :) 

I pour the paint on a paper plate, roll the roller over it, and then have a child hold their hand out flat.  If you have sensory kiddos, I recommend warning them that it's going to feel a little cold and it might tickle a bit.  Then they giggle instead of freak out!!!!

 I very carefully have them put the heel of their hand down while holding their fingers up in the air, then I slowly press their fingers down and make sure I press into each finger.  Hold their hands firm, or you'll have some fat fingers!!!!!  (don't worry, if they do make a mistake, you can just wipe it off with a wet paper towel and try again!) 

We then count to five and pull straight up.  Then we lay it down to dry until the next day (or a few hours later).

The next step is to use a paint marker (bought at Wal-mart for around $3 - but they last forever!).  The kids write "Happy Mother's Day!" (Or I love you! - if they do not live with mom or do not celebrate holidays) across the top, the year in the bottom left corner, and "Love, ______" in the bottom right corner.  Then it's laid to dry again.

Once they're dry, I take them outside onto a shower curtain and spray them down with acrylic clear top coat to set in the paint.

We wrap them up really, really, really, really good in newspaper and plastic bags and send them home for Mama!

Ocean Creatures!

 To help us talk about the ocean, I pulled out all of the seashells/animals I could find in my closet.  We sat in a circle and passed them around. 

The kids used a magnifying glass to inspect them. 

 The conversations were incredible!!!!  "Look!  There's a hole in there!"

 "What are all of these lines in the middle?"

 "This one is so tiny!"  - They also discovered that the tiny one was dry and would stick to their shirts, so of course everyone had to check out and see if it stuck to THEIR shirt because it stuck to their friend's!  Haha, oh to be five again!

Overall, lesson success!!!  And I didn't really even have to do much facilitating!  Their conversation and observations really led the whole time!!!

Ocean Sensory

 My friend and I have been doing a lot of looking at different sensory bin ideas online.  Most often, they are used with toddlers and preschool, but we were talking about it and we thought they would be perfect for our Kindergarteners!!!!  We upped the level, of course, but our main goal is to get them thinking about "why would that be put in there?" and trying to make connections from the information they already know to what we are learning in class.  This is our "ocean tub," where you can find an assortment of items from the ocean.

Somehow, I did not have very many toy fish, so most of mine consists of other things from the ocean:  words on popsicle sticks that relate to the ocean, aquarium rocks and jewels, eyeballs, paper fish, a guide I found in my closet that lists different fish found in the ocean, plastic boats, and shells!  One important thing that I didn't capture on my camera - we've been learning about measurement in our classroom, so I have set out some balance scales for the kids to weigh and measure, comparing different things and so much more!  I plan to set out some rulers that they can measure the lengths of the items this week.  We also have our students writing about the tub.  Last week, it was making lists of things in the ocean, this week it will be writing a story about swimming in the ocean and all of the things that can be seen.  I will try to get some pictures up of the kids playing in the tub, I took these before they arrived.  :)

At the end of each unit, I pack everything up into a big Ziploc bag to store until next year - taking up much less space in the closet and much cheaper than buying bins for each unit!!  :)  Happy sensing!!!!