180 Days and Counting & Tabitha Savage Follower Guest Giveaway

The lovely ladies of 180 Days and Counting and Totally Sweet Math Centers (Tabitha Savage) are having a giveaway and they have asked me to help host it for them!!!

There are three prize packages that you could win!

The rafflecopters are down below!  Make sure you enter for a chance to win!


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Katie Orr's 100 Follower Giveaway

Katie Orr has reached 100 Follower's at her TpT Store and she's hosting a HUGE giveaway on her blog! So hop on over to her blog and enter to win some great prizes!  Leave her some love and congratulate her!!!

Here are some prizes you can enter to win (Including my Write the Room - Back to School):

 

Good Luck!!!  And congrats again Katie!!!

-Christina Mauro

Classroom Decor and a FREEBIE

Last summer I went to a workshop to see Debbie Diller - LOVE HER!  A lot of what she talked about was classroom design and decor.  I previously had decorated my classroom with tons of colors and brightness - very kindergartenish.  But after going I learned that all those colors can be too much for their little brains to take in.  She had said that the best design was a simple one.  Choose one or two colors that compliment each other.  She also talked about the psychology behind certain colors.  Did you know that red causes excitement?  Makes sense - but I never thought about it with regards to a classroom.  The most calming colors are blue and green.

Well them came my major dilemma - I have colored tables in my classroom!  I can't very well do a blue and green theme with yellow and red tables.  So I asked her for a suggestion and her answer was black and white!  So this past year I had black bulletin boards and got some black/white borders at the teacher store.

Now I'm taking in up a notch...I've been working on all things black and white.  Below are some things that I've made for this upcoming year.  There's a FREEBIE at the bottom.

Here are some word wall cards I made.  Included are all the dolch words for pre-primer, primer and first grade.

I use these cards on library pockets in my classroom for helpers.  I have all the students' names on popsicle sticks and just add them in the pockets.

New schedule cards for my room next year.  I'm just going to add a magnet on the back and put it on the chalkboard.

And the FREEBIE . . . I'm trying to get super organized so I made these labels for my storage bins.  Some of them are for students (manipulatives) and others are for me (teacher supplies.) Enjoy!!!

Do you have a color/design theme for your classroom?  If so leave a comment below and let us know.  I'll be sure to come back and add pictures of all these black/white themed goodies once they are up in my room!

Christina Mauro :)

School's Out For Summer

All packed up and ready to start summer. For a few weeks anyway!  I'm teaching summer school this year so I'll be back in about 3 weeks to unpack and set up. 

At my school we have to wrap up pretty much everything at the end of the year. Here's a few pics of what it looked like when I check out. 

I will be sure to take pictures when I come back to set up next month. 

Christina

Room mom thank you kindergarten fun!

Only a few more days until school is finished for the year! Today we had our end of the year party. Our room mom has worked hard all year long planning our parties, getting parent volunteers and donations for all of our events. We wanted to show our appreciation so we got her a large beach bag and filled it with summer goodies to use over the break. She has a pool so it was even more fun to fill the bag because we were able to get her poolside games etc.

I also wanted the students to contribute, so we made a card together. Each student made their face out of construction paper and then we glued the faces to the outside of a piece of poster board (cut in half). I pre-made circles for their faces in word using the shapes feature, then copied the circles onto different skin colored construction paper for them to cut out. They then used scraps to make their hair and any accessories (hats, sunglasses, headbands). I thought this was a nice idea because it will help her remember all the students by having their hand made faces on her card. We made thank you cards pretty frequently through out the year because I like to stress the importance of this and that those who help us should be appreciated. They really enjoy doing this and it helps in adding some kindergarten fun into saying thank you to others!

Stephanie :)

200 TpT Follower Giveaway

I have reached 200 Followers at my Teachers Pay Teachers store and I'm having a major giveaway!  There are three wonderful groups of prizes that you can enter to win.  The giveaway is going to start tonight at midnight and last for a week.  The rafflecopter is down at the bottom!  

Please check out these AWESOME stores and generous teachers that have donated an item out of their stores to help me celebrate!!!  Thanks again for helping me celebrate 200 TpT followers!!!

Oh and I can't forget to mention - the beautiful background that I used to make all these buttons is from

Good Luck!

Christina :)

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Fathers Day Kindergarten Fun

As Father's Day is approaching (and we still have school two days leading up to that weekend), I started thinking about gifts my kids could make for their dads. I wanted it to be a "useful" gift, but also something that let the kids use their creativity. What better way to keep making kindergarten fun than to make something for someone you love?

I finally decided on something the kids could personalize for their dads, but would also be useful...bookmarks! I first made large cut outs of the letters "D" and "A" to take pictures of the kids spelling out DAD to put on the book marks. The book marks were made on various poster board colors and the students colored and put stickers to decorate them. Then I had them glue their pictures on and had them laminated. We added a final touch by hole punching the tops and letting the kids choose a ribbon to tie on. (I scrap book and had a TON of ribbon remnants to choose from)

And voila! Kindergarten fun for fathers day!

We also made cute shirt and tie cards that turned out great! I found the idea on Pinterest. The students LOVED decorating their cards and especially loved when I gave them the idea to draw things in the shirt pocket like pens, phones etc.We used scrapbook paper for the ties and some of the kids wanted to use their scraps to decorate the rest of the shirt.
 Here is how to make the cards:

http://tiffkeetch.blogspot.ca/2010/06/thinkin-about-dad.html

Stephanie :)

More Fraction Fun

 I did the same lesson as Stephanie with my class today.  I gave my kids the chance to make chocolate chip cookies OR if they wanted to make a sugar cookie they could do that too!  They did such a great job!  Most of them wanted to make "holiday cookies."

Here are a few highlights - Alexa made this adorable St. Patrick's Day cookie.

 Katherine made a Christmas Tree sugar cookie

Lindsey made a Halloween sugar cookie.

And here is my Valentine's Day cookie!

If you want the words to do this project with your class click the link below to grab a copy.  This project solidified the fact that Fractions are FUN in Kindergarten!

Christina

Addition Subtraction Math Station {FREEBIE}

A math station that I have used for a better part of the year is my Addition and Subtraction Math Matches.  The students pull out the header cards which are large numbers 2-10 and place them at the top of the table.  Then they go through a stack of cards and sort them under the correct answer.

My students LOVE this station!  I have changed the theme about 20 times to go with the holidays or units of study.  They even started requesting certain themes like ninjas and dinosaurs.  They race against each other to see who can do more math problems correctly!  It's amazing how when you turn things into a game how much the students can stay engaged and on task.  Do you have any fun kindergarten (or other grade level) games that you play that your students LOVE?  If so please comment below and share. :)

Here is my Community Helper themed Math Match for FREE!!!  Just click the link to go grab a copy through Google Docs.  I hope that you and your students enjoy it! 

Christina  

Fraction Kindergarten Fun!

Over the past two weeks we have been talking about fractions. Our curriculum involves teaching halves and fourths. We talked about fractions being parts of something that are equal or the same size. I had the kids each draw something and then we folded and cut their drawings in half and pasted it onto a writing prompt that said _____________ has one half of a ______________. They enjoyed doing this and it really helped them see that cutting something into halves means there are two pieces that are the same in size. They were able to put both pieces of their drawing together to see that they fit together and were the same size.

I then laminated and made them into a book. The kids LOVE to look at class books and I know that I am going to do as many as I can next school year. They like to see their work and their classmates' work, and it reinforces the curriculum! This made fractions in kindergarten fun! 

We also made another project during the week after a lesson on fourths. I used chewy Chips Ahoy cookies and broke students up into groups of 4. I told them they needed to figure out how to cut their cookie (with a plastic knife) to give each person an equal share. Then we talked about fourths. To follow up we made a cookie project with a prompt shown below. The students chose to cut their cookies in half or in fourths and then wrote who they shared with. And of course anything involving a chocolate chip cookie is kindergarten fun!
Stephanie :)

Here are some of the pages the students made for the fraction book:

 And the students looking at their class fraction book:

These are the two example cookie projects:

Kindergarten Fun with Syllables

One standard that our kindergartners have to learn is syllables.  I made this cute line of products called "Say it, Clap it, Sort it."  It is exactly what it's called.

I put this is in my games and puzzles literacy station in my classroom.  The kids chose which theme they want to play (I usually have a couple for them to choose from depending upon what we are learning about.)

There are headers that say 1 Syllable, 2 Syllables etc.  The kids take turns choosing a card, saying it out loud, clapping the parts, and then sorting it under the correct heading.  What a great way to make syllables fun in kindergarten. 

Here are some of my students doing a syllable sort for Fairy Tales:

If you would like to give this station a try, click the picture below to go download a Fairy Tale version for free.

Enjoy,

Christina :)

End of the Year Gifts

As the end of the school year is approaching, 2 weeks and 2 days left with the students to be exact, (not that any of us are counting, haha) I started thinking about end of the year gifts for my kids. So naturally, I hopped on pinterest to find some ideas. I really liked a beach ball and sunglasses idea that I saw, but decided to make my own labels to put on my gift.

I learned this year that making labels in Microsoft Word (2007) is pretty easy. We do use and are planning to use labels on our team for journal prompts and fun ideas like this. The type of labels I use are Staples brand white mailing labels (Avery 5163). They come 10 to a sheet and are 2 inches x 4 inches.

This is how I get to the labels in word: 
In word I choose the tab at the top that says mailings, then choose the labels tab. Then in the box that opens I click options and choose the label number I am using (it tells me on the box of labels what number---5163), and then I choose "full page of the same label" and click "new document".

From here I can add clip art and words using text boxes to make whatever I want...math journal prompt, name tag, or label for my end of the year gift. *The fonts I downloaded from a pinterest link and are called "wish I were taller" and "always in my heart".

This year I am giving each student a beach ball (from the dollar store) with a label that says, "You have worked hard all year long...Have a ball this summer!"

I also wanted to give them each a pair of sunglasses but didn't find what I wanted in stores or on websites, so the beach ball it is for this year!

These beach themed gifts go really well with some of the beach themed station TPT items I am using that Christina has made...check them out: http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Browse/Search:mauro+beach

 Stephanie :) 

Here is the completed project:

 

And here are the sunglasses labels:

 

These are the labels I like to use: