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 :)