End of the Year Photo Booth

I was inspired by a Pinterest idea of taking a photo of the studenst on the first day of school behind a frame, but I thought I would change it to an "end of the year photo" for the kids.  Here is what each photo will look like when I take a picture of the students behind the frame.

The frame says, "I am a Kinder Graduate!"

Tomorrow, one of my parents that is an amazing photographer, is going to take pictures of each student behind the graduation frame.  I will print them out and give them as a gradutaion gift for the students!

To make the frame, I bought a frame at a thrift store and painted it purple.

At school, I added punch out letters to surround the frame!  Here is the finished product...

I think they will be an adorable gift to give my students when the graduate! :)  I'll post the finished pictures once we take them! :)

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Watermelon Craft

I am absolutely in love with this watermelon craft that can be used in three different ways! You can make a simple print and go watermelon craft, a end of the year writing flip craft, of a name building craft! These are perfect for the end of the year, summer, or even back to school season!

{Click Here to pick one up!}

One way to use this craft is at the end of the year as a writing reflection on the school year and to write about what they are looking forward to in the summer! Each piece flips up and can be turned into a writing flip craft!

The name craft is perfect to practice writing and building the student's name! This makes for a cute and colorful bulletin board display while practicing fine motor skills and name building! 

If you need a simple "print and go" option, this one comes with three large pieces to cut, they layer the watermelon and you can hang as a bulletin board! 

I hope you love how SWEET this craft is ;).

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My Obsessions Linky

I am going a little Linky Party crazy in the past couple of days!  Living a Wonderful Life is having an "obsessions" linky party.  We are sharing all of the fun things in life that we love and are kind of obsessed with....I wish I couldn't relate. :)

My first obsession would have to be diet coke.  I wish it wasn't so...but it is!  There is nothing like an ice- cold diet coke to pick me up during lunch time...One day, I will switch it to water... one day....

I also love 31 Bits jewelry.  I graduated college with some lovely girls that started a non-prophet called 31 Bits.  Women that live in Uganda, make jewelry out of paper and sell them here in the US.  Check out their website! 

Bright colored skinny jeans has also been an obsession of mine.  My girlfriend, Naomi Mintzer, just started a fashion blog, American High Street.  I love looking at her blog posts because she somehow manages to bring together the bright colors that I love to wear.

I have a serious obsession with stamps.  I use them all the time when the student's finsh their work!  I find them at Michael's Craft store for $1!

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Rockin Resources: Linky Party

This is a fun linky party created by Teacher Idea Factory.  The goal is to share ideas that you use in your classroom that you live by!  What are some great resources and tricks that work for you in the classroom?? Here are some of mine...

Here are some of my favorite things to use in the classroom!

1.  I LOVE using the "Have Fun Teaching" letter videos on YouTube.  Here is a sample video of the letter B.  I let the kids sing and sometimes dance while the video plays!  I use this the first day of the week, when I introduce a new letter!  The kids get so excited and it is a fun way to keep them engaged!

2.  I am all about Finger Puppets.  I use them all the time in class to engage the kids and keep them looking at me!  This is my favorite one....the octopus finger.  I actually did a blog post about it a while back {check it out HERE}.  

3.  Pinterest.  Need I say more?  I am so thankful that Pinterest is not blocked at my work, because I feel like I use it all day long.  I use it for inspiration, for videos that I pinned, craft ideas, or pictures.  Here is a link to my "Kinder Video" pinterest board that I use to keep videos that I want to show my students!

4.  I love using Digital Clip Art from KPM Doodles.  Here is the link to check out the shop on ETSY.  {click on the photo}

Let me know if you link up too so I can see your favorite goodies to use in the classroom! :)

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Memorial Day SALE!!! 20% off!

I love a 3 day weekend...but even more I love a good SALE!  I am linking up with Kindergarten Lifestyle and having a Memorial Day Sale on my TPT Store.  Everything is 20% off between Sunday and Monday!  Shop til you drop! :)

Head on over to my TPT store!

Some items that you will see...

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Superhero Subtraction and Building Words

I was frequenting Michael's that I LOVE so very much and I found some superhero goodies in the dollar bin!  My students have been talking about superheroes because of the new Avengers movie that is out, so I decided to tap into their excitement and transition it into subtraction and building words!

Here is what I found at Michael's Craft store: 4 mini tin lunch boxes, superhero pencils, and stickers.

I immediately thought I could use the stickers to do a subtraction lesson.  In our math book, we are practicing crossing out different groups to show that we are "taking away," so I thought we could "take away" the superheroes!  I made a little subtraction worksheet that could be used with the stickers.

They had to place the stickers in the rectangle.

 (They were very particular in which sticker they chose...I didn't think that would take so long!  But I think it was their favorite part...)

The next step, was to cross out one of the stickers and fill in the subtraction sentence in the lightening bolt.

It was fun to see my kinders get excited about math!  The next thing we did with the superhero theme, was we practiced making words.  I put laminated letters into the lunch boxes and gave them a recording sheet to write down words they could make with the letters.

I had them work in pairs during center time to make as many words as they could with the letters.  If you would like to do this with your students, you can click on the picture and download it for free at my TPT  store!  The only thing that you need to buy are superhero stickers! (you could have them draw them though!)

Please leave a comment at my TPT store if you pick one up for FREE! :)

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Life Cycle of a Butterfly

We are having a blast learning about the life cycle of a butterfly.  The main reason I waited to teach about the life cycle of a butterfly is because for our Kindergarten Graduation, we are going to do a reading of Eric Carle's, Very Hungry Caterpillar.  I started our butterfly unit by teaching all of the phases of the butterfly's life cycle.  We read books, made butterfly crafts, and watched little video's on the life cycle.  We made an Eric Carle bulletin board to have up for Graduation.

Here is our finished product of the life cycle of the butterfly bulletin board:

The first day, I read my kinders Eric Carle's, The Very Hungry Caterpillar.  This book is great because it goes over all of the stages of the butterfly life cycle.

We also watched the video clip of The Very Hungry Caterpillar on Youtube.

I was also able to use the Butterfly Sequencing Kit from Lakeshore.

After I did an overview of all of the stages, I went into detail teaching one stage a day.  The first day we talked about the egg on a leaf.  We made a little egg by cutting out a leaf in green construction paper, and then adding dots of glue with sliver glitter to make it look like little eggs on a leaf.

Next we made our caterpillars.  The students could color it however they wanted to!

My favorite part was when we made cocoons by adding ripped paper bag pieces to construction paper,  to add texture.

Here, you can see the last stage: the butterfly! 

After we leaned about each butterfly stage, I assessed their knowledge, by having them place the stages in order.

Another helpful tool, was using my Life Cycle of the Butterfly Unit.  You can check it out in my TpT Store!

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