New Activities and Centers for Your Classroom

New activities are now ready!  I have stayed up many late nights and I am now getting better at saving, down loading and creating fun things for us all to use with our students!   My Photo Find games are much like the very popular Write-the Room.  My games are based on basic science for now.  I am in a school where animals are not something people teach their kids.  It is very sad.  I created these games to get my students started learning right away!  These also tie in nicely if you are a Montessori 3-6 teacher.  I am currently finishing up some more of these and all of the continents will be represented.  Much more exciting than just coloring the animals from Asia in the old-school animal books.    Give these a whirl!  You won't be sorry.  They are designed to help those students who need to be moving and learning!

Click here to see all of the Photo Find games!

I have also created a few fun units and a bunch of very exciting play dough math games.  Be sure to hit those too!  And please send me some feedback!  Happy shopping!  

BIG Sale at my TPT Store!

Head over to TeachersPayTeachers today!  We are having a huge sale and now is the time to save!  All of my products are 10% off!  Most of my stuff is already pretty inexpensive so you will be able to buy a bunch!

I have made many cool things for your preschool and kindergarten classrooms.  I know you will love them!  Most of my products turn into a center or activity for a few children to do together and they only need cut out and laminated!  There are many fun things to do.  Many activities will help teach following directions in a fun way too!  Your students will want to head to these centers and want to get started right away!  Photo find would be perfect for the first week of school and all of the play dough mats are awesome.  I am having a hard time deciding which ones to begin my year with!

Grab a few new things and get your year started right! I would love some feedback too.  I want to hear how they worked for you and any suggestions you may have!  So go on and get started!  Time to get planning!

CLICK HERE TO HEAD OVER TO THE SALE!

Sneak Peek at my New Photo Find Games!

I am so excited to unveil my new preschool/kindergarten activities for science that I am working on.  I can't get them done fast enough!  They are write the room science hunts and they are going to be so cute!  I have awesome graphics from Erin Bradley Designs and after huge searches for wild animal photos that don't come with HUGE price tags I have almost finished my first one.  I have to print it out in the morning and add photos to the directions and it is a go!

Just to give you an idea of how these science "Photo Finds" will work...I have created cameras with animal photos under them.  The activity will be a little like hide and seek.  You will hide the paper cameras around the room with animal photos underneath them and your students will hunt, and record what they find on a cute clipboard you will provide them.  There are 3 levels of writing this will cover too.  My recording/hunting sheets include just making an "X" by the animal photo, tracing the name of the animal, and independently writing the name of the animal next to the photo on the clipboard.  I know my students are going to love this.  They are always jumping in to be in pictures.  I  also know that write the room is one of their favorite choices during our "centers time."

I am heading to bed but this will be up on Teachers Pay Teachers tomorrow so check it out and let me know what you think!

Celebrating 83,000 Views of My BLOG!

Thanks to all of you who have read and followed my blog.  I have thoroughly enjoyed doing it and love sharing my work with all of you!  I have not had as many followers as I thought I would have by now (hint, hint!), but still happy!  I encourage you to follow me through Bloglovin' or by email.  It is a great way to keep updated when I make new posts.  I am trying to post at least 3 activities I create in my room to share with you each month this upcoming school year.  That is my goal anyway!

I have just finished creating some great number play dough mats.  I am working on the letter version to go with the GUM BALL theme!  Many of my other play dough mats are rolling "worm" shapes, so for my latest game I used the ball shape.  I made a few at my table tonight.   My twin girls were asleep, so I could not try it out on them yet!  They love all of my other play dough games so I know they will try it out when they wake up!

Here is a preview and I hope you enjoy.  This set comes with games to use with play dough and pompom "gum balls" too!  It can also be laminated and used with dry erase makers.  

Click here to view my TPT store!

As summer comes to and end, get out and enjoy your last days!  I know I will.  Heading back to our house on the Greenbrier River!  More to come so check back or follow me to stay updated!  

White Board and Easel Games

I have tried very hard to use my great easel in my classroom, but I struggle.  We cannot always have paint, although all the students would love it!  It is hard to have enough space to use the easel since it is so big!  So I began trying using it it for various things.  In the beginning of the school year I use if for "Look Who Is Here" with their pictures and their name card.  In the morning as my students arrive, they hang up their picture or their name matched to their picture.  

I use the back side for painting weekly but, not every day.  I use it for drawing too, but we needed something new.  Below are the games I have began using and I am in the process of creating more.  My easel is a magnetic white board.  If you don't have this type, setting aside space on your white board will work.  Buying a  smaller white board may also work.

The cards seen here are laminated and have magnets on the back.  I use the sheet magnets from Oriental Trading Company.  They have a stick side to adhere to the cards.  I add the cards to a bucket on the shelf and give the students a few dry erase markers and they are ready to write!  I have now added a number line to put at the top of the board so that my students had a number to look at or copy if they needed a model.    The first one I made is Count and Write Dental!  The one below is Count and Write Bugs.  My students love finishing all of the cards and then getting their photo taken with the work they did.  I print it out and place it right in their portfolio!  So easy!  I can also assess them using our Teaching Strategies Gold documentation for their final assessment for each quarter.  It has become a favorite activity!  We hang up their picture on our door when they finish this too!  It is quite special.  Their parents love it!

Stop by and grab one of these Count and Write games at my TPT store.  

                                                         Count and Write on TPT

Play Dough Mats for Preschool

I have worked all year long and never got the time to get my activities up on TPT!  I have tweaked and researched and I am finally ready to share my stuff!!!  I make things that I want to use and that I know other preschool/kindergarten teachers will use.  I love all of the cute things I that I have seen and I thought to myself, you know, I can do this too!!!  I have included a preview of the product with some pictures of my students using them.

I began the year by making play dough activities.  I wanted to change up my play dough and make it a bit more educational and meaningful.  I had kids in my class who were using their creativity, and they were strengthening their fine motor, but seemed to need more.  I started with the play dough mats.  Here you can see how much fun these can be!

My students love rolling out the "worms" for the numbers and then using a real plastic knife and cutting off cylinders for the marshmallows in the mugs!  I have also had fun using these during teacher evaluations.  My bosses love that I can sit and assess as they are learning!  Shocking, right?!

Here is a sneak peak into my other great play dough mats...

                                                         Flower Play Dough Counting Mats

This game is my favorite one... Play Dough Pizza Math Mats!!!  I found the greatest clip art from the 3A.M. Teacher!  It was calling my name.  I have not used this one yet but I cannot wait to try it.  I am going to print it and try it out with my twin girls!  I know they will love it!

                                                       Play Dough Pizza Math Mats

 I hope you love these.  I know your students will!  Enjoy!

Fun Winter Counting Activities-Come Enjoy Them Now on TPT!

I have worked hard on these winter activities and they were a big hit in my class.  I finally have an entire winter unit on TPT for you to use!  Come on over and check it out!

Click here to come and get this fun activity pack for winter.

My latest obsession is making new games for my students.  I have worked hard on  my winter math games and I want to share them with you.  I have tried to make something for every level student I have.  This first group of pictures is from the lowest level math game which is one to one correspondence up to 5.  I found these supplies at Michael's and made the rest on my computer.  I went to KPM Doodles for the adorable clip art!

I made many levels of math fun, including these that I used cute Dollar Store green and purple containers to hold them.  I added very easy and basic classroom supplies to put these together.  

                                      

My favorite new activity is to make mats for learning with play dough!  This month we made the number in play dough and then added that many marshmallows to the hot chocolate.  This was very popular. You can buy the Play Dough Hot Chocolate Mats by themselves or in the Winter Activity Bundle.  Use the ink at the top of this blog entry.

We recently purchased these dry erase clear plastic sleeves.  They are a new center for our tables.  We put various papers in them.  This one seen here is count, tally, and write numbers.  It was great counting practice!  It had many levels and all of my students could practice.  We have been using this style of activity for letter and number formation practice.  I have 17 students who will be going onto kindergarten and they seem to love using dry erase markers so why not!

 We are also working on putting numbers in order.  This link game is easy and we partner two students up to use it.  This game goes up to 12.  Below I made a snowman match.  Students had to use a magnifying glass to find the matching snowman.  This game was quick but fun!

 Out math/art project was making a mug of hot chocolate.  We added real mini marshmallows and then counted them and wrote the number of marshmallows on the mug.  Here you can see number cards for the students who needed a model to look at used.  We drizzled hot chocolate powder on it when we were done to make it like a scratch n' sniff!  We hung these in the main hallway of the school and let's just say everyone enjoyed them and some a little too much.  They did not come down with the same amount of marshmallows they went up with!

My last math game was a snowman counting game.  I made this game woo and used these great Dollar Store items.  These we used on a rug on the floor and we counted up to 10 with these.

I hope your month finds lots of fun winter math happening and that these ideas inspire you to make something fun too!  

Pirate Unit Ready To Purchase on TpT

I am finally done getting my TpT (www.teacherspayteachers.com) store up and running!  I have the hang of it and I hope that all of you will enjoy the things I am making to put in your classroom.  I worked a long time practicing and getting all of my ideas together.  My students love the games already!  I think they will never get tired of the clothes pins and clipping the right number on the counting cards!  Thanks Erin!   I use that idea all around my classroom and they never get tired of it!  Below is the link to my gigantic pirate unit of fun!  Check it out!

                                         

                                                Here is my link to my TpT store and first unit!

I am now on Teachers Pay Teachers!!!

I am finally starting a store on TpT after a long winter of research on the types of activities I wanted to create for preschool teachers!  I am not too far along but you have to start somewhere.  I am posting my first game for cheap!!!  I want to create things that are instant learning centers.  My goal is to have things that you can laminate and use right away!  I hope you enjoy my first one!  I have many students who love the counting clip games that my friend over at Creating and Teaching makes but I have so many students that they are too hard for still.  I wanted the same type of game but easier so that my youngest students could practice with clothes pins and counting too, even if they could not recognize the number.  I switched around that idea so that they could participate too.  I hope you can use it in your classroom too!

Dental Health Counting Clip Game-FREEBIE