Did you do for parent gifts from your students? *Minor Freak Out!!*

So as my first year teaching Kindergarten, I have done my best not to drop the ball on lots of the fun and creative things that make each year special. However, my students making gifts for their parents has truly been something that was about to get dropped. I have not been able to come up with something that I thought would be quick, easy, and fun for my students but also special for the mommies and daddies of my sweet pumpkins. BUT I just found this post (literally like 3 minutes ago) from Kindergarten Crayons. Look at these adorable gifts:



So, I tried to save it to my computer in order to crop so it's just the frames but it didn't work :( But at least you can still see the adorable frames!! I have tons of popsicle sticks and will be doing these this week. If you want the step by step directions click here.

Luckily, the photos to be added to them... I took on Friday! My students were so cute in their jammies :) We have a Christmas tree up in the Media Center as well as two fireplace displays on bulletin boards. At the end of the day, we went down and I took their pictures in front of both. I think that I might even have them decorate two... one for each picture. But first we have to decorate 75 tress... that's another post :)

Please leave a comment telling us what great gifts you are doing this year!

Have a blessed day,

Can you hear me now?

I have been warned that Kinders do not do anything quietly. Since I have a 3 year old.... I can totally believe that! I'm praying that God placed me in our church's preschool this summer to prepare me for my new adventure this year. However, by the end of the year my new pumpkins will definitely need to be learning to do more read-to-self than read-to-everyone-in-the-room! I might even have a couple of wonderful new little ones who will say that one phrase "I can't concentrate with all this noise!". Who knows, maybe that's just a 3rd grade thing for them to say. At any rate, I really wanted to have a couple of Whisper Phones.If you have never heard of these, they are "phones" that the students can place to the ear and whisper read to themselves. This is supposed to help concentration and through that fluency and comprehension. You can check out real Whisper Phones like those below by clicking on the picture to link you to the page.

Mine are a tad bit less high-tech looking. I believe Scholastic also has some that look more like mine do, just the horseshoe shape.

My wonderful husband actually made these more me. Love that man! I told him what I wanted to do and showed him pictures. (Don't you just love Google?) He went (very happily) off to Lowe's for me and found the pieces up above. He even glued them together for me :) I didn't want to make an entire class set in case they aren't as useful as I think they will be. But this way, I have several to work with if I need them. I'm thinking that I might even try introducing them to kids in guided reading groups. Lots of possible ways to use them. Do you use anything like this? How do they work best for you?
Have a blessed day,

Someday Crafts: Whatever Wednesday

Mini--project for the playground!

Earlier this summer I made a cute and quick little craft that I thought someone else might find useful this year. I can not take the credit for this idea at all though! Several of the other teachers on my new grade level shared this with me at the end of last year. What is it that's so cute? A playground bag!

Isn't it cute? This is the perfect little bag for holding all my essentials on the playground. We have clinic slips in case students get hurt, band aids for minor boo-boos, my whistle, and anything else that I need. Plus, I'm thinking about having my helper of the day be in charge of taking it out and bringing it in. Plus, since it has the super adorable ladybug on it... it's perfect!

If you'd like to make your own, all you need is an iron-on applique, canvas bag, and puff paint. I actually purchased my applique from a clearance display. Originally it didn't want to stick to the bag. However, my husband figured out how to fix that... increase the heat of the iron and press harder :) So glad that it worked because it turned out so cute!

Have a blessed day,