Dollar Tree Bubblegum Math Center & FREEBIE

 Hi there and happy SUMMER! Ok please ignore the fact that I have not blogged in like forever 😀 because this post is timely and I am in summer bargaining and creating mode and just had to share! 

This cute math center was created for only $3 and put together in about 15 minutes! 

I found these cute plastic mini bubblegum machines at the Dollar Tree in the seasonal isle and then headed over the to craft section and got 2 packs of wooden beads to use as the “bubblegum”.

 I think plastic or glass marbles would work as well but they didn't have those at my dollar tree so I used the large and medium sized wooden beads from the pack.  The blue and green were too dark but I am not complaining - a $3 math center is NOT bad!  Bonus - I will keep all the small beads to use for other projects during the school year so they wont go to waste!

I used a sharpie to write numbers 1-10 on the beads and that was that!  The top of the meachine comes off easily so kids can clean up the bubble after they complete the worksheet.

Click on the worksheet to go to my TPT store and grab a copy of this freebie - then head to Dollar Tree and snag these goodies!!

100 Acts of Kindness for the 100th Day of School

We will be celebrating our 100th day of school on Tuesday and this year in addition to some of the other fun 100th day activities we are also going to try to do 100 acts of kindness!

I was inspired by the book Kindness is Cooler by Margery Cuyler.   The book is about a kindergarten teacher who teaches her kids that kindness is cooler and challenges them to do 100 kind things.  The students get really excited about doing kind things for not just other students but in their community too.  Its a fun book and once I read it I decided to challenge my kids to do 100 acts on our 100th day!

So my plan is to use a simple kindness chart to have students color in a square each time they do an act of kindness during the day.  I made a big banner with a bucket and empty 100 chart grid.  As students preform an act, I will color in a square!  

If you would like to use this in your classroom click here to grab the flip chart and here to grab the grid for tracking acts of kindness. 

Flexible Fridays

Hi there!

This year I started something fun in my classroom for my guided reading instruction that my students and I call Flexible Fridays!

All week my students work with their guided reading groups that are leveled.  Of course I change the groups with student growth and tweak groupings to my students needs but often these groupings stay fairly consistent.  For the most part this is a good thing, students learn to work together and are comfortable with their groups but change is a good thing too.

My reading specialist inspired me to try some flexible groups from time to time and because I need a schedule for everything :) I decided to pick a day of the week for my flexible groupings.  Friday works best because students have been working on their guided reading books all week and are ready for some extra challenges come Friday.

So on Fridays the student groups are done by table groups instead of reading levels!  I use my regular reading rotation powerpoint and changed it to a bright funky design (see pic above) and entered their table groups in instead of their regular groups.  The first time I did this I was worried because in my little first grade classroom I have students reading from level 8 all the way to a level M.

It was great!  Students read their books to each other and then helped each other complete the follow up  assignment.  I have been doing this each Friday ever since and some weeks they give each other spelling check ups, or practice their site words.  They really look forward to working with a different group of students and love being able to share their guided reading books with each other!  

These pictures some my awesome kiddos working together to find facts in their informational texts!  I created a simple worksheet for them to record their fact and draw a detailed illustration to go along with the fact!  Click the image to grab the Freebie from my TPT store!

Thanks for stopping by!  I'd love to hear how you all do your flexible groupings!

Colorful Organization & Cleaning Caddies

Hi - I can not believe how long it has been since I blogged last!  Yikes!  Well leave it to Tara at 4th Grade Frolics to motivate me to post to her awesome Made It Monday linky!

My first project was to transform my old yucky black in boxes!  Honestly, when I packed up my classroom at the end of the year I was going to throw them out and go purchase new white ones from Staples!  Then I had an idea…  Spray paint + yucky old in boxes = COLORFUL organization!  I love, love, love spray paint and have accumulated quite the collection of colors over the years!

So I cleaned them off and got to work spray painting them!  I used an old plastic table cloth as my drop cloth so the hardest part was making sure the boxes didn't stick to the table cloth - SO my advice to you is to use newspaper and don't spray them in the grass like I did!  ;)

Well - here they are and they look even better in person than in this picture!!  I still can't get into my classroom because summer school is there until next week but as soon as I can I will be setting these up behind my desk!  

My next project isn't for my classroom at all but I had to share because they turned out so cute and I totally used classroom goodies to created these!  My daughter graduated high school this spring and is head off to The University of Kentucky this month (sigh)!  She is lucky enough to be in a brand new dorm that is a suite style so her and her 3 roommates will not only have 2 bathrooms to clean but a small shared kitchen area!  So I got 3 sterilite shower caddies - the same kind that I have used as shared supply bins in my classroom and created them cleaning caddies.  Of course I had to personalize them and simply used stickers and stick on gems to decorate them with a little UK flair!

I hope you are all having a blast creating this summer!  I can't wait to go check out more of everyone's Made It Monday projects!  They really motivate me and get me excited to get back into the classroom!  

Kindness Updates & a Giveaway

I have been busy this summer working on so many projects! One that I am especially proud of is the updates that I made to my Keys to Kindness unit!  I love starting my year out with these keys to kindness and going over our classroom expectations with these keys in mind.  This summer I created mini posters with cute graphics to show each key and some fun word work to keep my little kiddos busy during those long first days of school!!

Ok - time for the GIVEAWAY!

It's almost back to school time and to celebrate and get us all in the mood, I am having a giveaway for a $10 Teachers Pay Teachers gift card!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Check out my store and Facebook page for even more ways to win!

We LOVE Maryland Blog Hop

We love Maryland for many reasons!  You probably already know that Maryland has some pretty awesome things; crabs, beaches, history and of course our TPT sellers rock too  

I grew up in Virginia and met my hubby at college (WVU), he is from Maryland and we moved here right after we got married!  I can't believe that I have lived here now for almost 25 years and am happy to call Maryland my home!  It's true that home is where your heart is because what I love best about Maryland is all the wonderful friends I have made and memories that I had while raising my family here!  What do you love about your home state?
Thanks for stopping by our fun blog hop!  

Click below for your Freebie of my $4 Winter Word Work Unit with over 20 pages of fun word work activities for your students!!!  

Click below and enter the Rafflecopter to win my giveaway for my Snowman Shades of Meaning pack!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Be sure to check out these Maryland sellers…

Thanks for entering the fun and good luck!!!

Dollar Store Clipboards & Pebble Go Freebie

I LOVE the dollar store - really The Dollar Tree!!  I know most teachers do too - so I just had to share my latest dollar store creations with you all!

We use our computers everyday in the classroom and I love students to be able to do research using the computers and listen to stories online during our Daily 5!  I often give them follow up worksheets or note taking sheets for them to use while on the computers.

It is hard for them to manage the keyboard and paper with our limited space and even more challenging for some of them with the larger clipboards.  So I headed to the dollar store in search of mini clipboards.  They didn't have any at the time but I found 6"x8" chalkboards and these cute colorful metal clips.

So I pulled out my trusty hot glue gun and glued the clips on the chalkboards to create my mini clipboards!!  The best best best thing about these clipboards is that they have a handy little handle for hanging them.  So while I had my glue gun fired up I hot glued some hooks to the edge of my computer tables and hung those suckers up!!  It makes me so happy to see them all hanging there all neat and tidy!

We are fortunate enough to have access to Pebble Go so I made some note taking sheets that work perfectly with my mini clipboards.  

Click below to grab the freebie for yourself and there is also a larger version for you in case you don't want them to have more room to write! 

Enjoy and happy dollar store shopping!!