'Mani" Thanks! A great end of year gift for volunteers!

Happy almost summer everyone! Hope that you are making it through these last few days or weeks! I have 6 days left with kiddos and then 2 more days to pack up my teacher life for 2 months! I really hate packing!! 

Packing is just as bad as unpacking! Why oh why must I pack up?? I mean, I know why but I still don't like it! 

So, another year has gone and I wanted to find a cute and fun (also not bank breaking!!) way to thank my sweet volunteers who have helped me this year. So I decided to give them a jar of "mani" thanks! 

All you need is a :

*pint size mason jar (right now Michaels has them for $1! Plus if you show your teacher ID, you get 15% off!)

*mini-manicure items (I also found mine at Michaels)

*nail polish (your choice of colour)

*something extra if you want and it can fit in the jar

I found the nail polish and cooling eye masks at TJ Maxx! They have great spa and beauty items for less. I had some extra room so I put some in there. You can add whatever you like though. 

I placed all the items in the mason jar and added my label and done! It's super cute and easy to make. 

You can download the labels for FREE! Click on the picture to download a copy. It is editable. 

Hope this helps make it easier for you! I'm excited to give this to my volunteers! Happy end of the school year friends! 

Cauldron of Words! A fun engaging activity and FREEBIE!

Hey everyone! Just wanted to share a quick activity that I am doing this week! You know how we have "THOSE IDEAS" that just hit us either in the shower, on the toilet, in traffic, or me.. early in the morning when I've woken up and can't go back to sleep?? So, yeah, that SO happened this morning! 

This week our phonics pattern is short /o/ and I was thinking of a fun and engaging way for my students to learn this pattern and it hit me! I'll get a big pot and have them scoop up words! I don't know about you, but I am always thinking of ways to incorporate everyday items or props to make learning fun! But then I took it even further, and this year, I am lucky to have a class that celebrates a certain October holiday so I decided to create a cauldron of words! 

It is super simple and I used what I already had. 

This cauldron or a large pot, if you cannot use this prop can be used, was one I had wayyyyy back in my play room. You can't see it but it's slightly warped. Ok, a lot warped. 

Then I bought some ping-pong balls. I found mine at Target. 36 ping pong balls for $10. 

Write whatever word pattern you are working on. I wrote short /o/ words and the HFW words we are working on and added ones that are repeat offenders for being read and spelled incorrectly. I colour coded them. I wrote the phonics words in black and HFW in green. 

For extra fun, I threw in some plastic spider rings and bugs, eye ball candy (all Dollar Tree items) and purchased some cheap spoon ladles from the Dollar Tree and my insomnia filled idea has come to life! 

Both my boys (my 3rd grader and 1st grader) were SO EXCITED to play with my center! They love Halloween as much as I do and couldn't wait to "try out"my center to make sure my class would like it! I *think* they did! 

The center is what you make of it! I made response sheets for you. There are 2 versions. Click on any image to download both! 

Hope this creates a fun and engaging activity for you! 

We LOVE Teachers! Teacher Appreciation Event!

Welcome back to our 2nd Annual We LOVE Teachers Event! I am so excited that I am actually participating in 2 (yes, 2!!) Teacher Appreciation Events this week! So forgive me if I toggle back and forth between events! I know how hard we all work and how many hours, blood, sweat, wine, tears, and cheers and celebrations we go through as teachers! 

I am happy to team up with one of my closest friends, Leigh, The Applicious Teacher, for her annual event! We have got...

$10,000 

worth of prizes lined up for you! 

Yes, ladies and gentlemen! For realsies! 

So excited (and bummed for myself!) for you all to enter and WIN!!! 

Today's PRIZE s a 

a TPT Gift Card for $40-- In fact we are giving away 3 of them! 

You can enter the raffecopter here:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

I'd also like to leave you with a freebie (or 2). One for you and one for your students! 

The first one is for your students. One of my biggest MUST DO's is to always give my students feedback on their writing. I created a little form that I attached to their writing pieces with a check-list of the mechanics and components I'm looking for as well as a section for a GLOW and GROW! That is HUGE! We always talk about ways to improve and reflect on best practices. They look forward to reading their glows and grows whenever they get their writing pieces back. During writing conferences, I ask them what area they are "growing" on. It's a great tool! 

Click {HERE} to grab this FREEBIE! 

The other freebie is for you!! 

Do you ever just want to pick up someone's day or just want to say "You're SUPER!"?? This freebie is a quick and fun way to tell someone 

You're Awesome!

Thanks for being a HERO today! ('cuz we know some day's our friends and co-workers can really save our behinds in a pinch! LOL). 

I've even included a cards to attach a little sweet treat for a teacher friend! 

Click {HERE} to download this FREEBIE for YOU! 

I hope you have an awesome week! Thank you for ALL you do! Don't forget to check back every day to see what prizes are up for grabs! 

Some Easter fun coming your way!

I didn't realize that Easter was coming so soon! That's what happens to me when I am on break. Kinda like when you were in high school and ALWAYS forgot your locker combination when you came back from breaks! It happened to you, too, right? LOL!

With this holiday coming up, I had to get my behind in gear and get some centers together and ready! 

I have a confession: I love going to the Dollar Tree at this time of year (and on Valentine's, Halloween, Christmas, etc... any holiday!) and buying those plastic eggs!! Yes, it has become an obsession of mine but I especially love the eggs. So I went and bought some of these

They had other fancier ones but these were great for what I needed. 

This week we are working on the r-controlled sound of -ar so I put some word scramblers in my eggs. I usually have colored paper but this year decided to use foam sheets to make them more tactile and durable. 

Just cut them into strips, grab a few sharpies and you're set! 

I also number my letter tiles and eggs. Call me a neat freak but it's more like I don't want to hear that a word is not a word because the tiles are all messed up or missing! My class this year is not the neatest! 

I did the same thing for some easy rabbit sentence scramblers, too! Same idea. Although you might want to play around with it. I had a lots of trimming to do to make sure everything fit. 

You can download this FREEBIE from my Teacher Pay Teachers Store. 

I also made another word work activity for my kids. They really need help with making words. Every time I have put that in a center, it's like a whole new world to them. SO again, at the Dollar Tree, I saw some pool noodles and thought of Scrabble and BOOM! I made Word Makers. I cannot claim my fame on these. I have seen similar items at Lakeshore where they hold letter tiles like the game but this was my simple version. 

Cut the pool noodles with a serrated knife. I cut mine about 7 inches. 

Then slice them in half as best as you can. Mine were not perfect but it worked! 

Take a Sharpie and draw a line for where you will cut. It will also help students see where to place their letter cards. 

Then I just used my Xacto blade to cut. You do not have to cut all the way down-- I just used the length of the blade. 

I pinched it back to make sure the slit was open and deep enough. 

Since we are working on -ar words, that's what I made!

Then I bagged them up and yes! I numbered the letter cards. Had to-- OCD doesn't allow me to not number them! Now they are ready to roll out for Monday! 

Pretty easy and it took me about an hour to cut and get letter cards done. You can use these for any word making set. I am thinking about making a longer version for sentences but not sure how they would all fit at a center table! 

We will be making bunny baskets this week and I love that project! They come out so cute and it's simple! I'll try to post that for you tomorrow! 

Don't forget out The Primary Chalkboard's Picture Your Selfie in Vegas giveaway we have going on! 

It's got some SWEET prizes! I'd like to win but can't. You can get my Vegas Trip Tip and card number from my FB page.  Then head over to the Primary Chalkboard and enter (once you hop through and gather the tips and numbers) for your chance to win! 

Hope you all have a great week!