Monday Make-It - August 11

Well, another week has flown by - getting that much closer to my month off.  I have been busy making things for my room, so I am linking up with Tara.  I love Monday Make-It, it keeps me creative and inspired.

I take a lot of pictures when I go to Disneyland.  So since my classroom is Disney theme this year - I decided to make a memory game with some of the pictures.

This was super easy to do.  I printed doubles of each picture at 4 x 6, then put a piece of 4 x 6 scrapbook paper on the back. This set has the black polka dots on the back.  Laminate the photos and you have a great memory game for free centers.  

I am going to make one set with just the princesses using a different scrapbook paper, so they don't get mixed up.  I can add more picture cards to each group, when I feel my little ones are ready for it.

 A set with pictures of the kids would be a great beginning of the year center. 

This center was inspired by Jennifer at First Grade Blue Skies.  I have used the little photo albums before in my classroom, but it got me all inspired with the possibilities.  I made my own set of letter printing practice flashcards using a Disney theme, of course.

I made a set of uppercase and lowercase letters, then put them into two albums.  This way, I can have two students at a time in the center, then they can switch the albums

My head is swimming with different ideas for these albums.  

You can find it HERE

I, finally, finished my ABC small books - it was a year in the making.  My little ones did the books last year, but I needed to finish putting them together in a packet.  There are 24 books, because X, Y and Z are in one book.  My kids loved them.

You can find it  HERE

Have a great week and thanks for stopping by.  If you go back to work this week, I wish you calm days.

Five for Friday - July 18

It is Friday, ok, maybe Saturday morning, but woo hoo!!!!  This week was easier than last week - so I think it was a success.  I am linking with Kacey this week.

I, finally, took a picture of the Mickey board with the kids' pictures added.  We left some blank Mickeys, too.  I think this board turned out amazing for the first couple weeks of school.  I'm going to hate taking it down, but it needs to be replaced with student work.  I will leave the rosettes and just take down the Mickey heads.

I re-did my Center boards.  I made new leis, because I gave each of my babes' one at the end of the year.  I found the cutest center clip art from Krista Walden.  Since, I have an autistic child this year - I needed to make everything with visuals, plus it is just good practice.  I think she has about 6 or 7 different files, I probably should have bought the whole bundle.

This is the easiest way for me to control centers with my little people.  If the leis are gone, then they can't go to that center.  There is never any fighting.  You could always use plain ribbon, beads or yarn to make the necklaces.

I found this great sensory activity on Pinterest, that I knew would be perfect with my class.  You cook spaghetti noodles in kool-aid and it dyes the noodles.  

One package of spaghetti noodles, divided into 3 portions.

3 packets of Kool-aid or other drink, unsweetened

5 cups of water for each portion/

Put the water in a pot, add the drink packet and boil.  When it is boiling, add one spaghetti portion and cook until tender.  Drain, rinse with cool water.  Add noodles to a ziploc bag and repeat the process.  When finished with all three portions, add 1 tablespoon of oil to the ziploc bag and squish.

Put the noodles in a bowl and let them play.  Their hands will be a little slimy, but just wash with soap.

My kids loved it, except for one.  I think it was a texture thing. 

This week, was all about the Letter "A", so we made paper art apples for their ABC books. This was their first attempt with glue and they surprised me with their glue portion control.  Ok, it was more like shocked me.  They did a great job.

A year ago, a husband of  one of our Kinder teachers died while he was on duty.  It is sad.  She hasn't returned to work yet.  An apple tree was donated to the Kinder playground and we planted it.  We have loved and watered the tree.  It is a daily reminder to us, how special life is.

Today, when we watered the tree - we found 5 apples.  Yup, 5 of them.  The Kinder teachers were excited and sad at the same time.  A few of us shed tears.  Yes, it is only an apple tree -

 but it is a very special apple tree to us.