Celebrating Reading Week

Yesterday we read The Cat and The Hat by Dr. Seuss to celebrate his birthday.

First and Kinder Blue Skies has these amazing directed drawings and she has this easy one for a cat with a hat.  I am not an excellent drawer but her directed drawings make it easy to show the kids how to draw this.  I highly recommend you check her out here.

Our stem activity for the day is to make a hat tower.  We use these little red cups and notecards that have been cut in half and we try to make the biggest tower.  Our biggest one was 11 high.  It is a great way to show why you shouldn't give up and why you need to keep going.

Dragons Love Tacos Centers

If we know one thing to be true in this world...it is Dragons love tacos.  I love reading this humorous book to my kids every May.  

I love even more when I can combine books we have read in class with centers.  This Dragon & Taco Center  can be used in a sensory bin or as a matching center.   

I am obsessed with finding as many ways as possible to get a sensory bin in my literacy centers.  For this one I put Easter Grass into my sensory bin (the lettuce) and some tomatoes from our play food.  I then added my dragon and taco center.  The students match the letter to the picture that begins with that letter.  

This product includes dragon with taco that have uppercase letters, tacos with lower case letters and tacos with pictures from A-Z to identify beginning sounds. It comes in a color and black and white option. 

Here is another option.  Matching Uppercase Letters to Lower Case Letters.

You can check out this center and my other dragon and taco themed activities here in my TPT store.

Birthday Gift card Giveaway

 In honor of my birthday this Tuesday I am giving away a $10 Teacher Pay Teachers gift card.  Entering is easy.  Just comment below with what's your favorite thing to teach in the spring. I will randomly pick a winner at 12 pm (CT) on April 6th which happens to be the first day of the Teacher Pay Teachers site wide spring sale.  My store is 20% off and you can get up to 25% off site wide with the promo code FORYOU21.  

My favorite thing to teach is a Mo Willems Author Study and my favorite book is Edwina the Dinosaur who Didn't Know She was Extinct.  My kids always love it and giggle as I read it aloud. I've created a book companion of 5 activities that go along with the book.  You can check it out here in my store.

Congratulations to Michelle for winning the $10 gift card.

Science Experiment: Lava Lamp

I love an easy science experiment that includes supplies I already have and get a great reaction from my students.  Here is one of them.

Materials Needed:

A jar or clear cup

Oil

Water

food coloring

alka seltzer tablet

Instructions:

1.  Fill a container 1/2 to 3/4 full with oil.  I used vegetable oil but you can also use baby oil if you want the oil to be clear.

2.  Fill the rest of the container with water.

3.  Add 3-5 drops of food coloring to the jar.  Observe how the food coloring stops at the bottom of the oil but doesn't mix with it and then drops to the water where it mixes with the water and changes the color.

4.  Break up the alka seltzer into 1/4 or 1/2 pieces and drop into the jar.  Observe.  When the bubbling stops add another alka seltzer tablet.  Repeat as much as you want.

The science behind it:

Oil and water don't mix.  The oil will stay on top of the water.  The Alka-Seltzer tablet reacts with the water to make carbon dioxide gas.  These bubbles attach to the colored water and cause them to float to the top.  When the bubbles pop they float back to the bottom.  

Valentine Centers

I wanted to share 2 Valentine Themed centers that I use in my classroom.  The first is a sensory bin sight word hunt.  I created some hearts in powerpoint and wrote our latest 10 sight words on them.  I then hid them in a bin of flower petals that I purchased from the dollar store.

The second activity was an addition to my writing center.  This simple activity comes from Teaching Little Learners and you can find it here for free.  This activity allowed my students to draw 3 things they love and then label it.

Growing your Classroom Library

 5 years ago I made the switch from teaching 4th grade to Kindergarten.  I packed up my classroom library full of chapter books and non fiction books and stored them in boxes where they have sat till this summer when I started selling them off online.  Which got me to thinking about the hundreds and hundreds of dollars I spent on growing my library.  

5 years ago I took the 10 Kindergarten appropriate books I had from my collection and started to grow my classroom library for much cheaper.  I maybe spent $25 total on my Kindergarten library...$50 tops.  So how did I do it for such a cheap amount the second time?  Here are my 7 tips:

 

 

1.     Check out Garage Sales.  

        There are many teachers that have garage sales after they retire and are selling off their books.  Families with children are another great stop. You can often find books for 25 or 50 cents.

 

2.     Check out Online Garage Sales via Facebook

I love this option because I don’t need to leave my house.  About once a week someone is selling books for pretty cheap.  I am a member of teacher garage sale group that has some good finds of other teacher items too.  I am also a member of online garage sales in the town I live in and our neighboring towns to give me a few more options.

 

 

3.      Visit Library Book Sales

A couple times of a year libraries tend to have sales where they sell off used books for under $1.  If your town library doesn’t have one check other libraries.  I love to get hardcover books here because they tend to last longer.  Check out your local library's website for details.

 

4.     Become friends with retiring teachers

After my first couple of years I became friends with teachers that were in their last year of teaching.  On several occasions they just gave me boxes of books they didn’t want to save.  I also had teachers that changed grade levels that gave me some of their books.  This is a great free way to get books.

 

5.     Use Scholastic Book Orders in your classroom

            Here is a great way to get free and cheap new books for your room and a great way to get books  into your student's homes.  When parents purchase books through your classroom flyer, you earn bonus points to spend on books for your class library. The more parents order, the more free books you receive. The flyer even features a $1 book each month.  You can also ask Parents to donate books through Scholastic’s wish list.

 

6.     Visit used bookstores like Half Price Books

This is not the cheapest way to buy books, but it is an easy way to get titles you may need for cheaper prices.  I like this option because their books are organized, and it is easy to see if they have the title you are looking for.  I often used this option when I need a picture book or some chapter books for guided reading.  They also have a clearance section and sometimes you can find some good treasures there.  As a bonus, teachers get 10% off.  Half Price Books will also consider donation requests for educators.  You can find the form here.

7.    Simply Ask.

        Sometimes it pays to just ask. Your friends may have books at home they would be happy to donate. Be sure to be specific of what grade level you are looking for.   Be sure to emphasize that they should be gently used.   

What are some other ways you acquire books for your classroom library?  Leave your suggestions below.

Simple Science Color Experiment

I love this science experiment because it combines art and science.  In this experiment will explore a chemical reaction and as a bonus they get to explore color mixing.

Materials Needed:

A Foil Tray or any shallow container

Baking Soda

White Vinegar

Food Coloring

Eye Droppers or Pipettes

Directions:

1. Fill each foil tray with baking soda.  You want to make sure the whole bottom of the tray is covered.

2. Fill small cups with vinegar and a couple of drops food coloring .

3. Then pass out the tray and the cups of colored vinegar and give each child an eye dropper and let them explore and observe.  I always tell the children to go slow so that they can observe what is happening.

4. I find the children will happily do this for 20-25 minutes.  I always stop them when the tray starts to have more vinegar than baking soda.