2013 Classroom Starter CD

Do you feel overwhelmed and are not sure where to start?

Are you in need of the Fairy Godmother and her magic wand or Tinkerbell and her fairy dust? 

This CD is packed full of fairy dust that can be sprinkled around your classroom and give you a little bit of that magic that you are looking for.

Have everything you need to get a new classroom up and running with ease.

CD includes

Assessment Tools

Checklist and Portfolio Assessment Tools

Building Alphabetic Knowledge

Group Calendar

Classroom Design Workbook

Open Ended Question Posters

Teachers Classroom Management Packet

If you bought all of these items individually it would cost $34.50

Buy Now $24.00 

This is a savings of $10.50 

Making a Web

We read the story by Eric Carle The Very Busy Spider

After reading the story we had a class discussion on why do spiders build webs?

The children came up with some amazing things on why, but during the discussion a very curious child wanted to know how long does it take a spider to weave its web.

Not knowing exactly how long it takes a spider we decided to give a web a try so that we would understand how long and how hard it is for a spider to weave its web.

 First we placed the children in a large circle and the teacher demonstrated how we will cross the circle with the yarn and hand it off to another friend while still holding the yarn in our hands.

 As the web got going it became more challenging for the children to cross the circle.  so they had to crawl under to make it across.

Once all of the children and staff had a turn, they discovered that it takes the spider a long time to weave its web and that the spider needs to cross over many times to make the weaving tight enough to catch its meal.

 The following day some of the children wanted to give it a try on their own.  They decided on chairs and masking tape to hold the yarn.

 This little adventure of theirs took team work and problem solving skills to make it all come together.

In the end they did it!

DIY Table Caddy

 Make your own table caddy with an old wine carrier and some empty tin cans.

 Dress it up with some spray paint and come deco duck tape

First make sure that you have all of the glue off the cans.  If you have any glue left on the cans the paint will not dry and remain very sticky.

The best way to get the glue off is to wipe a thick layer of mayo on the area and let it sit over night.  Wipes right off.

 Spray paint the outside and inside surfaces of the wine carrier and paint the outside surface of the cans.

 Now that the paint is dry it is time to have some fun with colorful duck tape.

On the cans take a strip of duck tape that will fit around half the can.  Place the duck tape halfway on the outside top edge of the can and roll the edge down to the inside of the can.

 This will prevent any tiny finger from getting cut on the edges of the can.

 Reinforce the box by adding duck tape to the inside bottom of the box.  Make sure that all of the areas that fold up have been taped down.

 Also reinforce the bottom of the box to give it that added strength.

Use the same colorful duck tape to the edges of the wine box.  Or add your own personal touch!

 Fill the cans with the necessities for small group time or any time.

 Our caddy has twist up crayons, colored pencils, child scissors, dry markers, thin tip markers and colored sharpies.

The great thing about this caddy is that the cans come out for easy pass around and you have everything need for small group. 

I will be creating these for every small group table for next school year.

Gardening with Kids

Name one child that does not enjoy digging in the dirt and making mud pies.  So why not start a school garden.

Gardening will engage students in a dynamic learning environment.  In the garden children can observe, discover, experiment, and nurture living things.  Gardens are a living laboratory where children will learn from real life experiences and where children can become active participants in the learning process.

So start your garden today.

Parents are even willing to leaned a helping hand to bring a living classroom to their children

All of the children wanted to help prepare the ground

They could not wait to put the plants in the ground

Dirty hands, no big deal 

Now we just need to wait for it to grow

The garden would not be complete without naming it.

Drum roll.....

The garden is now called the Yummy Garden 

Now it time to plant the butterfly garden

Encouraging Rich Discussion

Teachers need to ask questions to improve learning.   Asking questions that engage children to freely express their knowledge, ideas and feelings.

Actively-Seeking-Knowledge card (A.S.K. Cards) provide teachers, aides and parent volunteers with the tools to do just that.  These cards will help adults in the classroom ask engaging questions that will:

-  Improve language skills

-  Encourage learning

-  Promote thinking

-  Expand language

-  Improve reasoning ability

-  Creativity

-  Build knowledge

-  Promote growth

Rich discussions doesn't just happen, but it will happen when you use these A.S.K. cards.  These cards can be easy placed in your small group work trays so that when adults are sitting with children they have the tools need to ask those questions that will lead to rich discussions every time.

 I have these cards placed in every small group tray.  This ensures that no matter who is sitting with the children at the table they will be able to encourage a full meaningful conversation with the children.

My parent volunteers especially like these A.S.K. cards because they feel that they are better prepared to involve themselves in the learning process. 

Questions that can be found on the cards are as follows

Open Ended Questions

How and Why Questions

Encourage Problem Solving

Encourage Prediction

Encouraging Classifying - Comparing

Questions to Foster Creative Thinking

You can find these Actively -Seeking- Knowledge Cards at CM School Supply.

Muffins for Mom Celebration

Help your little ones celebrate that special lady in their lives, with a muffins for mom celebration.  Moms can come to school with their little ones and enjoy a muffin breakfast just for them.  Specially made by their little ones.  This special day can be held the Friday before Mothers Day.

Making invitations for that special lady

Inside of invitation

Picture for mom

Making baskets for the muffins.

Get all the templates, inserts and photo tutorial in this Muffins for Moms Packet.

 Teachers Pay Teachers

Teachers Notebook

Pocket Chart for Language and Math CD

Building Literacy with Interactive Stories

Pocket chart stories are a wonderful way to get your students actively involved in the story telling process.  When using pocket chart stories it helps to bring the stories alive and capture the attention of the students.  Students are able to participate in a hands-on way as children are able to move the text around to create different versions of the same story.

Pocket charts help to build:

·       Literacy skills

·       Grammar skills

·       A print-rich learning environment

·       Understanding that print carries meaning

·       Motivation to learn about reading

·       Math skills

Add to the interest by adding the children’s names to the pocket chart stories.  Children enjoy hearing and seeing their names in print.  All children get the biggest kick and laugh out of hear their name and their friend’s names being used in story form.

Get all of my pocket chart stories and math building skills on one convent CD.  Your students will enjoy these stories and math activities time and time again.   

CD includes

Pocket Chart Stories

Pocket Chart Stories Using Children's Names

More Pocket Chart Stories Using Children's Names

Transportation Pocket Chart Stories

Building Math Skills with Pocket Chart (Fall Theme)

Building Math Skills with Pocket Charts (Christmas Theme)

Say It, Count It, Write It Math Mats

If you bought all of these items individually it would cost you $18.00

Buy Now for $12.5o 

This is a saving of $5.50