Tweaking the Wheel

Alphabet Train Table in the Works and Awesome Deal From the Lakeshore Learning Sale!

2012-07-17T15:46:00.002-07:00

I finally was able to snag the Alphabet Train from Lakeshore Learning, that I have been coveting for so long, at an AMAZING price! It includes an engine plus 26 colorful, wooden train cars each with a letter on it and a toy that fits in it that starts with that letter. It's on clearance for $39.98 which is half of the original price!

I have several planned activities for this train set. I plan to let the kids play with the train cars as a choice time activity initially. I'm hoping kids will recognize letters that they know, look for the letters in their names, or the letters in their peers names. I also hope some will try to put the train in order from A to Z. During small group time I will allow the kids to use the little toys and try to use their phonics skills to figure out which letter goes where. I also want to use the little toys to change out the toys I have in the Lakeshore Learning Alphabet Mystery Box. This is a favorite game in my class, but it becomes too easy after awhile with the same items. It doesn't look like there are too many repeats between the 2 items which is awesome. So I am excited to have more little toys to change it up!

I plan to use the Alphabet Train with the Lillabo train tracks from Ikea which are a great buy at $9.99. Now that I am moving and will have my own garage to work on projects and a place to spray paint my issue is how do I fix my train table. I have had a Brio Train Table sitting in my storage unit for almost 2 years now just waiting for me to fix it up! It needs the plastic trim replaced, but other than that it is in amazing condition considering I paid $5 for it. It's all cracked and has rough edges so it must go! It can't be that hard, but honestly I don't even know how to begin. Have you ever replaced the plastic trimming on wood or particle board furniture before??? Any ideas???

Otherwise I am just going to have to use this Ikea Lekplats rug which is only $14.99 instead...

Lakeshore Learning is Having a Sale!

2012-07-16T00:00:00.000-07:00

Lakeshore Learning, my favorite teaching supply company, is having an amazing sale right now! Go fast, seriously! Many awesome items are on sale for 20% off plus if you spend $79 or more shipping is free. What they aren't advertising is that they dropped the price recently of some of their sale/clearance items! If you haven't figured out already, I love a good sale! Especially when it is on things that I have been wanting but won't let myself splurge on. Last night I picked up 3 things that I have been wanting for my classroom from the sale. It took everything in me not to buy more to get the free shipping, but I'm moving in a week and Mr. B school is already complaining about the amount of teaching stuff I have currently...

Anyways back to the sale! I just ordered

The Lakeshore Learning Alphabet Train for half price at $39.98. I'll be making a post later about my plans for the Brio Train Table I scored at a garage sale.
Hook and Link Alphabet Letters for $3.18/each in both uppercase and lowercase to use with my felt board when we read the story Chicka Chicka Boom Boom and also for uppercase/lowercase letter matching

I can't wait to use my new items this fall!

My Owl Classroom Theme 2011-2012: Part 3 - Utility Cabinet Transformation

2012-07-09T17:48:00.002-07:00

If you haven't read parts 1 and 2 of my owl classroom theme, then go do it! This post is dedicated solely to this ~~boring~~ lovely gem used to house art supplies and paper that I was required to have in my classroom. I decided since it was within the kids reach that I should take full advantage of its magnetic surface and try to make it a fun place for kids to play with magnetic letters.

I was inspired by this post on Pinterest based on one of my students' favorite songs, Who Let the Letters Out, by Dr. Jean. However, I knew that it needed to be tweaked to fit into my owl theme and to match my color scheme of orange and teal. I simply laminated and cut vibrant colored poster board purchased at Hobby Lobby or Michael's to make the doghouse. Then I decorated it with the large Lakeshore Learning Magnetic Letters and an owl from a Carson Dellosa CD-151013 Owl Notepad. To make the speech bubble I used miscellaneous things I had in my classroom - an old poster and some scrapbooking sticker letters. This held up all year and is in great condition to use for next year :)

What do you do to disguise unattractive furniture in your classroom?

My Owl Classroom Theme 2011-2012: Part 2 - Bulletin Boards

2012-07-09T17:25:00.001-07:00

If you haven't already read part 1 of my Owl Classroom Theme post, go here and do it first! This part is solely devoted to my Owl themed bulletin boards

So last year I wanted my main bulletin board to really stand out! I decided to cover it in bright orange fabric. Then I used a plain bright pink border that I randomly was given by another teacher when she left the field. I covered it with orange dot stickers to imitate the cover of one of my favorite 4K books, Chicka Chicka Boom Boom. This is my best bulletin that I have ever created. I absolutely loved it! So much so, that it stayed up all year round.

Supplies used to make this board:

Cheap orange fabric from Walmart $1/yard. I love a good dollar deal. "A dollar makes me hollar!"
TREND ENTERPRISES T-91256 TRIMMER DEEP PINK
Avery Orange Removable Color Coding Labels 5465, 3/4" Round to accent the border and make it look like the book cover
Carson Dellosa CD-110137 31"x 28.5"Owl Bulletin Board Set
Carson Dellosa CD-151013 Owl Notepad
CREATIVE TEACHING PRESS CTP1194 POPPIN PATTERNS DESIGNER LETTERS - these letters wouldn't have been my first choice but I had no budget last year so I decided to make due with what I already had whenever possible. Yes, I did run out of lowercase o's so I used uppercase and the number zero.
Photos - I had students stand on a stool in front of our Welcome to 4K Bulletin (before posting 1st day pictures) and hold up a chalkboard that had there name written on it by me. It turned out so incredibly cute! I used these photos for numerous things throughout the year, like 4K Memory and locker picture tags (for those who couldn't recognize their written name) because they had the students name and picture. So simple and cute!

This bulletin was pretty lame and this is a picture of it before it was done. You do get an interesting shot of the listening center and part of the dramatic play area of my room. Anyways, the bulletin had the Carson Dellosa owl notepad owls with each "teacher's" name and then a photo of the teacher next to the owl holding their name written on a chalkboard just like the kids on their bulletin. And by "teacher's" I mean all of the support services that pop in and support a special needs/ ELL class of 4 year olds, like Speech, OT, PT, audiology, ELL, Special Ed teacher and aids, etc. I swear my classroom needed a revolving door for the number of people that came in and out during any given day...

Now that you've seen my best bulletin board, I want to hear about yours! What was the best bulletin that you came up with?

My Owl Classroom Theme 2011-2012: Part 1 - The Hallway

2012-07-09T16:11:00.002-07:00

Since I was assigned to teach yet another new grade level in a new school, I decided I needed a new classroom theme to go with it because I was tired of penguins. I wanted something new and different so I chose an owl classroom theme for my 2011-2012 classroom theme. I loved it! It was so different and cute. My colors were teal and orange. They were inspired by the lovely orange accent wall in my classroom. What goes better with orange than teal?! I called my AM class the Blue Owls (teal) and my PM class the Orange Owls. Throughout my room I used the plain brown and green Carson and Dellosa owls that were the only owl decor I could find at the time. Now owls are EVERYWHERE! Yea that's right, I'm saying I'm a trendsetter. I'm such a hipster teacher. No, not even close. Really though, I am seeing them in every teaching supply catalog and all over my beloved Pinterest. This year's owl decor is also so much more colorful and cheery! I have a board on Pinterest solely devoted to my owl classroom theme, but I must say I think my owl classroom is the cutest one I have seen to date. I might be just slightly biased...

Hope you enjoy Part 1 of the tour of my owl themed 4K classroom from the 2011-2012 year! Stay tuned, I to post my penguin themed kindergarten classroom from 2010-2011.

Since I had two separated groups of kids sharing lockers, I needed a way to label my lockers to distinguish AM owls from PM owls. Hence, my colorcoded Teal (blue) and Orange Owl lockertags. I wanted to use a cute Carson Dellosa notepad, like I did when I taught kindergarten, but they only had brown owls at the time. So I simply went to google images and found a cute owl available in teal and orange to use to make my own. So simple and cheap! I printed 2 per page on white card stock on a colored printer using my favorite 4 year old friendly teacher font, ABCPrint, to write each child's name nice and clearly. I then cut each paper in half with my Handy Dandy Paper Trimmer and laminated them before taping them to the lockers. So easy!

By the way, the new colorful Carson Dellosa owls are even cuter! So if I stick with the owl theme I could do what I originally wanted to do, but I would still have to buy a bunch of different packages to have enough of 2 colors. However, Amazon is including many of the Carson Dellosa owl stuff in their buy 4 get 1 free promotion and with prime shipping is free! I love this promo!

This was my hallway display above our lockers. Yes you read that correctly I did not change it all year. It was originally designed to get people talking about our new grade level 4K! We made it at the beginning of the year and it was so difficult to hang up that I just let it stay all year. People constantly stopped to admire it as they visited my school throughout the year. I loved that it was cute and simple! I was inspired by this lovely craft on Pinterest. I love how each kiddo placed their pupils in a different spot! I also love seeing their beginning of the year attempt at writing their names at the bottom. When I took them down at the end of the year it really reminded me of the progress my little 4 year olds made this year! 4K truly is a hoot!

So what do you use for your lockertags/coat hook tags???

Tutorial: Angry Birds Pig Ball for $1

2012-07-05T15:26:00.003-07:00

When deciding to do Angry Birds Live in my classroom I struggled to find enough of these green pig balls, so I decided to take matters into my own hands and try to make one! I was inspired by the amazing Angry Birds balls in this post, but I am lazy and that seemed far too expensive for something that will literally roll around in dirt. So I decided to buy a ball at Dollar Tree, grab a Sharpie and a stencil, and try my best to make it look like a pig. This was a surprisingly easy thing to do and I kind of regret buying the 2 I did at Walmart for $8.97/each. My students didn't seem to notice the difference between the 2 store bought ones and the one I made. Below is a simple tutorial to make your own pig ball for about $1!

Angry Birds Pig Ball Directions:

Buy a green ball like this at Dollar Tree (it's about 5-6 inches)
Place the ball on a bowl or something to keep it stable and from rolling when drawing on it. I used an empty applesauce cup from my classroom recyclables.
Grab a black Sharpie and use Google Images to find a picture of the Angry Bird character you want to create.
Find a stencil like this or something similar to trace for the basic shapes.
Recreate the image with your sharpie onto the ball.

Talk about Easy Peasy! So far the ball has had plenty of indoor and outdoor use and has held up well and the image does not seem to be coming off...

What Angry Birds activities have you done in your classroom?

Assessing Gross Motor Skills by Playing Angry Birds Live

2012-07-05T14:39:00.001-07:00

I was inspired by several Angry Birds posts on Pinterest to do something fun at the end of the year in my classroom. Check out my inspiration here! I decided to assess gross motor skills for the end of the year by making Angry Birds Live in my classroom. I had many reasons for choosing Angry Birds Live: I had to pack up my classroom so I had tons of boxes laying around, I wanted a fun way to assess their ability to throw a ball at a target, my students love Angry Birds, and well it just looked fun!

Preparation

Gather a variety of boxes to set the balls onto. We used boxes that various food items are delivered to the school cafeteria in - cereal, sporks, ketchup, juice, etc.
Save recyclables such as Kleenex boxes and empty juice or applesauce cups to set balls on and keep from rolling
Buy or make your bird and pig balls! Check out my tutorial here on how to make your own Pig Ball
Set up a safe area in your room or outdoors to have the boxes (it was too windy most days for us to do this outside). Make sure that there is nothing breakable nearby.
Tape a line for students to throw from
Play Angry Birds theme song from YouTube and let the kids have a ball!

When we started doing this I ran the show. Once I had my assessments done and thought the kids fully understood the rules then I let the kids reset up the boxes and balls. I was amazed with the different structures some of my kiddos came up with for stacking the boxes and balls. This activity is surely a keeper for the end of the year!

First Tutorial: "Pete the Cat - I Love My _____ Shoes" Paper Bag Puppet

2012-07-05T13:56:00.000-07:00

So I was inspired by this post pinned all over Pinterest, but it was lacking the printable pieces! Bummer! I ran to Target hoping to buy these blue lunch bags and to my surprise I actually found them. They were in the paper products aisle for $2.39 for 40 bags. So I bought 2 sets. I then searched the internet for far too long, but eventually found this printable PDF to use for the Pete pieces. Yes, you have to sign up for an account if you don't already have one to access the PDF. I ended up using the 2 legs, head, tails, eyes, and shoes. I planned to recreate my own, but really why recreate the wheel! This one is cute enough as is, plus the extra legs really aren't that bad because my 4 year olds really struggle with cutting and some kids decided to get creative and give Pete 2 arms at the sides with extra legs. The kids loved being able to choose the color of Pete's shoes. For my classes red, white, and pink were the favorite shoe colors!

Check out my Pinterest Board dedicated to Pete the Cat here!

Step by Step Tutorial under cut

Preparation:

Buy Blue Paper Bags at Target
Print PDF as your master template
Copy pages 5 and 6 of the PDF on navy blue construction paper for Pete's body (yes you will have a body and 2 extra legs that you don't need)
Copy page 2 of the PDF on yellow paper for Pete's eyes
Copy page 3 on a variety of colors of construction paper
Cut apart the eyes and shoes into groups of 2 to save time when making with the kiddos
Gather other supplies - scissors, glue sticks, pencils for writing names, hole punch, black scrap paper, white scrap paper

Directions:

Give each kiddo the blue body parts to cut out
Then give each student a paper bag to glue the pieces onto. The head will go onto the bottom of the bag, The two legs at the top. The tail goes on the side. Make sure they put their name somewhere on the bag!
Give each kiddo 2 shoes in the color of his/her choice to cut out/decorate and glue to the bag.
Then give each kid 2 yellow eyes to cut out and glue on Pete's face
Let your students hole punch black paper to make the pupils for Pete's eyes. Glue at the tops of the yellow eyes. They can also cut small strips of black paper for whiskers if you so desire...
Give students white scrap paper to cut triangles for Pete's nose
Retell the story and go around the class having each kid sing "I love my ______ shoes."

Tips:

Do this activity in small groups, NOT whole group
If you have parent volunteers who love to help with art projects bring them in :)
The second time I made this with students I did a little tweaking with the master by making a new master combining just the pieces I needed of pages 5 and 6 - so the head, 2 legs, and tail. Much less confusing for me and the kiddos and less wasted paper.
You can cut out triangle noses, punch black circles, make whiskers, etc. all in advance if you want to make it go quicker. Or better yet have a few kiddos do it the day before!
The tails are hard to cut out so copy extras!

Backdating and Pinspiration...

2012-07-05T09:16:00.002-07:00

So I have an unexpected 5 day weekend due to a crazy heat wave and working at a school with no air conditioning. I keep telling myself I want to get back into blogging, but for whatever reason I haven't done it. My new goal is to try to blog 3-4 times a week because for me everyday just isn't realistic. I am also debating whether or not to back date entries because I have so many things that I have taken pictures of in the past that I would like to refer back to and share with others. Do you backdate entries?

I just set up a twitter just for this blog. I don't personally tweet, but I do pin like a mad woman. Pinterest is why I want to start blogging again. I find so many great ideas there and I often tweak them a little when I replicate them to make them work for me. I also get a lot of inspiration off of Pinterest, or shall we say pinspiration. Anyways I love to share ideas with others so I figure I should share my tweaks to inspire others...

Follow me on Pinterest to see what inspires me!

https://pinterest.com/kators/

So why am I blogging now after all of this time off?!

2012-04-23T15:09:00.001-07:00

I used to keep a Livejournal about a decade ago where I recorded all sorts of random stuff. Mostly I blogged about life in college, starting grad school, and clothes. I lost interest in that sometime around the time I finished grad school and started working and I deleted it shortly thereafter. Once I went back to school to become a teacher I started finding amazing teaching ideas online in other teacher's blogs. I have come across so many awesome teaching blogs over the years, but I have never really put forth the effort to do one myself. Plus I struggled to come up with a name. Today a name finally came to me so here it goes...

I am known for constantly finding someone else's idea on the internet and then tweaking it just a little to make it ~~better~~ different. I tweak for a million reasons: to save money, to use what I already have, to make something easier (for my students or me), to make something more challenging (for my students), to meet the various learning needs of my students, or to simply make it more visually appealing. Whenever possible I will credit back to the original source if I can find it... If you think you are the original source to something that I posted please let me know and I will give you the proper credit. Thanks!

Product Review: Lakeshore Learning Frogs on a Log Counting Kit

2012-03-04T17:36:00.000-08:00

I am in an Early Childhood graduate certificate program at a local university which focuses on math. Our amazing professors arranged for a Lakeshore Learning representative to come into our classroom and let us play with a bunch of early childhood products. We brainstormed different ways to use the products to work on early math skills. At the end of class we each got to pick something out to take back to our classrooms. I ended up with the Lakeshore Learning Frogs on a Log Counting Kit and I could not be any happier! We were all so thankful! It felt like Christmas for teachers :)

So far I am in LOVE with this counting kit. Although it's hard to tell from the picture there are several different species of frogs in the kit and each frog has the species on the bottom of it. There are so many different things we have used them for so far - patterning, counting sets, number identification, one to one correspondence, sorting colors, sorting species, comparing numbers, basic story/CGI problems, and best of all singing 5 Green and Speckled Frogs. I have the 5 log and 5 of the green frogs sitting in my teaching easel at all times for whenever someone asks to sing "5 Green and Speckled Frogs." For the longest time I wanted to purchase this "Speckled Frogs on Log" set to go along with the song, but now I have something that works just as go for free! Thank you Lakeshore Learning! My students and I really love this counting kit! I would LOVE to review more products :)

Do you have any other uses for this product?

Product Review: Hoot Owl Hoot

2012-02-19T16:06:00.000-08:00

I am always looking for more ways to encourage cooperative learning in my 4K classroom. I ordered the game Hoot Owl Hoot by Peaceable Kingdom mainly because it had good reviews and it fit my classroom's owl theme.

The object of the game is for all of the kids playing to work together to get the owls home to the nest safely before the sun rises. Students take turns drawing cards and then moving any owl they chose to the color on the card. If they draw a sun card they must move the little square at the top one spot closer towards the sun.

I seriously had no idea how much my students would love this game and continue to be challenged by it each time they played the game together. At first the students needed an adult with them whenever playing to remind them that they don't have their own owl and that they are working together to get all of the owls to the nest before the sun rises. They also needed to start with only 3 owls until kids started picking up on strategies to win. Then we encouraged them to slowly add more owls to the game. This game is great because once they understand the rules they can pretty much play independently. There is no counting or number recognition so almost all of my 4 year old students are able to feel successful because they move using color matching.

Not all of the kids in my classes have picked up on strategies for winning, but those who have have tried to encourage their peers which owl to move to get home quicker. When they win they get so excited and hug each other or give high fives and fist bumps. There isn't one winner, everyone wins and everyone feels good at the end. If they don't win, they usually are optimistic about trying again. Whenever possible I try to join for the end of their game and if they didn't win I guide them to brainstorm a strategy or sometimes encourage them to try the game with fewer owls if they were being too ambitious with all 6 owls on the board. This is hands down the best cooperative learning game I have come across and a favorite among the majority of the kids in my classroom! It's a hoot!

What sort of cooperative learning activities do you do with your students?

Strawberry Goat Cheese Bruschetta... Delicious!

2011-08-23T12:28:00.002-07:00

So this summer I've become obsessed with Pinterest and found this amazing recipe worth sharing! I made it for Mr. B School and for my lovely new team of teachers last week. Everyone raved about it so I figured I should share it! It's a new twist on bruschetta and just like the classic version tastes light and refreshing. The recipe is adapted from a Whole Foods recipe

Strawberry Goat Cheese Bruschetta

12 slices of baguette (approx 1/2 inch thick)
1 cup strawberries, diced
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
4 ounces goat cheese
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
4-5 fresh basil leaves, chiffonade (thin, ribbon-like slices)
Freshly ground black pepper

Preheat oven to 400. Brush the baguette slices with olive oil and bake for 5 minutes. In a small bowl coat strawberries with the balsamic vinegar, and let stand for 15-20 minutes. Spread the baguette slices with goat cheese and then bake for another 5 minutes. Add a small drizzle of olive oil and freshly ground pepper on each slice. Top with strawberries and a chiffonade (thin, ribbon-like slices) of basil.

I like it warm and I think the balsamic is optional because I'm not a huge fan. Regardless try this and you won't regret it!

Summer To Dones...

2011-08-23T11:57:00.000-07:00

This was a crazy busy summer, as per usual. I...

- taught 6 weeks of k-ready summer school aka alphabet boot camp to prep kiddos for kindergarten
- packed up my beloved kindergarten classroom to move to my amazing new school to start a new adventure in teaching
- made a new friend
- went to Michigan to visit my BFF and perform my godmotherly duties at her son's christening
- completed 2 graduate courses
- was accepted into an awesome free graduate early childhood program
- unpacked my new amazing classroom which felt like both Christmas and Hell at the same time
- escaped to the Bahamas with Mr. B School...

Adorable private laguna at our resort