Teacher Finds!

It's all my fault. You can blame me. I put my snow boots away on Monday and NOW look what came back!

Those are big fluffy flakes of snow coming down!

Grrrr.

As I write this it has turned mostly to rain, and nothing is sticking outside. But still. Some Spring Break. sigh

Enough on the weather. I link with Doodle Bugs Teaching today to share something I did for spring break... I went shopping! Check out what I found at both Dollarama (yep, I crossed the border) and IKEA. The IKEA items you will only find at IKEA, I think. But if you don't have a Dollarama nearby, I bet many similar items are in your local Dollar Store or Five Below.  If nothing else, reading today might just give you some new ideas on how to use common items. Buying new classroom stuff to spice up the last quarter of the year for not a lot of money makes my teacher heart happy, and will make my kiddos happy, too, when they get back from break. And I do have to admit, today's Five for Friday is more of a Quick Ten for Friday– there's lots you don't want to miss!

1.  I picked up a few cheap bunches of silk flowers.

They were $1.50 each, I think. The kids will enjoy a spring theme in their small world play.  I cut them up so there are little flowers to scatter about on the "green grass," and the stems and leaves can be turned into trees with a little plasticine to hold them up. I found these big leaves that will make trees and habitats, too. Plasticine bricks were also at the Dollarama– rather good sized bricks of one color, as opposed to packs that hold several colors, and which the kids muck together to make brown anyway. 

    

2.  These little shells will be fun in small world, loose parts, and our counting jars. I will use the cute jars for something else.

   

3.  I LOVE these letters, especially the small ones in the tray. 

There are four of each letter and they were only four dollars. I would have gotten more, but they only had two trays left. Letters are always handy for letter and word learning, but I think I'm going to put them out in loose parts play, too.

4.  More for small world play. 

The cutest little character erasers. Look! The pandas have already escaped from their neat plastic test tube jars... something else I will put to further use later.

5.   Google eye magnets? Are you kidding me.

I can see these popping up on the white board, the kids lap boards, lots of places. The pack was just $1.25.  It always feels like, somebody's watching me...

6.   How fun are THESE! 

Colorful emoji tacks. They belong on a special bulletin board display... which I have yet to make up– snort. But I Will! 

7.   I sure hope these are not just a Dollarama thing because I'm going to regret not getting more.

Very handy and inexpensive gadget bin boxes to keep bitsy bits in. One has adjustable compartment sizes, too– loose parts all the way. And only three bucks. Whoot! 

8.   I don't know about you, but I need lots of attractive trays and bins to use when I put out all these little parts, whether they are for small world or loose part play. 

I have round compartmentalized snack dip trays to use on our round tables. They are easy to find for just a dollar at the dollar store. However, we have two rectangular tables, too, and the round trays take up too much room. These long trays and the compartment bin trios were exactly what I was looking for. They will work well when lined up right down the center of the tables.

9.   Now for a couple IKEA items. Our green grass bases in small world play comes from this throw rug from Ikea. I didn't buy it on this week's trip, but I share it here because I saw they still have them and took a snapshot. Isn't it a lovely green grass color? And the knapp height is grasslike, too.

I cut the big piece into six pieces, making each about 10 x 15 inches, and less than two dollars a piece. And the back is really neat and easy to cut in straight lines. Even with lots of kid play they have not frayed at all. 

Here is a piece in action. 

10.  And this last little share I am really excited about. I know I have seen these at IKEA before, but just never thought about them. 

Note the size– 8.5 x 11. The exact size of a sheet of plain copy paper. My kiddos use this paper the most when creating freestyle in the Light Bulb Lab. Their creations will fit perfectly in these frames. I think I am going to find a place to hang two to highlight the "Artists of the Week." This little gallery won't be juried and everyone will get a chance to put things in, but it will be a little nudge for the kidpeople to do their personal best work, and give them incentive to look with a reflective eye at what their best work is. Teacher Happy!

AND I took off the backs and plexi on six of the frames and spray painted them black. (IKEA might very well sell them in black, but they didn't have any the day we were there.) 

These I'm going to use as simple empty frames. When put them out on the table top as part of loose play it defines the space nicely for kids and pushes them to design more in the space. The plexi pieces from the frames will be handy for some other project, knowing me. 

And BEST of all these frames are just THREE bucks each! Nice wooden frames, at this large size, and only three dollars. Whoot! 

Well, there you have it. Some people get out of town to warm and sunny places– I drive over the bridge in cold and dreary weather to shop for teacher finds. So much fun.  I HIGHLY recommend checking out Dollarama if you can get into Canada, or even look for these things in the States. If they exist in the world, they'll be coming to a Dollar Store near you soon! And as most of you know, IKEA is a teacher treasure trove and worth the trip. 

Hope you found some new ideas! Don't forget to PIN so you remember later. Scoot on back to Five for Friday now and see what other ideas you can find. Thanks, Kasey, for your weekly linky.

Thanks for stopping by!

Safer Tool for Pokey Pinning Pages!

Lookee, lookee, lookee, I've got something to Show and Tell! See what I stumbled upon! A new, safer, pokey pin tool! More like a pokey pin pen, though it doesn't start out as such. In the hands of teachers and students they become a great pinning page tool, one that is much safer than the push pins which are usually used.

First of all, you need to know what pokey pin activities are. Sometimes they are called poke-a-page or pinning pages, as well as pokey pins. They are printables of pictures, words, or numbers, drawn with a dotted line. Kids usually use a push pin to poke a hole in each dot, creating a pretty cool image of micro dots of light when the paper is placed on a window– sort of like a constellation in the night sky. It is a satisfying sensory experience to poke those holes, and it provides great practice for fine muscle control, too.

Here is a pinning page from From the Pond. There is a link below.

The problem for me was that I worried about my kiddos using push pins. I have EXCELLENT classroom behaviors 100% of the time... well, 90%... well... most of the time. But even the most responsible kids in the most well run classroom can get a bit mad annoyed with each other from time to time, and all it would take would be one little impulsive swipe with a push pin in hand and Yowee! A lot of damage could be done to people and things. So only on very rare and highly supervised occasions have we done pokey pin sheets... until NOW!

They look like pens but they have tips like this–

See those little balls on the tips? They are much blunter than push pins tips, yet they go right through the paper. And they have nice handles, too– it's like holding a regular pen. You can even put a pencil grip on it for your kiddos who need it.

They are actually manicurists' tools. I think they use them to marbleize polish on nails and place little gems. Don't even ask me how I stumbled upon them. I'm not a glamour nail kinda girl– I get a pedi two or three times a year, but my shopping does take me on mysterious, meandering paths sometimes.

We use them at the table with a carpet square underneath like this.

Or on our tummies on the floor carpet like this.

Our school OT says the tummy style provides particularly good fine muscle practice. And it provides a nice movement break as well. The kids really like doing pokey pins this way.

Usually the directions for doing pinning pages say to use two pieces of paper– one with the image copied on it, and then a black piece of construction paper, paper clipped under the first. The holes of light do show up better on the window when the paper is dark. I can't stand wasting two pieces of paper, however, so sometimes I just copy the pinning picture on a regular piece of white or colored paper.

Do you know about colored paper place mats? They are colored on one side and white on the other. They have all sorts of uses for teachers... like when you do folded paper projects. They are bigger than 8.5 x 11, but when you trim them down to standard copy paper size they will go through the copier. I can copy the pinning image on the white side, and then when it is done the kids can turn it over to have black. Also, the copier ink even shows up on the dark side, so you can run it that way as well. I've used both black and dark blue with great success. With their scalloped edges I have also used them to mat kids artwork. They come in 100 page packages for about five dollars at stores like Gorden Food Service. They are useful to have around just so you can experiment with a new type of paper.

Paper placemats that are colored on one side and white on the other are
another useful type of paper to have around the classroom.

It was a very gray, cloudy day when I had the camera out, so I took this picture on our light table. You can sort of get the idea what pinning pages are all about. The "go" didn't come out too well in the picture, but they look better on a window.




And here is some more REALLY good news– these tools are quite inexpensive. Over time they have fluctuated in price on Amazon from $2 to $5 for the set. I stopped by our local beauty supply store to see if they carried similar tools, and they carry what seems to be the very same item. They cost about ten dollars though, considerably more than on Amazon. If you are in a big hurry then maybe shopping local would be a good idea, but otherwise, click on the Amazon affiliate paid link below to see them.

Pokey pin downloadables are available on TPT, of course. I especially like Mel's from From the Pond and Krissy's from Mrs. Miner's Monkey Business. You can find them by clicking below.

I hope you find these new tools useful and you and your students have lots of fun and learning with pinning pages. I would really appreciate it if you'd Pin this idea for me! I think other teachers would be especially happy to find pokey pin pens.

Now be sure to check out all the other fun Show and Tells on Forever in Fifth Grade's Linky Party. Thanks Stephanie!

Thanks for stopping by!  See you next time!

Resources and Freebies Galore!

So excited to have new resources and freebies for you today. Thanks to Kacey at Doodle Bugs Teaching for throwing her weekly Five for Friday linky party to help me share them.

1.  I'm starting with what I am super excited about doing this year with my kiddos. I think it is wonderful when the early years of education are cherished by families– kids grow and learn so much! I help families collect memories in many ways throughout the year, and this activity adds to that collection.

One poem is for the beginning of the year and one for the end. Each poem is about how tall the child is at the moment, measured by the string, and reflects on how much they grow in a year. You do the measuring in the first and last weeks of school. I wrote the poems and include a copy for kindergarten, preschool, and first grade. You'll need yarn in two colors, one for the beginning of the year, one for the end. I am making them FREE to download, so all you have to do is print on cardstock. Directions for an easy way to measure your students' height is included, too. To get this freebie simply click on the photo above. I hope you enjoy it! PLEASE leave love in the comments and PIN!

2.  For the last month or so I've been posting on start-of-year topics– from the first minutes of the first day, to anchor charts, to info cards, to getting parents involved on many levels. And there are freebies to download, too. I've made a special page to connect to all the topics and will be adding to this page as time goes on so all back to school ideas and freebies are easy to find. You can go there by clicking on the photo below. I hope this is useful to you now and in the future. Pin so you can come back as I add on, too.

3.  In one of my last posts I talked about Think-Talk Sticks and I mention them here again so you don't miss out on a useful freebie.

These little babies are going help my kidpeople think and talk during various points in our day– guided reading, writing workshop, and general discussion. I got the original idea from Two Writing Teachers and include a link so you can get their freebie. Click on the photo above to see.

4.  The folks from SightWord.com contacted me to ask if I'd share the news of their resource site with you. I checked it out and, whoa, there are many, many FREE resources here to help teachers teach sight words, phonemic awareness, and counting. Resources include video lessons and lesson tips, games to make, and word cards, too– word cards that are completely editable. You can add any words that your unique class is working on. And did I mention it's all free! There's nothing to buy and you don't need to give your name or sign-up for anything. I suggest you check them out by clicking the icon below. They are not compensating me in any way, just think they are a goodie to know about.

5.  And last, a little bit of shopping fun. If you have a Meijer close by you might want to keep your eyes open for these little babies.

Are you kidding me! Watermelon seed sticky notes! Jonathan had to hold me back before I bought them all– they are on sale! Bonus! If you teach from Lucy Calkins you'll know that small moment stories are like seeds in the juicy watermelon of life, and this is a big idea that kids really latch on to. I can hardly wait until we get to those lessons- I'm going to give each student a watermelon sticky to keep in their notebook to collect watermelon seed ideas for small moment stories. I bet everyone comes up with a few ideas just to use the notes– mwah ha ha, the teacher laughs gleefully. I love when little inexpensive notions translate into good learning for kids. These are fun and novel and the brain grooves on novelty.

Well, that's all for this Friday. Hope you are happy with your finds!

Oh, yeah, almost forgot. Click back to the linky for more great ideas.

Many Best Ways to Buy Books

Books, books, books. Seems I can never get enough. I truly am a bookworm, and with Jonathan almost as bad, we have a lot of books. I started our Little Free Library in an attempt to give away books that we just don't need anymore, but I find the number of books going out is barely larger than the number of books coming in!

If you are teacher who buys children's books– snort! What teacher doesn't???– it behooves you to know lots of ways to get your hands on best priced books. Some of these sources will be ones you use, some maybe not so much. Consider these Five for Friday as I link up with Doodle Bugs Teaching to do it.

1.  Scholastic Points You can't get better for free. If your classroom parents buy from the Scholastic Book Clubs, you'll always be able to have fresh, new books in the classroom through the point system. I show you their current back to school deal... not too shabby. I always send out the September issue even if I don't send out all the rest. And their prices are good when you buy, too.

2.  Garage Sales Let's start out with the cheapest. You can't go shopping for specific titles but you sure can have categories that you're hoping to stock. The year I invested in those big gorgeous DK informational books, I kept my eye open for them at yard sales as well as stores.  I have a very complete set covering many topics which my kiddos adore. And I continue to add to the set– $1 for $12-$20 books– because I can't pass up the price. Also, neighborhood sellers will sometimes give you a better deal when they know you are a teacher, or will give you any leftover books for free. Don't rule out garage sales when you come across them.

3.  Local brick and mortar stores I simply can't talk about book buying and not mention local bookstores. Although shrinking in number, maybe because they are shrinking in number, I shop there whenever I can. I adore roaming the shelve full of real, live books. You find books you'd never find any other way. I encourage my classroom parents to pick-up bookstore cards for me when want to donate to the classroom, or give me a token gift at traditional times. Our local bookstores are good to teachers, giving up to a 20% discount on classroom books which makes those gift cards go further.

4. The Big Boy on the Block– Amazon Well, on lots of levels, you gotta love Amazon with it's many good features. Free shipping is the only way to go, and when you get it on orders of $35, it's not too hard to do. Their "Look Inside" feature is good when I haven't actually had time to have the book in my hand, or have only read reviews... and their reviews are handy, too. It's where I go when I need a specific title, cheap... or, it was until I discovered...

5.  Abebooks  I stand amazed at the books I can find for CHEAP. Most of the ones I pick up are used children's books, and plenty of them are under $3. Sometimes books you can't find anywhere else. And the vast majority of them come with free shipping.  HOW they can sell a book for $1.99, ship it for free, and stay in business is not my question to answer, but I sure am glad they do. Abebooks is an online marketplace that offers books for sale from booksellers all across the country, and the world. I have found most of the sellers to be speedy quick in sending them out, too.

While researching a couple new science topics that I wanted to stock up on this summer in prep for fall, I found some wonderful books, books that I wouldn't have found any other way. Sometimes I'll hear from teacher friends about a book that they adore, but they have had it a long time, and we figure I won't be able to find it now... nope. There are often several copies to choose from on Abebooks.

Oh, and one more thing to mention about Abebooks– you can google "Abebooks coupons" and find various sources for coupons. I have used ones for an additional 5% or 10% off, or for free shipping on those times when I'm getting a book that didn't come with free shipping. The coupons don't always work, but sometimes worth trying because it brings low prices down to can't-believe-it prices.

So, for me, depending on the what and why and when of my need, there are many best ways to shop for children's books at good prices. Finding a place to store them all... well, that's a post for another day. Hope reading through has added to your book buying options. Gotta feed the bookworm.

What sources do you use when buying books?

Scoot on back now to our favorite Friday read. Thanks, Kacey, for the linky.

Thanks for stopping by.  See you next time!

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Five or Six Tips, Bargains, and Vids

I'm telling myself I am only going to post if I can do it in just ONE hour, as I barely have even one hour to spare this weekend. If not done in one hour I stop and rework it to send another day... so if you're reading, I set new time records today.

Happy Friday and here's five with the help of Doodle Bugs linky party.

1.  This was a very depressing sight on my laptop last Sunday morning as spring break came to an end.

Oh, well, all good things must come to an end. And oh. my. gosh. there were only nine more weeks of school before summer break... and that was last week! Today as I post, there are only EIGHT. Yikes! So much to teach, so much to do.... I'm gonna start to hyperventilate as I think of it. I take comfort in knowing teachers everywhere are in the same boat and just paddling as fast as we can to keep the boat on course. No matter how much we prepare there are just a LOT of things to take care of in the last months of school that can't be taken care of at any other time. Hang on for the ride!

2. I mentioned in earlier posts that I did some reorganizing at school over break. Just before the kids walked in, I finished hanging my poetry strips in their new location.

I always kept my poetry sentence strips in a long bin. However the bin was not quite long enough, so the ends always had to curl and that slowed down flipping through them. The bin also took up a large valuable space on a shelf. So I paper clipped the strips for each poem together, sorted my poems into five categories– loosely based on when I use them in the year, and clipped them with a giant binder clip. Then I hung them from hooks on the back of my back door. Ta-Da!

Storage for Sentence Strips

I used Command hooks on the door, and the clips hang very well. A week's worth of opening and closing the door and nothing has fallen down.

Now when I need a new poem I can take down the clip, flip through the poems, take the one I want, and hang it back up again. As I finish with a poem, I hang it again at the back of that group. So far, so good. Is this a useful idea for your poems or other like shaped items? If you have another way of storing, I'd love to hear in the comments.

I posted before about how I do shared reading of a poem each week, and how I use a pocket chart to display. Pocket charts have several advantages over other methods of display for shared reading material. You can go to the post by clicking on the photo below.

3. Artie Knapp, a children's author from Cincinnati, Ohio, stumbled upon my blog and contacted me to see if I would share with readers his new book, Living Green: A Turtle's Quest for a Cleaner Planet.  Given that we are just a few days away from Earth Day, this coming Wednesday, I think you'll appreciate hearing about it. The print book edition was a short-list finalist for the Green Earth Book Award.  The on-line version is a free resource on You Tube that your students will enjoy. You can see it here.

4.  My daughter, Sameulina, is graduating from university in just two short weeks. I was on campus this week and saw this interactive installation up in the Art School. The artist used Post-it notes to form wall size words that said "I FEAR THAT..." Passersby left notes on individual stickies with their fears. I snapped a few quick pics because I found it interesting on several scores.

Interactive Art Installation

First of all, I think this idea of words made of sticky notes could be used in elementary schools for a special event. I think the students would really enjoy leaving their thoughts and/or small pics on the sticky notes on the subject at hand. I'm passing it on to my staff. Maybe you can think of an application, too.

And second, the fears that were listed by the university students took me by surprise with their seriousness.

This was a relatively new installation and these comments were written on the sections I happened to snap. I did not filter–

Alzheimers

I will never pay off my loans

I'll die before I get to grow old with my girlfriend

confronting the death of family members

my sleep deprivation will shorten my life
something bad will happen in the future

something will happen to my family members

our government doesn't care about us

I don't have time to be the person I want to be

I won't leave a legacy 

Whoa.

I am thirty years their senior and I have some of these same fears. Did I have these fears when I leaving university? Somehow I don't think so. What does this say about our youth? What does this say about our times? What can we do?

5. Lookee, lookee all Star Wars fans... well, surely you ARE a Star Wars fan! Star Wars, and I mean the original Star Wars movie, came out when I was in high school. I and my group of friends saw it no less than seventeen times in it's more than year long run. If we had nothing else to do, off we went again. We had whole sections of dialogue memorized. That movie caused quite a buzz and we LOVED it... And I was in love with Harrison Ford. *sigh* It's okay to say. Jonathan knows.

ANYway, a new trailer for the NEWEST Star Wars movie was just released this week. Cute new droids... and Harrison, too! Another reason to look forward to Christmas. See here:

6... 6??  Last but not least, I leave you with five, five, five Dollar Store finds!!!

1. These eight inch plates were in the baby section. More durable than paper, and such a nice size. Anybody see manipulative number bonds?

Perfect for Addition Math Manipulatives

2. I've had my eye open for bins of this size and dimension to use as scrap bins to leave on kids' tables while doing cutting projects. I have used other bins but they did not hold enough or took up too much table space. These are just right for holding scraps. I show the large bottle of Mod Podge to give an idea of scale.

Just right as a table bin for cutting scraps

3. There are new stuffed monsters. Four models in all. Just right to use for passing or tossing with monster math games. I show one by the basket for scale.

Cute new monsters at the dollar store

4. These are too cute to squash bugs with. Just right for playing slap games with letter, word, or number cards.

Bug swatter to plan Slap with

5. A cheap little fishing pole to use with fishing games. Probably not sturdy enough for the reel to last for long, but even just tying a string to the tip will increase the fun factor. Better than the pencils and dowels I've used before and way cheaper than the play fishing poles found in school supply catalogs. I mean, it's a buck.

Cheap fishing pole to use when fishing
for words and numbers

HOW did I go from scrambling to find five in an hour, to SIX in an hour... well, just over an hour. Never doubt the power of a blogger who is always collecting details of life... the teaching life and otherwise.

Hope you had some fun. Click on button below to head on back to the linky for more fives... or sixes :) Thanks, Kacey!

Thanks for stopping by. See you next time!