New Year Dollar Deals!

I can't believe we are days away from welcoming in 2019! 

I might be dating myself, but it seems nearly impossible that 20 years ago we were entering the last year of the 1900's and fearing (and preparing for) what Y2K would do!

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Before I left for break I prepped what I needed for a smooth return, but still have some lesson planning to complete.  I've been enjoying some relaxing time with my family, organized some closets (and bedrooms), been helping my hubby with a basement gut (I get a crafting room out of it, so no complaints!) and am onto my 3rd book...during the school year reading takes a back seat so it's nice to 'catch up' on my 'want to read' list! 

I sure hope you've found some time to relax and unwind, as well!

BUT...all good things must come to an end, so to make returning to school a bit sweeter, I've teamed up with a group of sellers to offer TWO days of DOLLAR DEALS!

Each seller will offer TWO deals on Sunday December 30th and TWO different deals on Monday December 31st!  

On Sunday December 30th you will find these 2 resources from me:

CLICK HERE TO VIEW ALL DOLLAR DEALS FOR SUNDAY

Here's a bit more info about both:

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This New Years themed early emergent reader pack was offered as a $1 deal a few years ago, but in case you missed it, I'm offering it again!  Here are some images I took of the pages a few years ago...

(INSERT 2019 GLASSES)

(12/30/18 ONLY)

The other product I am offering for $1 on Sunday 12/30/18 is my Winter Missing Numbers pack:

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This set works very similar to my New Year Missing Numbers FREEBIE but it's for numbers 10-20!  Use it in a center, early finisher basket, small group remediation/enrichment activity, morning tub, etc!

You can laminate the recording sheet to make it a reusable activity too!

On Monday you'll find a whole new list of DOLLAR DEALS!

CLICK TO VIEW ALL THE DOLLAR DEALS FOR MONDAY

The first is one of my more popular winter products!

This is perfect if you are embarking on a 'how to' unit of study and also serves well for sequencing!

It includes 3 different ways to 'write' a book about how to build a snowman!  My students' favorite is the accordion book shown here: 

The snowman pack is part of the larger bundle of all my 'how to' units, so if it works well for your students, be sure to check out he other packs!

Click Here To View The Bundle

The second product is BRAND NEW!  I bought this adorable stamp clip art during the Cyber Monday sale and finally had some time to use it!

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 Students use magnifying glasses to find hidden CVC words 

(There are 3 for each vowel)

Then there are 2 options for recording...they can circle the picture that matches the word:

or write the word on the line:

There are also CVC picture cards that they can use to match the picture to the word they found!

This can be used as a word work center, in small guided groups, as remediation/enrichment, etc!

You can also laminate the recording sheets to make them a reusable activity for morning tubs!

But I'm not the only one offering TWO DOLLAR DEALS each day!

Here are ALL the participating stores and links to the deals for both days: 

An InLinkz Link-up

Wishing you health, happiness, peace and serenity as you head into 2019!

I would like to say that I am resolving to blog more in 2019, but I don't want to break my resolutions TOO quickly this year!  I post a lot of ideas on Instagram and my Facebook page because it is easier and less time consuming, so if you don't already follow me via those social media outlets, I would love to have you join me this year!

Until next post,

Winter Math Centers

I am going to be honest...I had hoped to have this post up back in December...I had a bunch of winter/holiday center ideas using goodies I purchased at Target, as well as freebies I found on blogs and TpT that I wanted to share with you to help make planning easier...BUT some little things like motherhood, teaching, being a wife/running a home and life in general got in the way!

So I pulled out the things that were winter and could continue to be used to share with you!

Let's hope I can be better prepared next year!

Let's start with these snowman plates I found at Target!  They were in the holiday party goods section.  THEY might even be on clearance now!

I found the white pom poms in the Dollar Spot.  If you can't find white pom poms, cotton balls would work just as well!

The double dice are from Lakeshore and can be found HERE.  I have the Jumbo Double Dice (12 to a package) although they also sell regular size double dice where there are 70 to a package!

The tweezers are also from Lakeshore.  I have used them A LOT this year...we've needed a lot of fine motor work.  They work great for picking up Target Dollar Spot erasers too!

Take a look at this video if you need a 'visual':

Here's another way we used the plates as I reference in the video:

And if you don't already own this tape you want it...NOW!

We used it for interactive writing to cover up 'mistakes' but I have found it's great for making center activities when I don't want a permanent mark!

(I used them on these puzzles too!)

And if you were lucky enough to find these erasers (and I even read some teachers found them in Target Christmas clearance for 30 cents a bag!!!!!) you can use them instead of the pom poms/cotton balls.

Speaking of clearance....I am SURE these Santa plates are on clearance now!

I purchased present gift tags and simply removed the string part.  We also used these candy cane erasers with the Santa plates.

The dice were great but I also wanted my kids to work on numbers to 10, so I created this spinner that we used with the plates too.  You can find the spinner in the download pack at the end of this post for FREE!

The other goodie I found in the Dollar Spot were these 2-sided wooden trees.  Of course we called them Christmas trees, but you could also call them 'winter' or evergreen trees!

And for my readers that need a visual...

And a few other things that popped into my head on how you could use them:

Next up is these number ordering cards.  My kids L-O-V-E these because they get to use the fun links!  We have been practicing these since Fall.   I know this picture shows the Christmas stockings, but the winter center pack download (free at the bottom of this post) will have the snowflakes to order.  We'll be using them starting next week!

I don't have a 'counting by 10's' set but they would be easy to make..go to Google images (if you don't already own snowflake images) and find a snowflake image, insert a text box and print them on cardstock.  Cut & hole punch just like above.

Back to the famous Target Dollar Spot erasers...

This is one of my students' FAVORITE early finisher basket activity and I also put it out for morning stations/tubs.  The directions on how to play are included in the FREE download pack.  If you don't have the erasers- no big deal!  You can use chips, cubes, flat glass 'marbles' (you can find them in the florist section of craft stores), pom poms/cotton balls, buttons, etc!

I just added this to my TpT Store for practicing numbers 10-20:

It is a follow-up to the New Year Theme for Numbers 0-10 that I posted for FREE!

Think these are some things you'd like to try out this winter?!

This FREE download includes:

*snowflake number ordering cards (0-10)

*Roll & Remove instructions & game boards for 1-6 and 2-12

*Snowman spinner for 1-10

*Snowman button cards for 1-10

We also used this freebie from Life Over C's:

I printed the Christmas and Winter sets she offers back to back.  We used the Christmas version and will now be moving onto the winter side.  We used the glass gems to help find and count all the items and I put the recording sheets into clear sleeves so we could use dry eraser markers:

I have been pinning a lot of cute center and project ideas on my Winter Pinterest board:

I'd love to have you follow the board so you can grab some of the ideas, as well!

Well tomorrow is 'back to school'!

I hope everyone had a wonderful break and enjoyed down time with those you love!

Until next post,

Puzzles Are For More Than Just Play!

I am super excited to share this find with you...

I was recently at Target and they had these SUPER adorable gingerbread house puzzles.

I stared at them for a long time trying to decide HOW I could use them...

I bought 4 knowing that if I didn't get them an idea would come to me as soon as I got home!

As I drove home I started thinking of how to use them!

Here is what I came up with...

I used super adorable gingerbread house clip art I had mixed with spinner clip art I bought to make a gingerbread house spinner.  It has 5 sections because there are 5 pieces to the puzzle:

I thought of ways I could use it...

*sight word ID

*number ID

*counting

*capital/lowercase matching

and how it could be modified for enrichment:

*CVC words

*addition/subtraction

BUT...if I wrote on the pieces they could only be used for 1 specific skill....

So I grabbed my removable tape that I use during interactive writing and gave it a test run!

It stuck real well and then when it was time, it peeled right off!

I laminated my spinners and used a dry erase marker.

The marker stuck well enough to the laminate for 'use' and then came off with a little elbow grease so that the spinners could be re-purposed for a different skill!

I know I am a 'visual learner' so I made a video showing how to use the puzzles and/or different ways to use them for different skills:

I plan on using these for our morning tubs/stations and/or as early finisher basket activities the next few weeks!

Add a whiteboard and the kids can record what they worked with-

*Write the capital/lowercase letter matches

*write a number and show that many dots

*write a sight word and/or use it in a sentence

*write a CVC word and draw a picture to match

*write the number sentence and answer

ETC.!

You could even provide them with a paper of a gingerbread shape/outline to do their recordings if you wanted to check for accountability!

SO what happens when the holidays are OVER?!

NO WORRIES...

I found these 'generic' puzzles in the dollar spot too:

These have 8 pieces so require a different spinner- but can be used in the same way as described above!

You can grab the spinners for the gingerbread houses AND some blank '8 space' spinners for the generic puzzles for FREE here:

Be sure to stop by again tomorrow (Sunday 11/27) for...

Dollar Deals

AND...

the chance to win a $10 Teachers Pay Teachers Gift Card!

Happy Target Dollar Spot Puzzle Shopping!

Until next post,

Dollar Spot Finds for Spring Centers!

Last weekend it happened...

I got sucked right into the deep red hole...otherwise known as Target Dollar Spot!

I went in to get a child's birthday gift and came out with a cart LOADED with goodies from the famous 'Dollar Spot!' 

With Easter in March this year, I wanted to grab some things I could use in the next two weeks, but also some 'spring'-ish goodies that could last into April.

If you too went from hand-held basket to fully loaded cart, here are some ideas on how I am going to use what I found!

First Up...

Real/Nonsense CVC Word Sort!

I got a bunny pouch in both white and pink to use for holding the butterfly die cuts.

Bunnies and butterflies are spring icons, so this center can easily go into April..and May..if need be!

The die-cuts came in a pack of 16 and I used a little over 2 packs to make the set you see here.

I chose to write the words with a sharpie directly onto the butterflies, but if you don't like your handwriting, simply type the words on address labels and peel/stick them onto the butterflies!  You can even buy clear labels so you don't see any white!

I printed up 2 signs 'Real' (thumbs up!) and 'Nonsense' (thumbs down) and used the C-U-T-E bunny clothespins I found in 'the spot' to hold the signs onto the pouch.

No clothespins- no problem- put a bit of velcro (scratchy side) on the back of the card and it will stick to the felt pouch- or tape them!  You can even write right on the pouch, but I wanted to be able to use the pouches for different things, so this gives me an easy way of changing them out!

[We used a 'thumbs up' and 'thumbs down' in our class when we read CVC words during word work to determine if they are a real or not real word.] 

 I also made a recording sheet so that they can list the words they worked with (it also gives us a bit of handwriting and letter formation practice (wink, wink!))

Because I chose to write out so many words, I also made a back for the recording sheet for my fast finishers!  It also allows them to use one of the 'real' words in a sentence!

 Start to finish this center probably took me TOPS an hour to prep- but that is including making the label pockets and recording sheet (which you can download for free at the end of this post!)!

Now onto some math!

Addition/Subtraction Bunny Sort

Again I used those C-U-T-E bunny clothespins to label my pockets!

I simply wrote numbers 0-5 on them because we are working on fact fluency, but no matter what numbers you are working with, you can program your bunnies to match...and if you decide to focus on different numbers, no biggie!  Just erase and re-write!

If you don't like your handwriting, you can opt for number stickers too!  They would easily peel off to change numbers, as well!

I purchased the bunny die-cuts (if you have an Ellison machine, you could use die-cuts from there, but with 16 to a pack for only $1, I felt my dollar was well worth the time it would take to cut them out!)

We just finished addition and are working in subtraction now, so I did a set of both.

I clipped the bunnies to the pouches and they are ready for sorting!

No matter which you choose the pouches work the same!  You can even combine addition and subtraction facts or focus only on one!

I made a recording sheet that can be used 2 different ways- they could simply write the answer or they could write out the whole number sentence from the bunny die-cut with their answer!

For those students that need to use manipulatives, I picked up a few packages of the famous Dollar Spot erasers!  I will have them out at the table and they can use them to help answer the problems.

We might also use the erasers/bunny die-cuts/recording sheets without the pouches!

Pick a bunny, show how to solve using the erasers, write your problem/answer on the sheet!

You can also use the bunnies are 'flashcards' for fact fluency during 'down times' throughout spring!  This might make waiting for buses a bit 'hoppier!'

Again- this took me all of 40 minutes to prep- including creating the recording sheets (which are free for you to download at the end of the post).

Last but not least...

Medial Sound Egg Sort

For this one I am using the felt egg pouches and egg die-cuts, as well as egg clothespins!

Same as bunnies, I programmed the eggs with vowel letters

and clipped each one to an egg

I printed a bunch of CVC pictures on 2x4 mailing labels and then cut them in half (I was able to fit 2 pictures per label) and stuck each one to a die-cut egg

The kids will look at the picture, determine the medial (vowel) sound and then place the egg in that pouch.  I made a recording sheet for them to practice writing the CVC word, as well!

An alternate way to do this would be to stick a picture on each clothespin egg and then put CVC words on the egg die-cuts.  They would read the word and determine which egg it goes to.  

This one took a bit longer to prep because the of the peel/stick, but I don't think I spent even an hour doing it!  

The egg picture cards can also be used as flashcards (like the bunnies) during downtime for determining vowel sound, or 'tapping' out the word.  You can also use them during guided reading/small group instruction with magnetic letters!  

OR put magnetic letters in a plastic egg...have them 'crack' it open, build the word and then find the matching egg picture card!

Since I know teachers LOVE the dollar spot, I am sure many of you picked up a lot of the same goodies, so I put all of my recording sheets, labels for pouches and the CVC picture labels into this free download!

(The labels were created in Word to be printed on 2x4 mailing labels but I had to convert them to a PDF to adhere to the clip artist's terms of use.  If they don't print aligned to the labels, you can try using a full sheet label and cutting them from that.)

If you are looking for more Easter/Spring CVC and/or math resources, be sure to check out my Spring/Spring Holidays custom category in my TpT Store (there are some freebies too!)

ENJOY!

Happy Shopping and Spring Center Prepping!