Happy December Friends!

Hey yall!  I am joining in on the TPT sale December 1st & 2nd.  Be sure to run on over and fill up your cart with some awesome goodies and save 28%!!!!

Here are a few of my favorite units to use in December and January!  :)

Happy Shopping!  :)

Pete the Cat...It's ALL Good!

One of my FAVORITE themes of the year is Pete the Cat.  Every year my kiddos LOVE reading these books and listening to the cute songs.  They absolutely can not get enough and this year was no different.  :)  Check out some of my favorite activities that we did this week.

color word practice-I like to make my first few centers like this trace to help my kiddos that can't form the letters yet.  It REALLY seems to help them catch on quick.

 letter roll-You can grab this for FREE in my TPT store HERE.

 letter sort-You can grab this for FREE on my Facebook page HERE.  You will have to "like" my page to access the freebie.

pocket chart center-This is our weekly pocket chart center.  I have some sort of pocket chart writing every week.  I also like to make this activity trace for the first few weeks.

 patterns, patterns, patterns,-we don't put a lot of focus on patterning with our standards but I still spend some time on it and give them independent practice in centers.

labeling-This was in our writing center.  I like to begin writing center by giving them label activities.  I also make the first few writing centers trace.

The 3 activities above can be found in my Kitty Cat's Rockin' Math & Literacy Pack.

 We created this cute anchor chart whole group.  I love these activities because I love to see what all they'll come up with.  :)

During our theme time we created this DARLING "Pete" and guitar.  The guitar was something new and I love how it turned out.  They really enjoyed it and it also gave us some good name building practice.

That is ALL for now.  If you are still reading THANKS for hanging out through this LONG post.  :)

Enjoy the rest of your weekend.  :)

Table Dot WINNERS

Hey y'all!  Sorry for the delay...the winners of my Table Dot Giveaway are

Please be sure to email me at mrsmayaskinders@gmail.com so I can get your dots mailed out.  :)  Thanks to everyone for entering.  If you are interested in this product you can check it HERE.

Brown Bear Theme Activities

If you have read my blog before you probably know that we begin our school year with colors and EVERYTHING Brown Bear!  If you missed my post about our first centers (which are also Brown Bear) you can take a look at them HERE.

Something I always love to do is our Brown Bear mural.  It is a really fun way to introduce paint... how to hold a paint brush, the correct way to paint, what we can and can't paint, etc. ;)

 When we are finished I like to hang the finished product on our clothesline so my kiddos can use it as a guide for when we do other storytelling activities or center activities.

Here are a few other examples of activities that we did with Brown Bear.  

I got this cute bulletin board set from our local school supply store and it doubles well as story telling props.

I always love to make this Brown Bear book to go along with our story and for my kiddos to have their on book to use to retell the story at home.  You can see examples of all of the pages HERE.

I don't know about y'all but I am about Brown Beared OUT.  :)  Until next year of course.  ;)

If you have not entered yet...be sure to check out my Table Dot Giveaway HERE.

Table Dots-Giveaway

I am always trying to come up with good management ideas to make my life in a K room easier.  I am absolutely obsessed with using vinyl for EVERYTHING in my room.  It looks great and holds up great ALL year long.  A few years ago I decided to try number dots on my guided reading table like I do on the floor and once again it was a SUCCESS!  :)  I have 6 dots on my table and corresponding dots on my stools.  I assign my kiddos a number and that's their space each time they come to group.  SO simple and easy.  :)  

If you are interested in finding out 

more about this product you 

can find it HERE in my TPT store and

because I love this product SO MUCH I am going to be doing a giveaway for 2 lucky winners to get their very own set of table dots.  Please be sure to enter and share it with your friends.  :)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Coming Up...Pete the Cat

Hey y'all.  This week we are going PETE crazy!    I just posted a Pete the Cat freebie on my facebook page.  All you have to do is run on over and "like" my page and then click on the FAN FREEBIE tab to download it.  I hope you find it useful and be sure to share the link with anyone that could use it too. :)

Happy Labor Day and enjoy your day off!  :)

**Stay tuned for a fun little giveaway starting TOMORROW!  :)

Our First Centers

OUR FIRST CENTERS...So, I begin training my students to do "center work" the very first full week of school (we go half days for the first week).  As you know it can be really overwhelming to train your kiddos so early in the school year, but I must say it seems like my kids surprise me every year at just how fast they start picking up our daily routines.  I start out with SIMPLE centers that mainly consist of rolling cubes, using bingo dotters, and spinners (for my sanity).  Here are some examples of centers that we did the first week.

 color word practice

 letter tracing

 letter roll

You can download this letter roll 

activity for FREE in my TPT store!

build a color word

You can find these in my 

girl Julie's brown bear unit.

I also begin introducing their choices for after center work is complete.

I use the interactive games from Lakeshore in my Promethean Board center.  These games are FABULOUS.  They are so engaging and purposeful.  

We take it SUPER slow in our writing center.  After all we have only been in school for one week HALF days.  :)  Here is a sample of what we did. 

Thanks for sticking around for this 

super long post and WAR EAGLE.  :)  

Classroom Reveal 2014-2015

I know I am a little late to the game posting my classroom reveal but school happens right!?!  :)  I LOVED my new set up/classroom that I moved to last year but there is ALWAYS something I want to change or improve.

I am seriously DYING over my new chair for whole group.  It is the perfect size so that my short legs can actually touch the floor plus it is the CUTEST!  :)

I seriously don't know where in the world I stored my guided reading materials before I got this bad boy.  It is PERFECT for keeping everything I need when I am teaching my groups.  

 I started using book boxes so I fixed this little shelf up with tons of leveled readers.  More on exactly what book boxes are and how I use them later.  :)

Once again, I am not sure how I survived before I started making these little dots.  Seriously friends...if you have not tried this you MUST.  It only takes a day or two to train my kiddos and once I do it is so easy to just say "find your dot".  This cuts down on the fussing, pushing, shoving stuff because everybody knows EXACTLY where they stand.  If you are interested and want to read more you can check out my post HERE.

 I love how these turned out.  I assign every student a number and they use the same one for pretty much everything (line up dots, mailboxes, book boxes, etc.)

Hope you enjoyed and maybe saw something that is useful.  Let me know if you have any questions. :)

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