Stop, Swap and Roll!

I'm so happy to be part of a group of elementary educators participating in this awesome Stop, Swap and Roll adventure! 

Before we get started I want to say THANK YOU to Melissa from Jungle Learners for putting this together for us. She has been working very hard at getting everything up and running. Thanks so much Melissa! 

So, here we go...

I was paired up with the talented Emily from Emmy Mac's Class. 

Emily is a 1st grade teacher from Ontario, Canada and has a ton of creative and useful materials in her store. When given the opportunity to pick any item from her store to swap and review I wasn't sure what to choose! There truly were so many amazing products. I chose her Breakfast Bonanza: A Bonanza of High Frequency Word Games because I felt it could be used all year long with my students. I love that it is adaptable for the different levels of kiddos in my classroom.

This product has endless possibilities. Emily created four different games in the set. They all have a breakfast theme (obviously!) and are awesome for word work, sight word review and RTI. Here are some pictures of the different games that are included. Click on the pictures to visit her amazing store!

There are over 150 1st Grade high frequency words. I teach Kindergarten, so I adapted it to work with my students. We used the words we have already learned and I added in some of the harder ones for my more advanced students. I also used the blank game pieces to write in extras of our newest sight words. 

One of the awesome parts of this set is that Emily included black and white versions too! I printed one of the games in color but the rest were printed in black on colored paper. She also included various spellings for Canada and the US. :) 

            

Here are some pictures of my kinder kids' favorite game from the set - SPLAT! We used some of the utensils from our dramatic play area to make the games even more interactive. 

The students took turns using the spatula to flip over the pieces. If they could read the word, they put the food on their plate. If they couldn't read it we put it back and mixed them up.

But beware of the SPLAT cards. If you find one, you need to empty your plate and start over!

This is just a small sampling of the pieces for the SPLAT game!

You really should try this game with your students. They will "flip" for it! :) 

Want a chance to win the Breakfast Bonanza games? You can enter to win one below!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Don't forget to check out the product that Emily chose from my store by clicking here. I will have all of my "In a Snap!" products on sale through the weekend. So be sure to stop over and get them now. :) You can see ALL of the bloggers participating in the Stop, Swap and Roll by clicking here. 

Thanks for stopping in - hope to see you again soon! :) 

Why Do Long Weekends Seem So Short?

I always tell myself that when I have a day off of school I am going to relax and do nothing. Why doesn't this happen? 

Oh that's right... I'm a wife, mother and teacher. What was I thinking? We don't get days off! 

We hosted Thanksgiving at our house (on Thanksgiving and again today) and even though I loved every moment, I am exhausted! My mom has been here since Wednesday afternoon and I couldn't have survived without her. My little girl just turned two and it was great to have my mom here to keep her entertained! Here's a picture of my baby girl on her birthday. She had an Elmo cake, but we gave her a cupcake for her to blow out the candles. I've always had a thing with people blowing on food that we are going to eat! ;)

On Friday my Mom and I went shopping. My baby girl got to experience her first Black Friday! We didn't go out until after 10am because we thought the lines would be shorter. We were wrong. The checkout line at Kohl's wrapped more than half-way around the store. It took about 45 minutes to wait to check out, but it was worth it. The combined total for our purchases was $212, but we saved $428. I have most of my shopping done and only a few things left to order online. Even though it was a long wait in line, the savings were more than worth it and the fact that I now have $60 Kohl's Cash to use makes it even better. Did you score any great Black Friday deals? 

I've also been working on a little surprise. You'll need to keep an eye on my Facebook page to see what it is! :) If you aren't a fan, you might want to "like" my page by the end of the week. Click on the image below to check it out. 

I am also participating in the BIG Cyber Monday (& Tuesday!) sale at TpT. My entire store will be 20% off and if you use the code "CYBER" TpT will add an extra 10% off to your order. 

I have already started to fill up my cart. Have you? 

I think it is time to actually relax for a bit. Oh, who am I kidding? I'm going to go and add more items to my shopping cart! 

Environmental Print

One thing that remains the same in my classroom all year long is the environmental print on my classroom Word Wall. I took some time to track down all types of print and put it into a document. All of the grade level uses it now and it is great for the students. I included local businesses as well as nation-wide stores/brands. The students are always so excited to walk in the door and feel that they can read!

I made two sets. One goes on the Word Wall and the other I made into cards to use throughout the classroom.

I printed them onto regular printer paper, but laminated them with my own laminator. I find that they stand up a little bit better this way! You can use regular laminating film, but if they are handled often they will become worn very quickly.

I use the environmental print cards for many different games and activities. One of the first things we do is a large group activity where I simply hold up the card and if they think they know what it says they shout it out. I find that this gets all of the students involved because they don't need to raise their hands and risk being wrong. Soon they are all guessing and the excitement level goes through the roof! My rule is simple - before I can do the next card all voices must be off. I love when the struggling students see a brand that they recognize, shout it out and they suddenly realize that they are "reading!" Those little moments are what I live for!

Another game we play at our word work station in the beginning of the year is a matching game. I pull out the cards and some of my big alphabet letters. The students help me put the letters in order on a table. Then when they get to the station they pull a card out of the basket and put it under the letter that the brand/store starts with. The kids keep adding to it until all of the cards have been used.

My co-worker also came up with a fun idea using the cards for an "I have... Who has?" game. I'm hoping to make them into cards this summer. I'll let you know when they're done!

The main thing that we do with the environmental print is use it for our writing. When the kids are first starting to write words and sentences they can use the print as a starting point. Many students will simply write the words and others will make sentences such as, "I like Legos" or "I go to Target." Either way is fine with me as long as they are practicing their writing skills!

If you are interested in using environmental print in your classroom I have a free download available at my TPT store. I was so excited to see that it has been downloaded over 2500 times! How cool is that?! Click here to download it. If you feel it has been useful to you, I would love if you would follow my store!

One more note about my environmental print. I have included Minnesota sports teams because we live in MN. You would be amazed at how many students can identify the teams!

Make sure you google some for your own state to add to your word wall. :)

Now that I have shared some of my ideas, what are your favorite activities to do with environmental print? I'd love to hear your ideas!

Back to School Sale!

I am so excited! I've been spending a little bit of time... OK... A LOT of time adding items to my cart for tomorrow's big sale at TPT. There are so many amazingly talented teachers out there and TPT and Teacher's Notebook have become my "go to" websites for resources. My list of items keeps growing and growing!! 

I've also added some new items to my store. I hope you will stop by and check them out! 

Click here to see the Teal Colored Polka Dot Letters

Click here to see the Multi-colored Polka Dot Letters

These fun and adorable letters will be part of the Back to School sale going on at TPT tomorrow and Monday. In fact, all of my items will be 20% off! Add in the discount from TPT and you can get everything at 28% off! How great is that?! 

Have fun shopping - I know I will! :)

- Anna -