Grouping Cards (FREE) for Your Classroom!

 This is an idea I got from one of my (many) classes that I take in the summer (even though us teachers do NOTHING in the summer...).  We were talking about different ways to make groups and sometimes it's nice to make random partnerships and do it in a fun way (which is what this activity is). You can use this for turn and talk buddies, reviewing or really for anything...

I have made cards (that you can get by clicking HERE) that the kids love. Just cut them out (and I laminate them so they stay nice).  Each child gets one card.  They look at their own card and then when I give the word, they show their card WITHOUT TALKING (brilliant, I know...) until they find the card (or cards) that matches their card.  Once they find their partner they sit next to each other at my "gathering place" quietly so I know they are ready.  The kids love it. I love it. It only takes a moment and it gets us moving.  I have made my cards based on the seasons/holidays (and I also made some for insects since we study those too).  If I ever teach upper-ele again, I might use synonyms on cards or other fun pairings that would interest the students.
I keep my cards in a simple pencil box.  After my students find their partner, and sit down (at the gathering place), I have them share a quick idea or thought with their buddy while I pass the box along to collect the cards.  It's been a great success in my room so I just thought I'd share!
Enjoy!
~L

Keeping Floors in MINT Condition

For Valentine's Day, my husband told me that I was still in "Mint" condition and gave me a floor cleaner called "The Mint."  I had never heard of it but since our tradition has been candy in the past with funny puns, this was a pretty cool gift (that I learned wasn't as cheap as the candy I got him!).  What it is, is a robot that sweeps/ mops your floors BY ITSELF using GPS.  I place this cube on my counter, set the Mint on the floor, choose mop or sweep and then off he goes!  When he's all done he sings a few notes and returns to the place he started.

 Now we have two dogs who LOVE to shed and four young (messy) kids at home, so cleaning the floor regularly is something we need to do (regularly as in every day or every other).  This can be hard being full time workers with busy kids but it is necessary... especially on the hardwood where all the dog hair seems to pile together and form a third animal (sigh).
The Mint can actually navigate under and around chairs and stools, but once or twice a week, I get them off the floor to make it easier.  I used to put them into our family room but then realized that it's better to just flip them upside down and then wipe down the legs of the chairs (which sometimes have splatter of milk or other spills from my youngest).  I have no idea what took me so long to figure THAT out.  It's much faster to flip up the stools and chairs than drag all twelve into another room (which is what I used to do).  I am a slow learner sometimes...

 I actually wipe down the stool and chair legs while the Mint is working so it's like I'm doing two things at once.  We have a pretty large kitchen and if we leave our walk-in pantry door open, he'll go in there too!  Our family room drops down a step from our kitchen and somehow the Mint knows where to stop.  My only gripe is that sometimes he goes onto the carpet in our dining room or living room and gets stuck, so we have learned to put something down to stop him.

Overall he's saved us A LOT of time and keeps my floors looking good.  He came with two blue mop cloths (that you dampen and an attachment that you can add water to) and two white sweeper mop cloths.  I guess you can use Swiffer stuff with him, but I prefer reusing these since it's better for the environment (and of course, cheaper).  I still love my Shark Mop to clean up spills or if I want to work quickly to get the floor done before people come over or something.    It takes him an hour or so to do our kitchen when he mops... he's quicker when he sweeps.
So my husband did well... he saved me from eating more candy and freed up more time.  Now I just need to find the robot who dusts, vacuums, cleans bathrooms, picks up toys and does laundry... a girl can dream!

You can read more about this little guy on Amazon by clicking HERE.  You may be able to find him cheaper at other stores that carry him.  My hubby got him for half off!

Great Dice for Math!

The other day when I was visiting the teacher across the hall from me, I noticed she had these super cool dice!  I spent no time and got on Amazon and ordered my own!  You get a container of 72 dice for under $13 (they're on sale now)!  This is great because instead of having your kids roll two die, they only need ONE!

I'm not going to do a post about all the wonderful things you can do with dice to practice math (since I am assuming that most people who are reading this already have great ideas), but I DID want to share with you these cool dice!  You can order them by clicking HERE.  I have had them for about a month now and my kids (first graders) love them and so do I!

(My 'real' kids also like them and use them to race multiplication facts too.)

I noticed that one reviewer on Amazon said that the inner dice doesn't turn around freely but I haven't had that problem.

First Grade Insect Report/Museum

My first graders LOVE learning about insects!  One of the highlights of the year is when we finish our unit by having an "Insect Museum."  The students research one insect and make a model of that insect to bring into school.  We practice sharing our reports and what we learn in class and then later for the school and parents.  This is a great experience in oral language too!

If you would like to use the report we use at our school, you can click HERE.

I don't believe in that "Teacher Pay Teacher" stuff... 

If I already made it for my kids, why not let you have it for your's?  I (clearly) didn't get into this profession for the money!

I'm sure I'll tweak this as time goes on (I've already tweaked it a few times).  If I do, I'll try to remember to update this post!

Valentine's Fun

Valentine's Day was a blast this year so I thought I'd share some of the things I did.  I gave my family a "Heart Attack."  I saw the idea on Pinterest and then tweaked it a bit.  What I did was cut out a ton of hearts (this is easier if you have a cricut or paper cutter) and then I wrote personal notes (reasons) I love everyone in my family on each heart.  I then shuffled them up and spread them out on our kitchen island.  I made sure I had equal amounts for my kids (because I knew they would check) and also threw some in for my husband and the family pets (dogs and tortoise). I also sprinkled in some plastic and glittered hearts to make it look more festive and added some heart garland to jazz up our pendant lights.  I bought four mylar balloons (one for each kid) and tied them to stools.  Since I shopped at the Dollar Tree, this whole thing cost me $7!  The kids were SO excited about this and it is DEFINITELY something I plan to do for years to come.  I imagine them in college opening up a box and dumping out hearts with my love notes to them!

I am equally as cheap frugal when it comes to my gifts for my husband. I got him a lot of candy (also from the dollar store) and wrote cute cheesy messages (puns) to go with each one.  Since my folks come over in the morning to get our kids on the bus I also had a candy bar for my dad (A 100 Grand bar that said, "I think you deserve a raise."), and since my mom is currently on WW and doing awesome, I gave her an edible Valentine that wouldn't be quite so many points!

When it came to the Valentines my kids gave out, my boys just wanted to do the store bought variety (which was great because it was easy and the Dollar Tree had some paper airplane Valentines which were pretty neat).  My daughter however, decided that she wanted to give out Sweedish Fish.  The only problem is there was no cute packaging for them, so we made our own.  We found a fishbowl clip art and typed in some "Fishy" messages which she glued on card stock and signed.  She then put the fish in zip-lock baggies and I just stapled them on because it was quick.  They actually turned out really cute.  If you want to steal this template, you can just click HERE to get it (why recreate the wheel?).

 I was also pretty excited with the way the Valentines I made for my other kids (my students) came out.  I was up so late the night before getting things ready for home/school that I kicked these guys out during my half hour prep!  I made these cards on Publisher (they have a template for them).  On the front I wrote, "Happy Valentine's Day!  There's no erasing the fact that you are one amazing First Grader!" and I taped an eraser below the message.
On the inside, I added group pictures from my blog and wrote, "Wishing you a Valentine's Day that is "Write On!" and gave them a pencil.  I got great feedback from the kids and even some parents which was cool! I'm thinking this is definitely something I am doing again next year.  I got the erasers and pencils from (you guessed it!!!) The Dollar Tree.

The other thing I did in school which was a big hit (though I didn't take any pictures of it), was I gave each student a cut out heart (similar to the kind I made for my "Heart Attack") and the name of one other friend from class.  They wrote their friend a nice (secret) note about how special they are and while they were at lunch, I hung all the hearts from the ceiling with red ribbon.  When they came back they saw all the hearts and had a fun time finding their own!  It also made the room look even more festive for the holiday!

Happy Valentine's Day!

An Awesome Find (Micro-Pedi)

For Christmas, My Mother-in-Law gave me the most adorable polka dot robe, some lotion and this: The Micro Pedi.  Since I had the Ped-Egg (and liked it fine for smoothing out my dry feet) and my heels have been in pretty decent shape, I hadn't pulled this out... until now!

I love pedicures (though I can't afford them as much as I wish I could).  It's so nice to know that your toes are looking good (even at this time of year when they're covered up for the weather, where I live).  I have never been a fan of that part of the pedicure when they start smoothing out your feet...  Try as I may, I can never relax and I find myself squirming and praying that it will soon be over.  Although I don't like that process, I love the feel of my silky feet after a nice pedicure.

So today, I opened my bathroom drawer and saw my gift and thought, this was a great day to try it out.

WOW!

I loved it!  It worked so much faster than the Ped-Egg (minutes) and left my feet smooth and feeling wonderful!  I didn't have any of the squirmy/tickle feeling and my feet feel great.  

To see more about this item/ order it or read more reviews (including mine), click HERE.

As a fiscally responsible gal, I see a few less professional pedicures in my future, but some pretty good lookin' feet!

Pictures with replacement rollers, the cleaning brush and a card (so you can see how big it really is)

3,2,1 Cake Gifts

I've written about 3,2,1 cake before HERE, but I thought I would share how I put it together for an easy gift idea.  I gave 3,2,1 cake mixes to my kids' teachers, the bus driver and the room moms in my class.  I put the mix in large mason jars.  I tied a ribbon with a tablespoon to the jar and included the following poem for my room moms (unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures...)

I made it in a cute card but unfortunately can't access it from my home because it was a publisher file (I'm on a mac now).  I hope to remember to save it as a PDF so I can put it on here later to save you some work should you want to use it.

Below, is the poem I made for the teachers and bus drivers (and then I had the "What you do:" part too).  I also gave them some candy and gift cards.

I wanted to give my mother-in-law some 3-2-1 cake too since I had been talking about it and I think it's perfect for someone who wants a taste of cake (without baking the whole cake).

For her, I bought a plain white mug and drew on it with Sharpie markers.  I then baked the mug at 350 for 30 minutes so that it would never come off.  I also liked how I packaged her cake so thought I would share it.

I got a little jar pictured above from Meijer (Target stores have them as well).  Then I used clear contact paper to cut labels.  The reason I did this was because if she wanted to change the flavor ever, she could just peel off the label easily (without that yucky stickiness that comes from stickers!).  I used Sharpies on these labels too so the writing wouldn't come off.  There were four sides on this jar that just seemed to need something to me, so I made the following labels.  

Have fun!  And if you haven't tried, 3,2,1 cake... I still think you should!  :-)