Open House Part 2, the sequel...

Getting Ready For Open House:

Here are 2 more sneak peeks of this year's Open House prep: 

We planted grass seeds in eggshells.  

 We also planted a variety of beans.  This year we added the straw with the castle in a cloud to go with our Jack and the Beanstalk unit.

Click the image to see the flowerpot template.
The set includes 2 templates & complete directions.

Here Is Last Year's Open House Part II:

Here is our Rainbow Writing Wall.   We collect the students' writing all year long.  As they complete a writing assignment, we double hole punch the page (top middle) and attach the page to the file folder fasteners.  You can see a close up of the fasteners in the photo below.  

The metal fasteners are the same type that
are used in medical files.  

The 12" X 13" construction paper is mounted with a
12" X 11" piece of black construction paper.  I
laminate it and add the fastener .  Names are below
the writing and can be changed each year.  

At the end of the year, we remove all of the pages from the fasteners and send them home in a folder with a cover page that says,  "If you give a child a pencil... "

We have a variety of writing templates in our Monthly Writing packet.

It doesn't include the template in the photo, but it has writing prompts about things that sink & float, apples, and whether you would like to have a beard link Lincoln or a wig like Washington; just to name a few.  

Our listening center and keyboard.  The keyboard has a
headset so the player doesn't disturb the class.   

Our puppet stage in front of our Rainbow
 Writing Boards and our Angry Verbs where the birds
 are all doing something that made them angry.  

Come back again to see more pictures from my classroom tour!  

Tomorrow, I'll post the final part of this Open House Trilogy :)

See you all tomorrow.

Palma  :)

Yes, I Confess.... I Teach Shopping.

But You Can Learn Sooo Much From Shopping!

In our class, we "shop 'til we drop" every month with a new store.

Those of you who have been to our workshops know that we LOVE to set up classroom stores where students can pretend to buy things with plastic coins.  Our newest store is the Garden Shop where students may "buy" seed packets, potted flowers, or even a palm tree!

Buying flowers.

Getting Started:

The Dollar Tree (and other dollar stores) have little potted silk plants, seed packets, and even little one-foot squares of pretend grass.  I even found the bulletin board trim there to decorate our shop.  

The plants came potted, but I potted the flowers with foam & moss.

The Lilies were not part of the store.  They were real. 

The watering can was donated by a parent.

Loved the little patches of grass.

The Kids Helped Too:

I put out scraps of colored construction paper, scissors, glue, and pictures of plants.  They got busy making props for our store.  It was a wonderful cooperative center where kids exchanged ideas and developed oral language skills.

Getting creative and talking about it too at our Creation Station.

Making signs and props for our garden shop.

Putting It All Together:

We set out the patch of grass, seed packets, and plants.  We decided on prices too.  I added the palm tree that I picked up at a garage sale.  I'll use it for our beach-themed graduation and again at the beginning of the year when I introduce the story Chicka-Chicka-Boom-Boom.

We priced the plants.

This little guy wanted to measure our palm tree.

We Also Planted An Outdoor Garden & Indoor Plants:

Planting corn.

Our outdoor garden was started a few years ago from a $1000 grant I received from The Southern CA Kindergarten Conference.  You can apply for next year's grant by CLICKING HERE for the application.  Our garden is organic and we plant edible plants every year.

Planting strawberries.

Inside, we will be planting beans in our FLOWER POTS after listening to the story of Jack & The Beanstalk.  We will place 5 beans into the zip-lock bag and the staples will keep the beans from falling to the very bottom where they might get soggy and moldy.  You can find the FLOWER POT template by CLICKING HERE.

Click the image

The download includes complete directions.

Attach the bag on the back with tape.

Spray the paper towel with clean water before the kids drop their 5 beans in.
Make sure the kids wash their hands before touching the beans and
soak the beans overnight before the kids drop them into the bag.  

We will also plant seeds in our eggshells.  These will all look great for Open House.

Saw these on Pinterest and pinned it to one of my boards.
Our eggs are filled with potting soil & are ready for planting.
Check out all of my Pinterest boards by clicking the image above. 

You can check out all of my Pinterest Boards HERE.

Stop by our Facebook Page this week and enter our drawing for our

Beginning of the Year Bundle.

Click the image to see our FB page.

Look for the blue tab at the top of our Facebook page, click it, and 

follow the directions in the Rafflecoptor.

Find this blue tab on our FB page, click on it, & enter the drawing.

This is the bundle you can win:

You get all 5 products in this bundle.  Click the image to read more about it.

See you all tomorrow.

Palma  :)