So Many Ideas! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Earth Day Weekend Sale & Freebie!

All Weekend Long:

You can grab my cute flowerpots and bean-planting directions that will promote science in your classroom or homeschool! 

Click the image to grab these flowerpots.https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Jack-the-Beanstalk-Flower-Pots-Plants-TK-K-1st-or-special-ed-626935

Click the image to grab these flowerpots.

Use my special techniques that will help you children to grow more beans and less mold. 

Click the image to grab these cute flowerpots.

Click the image to grab these flowerpots. 

Our "Plants" exploration center. 

So many plants!

Read Jack and the beanstalk and add a cute castle to this project to create a literacy link.

Click the image to grab this product!https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Jack-the-Beanstalk-Flower-Pots-Plants-TK-K-1st-or-special-ed-626935

More ideas using plants:

Plant grass seeds in eggshells! 

Plant grass in clear cups and let the kids style the "hair"!

I found this on Pinterest. Use radish seeds. They sprout in 3 days!

I installed 3 raised bed gardens for square-foot gardening.

We grew organic edibles!

And while you are visiting my TpT store, grab my school bus craftivity! It uses recycled cardboard egg cartons and looks GREAT pinned up around your classroom for Open House. 

Click the image to grab this FREE template.
The banner is blank so you can add the name of your school or district. 

Students get to add photos of their friends to their school bus which becomes a treasured keepsake for them to take home at the end of the year.

Let Earth Day last all year long! Get your students outside, enjoy nature, and bring nature into your classroom! 

Measuring plants after reading Jack & The Beanstalk. 

Have FUN! 

Kindergarten Memory Books: The Time Is NOW!

Do you all create a kindergarten memory book?  Leave your tips and ideas in the comment section.
Here are some of mine:

I bind my memory books before the year begins.
I use black for the cover page and I include one page for each month of the year, Aug. - June.

Each month, I glue some special projects on that month's page (front & back) and I include a photo of the child each month.

Here are some monthly ideas:
(Many of the images are linked to our TPT page where you can download the templates.)

Cover:  Die cut school bus with photo of child on the bus.

August:  1st day photo, Chicka-chicka-boom-boom tree with child's name in fun foam letters, and "My favorite sandwich" writing.

Back of August page:

 

September page:

September fall leaf poem & photo.

Back of Sept. page had the Halloween photo.  Usually there is a Halloween craft here and the bear skin with Native American symbols is on the Nov. page.

October page:  They "bought" the decorations for their cats with 20 cents.  Our receipts for 

"The Meow Mall" and other classroom stores are available on TPT.

                          November page:

Back of Oct. page faces Nov. page

Classic handprint turkey.
We use lace doilies for the pilgrim girl collars.

Back of Nov. page faces Dec. page.

 December page:  Laced stocking with wish list of images clipped from advertisements.
This photo has each child dressed up as their favorite holiday icon:  reindeer, snowman, gingerbread man, or elf.  This goes with our class graph.  The reindeer wins every year because he can fly.  :)

 (Monthly writing is available on TPT.)

Back of Dec. page faces Jan. page.

January page:  Snowman Shop.  Students buy the pieces to decorate their snowman:  

You can find our store receipts on TPT. 

Oh, my!  He lost an eye!  

Back of Jan. page:  Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

February page:  Includes photo of their Valentine costume.  The little numbered hearts create a clock.

 This National Symbol Writing template is also on TPT.

Back of Feb. page:  National Symbol writing.
Click the image to grab this writing template.

March page:  Photo dressed like a leprechaun & their self portrait doll We used it for a writing prompt.  

Back of March page had their kite writing.  They are still up in our classroom.

April page:  Career writing.  They dressed up looking like what they want to be when they grow up.  This template is on TPT.  We also have lots of career puppets on TPT too.  Click each career to see each puppet:
Fire Fighter,     Police Officer,     Chef or baker,     Ballerina,    Construction Worker,    Baseball Player.

Click the image to grab the template.

 Back of April page has our Earth Day world with helping hands.  

May page:   Life Cycle of a butterfly in pasta:  Eggs = pastina,  Caterpillar = spiral pasta,  Chrysalis = small shell pasta,  Butterfly = bow tie pasta.  Paint with tempra or acrylic paints.  

Our organic, edible raised bed garden.

I also use this model of the butterfly lifecycle so it is more of a circle.

 And this goes on the June page.  It's their VIP report.  Their graduation photo also goes here.

Back of June page.

This poem goes on the back cover:

What are your great tips for memory books?

It's Not Too Early To Start Planning For...

Mother's Day!

I was amazed at how cute our Mother's Day hats turned out last year.

So colorful and every one was different.

And, they were FREE.  We used colored butcher paper and the trims & craft supplies I already had in my classroom.  It's not too early to start thinking about Mother's Day!
(Scroll down for directions.)

These hats are all ready to be wrapped up for Mother's Day!

This little one is modeling the lovely blue & white hat she made for her mommy.
We made these for our Mother's Day Tea one year.
 Imagine an entire room filled with moms all wearing these hats.

My T.K. students LoVeD creating these hats for their moms.

I blogged about them before, but I wanted to share this again because these came out so much cuter than the ones in my previous blog post.  

Making The Hats:

It's a 2 to 3-day process, but you can make them all in one day, let them dry overnight and send them home the following day.   We made the hats on the first day.  We let them dry overnight.  Then, we decorated them on the 2nd day.  We wrapped them on the third day.

Day 1:

Making the hats...

Painting on the glue & water mixture.

So much fun!

Adding the 2nd piece of butcher paper
and smoothing it all out.

Forming the shape over one bowl & adding a 2nd
bowl on top.  Then we crunched up the sides.

We let the hats dry overnight.

Day 2:

Decorating the hats...

Dried hats all ready to be decorated.

Students can choose their decorations or you can
turn this into a math lesson by giving your
students 20 cents and pricing the decorations.

They loved this part the most.

I worked with 3 students at a time as they decorated their hats.
 Fun Foam stickers worked great too.

She trimmed this blue and white hat with a lavender tissue paper flower.  

Day 3:

Wrapping the hats...

Tape 2 large pieces of tissue paper together & place a hat
upside-down in the center of the tissue paper.
(I wrote the chid's name on the bottom side of the tissue paper
 so it will show on the top when we are done wrapping.
The card will eventually cover their name.)

Start folding the sides in and taping them.

Continue to fold until the hat it covered.

Flip it over.  You can see the name on top.

Here is a stack all ready for their cards
 to be placed on top.

A cute card will go on top instead of a bow.

Let me know if you have ever made hats like these or if you plan to make them this year. :)