Flip Your Small Group Table With Today's Tip:

Find Out How I Use This To Teach Writing:

Click the image above to grab these.

(If you click the image above, it will take you to a set of 30 sheets of 8 1/2" X 11" lined sheets.)

1st: Laminate a blank sheet of construction paper.*
2nd: Attach a sheet of lined dry-erase contact paper to the laminated construction paper.

It looks like there is a bubble of air under the dry erase
paper, but it's only the glare.

 (Leave room at the top for sample letters &/or numbers.)

The red mat has a red cup of dry erase markers and
an eraser.  The orange mat has an orange cup, etc.

3rd: Attach letters and/or numbers to the top with clear tape. 
*Or... you can attach them with a glue stick before you laminate the construction paper. 

Now, each child has their own lined dry erase placemat to use during small group time.

The little dry erase markers and erasers from Target's Dollar Spot finish this off!

 If you want the 8.5" X 11" size,  Click HERE for the link from another source.  

The best part about using these is that you can flip them over if you are doing a cut and paste lesson and the laminated mats keep the glue from getting on the tables.  The mats wash up easily and you won't have any more glue drying on your tables!

So, How Do I Use These To Teach Writing?

1. When using a writing prompt, the teacher writes what the student dictates on the dry-erase paper for the student to copy.

Here is an example of one of my writing prompts. 

While students are illustrating & tracing the prompt, the teachers asks them what they are drawing and writes it on their dry-erase paper for them to copy.

Click on the image above to grab the set of prompts.

2. When a student needs help spelling a word, the teacher can help the student to sound-blend the word on the dry-erase paper and then copy it from there.

I created writing cards to help students build sentences that are a lot cuter than these.Find them by clicking on the image above. 

3. When a student needs to practice letter formation, they can practice on dry-erase paper.

And...

For Whole Group Time:

Cover an old easel with the poster size lined dry-erase contact paper for your morning message or that teachable moment!

Spaghetti & Meatballs:
Leave enough room between the letters in a word for a piece of spaghetti
and enough room between words for a meatball.
I made this from a bamboo skewer & a wooden bead from a craft store. 

Click the image to grab these.

ALL of these ideas allow you to erase and the dry-erase paper may be used again and again! Now, that's sustainable! 

I will post Part 2 of 3 Next week.

Palma :)

You might also like:
Our First Day of Kindergarten Note for Parents

The Royal King of Ing

Number Formation & Chants

See you all next week!

Palma :)

My Crayon Confession: (+24 FREEBIES)

My name is Palma and I'm obsessed with organizing crayons!

It's true, what can I say.  
~I would often spend hours after school checking crayon boxes to make sure everyone had ALL of the colors.  
~I've been known to stop everything and have every child hold up each crayon as I called out the color names to make sure every student had ALL of their crayons.  
~I obsessed about this until I came up with not 1, but 2 solutions.

This FREE template fits inside the jumbo crayon boxes.  
The ones with the separate lids and the ones with the flap.
But you also get the one that fits in the 
regular-size 8-count crayon box!
Click the image above to grab your FREE copy.

My 1st Solution:

For crayon boxes, 

I came up with two templates 

that fit perfectly inside the jumbo 8-count box 

and the small 8-count box.  

(Click the image below or scroll down 

for the FREE templates.)

Just cut them out and glue them into the crayon boxes.

Students match the colors of their crayons to the colors on the template and they instantly know which crayons they are missing so they can replace them from my "Extra Crayons" box. 
(Just a box filled with lost crayons.)

A well-used small box of 8 crayons.
The template fits inside.  Just glue it in.

My 2nd Solution:

You might have seen my idea 

for table crayon storage in 

Scholastic Magazine. 

They featured my idea in their 

Back-to-School issue 

a couple of years ago.

~I use the popsicle molds to hold crayons on the tables.  

~It promotes sorting and there are always lots of crayons available at each table. 

~This is a great time of year to pick up these popsicle molds. 

Look for them at your local Dollar Store or Walmart. 

This pop tray can hold 6-7 small crayons 
or 3-4 jumbo crayons in each section.

BONUS:

 Don't throw away the little popsicle holders 

that come with the molds.  

They make great great counters, 

AND they can be used in your estimation jar, 

or you can tape numbers to half of them 

and sets of dots to the other half for 

a matching activity at a center.  

A great idea is to include a "reference jar"
 at your estimation center.
This one has 4 pop holders and 
says, "This is what 4 looks like."

So if you're as obsessed as I am 

about keeping your classroom crayons organized, 

you can pick up my templates 

FREE by clicking HERE.  Enjoy! 

And while you're there, 

grab the other 23 FREEBIES in my TPT Store!

 :)

Check out my:

FaCeBoOk:  Click Here to see my Facebook. 
(Tons of FREE ideas.)

PiNtErEsT:  Click Here to see my Pinterest Boards.  
(Oh, the ideas on these boards!)
  

TeAcHeRs PaY tEaChErS:  Click Here to see my TPT Store 

(Did you say, "24 freebies?!")

Check out more organization ideas by clicking HERE.

See you all tomorrow!

Palma :)

Buttons, Bows, Eric Carle, & Van Gogh!

Art Really Teaches!

Join us for some hands-on fun this summer, 

earn up to 3 graduate-level semester units, 

& receive a free gift:

Discover how you can link math 

to almost ANY of your 

favorite art activities!

Here is one example, from Art Masterpiece Corner, of the hat you will create.

Come and create an adorable hat 

using unique art materials from 

Discount School Supply 

and learn how your students can 

"buy" everything they need 

to embellish their creation.

This workshop is Presented by

the CKA Art Team with special guest 

Palma Lindsay!

For Pre-K/TK/Kindergarten 

and Grade One Educators

Tuesday, July 30th

8:30 a.m. – 3:30 p.m.

Click the image above for more info.

Contra Costa County Office of Education

77 Santa Barbara Road

Pleasant Hill, California

A Gift from the Art Team:

Each attendee will receive a copy of CKA’s publication, 

ART Really Teaches!

This book is filled with amazing art ideas.
$40 value!

Your day will include: 

~both CA Visual Art Standards 

& Pre-School Learning Foundation Standards

~the style of 7 master artists

~techniques on how to integrate 

oral language, literature, and math with art

~a rich portfolio of project ideas

~a hands-on session where you will 

get to express your own creative talents

This sample is from Creative Connections for Kids. 

To Register:  CLICK HERE

Which Is Your Favorite American Symbol?

That's What I Asked My Students...

After we finished our unit on American symbols I asked my kindergarten and transitional kindergarten students that question. Then, we wrote about it on flag paper!
You can easily create your own flag writing template (see below) or you can 
  CLICK HERE or on any image to grab this flag writing template.

Everyone expressed their opinion about which national symbol was their favorite. 

Opinion Writing:

We reviewed photographs of American symbols.

Illustrating where the stars would normally go.

Kindergarten students had to tell me which symbol was their favorite and why. This was one of the opinion pieces we wrote. They wrote the words "I like" and they copied the name of their favorite national symbol from a sample I printed on lined paper. (My TK kids got to copy the entire sentence.)

Copying from their dictation and my printing.

The bald eagle was a favorite for many of the boys.

This is how it works:

In a small group setting, I asked each student to draw their favorite national symbol with a pencil in the rectangle. While they completed their illustration with crayons, I asked each child to tell me which symbol they chose and why.  

I wrote their dictation on lined paper, and they copied it on our special flag writing template.
We were sure to add blue background to the illustrations and red stripes between the lines on writing so the pages look like American flags. We used peeled and broken blue and red crayons for this. They got to draw and use crayons in a different way!

These are the T.K. papers before we mounted them on construction paper.
Kindergarten students added an additional sentence telling why they liked that symbol.

Opinion Discussion:

My Transitional Kindergarten kids also told me which American symbol was their favorite, they also wrote "I like" and copied the name of their favorite symbol.  Then, we discussed why each student liked the symbol they chose, but we didn't write why.  

The Statue of Liberty

The Liberty Bell

Mount Rushmore

The White House

The bald eagle

The Lincoln Memorial

The Statue of Liberty

Here are some of the kindergarten samples:

The Washington Monument

The Capitol

Time to Display Our Work:

After we mounted each flag template to a piece of 9"X12" red, white, and blue construction paper, we put them up on our magnetic board with magnets.  They look so cute!  My favorite illustration is Mount Rushmore (above).

We have to use magnets to hold the work up on the magnetic white board.

Click the image to get this template.

Perfect For 4th of July, Labor Day, Veteran's Day, Memorial Day, or a unit on National Symbols:

I usually do my National Symbol unit during February, but this is also a great project to do for any of the holidays listed above.

You can easily create your own flag template by creating a rectangle and then add a lined font to the rest of the page. 
Or you can find my American Flag Writing Template (which includes two sizes, one for TK or K and one for 1st grade) by clicking Here. 

Let me know how your kids liked it.  :)

See you all tomorrow.

Palma :)

Graduation Ceremony or Not? These Ideas Are Gr8!

Are you planning a little Pre-K or K Graduation?

Click the image.

Check out these fun end-of-the-year certificates. These CUTE graduation certificates are Ready-to-Print for Pre-school, Pre-Kindergarten, Transitional Kindergarten (TK), and Kindergarten.

You even get a blank copy so you can fill in any special program you might have. 

Click the image.

You can grab your copy by

CLICKING HERE!

Next up: A cute song-

CLICK THE IMAGE

Just print and glue to construction paper (12" X 18") to create a big book that you can use to teach your Littles this cute song. 

Click the image.

It is sung to the tune of "It's A Small World" which you can download (an instrumental version) from iTunes.  

Click the image.

I like to bind my big books at the bottom (landscape style) so all I have to do is push the current page down with my thumb and let gravity allow the page to drop, exposing the next page. Then, I'm not fiddling with turning pages while the children are singing. :)

Click the image.

You can grab this song by

CLICKING HERE!

A "Good-bye" Gift: (And a FREEBIE poem!)

My Crayon Candle & poem project is an awesome gift your students can easily make to give to their parents.  There is even a version of the poem for any children who might not be graduating. And the best part is that this is a FREE download!

Click the image above.https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/End-of-Kindergarten-Crayon-Candle-490903

All you have to do is let the children break and unwrap their fat primary crayons and drop them into a glass baby food jar. Remember to label the bottoms of the jars with their names. I like to do this with masking tape because it is sometimes hard to read the names when this project is done, even if you use a dark colored Sharpie. 

Click the image above. 

After the kids fill their jar with crayons, slide a birthday candle into the center of each jar. This is a lot less expensive than buying candle wicks. It might take a little wiggling, but you can get the candles in. 

Last, after school, melt some paraffin wax and pour some into each jar. I like to use my home-hand wax machine. It melts the wax and I can easily ladle it into each jar. Let them sit overnight to cool.

I like to roll up this poem and tie it to each candle. My students gave these to their parents at the end of their graduation ceremony.

You can grab this FREE poem by 

CLICKING HERE!

AND HERE IS A FUN HEALTHY TREAT:

Perfect to serve at your celebration!

Just cut bananas in half, cut a slit for the grape, add grapes and you're done!

I hope you like these fun ideas. Share your graduation ideas below for our readers!