Happy Wednesday

Yesterday I made a purchase on Zazzle. I had never heard of the website before this teacher had mentioned that she just got her new binder from there. So I went and check out the site and of course I HAD to get one of my own. I can't wait to see what they look like and to transfer all my things into my new binder.

I also checked out the site freecycle... never heard of it but I guess it is like the classified except you can get or give things away for free. I haven't really made contact with anyone yet, I'm still trying to figure things out. But you can just type in your city and state and you can find the "group" in your area. And there are people there offering or needing certain items. And you can post what you are offering or needing too. Seems neat but I would love to see it in action.

Here are some freebies for you that I found:
  And you have to check out First Grade Fanatics as they are celebrating 14 Days of Summer. Today is day #2 which means that we need to catch up and get downloading the freebie from yesterday. They are also having a HUGE giveaway too. Isn't that wonderful? So if you don't win the giveaway you still had the chance to get all the neat freebies they are offering in their 14 Days of Summer bash.:) Good Luck!
   Fran over at Kindergarten Crayons is so awesome and wants to celebrate back to school that she is giving away her back to school patterning book for FREE. Oh I am soooo glad that she decided to give it away, it was a wish of mine. Oh and she also offered her Tiny book for students.
   Mrs. Miner over at Kindergarten Monkey Business posted her Birthday Monkey Number Sense activity. She also posted her "colorful" book for free which is an extension of her Colorful unit that you can find at her TPT store.
   First Grade is Fantabulous offered her back to school pack glyph
   Mrs. Bainbridge's Class offered a freebie because of her reading of Debbie Diller's Math Work Stations.
   For any Spanish teachers (or those who want to do an extension of a Spanish special) Step into 2nd Grade with Mrs. Lemons has created a Spanish alphabet for you to enjoy for free.
   Little Warriors is already thinking about Open House and I bet many of you have already had yours. I haven't yet but I will at the end of this month. But for those of you who still haven't met your kinders, she is offering LOTS of freebies for you. And don't forget to enter her giveaway. 
  Ever heard of a kindergarten round-up? No? How about Kinder Camp? You know getting the future kindergarteners eased into kindergarten by meeting with teachers and testing them on their basic skills. Oh that would be a wonderful time if we could just set something like that up at my school. They have summer school but this is something entirely different. To have time to test the students before they come to school on their basic skills, obviously you don't know who will be in your class when you are testing them but just to find out what they KNOW before they come to you the first day of school would be wonderful. If you think this might be something you might want to try at your school check out Mrs. Stamp's post and see if you can make it happen. I think I might bring this to my team this year and get it ready for next year.
  Kinder Journey is offering up her August/September and October calendar pieces. And these couldn't have come at a better time just as I was thinking I had to make another set for September as I did not like the pieces I used last year.

A tip that I bet many of you know and probably already do.... New Student Packets.
   Last year I scrambled around trying to find things that I needed to get for my new student. I was told that I would get new students throughout the year but never did I realize how many I was going to have coming and going in my room. But this year I have a head start and I hope keep up the new student bags. Check out Two Things in Common's teacher tips on a snowy day which also include her post about the student bags and many others. How many of you use fabric on your bulletin boards? I didn't know about it until 2 years ago when I worked with 2nd graders and I LOVE IT! The paper at our school is often dull and fades but I had my fabric bulletin boards up all year and they work just fine... that tip is in that post too.:-)

Have you ever done Mystery Readers in your classroom? Well last year was the first time I did it in my kindergarten classroom but I have been doing it in my pre-k classroom for several years. In my preschool classroom, I usually had the parents sign up and they could bring a prop or dress however they wanted too. I had a great turn out, I worked at a parent-driven school. I had parents dressed the part, bring goodies for the kids or just come to read to us. I even have about 5 or 6 dads come to read to us and that of course is spectacular. So last year I wanted to try it in my new school and see how it went. I always wanted to invite the administration and staff so they could enjoy too. Well I had a great turn out of staff, even a few pre-k classrooms came to visit our room and read to us. I only had one family member come but that was great too because some of my colleagues weren't thinking any of them out come. It is sad but I can't wait to do Mystery Readers again next year... I usually do it in honor of Dr. Seuss' birthday (and sometimes it lasts through April) but I know some other teachers who do it year round. I've never tried it year-round though.
    If you are thinking about doing Mystery Readers in your room like me, hop on over to the Clutter-Free Classroom website and there is a whole post on managing mystery readers. And you can also buy her activities from her on her MY PRODUCTS page, if you come to find that doing mystery readers is something that you might like.
DON'T FORGET: To enter in the many giveaways from my previous posts too. Good luck!:)