A Little DIY FUN!

  Well hello world! Sooo its been a while, but I was on vaca so it was kinda okay! Haha!

  Since getting back it has been very busy around the Yellow Castel, we had to prep to go to a very special little man’s 1^st birthday party, start on some home diy, and a little school savings diy {which is why we are here!}

 

  So teachers are always looking for ways to save money, well I have a great way to help bring a pop of color to your classroom (or home) and not break the bank by spending 300 dollars!!!!! {ExCiTiNg RiGhT??!!??}

  If you want to put a fun run in a part of your classroom, BUT you don’t want to spend the hundreds of dollars this idea might work out for you!!

  {Let me set the stage} I got a great homework/craft table for my little boo boos, but the hubs can’t stand for the play-doh to get stuck in the wood floors (doesn’t bother me at all).  So I was thinking what I could put down that looked great, wasn’t a plastic shower curtain, and that I wouldn’t have to spend a ton on. 

Ta-DA!!!

Isn't it FUN!!

  I happen to have some spare fabric left over from other diy projects {truly just scraps}.  AND I had a large piece of left over yellow felt from some lemon costumes.  

  I pulled out my handy dandy glue gun and got to work!  I laid out all the different fabrics I had and pieced them together.  Once they were laid out how I liked, I glued the edges, and BOOOM!!! Simple, easy, affordable, and adorable!!!

  This is going to work best for an area that needs a little pop of color, a place to define where there is not going to be a TON of foot traffic.  I am making another one for my library area to coordinate with my reading stools. 

{break down - ideas - hints}

  You can get any amount of fabric that you want to work with.  The felt comes off a bolt that is very wide -some can be 96 inches- and you can get fabric for very cheap from various stores.

  I have been thinking these would look so great to use to help define an area within the classroom (under rocker in the front of the room).

  The felt helps to give it a little cushion for the tush! You might even be able to double it up and give your tush a double cushion! Hee hee!

  Love, Hugs, and Wiggles!!!

   Kyleen

P.S. If you do try this let me know how it goes and where you are going to be using it!! 

Welcome Back, Welcome Back, Welcome Back!

Well it’s the end of the year! Only 9 more days to go! This means it is craft learning time! We get to teach Kindergarten a little more like we want to teach Kindergarten! YES! yes! YES!

This is one of the most exhausting times of the school year, yet it is the most exciting!  The kids are ready to get out! The teachers are ready to get out! Our families are ready for us to be out! Everyone is just ready to be out! 

With that being said and with summer time here in full force, it is time to make the lovely ‘Oh I’ll do that during the summer, when I have more time’ list.  Mine is full of fun and excitement for me and the little boo boos, family vacations, and of course the ever growing house fixing-uping.  Along with the ever growing and mind possible list I am coming back to the blog!

(Welcome back, welcome back, welcome back)(sung in my best welcome back kotter theme song voice)

Thank you! (yes having a chuckle in my head and having a convo with my head) The hubber’s work has moved to permanent shifts and he was lucky enough to get placed on nights (sarcastic eye roll)! So since the little boo boos (not so little anymore but will always be little to me) go to bed early, and I wont be bogged down with lesson plans, report cards, progress reports, prepping, scoring, and anything else school related for a tiny bit, I plan to *try* to get back started with blogging, BUT for REAL!

Well this is my start as I put off working on report cards and other end of the year paper sorting (and finding missing papers from October)! So here we go on this crazy, bumpy, unexpected, FUN, exciting, ride, journey, experience!

100 TPT Follower Freebie and Giveaway!

Oh Me Oh My!! Whooo Hooo!! I had the awesome chance to participate in my very first blog hop! AND it was AWESOME! Not only was it awesome ... I have reached 100 followers on TPT!!!!

       I never would have imagined this!! I am so grateful and excited about this that I want to share some great things with you!!!

       First thing ... I am going to do a give-away of my missing sound set, non-sense cookie set (with new multiple level words), and baking up sight words (with additional words added)!

       Second because it was a “Bright Ideas Math Hop” that helped to get me over 100 TPT followers, I am going to have my missing number math robot be FREE for the week!! I will change it to FREE this evening and for just this week it will be FREE!!

       I can’t say THANK YOU enough to all the people that have helped to share my products and my name! It was just a thought in the back of my mind that other might like some of the things I make and I wanted to share! I have learned so much in just the past 2 months from so many of you!!

THANK YOU!!! THANK YOU!!! THANK YOU!!!

       

     I have to give a huge and personal thank you to

Laura S. at Differentiation Station and Kider Doodles, and Teacher Tam!  Y’alls help, advice, and support has been so wonderful and welcoming!!

     I am so excited as I keep learning, creating, growing, and excited to see where things lead!!

     Enjoy the 2^nd Math FREEBIE and make sure to sign up for a chance to win the big bundle of phonics and sight word goodies!!!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Love, Hugs, and Wiggles!

       Kyleen

My 1st Math BLOG HOP! {a Freebie}

Oh My! Oh Boy! Oh Man!

         Okay now that I have gotten all that out! WOW! I am so excited!!! This is my first time ever being apart of a BLOG HOP! I always go on the hops and find great new blogs to follow and find so many great ideas! Buuuuuuttttt .... This is the first time I am one of the stops!!! Ahhh!

         Okay done! Now on to some fun teaching ideas!

         Back in December I got the opportunity to go with a few other teachers from my school to go down to Atlanta and visit and learn from the Ron Clark Academy! It was unbelievable! There were so many different things that I took away from that experience!  But there was one major thing that impacted me most during my visit...the transformations that the teachers took on during their teaching.

         Okay now I know what you’re thinking ‘transformations? Like I need to redo my room?’ NO! Now you totally can do that (I used 4 shower curtins around the room and drew airplane windows on them and we were on an airplane for our study on Cinderella around the word, and holidays around the word), but you can just transform a center so easily!

         It just required to trays that I had in the back of the kitchen cabinet, two spatulas from the dollar store, two aprons (also from the dollar store), and two chefs hats that I borrowed (for an extended period of time) from the shorties at the house! 

         I started off with just 1 cookie center, and WOW the kids had never worked so hard to get their work done, to get to that center! Even my kids that really, really, really take their time to get their work done – they did their work and did it quick to get a chance to get to the center!  

         And BOOM! Students were spelling sight words, practicing reading their sight words, writing their sight words!  I got so excited that they were excited! They were excited that I was excited!  It was just a very exciting day for all!

         That got me to thinking, so I went to the dollar store and BANG! I started to transform and create new centers!  Students are able to practice the skills they need (reading and math) and there is usually just 1 small addition to make the center ... “fun!”

           Here the kids wear army hats, vests, and use binoculars (all from the dollar store) to search the room for different things (CVC words, numbers, sight words, amounts).  We talk about how the army searches and has to strategize! They LOVE it!

          The students have a blast with the cookie centers.  They love to sort the cookies and tap the sounds out along with creating their sight words.  It’s the easy and simple things that gets them excited about it!

               Now all this brings me to my freebie and new transformed center!  My students are in need of practice time with base 10 blocks and counting.  I found some really cool police glasses and badges at the dollar store, along with some super cute clipart from Creative Clips by Krista Wallden!  In my book that makes 1+1+1=3!

So I have the police cars that have a number and a matching police officer card with the base 10 blocks pictured on it.  I wanted the kids to interact with it and build the number and not just match, so I have the students build with the blocks or on their iPads the number from the police car and then find the officer match (so they match the police officer to the car). 

           Since I work at a 1 to 1 iPad school and I wanted to make it independent enough that the students could self check, there is a QR code on the officer card (base 10 block card), so students can see if they were able to match it up correctly.

          The kids have been playing it for 2 days and they LOVE it!  They love wearing the glasses and the badges! I promise to do better with pictures! J

           So here is your freebie! 0-12 Number Patrol!  Click here to go to my TPT Store or click on the picture to go get it!  ENJOY!  Make sure to let me know what you think!

Don’t forget to hop on over to the next blog for your next freebie!

Love, Hugs, and Wiggles!

      Kyleen