Theme Thursday {Spiders & Bats)

So I'm trying to prepare for next week and as always I'm looking for new ideas. My theme is spiders and bats and this is always LOVED by all the kiddos. I have a few fantastic ideas up my sleeve, but there is room for more so here is what I've found from pintrest and I'm hoping you will add yours as well. 

Ok so this is totally fab! Spiders with missing numbers that the children can fill in. CUTENESS! 

Click the picture to download.

I did these last year and plan on doing them again--they were SO MUCH FUN! 

L.O.V.E. doing these----along with the rolling the marble inside a box on black paper with white paint spider webs of course--

From the talented Mrs. Jump---

So, please share my friends....what activities do you like to do when you study spiders and bats at school? Please share!

Theme Thursday {All About Me}

So next week I'm starting my All About Me unit and here are some things I have found that I'm using or tweeking a bit:

I purchased this unit last year and used it with my firsties and they LOVED it. We worked on a couple pages a day and at the end of the week we shared them to the class. I'm kind of anxious to see what the kinders will create, but they are excited about talking about "me" all week.

Learn and Grow Designs: (click to purchase)

I purchased this unit last week and I'm excited about using some of the activities out of it!

Creative Classroom

I also took advantage of this MARVELOUS unit by Deanna Jump before school started. I used it mainly during the the beginning of school, but this is one of the projects we didn't get to, so I'm pulling it back out and we're going to do it. I know my kinders are going to love it....of course I'm going to be sweating as they are cutting (many of mine are still have difficulty holding scissors--AHHH) BUT- they love love LOVE tearing paper, so this will be their favorite. 

Mrs. Jump's Class:

This is also when I start to introduce my bucket fillers and talk about "heart felt words" and making our friends feel good. Here is a picture of what I use in my classroom as bucket fillers. As for the beginning of the year I am the only one using these. When the kids do something to make me happy (fill my bucket) I give them a pom pom to fill their bucket....because when you fill someone's bucket you also fill your bucket! 

I cannot remember where I snagged this sign from....THANK YOU if it was you--I'm thinking it was Room 36 but I'm not sure. 

Sorry about the darkness of the photo....I'm sitting in the dark because it relaxes me! I do have labels for my buckets, but I forgot them at home today so I'll be bringing them bright and early tomorrow morning and putting them on. This is actually a 24 shoe hanging organizer with plastic cups inside.

I also start my VIP (Very Important Pirate) and I start with information about myself. Each day is something different and I actually got the idea from What the Teacher Wants....and just tweeked it to fit my pirate theme. Also, whoever is VIP of the week, they get to spend a weekend with Cupcake our class pet (parrot) whom I have previously mentioned. 

Enjoy my friends!

Classroom Theme {Pirates}

So sorry about posting about pirates again my friends, but I'm in pirate mode and I've been finding SO MANY fabulous ideas out there I just HAD to share! 
Click the picture to be directed to the blog I snagged the photo from! 

Pirate Numbers! Yay!

I couldn't stop myself from buying this! 

Love this idea for classroom jobs! Which reminds me....do ya'll have any ideas for pirate like names for classroom jobs?? 

This is where I found my inspiration for my hallway display. Thanks Mrs. Jump!! 

She also offers this as a FREE yes...I said FREE download! YYAAAHHOO!

Oh my word....TOO CUTE-- in our county- we cannot do ANYTHING with our doors. 

:( Blah.

Too precious!

Cute desktop tags

I really like this idea. I am going to use it, but change it just a little. I'm going to use the little metal buckets and put a treasure chest on the front of the buckets and label one Lunch from Home and the other School Lunch. I will have coins with their names on it inside a small pocket chart that they can place inside the buckets each morning. 

Sail ho! Have a jolly Thursday Matey!

End of the Year {Theme Thursday}

I don't know about you, but I just cannot believe that we only have 1 more week left of school! WHOA! Where does the time go? Well, it is starting to get a bit overwhelming, and it is beginning to look like the 3M store blew up on my desk due to all the notes just laying around. So, just like many of you- I have made myself a little end of the year checklist. I love checklists, because I absolutely LOVE checking those things off. So here it is friends---I know it will not help many of you to download it, but it may help you get an idea of how to organize your own. 


Click the picture to download

I begin each year talking about Oceans and I like to end each year going into more depth with Oceans. Since my whole "theme" is Oceans it just works out best that way....plus that's all we are thinking about right now is summer time and the beach anyway! I had to head on over to Deanna Jumps blog and purchase her new Ocean Unit and it is SUPER DUPER cute! I can't wait to get started on it Tuesday (Monday is our last field trip)! Kind of sad. 

Click the picture for the link to purchase that awesome unit friends--

Happy Thursday All---now off to watch the Season Finale of Grey's Anatomy---surly Meridith does not really get fired!! 

Mother's Day Tea {Theme Thursday}

The past couple of years I have been hosting a Mother's Day Tea for the mothers in my classroom. I try to keep it simple, but usually my o.c.d. tends to get the best of me. This year, I asked mothers to email pictures of them with their child to me and I put them in a video with some music. 


I made some chocolate covered strawberries, Pampered Chef's Kiwi Lime Desserts  and some strawberry lemonade. I bought some sweet tea and bottled waters and cookies for the kids. 

Here are a few examples of the work my firsties have been doing this past week. 

I'm lucky to have a Mom like you-- card

Flower Coupons- tear off a petal to redeem 

Favorite Memory of My Mother

Portraits of our Mothers 

Spring Fever

This is a picture of our dogwood trees that we made a couple of weeks ago. We colored in trees that were drawn by my fabulous artistic assistant and then glued on popcorn to resemble dogwood trees. The kids really like doing this activity and especially eating the left over popcorn! :)

Here is an activity that we did with our Dr. Seuss theme back in March. We like math---especially anything that we can eat later! Ha!

Here is a picture from our Kite Day that I planned and will probably NEVER do again. Ugh! Wow....this was the first time I did this and it was one of the most craziest days ever! Putting each kite together was the worst! The cheap kites broke....the kids got tangled up together....kids that broke their kites cried.......it just was not a good experience. IF I do this again in the future, I will ask for a parent for every child to be there.

As I'm planning for the week ahead I wanted to share with you a few ideas that I have done this spring so far. I'm having a hard time coming up with some good Easter crafts for my firsties to do this upcoming week so I'm hoping some of you can share your ideas with me!

Theme Thursday!

Graphics Designed by: Lettering Delights 

I recently just completed my "X Marks the Spot" unit.  My themes are centered around the letter we are learning for the week.  Letter Xx is hard to put to a theme, but our fellow FBU girl, the Frog Princess, decided to do a pirate theme for the letter Xx.  I loved this idea and have used it every year!  We end our week with a pirate party!  

Graphics by Lettering Delights

We have 5 stations at our party-musical islands (musical chairs), treasure hunt for pirate loot, sight word pirate ship ring toss, sleeping pirate, and digging for jewels.  

Graphics by Lettering Delights

Here is what we do- at musical islands, students march their way around the chairs to pirate music.  The chairs are placed on blue butcher paper or a blue carpet to represent islands. 

When students go on the treasure hunt they are following clues around the school to find the treasure!  Little did they know it was in the room the whole time!  Each student gets a loot bag full of pirate treasure and fun pirate stuff from the Dollar Tree. 

Graphics by Lettering Delights

 At the sight word ship, students have to read and spell their sight words.  For every word they get right, they get to throw a ring on the ship! 
 Sleeping Pirate is always a hit!  We have a pirate hat full of treasure.  One kid in the circle is blind folded, students pass the hat around and one student steals the treasure out of the hat.  All students act like they are hiding the treasure, and then the kid who was blind folded must guess who has it!  Their guilty faces normally gives them away! :) 
The last station students had to dig through sand to locate beads to make a pirate bracelet.  Anytime sand is involved there is fun to be had!  Once students made a bracelet, they listened to a pirate story!  
So much fun!  
After we rotated through all the stations, we wash up for some pirate grub!  Students had corn dogs, chips, cookies, apple slices, and juice boxes!  Students really enjoyed this party! I left my camera at school, but I will share pictures soon! 

Graphics by Lettering Delights

Arrgh Friends, have a great Friday!