Sale on Teachers Pay Teachers!

I just wanted to let all of the readers out there in blog land that I’ll be having a SALE in my Teachers Pay Teachers store:  www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/The-Teaching-Zoo!

Grab your favorite items while they’re on SALE!!   Need something that you don’t see in my store?  Let me know and I’ll gladly create it for you! 🙂

Beaded Candy Canes

Merry Christmas to everyone who celebrates!  I hope you are all having a great day with your families.  I haven’t had a chance lately to post, but I have sooo much to share! 

Here are some candy canes that we made in class.  🙂  I love that my little ones had skills to practice while making these:  patterning and fine motor skills! 

I had three different colors of pipe cleaners for my students to choose from:  red, green, and white.  I also had a variety of bead colors to choose from.

The students selected the color of beads and pipe cleaners that they wanted and then strung the beads onto the pipe cleaner and made a pattern with them.

We also had Cheerios so that they could make one to hang outside for the animals.  🙂

 Finished beaded candy cane hung on the Christmas tree!  🙂
  One of my little ones making the Cheerio candy cane.

Christmas Playdough Mats Freebie!!

Playdough mats are so much fun for the littles!  I’ve just uploaded a free Christmas playdough mats pack to my Teachers Pay Teachers store!  In the pack are a tree to decorate, a gingerbread person, a candy cane, and a stocking!  Fun sensory play learning!  I hope you enjoy!  🙂

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Christmas-Playdough-Mats-FREEBIE-1021607
 Click the picture of the product cover above to grab your free copy!
Here’s one of the pages in the pack.   It’s the Christmas tree that the littles can decorate with playdough!

Gingerbread!

Gingerbread is one of my favorite themes.  There is so much you can do to teach a unit on gingerbread and the kiddos absolutely love it!  Here’s a gingerbread girl we made…tutu and all!

 
First, we painted the gingerbread girl with brown paint, then we glued google eyes, a pom pom nose, and a pipe cleaner mouth on her.  We glued rhinestones onto the hat, peppermint candies as buttons, and made a tulle tutu.  I think she looks great!  🙂

Mistletoes!

I just love this time of the year!  I also LOVE crafting with the littles.  Here’s  a Christmas footprint & fingerprint craft that we did together.  I made this one with my own two kiddos.  We did green paint on the feet, red on the toes and one foot at a time to form the tree.  Fingerprint stars and fingerprint lights. 🙂  This would also make a great parent gift from the littles at school to their parents. The canvas was really inexpensive (less than $1.00 each, but they even sell smaller ones for cheaper than that!).  Still haven’t decided if I’ll do it this year though, since I’ve just returned yesterday and the gifts will need to go home Friday in my classroom.  We’re having a winter show and that’s when we’re supposed to send them home, so we’ll see!

A little about my situation… and a GREAT day for me!

For the past 3 months, I’ve actually been home on my couch, with a broken shoulder and torn rotator cuff.  I tripped over a chair at work and fell with my arm out in front of me.  I’ve NEVER broken any bones in my whole life…until that Friday the 13th.  Ironic, I know. 

I learned to type using only my left hand (amongst many other things I had to learn to do one-handed, with the opposite hand than the one I’ve used daily my whole life).  I was only allowed to sit on my couch relaxing, so I decided that I would use my time wisely.  I created ALL of my lesson plans for the rest of the school year.  I didn’t stop there.  I then started creating ALL of my own curriculum for my classroom to use with the plans I had just finished making.  Even more, then I found Teachers Pay Teachers.  I decided to start uploading many things I had created and was still creating with my left hand.  Everything you see on my site is available on my Teachers Pay Teachers site: www.teacherspayteachers/Store/The-Teaching-Zoo

Well, now for the GREAT news.  I went back to the doctor today and my arm is finally healed!  I’m allowed to start using it again.  This post is being typed two-handed!  Woo-Hoo for me!  🙂

Little Readers!

I love little readers for my students.  The one’s I’m creating could be used in a few grade levels (pre-k to first).  I love to use them for my pre-kers this year.  For them, I love that there are so many skills…cutting, tracing, coloring, identifying colors, counting, identifying letters, etc…the list goes on!  They love them too!  They love being able to make their own book and take it home to share it with their parents. They get excited about the skills they’ve learned, the words they are able to identify or even “read” them.  I use them as a part of my Letter of the Week activities.  We make them during table work time, then later in the day we read them again on the carpet together during our closing circle time.

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Ee-Letter-of-the-Week-Readers-E-e-is-for-Elephant-1011655
 Here’s a little preview of the Ee is for Elephant Little Reader.  You can click the picture above to be taken to Teachers Pay Teachers to see it in my store.  🙂
 This is one of the pages of the little reader in color.  I also provided it in black and white.
 Here’s a page of the coloring little reader book.
 
I’ve uploaded many letters.  Not quite done with the whole alphabet, but I’m working on it!!!  🙂

Happy Friday!

Happy Friday Everyone!

I hope everyone is having a great day!  I can’t believe it is already December 6!  Where has the time gone???

Are you ready for the upcoming holidays?

I’m almost ready…I’m an Amazon Prime girl!  My friends all joke about it because I even have the app on my phone and I’ll order right then and there if I think of something I need or want and Amazon will have it delivered to my house in 2 days or less. Love it!