Tons O' giveaways!

Hello bloggers! There are MAD giveaways going on...have you entered?

Ladybug's Teacher Files has reached 1000+ followers. Wow! To enter her fantastic giveaway and have your blog made over, click {here}. Four lucky winners will be drawn.

Hop on over to Fab-u-lous in First and enter her fun summer headband giveaway!

Mrs. Duggins' is celebrating her 50 follower mark and is gifting an adorable basket full of goodies. I am sooo hoping I win! Head over {here} to enter. 

First grade fanatics are at 400 followers. They will be picking 4 lucky winners to choose something FREE from their TpT store. Awesome!

And lastly...Teaching in Flip Flops has reached 50+ followers and is giving away a "scent-sational" prize. Be sure to enter.

I'm a little late posting these and several end tonight/tomorrow. Hurry up and enter. Best of luck! ~Miss E

Christmas crafts!

Ho, Ho, Ho....Merry Christmas! In the spirit of the season, I thought I would share some ornament ideas I've made in the past with my kinders. Each year, I purchase gift bags and do Santa hand prints on the front. As we make an ornament, we place them in the bag and before school dismisses for the holidays, I add tissue!  My students take this home and present it to parents as their Christmas gift. It's always a HUGE hit. 

Here are some of the ornaments we place inside.  They vary from year to year depending on snow days and what kits I can find on clearance at craft stores. 

There is no rhyme or reason to my applesauce & cinnamon ornament or my shredded wheat & Elmer's glue ornament recipes. I just keep adding and mixing until I get to the consistency I want.  Please note: both ornaments take days to dry so I recommend doing these at the beginning of December.  Also, I would wear rubber gloves and have your kinders, too!  Happy crafting. ~Miss E

Merry Christmas and a Happy New *school* Year!

It seems that in blog world, everyone is in the Christmas spirit! Because I do not have a TpT store, I figured I would at least contribute to the generosity and offer a few freebies to get everyone geared up for a Happy New *school* Year! 

If you're like me, you have already thought about organization for the upcoming year and what you are going to do differently. So, here is the first thing: organize your classroom library. Hopefully these freebie labels will give you the jump start you need. Just download them and print them off using the Avery 5160 labels. Adhere to the front of your containers and cover with a strip of clear packing tape or contact paper for protection. Unfortunately, I had to do them in separate files, so make sure you download all 5 sets!

Click the image to download label set #1

Click on the image to download label set #2

Click on the image to download label set #3

Click on the image to download label set #4

Click on the image to download label set #5

Merry Christmas...enjoy! ~Miss E

Do you vistaprint? I do!

Does anyone VistaPrint?  I've ordered from them a few times and now I get emailed daily. ha Aside from them filling up my inbox, they do have some pretty great deals and are worth checking out. The following items, I scored for FREE! That's right.....free. I simply paid shipping & handling - which was around $8 for 4 items. Not bad :)

This rubber stamper (black only) will be great for STAR WORK in my classroom!

Because I go by "eberhart's explorers," my classroom theme is done in safari/exploration. I thought these zebra post-it notes would coordinate with the decorations I have up.  

Why not look professional at the beginning of the year and slip a business card to parents with contact info? Everyone else gets them....bankers, lawyers, salesman - why not a teacher?  And at the reasonable cost of FREE, I added them to my shopping cart! ;-)

And last but not least, I scored a business card holder as a bonus for ordering cards. Yay for me. Hop on over to www.vistaprint.com and add these free deals to YOUR shopping cart. Thanks Mrs. Bee for the idea! ;-)  Check out her finds {here}.

~Miss E

Post-It coupons!

Thanks to a friend, I've stumbled across more coupons that would benefit teachers! Paired with the already great deals many stores are having on back to school, you could walk away with a steal! Click here to access great printables by 3M. Enjoy! ~Miss E

*Back to School* Bulletin Board SAYINGS

Head on over to Really Roper and join in on her linky party fun. She is hosting a "Back to School Bulletin Board" party and has some great ideas to share. Here are a few of MY favorites:

Look Who is Hanging out in (Teacher's Name) Class - Create a clothesline and write each child's name on a paper t shirt. Use clothes pins to hang them on the line. For an added touch, students can decorate their shirt on the first day of school!

Fishin' for a great year - Attach a fishing rod to a bulletin board and write each child's name on a fish. You can even add a pond.

Jumping into Kindergarten (or grade of choice) - Cover the board in blue and make a large lily pad in the middle. Place a large frog on the lily pad with teacher's name and have student names around, written on smaller di-cut frogs. (Note: DJ Inkers has a great frog note pad that would work perfect)

Wanted: A Great Group of Kinders - Purchase the distressed/wanted paper at an office supply store and print students' names at the bottom. (If you want to get crafty, you can tea dye your own paper!) At Open House or on the 1st day of school, take each child's picture and add them to their wanted poster.  Display them on your board. 

Happy decorating! ~Miss E

Dazzling Dice

I have been loving all of these math ideas floating around on various blogs. The school system I work for is hosting a Math Work Stations "book study" and we've been meeting every other week to discuss the chapters from Debbie Diller's book. I've been able to take many of the ideas and printables I've found online, and share them with co workers...they've loved them! I've been putting the plug in for everyone's blogs too - no worries! I wanted to share with you a great little activity that someone presented yesterday in relation to the addition/subtraction chapter. When I got home, I re created it and made a FREE printable to accompany the work station. Because the dice are placed inside the bottle, it cuts down on noise. That's a plus! Students simply shake the bottle, look at the numbers the dice land on, add them together, and record the results on their sheet. In the boxes, students can illustrate the dots OR write the numbers - teacher preference.

To create, you need:

Clear water bottles (remove outer labels)

Water

Glitter

2 dice per bottle

Hot glue gun (to secure lid)

Labels (optional)

Here is my finished product. If you look closely (below) you can see the glitter floating in with the dice. It just adds a special touch...beads or confetti would be fun as well.

 

The water within the bottle almost magnifies the dice - pretty neat. And best of all....NO noise when the dice are "rolling." Have I mentioned that already? ha ha This can be adapted for older grades too and students can multiply the 2 numbers. 

Click on the image to download

Make sure you leave a comment and let me know your thoughts!  ~Miss E