Sweet Summer Measurement with mini erasers!

So I love mini erasers. LOVE them. The obsession is real. So now that I collect every mini eraser that exists for every month/season… I need a reason to use them, right? Especially these adorable summer PINEAPPLE themed erasers, and especially now that, thanks to a bunch of snow days, I’m teaching til mid-June for the first time ever.

So I did! I decided they could be used as measurement tools and I made some summer themed measuring cards to go with them! The red lines are so that the students can easily identify which way they’re supposed to measure and when they should STOP measuring! 🙂

I also made the cards in black and white so they can be easily printed on color cardstock, for those that don’t want to/can’t print in color (though seriously, HP instant ink is the best invention ever and I think every teacher should be using it!)

Weren’t able to find the erasers? Well, first of all I totally understand – my Target never got any and I had to do a lot of begging before kind, generous people send me some… but also… I made paper rulers to go with this. That way your class can still use those fun pineapples, popsicles and rainbows to measure. Oh and if you have other mini erasers, those could totally be used too.

Need a recording sheet? It comes with one! Personally, I plan on writing the answers on the back and letting students just check their work (because I don’t like dealing with so many worksheets) but if you want to hold students accountable, you can!

Just keep in mind that erasers come in all sizes so students may come up with different answers, based on the size of the erasers they’re using.

Want your own? It’s available in my Teachers Pay Teachers store, or just click on the image above to get it!

Now I’m starting to think about other mini eraser measurement activities I could make… gotta put all those erasers to use!

Mystery Puzzles – CVC and CCVC words

Oh I had so much fun making this center! It made me wish I was a student so I could play… being a detective, using foam tiles (a big hit in my classroom), and making words – recipe for fun!

My latest creation was another must do center… all the kids wanted to be at and stay at this center. I even found one little girl try to come back and do some more. 🙂

How does it work? Well, there are picture clues and the students have to figure out the initial sound/letter for each picture.

It comes with an alphabet chart, or what I refer to as a “cheat sheet”, so students who aren’t confident on their letters and sounds can still match the beginning letter.

Once the student has all the letters, they sound out the word and find the picture that matches. On the back of the picture, I wrote the word so they can check to see if they got it right!

I love these 4″x6″ photo cases for storing centers and everything in this one fits inside nicely. I color coordinated the cards and pictures so the kids have 6 different sets to choose from (and if something falls on the floor, it’s easily to find its home).

Everything put away in the 6 case storage box. This center comes with 36 cards – 28 CVC word cards and 8 CCVC cards for a bit of a challenge. I plan on making some CVCe word cards in the future… and I’m open to more ideas on what I can make after that!

Want your own? It’s up on my Teachers Pay Teachers store, click here to get it! BUT WAIT…

Check out my growing bundle… at a VERY low price. This bundle will eventually have CVC words, CVCe words and digraphs – the alphabet chart will be the same throughout the different products so children will get very comfortable with those initial sounds and will feel confident each time they do this center, even as it grows more challenging. Want it? Click here and grab your own!

Spring counting cards

Within the last few weeks I’ve really tried to change up my math centers – I noticed that my kids gravitated to the ones that aren’t paper & pencil or using dry erase crayons. In fact, those centers usually end up empty. Why am I using centers they won’t use… why can’t I make some they’ll love?

So… I made some! 

These are counting cards, with a twist. Students pick a card, count the number of objects and then put the tile down to match in the first square. But wait, there’s more! Then they need to practice counting on…

6 flowers, after 6 comes 7 and then… 8!

This student figured it out pretty easily. 

Yes, I could’ve used dry erase markers/crayons on these but I thought foam tiles would be a fun change… and they were. I got some foam sheets, cut them in 1″ squares and wrote numbers on them with sharpie. Easy and the kids loved it. Foam made it super quiet and the numbers were color coded so every once in a while I’d hear someone ask, “what color is number 3?” Super cute. 

It makes my teacher heart happy to say this center was a success! Every student wanted to go to it and they were happily working the entire time. I printed 8 cards in each box (Iris photo cases, I love these!) so everything they needed was all in one place and easy to tidy up. 

Need to differentiate? There are 2 sets of cards and instructions… for students that aren’t ready to count on, they can just count and put the number. Write the number on the back to make it independent and self-correcting. I will probably have these ready to go in the fall. 

Want your own? Click here to get them! I’m thinking about adding more cards so this is a great price!

Extended savings!

The Teachers Pay Teachers sale was such a success that teachers kind of broke the Internet. Whoops! I heard of some people having trouble using the code, using their rewards points, checking out… No fun.
So I decided to join some other sellers and set my store at 20% off for one more day. Did you miss out on any of my most wish listed items:

Hurry, the sale is good today only. And don’t forget to check out my latest product:

Hundreds Chart Puzzles

This summer has been one where I’ve spent most of it working on stuff for next year. That’s not really typical for me, usually I try not to think about work all summer long. But I’m excited because I think this means I’ll really be ready for the upcoming school year. I hope so anyway! 

I’m so tickled by my latest product because it was something that I wanted to find early in the summer. Then one night it just came to me – make your own! And so I did. 🙂
One of the skills I try to work on with my students is writing their numbers to 100. It isn’t required, they only need to write to 20, but I try to challenge the ones that can and start preparing the rest for first grade. I have to admit though, I’m not great at practicing with my kids and at the end of last year I wondered if a Hundreds Chart puzzle would help. They could start seeing the patterns in the chart, recognizing the numbers… all important skills.

The bonus? It’s NOT yet another boring worksheet for them to fill out. It’ll be fun for them, most kids like doing puzzles, plus puzzles lead to good problem solving skills. And if I have them working with a partner, then that’s even better – they’ll have to learn to work WITH someone else. All important.

So, as goes the trend this summer, I made some. There are 13 puzzles in this download, perfect for back to school – the pictures include school supplies, fall and basic shapes. I made two copies of each puzzle, one in color and one in ink saving black and white – no need to choose what file to pick, everything is all together this time. Print on cardstock (I would print the black and white pages on colored cardstock), laminate and cut out.

You can make them as hard or as easy as you want, focusing on certain numbers or patterns. I love that I’ll be able to differentiate for those students that are brand new at puzzles and the ones that are pros.

If you’re interested in purchasing my Hundreds Chart Puzzles, they’re currently on sale, thanks to the Best Year Ever sale. Click below and don’t forget to add the code bestyear to save even more on your purchase!

 

Teachers Pay Teachers sale!

I’ve always loved TPT sales, there’s nothing like getting a big discount on stuff I’ve had on my wish list for a few weeks/months. This’ll be my first TPT sale as a seller, and I’m excited to share my products at a discounted price.

Check out the savings!

And there’s more at my TPT store, click on the image below. Happy shopping!

Reading and Math Toolkit bundles

Yesterday I talked about math toolkits, which is where/why my Teachers Pay Teachers store began. They are easily my most popular item in the store. After I had posted them, I had a request to make a matching set of reading toolkit covers: this person planned on using the 16 kit and splitting it in half, 8 for reading, 8 for math. What a great idea!

So… I did!

Now, this kit just contains covers, which is why the price is so low. The idea is that you would label the containers with them and add your own materials. I’ve heard of adding magnetic letters, magnifying glasses, pointers for tracking print, reading strategy cards/bookmarks…

And then everything gets tucked away all nice and neat. 

I can definitely see myself having a set of 6 (you can buy the containers individually at Michaels or Amazon) on my guided reading cart for small group time. It would definitely make passing out materials a lot easier.

You can get my Reading Toolkit covers by clicking on the image below…

Or you can save money and get the bundle of math and reading toolkits combined here:

Where it all started… math toolkits!

It all started because I saw these online:

They’re called Iris photo and craft keepers, it’s a kit that has 16 4×6″ boxes (meant to hold photos). I thought they were cute and wanted a reason to buy them. And then I had it: math toolkits!

Last year the curriculum I used for math had me passing out materials to my kids every day. The same things: first five frames, which eventually turned into ten frames. Plus 10 snap cubes each. Some days we used dry erase crayons (I am the only person in the teaching world that prefers the crayons but that’s okay). It all took a long time to pass out to kindergartners: they would want to pick out their favorite color, get upset that they couldn’t have their favorite color… take one, pass it down is hard for 5 and 6 year olds. Between getting everything handed out and putting everything away, this easily ate up 10 minutes of my math time.

That’s where my math toolkits came in. I like having my students work in partners so each pair of students will share a box. In the box they will have:

Snap cubes, tens frames, number lines, popsicle sticks (practicing tally marks), dry erase crayon and eraser (the round facial scrubber), dice and base ten blocks (really paper cut outs I found).

Now will everything be in the box all the time? No. In fact, I prepped my boxes for the beginning of the year and all they have are five frames, ten frames and snap cubes. Things will go in and out of the boxes as the year goes by. But it’s nice to know it all fits nice and neat:

I envision starting the year off with a few materials and teaching them how to care for their boxes. I labeled everything in their kit with their kit # on the back so that we know where things go if they are accidentally left out. Since I teach math right after lunch (and we eat in the classroom), I can even picture my helpers passing the math toolkits on the carpet squares while we’re tidying up.

It also helps that they are just adorable. Okay, I’m a bit proud of myself. 🙂

Easily stowable. A place for everything, of course.

If you’re interested, or want to see more, check it out on Teachers Pay Teachers by clicking on the image below.

Or I also have an ink saver version here:

But wait, I also have a bundle that could save you money! Click below to learn about my bundle, or stick around… that’s a post for another day. 🙂

Want more? Check out my teacher pay teachers store by clicking on the image below:

Interactive Math Notebooks – no cut, no prep!

A few years ago I started using interactive math notebooks with my kids. I love them, and I especially love showing them off to parents – they love seeing all their work together in one place, and watching their progress and growth.

But. At the beginning of the year I typically have a few students that have a hard time cutting, if they’ve ever even held scissors before. They get way too glue-happy. They spend 20 minutes working on something that shouldn’t even take 10. My aide would spend a lot of time cutting things out/prepping and that frustrated me (and probably her too, I bet!). I needed no cut/no prep interactive notebooks.

So… I made some. I really had fun with this one, thinking of all the different activities I wanted my kinders to practice at the beginning of the year. Most of it, for me, is getting them into the routine of math notebooks. I figure, the more complicated stuff can come later.

I felt like the basics were important – numbers to 10, counting and writing. Coloring is important, for so many reasons! I also included shapes, graphing, color words, tens frames, dominoes… the list goes on. This could even be used for the beginning of first grade, as a quick review.

I kept the pages pretty simple so they’re not distracting… But they’re still cute and functional.

And they fit nicely in a standard composition notebook. Easy as pie. My aide doesn’t have to spend ages prepping and I don’t have to stress about students cutting and gluing. Phew.

And this package is currently quite the steal! It’s available for 25% off until tonight only. $3 for over 3 weeks of activities… wow! Check it out by clicking on the picture below!

teaching pineapples

Hi, I’m Ari.

I’m originally from Texas but I moved to Oregon almost 2 years ago. Best decision ever.

I’m a teacher, if I didn’t already give it away. This will be my 12th year teaching, and my 9th year of teaching kindergarten. Whoa.

So this blog came about because I got a little creative this summer. I made something that I put up on some Facebook groups and eventually Teachers Pay Teachers. It inspired me to make a few more things. And I wanted a place to kind of explain my thinking, maybe get more ideas to go with them. And I wanted to make more teacher friends around the world, get inspired by them. Form my teacher tribe, if you will.

But first I had to come up with a name. I’ve never been good with names. I always claim that all the good ones are taken. Then, late at night, I remembered something that had stuck out at me:

I love the idea, of being a pineapple. Standing tall, wearing that crown, being sweet on the inside (and maybe a little feisty on the outside). I’ve seen some versions that say to have a tough skin too, which is definitely something I need to work on. So I was inspired by pineapples. The teaching thing, well that’s obvious. I have to teach my students to become pineapples too.

So thats my story. This will become my teaching blog, most likely to post about things I come up with and possibly post in my Teachers Pay Teachers store. After all, I paid the $59.99 for a premium seller membership – at that price, I need to get my money’s worth and make more stuff! Now if only I can find some inspiration and creativity again…