Back to School Sale at TPT and My New Portfolio

I am participating in the Back to School Sale at Teachers Pay Teachers today and tomorrow.  Be sure to stop by my shop for 20 percent off of everything during these two days!

I have just added a new file of Portfolio printables and it is included in the two day sale!  Click on any of the pictures to take you to my shop.

There are covers for Pre-K, preschool, and kindergarten.  The pages cover handprints, self-portraits, family pictures, letter recognition, sight words, and more!  Just print the pages you wish to use.

  

I like to use bingo daubers with these pages.  You could also have students color the circles of the letters they know.

 Most of the pages have both color and black and white versions, you can choose which to use depending on your ink and printing situation.

There are lists for Pre-primer and Primer sight words.

You can choose to do pages once or several different times during the year to track progress. I like to place the pages in a binder, so I can also add other student treasures.

I love to read your comments.

Eilis

Free Printable Tally Race to 30

I was inspired to make this printable by a Roll and Tally to 100 that I saw on Tales from a K Classroom. Sara offers a treasure trove of free printables on her blog!  I was unable to print her "50" version, so I decided to create one for tallying to 30.  I will have two students take turns rolling a die or number cube.  Each player will draw the appropriate number of tally marks on his/her recording sheet after rolling the die.  The winner will be the first person to reach 30 (or more).  I will be laminating this for use over and over with dry erase markers.  I love simple math games.

Click HERE to print my free printable.

If you print this, please leave a comment.  Hope you are enjoying the rest of your summer!

Eilis

Free Printable Nonsense Words to Throw in the Trash

Walmart has these cute little trash cans in their Back to School section.  They are intended to be pencil holders and cost a dollar each.

I couldn't resist making some Real and Nonsense Words to use with them.  Just click the link if you would like the free printable words.  I printed mine on colored card stock. The kids will put the "real" cvc words in the pocket chart and the "nonsense" words in the trash can.

The Pocket Chart is from Target's Dollar Spot.

If you find this helpful, I'd love for you to comment here!  Facebook likes are also appreciated!

And. . . . Dr. Jean's Free Webinar is today.

Eilis

Count to 10 with a Mouse

I'm joining  Mrs. Jump's Book Linky today.  I am currently teaching in a very small school.  You could say that I am the kindergarten team.  One thing I really miss about team teaching is the sharing of wonderful children's books.  I've never had another teacher recommend a book to me that I haven't loved.  This linky has been recharging my batteries and I thought it was time to share a book and activity of my own.

Fortunately, or maybe unfortunately, I live near a great Half Price Books store.  On a recent visit, I found a wonderful hardcover book, Count to 10 with a Mouse, by Margaret Wise Brown. It is large and perfect for read aloud.  This is an Amazon affiliate link:

The book is about an adorable little mouse who wants to learn how to count so he will know how to count his nose and his toes.  Each illustration makes it appear that he is actually moving through holes in the book to get to the next page.  Each page features a different number of things (butterflies, monkeys, apples, etc.) There is repetitive text, rhyming, and counting to ten.  I look forward to introducing it to my class during the first days of school.  I feel sure it will become a class library favorite.

Here's an excerpt:

"6 pussycats
And in among the mix.
And in among the mix.
Six little pussycats are all in a fix.

So the mouse ran through the book,
the mouse ran through the book.
He ran onto the next page
to take a little look."

After reading the book, we will make our own class version.  Each page will have a fold out revealing a picture (with a peep hole).

I will fold a 12 X 18 sheet of construction paper leaving about an inch along the left side (note the arrow at the paper edge).
HERE is a free printable page to fill in with the student's name.  Each printed page will be cut in half and used for two students.  A little side trimming is needed before gluing the printable page to the folded construction paper.

I will use one of my favorite scrapbooking tools to cut a peep hole in the front part of the folded construction paper.  I think the kids will love guessing what will be underneath by looking at what shows through the hole.

The students will draw one to ten simple pictures inside the folded paper. (Another option would be to use stickers or stamps.)  They will dictate the number and words (beginning of the year).

I will bind all the pages together on the left side so the folded flap can still be opened up.

And... The GrowinginPreK Facebook page is up to 930 likes.  Looking for 70 more :)

Hugs,
Eilis

Happy Monday Freebie

I LOVE Mondays - during summer vacation...
Don't you? !

I've just finished a cute printable for my classroom and will be offering FREE in my Teachers Pay Teachers Shop until September 1.

If you print it, please follow my shop and/or like the GrowinginPreK Facebook page.  I have over 900 likes...please help me reach 1000.

I have long admired the "In our classroom ..," signs all over Pinterest, but wanted a version that my young students would be able to "read" early in the school year. As much as I love the "we do" phrase in many of these signs, I want to model correct grammar for my ESL learners.

I have included 5 of my classroom rules (We are good listeners; We try our best; We follow directions quickly; We are kind friends; We take turns) and two optional signs:  We pray together and We love books. I also couldn't decide between "In Our Class" or "In Our Classroom," so I included both.

Also, you may need to choose "landscape" when printing this file.  When I printed it without choosing landscape, I ended up with a small version on portrait.

I love to read your comments!

Hugs,
Eilis

Soccer Odd and Even Number Freebie

Do your students love soccer as much as mine do?  I hope they will enjoy this fun freebie. You can download it at my TPT store.
Two players take turns pulling the numbered soccer balls from a bag.  If the player needs the number, he places it on his mat.  If he does not need the number, he returns it to the bag and his turn is over.  The winner is the first player to fill all five spaces on his mat. There are also game mats without numbers for children who already know which numbers are odd/even. This could also be made into a file folder type activity for independent practice.

The cute clipart is by Kate Hadfield.

I am working on more soccer themed activities, so please follow me here, on TPT, or on Facebook for updates.

Happy Summer,

Eilis

New Catholic Printables

One of the wonderful things about teaching in a Catholic school is the freedom to include religion in my classroom.  This led me to create a new set of printables available in both my Teachers Notebook and TeachersPayTeachers shops.  All my proceeds from the sale of this religious printable will go to the school I teach at.  The needs there are great and I hope this will help.

Here's a little of what is included:

Here's the complete list:

27 Religion Word Wall Cards with pictures

11 Cut, Glue, and Write Sentences

Cut and Glue:  Sign of the Cross

Morning Offering

Our Father

Hail Mary (two versions)

Glory Be

John 3:14

St. Anthony

Holy Trinity

Grace Before Meal (two versions)

Quote from Mother Teresa

Why did God make Me?

Prayer of St. Francis

St. Rose of Lima

Our Lady of Guadalupe

Cover for Classroom Prayer Book

Cover for Classroom Saint Book

Liturgical Year signs for Prayer Table

Prayer quoted from  Pope Francis

The printable mini posters could be displayed on a prayer table, hung around the room, or made into a classroom book (covers included).  I plan to put the religion word wall words in a pocket chart near our prayer table.

Blessings,

Eilis

Mother'sDay

I was tickled by something one of my kindergarteners said today and had to share....

Background information:  in math we are learning to tell time to the hour.  We have not even touched half hours much less "quarter afters".

This afternoon, the children were supposed to be working on gift books for Mother's Day.  The children write and draw things that their moms cook, like, etc.

My student brought one of the plastic clocks up to me with the hands on 3:15.  He asked me if that is what time we go home from school at.  I was impressed that he knew this and told him so.  I bit my tongue and didn't point out that he was not doing what he was supposed to be doing.  Thank goodness I didn't say it.  His next words were priceless. "Good...'Cuz that's what my mom likes."

How absolutely wonderful that he feels that way.  Wow.

I have updated that printable if you would like to do it with your class in the next couple of days.

You can print it by clicking HERE.

The photo above was taken a couple of years ago when I taught Pre-K.  This year, my students did more writing.  We did the same cute fingerprint heart though.

Hugs,

Eilis

Sight word egg hunt

Happy Dance...
Love, love, love to find another way to use a printable that I have already created!   Today I borrowed the idea I have seen on other blogs for having students unscramble letter tiles to make spelling words, etc.  I printed a page from my Bunny and Egg Printables for Pre-K and K set and placed the appropriate letter tiles in plastic eggs.

Students will color the egg on the printable using the same color as the egg they found the sight word in.  (This will also give me a way to check that they did actually complete the activity and not just randomly color the eggs of sight words that they "found.")

Here are a few other items in the the printable set:

The adorable art in the printable set is by Kate Hadfield.

Hugs,
Eilis

Free Printable Classroom Suppy Labels

I have added a FREE printable file to my TeachersPayTeachers store.  It is a set of 18 printable labels to identify the school supplies in your classroom. 

 

Enjoy!