Mardel's Will You Marry Me?

I am pretty sure Mardel's is my new favorite store! They have fantastic stuff  & a Thomas train table in the back that my daughter LOVED!!! And if anyone is looking for something to get me for Christmas (BLATANT HINT LOL!) They have fantastic puppets!!!! I am working on building up my puppet supply. It really helps the kids focus when they have something concrete to look at or touch when I am reading a story. I went to Mardel's two days in a row & still found things I overlooked!!!

I found a stack of geoboards tucked into a cabinet at the end of this year. I had been badgering my husband to help me build some. But I found some hiding in a storage cabinet in the math room! I'm excited to bring them out for the kids this year for word work & work on writing. This transparent geoboard is just what I need to model how to use it! I can put this baby on the overhead & waaa laaaa. (Since I don't have a document camera yet waaaah waaahhh) Well until then! :)

Here are a few birthday goodies I picked up. Last year I gave the kids a drink, a candy bar, a pencil, a balloon, & a certificate. This year I think I will do the same but add in these cute animal print bracelets.

I fell in love with this 99 cent inflatable safari microphone! I think it will be a cool addition to author's chair sharing time. :)

These whistles are for recess! I kept meaning to get one last year & forgot so now I don't have to yell. :)

Ceiling Hangers are one of the coolest things ever invented! I have lots of things I plan to hang from the ceiling this year. I hung numbers & color words last year.

Here is my last Mardel's find. last but certainly not least! I bought the blue one on Friday & got a coupon for 20% off my next purchase. So I went back Saturday & got the red one. I love these! Once I have modeled leading us through our letters & sounds deck & our sight word wall. Our job chart has a person to lead us through each & they use various pointers. The kids love it. I have a foam sword, a star pointer, a regular small finger pointer, a glow in the dark skeleton pointer, a plain old dowel rod, a yard stick, & now these gigantic finger pointers! :) I got a great deal on some tiny wood stars, hearts, etc... that I may use to make some new pointers. I'm excited!

Interactive Word Wall

I needed a word wall with pictures and words to help my kids spell during writing. I found some of these little cards in my storage cabinet. I used a vis-a-vis marker to write the word on it & waaa laaaa. Some of the pictures are also printables from various sites. My awesome instructional coach helped me come up with some great ideas when we were discussing word walls. She reminded me that it needed to be something where the kids could take the words back to their seat if they needed to. This is the end result. I still need to tweak some things. This is not the permanent location- I will eventually relocate it to my white board & use magnets & have the things on a much lower level so they are easier to reach. I am also still working on what I want to use as dividers...I'm thinking maybe ribbon...Oops! Forgot to put my "x" word up. I found these printable alphabet letters here: http://www.education.com/slideshow/color-animal-alphabet/Color_Letter_A/. I copied them into word & tweaked them to make them larger. You can also click "download all". Keep in mind these are NOT sight words. I have a separate sight word wall. I will post pictures soon of its makeover! :)

Sorry for the blurriness!

Word Wall

I had been trying to find a good way to really get my word wall going. My awesome instructional coach had a few ideas so I started. I have MUCH BIGGER plans for it next year though. It has been very useful!