I Teach K! Treasure Hunt Pictures


Do you like to hunt for teacher treasure at conferences??  I do!

One of my favorite things to do at educational conferences is to go into the rooms where different people are presenting, and look at all of the goodies and gadgets that they have displayed there.  Then I search for the very best ones, and take pictures of them!  I like to call this process my "Treasure Hunt," because it is often like looking for buried treasure amongst all of the things that they have set up.  And, just like Pinterest, a picture is often worth a thousand words!  So it is often possible to just look at what they have on display for all of their sessions and instantly just "know" what they are going to say about it!  It is the quickest way to get new ideas that I know of.  Sometimes, there are just as many great ideas in the exhibit hall as well.  Here are a few pictures of the treasures that I found at I Teach K last week!  I hope you enjoy them!


Gumball Machine from Helps4Teachers.com

I found this plastic gumball machine in the exhibit hall at the Helps 4 Teachers booth for $6.99!  The exhibitor is a teacher who created a bunch of neat things and then wound up selling them, much like myself.  She took sight words and printed them out very small, and used Mod Podge to stick them onto little rock-like jewels.  The children are supposed to push the button to get a few jewels out and then write the words on their papers.  However, I noticed that you don't just get one jewel at a time with this gumball machine; you get several, depending on how long you hold down the handle.  So I was thinking of perhaps using this one as a math center and having the children count the number of jewels that came out.  Otherwise, they might only get to push it once and then have to write five words!  I love the idea, though, and I will be on the lookout for a "real" gumball machine that takes pennies and dispenses the jewels one at a time.  You can purchase this gumball machine here.


I Have, Who Has game from Julie Brinkley.

I saw these "I Have, Who Has" cards in Julie Brinkley's room after her session on math workstations.  (It was great, by the way!)  I really like the idea of using pictures and names to introduce this type of game to the children.  I had never thought of this before!


Vanessa Levin's New Book, and My Alphabet Action Book!


Vanessa Levin was displaying her brand new book, called A Fabulous First Year and Beyond.  She even gave me a free copy of it and it looks like a wonderful resource!  If you are familiar with her blog and website, Pre-K Pages, then you already know that she is an absolute WEALTH of information.  Since Vanessa is a Pre-K expert, she is my "go-to" person when I am out of ideas for remedial students.


Electronic Dice from Helps4Teachers.com

I fell in love with these electronic dice from the Helps4Teachers.com booth!  The only thing is that you have to take the dice and kind of slam them down on the table to activate them, rather than just roll them, for some reason.   I had some electronic dice like these for a few years back and the kids just loved them!  I was sad when the batteries ran out; that's why I bought another pair.


Vanessa Levin's Car and Letter Idea


This is another one of Vanessa Levin's ideas that I saw on her display table.  She did not mention it in the session that I sat in on, but my assumption is that you would have the children roll the car in the direction that they should write the letter.  Love that!


Vanessa also had some of these cards on display.

It reminds me of a similar idea that Vanessa had on display from MakingLearningFun.com, in which you print out the letters and roll cars along them in the same way.  The letters are printed with roads down the middle of them.  They are really cute- and it's a FREE download! (But watch out- it takes a lot of ink, and the ink is NOT free!)  The way I first heard about it, though, was that the children were supposed to make the letter sound as they rolled the car along the letter.

---- Newsflash!!!  Vanessa just left a comment below regarding these letter cards that I thought would be helpful for you to know:  "On the MakingLearningFun.com race car alphabet letters I added sticker dots, green for where they should start and red for when they should stop their car. This helps with proper letter formation and imprints in their muscle memory as they "drive" their cars across the letters."----


Oh, look!  What interesting looking DVD's and CD's from HeidiSongs!!!


Of course, it is always fun to go take a peek at my own CD's and DVD's in the exhibit hall and see how it looks all on display!  I remember the first time I saw my name on the display... what a thrill!


Alfie the Alligator, also from Helps4Teachers.com

This is a neat little manipulative to use when teaching the more and less symbol!  There is a book that goes with it, too.  You can flip it either direction; it is printed on both sides.


The Alfie Alligator book is in the middle of the display.

As I am looking at their website, it looks like the little manipulative above is sold with it, and you get 22 of them along with the book!  Looking at the picture now, I think I should have taken a better look at her Fact Family book.  (I deliberately try NOT to look at picture books any more because I have more of them in my classroom than I have time to read in a given school year- or maybe TWO school years!!!)  Do you think that there is such a thing as an addiction to picture books?


Clear hair gel plus food coloring: irresistible!
 
Okay, I know what you're thinking:  this hair gel in a baggie idea is nothing new.  But I have never actually FELT it before, and I have to tell you, it's irresistible!  This baggie was on Vanessa Levin's display table, and I couldn't stop touching it and drawing things on it.  What fun!  I am inspired; I'm going to have to implement this idea next year!!!  I understand that they sell hair gel at the Dollar Store, too, so it shouldn't cost much.  My only concern is that I think it might be hard to keep the kids from opening up the bags....  The idea, of course, is that they should be writing letters, numbers, and shapes on the baggies.  Sounds good to me!

---NEWSFLASH!  Vanessa just left a comment below about how she avoids children opening up the bags:  she seals the tops of them with packing tape.  Thanks for the tip, Vanessa!--- 


This is a jeep and army men counting workmat from Julie Brinkley's session on math workstations!  I think that the boys would go crazy for this!




Here is another one of her workstations that I thought was very clever!!!  I like the idea of using recycled materials for children to count with, too.


Here is a barn and farm animal workstation.

Julie Brinkley also had this cute little barn and farm animal workstation set out as well.  And by now, you are probably wondering if this wonderful person has a website or blog!  And the answer is.... I don't know!!!!  If anyone knows, please leave a comment and I will add her link to my blog here!

----Newsflash!  Stacy just left a comment below with Julie Brinkley's blog, and here it is:  MrsBrinkleysKindergarten.blogspot.com.  Thanks so much, Stacy!----


----------------------------------
Follow me! Did you enjoy this post? Do me a favor and share it with your friends!  And follow this blog by signing up for my email updates, or follow on Bloglovin', or follow me on TPT!  I'm also on Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google+ and YouTube, too!  Don't forget to sign up for our email newsletter (at the bottom of this page) for special deals and promo codes that you won't find out about anywhere else.


Popular posts from this blog

Creepy Crayon: Free Craft Template!

Image
Today, I am going to give you a link to our free Creepy Crayon craft that we made to accompany the book Creepy Crayon by Aaron Reynolds!   Yay!  If you are a fan of Creepy Carrots and A Creepy Pair of Underwear ,  then you were probably just as excited as I was for the next book in the series, Creepy Crayon !  And so by popular demand, we have have included the Creepy Crayon craft here as a free download!  We have also included links to our other crafts for Aaron Reynold's creepy books, too.  They are such fun! The Illustrations are FAB! I definitely need to give a shout out to illustrator Peter Brown, whose wonderful illustrations play a huge part in the popularity of these books!  I love the way he made almost all of it in gray tones, except for the crayon, of course!  The illustrations really give the story a creepy, but friendly tone.  I know I'll be a Peter Brown fan forever! This is a photo of my Creepy Carrots crafts samples in my classroom before I retired. Check Ou
Read more

How to Help Children That Have a Hard Time Learning the Alphabet

Image
Is your child (or student) having a hard time learning the alphabet?  Are those letters just not "sticking?" Does your child seem to know a letter one day, and then forgets it the next day- or even just a few minutes later? In this post, I will share my most recently developed techniques for helping kids learn and remember the alphabet. Check Vision- Thoroughly! During the past 30 years as a teacher, I have tried many things for all of the different types of learners that I’ve had. One thing that I would highly suggest is that you have your child's eyes checked, just in case you have not yet done that. I know that most schools have their school nurses do this, but I would suggest that a nurse is really not an optometrist, nor is he/she an ophthalmologist. I wrote about one little guy with vision issues in my post, Tips for Teaching the Alphabet to Struggling Learners . In that post, I shared that I had been teaching one child that had had such a difficul
Read more

Fun with STEM: A "Punkin Chunkin" Catapult with Craft Sticks!

Image
In this post, I am going to tell you about a really FUN, seasonal STEM project that I did with my first and second graders:  they made "Punkin" Chunkin" catapults with craft sticks and masking tape!  Then we measured to see who's pumpkin went the farthest!  The "punkins" were actually orange pompoms, so we had to use our imaginations, but none of the children cared.  They had an absolute BLAST! For this fun activity, we invited our new fifth grade buddies to come in and give us a hand, but I really think that the first and second graders could have done it on their own as well.  So if you are thinking of doing this with your own young students alone and without the help of older students, go for it!  I think that Kindergartners could do it too, but I would do it in small groups so that I could help those that needed it. My inspiration for this came from many different child constructed catapults that I have seen on Pinterest- along with a
Read more

Teaching Kids to WRITE the Numbers! – FREE Number Poems!

Image
Teaching children to write the numbers  correctly can be very frustrating for early childhood teachers! Also, attempting to GRADE their writing can be equally TRICKY! What does a number written correctly look like, versus one that is not?  In this post, I am going to tell you how I teach my students to write the numbers. I’ve posted some examples of student work showing numbers that look correct and some that are not, in my opinion.  I explain under the photos why certain numbers “would pass” or not.  I also have some FREE number formation poems to share with you, plus a FREE download of a parent guide that explains what those correctly formed numbers should look like- and the incorrect ones! So it seems that every year, getting the children to write those numbers can be something like pulling teeth: it comes slowly, and getting them to just “CARE” seems to be half the battle!  Perhaps the reason for this is that we know that the most important learning in math comes from wo
Read more

Getting Control of a Very Difficult Class: TAKE TWO

Image
Have you ever had a class that just tried your patience day after day? Have you ever felt like you could walk away from teaching forever tomorrow, and be fine with it?  This is a repost of a piece that I wrote several years ago when I was teaching Kindergarten.  I'm now in second grade, and finding that I have many of the same problems!  Since I actually went back and read my own post again, I thought I would post it here for you again, too, with a few of my updated comments inserted in italics.  Hope it's helpful! This is the original post. ********** This year, I have one of the most challenging classes I have ever had. I am still working on training them to do what I want them to do, but I know that in the end, I will win! Meanwhile, we are spending a LOT of time on classroom management, modeling routines and procedures often. Here is a list of some classroom management tips and techniques that I have used successfully in Kindergarten, but I think that they would prob
Read more

An EASY Critical Thinking Game for K/1 Kids!

Image
Today I'm going to tell you about a fun and EASY game to help boost critical thinking skills in Kindergarten or First Graders!  I call it The Critical Thinking Comparison Game, because in it, the kids are simply comparing one thing to another and telling what they think are the similarities and differences between two objects.  Believe it or not, my first graders LOVE this game and often ask me if we can play it again!  I think they like it because the game makes them feel successful and "smart."  I have also played it with Kindergartners, and they enjoyed it, too! The Critical Thinking Comparison Game is really very easy to play!  All you need is a few questions like the ones below, and something for the children to color, just to keep them busy while they wait for a turn to talk.   ( I also used my Critical Thinking Comparison Cards as a visual aid, but you can certainly play it without them! ) Here is the type of question that I ask in this game: How
Read more

Teaching Phoneme Segmentation: Separating Sounds in Words (Freebies!)

Image
Teaching children to pick out all of the phonemes (or sounds) in a given word can be tricky!  This requires good listening skills and well developed phonemic awareness in general.  For some children, mastering phoneme segmentation can seem just about impossible!  Here are some teaching tips that have worked for me in the past. *  The best advice I can give is to practice segmenting words with a designated MOTION for a short time every single day with your whole class.  Even just one or two minutes per day will help! Look for suggested motions on this post. There is also a downloadable list of words to use, plus a homework sheet that you can download here. Here is where you can get another  word list for practicing words with two, three, and four phonemes. And here is another post with lists of words with four, five, or six phonemes. *  Give kids beads to slide down a pipe cleaner as they segment the word.  I made these "Segmentation Sliders" out of p
Read more

20 Hands-On Ways to Build a Sight Word, (And Research to Back it Up!)

Image
Today I am pleased to share TWENTY great ideas for building the sight words to help kids learn them in a hands-on way!  Making sight words (AKA high frequency words) in lots of different ways allows kids to choose their best learning modality and really take charge of their own learning. I'm super excited about this way of teaching, and I hope you will be, too! When my teammate and I do this, we focus on just ONE of the trickier sight words per week and have the kids BUILD JUST THAT ONE WORD over and over again in many ways.   If there happens to be a parent volunteer at that center, they are to ask the children to spell it and tell what the word is often. This is what our Sight Word Building Table looks like.  We put out a variety of choices, and the children can change seats each time they finish to keep building the word.  If there happens to be a volunteer, she ask them what word they are working on and to spell it, and will hand them a different manipulative.  
Read more

A Twist on the Headband Game!

Image
Here’s a fun, new, twist on the classic Headband Game that makes it reusable and adaptable to any subject and any level!  AND it gets the kids up and moving as they learn, so that’s an even greater bonus!!!!  This awesome idea was suggested by a participant in one of my workshops when I presented the Sight Word Headband Game and wondered aloud how to make this adaptable to kids in higher grades that learn their new words much more quickly.  So I tried it out myself, and voilá!  It worked out great!  My own class has done this now a few times and they LOVE it! So here is how it works; I’ll remind you of the my original version first.  With the original  Sight Word Headband Game , I wrote a word on a strip of paper and formed it into a headband.  The kids all put one on, and then walked around the room and wrote the words that they found on their friends’ heads next to their friends’ names on a sheet of paper. Now with this second “twist” on this “Advanced” Headband G
Read more

Teaching CVC Words: What to Do When They Are STILL NOT GETTING IT

Image
In this post, I am going to tell you several new things to try with children that just can't seem to sound out words, even after MANY different interventions have been tried!  So for those little sweeties that are "just plain stuck" on the road to learning to read, here are a few more things to try or to think about.  The inspiration for this post came from the question from a reader below.  Hope it is helpful! Question: I really enjoy using your songs and activity ideas in my kindergarten classroom each day. I wanted to seek your advice for a couple of my readers. They have phonemic awareness skills in place and can segment a CVC word independently, but they are unable to blend it into the word independently. If I segment the word for them, they can blend it just fine. I use the Elkonin boxes, manipulatives, etc. to help, but still they are not really making progress and they are the only ones who are unable to demonstrate this skill in my class. I would love to
Read more