I love Mother's Day! Especially since I'm a mommy! :) I love being able to celebrate the special women in my life for all their love, hard work and dedication to their families, jobs and everything they do.

I would love to know what you're doing for the mom's of your students! Feel free to link up to my Mother's Day Crafty Gifts Linky Party! Feel free to grab the code below the picture to paste into your post so readers can visit this linky party!


In the past, we've had a local florist come to our school and she gives a presentation on how to arrange flowers and the kids get to make their mom's a bowl full of super cute flowers. However, our florist retired, so we have to come up with things on our own.

For this year, I think I'm going to have my kiddos make a Mom washer necklace. It would look similar to the photo below, except, I will have the kids use the tiny alphabet stamps from the Target Dollar Spot earlier this year to stamp the word MOM using Staz On ink. It will be inexpensive for me and easy for them. What do you think?




I also created a Mother's Day emergent reader called My Mom and Me. You can purchase it through my TpT store for $2 by clicking on the picture below.


What special things do you have planned for Mother's Day crafts for your students? Feel free to link up below to your post about your Mother's Day crafts or craftivities! Feel free to add your items that are free or for sale.

 Click on the picture below to get lots of great ideas from the Mother's Day Linky Party hosted by Maria at Kinder-Craze!

Check out my Beachy Ten Frame and Base Ten Number Match for numbers 11-20. It's the same as some of the other number matches I have listed, but I updated it to match up with your beach/ocean units. Head over to my TpT store to purchase this fun activity!

Confession time here….I have never celebrated Earth Day with my students. (I know, you may need some recovery time. Take all the time you need. I’ll be here when you’re ready.)

www.ScrappinDoodles.com

So, this year, I’m going to do something about it. Implementing the new Common Core Standards this year has been a blessing when it comes to thematic teaching. We’ve ditched our Reading manual and now we’re on our own in all academic areas. Kind of scary, but definitely great! Since Earth Day falls on Sunday, April 22, my class will be celebrating all week next week.


I created the following mini unit to go along with our Earth Day festivities. It is $2.50 in my TpT store. It includes activities for Shared Reading, graphing, Write the Room, Charts, etc. Click on the picture below or here to take you to my store.

For Monday, I called our local Lowe's to see if they could collaborate with us to help our students build something and they said yes! They will be coming to our school to host a Build & Grow Clinic to help our Kdg. students build an Earth Day kit. I'm super excited about this! There will be lots and lots of hammering! They are also bringing little aprons, goggles and patches for the kids. I'm excited for the experience!  I called our High School Counselor to see if we could get several high school students to help us since we've never experienced 60 students hammering at one time. Thank goodness she said yes! Ha! 



If you'd like more information about the Lowe's Build & Grow Clinics, visit http://lowesbuildandgrow.com/pages/default.aspx.


 Here are a few things I thought you might also enjoy.

• Let's Recycle Sorting Game
• Paint your own Earth
• Emergent Reader Plays 

Check out my Earth Day board on Pinterest.
http://pinterest.com/lilcountrykdg/kindergarten-earth-day/

Check out my Earth Day selections at My Amazon Bookstore. 



Earth Day Songs


http://www.preschooleducation.com/searth.shtml
http://www.songs4teachers.com/recycle2.pdf

Online Games
Every Day is Earth Day (Starfall Game)
Handy Manny’s Green Planet Show

I am working on several Earth Day activities that I will be posting about soon. Until then, feel free to click on the picture below to grab this Base Ten and Ten Frame Number Match Math activity from my TpT store.

Also, if you are needing a few books for your Earth Day unit, feel free to visit my Amazon Bookstore tab below my header. I just added four pages of books you might like to help celebrate Earth Day with your students. I purchased four of the books below with my Amazon Prime membership (free 2-day shipping), the Amazon 4-for-3 special offer, along with a free $5 Amazon gift card I had earned through Swagbucks and got all four for only $6.97!  Feel free to use my referral link if you would like to sign up for Swagbucks.  http://www.swagbucks.com/refer/Marlana



   

Thank you so much to everyone who entered my 500 Fabulous Facebook Fans giveaway! I am still so excited that you are fans! I wish that I could give something to everyone. :) Your comments and support are appreciated more than you know!

Congratulations to Kate S. and Sandra M. of Sweet Times in First!  You were the chosen winners through Random.org. Each of you will receive a $10 gift certificate to Teachers pay Teachers! I hope you find some amazing products!

Check out my latest unit There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Shell on Teachers pay Teachers or Teachers Notebook! The colors are so vibrant in this unit that it makes me want to head to the beach for a little relaxation time. This would be great during your ocean unit or just plain fun to finish out the school year!


I would love to send this unit to the first three people who comment and include an email address. :) Thanks, ladies!


Here's a little freebie that I created to go along with this unit. I hope you like it! It's a class graph and results response sheet called Have you ever built a sandcastle? Click on the picture below for your copy.

I'm so excited! I just happened to check my Facebook Fan Page and noticed that I had reached 500 fans!  What better way to celebrate than with a giveaway! I'm thrilled to have each and every one of you as blog readers, Facebook fans or both! I am always humbled by the fact that even one person reads my blog. :) Truly!


I'm giving two lucky winners the chance to win a $10 gift certificate to Teachers pay Teachers! 

Thanks to everyone who entered! The giveaway winners were Kate S. and Sandra M.!

My co-workers and I were talking about getting cutesy shirts for Kindergarten Orientation this year and when I got to looking online, it was going to be at least $60 for all three of us. Yikes! Plus, one of my co-workers is pregnant and I know she wouldn't want to buy a shirt that fits now that she wouldn't be able to wear later.

So, I found these cute iron-ons through Etsy. We are all going to wear a black shirt and khaki capris, so we can just iron these on and a have a little extra bling! What do you think? They were only $4.99 each. I thought that was much more affordable. :)

You can view BlingPalace by clicking here or clicking the image below through Pinterest.

I was just reading Deanna Jump's post about using Pebble Plus Books for teaching her Zoo Animals unit and thought they looked familiar. We have several of the habitat and homes Pebble Plus books in our school library and I love them!

So, I headed over to Amazon to check out the zoo animal titles and I was able to get 4 books for the price of 3. The books in the widget above qualify for this deal. (If you are reading this in a reader, you will have to click over to the actual post to see the widget.) The books ship free with Amazon Prime memberships, as well. Just thought I'd share in case anyone else needs a few extra resources for the end of the year. :) I bought Elephants, Zebras, Lions and Giraffes for $20.85. 

If you've never signed up for Amazon Mom or another free paid shipping service through Amazon, you can sign up and receive several benefits, but one of the best is free Two Day Prime shipping for 3 months. If you aren't sure, see if you qualify. It's definitely worth it!