Meet the Teacher Night Gifts--Gift Tag FREEBIE at the end of post!

WOW! This summer is just flying by! With it moving so quickly, my mind is gearing up to get ready for my school's annual Meet the Teacher Night. One of things that I do at every Meet the Teacher Night is a leave a little gift out for my brand new Kindergarteners to find when they arrive to the classroom! I love to see the smile on their face when they find their seat and name plate but watching them find their own special gift is icing on the cake!

Each year I tend to change it up and give out something different--there are just so many cute ideas out there and I'm always anxious to try something new!

This year I am jumping on board the cactus trend and giving out these cute little gifts!

The tag says "In this class we STICK together!" and inside the bag are 3 sticky hands.

I purchased the sticky hands from Amazon and they came in a pack of 75 for just $7.95!! Click the link below to check out the product! (this is not an affiliate link, just me sharing a great deal!)

Sticky Hands!

ALSO, I have listed these cute little gift tags for FREE in my TpT store! Click the link below to snag this freebie!

Cactus Gift Tags

A Mini Etch-a-Sketch?! and a FREEBIE at the end of This Post!

Have you all been to the Dollar Tree lately?? If not, let me tell you, they are KILLIN' IT with some awesome products right now! Yesterday I found SO MANY goodies to put to use in my classroom this upcoming school year and I can't wait to tell you about them ALL! I had to share this AWESOME find first!

A Mini Etch-a-Sketch!!!

You can bet your bottom dollar (that tomorrow..!!) that I picked up 5 of these babies for my word work center. I can't believe these are just a dollar! 

I am so excited to use these that I whipped up some alphabet cards to use along with them. 

I've noticed that cacti are all the rage right now so these alphabet cards feature the cutest little cactus friends.

My plan is to have my students choose a card from the pile and then practice writing the letter on the mini Etch-a-Sketch. The cards include both upper case and lower case letters.

I am so excited about this AWESOME FIND that I have decided to list Cactus Letter Cards for FREE in my TpT Store! Click the link below to snag this FREEBIE!

Cactus Letter Cards

Lunch Tags and Learning Lunch Numbers--FREEBIE below!

Today I worked on another yearly back to school project. Each year I bring these bad boys home to give them the good cleaning that they clearly deserve. These are used as lunch tags for my students as they work to learn their lunch number.

These lunch tags are made from a lanyard and an ID badge. The ID badge has a heavy duty zip seal that protects food and drinks from getting inside the badge. This to me is AMAZING! I have tried other lunch tags before and either the lanyard fell apart or the food/drink would get into the plastic casing and ruin their lunch number print-out inside.
I am currently entering year 3 of use with these lanyards/badges so these are incredibly durable.

If you would like to try out these in your classroom, I have provided links below to purchase on Amazon. These are NOT affiliate links, just simply link to the products. :) 

ID Badges   Lanyards

While the lunch tags are a great way to make sure your students always have their lunch number with them when they need it, the ultimate goal is for them to memorize it by heart.

To help your students memorize their lunch numbers, I created a lunch pin pad handout to help your students practice "entering" their number on the pad.  Click on the link below to snag this freebie!
                                                         Lunch Key Pad FREEBIE!

Happy World Emoji Day!!

HOORAY!! Today is World Emoji Day! 
Emojis have definitely changed the way we communicate with the world. Whether you are a fan or not, it appears emojis are here to stay.
These cute little characters have always been a hit in Kindergarten that's for sure so when I came across these adorable emoji drink stirrers, a light bulb went off in my head!

These emoji stirrers make great POINTERS for little readers! We all know that 1 to 1 while reading is such an important beginning reading skill and these pointers will make learning the skill all the more fun! I can't wait to put these to use this upcoming school year!

What tips and tricks do you have for teaching beginning readers?