Fall Mini Guided Reading Books

Welcome to Fall!!
With the start of school, we decided to make a set of Fall themed mini readers for those beginning students. We made them in English and in Spanish for our dual language friends. The black and white version come with a cute recording sheet to keep up with the books the students can read. Students love to make collections and making one with books is even more awesome!!

English Mini Guided Readers in BW

Spanish Guided Readers in BW

English Guided Readers in Color

Spanish Guided Readers in Color

What to Put in My Letter Bags

There are many things that you can put into your letter bags. I would suggest that you not put too many items inside at one time. You can change out the items to make the bags more interesting. Here are some things that I have used in my bags. 
 1. Sign Language Flash Cards 
    I teach my student to use the ASL handsign when learning the letters. I put a flash card of the letter inside the bag for practice. 

2.  Mini Guided Reading Books -  These mini guided reading books are fun to put into the bags. Students can use the pointers or finger puppets to read their books.

Alphabet Letter Bags

Spanish Alphabet Letter Bag Transfers and Puzzles

I was in Hobby Lobby the other day and I noticed these really cute little canvas bags. They were on sale so I had to buy some. Then, I had to come up with something to use them for. So I decided to make letter bags for my alphabet activities. 

**Making these bags is a great teacher summer project.**

Materials needed:
1. Downloads of the letter bag transfers (copied on Fabric Transfer Paper)
2. Fabric Transfer Paper (You can buy these at any office supply store or most craft stores)
3. Canvas Bags (Mine came from Hobby Lobby. Watch for them to be on sale or use your 40% off coupon to save $$.)
4. Iron

Step by step instructions:
1. Run the letter bag labels off using the Fabric Transfer Paper. You don't have to do any reversing to run these off. I made them reversed to make it easier.
2. Cut the labels apart. I didn't want to waste any paper so at the top, I made a little design that you can put on the back of your bag to make it look more professional. You can cut those out too.
3. Heat your iron using a setting without steam. You might want to start out at a lower temperature and turn your iron up a little at a time. Be very careful about the heat setting because it will burn your fabric if you are not careful. I know this by experience. 
4. Iron the bags before applying the labels to get out any wrinkles. 
5. Cut a piece of cardboard from a cereal box to place inside the bag. I was having trouble getting the top edge to stick because of the folds of the bag. The cardboard piece helped make it easier to get a good flat surface. 
6. Start by ironing the transfer label on the front of the bag. Then put it aside to let it cool. After the bag is cool, iron it again and let it cool. I did this about 3-4 times to make sure the label stuck. If you are adding the back label, iron this on before you take the paper off the front label. 

6. Before you peel the paper off, make sure that the label is stuck on all sides and corners. Iron again if anything is not stuck.
7. Gently peel the paper off the bag.

Puzzles, Pointers and Finger Puppets

To get you started with your letter bags, I included:
1. A set of puzzles. These puzzles can be run off on cardstock and laminated. Cut them into pieces depending on the level of your students. I cut mine into 4 pieces but you can use more pieces if your students are great at doing puzzles. Students can do the puzzle under the bag or on top if they need to just match the pieces. I used some little plastic bags that I bought in the jewelry section at Wal-Mart. The regular plastic bags were too big to fit inside the bags. 

2. Pointers. At the top of the puzzle page, there are some boxes with letters and with pictures. I used the letter boxes on a tongue depressor as a pointer.

3. Finger Puppets. I used the boxes with the pictures for the finger puppets. I bought some of those yellow dishwashing gloves and just cut off the tips of the fingers. I hot glued the pictures on and the students can put them on their finger as a puppet. 

Check out the next post to get more ideas of what to put into your new letter bags.  

My Inspiration

I thought that a quick break from our normal blog posts was in order. Our friend Dana is hosting her first Linky Party about things that inspire us. So I thought about what was inspiring me today and my daughter came to my mind. She is in the second grade and is big for her age. At her last dr appointment, the dr said that she needed to lose about 25 pounds. And in fact, so do I. So we both started eating healthy and exercising more. She has lost 5 pounds so far and I am so proud of her. She got me off the couch and off my computer because of her commitment to lose that weight. I even joined a Yoga salon and love, love going. So, here's to those extra 20 pounds coming off soon!!! 

Happy February

It is so hard to believe that February is here. 2013 is going fast!!

I wanted to make something really cute for Valentine's Day. So, I started making this game and didn't get it finished until tonight. Instead of a cute Valentine name, I just named it Spanish Heart Vowel Match. You can use it for a Valentine's Day activity if you want. It can be used anytime because it is to cute. I found this sweet little red box at the Dollar Tree along with a set of clothespins.

Spanish Vowel Heart Letter Match

Students select a card and find the vowel that it starts with. By using the clothespins to mark the letter, they will be strengthening those fine motor muscles. I think that I might try to find some smaller clothespins or even colored ones to add to my game. I am also going to place a sticker on the back where the correct letter is to make it self-checking.

 

Have a great Valentine's Day with your loved ones!

 

 



New Year, New Ideas, New Possibilities

Hi!  I'm super excited to be part of this blog hop!  Thanks to Stephany and Stephanie and Kathi at Primary Possibilities for hosting this blog hop!
Thanks for coming over from More than Math by Mo

 My name is Lisa Bohaty, from Mrs. Bohaty's Kindergarten Kingdom.  I am a Kindergarten Teacher and have been for 11 years!  I absolutely LOVE it!  Just this year, I have gotten brave enough to start a blog and am enjoying getting to know more bloggers everywhere.  I am going to share with you one of my new favorite things to make for my writing center. I have been making this every month this year and my students have enjoyed it.  It not only helps them with writing but it also helps to build vocabulary!  I have a school population of 76% Hispanic and 96% Free/reduced so my kids need extra help with vocabulary.  We are also doing everything we can to help them learn the English Language.  I put this center into a pocket chart and the students sit in front of it with clip board and write the words. You could also take the words and put them around the room and have students move  a little.  Movement never hurts anyone! :)

I enjoy creating new things for my Kindergarteners and hope that you will visit my store and my blog!  Here is a FREEBIE for you

Here it is! January writing center.  What I like about this is it gives the kids a page where they have to find the picture and then find the word in the pocket chart.  I added MLK and 100th day because they are both this month.  I know equality will be a hard work for them but what better way to introduce that word that means to much! 

 

 

 

Here is the link to pick up your copy for FREE from my TPT store!  If you download it please consider following me and leaving a comment! January Writing Center Thanks! Lisa

Thanks to Spanish Beginning Sounds for having me over! Looking forward to visiting some blogs along the way!  

Great Giveaway!!

Check out our friend over at Totally Terrific Teaching  is having her first giveaway. We donated a prize. Check it out and join for a chance to win lots of goodies.