My Best & Brightest from 2012

As 2012 prepares to come to a close, I am overwhelmed by how many blessings I have experienced this year. Many of those blessings are a direct result of this humble little blog, so when I saw that Christina from Bunting, Books, and Bainbridge was hosting a Best & Brightest of 2012 Linky (an opportunity to brag and share about blogging in 2012,) I knew I just HAD to link up!




The very BEST decision I made all year, was making the commitment to follow my heart and start a blog.  If you can believe it, Kinder-Craze has only been in existence for about 9 months, but WOW, what a wild ride the past nine months have been. But I'm getting ahead of myself...

The original Kinder-Craze header from March 2012

My greatest Kinder-Craze accomplishment this year was having the INCREDIBLE honor of writing a guest post for the Pinterest blog in celebration of World Teacher Day on October 5.  When I look back, I still can't quite believe that happened to me.

My top blog post for 2012 was Fancy Up Your Sterlite Drawers where I explained how to line Sterlite drawers with scrapbook paper. That single post has received nearly 200,000 page views.

The runner-up was my follow-up post  that went a bit more in-depth and compared/contrasted using Mod Podge vs. clear tape. Apparently, people love themselves some fancy drawers.

The most suspenseful moment of 2012 was when my classroom was a finalist for The Schoolgirl Style Challenge. That week of watching the "online polls" was so intense but so much fun. As fate would have it, I didn't win the Challenge, but I am so proud to have come within 11 votes of the winner!

And my top product on Teachers Pay Teachers has been my Interactive Sight Word Readers. Teachers just LOVE that students unscramble letters to complete the missing word in each sentence. (I think they also love the affordable price of $1 each.)

And there you have it. What a year it has been! 
I cannot wait to see what lies ahead in 2013!

The Second Holiday Gift

My Christmas break has officially begun and I have one last idea from my classroom to share with you before my celebration with friends and families begins. For the past several years, I have made recordings of my students as a Christmas gift for their parents. This year I recorded my students reciting the lyrics to "Away in a Manger."

To create the audio recording, I used GarageBand on my Mac, plugged in a headset, and had each child take a turn reciting one line from the song. There were no lines to memorize: I would simply say the line and the student would repeat it after me. I would do this 2-3 times for each student to ensure that I had a high quality recording of each. Then I set to the task of editing and trimming the individual recordings and merging them into the entire song. I discovered a lovely instrumental version of Away in a Manger by Mae Robertson (in addition to creating beautiful music, Mae is a Mac girl and her blog offers quick and simple tech tips for Mac users.) I purchased and downloaded Mae's version of the song and set it as the backdrop for the class recording. The finished product couldn't be more sweet.

I created and printed the CD insert on white cardstock and my students colored the picture for their parents. The reverse side of the insert presents the song lyrics with the student-reader's name beside each phrase. (These are not actually the names of any of my students).

The parents in my classroom are each receiving an audio CD of the completed recording, but I wanted to share it with you as well!


The music was recorded by Mae Robertson. Guitars by Guitars by Jim Ohlschmidt and Pete Huttlinger. Song used with permission.

God Bless and have a very Merry Christmas!

A Kinder-Craze Christmas Party

Today was my classroom Christmas party and what an event it was!

All children wore pajamas to school so they would be extra-cozy for our celebration.

The morning started with the discovery of Santa's surprise visit overnight. He left a message for our class and instructions for creating reindeer food to revive the animals' magic and energy during their tiresome trip around the world on Christmas Eve night. Everyone gathered around the table while I read the special instructions from Santa. 

My students were so excited by the letter and "Top Secret" recipe that Santa provided! You can help Santa deliver an unexpected overnight visit to your classroom too by downloading Santa's Super-Special Magic Reindeer Food Kit from my TpT store. The kit includes a Santa letter, recipe printout, and labels for small zipper baggies, and sells for only $1!

Our next task was some fun Christmas crafting! We made ice cream cone Christmas trees. You know the ones I'm talking about... they've been all over Pinterest! 

The minute I saw this project, I knew it was a perfect craft for my class party. The only issue was transporting the completed trees to the children's homes without making a mess and without any tears due to broken cones. 

After some serious brainstorming, I arrived at the perfect solution!

I used clear plastic cups and lids as carrying cases for the completed trees. One of my wonderful crafty mothers drilled a hole in the top of each overturned cup, and rigged a loop of ribbon with a knot inside of the cup to create an adorable carrying case. I love how these trees look like Christmas ornaments!

The tree decorating process was very so much fun, and a little preparation ahead of time made for a simple, organized, and germ free decorating party!

Here is my desk with all the decorating supplies laid out and ready to go. On the far left, you can see a few lids pre-labeled with student names. On the right side you can see that each child received a cup and plastic knife with their own portion of frosting. Kids can't resist licking yummy frosting off their fingers. This way they could lick as much as they wanted and no germs would be shared in the process. 

Parent volunteers prepped the project by placing an upside down lid in the center of an empty plate. The plate served at each student's workspace. A layer of frosting was used as glue to secure a plain cookie onto the center of the upturned cup lid. Another layer of frosting was added on top of the cookie, and the ice cream cone was finally set in place. The cookie and frosting layers helped secure the ice cream cone to a firm base so it wouldn't wiggle or tip over during the decorating process. 

Finally, we were ready to begin. 

Each student carefully covered their ice cream cones with frosting. 

I LOVE the elf pajamas this student wore to school for the party!

After the cones were frosted, it was time to decorate! Small candy pieces were spooned onto each child's plate (so children could continue to treat themselves to sugary goodness without sharing germs). The kindergarteners transferred candy from the plate onto the frosted tree. 

As each child finished decorating his/her Christmas tree, the overturned cups were snapped in place onto the lid and set aside until dismissal. Thanks to the clear cups and lids, we didn't have a single Christmas tree catastrophe!

Making it work for you

Here are a few additional details you may want to know for party preparation:

CUPS - I purchased 20 ounce clear plastic cups and clear lids from Gordon Food Service. Cups and lids are sold separately. They are a little pricey (I spent about $13 on the cups and lids alone, but I have enough left over for next year's party). 

FROSTING - I delegated frosting preparation to a parent in the classroom, but I got the inside scoop from her. For my class of 14 students, 6 containers of white Betty Crocker frosting were prepared. She colored all of it herself the morning of the party (this prevented the frosting from drying, cracking and hardening too early).  Once colored, 5 of the containers were scooped into smaller cups for the students The student cups were filled with 2 big table spoonfuls  (the kind you eat with, not a measuring spoon) of frosting. The 6th container of frosting was colored and put into a quart-size Ziploc bag. I cut a small hole in the bottom corner of the bag to use it as a pastry bag and squirt a little frosting as glue to anchor the cookie and cone in place. 

Monday Made-It

I'm linking up with Monday Made-It (December Edition) over at 4th Grade Frolics. There are a LOT of great ideas in the linky that you don't want to miss!

I have one more Christmas treasure from my classroom to share with you tomorrow. You'll want to stop by and discover the final piece of my Christmas celebration.  

More Christmas Ideas and a Freebie

The holiday spirit is alive and well in my Kindergarten classroom and I am so excited to share a glimpse of our festivities with you.

Handmade Gifts

One of my very sweet kinders moved to California in November and my whole class misses him very much. We wanted to do something special as a gift for our California friend, so we made Christmas decorations for him in class. Last week Jennifer from First Grade Blue Skies shared this ADORABLE Easy Ornament freebie. This was the perfect project for our dear friend. We made our ornaments on 4.5x6" sheets of construction paper and I scaled down the ornament toppers on a copy machine then used silver ribbon to string them together. I also let my kiddos use fancy scissors (aka pinking sheers) to cut their paper strips. Once the project was finished, I took a class photo of everyone with the ornament garland as our Christmas card. It was precious!

Reindeer Food

Every year Santa makes a surprise visit to our classroom the night before our class Christmas party. He comes in the middle of the night and leaves behind the materials to make magic reindeer food. Santa stopped by a few hours earlier than usual this year and left his magical goodies while I was still at school. He left the magical ingredients, as well a letter to my class and the Top-Secret Recipe for Santa's Super-Special Magic Reindeer Food.  My kiddos are going to have so much fun making this tomorrow!

You can download a Santa's Super-Secret Magic Reindeer Food Kit to prepare for when Santa visits your classroom as well! The download includes a letter from Santa, his Top-Secret Reindeer Food recipe, and labels for zipper baggies. This product is priced at $1 (and is a great value) but I am so excited to share it with you, that I will leave this as a FREE item for 24 hours. Grab it for FREE while you can!

Christmas Countdown

I also have a forever FREEBIE to share with you. Remember my classroom Countdown to Christmas Sign? You can download this for FREE and create a countdown sign for your own classroom. Just print, trim the white border off of each page, glue onto 12x18 construction paper and laminate! You can use it as a dry-erase surface after laminating, but I recommend using clear tape to affix a clear transparency to the writing area (this will help your marks to erase MUCH more easily!)

6 Days 'Til Christmas and only 2 "wake-ups" left before vacation begins!

Easy Ideas... Because Christmas Must go On

Every time I turned the news on this weekend I found myself in tears. Hearing about the tragic events at Sandy Hook left me shocked, horrified, and drained of my usual enthusiasm. I still can't quite muster my thoughts and feelings about Friday's attack so I am not even going to try. I will simply say that my stomach churned as I walked into my classroom this morning. But my only choice was to swallow the bitter taste in my mouth, put on a happy face and be the loving teacher that my kindergarten students deserve. It's strange to share joyous things with you when our country has been rocked yet again by senseless violence, but Christmas is only 8 days away and my 14 precious kinders are in need of a magical Christmas this year more than ever.

So, if you're overwhelmed, unmotivated and facing a holiday to-do list that's a mile long, here are a few simple tips and tricks from my classroom to help you create a fun Christmas experience for you students (while saving you a little time and energy). 

Student Gifts

Each year I give my students a book as a Christmas gift. I LOVE Scholastic book orders because they always offer a few books for $1 each during the holidays. Earlier this month, my class went on a field trip to see If You Give a Mouse a Cookie performed at a local venue by Theatreworks USA. (If you're not already familiar with this wonderful company-you should definitely look into it. They perform musical adaptations of several popular children's books in each hour-long performance.) Anyways, I was THRILLED to open my Scholastic book orders and see that If You Give a Mouse a Cookie was one of the $1 books this month. I use book orders in my classroom regularly, so I was able to get a copy for each student using only my bonus points. 

I wanted the gift to be special for my students but I did NOT have time to gift wrap, so I quickly printed  a cute label for the inside of each book and I purchased blouse boxes for the gift wrap (you can buy them at the dollar store in packs of 3 and they are surprisingly adorable!) Ten minutes later, my gifts were labeled, wrapped and ready to go. I can't wait to see my students' faces when they open their gifts!

Parent Gifts

Last week I showed you the adorable watercolor Christmas trees my students painted as gifts for their parents. Their lovely framed masterpieces also needed to be wrapped and I didn't have time to wrap those gifts either. Out came the dollar store gift boxes (larger boxes are also sold in 3-packs). With the addition of a personalized label (Merry Christmas Dad! Love _____), these were also quickly wrapped and ready to go. I let my students select the box for their parents and they loved being a part of the wrapping process.

Here is one of the paintings (in case you missed it the first time).  I know many of you are VERY curious to see what my students' second gift is- I promise to share that gift with you later this week.

Christmas Bingo

If you're behind in your holiday party planning, don't fret... I have a fun way to engage your students in a festive way and review information. Play Christmas BINGO! Turn any Bingo game into instant holiday fun by getting creative with your Bingo markers. I always use holiday M&Ms to play Bingo at my classroom party.

Holiday-themed foam shapes make great Bingo markers as well!

Need a BINGO game in a big hurry? I offer several different varieties in my TpT store at a great prices (prices range from $3.50 to $5.00). Click the image below to shop.

The tragic events at Sandy Hook have left an impression on the hearts and minds of every teacher and parent. This will be a difficult week to put on a happy face each day at school, but all children are deserving of Christmas magic. Let's make this Christmas one they will never forget (for all of the right reasons.)

Silence for Sany Hook Elementary

Heartfelt Gifts for Families (and a Really Great Freebie)

Christmas is only 12 days away and my students have been working like busy little elves preparing their gifts for Mom and Dad. We always make two gifts to send home - one addressed to Mom, the other to Dad (this helps simplify things for the more complicated family situations). Over the years,  I have made many different parent gifts in the classroom. The primary goal is to create a simple keepsake that the parent will treasure for years. My secondary goal is to share something with the families that conserves my time and finances.

***SPOILER ALERT***
If you are one of my wonderful classroom parents, stop reading now before it's too late!

After some serious brainstorming with my teaching partner, I declare this year's gift-giving to be Mission: Accomplished! My students created these ADORABLE Christmas tree paintings as their first gift.

In anticipation of this project, the children had a few "drawing lessons" in class. I demonstrated step-by-step how to create this Christmas scene and the students created their own drawings on their whiteboards. After a few practice sessions, they were ready for the "real deal."

On the day of our art project, I distributed white cardstock cut to 6.5x8.5" to each student. This size was big enough for my students to have ample painting space. It also allowed for a nice matted effect when mounted on red cardstock in a picture frame. Just like our drawing lessons, I used my Elmo and went step-by-step through the drawing process with my class. 

After the drawing was complete, the children traced over every pencil line with a black crayon (the crayon wax helps prevent the paint colors from bleeding into each other on the paper). Painting was also a step-by-step process. We all began by painting the tree green. This was followed by red ribbons on the tree, red stockings in the background, and a red tree skirt. Specific painting instructions continued until students selected their own colors for ornaments, lights, and carpet. 

The finished paintings are fabulous and I couldn't be more proud! The best part was that my students did most of the work on this projects. I firmly believe that the children need to be a part of the gift they give to their parents. I cut the paper and framed the paintings - the rest of the work came directly from the students. Parents will love this gift much more than any ornament that I could have slaved over to accomplish on behalf of the students because it was created by their own child. 

Seriously, I am in LOVE with these painting and my little artists. This was a very budget-friendly project. The frames cost $1 each, the cardstock cost about $5, and I spent $7 on gift wrap... that comes to only $2 per child. Perfect, right?!?

I couldn't resist taking a photo of one of the finished paintings with my classroom Christmas tree. Seriously, I am in LOVE.

Keep your gifts "Top Secret"

I always tell my students that we are working on a "Top Secret" project when we make gifts for the people we love. Seriously, I hide the gifts anywhere I can in the classroom so my parent volunteers don't accidentally stumble upon our creations. I have volunteers in the classroom nearly every day so keeping our projects a secret can be a delicate balancing act. I created this festive sign to hang on my classroom door to alert parents before they walk in and spoil any surprises we have up our sleeves. 

You can grab one for FREE! Just click the image to download, then hang on your door to protect all of your classroom gift-giving secrets. 

To be continued...

I know you're a smart cookie and you're probably thinking, "Wait a minute. She said she makes TWO projects in her classroom every year as Christmas gifts. Where is the other one?!?!" Yup, I did say that and yup we made another (equally awesome) project. It's almost finished and a bit more involved to share with you. Be sure to stop by again soon. I PROMISE to share it with you as soon as I have all the pieces in place. 

Merry Christmas!

12 Days of Christmas Blog Hop- Day 12

Hello and welcome to the fun of the 12 Days of Christmas blog hop! Some of my favorite bloggy friends have joined together to celebrate the holiday season with seasonal FREEBIES! A special thanks goes out to my good friend Tiffani from Time 4 Kindergarten for organizing this little shindig.

I know how much you love freebies, and I have a SUPER one to share with you today. 
I created a fun Christmas labeling page for my students to gain confidence with invented spelling. Lines are provided for writing the name of each image in the Christmas scene (Santa, elves, tree, and stocking).  Click the image below to download your early Christmas gift from me!

My class will begin writing workshop in January. I have been guiding and encouraging their writing with activities like this one to build their confidence and enthusiasm for writing. The baby steps I'm taking now should have a BIG payoff when the time arrives for my class to begin writing small moment stories.



If you need a little something else to keep your students engaged before Christmas vacation, check out my Interactive Sight Word Readers on TpT. They only cost $1 each and are a hands-on way for students to learn their sight words. This Do You See Santa? book has quickly become one of my best-sellers.

One more thing before you go

I'm giving away a $25 gift card to erincondren.com. The contest ends tomorrow night at midnight and you don't want to miss out. Click the image below for your chance to enter!

Keep Blog-hopping...

Even though this is Day #12 of a Twelve Days of Christmas Blog Hop, the fun continues right on through December 25. Look who else is celebrating with freebies today!


Come back tomorrow to discover which  of your favorite bloggers will be next!

Erin Condren Giveaway

Let's face it: Teachers work hard. All that planning, prepping, blog stalking, and pinning. Especially in December. I know you are trying so hard to make the holidays special for your students. Then you come home to shop, bake, and decorate at home to make the holidays special for your family.

Give yourself a break. You deserve something pretty. And shiny. And vibrant. And personalized. Yup, you deserve the gift of Erin Condren!

Luckily, the Erin Condren team has generously sponsored a giveaway for a $25 gift card for you to spend at erincondren.com. How amazing is that?!?!?

You know you've been running around like a crazy woman. Take a minute for yourself to slow down and admire the prettiness that is Erin Condren. And just to make sure you don't feel guilty, you can justify the time spent drooling over these by telling yourself they're so GOOD for your classroom or home.

...and have you heard about the amazing Erin Condren Life Planner? I have one and I absolutely love it!

Now that you've had a moment to take in the goodness of Erin Condren, let's get back to that Giveaway....

The Giveaway

Enter to win a $25 Gift Card to erincondren.com. The contest runs from now until Midnight EST on December 14, 2012.
Use the Rafflecopter below for your chance to enter!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Thank you and good luck!

Classroom Advent Ideas (and a Freebie!)

Many classrooms in Catholic/Christian celebrate the season of Advent in anticipation of the birth of Christ. I always have an Advent wreath on display in my own room and I incorporate it into my daily prayer. Over the years I have used several different kinds of Advent wreaths, but I love my current one. 

The wreath itself is a simple evergreen wreath that was already in my classroom closet when I moved in. It's the candles that make it truly special. Since open flames are never a good idea in a kindergarten classroom, I use battery-operated votive candles. To make the simple white candles appropriate for Advent, I adorn them with lavender and pink ribbons.

Every morning in the classroom begins with prayer. During Advent, a student comes up to "light" the candles. We turn the lights off for this seasonal ritual and sing the song Candle, Candle after the lighting. It's always a tender moment in the classroom. 

 Of course, the goal of any Catholic or Christian teacher is to help students be mindful of their faith in all parts of the day. Integrating religion across all subject areas is something I am always mindful of and strive to achieve. My newest Interactive Sight Word Reader Advent is for Waiting helps carry the lessons of Advent into reading and language arts.

In this simple emergent reader, students cut out, unscramble, and glue letters to spell "for" and complete the sentence on each page. The best part? Like all of my Religion resources, you can download Advent is for Waiting for FREE from Teachers Pay Teachers or Teachers Notebook. 

Blessings to you this Advent season,