Easy Dry Erase Boards

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Welcome to Kinder Alphabet

Today, we are sharing some bright ideas that may be useful in your classroom.

Dry Erase Boards

We love to use dry erase whiteboards in the classroom. The problem is that they are too heavy for students to pass out. Sometimes you can still see old ink that is hard to remove.
Here’s an idea. You can use plastic plates or frisbees! They are light- weight, colorful and easy to clean.

Use Frisbees

I got frisbees from Walmart. These were $1 for each one. Students can write on the back side. You can use them during language arts or math. For extra fun, do not clean them right away. Take them out to recess and have students play with them. The person who catches the frisbee gets to read a word that is written on it. You can plan it to where they get to practice their spelling words, cvc words, sight words, etc. If this is something you are interested in trying you might want to check out somewhere similar to Promotion Choice frisbees.

Neon Markers

I tried several brands of dry erase markers. I found that the neon dry erase markers were very easy to wipe off, even after 48 hours.


Use Plastic Plates

You can also use plastic plates as dry erase boards. You can get them at the dollar store at about 4 for a dollar. These are cheaper, but not as easy to clean as the frisbees. The frisbees only required one stroke to wipe the ink off. The plates smeared first and then wiped off better the second or third time.

Easy to Use

I love them! They are very easy to use 🙂

Stack Them Up

These plastic frisbees and plates are very light weight. A student helper can collect them from the other students quicker than the traditional wood boards. That’s it. Just find a place to store them and stack them up.

Thank you for stopping by. I hope that you enjoyed this idea.

If you are looking for more bright ideas, please continue this blog hop. Susanna from Whimsy Workshop Teaching has some QUICK DAILY MATH IDEAS that you might like.
Whimsy Workshop Teaching
Alternatively, you may visit the link-up below and choose a topic that interests you. Thanks for visiting!

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Phonics Fonts for Teachers Update

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I added 16 new fonts to my Phonics Fonts collection. These fonts are real time-savers that help me be much more productive. They are great for Making Words printables and activities.

The new update includes:
1. Box Dash- These are useful for scrambling letters to create words. Students simply cut around the dashed lines and paste the letters in order to build a word.
2. Letter Shape Boxes- If you have a picture of a CVC word on a worksheet, just write the corresponding word under it using this font. Students will label the picture by using the shape letter boxes as clues. Is it a tall letter? Is it a short letter? Does the letter go under the baseline? The boxes are separated to focus on the individual letters in a word.
3. Letter Shape Boxes Touching- Same as above, but the letters are connected to focus on the word as a whole.
4. Letter Dots- This font allows children to see the individual letters that make up a word.

5. The shape fonts are thematic by month. You will not need to insert text boxes over clip art anymore. Just use these holiday fonts to add some fun to your thematic phonics activities.
These are the first fonts that I uploaded. You can read my post about them here.
And here’s a closer look at the individual fonts.

 

 

 

 

 

Added March 9,  2014

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Get all these teacher fonts in one single download.

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FREE Winter Sports Newsletter Template

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The Olympics 2014 are in Sochi this year. It’s so exciting to see the different sports and countries that are represented.  I love to watch the figure skating competition.  Considering that the Olympics will be on until the end of February, I added a request from a sweet follower. So, if you are looking for a Winter Sports newsletter theme, you can download this one for free. It includes 3 newsletters to choose from. Just print and add your information. It’s available in Spanish too.
Enjoy!

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Valentine’s Day Card Messages

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Valentine’s Day is just two days away! Are you still looking for valentine card ideas?  I hope that you like these. I used a 3.5in. scallop puncher from Fiskars and neon card stock to make the flower frames. You can make a 2.5 inch circle in your document and add your preferred message. Take a look 🙂
valentine's day ruler message card
valentine's day glue message card

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Kinder Alphabet Loves TPT

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I would never have imagined that I would become a teacher-author. Sharing my resources and creations with my own Kindergarten team has always been very rewarding. It is an amazing feeling to be able to help my fellow teachers and their students. Especially when they truly appreciate it. This brings me to TPT. I am truly thankful to Teachers Pay Teachers. They have made it possible for me to share resources with teachers and students beyond the walls of my own school.

What TPT Means to Me

Teachers Pay Teachers has been such a blessing.  I put a lot of love into my resources and am so happy to see that they are useful to the students in your classrooms.  One thing for sure, I would never have been able to do any of this without your support. Thank you for finding my resources helpful and allowing me to keep creating 🙂 I am grateful to you more than words can explain.

The Blogging Journey

This journey has allowed me to meet other teacher-authors. We have become friends, even though we have not really met each other in person. We share, collaborate, do fundraisers, book studies and giveaways like this one. We try to focus on meeting the students’ needs and creating education resources that are useful and meaningful. We believe in each other and use each other’s resources as well.

This is a missing numbers activity by KinderGlynn.

This is a Groundhog Day reader by Kindergarten Lifestyle.

Amazing resources like these can be found on TPT.

Giveaway Time

Some teacher-author friends and I are having a giveaway to thank you for believing in us! We hope to keep providing quality education resources that you can use in your classrooms 🙂 This is a blog hop. We are each giving away a gift certificate on our own blogs. You may enter to win a gift certificate to Teachers Pay Teachers here and then hop along to their blogs to enter there too. By the way, make sure to follow my Kinder Alphabet facebook page. I have a Freebies tab there full of resources, just for you 🙂

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Now, head on over to my visit my friend Crystal at Kreative in Kinder. You can enter her giveaway too.

Kreative in Kinder

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Conversation Heart Crowns

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I love these conversation heart crowns for Valentine’s Day. It’s a very easy craft that kids can make as part of the theme or for the party. They will have so much fun reading each other’s messages. Another exciting thing is that students will also be able to make these cute crowns for school personnel. This will be a great way to spread positive energy and great messages on Valentine’s day. So let’s show someone you care about their hard work. Let’s crown them with LOVE with this fun activity 🙂

The purpose of this fun activity is to spread positive messages on Valentine’s Day.

It includes:

*24 Student Crowns with Conversation Messages
-Students will make their crowns and wear them. Then, you can ask them to go around and see how many phrases they can read on their friends’ crowns. In turn, the student who is wearing the crown will feel good when a friend reads a message such as “You melt my heart!” or “You are awesome!”

*1 Parent gift which will be a heart with a message.The students simply finish the phrase, “I love you more than _______”

*9 Heart Gifts for family members

*15 Staff Crowns that students can make as gifts for school personnel. It will show them that they are #1 in your book 🙂 Or, you can use the the conversation heart message crowns for them too!

*16 Secret Message Valentine Cards:
Students will break the code by writing the first sound of each picture to find the secret message. They also have To: _____ and From: _______ lines that the students will fill in.

*16 Differentiated Valentine Cards:
Students who might not be ready to decode the secret message will simply copy the word on the given line. They also have To: _____ and From: _______ lines that the students will fill in.

*3 blank templates

Yes. This Valentine’s Day craft is also available in Spanish!

Visit Lidia Barbosa’s profile on Pinterest.

Lidia Barbosa’s profile on Pinterest.

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Bright Ideas Blog Hop

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Welcome to Kinder Alphabet

Today, we are sharing some bright ideas that you can use in your classroom. I hope that you have found some useful classroom ideas along the way. Thanks to Shelley Gray for putting this together.

My idea: Easy No Sew Chair Pockets

I have always wanted to buy some chair pockets for my classroom, but they are too expensive. I do not know how to sew, so making my own is not an option. After so many years, I came up with this idea. Use pillowcases! If you use the ones with patterns there will be no need to decorate them 🙂 You can buy them in sets of two, because they are cheaper that way. Or, ask for donations. You can probably even add it to your student’s school supply list. They do not have to be brand new at all. As long as they are clean and gently used, they will work just fine. This is how they look 🙂 Adorable!

How to Assemble

1. Choose a pillowcase pattern that you like.

2.Open the pillowcase and turn it inside out.

3. Now, turn the pillowcase right side out again. Make sure to STOP when you get close to the bottom seam (do not go past it). It will look like you folded the pillowcase in half. This will create 2 flaps. One in front of the pocket and one on the back of it.

4. Finally, open one flap and slip it onto the back of a chair. It fits small and big chairs perfectly. I also use them on the tiny ikea chairs and on my kitchen table chairs. They fit nice and snug and look amazing 🙂

5. Enjoy Your Chair Pockets!
The pockets are deep and have plenty of room for materials. I had to position our books and activities high so that you could see them in the pocket. Go try it. You’re going to love it 🙂

Where to use them

-Student chairs: for leveled readers or student materials.
-Guided Reading table chairs: for dry-erase boards, erasers and markers (one student set per chair pocket).
-Teacher Chair: for Lesson Plan Book or Sub Folder 🙂
-Workshops: for teacher materials.

Thank you for stopping by. I hope that you enjoyed this idea.

If you are looking for more bright ideas, please continue this blog hop. Chalk One Up for the Teacher is written by Cyndie Dunn.  She shares some great tips on how to start a Kindness Revolution.



Alternatively, you may visit the link-up below and choose a topic that interests you. Thanks for visiting!

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Phonics Fonts for Teachers

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I love to make phonics activities. The problem is that I spend too much time searching for fonts and graphics in my computer and online. So, I decided to make some graphic fonts last year. I have used them in many of my activities and really love the convenience of adding clip art as I type. I have spent the last few weeks revising them so that I could share some fonts with you.  I hope that you like them 🙂

Phonics Fonts for Teachers

Phonics Clipart Fonts:

Each set includes one picture for each letter sound. The uppercase letters are sprinkled with dots around them for fun. The lowercase letters are just as shown above. So, the bundle includes 3 clipart sets. This means that you will get 3 graphics for each letter sound. I may add more to this bundle when time permits 🙂 Bonus: I also include clipart for numbers. Set 1 includes tally marks for the numbers 1 to 5. Set 2 includes dice for the numbers 1 to 5. Set 3 includes ten frames for the numbers 0 to 10.

Free for Personal Use {Primary Fonts}:

The letter fonts are available in individual files for personal use. You can change the size and font color like you would on any other font.

1. Download the Boxed In teacher font here.

2. Download the Dash teacher font here.

3. Download the Making Words Font here. I love this primary font. I made the letter formation that would be easily recognizable by young learners.

Here’s a sample of the special keys that you can use.

Note: Before you download the font, you will have to adjust the line height and spacing settings. I have already saved the settings for the fonts in my store. But, when you download them directly from this site, it looks like you might have to adjust it on your own.

Commercial Use License:

The Phonics Clipart Fonts and the Primary Fonts are available in my teacher store as  a bundle for commercial use. CU license is included. You can download them here.

Here’s a sample of one of the Phonics Clipart Fonts
The uppercase letters are sprinkled with fun dots. Here’s a small sample.
Sneak Peek:
These are some monthly fonts that I have also been working on. I will post them soon.
UPDATE:
I added 16 new fonts on Feb 16, 2014. Read more about them here.

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CVC Secret Words { Crowns }

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This activity is so much fun! The CVC SECRET Words Crowns will help students practice making words. First, they must break the code to find the mystery word in each box. They will do this by identifying and writing the first sound of a sequence of 3 pictures… The mystery word will follow a CVC pattern.

How to use:

Students will read the word family at the top of the crown.

Students will say and write the first letter sound of each picture in the box.

Students will identify and read the secret word.

Students will do the same for every secret word.

Students will cut the crown pattern.

Students will glue or staple it to a sentence strip.

Students will wear the Secret Words crown to show off the new words that they can read!

It includes these word families:

-word family -ad

-word family -ag

-word family -am

-word family -an

-word family -ap

-word family -at
-word family -ed
-word family -en
-word family -et
-word family -ig
-word family -in
-word family -ip
-word family -it
-word family -ob
-word family -od
-word family -og
-word family -op
-word family -ot
-word family -ox
-word family -ub
-word family -ug
-word family -un
-word family -ut
You can download the CVC Secret Words crowns here.

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CVCe Word Patterns

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Are your students ready to move on to CVCe word patterns? In this word pattern, the first vowel says its name and the last letter (“e”) is silent. It can be a little hard to remember this rule, but the crowns will provide some good practice. Let them show off the words that they know by becoming classroom Queens and Kings! 
This CVCe Crowns pack includes:
-words with -ace
-words with -age
-words with -ake
-words with -ame
-words with -ane
-words with -ate
-words with -ave
-words with -ice
-words with -ide
-words with -ike
-words with -ile
-words with -ime
-words with -ine
-words with -ipe
-words with -ode
-words with -oke
-words with -ole
-words with -one
-words with -ope
-words with -ose
-words with -ote

Download the CVCe Words packet here.

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