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Disney World – 10 Tips and Tricks to Save Tons of $$$

February 13, 2017

Planning a budget friendly trip to Disney World can be done with my top 10 money saving tips and tricks! I’m sharing my favorite ways for saving money at the most magical place on earth!

We just returned from a 5 day/night trip to Disney World. 🙂 We essentially were able to cut our vacation costs in half and I wanted to share some of my favorite tips and tricks for saving $ with you!

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My number 1 tip is simple- go during the off season! Not only can you avoid super long lines, you can also enjoy mild weather. We went the first week in February and the weather was perfect. I took one long sleeved jacket for each family member and some leggings for me and the girls. That was all we needed. We wore the leggings or shorts and just removed the jackets mid-morning. While we were there the highs were in the 70’s and lows in the upper 50’s. In other words – PERFECT! If you are able to go during the off season you can find better deals on airfare, hotel deals, prices of food, and even some special add-on incentives. I checked crowd calendars online and we planned the trip to take advantage of a 3/10 rating on the crowd calendars. No matter when you go, there will still be a lot of people, but the lines were much shorter than usual, which was really nice since we had a toddler and an infant. (I will write another blog post soon about travelling to Dinsey with 2 littles!)
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Number 2 is to explore all of your available hotel options. Since my brother-in-law is in the military, we were able to stay at Shades of Green.

It is an on-site resort owned by the military and absolutely gorgeous! We stayed for only $149 a night and that included a huge and delicious buffet breakfast! I really loved the resort. I’ve read mixed reviews, but I can’t figure out why. We did stay in the renovated rooms. They are huge. (I’ve read they are the largest rooms on Disney property.) There are two beautiful pools, a splash park for kids, water slides, a playground for younger children, activities, and so much more. I loved that there was a store on-site for anything we might have forgotten at home. We didn’t need much but I spotted formula, tons of souvenirs, snacks, drinks, etc at really good prices. If you stay at Shades, you need to plan ahead to make sure you know how you will get to each park in the morning. You can use the buses which run every hour, drive your own vehicle, or walk across to the Polynesian resort and use their boat or monorail which run very frequently. We used the Polynesian system a lot and were very pleased with it. The Shades of Green bellmen will drive you in a golf cart to the edge of their property and are happy to pick you up again if you give them a call. Don’t forget to tip!

To save $, you can also stay at a value resort, Fort Wilderness or an off site resort. I’ve read a lot of good things about staying at nearby condos… so be sure to look into all of your options!
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The 3rd tip is to take snacks and drinks into the parks.

We had a backpack which we filled with a couple of waters, Capri-Suns, Organic fruit pouches for the baby, snacks for the kids, and you could even make PB&J sandwiches if you wanted. The snacks go a long way in keeping your children occupied and happy, especially when you are waiting in lines. I also took a couple of containers of bubbles, chapstick, hand sanitizer, diapers, and wipes. (Try not to pack too much because you don’t want to be loaded down and there is a limit on how big of a cooler/backpack you can bring. More on this in another post.)
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Number 4 is to check on discounted theme park tickets. Florida residents get a huge discount and military families also can. We had 5 day park hopper tickets for around $250 which is about half of the normal price.
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The 5th tip is to decide if and where you will eat BEFORE you hit the parks. If you are starving and rushing from ride to ride it is extremely tempting to grab a table at the first place you come to. This is NOT the way to save $! Look into the quick service restaurants. They live up to their names but are still a nice place to sit down and enjoy a tasty and relatively inexpensive meal. We decided to splurge once and eat at Be Our Guest.

I had read online that you needed reservations 180 days in advance but we were able to just show up during the lunch hour. We were in and out within an hour and a half. My husband’s eyes were a bit wide after he ordered the croque monsieur and a drink and I ordered a vegan lunch with a drink and our bill was just over $40, but we both agreed that the atmosphere was worth it and the lunch was delicious. Did I mention that I also ordered a sorbet? The $40 didn’t sound like too much after all. Everything was yummy! (So much so that my sister went back a few days later and ate the exact same meal that she had already eaten just because it was so tasty!) Anyways, I recommend doing a character meal at least once or splurging at some point during your stay on at least one good meal. We typically ate dinner after we returned from the parks and the meals at Shades of Green weren’t too expensive.
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Number 6 is to load up on souvenirs before you hit the park.

All of the Disney themed goodies above were at my local Dollar Tree. We referred to these as “Tinkerbell Gifts”. I told Aniston that Tinkerbell would leave her a gift each night if she was a good girl at the parks. (A little bribery never hurt anyone:)) Some of the things I found were “Magic Towels”, light-up wands and bracelets, coloring books, bubbles, dress-up dolls, water bottles, and sunglasses all with Disney characters on them. This kept Aniston from wanting every little toy she saw. We saved a ton of money this way.

In the parks, I did end up buying her a light up bubble machine, some sparkly Minnie Mouse ears, and a little striped tank top to remember her trip. They were around $20 a piece.

I bought Aniston an autograph book from Amazon for around $5 before we left. Many people love seeing how many characters you can get to autograph your book. Aniston was more interested in coloring in hers so we didn’t keep up with the characters too much with it. The characters will have pens or you can grab a cute one like the ones I pictured above at the Dollar Tree.

I bought the girls matching Minnie Mouse outfits with polka-dot pants online really inexpensively months before our trip. I can’t remember where they were from. It popped up when I was on Facebook. Anyways, if you know that you will be tempted to get a shirt, I recommend looking for some deals on Disney-inspired t-shirts on Jane.com. I saw a bunch of cute ones on there before we left.
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The 7th tip is to look into your options if you are considering taking your child to the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique. I’ve read that it can get very expensive and it definitely wasn’t worth it for me to take my 2 (almost 3) year old. We might consider it when she is older, but Shades of Green had a similar service which was much less expensive.
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We decided to get Baby Heidi’s first haircut at the Barber Shop in Magic Kingdom (for $25) and they sprinkled both girls with “Pixie Dust” for free!

Aniston was thrilled!

I also packed a couple of dress-up costumes from home in case Aniston asked to dress like a princess one day.

We ended up dressing her up like Minnie Mouse one day and she was cute as could be.

***If you are interested in getting your baby’s first haircut at Disney World – click here to learn all about our experience!***
Baby’s First Haircut at Disney

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Number 8 is to make sure you explore transportation options. I found round-trip airfare from Nashville to Orlando for $100 including all taxes and fees! I was thrilled to find this and noticed that any of the winter months seemed to have the same good deals on airfare.

I was very careful to read about luggage charges and noticed that Frontier charged for every single bag whether it was checked or carry-on. (Each person could have a personal item that fit under the seat in front of them for free.) It’s actually more expensive to carry-on a small suitcase than it is if you checked the bag so be sure to read about potential hidden costs if you snag some cheap airfare. I was bound and determined to only pay $50 for our family of 4 to take one suitcase. Yes- you read that right. I brought along our largest suitcase and paid the $25 each way beforehand. That’s Aniston in the picture above sitting on our big suitcase and poor Baby Heidi looking exhausted in our stroller after we arrived. :)We took two backpacks and that was it. It actually wasn’t too hard. I laid out the outfits beforehand and since my girls are still so young, their clothes didn’t take up too much room. My sister got a kick out of the fact that even though I only had one suitcase, I managed to bring along bubbles. 🙂 I also realized that it would cost us around $90 round-trip to take a taxi from the airport to Shades of Green so I talked my sister into picking us up since she was driving her van to meet us at Shades of Green anyways. (I believe that all of the Disney resorts have a free bus system from the airport and to the parks, but be sure to check on that. Shades of Green was not included.)

You may not be able to find a killer deal on airfare so think about driving. Be sure to plan for how you will get to the parks each day and if you will have to pay for parking.
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Number 9 is don’t be scared to take young children. I was hesitant at first about whether it would be worth taking my two young daughters, but…. I’m so glad I did. Children can go to Disney World for FREE until their third birthday. That means I only had to buy theme park tickets for me and Dustin. You don’t have to buy a plane ticket for any children under the age of 2 which gives you even better savings. It was truly magical to see Disney through the eyes of my toddler and Baby Heidi was easy-peasy! Babies can ride along on any of the toddler rides and they are so fascinated by all of the people and lights that they are extra easy to take care of. (More on that in an upcoming blog post.)

I STRONGLY recommend bringing a stroller from home. It will help you immensely in the airport, you can check it at the gate for free, and then your child will feel so comfortable in it at the parks. Plus… you don’t have to pay to rent one! More savings!!! (Even if your child hasn’t used a stroller in a long time – they are likely to need one to make it through several days at the parks!)
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Finally…. number 10 I saved $60 easily with this little tip. Sometime in the weeks leading up to Christmas Target does a promotion for 10% off of Target Gift Cards. (With a red card you can get 5% off anytime during the year.) There is a cap of $300 per transaction. I ordered 2 of these using mine and Dustin’s email addresses… so I essentially got $600 in Target gift cards for $540. A few weeks later I went to Target and bought 12 $50 Disney gift cards.

I didn’t see them, but you may find $100 cards which would make things a little simpler.

*** You can no longer do this online. I had no problem doing this in store, but if you do I’ve read that you can head to a self checkout and it should go through.***

One night while I was watching TV, I transferred the gift cards to just 1 card so I didn’t have so many cards to keep up with. I wouldn’t recommend buying too many just in case this doesn’t work for you, but I had no problems whatsoever. Plus, I knew that I would eventually use $600 at Target if something did go wrong. All this goes to say that if you knew you would spend $2000 on your Disney resort, Memory Maker, etc, you could essentially save yourself $200 with this trick! One of those “the more you buy, the more you save” kind of deals.

One More Tip– I didn’t want to include it in the 10 because if you won’t be there long, it may not be worth the purchase. However, if you will be there for more than a day or 2, I strongly recommend purchasing Memory Maker. It is $149 if you purchase it at least 3 days prior to your trip. You can SPLIT THE COST with other families travelling with you or even with neighbors if you link up the accounts. There are professional photographers all over the parks who will take unlimited pictures that will automatically be uploaded to your “My Disney Experience” account. The system can also recognize your magic band if you are on a ride and send the photo straight to your Photo Pass. Later when you get home, you can simply download the ones that you wish to keep. It was priceless for us to have professional pictures taken of our entire family in the parks and meeting the characters. Sometimes you will find characters in the photos like the Tinkerbell flying in front of Epcot below.

7 Dwarfs Mine Train

Splash Mountain

And last but definitely not least… Be kind! Really! It can save you $$$! I had a restaurant manager tell me that my entire Vegan meal was on the house. This was at least a $15 savings. Cast members will sometimes throw in extras if you simply chat with them. You can get FREE ice water at any restaurant if you just ask politely. Look carefully and there will be at least one cast member handing out free buttons.

My sister grabbed two free “1st Visit” buttons for my girls to remember their trip. We had various cast members give the girls stickers and other fun little items.

Want to know more about our trip? Go here to learn about our baby’s first haircut

Baby’s First Haircut at Disney

Groundhog Day Shadows, Crafts, and More Activities!

February 1, 2017

Do you celebrate Groundhog Day with your preschool, kindergarten, or first grade students? These fun groundhog crafts, activities, and facts will keep your students engaged all week!

We are still having so much fun with Groundhog Day. Today we reread the class book “Legend of the Groundhog”.

This book and all of the activities we did today are included in my bundle on TPT which you can grab here:

Groundhog Day Bundle – Crafts and Nonfiction Unit

The kids were THRILLED to hear that they would go outside and look for their shadows. We started with the prediction activity. Most of my students thought that they would see their shadow and they tended to agree with the legend that this meant there would be 6 more weeks of winter. We completed the bar graph as a class. I called each student’s name and we each colored in a box for the votes made. (You could do the bar graph before or after going outside.)

When we got outside the students were so excited to look at each of their shadows. I asked them some higher order thinking questions. “Why would the groundhog be scared of his own shadow?” They were on the right track when a couple answered that he might think it was a monster. I agreed with them that he was scared of something or someone, but NOT a monster. Another child piped up that he was scared of a predator. What impressive vocabulary for a kindergarten student!

There is something so sweet about this picture!

When we came inside students filled out the sheet with the sentence starter, “Our class went outside and ….” I told the students that they all needed to write that they “did” see their shadow but they could make their own decisions about whether or not they thought this meant 6 more weeks of winter.

Later I let them decide if they wanted to do the writing craftivity with “The Legend of the Groundhog” on top or “Happy Groundhog Day!” on top. Students decided which paper they were most proud of and glued their groundhogs to the top for an easy hallway display.

As I’ve said before, my students are total experts on groundhogs now. I loved how these turned out!

This child’s says “I love Groundhog Day! Groundhogs have flood bumps.”
(Just in case you are wondering, groundhogs dig down and then up again creating a “flood bump” so their burrows don’t get soaked after a heavy rain.)
I love the way this quick hallway display turned out!

Make sure to read over my other post about Groundhog Day! You can find it by clicking on the link below!

Let me know how you celebrate this special day with your class.

Groundhog Day Fun by Pencils to Pigtails

Groundhog Day Crafts, Activities, Science, ELA, Math, and More!

February 1, 2017

Do you celebrate Groundhog Day with your preschool, kindergarten, or first grade students? These fun groundhog crafts, activities, and facts will keep your students engaged all week!

I had no idea how interesting groundhogs were until I read the book Groundhog gets a Say by Pamela Curtis Swallow. Although it is written as if it is told by a groundhog, it is full of interesting facts about groundhogs. I created a bundle for PK-2nd grade teachers that you can grab at my TPT store.

Groundhog Day Bundle – Crafts and Nonfiction Unit

My students love to do group research. (Yes! They can research with a group… even in kindergarten!) Just to give you an idea- I have 6 groups of 2-3 students. My lowest group was studying wordless photos of groundhogs. Then they were told to draw a picture about what they learned. My highest group was reading short passages about groundhogs and squirrels and comparing the 2 animals by completing a Venn diagram. I know it sounds like a lot for kindergarten but they can do it. I did this with my class today for an observation and it went great! If you would like to pick up just the Nonfiction Research Unit – you can grab that here.

Differentiated Group Research Project all about Groundhogs

I liked the idea of having each groups materials ready in a plastic bag so I could quickly pass them out and have the students get right to work. This worked seamlessly. The resource comes with a group planning guide and cards to label the groups which was really helpful and kept me organized. I’m sorry I don’t have more pics from this activity but I was so busy being evaluated that there was not much time to take pictures! 🙂 The kids impressed me so much with how hard they worked and how much they learned. We completed a KWL chart together and their answers were fantastic. Did you know that groundhogs are skilled climbers and swimmers which helps them escape predators? They are called whistle-pigs because they whistle to alert other groundhogs of potential danger. They truly hibernate meaning their heart rate slows way down, they sleep for months, and they barely even breathe…. I could go on and on and so can my kindergarten kids! They are ALL groundhog experts now!

We have completed several of the crafts already. The kids LOVED the peek-a-boo groundhog in a cup. I thought he turned out really cute and it really helped students remember the legend.

These are so cute!

We also tried putting the groundhog in some coffee filters. These were colored with markers and sprinkled with water. After they dried, we inserted the craft stick. It turned out pretty cute, but we still preferred the cup.

We had so much fun making the headbands and all the kids are looking forward to wearing those on Thursday.

We haven’t finished our hallway display yet, but we are working on it. This will include a cute little groundhog holding up some of the students’ writing so I will update soon with that picture. Tomorrow, we will be predicting the weather, going outside to check for our shadows, and graphing the results. (All of those activities are also included in the TPT resource.)

If you would like to grab just the crafts without the differentiated research group assignments, you can grab those here.

Legend of the Groundhog Crafts, Writing Projects, Prediction Activities and More!

How do you celebrate with your class? I’m so glad that I finally have some really cute and fun groundhog ideas to use every year!

Head over here to see what we did next in my classroom!

Groundhog Day Shadows and More!

100 Years Old on the 100th Day of School

January 28, 2017

Do you celebrate the 100th day of school with your students? Engage young writers with this adorable FREE writing prompt to be used as one of your 100th day of school activities!

The 100th day of school is always my favorite day of kindergarten! Why? Well… for some odd reason I LOVE dressing up like a granny and the kids crack me up. Like many other teachers, we tell the students to dress like they think they will look when they are 100.

They come up with the cutest ideas!

I tell them nonchalantly in the days leading up that I have to be in meetings that day so my grandma will be coming to teach school and that she is 100 years old.

The conversations typically go something like this, “Let me pull the snacks down from the cupboard because Granny can’t reach those.” “You guys may have to show Grannny how to turn on the computer. They didn’t have those when she was in school.” The kids are always excited to meet her!

This year I hit up Goodwill for a navy floral dress complete with purple flowers and shoulder pads. I found some of my grandma’s old clip on earrings – (mismatched of course), my mom’s bifocals, a snowflake brooch, some knee-high pantyhose (one leg wrinkled around the ankle) and pulled out my favorite Granny wig – braided bun and all. I covered my face in white eye-shadow and attempted to draw on some wrinkles. Then I added some bright pink lipstick. I threw on an Easter hat, grabbed one of my grandma’s old bags and filled it with some knitting needles and a cross-stitch. Another teacher let me borrow her grandma’s walker.

I was laughing to myself at how my morning started and how it ended!

Unfortunately, one child knew right away that it was me so and she proceeded to tell everyone else so I wasn’t able to trick them. (Several years ago I was able to trick the kids all day!) Oh, well… there’s always next year. We had a lot of fun taking pictures and I used a granny voice most of the day. I just LOVE the costumes my students came up with!

100th Day of School Fun!

This is one of those experiences that I think my students will remember when they are older or at least get a kick out of looking at pictures from this day so the hassle is totally worth it to me.

I created a FREEBIE you can grab at my TPT store! We actually didn’t get to this printable until the next day but my students had so much fun drawing a picture of their teacher’s granny. 🙂

I loved how some of them thought to include my walker. 🙂

Click here for that freebie and make sure to click the star in my store to be added to your favorite sellers! You will be updated of fun new products and freebies!

Pencils to Pigtails TPT Store

What about you? How do you celebrate the 100th day of school?

How to Vote and a Mock Election for Young Children

January 17, 2017

Have you ever held a mock election for your students? This was a major hit and the perfect way for us to practice essential writing skills while having fun and learning about the voting process, election day, and inauguration day!

We had so much fun with our mock election on Friday. If you are interested in the mock election activities, the craftivity, or studying inauguration day- you can grab that resource here.

TPT – Donald Trump Resource

We have really enjoyed this unit from making Donald Trump’s hair to voting for our school president!

The kids were begging me to let them cast their vote for our new “School President”, but I held them off as long as possible. I told them that it was important to consider all of the positive qualities about both our gym teacher, Mr. Hice, and our music teacher, Mr. Mills. I reminded them that although I knew that gym is always a popular subject, they should not vote for Mr. Hice just because they enjoyed that class. We have been comparing the two candidates all week.

Mr. Hice and Mr. Mills came by to make a plea with my students about why they should vote for them. Mr. Mills pointed out that he was older and therefore wiser. Mr. Hice came by and really pepped the kids up by reminding them that he teaches them games and his class is fun. His “speech” was a little more passionate then Mr. Mills. 🙂

Later in the day, I asked students to write both teachers’ names on the ballot and place a check mark beside the candidate they wanted to vote for.( If you haven’t read my previous post, my assistant Mel made us this beautiful ballot box, ballots, and “I Voted Today” stickers. The kids were thrilled!)

Drumroll please…………..

Mr. Hice came out ahead! I asked my kids why they voted for him and I was so impressed with their answers. Several said, “He keeps us healthy!” or “He teaches us new games!” My favorite answer was when one child said, “He keeps us hydrated!” I asked him if he knew what that word meant and he said, “Yes! It means you drink a lot of water!”

So congratulations to Mr. Hice, our new School President (according to Mrs. Statum’s class anyways). Congratulations to Mr. Mills as well who was named the new School Vice President. I tried to explain the term Vice President by comparing it to our Vice Principal. Students were quick to say “Oh! Like Mrs. Sylvia!” (Our school secretary!)

I can’t wait to show them some video on Friday of the actual Inauguration Day. How exciting is it that my kindergarten students can tell you all about the President’s role, the activities that will take place on Inauguration Day and explain how the election process works? (All while sneaking in lots of handwriting, reading and writing standards!)

Did you miss our first post about our craft and writing prompts? Head here!

Inauguration Day for Young Students

Did you see the cute white houses we did and how we prepared for our own election? Head here!

Election and the Inauguration Day Set-up!

Inauguration Day and the Election for Children

January 13, 2017

How to vote, the voting process, election day, inauguration day, and so much more! My students have LOVED learning all about this year’s Presidential Inauguration with all of these fun activities!

You can find the resource here!
Donald Trump Craftivity and Writing Project

Students loved the White House coloring page.I asked them to color the windows and cut it out. Most of my students decided to paste it on a large sheet of dark blue paper.

Several drew snowflakes or created trees with construction paper. The “road” was completely their idea and I loved it.

I was especially proud of my little boy who created a car from construction paper. Believe me, he was very proud too!

We reviewed our word wall cards and I was pleased that this week students had a much more in depth understanding about the president and what will happen on Inauguration Day.

I also had students complete the coloring sheets provided as morning work this week. I love that these are differentiated to meet individual learning needs. My high students loved the challenge and my lower students were able to build some confidence. The best part was that I didn’t have any early finishers. Crickets in my room and I have a very talkative class!

I also let the students know that we would be holding a mock election to see who should be the school president. I told them that Mr. Hice, our gym teacher and Mr. Mills, our music teacher were the two candidates. The kids were thrilled at just the thought of holding an election. I gave each student a sheet to write the names and draw a picture of the candidates. (I included more advanced ways to compare the two candidates in the resource, but for kindergarten I stuck with a simple sheet. If you teach an older grade you may want to use the Venn diagram page or the page where students list favorable traits on the emojis.)

(Many of my students drew our gym teacher with a basketball and our music teacher with a guitar.)

I told the students that they needed to do some thinking about who they would cast a vote for. I reminded them that they shouldn’t cast a vote just because they like one subject over the other.

Mr. Mills stopped by to tell us that he was older and therefore wiser then Mr. Hice. We plan to talk to Mr. Hice tomorrow to hear why we should vote for him. 🙂

In the meantime, my AMAZING assistant Mel created the most adorable “I Voted Today” stickers for the students to wear after they place their ballot. I included ballots in the resource listed, but I have to admit that I like the ones that Mel surprised us with even better so we will be using those. She also came up with this adorable ballot box! Now, how bad do you want a Mel in your room??? 🙂 At our school we have an assistant for an hour a day and I am so grateful for that!

I have left the ballot box, stickers, and ballots sitting out just to build excitement and it has really worked. My students have been begging me to cast their votes. We will be voting tomorrow and they can’t wait.

Think about how you could use this resource in your classroom. In the past I brought in pictures of my dogs and asked students to decide who should be our Dog President. I told students all about each dog’s good and bad character traits. They had so much fun. I wouldn’t want to let two students run in my room because I could envision a lot of jealousy and hurt feelings.

How could you use this in your room?

Did you miss how we began this lesson? Head Here!

Inauguration Day for Young Children

To see what we did next, head here!

Mock Election with Young Students by Pencils to Pigtails

The Presidential Inauguration Day with Young Children

January 7, 2017

Have you ever taught your students about the presidential election? My kids had the best time learning about inauguration day and how to vote while working on essential writing skills.

When Donald Trump was elected, we really loved learning about Inauguration Day!

I know that there are many differing opinions about our most recent Presidential election. However, I think it is really important to teach our children that they have a voice. I developed a unit on Donald Trump to use with my students. You can find it here:

Donald Trump Craftivity and Writing Project

I found an old bulletin board set that I used when I taught fourth grade so I started by showing my students some pictures from the bulletin board set along with the word wall cards from my Trump unit. I also found a newspaper article in this month’s Kidsville to share with them.

I LOVED hearing my students discuss the President. I began by asking them who the current President is. None of them knew! Several said that Donald Trump was the President. I explained that Inauguration Day will take place on January 20th, 2017. We discussed a typical Inauguration Day which usually consists of the incoming President attending a worship service, a ride with the outgoing President to the ceremony, taking an oath of office, a parade, luncheon, and a ball. The students were so intrigued by the idea of a ball! (More on that later!)

I really enjoyed hearing what my students had to say when asked what the President does. One said that he can tell the robbers not to go in people’s houses. Another said he can decide who goes to jail. One little boy said that he can call the fire department if there is a fire and another child said he can decide when it is time for everyone to eat dinner. 🙂 I gave them a very basic overview of various responsibilities that our President has.

I then gave the kids some “think time” to figure out what they would tell the President if they had the chance to give him some advice. They came up with the cutest answers and I wrote them on the board. Some of the sentences were “Practice dancing.” (for the inaugural ball, of course!) They also said he should be a good boss, watch baseball to relax, get a pet, take care of everybody, go to bed early, and protect the world. I loved that last one! I am so impressed with them!

Students were asked to pick 3 of the sentences and copy them. Many times I ask students to come up with a sentence phonetically, but for this assignment I wanted them to copy 3 from the sentences we generated together. I was pleased that they seemed to have a strong understanding that a sentence consists of a complete thought and that they were able to practice essential components of a sentence such as beginning with a capital letter and using end marks. (I am noticing that I need to work on handwriting more though!) 🙂

After they finished we looked at several pictures of Donald Trump. I showed the students my sample craft and told them that I just couldn’t get his hair right. They had so much fun attempting to create his hairstyle. As you can see, we could not figure out exactly what color his hair should be! I passed out the pieces one item at a time, but I’ve never been one to correct students if they don’t make their craft look just like mine. I love how they each have their own individual style!

The kids are so proud of their Donald Trumps! I am too.

Head here to see what we did next!

Pencils to Pigtails Inauguration Day – Week 2

Easy Homemade Play Dough Recipe

January 4, 2017

This easy gingerbread play dough recipe is the best and perfect to whip up to use in your home or classroom because there is no heat required! It has the perfect consistency and makes the whole house smell so good!

Aniston is obsessed with Play-Doh at the moment. We’ve had plenty of fun with a few of the kits you can buy, but I’m not a fan of the way it smells and the residue it leaves on your fingers. Plus Aniston LOVES to get up on the counter and cook with me. I’ve come up with a Homemade Gingerbread Play Dough recipe that we really love. Yes, it’s a little Christmas-sy but I plan to use this recipe year round. It smells delicious, is quick to mix up and you most likely have the items already at home to make it. There is no heat involved so Aniston can dig right in and get her hands ~~dirty~~ doughy.

Homemade Gingerbread Play Dough

1 Cup of Flour
1/2 Cup of Salt
1/2 Tbsp. Ground Cinnamon
1/2 Tbsp. Ground Ginger
1/2 Tbsp. Vegetable Oil
1/2 Cup of Water

(If you wanted to leave out the cinnamon and ginger you could make regular play dough. You may want to add a drop or two of food coloring to add interest. I have used this same recipe to make apple pie play dough using apple pie spice in place of the ginger and cinnamon!)

Toddlers love to measure, pour, and stir so try to let them be involved as much as possible.

After we finished mixing it up, I pulled Aniston’s little white table out and filled it with rolling pins and cookie cutters.

She was in awe of the Gingerbread Man chant and was constantly singing, “Run! Run! Fast as you can! You can’t catch me… I’m the Gingerbread Man!”

(Love the little cutie in the background of this one!)

We didn’t wrap the first batch up too good so a couple days later Aniston was more than happy to make it again.

(Hint: Wrap with plastic wrap tightly and store in air-tight container.)

Excuse the crazy outfit but if we are staying at home I have a rule that Aniston can dress as she likes. 🙂

The next day Aniston’s cousin came to play. Who knew you could keep two busy toddlers entertained for an hour so easily? I think it’s definitely worth the trouble to make and clean up!

What about you? Have you ever tried homemade play dough? This would be a great activity to try in your classroom. I will definitely be saving this in my December box for next year!

Missing Mitten Mystery

January 3, 2017

This adorable freebie created to pair with The Missing Mitten Mystery written by Steven Kellogg will keep primary students engaged while practicing essential writing skills! Young children love working on writing while trying to solve the mystery!

Update! Guess what? The post below was written BEFORE I created this FREEBIE that includes mittens and writing templates that you can find by clicking on the photo above to download in my TPT store! Please read through my older blog post to see how I introduce the mystery to my students!

The kids and I were excited to jump back in the swing of things after our Christmas break. I always like to display any books about snow in the month of January. We live in Tennessee and so an inch or two of snow can get us very excited. 🙂

This morning I read the students “The Missing Mitten Mystery”. This book was written and illustrated by Steven Kellogg and is perfect for incorporating into your Writer’s Workshop time.

I always begin the story by discussing the term “mystery” with students. I gave them a brief time to talk with their shoulder partners and make predictions about the story.

You will also want to point out that Steven Kellogg is both the author and illustrator. I’ve always thought his illustrations are especially beautiful and detailed.

Read the story but make sure you stop after Miss Seltzer calls Annie to come inside.

I tell students that I want them to write about what they think happened to Annie’s mitten. Do they think Annie was on to something when she suggested a bird took the mitten? Do they have another idea?

I gave each student a small red mitten I had pre-cut out of construction paper. (This REALLY adds to the excitement!) I guided them through creating a story starter. Ours was “I think Annie’s mitten is _________.”

For kindergarten students I was really pleased with what they came up with!

Most of my students predicted that the mitten was either on the snowman’s hand or that the eagle had taken it. I had a few think the mouse had it or that she had left it outside while playing.

It is always fun to come back together and let the kids share their work. I then read the rest of the book where they discover that the mitten was left inside the snowman creating the perfect heart shape.

I hope your students enjoy this as much as mine always do!