What To Do With All Those Jars?

Well, I admit I kind of have a problem of keeping jars and always have intentions on using them for something. So I finally got around to it and I am excited to clean up my classroom desk with them. My family eats a lot of pasta and we tend to have a lot of these jars around. My picky daughter enjoys her pasta sauce from these jars, which are a little smaller than the ones mentioned above. Finally, I buy a lot of pesto that and it comes in these jars,which are the smallest in the bunch. After they've been emptied, I scrub the labels off and run them through the dishwasher. Then they usually collect somewhere, like on the top of the refrigerator, until there are too many and I must find something to do with them. So, I decided to paint them, add a few bows (to cutesy them up), and use them as storage containers for my pencils, pens, scissors, and all kinds of other things that collect at my desk. I think it's time I get rid of the coffee mugs and cutesy the desk up a bit. So here is how I started:

I began by adding primer to the outside of the jars which added a nice base for the paint to stick to. Then once the primer dried, I added the cute colors you see above: Watermelon, Pistachio, and Blue Ocean Breeze. After a few coats and some ribbon, here's what they look like:

And here are all of the items I painted, I just couldn't stop at the jars:

The large jar in the back is an old sauerkraut jar, and the wooden box was my $1.99 Goodwill find. Don't ya think these will look so much cuter than old coffee mugs? One more thing, we will be choosing a winner tonight for our giveaway. If you haven't had a chance to enter and would still like to HERE is the link. We also have a few freebies there too! Hope you all have a terrific week!

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Glitter Makes Everyting Better!

How cute are these? Don't you just think that glitter makes everything better? On a quick trip to the Container Store (Which, although I love it, it's usually way too expensive for my taste, but I needed something specific. You can find some good deals though.) I spotted these little gems. I LOVE glitter and anything sparkly, so naturally I just HAD to have these. They were only $1.49 each, so definitely in my budget. Now, the question that I ask all of you lovelies: What do I do with them? I do have my classroom grouped into tables (red, orange, yellow green, blue and pink) so I'm thinking they could be used by table group. I don't want them out all the time though, because I'm sure with my little first grade fingers, they wouldn't last long. So, any ideas? I'd love to hear your creativity!

We're Having A Sale

We're having a Christmas in July sale now through Monday June 18th at our TpT store. Come on over and have a peek. EVERYTHING is 20% off!!! Click HERE to start shopping!

Also, DON'T FORGET to enter our giveaway and check out our freebies. See below to see what the celebration is all about.

We Made It To 400 Followers! Giveaway & Freebie Time!

Thank you followers! We are so excited to have reached 400! Now about our giveaway and freebies! We are going to give 4 followers 1 item from our TpT store for FREE! And the winners will get to choose their free item! There are 4 ways you can enter this fantastic giveaway:

1. Follow our blog (1 entry)

2. Follow our Teachers pay Teachers store (1 entry)

3. Blog about us on your blog and add the link in your comment (1 entry)

4. Comment on an item you have purchased

from our TpT store or would like to purchase (1 entry)

We will choose our winners Monday, July 18th so comment away!

Now for the freebies! Below are pictures of the items we would like to thank you with! Just click on the words above the pictures and start downloading! Thank you all for your support! Sorry this was so late. Google docs wouldn't take one of our uploads (too big) so we uploaded it to our TpT store.

This is a great game/center activity for the beginning of the school year:

Here is a great management tool for you all!


Every morning kiddos come in and find their card on the home side, and flip it to school. It’s a visual way to do attendance that is quick and easy. The cards are made of 3 x 5 stock, and I put a home label on the bottom of one side, and a school label on the bottom of the other side. Above the school label I put each child’s picture, so when they are at school you can actually see their face. I use the Carson Dellosa pocket chart which is 30 x 37 ½. But I like to make my own cards so they are personalized every year. The labels are formatted to Avery label 5395 (or equivalent size). So here are the labels that I use for my pocket chart. I've uploaded them in a word file so all you have to do is change the names to fit your class and you are ready to go. We hope you find this useful!
Attendance Card Labels

Map Pack & Another Giveaway Very Soon!

Hi all! We are super excited because we almost have 400 FOLLOWERS!! And to celebrate with you all we will have some freebies for you and a giveaway, but more on that in a minute because we have to tell you about a map pack that we have recently added to our Teachers pay Teachers store. Each year we teach a mapping unit to our students, but we have always felt that we needed a little more to add to the unit. We have searched all over for a great map lesson, but have always had a hard time finding one. So we knew that sometime during our summer break we would create one, and HERE it is! This pack contains:

1 town map in both color and black and white

1 blank town map for your students to create their own unique map

1 sheet of map symbols and map key labels in both color and black and white

Map questions to guide your students around the map

Come on by and check it out at our TpT store.

Okay, back to our upcoming celebration. As soon as we reach 400 followers we will give you all some freebies and have a giveaway for an item from our TpT store. So spread the word to all of your friends because as soon as we get 5 more followers the freebies and giveaway will be announced.

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We need your help... and Ice Cream Winner!

Ok blogger friends, we really need your help. We feel like we are pretty technologically savvy here at First Grade Fanatics. We are definitely a pair of Mac girls, and love learning how we go. That said, there is one little old thing that we can NOT figure out how to do. When we have a giveway, and pick a winner, we'd like to post the picture of the Random Number Generator, like everyone else does. But we can't figure out how to copy and paste it into a document to then post. When we copy and paste it, all we get are the numbers and text, not the picture of the results. Any ideas? Are we using the wrong website? We don't think it's a Mac vs PC thing, because we got the same results on a PC. We would sure LOVE someone to help us out... So the first person to either comment or email us when directions so that we can use the picture will win our Summer Fun Activity Pack as a thank you. We would sure appreciate it!

But now, the winner of our Ice Cream Math Pack.

Congratulations Cindy!! We will email you your copy shortly. If you would like to check out our Ice Cream Timed Tests, head on over to TpT. Have a great Monday!

Ice Cream Math Pack

Hello friends! We know that we've been pretty quiet lately, but don't you worry! We're still here. We've just been super busy hangin' with our kiddos, taking vacations (3 weeks in the sun in South Carolina did my tan some good!), and trying to enjoy our summer. We've got a big to do list though, so we've started to check some things off...

This past year, we really put an emphasis on our kids being proficient at their math facts. Our district previously had a high emphasis on the process that kids go through in math, but not so big on memorizing math facts. Now the pendulum has sort of swung, and we're now putting a HUGE focus on getting them to have their math facts memorized. We know that this will help them as they get older, and with math in the upper grades. We do believe of course that their is a balance, between understanding math concepts and the process, and memorization. Anyway, we started doing timed minute tests in our classes, and although we were resistant at first about having such pressure on the kids, we could not believe the results at the end of the year! The kids were doing SOO much better actually knowing their addition facts, and not having to actually figure them out. We gave our students a 1 minute timed test, and gave worksheets with 20-40 problems on the page. This year, we will be starting this much sooner, and one of the things that we will do is track each child's progress on a bulletin board, so they can see how they are doing. Then periodically we'll have an ice cream treat to celebrate their progress. We've been looking for a timed test pack, but just haven't been happy with what we've found, so naturally we had to create our own. So, introducing our
Ice Cream Math Timed Test Pack!
Inside you will find:
*Ice Cream Scoops bulletin board
*Teacher Record Sheets
*Addition Worksheets for adding 0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10
(4 unique sheets per number)
*Awards for each level passed

We're still working on mini packs including worksheets with 45 problems, subtraction worksheets, and mixed number worksheets for addition and subtraction. We'll let ya'll know when they're finished. So please, head on over to out TpT store, and check out our Ice Cream Math Pack. We'd love to hear you thoughts and ideas! Here's a little preview of what you'll find.


Leave us a comment about your favorite kind of ice cream, and we'll pick a winner on Sunday to get our Ice Cream Math Pack for free!

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