Alphabet Bottles:  This is the letter "B" bottle.  The bottle has water in it.  In this bottle are lots of things that start with the letter "B"....buttons, a banana, a baby, a baby bottle, beads, blue (glitter), a bat, and a bird.   I made one for each letter of the alphabet.  I originally had them in pop/water bottles, but I found these bottles at Discount School Supply (www.discountschoolsupply.com) and liked the shape of these better.  I get LOTS of email from people asking about these bottles.  Last I knew, they were sold out of these bottles. :(

My Kindergartners love to look at them (kind of like an I Spy book).  Later in the year, I use them with clipboards, and the children make a list (using Kindergarten spelling) of all the things they can find.

Making your own alphabet bottles?  Check www.orientaltrading.com for lots of erasers.  I also found a lot of stuff in my daughters Barbie stuff.  Be careful!  Alphabet bottles are really addictive!

I am working on some new bottles for diagraphs that the children are introduced to...like SH and CH and TH.

How Many Syllables? Cards:  This is one of 5 pages of cards I made using djinkers clipart.  I cut the pages into 4 cards and laminated them.  I then put a sticker on the back of each card correlating to the correct number of syllables for each word.  The children clap out the syllables, and then clip the clothespin over the number they think is correct.  They turn the card over to see if the sticker matches their guess.

Workmats:This is a picture of one of the work mats I made for use during large group activities.  In addition to this mat, I made one with lowercase ABC's, one with uppercase ABC's for pointing along with while we sing the alphabet (backwards and forwards) and one that has numbers 1-100 to follow along with when we count. 

This mat goes along with the "Phonercize" song on Dr. Jean Feldmans "Sing to Learn CD.  Dr. Jean is one of my favorite people in the whole world, and you can find out more about her CD's, books, and workshops at www.drjean.org

We have our fingers point along with the song (as an alternative to doing the body actions). 

Most of the clipart I used on this mat is from www.djinkers.com  I would especially recommend their Kidillywinks clipart CD.

Alphabet Pointers: I went to Wal-Mart, and begged the poor paint clerk (he looked about 12 and I know he thought I was insane!) for 26 paint stirrer sticks.  I put ABC stickers on each stick.  This is the capital letter side, the lowercase is on the other side.  My kids use these during "Read The Room" to find specific letters of the alphabet.  I also have the kids draw a stick out of the can at random during group time and then need to find that letter in the chart/morning message/big book we are reading.

Compound Word Cards: This is another set of cards that I made using Djinkers clipart.  This is the first of 5 pages.  I cut these pages into the 4 cards, and laminate them.  I then made compound word puzzles with each word, cutting them through the pictures and splitting the word apart.  I then use them with kids who are having trouble with segmenting.  "I have water, and you have melon.  What do we have if we put them together?"..."Here is snowman.  What does it say if we take away man?" 

Make A Word Folders:  This is just a corner of the actual folders I put together.  I bought a set of Build A Word cards from The Education Center for each one of my kids.  I then went to Wal-Mart and bought plastic pocket sheets for holding baseball cards.  I put the cards into the plastic pockets, and put the sheets in a folder.  Each child has a folder in their chair pocket.  We use these for making words activities.  I also bought the Teacher set.  They are large enough for the whole class to see when I put them on the chalk tray of my chalkboard.

Rainbow Alphabet:  My kinders love to match the letters to the rainbow arc.  I created this using Microsoft Publisher and Djinkers clipart.

Listening Center:  I went to Wal-Mart and bought several $5 "walkman" tape players to use in my listening center.  The children pick a bag with their own individual book and tape player.  Cuts down on lots of problems!

Egg Puzzlers  Here is a game I made using some plastic eggs I found at Target at Easter.  They are divided into 3 sections instead of the usual two.  I wrote consonants on the outside pieces, and vowels in the middle.  The kids make words and then sort the completed eggs by "real words" and "nonsense words".

Star Word Family Sort  I bought some wooden stars from the craft section of Walmart.  I spray painted them yellow, and then wrote simple word family words on each star.  5 from the AR family...5 from the og family...5 from the it family...etc.  I then created a coordinating packet of sheets in Microsoft Publisher.  The kids sort the stars by word family, and write the words they found in the points of the stars on the appropriate page.

How Many Points?  This is a little hard to see, but I made a sheet with some simple CVC words.  The children match the letters with scrabble letters, and then add up how many points each word is worth.  Works well for lots of "theme related" words too.

Popcorn Word Find  We call our kindergarten sight words "popcorn words".  What I've done here, is write the popcorn words on fun foam "popcorn" shapes and hid them in a bottle full of unpopped popcorn.  The kids look for the words, and cross them off a list as they find them.