Easels for big books can be expensive. A cheaper alternative is to use an artist's easel.

Check out this site for mini motivational posters. The posters are small only about 4 x 6 but they would make a nice page addition to a class yearbook.

Use computer labels to add a personalized touch to reward pencils. You can write a note on them and wrap them around the pencil top or print out the labels with general sayings.

You can use your NEA card to get a 50% discount off of a day pass or Freedom ticket to Colonial Williamsburg. The discount applies only to the teacher and not to family.

You can tailor make your own counting and patterning worksheets to match your theme by using free clipart from a site like Microsoft Clip Art Gallery.

When teaching handwriting I use sheets that I run off on the copier. I have the primary lines printed on them and at the beginning of each line I have drawn a little house for the kids to reference. When I begin to teach handwriting I refer to the roof line, door line and letters that extend in to the basement. This visual cue helps some children who have more trouble focusing on the top, middle and bottom line. You can also draw a flower and have the top line be the flower, the middle the leaves, and below the line will be the roots.

If you subscribe to Mailbox magazine you are automatically entitled to subscribe to their free online magazine service which is a tremendous resource for worksheets and ideas.

Use a bucket or other type of container to keep in the center of the kids table. They can throw their scraps in it as they work rather than have a lot of traffic to the garbage in the middle of a project.

Use wrapping paper or fabric as an alternative to expensive bulletin board paper. Use rubber stamps to create a random pattern on plain paper or to make a border.

Students can earn compliments. Each time your class receives a compliment from other teachers, parents, principal, etc., record it on the board. When the students have earned ten compliments they get rewarded with ten minutes of recess.

Use Wikki sticks, highlighter tape, fly swatters or homemade frames to focus on sight words and letters in chart poems and songs. See photo below for a picture also of Frogger and the Space Man. I got the idea for these from a Kindergarten list and the kids love them. Frogger jumps from word to word and helps them count the words in a sentence. Space Man counts the spaces in a sentence. Both help the students understand concepts of print. The idea for the frames comes from the book Joyful Learning in Kindergarten by Bobbi Fisher.

The following books are great professional references:

"Joyful Learning In Kindergarten" -- Bobbi Fisher & Don Holdaway

"Guided Reading" - Fountas & Pinnell

"Kid Writing" - Cardonick and Feldgus

"Mosaic Of Thought: Teaching Comprehension In A Reader's Workshop" -- Ellin Keene

Use pencils with toppers, funny straws, magic wands, back scratchers, fake fingers,etc for children to use when reading and writing around the room or to focus their attention on a special word. See photo below for plastic hands to use to give the kids a pat on the back when they do a great job. The tube thing expands and you can spin it to make a cool sound that really gets their attention.

Students can use the spaceman to help them leave spaces when writing. I purchased these from The Really Good Stuff catalog. These spacemen are pictures of astronauts on clothespins that students can use at their seat with their writing. They help them measure how big a space to leave between words.

Glue a wiggly eye on to a popsicle stick for children to use as a pointer. These pointers are helpful to get kids counting words-learning the difference between a letter vs. a word or sentence.

Have each child bring in a pack of stickers and use these for patterning activities. Save money by using fewer stickers on papers and use a rubber stamp instead. Draw a REALLY big smiley face on their paper. Draw a smiley face inside a star. The kids like these just as much.

The Swan and Dolphin Walt Disney World Resorts offer huge discounts to teachers. You just have to show them your NEA card. I have stayed there. These are luxury resorts and we paid only slightly more than the value resorts.

Use a shower curtain liner or plastic tablecloth under your painting easels. Just fold and put away-no clean up needed. You can also use shower curtain liners to devise many reinforcing games. Randomly write the alphabet using a permanent marker and give the kids bean bags to toss. Each letter they land on and correctly identify is a point for their team.

Use small Pringles cans to decorate and motivate. Cover a can with eyes and make it the "I Can" can. Give this to students when they say they can't do it. Put rice in another can and cover it with metallic paper and use it to sprinkle brain sprinkles,etc.

My kids love this idea from Dr. Jean Feldman-when they've done something really well or shown great insight I tell them to "Kiss your brain". Dr. Jean has terrific ideas for fun and motivation in the classroom. If you get the chance to see her at a workshop I highly recommend it. Check out the link to her web site for more great ideas and song CD's.

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The Magic School Bus makes videos for many kindergarten themes such as germs, spiders, butterflies,etc. These videos are ususally available for free rental at your local library.

Use rain gutters to create display shelves for books. Click on the link to learn more about this. Also, keep your eyes out for when video stores (or any type of store) go out of business. They will often donate furniture such as display racks and shelves to schools. It never hurts to ask. Another source for cardboard display cases are office stores. When they are done with a display they throw them out. You can usually just take the cardboard display if it is almost empty.

Click HERE for a site with lesson plans in word processing formats that you can modify to your needs.

Use two gallon freezer/storage bags to organize your personal books. I have my books collected by theme and alphabetized in these bags. It makes it very easy to pull out all your bags for rhyming. I also like to use the gallon or two gallon storage bags in my storage cabinets. I fill them with cotton balls, or pom poms, buttons, pipe cleaners, etc. Then I just store them side by side in the cabinet. The bags take up very little room but allow me to easily see what is in there.

Kids love games such as baseball, ring toss, and bingo. It is easy to add an educational component to the game. For ring toss, divide the class into teams. The children must answer an educational question (ex. what rhymes with cat) before they get to toss the ring.

It is very easy to make your own bingo games. I don't even bother with putting them on cardboard as it is so easy to make new ones. I also just make four versions of cards. I always have a group that gets bingo each time.

To play baseball divide the class into two teams and let them pick a captain and name for their team. Each team goes up until they have gotten three outs. For example, we play with alphabet identification at the beginning of the year and sight words later in the year. A team goes up and I ask each member of the team a question. If they get it right their team scores a point. If they are wrong their team gets an out. Then when they have three outs it is the other teams turn. At the end we compare points to determine the winning team.

Use songs whenever possible to help kids remember. Here is a song to the tune of London Bridge we start singing in September. By the time I formally introduce money the kids can all already identify the money.

"Who's fine face is on the penny? On the penny? On the penny?

Who's fine face is on the penny? Abraham Lincoln.

How much is a penny worth? Penny worth? Penny worth?

How much is a penny worth? One cent."

Handwriting without Tears is a formal handwriting program. They have a component that consists of wooden pieces of straight lines and curved lines that students use to make letters. This tactile approach is excellent for students who are having trouble remembering their alphabet. If you purchase a set of the wooden pieces for $25 you can them use them as stencils and make more pieces out of stiff cardboard. The HWT program is excellent. They also have this cute song to the tune "If You're Happy"-

"If you want to write a letter start at the top! If you want to write a letter start at the top! If you want to write a letter then you better, better, better start the letter at the top!"

When doing a painting activity give each student a large piece of construction paper to put under their artwork instead of newspaper. Put their name on the construction paper and tell them it is their painting mat. They can get paint on their painting and even a little on the mat but not on the table. These mats can be reused several times on both sides. I leave their art work right on the mat and slide it into the drying rack. For some reason these mats work better for me than spreading newspaper on the tables. The newspaper has always seemed to encourage a few to create artwork on the newspaper.

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Find out more online. Check out these sites for articles and information about education.

Education Update, Education Week, Electronic School

At Teacher's Pets you can purchase unique jewelry to match your theme such as nursery rhymes and Rainbow Fish. They also have a great eye catching necklace for the 100th Day of School with Zero the Hero.

Check out Mimi's Motifs for great educational toys that really enhance storytelling. I have purchased Little Red Riding Hood which has Little Red on top and then you turn it and it becomes Grandma and then flip it and it becomes the wolf. It is really fun and the kids love it.