How to Have Landscape AND Portrait in ONE Word Document

I just saw a post by the fabulous Miss Erica Bohrer where she was wondering how to change the page orientation within one document.   I FINALLY figured this out myself a few months ago and it totally changed my life.  It is so much more convenient to have pages going both ways!

I whipped up a little tutorial for you:

I used my Plants and Seeds unit on TPT to demonstrate.  Also, I use Word 2010.

Click on the images to enlarge them.

 1.  Highlight the text on the page that you want to change the orientation of.

 2.  Go to the Page Layout Tab.  Click "Margins" then click "Custom Margins" on the dropdown menu.

 3.  Click "Landscape," then "Selected Text," then "OK"

 Here is the closeup of the most important step!

Voila!  

There you have it... one page that is rotated while the rest remain the same.  I hope that this helps you as much as it did me!

These are a few of my Favorite Pins...

                                Source: whispering-literature.tumblr.com via Mary on Pinterest

LOVE this adorable poster!  I can't wait to print it out and hang it up in my library.

                               Source: scrapbooksetc.com via Mary on Pinterest

Self Portrait collage.  LOVE it!

                              Source: ladybugsteacherfiles.blogspot.com via Mary on Pinterest

ONE binder for all of your lesson plans, calendar, objectives, benchmarks and everything else you could need.  LOVE this!

                                  Source: kindergartenworks.com via Mary on Pinterest

Using overheads on top of magna doodles for number sense and addition.  My little ones would LOVE this!

                                   Source: goldengangkindergarten.blogspot.com via Mary on Pinterest

Peter Rabbit character analysis.  Great lesson, plus it's adorable for Easter!

                               Source: shareandremember.blogspot.com via Mary on Pinterest

How to dye rice.  So pretty!

                               Source: panickedteacher.typepad.com via Mary on Pinterest

Evolution of a child's writing.  I love this, and will be sharing it at Parent Teacher Conferences this week!

Make a Counting Book!

I have been tutoring one of my poor little ones who had a serious medical problem and can't come to school for awhile.  I have been racking my brain trying to come up with fun activities that I can do with him at his house, AKA things that can be easily transported, are not messy and can sustain a five year old's attention for two hours.  As you can imagine, it is really HARD! 

 

One day we were reading this fabulous book, Count! by Denise Fleming.  He loved the vibrant pictures and simple, repetitive text and asked if he could make his own counting book.  Hallelujah!  I bound a book with eleven blank pages (for the numbers 1 through 10, then a page where all of the numerals are written, just like Count!).  We practiced writing numerals properly, then practiced writing number words.  We also talked about picking a theme.  Denise Fleming picked animals, and my little friend picked toys. 

I apologize ahead of time for the terrible quality phone pictures, stealthily snapped in his dimly lit living room.

I loved the finished product, and so did he.  He was so proud to have a "real book" of his own!  I will definitely be doing this project again in the future with my whole class because it's fun, easy and a great, very personal, final product.

Great Deal of the Day - Wikki Stix!

I was out shopping today and stumbled upon some Wikki Stix knock offs, "Bendaroos", at an amazing price.  A pack of 500 was only $1.99!  This is why I love The Christmas Tree Shop.  At this time of year, there is not a Christmas tree in sight but they have plenty of random, delightful and incredibly cheap things that you can use in your classroom.  I found brand name Wikki Stix {here} at $7 for a 48 pack.  What a rip off in comparison!

Here they are:

Inside there were 500 Bendaroos sorted and individually bagged by color, plus about 10 animal cards with step by step directions

In case you are wondering "Why is this lady so excited about fake Wikki Stix?" here are some pinspirations for you:

Source: thepreschooltoolboxblog.com via Mary on Pinterest

Alphabet and number recognition game using Wikki Stix as a fishing rod

Source: confessionsofahomeschooler.com via Mary on Pinterest

Upper and lowercase letters plus some phonemic awareness practice

Source: thepreschooltoolboxblog.com via Mary on Pinterest

Using Wikki Stix as a magnifying glass to search for letters or words in texts

Source: preschooluniverse.com via Mary on Pinterest

Number recognition practice, and a fun way to practice addition and subtraction

Source: wikkistix.com via Mary on Pinterest

Representing scientific knowledge with Wikki Stix

A few other ways that I have used them in my classroom are 

• To circle sight words in text
• To underline the author and illustrators names on a book cover
• To circle punctuation in a big book or poem
• To circle uppercase letters in a text 

I would love to know what YOU do with Wikki Stix (or Bendaroos)!

It's My Birthday and I'll Have a Sale if I Want To!

Just a quick reminder that everything is 20% off in my TPT store for six more hours.  I hope you'll stop by to check it out!

One thing that is coming right up is Plants & Seeds Math and Literacy Fun.  It is over 80 pages of lesson plans, center ideas, playlists and activities that your little ones will love!

Click the button above to check out everything that's on sale.  Thank you!

Some Fun Pinterest Tricks and a SALE!

My birthday is tomorrow!  As a little celebration I am throwing a 24 hour sale in my TPT store.  Everything is 20% off on March 13th only.  I hope you will stop by and check it out!

 One thing you might just love is my Plants & Seeds Math and Literacy Fun unit.  It is over 80 pages of lesson plans and activities that your little ones will love!

Click the button above to check out everything that's on sale.  Thank you!

And now two super fun Pinterest tricks you can use:

1.  You can find out what people are pinning from your blog!  Just type in pinterest.com/source/ your blog name.  So, for example, mine is:  http://pinterest.com/source/adventures-in-kindergarten.blogspot.com    

2.  My friend K pinned this amazing little trick yesterday.  Have you ever clicked on a pin just to click on it to read more and not be able to find the thing you are looking for?  It happens to me all time and drives me bonkers!  Apparently you can just drag and drop the picture into a google image search and it will find the original post for you in a few second flat.  Seriously, I can't believe this one! Click {HERE} for step by step directions.
 

 

St. Patrick's Day Ideas

I am linking up with Miss Kindergarten to share some fabulous St. Paddy's day ideas I found on Pinterest.

{source}

I freaking love these handprint Leprechauns.  SO CUTE!

{source}

Leprechaun  traps made with found objects.  This would also make a great writing activity! I'm thinking "How to Catch a Leprechaun," "How to Build a Leprechaun Trap" or a persuasive piece about why their trap is best for catching leprechauns.

{source}
HILARIOUS!  If I had kids I would definitely do this.  I might even try it at school (the footprint parts, anyway...)

Thing 1 and Thing 2 *Updated*

 

You are never going to believe who snuck into our classroom last night... Thing 1 and Thing 2!  They wrote us a very fresh morning message, and left ALL of our Dr. Seuss books all over the rug.  Can you believe it?!?  The little ones said to me "now we KNOW it's not you doing this... you would NEVER leave books on the floor!"  So cute!

They even left self portraits on our easel!  Side note: the kids LOVE painting on foil.  This is the first time I've done it, and it was a huge hit this week.  I had the parents donate the foil and stirred in a dash of dish soap into each paint cup to help the paint stick to the foil.  Worked like a charm!

Today we made handprint Thing 1 and Thing 2s. I got the idea {HERE}.  It is so cute and easy!  I didn't say clean, just easy! 

Here's how:

1. Paint the palm of one hand white, and all fingers of that hand blue.  Press it onto a piece of yellow construction paper.
2. Paint the other hand red, except for the middle finger.  Press it onto the paper, below the first handprint. 
3. Trim around each Thing.
4. When dry, have children draw on a face with a thin black marker or Sharpie.
5. Glue a small circle of white paper onto the stomach area.  Students can write a 1 or 2 on the circle.  I traced the bottom of a paint bottle that was about the size of a half dollar.

 I realized about halfway through that I could fit two "Things" onto one sheet of paper if the kids had smaller hands.  I love to save paper :)

Have kids rub their hands together for a quick color experiment (red + blue = purple).

*UPDATE*
Here are the finished "Things!"  Sorry for the poor quality phone photos and for the fact that the Things look like they are in jail.  The windows looking into my classroom are reinforced with wire and VERY classy.

The Cat in the Hat Came to Our Class! (and a freebie!)

 

We are celebrating Seuss week a little later than most because of our vacation two weeks ago.  It is so fun to dress up and do fun activities every day.  This year I decided to kick it off with a bang.  The little ones walked in the door yesterday morning and who did they see.... THE CAT IN THE HAT!  He made a big mess in our classroom and even left his footprints everywhere!!!  Oh my goodness... the nerve of that cat! He even wrote our morning message in rhyme. 

Okay, so it's just a huge poster that I got at the teacher store.  But you would have thought that a celebrity (Justin Bieber?  iCarly?) visited.  The kids were obsessed with finding out what he had messed up in our room.  Someone accidentally switched two of our playdough lids, and that poor cat got the blame!  They were theorizing all day about how he had done it.  Does he come to life at night like Corduroy and the toys in Toy Story?  Did the "real" cat from the movie come, and leave his picture on our door as a clue?  So cute!

Here are some sweet Seuss quotes typed up for you, plus the footprints that I cut out and laminated for our entry way.  Plus, here's a clue about what we did today. Any guesses?

Seuss Quotes

Enjoy!