Spotlight Saturday: Yay for Prek!

Happy Fourth of July everyone! I hope you are able to spend time with family and friends and remember what this day is all about!! Enjoy the fireworks, but make sure your furbabies are okay! I know mine HATES all things fireworks!!

It's Saturday, so you know what that means! Time for Spotlight Saturday! In case you didn't already know, Spotlight Saturday is a linky party where we get to link up and showcase our favorite products, activities, resources, and ideas!

Think of Spotlight Saturday as a kind of Teacher Show and Tell. The idea is for you to write a blog post showing us and telling us all about your favorite product, resource, activity, or idea. This includes anything you're really proud of and just can't wait to share! It could be anything classroom or school related, and doesn't have to be a product from your TPT store. It could be a really great blogger T-shirt deal, or how you organized your Pinterest boards, or even how you created a Teacher Toolbox. Whatever you're proud of, we want you to share it with us!

Make sure to include pictures and ideas or instructions in your post. Don't just link up to a product in your TPT store, that doesn't tell us anything about the best way to use it! You can Spotlight yourself or anyone else, it's up to you!

Today, I am going to Spotlight my sweet friend Karry from Yay for PreK! She has some really great resources in her TPT store, and she recently gave her blog a makeover. Looks SO CUTE!!

Whenever I Spotlight someone's TPT store, I like to include a Freebie as well as a Paid Product. The freebie helps you to better understand and appreciate the style of the seller, and the paid product is an amazing resource to add to your tool kits!

First, I'm Spotlighting one of MANY freebies that Karry has in her store. This one is adorable and perfect for the beginning of the school year in pre-k and kindergarten, and could be used as an RTI activity in first grade.

This freebie is called 'Find the Worm' and focuses on the uppercase letters of the alphabet. It was created to be used at a Pocket Chart center, but if you don't have a Pocket Chart in your room it could just as easily be completed on a table or the floor!

Students are to place the apple alphabet cards in the Pocket Chart, picture side out. Then, one student hides the worm cards behind random apples. The other student must then point to each apple and correctly identify the letter (or sound, if you want to differentiate). If the letter (or sound) is identified correctly, the student who guessed may check behind the card for a worm. If he finds it, he keeps it and continues searching for the other worm. Once both worms are found, the student holding the worm cards then hides them for his partner, and the roles are reversed.

Isn't this an incredibly fun way to have your littles practice their letters and sounds? I thought so!! I can't wait to set this up for the beginning of the year!

Next up is a paid product from Karry's store.

This little packet is PERFECT for the beginning of the year in my room. Like many of you, on the first day of school we read 'The Kissing Hand' and work on activities that are related to that sweet story. Karry has compiled all sorts of important skills into one packet, and they are all themed around that favorite story of ours!!

Look at all the amazing activities included in this packet! Several different coloring pages that could be worked on during Morning Work or the hectic times of sorting supplies. There are very important skills to practice, like adding just a dot of glue and making sure to cut on the dotted lines. There is a page to practice writing your name, as well as another page for each child to place their handprint. Just like in the story, you can glue a red heart onto the handprint and send it home with love!

There is also a super-sweet counting book that you can work on together, and a very fun BINGO game focuses on different colors of hearts.

This packet is stuffed full of incredibly wonderful activities for the first day or days of school, and each activity is themed around a story that most of us read that first day! I really hope you check out my friend Karry from Yay for PreK! Here is where you can find her! <click on any image to go to that site>

YAY FOR PREK BLOG:

Make sure to follow her blog through Bloglovin' to get some amazing ideas for your early childhood classroom!!

YAY FOR PREK TPT STORE:

Now is the PERFECT time to check out her store. She's having a Fourth of July Sale, everything is 20% OFF until tomorrow!! Hurry up and take advantage of this great sale!

YAY FOR PREK FACEBOOK PAGE:

LINKS FOR THE PRODUCTS I SPOTLIGHTED TODAY:

FREEBIE

PAID

I would LOVE for you to link up for Spotlight Saturday too! I want to read all about your favorite products, activities, resources, and ideas! Please feel free to use the Spotlight Saturday image from the very top of the post, or the one below to showcase your Spotlight!

Make sure to read the rules carefully, and then add your link!

Rules:

1) You need to spotlight an educational resource that either you have created or you have found from someone else and love! This means you must link up with a blog post you have written putting an activity or idea in the Spotlight. Please do not link directly to a product in Teachers Pay Teachers or Teacher's Notebook or similar sites.

2) If you are Spotlighting a product from your own TPT store or that of another seller, make sure that in your blog post you Spotlight a freebie or a paid product. If you have a freebie and a paid product from the same seller, feel free to use both in your post. If all you have is a freebie, then post about the freebie and how you used it. You can also Spotlight a freebie that someone else created along with a product that you created.

2) Make sure to give credit where credit is due! You will need to include the name of the creator as well as a link to their TPT or Teacher's Notebook store where others can get a copy of the resource as well.

3) Include pictures of the product in your post, either screen shots  or photographs of your kiddos actually using the product. Give us a snapshot, just a brief glimpse into how the product or activity works. Just an image of the cover and one of the pages you have listed in the preview of the activity on TPT would be fine. It gives readers a visual and helps them better understand what your product is all about.

4) Make sure to leave a comment on the post of the two people before your post and the person after. This will help get conversation rolling, and will make sure everyone feels recognized for their efforts!

5) This is not the place to share your frustrations or disappointment with an activity or how you would have done it differently. If you are unsatisfied with your purchase that is a private conversation you need to have with the seller via email. This is not a link up to bash any sellers or their products, and any posts like that WILL BE DELETED!!

6) Follow my blog with Bloglovin' to make sure you are kept up to date on all the latest link up additions. Don't forget to follow my Facebook page too to keep up with all the notifications I send out!

7) To Link Up, you will need to click on the small blue button underneath my closing signature. It is directly under my name on the left hand side of the blog.

I can't wait to read all about your Spotlights!! Don't forget that I'm having a 4th of July SALE in my TPT store!! I hope you can come stock up on all sorts of things to use this year!