BOGO Deal Day 2: Economics for Little People!

Today I'm sharing a open house scavenger hunt [that I previously shared about 3 years ago on here!] on Blog Hoppin'! Get on over there and snag it!

In the meantime...

today's BOGO deal is a little different-the Little Economists organizers are INCLUDED in the Itty Bitty City download! and I just overhauled the WHOLE file! it looks so so much better now!

So if you purchase Itty Bitty City product, you get the organizers product for free!
and you can still snag the Iditarod freebie for the rest of the week as well. I also added it to both Iditarod products, so you can purchases either the centers or the class activities and get the sweet husky craft for free!
I've set all the BOGO deals up already! you can click the picture to go straight to them!

Happy Monday!

run of the city {economics project fun}

I have posted about Itty Bitty City before, but I finally have my resources up on TpT. I know I promised them last February, but I guess life happens!
To wrap up our economics study our entire grade level becomes a little city, Itty Bitty City to be exact. Each classroom offers a service and a good to our Pre-k-first grade customers.

To give a little background without droning on, each kid has a job or is shopping
Each classroom offers a good and a service

To prep we give the teachers $5 checks for each kid to spend in the city (not real money). That's it for the customers.
this year we offered:
Bakery
Playhouse theatre
art gallery
hobby shop
zoo
salon
bookstore
hot cocoa coffeehouse

In order to setup each shop, we ask for donations depending on the good or service, but try to avoid spending any money ourselves. For instance, I do a nail salon/massages, and bookmarks/bookstore.
Students bring in their own polish and we ask for old books schoolwide to "sell" at the bookstore. For bookmarks we cut up strips of paper, and for coloring sheets to print the most amazing things I have ever seen from doodle art alley. Our bakery also asks for little debbies so everything is pre-wrapped.
{also read last year's post}
I won't try to explain every aspect, but here's a lot of pictures from this year and last

paper airplanes and snowflakes at the hobby shop

the bakery

transaction action

the bookstore. all books $1!

this little one had her mom splatter nail polish on a tee for the full effect

browsing the bookstore

the "intersection" at our four classrooms

the coloring/bookmark area of the bookstore

and if you're interested in doing this too, here's a little resource pack to help you implement it! I included everything but the goods and the kids themselves! And, since this could be a grade level project, there is no extra charge to share the file as long as it is shared within your own school. But is is definitely something 1 or 2 teachers could pull off.

If you purchase it, I'd love to see how you used it!
and since I will probably be MIA until Friday {our oldest has an interview for high school tomorrow...I know, weird right!?} don't forget to enter my 1000 follower giveaway!

five for friday linky Feb 15 edition

It's Friday...can we say Thank the Lord?!
It's not just me, is it??
Phew, action packed week!
So here goes.
I'm linking up with DBT again for Five for Friday.

On Tuesday we made our monster v-day pockets. Last year I put them on bags, but I didn't have time or want to go pick some up...so we improvised. I love the colors! Check out Lindsay's All you need is love pack for these! And I may have spent 30 minutes writing their names on them...

 

today took the cake...right out of me! We had our annual Itty Bitty City event. You can read more about it here and see tons of pictures from years past here, but here's a shot of one of my kiddos doing nails. See her "smock". Her mom let her put paint on it the night before so she'd look professional! And yes, a pack to purchase is on the way...just a few peeps have asked!

On Wednesday night, Little Lamb and I prepped the Minute to Win It games from Sarah Cooley's pack. They LOVED it to say the least! I loved that the same ol' kids didn't win! It was a hoot! I found it funny my 4-year old could do them and some 8-year olds could not...

below is the straw blowing game

 I'm moving in reverse this week. Here's a part of our Chinese New Year festivities on Monday. I snatched up 2 12-packs of fortune cookies at the Dollar Tree {holla} and knew we could come up with something educational! I decided to introduce our graphing unit with a tally chart and convert to this pictograph. I'm on the NO side... We also used our lucky numbers to practice addition and had lots of fun trying to infer what the fortunes meant!
We also did our math hunt (and some still aren't finished!), watched Ruby's Wish on Tumblebooks and did a comparison with GWC, and learned some fast facts about China.

and we are getting really close to 1000 followers on this little blog! I've got a treasure trove of fabulous bloggers ready to give the goods to you soon! So make sure you are a follower so you'll know!

Itty Bitty, Little City {economics made fun}

each year our second grade hosts what we call “Itty Bitty City”

It is the culmination of our Economics unit and it’s a BLAST!
This year we added a few things and I wanted to share what we did because it can easily be tweaked for your use

each classroom decides on a good to sell and a service to provide
Our services are: a bank, a post office, a theatre, and a nail salon {me…yay!}
Our goods were: stationary, hobby shop with paper airplanes, cootie catchers, etc, a bakery, and a book store {yay! me again!}

We setup the day before and this year I even trained my nail techs on proper painting techniques…fyi…some even earned tips!

The only prep are the goods and they are all donated. We sent letters home schoolwide for used books and little debbies

Here’s how it went down…

These are in the hallway at the “main intersection” to our classrooms

Kinders and first graders are given 5 dollars of Itty Bitty money to spend on goods and services. Two classes visit for 30 minutes at a time. We charge anywhere from 50 cents to 3 dollars. Every student has a job and when they are not on the job, they get to be a consumer.

The Bakery

The Nail Salon

Prior to Itty Bitty City each child makes a replica mini-building. These pictures are from last year, but this year they could only use milk cartons we saved from the lunchroom {our little part to save the planet I guess}. I will post more pics cause they are caa-ute.

And here are some freebies in case you want to run your own little city!

and here’s an editable project and rubric

This one is pretty much caters to our school, but here’s a peek at our reflection booklet for the little producers after it’s all said and done. And don’t forget to pick up my Thinking Maps for Teaching Little Economists pack!

and I leave you with happy thoughts for your fast approaching 100th day. Ours’ is Monday and I picked up Lesson Plan SOS’s 100th Day Survivor pack. I can’t wait! Of course I will do the 100 item trail mix and make a hat or two! They are classics.

Happy February!

Last year’s Crayon Box that Talked bulletin board that we will replicate this week. I love that little book!

Trapped in Bed Makes One Productive!

Well, I finished up two packets today! My revamped Seuss Literacy Pack is FINALLY finished! Only took me 3 weeks! Then, as I was making sub plans for the whole week, I started making a needs and wants tree map and just couldn’t stop! I do love thinking maps!

Check out the TWO new packs on TpT! If you’ve previously purchased my Seuss pack, be sure to redownload it! It’s twice the original size!

And here’s a sneak peek at my Thinking Maps for Teaching Little Economists pack-I am sorta in love with it! I love my new frames!!! Sad but true!

I also wanted to share my favorite craftivity of the year-our directed cutting MLK portraits. They are absolutely adorable!

From Slide Album: Our MLK art

While my wisdom teeth woes heal-I am sure I will be randomly blogging and babbling!