I've been shakin' it up again, my friends! I had a little nudge from a fabulous reader (hi Becky!) and came up with this Springtime Compound Shaker! This one looks a bit different from my other shakers {click HERE and HERE for those} because instead of a Trop50 bottle, this one is made from a Voss water bottle. My next door teacher neighbor was drinking from this most awesome shaped bottle and I'm sure she thought I was a loon the way I was staring at her. And I'm sure it didn't help matters much when I asked if I could have the bottle when she was done! All's well that ends well though. She started saving them for me and now I have several in my plastic pile o'crap that may one day overtake my house.

This shaker centers around 15 compound words. Half of the word is in the shaker, half is on the students' answer sheet. There are also a couple of extension activities on the answer sheet as well. This should make a fun word work center for next week. The download includes everything you'll need, except the rice and water bottle. You'll have to stalk your friends yourself for that.  The label is the same size as the other labels so it will fit perfectly on the Trop50 bottle if you have some of those saved up. Click {HERE} to download the project from GoogleDocs.

Here are some helpful tips that you might find useful based on my past posts on the shakers:
•Be sure to click on the links above to read about the first ones I made. They explain in a bit more detail. And if you didn't get the set the first time around, there's no time like the present!

•To dye the rice, put it in a gallon ziplock bag. Add a couple of tablespoons of alcohol and food coloring. Mix it up until you like the color. Spread it out on a sheet pan to dry. It dries fast! Go ahead and dye a 5 pound bag. It keeps forever. I dye it in different colored batches and mix it together.

•Yes, glue the lid on. Use hot glue or my favorite E-6000

•I lift the edge of the original label off of the bottle with a razor blade and get off the remaining goo with Goo Gone

•I laminate the label and use my Xyron machine to turn it into a sticker to attach it. (I have three different machines and love them all! I  should get in touch with them about a giveaway!) If you don't have a Xyron, you might want to invest in an ATG tape runner. Both are great adhesives. Spray adhesive works well too. Glue stick - NotSoMuch.

And finally - Weekly Math Magic set one is finally posted on tpt! Sets 2-4 are written & they're getting the finishing touches. Click {HERE} for another freebie and {HERE} for set one. Psst...Jenny, Haley and Maureen: email me at ShopSunnyDays@me.com so I can send your free set!


See you tomorrow for Giveaway Monday! It's a really good goody from Learning Resources!

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I'm trying to move past the insane idea that I'm already thinking about Valentine's Day and planning activities for St. Patrick's Day when Christmas was just like two days ago. So, what better way to move ahead than with a fun freebie!? I mentioned that my pile o'plastic crap is threatening to topple over and potentially bury me under itself, so I've made it a goal of mine to actually use it up. For this one, I used one of the 12 (eek!) empty juice jars I have collected to make another one of my rice shaker activities.

If you're new around here, check out my synonym shaker {HERE} and my antonym shaker {HERE}.
Those posts also cover some of the how-to's, like coloring the rice, which I may or may not be a little addicted to.

I do have some helpful hints to pass along. I was dying my rice with vinegar, which is what I had on hand. It works well, but it is stinky. I bought some alcohol for this batch and it works pretty much just the same, but it doesn't stink nearly as much and it was dry in about an hour. Also, I noticed when my kids were using the antonym shaker, the word cards were getting all bunched up in the neck of the bottle. They didn't have that problem with the synonym shaker. When I compared them I saw how much less rice was in the synonym shaker...that's the only difference, so that's go to be why.

So...here's the new addition to the shaker fam! Isn't she cute?

She's all pink and heart-y! This activity is a little different. Inside the bottle are 21 words that fit into three categories: Valentine's Day, Groundhog Day, and Presidents Day. The kids will shake up the bottle and when they find a word, they'll have to decide which category the word best fits into. The word "holiday" is also in there as a bonus word that would fit into all of the categories.

The freebie file contains everything you'll need, besides the rice and juice of course :)
Just click on the picture below to download it from GoogleDocs.

Have fun shakin it up!

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SunnyDays