Resources, projects and community the focus of ‘Kinder-Craze’ site

Mount Clemens — Two years ago, Catholic school teacher Maria Manore decided to create a blog to share a St. Patrick’s Day-themed project she had made with her kindergarteners.

“I really wanted to share it because it was so different,” said Manore, who teaches at St. Mary School in Mount Clemens. “In order to share it, I needed a means. Literally on a whim I started a blog.”

Instead of relying on typical green decorations that would grow old after St. Patrick’s Day, Manore considered the theme of rainbows and pots of gold, and decided to have her students create rainbow windsocks — painting on pre-traced construction paper and hung with fishing line.

This way, the decorations could remain to welcome the approaching spring weather — a handy idea for a busy kindergarten teacher.

The blog, christened “Kinder-Craze,” became quickly and wildly popular in the online community of teachers. Manore started adding other projects and tips for fellow teachers, and from that point “it’s sort of snowballed.”



This spur-of-the-moment blog has “come a long way from its very humble beginnings,” said Manore, who today digitally designs her own classroom signs, number lines, container labels, alphabet picture cards and more for her class.

Along with her regular tips and tutorials for teachers, Manore provides her Kinder-Craze classroom designs either for purchase or free download. The easy access to resources continues to build the blog’s popularity in the kinder-teacher community.

“The more I cared about it the more ambitious I became,” Manore said.

Though the blog is relatively young at a mere two years, Kinder-Craze has now gathered more than 32,000 Pinterest followers, more than 20,000 Facebook fans, more than 4,000 Instagram followers and more than 1,000 Twitter followers. As of mid-August, the blog itself had garnered nearly 3 million page views.

Manore explained that organization is key when working in a kindergarten classroom, and focuses on providing “attractive but not distracting” resources for her students.

Designing her classroom with bold, cheery colors that welcome the imagination of a young child, she also ensures that her classroom is “as clean and clutter-free as possible.”

She said followers will see her designs and sometimes put in requests for a variation or a supplement to her products: “I know how hard it is to find age-appropriate and attractive resources that are visually appealing to children and teachers,” she said.

As a Catholic school teacher, Manore works to integrate religion into her classroom. She has provided numerous religious resources and ideas for her followers, such as Holy Week, Advent and baptism-themed readers.

“I’ve noticed that of my fan base, the most dedicated fans are those who have accidentally found my religion resources,” she said.

Manore explained that followers often comment on her posts, and one day someone commented on a post about a religious project she had made.

“Someone commented on how ‘I can’t wait to use this at St. Lawrence,’ and I said, ‘St. Lawrence in Utica?’” said Manore. “As it turns out, she was a kindergarten teacher within her school, and I student-taught with her at Michigan State!”

The teacher ended up inviting Manore to her house for a holiday party, and “she has become one of my real-life friends, all because she stumbled upon me because she found my religion section online.”

Manore said she has befriended other local teachers this way, too: “Such a small world.”

Manore said she knew from a young age she wanted to be a teacher.

“My mom also teaches as the same school,” said Manore, who herself attended St. Mary’s through eighth grade. “Anyone whose mom’s a teacher … they stayed longer than anyone else.”

She said she would play with another girl whose mother was a teacher, and generally, they played school while waiting for their moms to finish for the day. Manore’s friend entered teaching when she grew up, too.

“I’m pretty sure our environment led us into teaching,” she said.