Happy Thanksgiving, Y'all!!

When I started this little blog almost 4 years ago, I never dreamed of how it would change my world, both professionally and personally. Not only has my teaching become better, I have made connections and friendships with some of the most awesome educators from all over the country. To say I appreciate all blogging and TpT has done for my little family would be an understatement for sure!

To thank you, I thought a little giveaway would be fun! Who doesn't need a little extra money at Christmas time?

 I'm giving away a $100 Amazon gift card, and entering is easy! Just use the rafflecopter below. 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

As as additional thank you, I added this little freebie to my TpT store last night. I love any time I can incorporate fine motor into my literacy centers, and these clip cards are the perfect way! Click the picture below to grab them. I hope you enjoy them!

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Vickie

Y'all!! What is about December that makes everything take double the time?? I have been dying to blog about all we've done this month, but in the midst of Polar Express week, it just hasn't happened. When I saw Abby's link up, I decided it was the perfect quick and easy opportunity to get a little blogging in and have a little Christmas fun! Here's my Christmas Conversation...

Want to read more {or make your own conversation}?? Head over to The Inspired Apple to see the link up!

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Vickie

Happy December everyone! If you're anything like me, you're wondering how December got here so quickly and you're a *little* bit stressed when you think about how to fit everything you want to do in at school and at home! I'm really trying hard this year though not to let it bother me if everything doesn't happen, and really enjoy this special season with my own child and my kids at school.
This past week, we had gingerbread week and the kids had a blast {I plan to blog about it, but you can click here to see what we did last year}! They also loved all the new Christmas centers we started during literacy workshops. During workshops, not all my kids always visit the same tub/activity. Because different children need work on different skills, I try to create lots of activities that all focus on different phonics skills so that everyone has something specific to their need. Here's what different partner groups are working on:

Matching uppercase letters to lowercase letters and recoding the matches:

Clipping letters for ending sounds {and getting fine motor practice in!}:

Spelling sight words:

A lot of my kids are working on reading cvc words:

{I've tried to start making a lot of puzzle activities this year in which I make random cuts, so that each puzzle is self correcting to give my kids extra support this year}

Determining the middle sound in words:

Matching pictures to their beginning letter:

Matching rhyming pictures:

These centers along with others are in my Christmas packs {click the images below to find out more}:

I'm off to work on the next pack in my Nifty Numbers series...I can't wait to finish and show you!

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Vickie

Last week, we used The Polar Express as a starting point to most of our activities. We read the story Monday, then talked about what it meant to truly believe. Then, we talked about what we wanted Santa to bring us. We talked about how to write a letter and brainstormed some things we could ask for as a class in our model letter. Of course, the kids wanted an elf and new computers!! Since Santa is low in the tech budget, he sent us an elf! We named her Holly and the kids just love her!

After brainstorming and making a rough draft of our own letters, we put the finishing touches on our letters to Santa and attached them to this cute craft from Mrs. Cupcake {love her!}. I made sure to make a copy of our letters to mail to Santa!

{I want a jeep please. Can I have a truck too? I want a blow horn please. Merry Christmas.

I would like please a skylander and a book. Mom a necklace. Dad a 4wheeler. Merry Christmas.

In keeping with characters from The Polar Express, we talked about elves also. We discussed what we would do if we were elves and also read the story, The Littlest Elf to work on character traits. We made a cute little elf to hold our writing, inspired by Cara's elf from this post.

In Social Studies, we learned all about holiday traditions around the world. I adapted Caitlin's unit to fit with our Polar Express theme and we had a blast. In her pack, she includes a suitcase to hold information from each country, but we used train cars since we were traveling the polar express. I made a little cover for our book and they turned out great. Caitlin's unit is perfect if you don't have books for this theme because it includes a ton of informational pages you can use with the kids!

On Friday, we celebrated our week with a Polar Express day. The kids came in their pajamas, and we watched the movie while drinking hot chocolate and eating cookies. After the movie, I walked in our closet to find a special delivery from Holly...ice cold bells and ribbonsfrom the North Pole to make necklaces! I attached them to the tickets I made the kids {each family sent a word that described their child and I used it on their ticket - loved them!!} and the kids were so excited to take them home! We also got in a little math by graphing which marshmallow we liked best.

 You can get the graph here on google docs.
This week we're on to squeezing in lots of our favorite Christmas stories, getting t-shirts made, and making parent gifts. 4 more days!!

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Vickie

Is there really only 1 more week until Christmas break?? I am soooo ready to be home for a couple of weeks, but I have so much to do at home and school before Christmas and I am trying to get it all planned out so I won't be too stressed to enjoy the season with my sweet kids at school or my sweet girl at home.

{Sorry for those of you that follow me on Instagram...you get enough of these pictures!}
At school, we've been super busy trying to keep it academic while still celebrating the season. At the end of the day during the past 2 weeks, we've been working on some ornaments to decorate our class tree and they've turned out so cute! I've been making these same ornaments for 10 years now and most of them I got from a kindergarten teacher that I mentored under throughout high school and college {Mrs. Shelley literally made me the kindergarten teacher I am!}. Here's a little peek at what we made:
Snowflake...paint 4 notched craft sticks white and while they're wet, sprinkle with clear glitter and fake snow. Glue together to make a snowflake shape

 Candy Cane...cut a red or white pipe cleaner in half, let the kids string red and white beads on, then bend into a candy cane shape

 Mouse...Cut the body out of grey felt and the ears out of pink felt, cut two small slits in the body to hold the candy cane tail, glue ears, eyes and nose {this might be my favorite!}

 Christmas Tree...I used a die cut at school to cut the trees out of foam, then let the kids glue their picture and sequins on it

 Wreath...String green and red beads on a green pipe cleaner, twist into a circle, and add a bow

 Rudolph...Paint three craft sticks brown, glue together, add eyes and a nose

We still have one more thing to add to our tree this week, but I'm loving the way it helps get our classroom in the Christmas mood! What are your favorite ornaments to make at school?

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Vickie

Last week, we were wrapped up in all things gingerbread and we had a blast! We did lots of ELA, Math, and Science activities that really helped keep my kiddos engaged in what sometimes is a crazy time of year!!
Each day, we read a different version of The Gingerbread Man. {I actually have more, but we only charted 5 - can you say obsessed??}

We also tasted gingerbread and graphed which part we ate first. Then, we used our 5 senses and charted adjectives {our ELA skills for the week} that described how it tasted, looked, felt, and smelled.

{This is an idea from Deanna Jump's Gingerbread Unit}

{You can get this here on google docs}

We also did some science with the gingerbread man to see why he couldn't swim across the river. We charted our hypotheses, then put a gingerbread man in water to see what happened. The kids loved doing this and were so into it!

{You can also get this sheet on google docs}

In math, we introduced measurement with the gingerbread man. We compared ourselves to a large gingerbread man to see if we were taller, shorter, or the same height. This was another activity the kids loved! You can get it here on google docs. :)

We also used my friend Deeanna's gingerbread pack to practice some more skills. We worked on numbers 11-20 {decomposing into a group of ten and a number more}, ordering numbers, and equal groups.

And, just for fun, we made these cute gingerbread babies after reading the story The Gingerbread Baby. We wrote sentences describing our gingerbread baby to reinforce those adjectives!

This week we're learning all about Holidays Around the World with this pack from Caitlin and with the help of the Polar Express...I can't wait to share with you! I'd love to hear if you're able to use the freebies!

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Vickie