Five for Friday- 11/29/13

 
I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. I ate entirely too much, but it was an enjoyable day spent with my family and my in-laws. I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for this week's Five for Friday Linky.

Our elf, Jolly, made an appearance at home a few days before Thanksgiving. Isabella loves looking for him each morning!  

                                                                 

My vegetable tray for Thanksgiving. Pinterest success! :)

                                                               

A student wrote this in her Thanksgiving dinner book. She spelled it all on her own. It is just too cute not to share!

                                                                    

                                                       
I am excited about my new classroom elf craftivity for sale on Teacher's Pay Teachers. I have a feeling my students will enjoy making elves after meeting our classroom elf! 

                                                              

                                                           

Cyber Monday is a day away. My TPT wishlist is quickly growing! Visit my TPT store to pick up some activities for 28% off on Monday and Tuesday. Until then, enjoy 20% off!

My Christmas Literacy Stations is one of my newest products!



                                                   

I'm pretty excited about my D'Nealian Handwriting Practice book, too!

                                                   

Cyber Monday Sale

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving, so that can mean only one thing- Cyber Monday is just a few days away! Teachers Pay Teachers is having a big Cyber Monday and Tuesday sale. Visit my store and get 28% off with the code! 

I love when TPT has a sale. I stock up on lots of things from my wishlist!  Click here or on the picture above to visit my store. Happy Thanksgiving!

Five For Friday- 11/22

                                                     

I am so excited for our classroom elf to make an appearance! Only three more school days until we have a new addition to our classroom!

                                                      

                                                       

I received good news this week- I am going be awarded a grant to add a Hot Dots literacy station to my classroom!

                                                           

Seven years ago this time of year, John and I were getting ready to take our honeymoon to Disney World. The castle is beautiful at Christmastime! I love all things Disney and all things Christmas! We can't wait to take our girls there for the first time someday!

                                                      

Not to brag, but I have my December lesson plans done! I am excited to use my Christmas literacy stations during my small group reading lesson. Visit my TPT store to get your copy. I have a wonderful aide who laminates for me and some awesome mom volunteers who cut apart the materials.  I am so thankful for them!

                                                                
I am so excited for Thanksgiving!  I love this time of year, eating, and spending time with family. We are going from my in-laws' house to my parents' house on Thursday. Lots of good food and good company packed into a busy day!  I am so thankful for my silly little girls!

 Isabella could hardly walk in my tall black boots!

 Olivia decided that sitting in this bin would be a good place to read a book! 

Thank you, Doodle Bugs Teaching for hosting this fun linky!

Turkeys and More Turkeys! (and a freebie)

We have been doing lots of Thanksgiving activities this month. I am in love with these awesome turkeys the kids made with their families!

The other kindergarten teacher and I sent home a turkey blackline on cardstock. The families were instructed to help disguise their turkey. I love all the creative disguises!

We made hand print turkeys yesterday and added a sentence about what we are thankful for.  This is the third time the kids had to write what they are thankful for, but they still seem to enjoy thinking about it and writing it.  Click here for the writing prompt.

I used to be intimidated by the idea of doing paint hand prints with 28 kindergarteners. I have found that it works best when I paint their hand with a paint brush. Instead of having a looong line of painted hands and fingers to use the one sink in the classroom, I have a tub (like a plastic washtub bin) of warm, soapy water. They swish their hands in that to wash away the paint. It works so much faster and better than having them wash in the sink.  I can easily get done with the entire class in fifteen minutes or less!

Only 4 more days until Thanksgiving break. Although I am anxious to having time off to spend with my family, I love the excitement and fun we are having in kindergarten learning about and celebrating Thanksgiving!

Five For Friday- 11/15

                                    

                                                                      

Last weekend we took the girls to a dairy farm. We rode a bus tour into the cow barns to see hundreds of cows. We even saw how they milk cows on a rotating platform. Cows are creatures of habit, so they learn how to get on and off of this moving floor for the farmers(?) to attach the milking devices. The girls had fun, but their favorite part was riding this little cow carousel and eating cheese and ice cream made on site! 

It was a beautiful day to play outside without coats in this giant cheese fort!

                                                             

                                                               

And then two days later....

My class and my girls were so excited about the snow! There wasn't that much snow, but enough to need snow pants and boots for recess. Isabella and Olivia enjoyed riding around in a sled. 

                                                                   

 We celebrated the 50th day of school by dressing in poodle skirts and having a little sock hop in the gym. We taught the kids how to do the twist and the hand jive.  I have to admit, this is a little late to share.... We just had the 60th day of school yesterday!

                                                                  

 My pretty fall flower arrangement sent by my best friend living in Georgia. October was a rough month for my family so she sent these to brighten my day and to remind me that she's always there for me, even if she is not close by. 

                                                                  

 Last week I saw this on Scholastic's Facebook page. I sent it to our school librarian and he really appreciated it! He's awesome! Not only does he work in our school library, but it also works at the public library.  I put a lot of books on hold at the public library to read in my classroom and he surprises me by bringing them to my classroom to save me a trip to the library. (Those of you with kids understand the difficulty of just "running in" somewhere with two little ones in tow!)

Thanks to Doodle Bugs Teaching for hosting this fun weekly linky party!

Turkey Word Family Sort

We have been talking about rhyming words and word families a lot recently in my classroom. I created this Thanksgiving themed word family sort to use during literacy stations.

It's available now in my TPT store. I'm excited to start working on some Christmas and winter themed literacy and math activities!