Holly Bloggy Christmas Exchange

This December I participated in the Holly Bloggy Christmas Exchange.  I have to admit, I get so excited about these things - but I am the world's worst about getting them done! :)  I don't even participate in our school's secret santa anymore because I know my partner will get their gifts a little late.  Anyhoo, I thought since this was one gift I could handle it.  Wrong.  I sent it late.  So I am apologizing to the blogging world and to Julia Powell, (almost Stephenson!) my gift receiver, for sending my gift late! 

Ok. Now that I have confessed and feel a bit lighter in the guilt area, here are some pics of what I received and what I gave.

I got this wonderful clipboard with my name on it, a sticky note holder, a book called The Case for Christ, some adorable hand-made cards, and some extra sticky notes to tide me over.  It is all very cute and I can tell she really tried to match colors to my blog!  I wish I could give credit to my wonderful gift, but my husband for once was trying to be helpful and for once took out the trash - which included the box with her name and address on it!  Ah!  Husbands!  Why do they all of a sudden become responsible when you are expecting their irresponsibility?  I have e-mailed Caitlin and Sarah and will hopefully have her name soon.
Her name is Alyssa Leonard and her blog is called Echoes of the Creator.  Check her out!  Her blog is beautiful!

Here is what I sent.  I took a picture frame and cut cute, seasonal scrapbook paper to fit inside.  You use the outside as a type of white board and you can change the paper out to fit the season.  I make these for my kiddos teachers and they always seem to like them!  I hope Julia liked hers!

Ok.  That is it.  I will probably post soon about all of my December activities - but knowing me it will actually get posted in January some time.  I really need to get help about this procrastinating problem! :)

Lately... (a post about everything happening in my classroom lately!)

I feel like I have been one crazy chick lately.  December came and took me by storm!  We have been very busy and here is the proof:

First up, Gingerbread Men

Gingerbread Labeling.

I love Kindergarten spelling!

graphing whether or not we liked the taste of gingerbread.

Which Gingerbread book is your favorite?

Next, Our interactive writing.  This idea came from the Kindergals.  Kim and Megan (so sounds like I know the personally, right?) :)  They had a great suggestion to use the topic of how to decorate a Christmas tree as your interactive writing.  They had wonderful suggestions of, 1.  "Sharing isn't always equal."  This saved my sanity!  The kiddos helped me write but you can see where I guided them along.  2.  Give each kid their own dry erase board and marker to work on while you are writing with each individual student.  Genius!  They were so quiet and diligent as they were working - and it kept them busy! No rolling on the floor here!  Thank you ladies for making this a memorable lesson!

This little guy struggles so much.  To see him working so hard to write words down just made me do a happy dance!

This young lady was so upset when she ran out of room to write.  She wanted to get another white board to continue on instead of erasing!

Get the tree.

Put on the lights.

Put on the ornaments.

Put on the star.

One of my little helpers.

Our finished project.

Then on to Santa.  We made a list of things Santa has.  We created the chart first to generate some ideas.  I then hid the words so they could create their own lists. 

One of our last projects was to finish our Christmas five Senses booklet.  It can be found on my blog under freebies.

Last but not least we played an ornament grab game.  The kiddos had to take turns grabbing a handful of ornaments out of the bag and then adding them together.  I have tried to upload this recording page to google docs for days now but it hasn't been letting me even get into it.  Maybe I will be able to later.  I really do want to share! :)  I bought the ornaments in the dollar section at Target. (where else, right?)

That's it.  That's what is going on lately.  What's going on in your room?

Christmas Five Senses (freebie)

Hi all!  Can ya'll believe it is about the end of December!?  We are beginning our assessments and are busy, busy, busy!  I know everyone is in the same boat so I thought I'd lighten our mood with another freebie.  Hope this is something you can use!  Click HERE or click the picture!  Leave me some comment love if you download! :) (comments make me happy!)

How Do You Keep the Gingerbread Man From Escaping? (freebie)

Click here to find out!

Gingerbread Man Read/Write the room freebie

Somebody wonderful out there had the great idea to have the kiddos walk around and find a certain colored turkey and write the word on it on their recording sheet.  (If this is you please leave a comment below!)I took her idea and adapted it to gingerbread men.  Hope this is something you can use!

Gingerbread Man Read/Write The Room

Sooooo Random - part 2

Here are a few more pics from October and Nov.  Someday I will have time to keep things updated.... someday.

Here we go:

These number circle maps are from Fran at Kindergarten Crayons.  The kids loved making these!

Our roll/color a monster game.  This one is one I made and can be found for free on this blog.

I pinned this off pinterest somewhere.  The kids helped make it and then made their own.

50s day patterns.  Anyone remember who made this?

Pics of selves on 50s day.

Check out her blowing bubble gum on the 50th day!

We had root beer floats and graphed whether or not the ice cream would sink or float.

graphing our bubble blowing.

Here is our map of Sarah Morton's day.

Here is our map on Pilgrims and Native Americans.

We made this chart together then they made the Mayflower boats and added a list of items the Pilgrims brought with them.

Native American on the other.

Turkey on one side.

That's it for now.  Hopefully I'll have some Owl stuff and gingerbread stuff to share later on this month.

Sooooooo Random

Well, here it is.  The post that will include everything I have been doing from the get-go.  Who knew that I would be spending my nights re-working everything in order to ensure success for these kiddos?  It has been a lot of work and my blog has had to take a back seat to everything - but we will get there!  (Just FYI, I said that with gusto and emphasis!  I really am trying to convince myself!)  Anyhoo... on to the pics.  Now a good teacher would have remembered where she got ideas from, but I am sure I won't remember who or where. So, if something looks familiar to you and you want to claim yourself as giving me inspiration please just leave me a comment.  I would rather know and let the world know how great you are!

First up...

Name station - matching clothes pins to the letters in student's names.

Another name station - using bingo daubers to outline name.

Glitter webs, spiders from using our handprints, and our predictable sentences glued on.

Our boy/girl graph.  As of right now I have 13 boys and 7 girls.

Our apple tree graph.  I have used this one for some time now.  It is looking a little worn.  I may have to make a new one next year!

Our Alpha-bats.  This was done during our bat unit.  Each child had a bat sent home with a letter of the alphabet on it.  They were to find items from magazines etc.. that go with that letter to glue on it.

Our pumpkin life cycle page.  This one is mine.  Somehow I missed getting a pic of a student one. 

Found these on the internet somewhere (Kim Adsit?) and made one for each number up to 10.  The kids loved making these charts!

I have more, but I am having trouble uploading pics.  I will post again soon when I figure out what is going on!

Gingerbread Man Freebie

I just don't have time to post lately!  I hope ya'll understand.  To make me feel better about this I am giving you a Gingerbread man sight word game.  Enjoy!

It is gonna be THAT year.

My darlings have got me beat.  They are a handful and I feel like I have no time to do anything but put out fires! If only they would install a sprinkler system to deal with all these little fires.... I might actually get to be teacher Tessa instead of fireman Tessa!  That being said, there are a few kiddos making great progress, several making good progress and a couple more making slow steady progress.  Never-mind that it is like pulling a car threw the mud just by using a rope and your teeth - it is still progress.  I just take a few thousand deep breaths and keep moving forward.  Anyhoo, I hope ya'll are still with me.  I plan to take a little time to update this here blog soon.  I have lots of pictures and ideas to share.  They may be pics of apples and pumpkins - but better late than never!  I hope to share some cute gingerbread man stuff soon too!  See you soon!

Monster Mania - freebies! Link fixed!

The second page of the monster flip book is fixed -sorry it wasn't working earlier!

OK Ladies, (and maybe some gentlemen!)  I am up to my eyeballs in assessments, conferences and just got out of two days of AFL (assessment for learning) training!  My brain is fried and there is no possible way to finish this monster unit by the weekend.  Sooo.... I am going to post what I have and then make the rest and share it later.  Maybe you can print it and save it for next year?  Anyway, I tried to post these last night with pics and my unreliable internet would not post it.  So here I go again, this time without the pics.  Hope this works!  Leave me some comment love if you download!

Monster Flip book - this was inspired by Fran Kramer!

Monster Flip book part two.

Roll and Build a Monster - have the kiddos roll the dice, fill in the blanks and then build the monster!

Monster Beginning Sounds

Monster Dice Game - Freebie!

It's been awhile since I have posted.  Like many of you I am right in the middle of assessments and preparing for conferences. I have prepared a cute little roll/color dice game for you.  It will be part of my small monster unit that I am preparing.  This unit will be free and I hope to have it finished before next week so we can use it during our Halloween week.  If I don't get it finished I will still upload it or e-mail it out - we can always save it for next year!  Click on the cutie patootie monster too get your freebie!  Leave me a comment if you like it - or maybe an idea to go with my unit!

On a Pumpkin Roll! (freebie!)

I seem to have created several items lately with pumpkins as their theme!  Here is one more - a pumpkin glyph.  Directions are attached.  Leave me some comment love if you download it! 

(Graphic is from DJ Inkers.  Love them!)

Pumpkin Glyph

Hop On Over and Check This Lady Out!

Hey Ya'll!  

I am sitting here on a beautiful Fall day.  The leaves are changing, the pumpkins are growing - and it is supposed to be 85 degrees today.  Sigh.  Well, tho I prefer it a little cooler in my Missouri Fall, it is beautiful out.  Anyway,  I have recently found a great blogger who shares a lot of creative goodies.  Her latest goes right along with Fall.  Here it is:

 

Too cute and Too Free!  

Head on over to 

 

to get your goodies today!