Merry Christmas From My Family To Yours

I wish you and your families a very Merry Christmas!

Five For Friday - December 20th

Well, better late than never, right?  I had every intention of posting yesterday after school, but I must have been exhausted from the crazy week because I fell asleep at 4:30 in the afternoon and didn't wake up until 5:30 this morning!  My hubby said he tried to wake me for dinner, but I wouldn't budge so he let me sleep. So, this is my better late than never link up for Five For Friday with Doodle Bugs Teaching!

Here is a glimpse at SOME of the craziness of the week:

I vented last week about the looooooong list of plans for this week at our school, and one of them was a door decorating contest.  I just did not have the energy to even think about that with our play performance this week, so I decided to let that slide  One of my teaching partners came to the rescue when he and his class surprised our class with the door decor below.  Thanks Mr. Korf!

Our play was on Tuesday - and I was so busy directing I didn't take one picture!  I will have to hunt some of the parents down to get a few.  The afternoon performance (during school in front of all of their peers) was a bit rough, but the evening performance was much better!  I am super proud of these kiddos because we had a very short rehearsal period before the play.

I did manage to get a few pics of my son, Palmer's high school play which was also this week.  This was their best performance in all 4 years he has been there.

We had our Christmas concert this week as well - again - I forgot to take pictures, but I did manage to snap a picture of the tree my class made for decorations for the concert.  They left me a little message I almost didn't notice!  Super sweet!

In the middle of the chaotic week, I am proud to say that my students were surprisingly very focused!  

Hard at work during Daily 5

And very greatful - we each got gloves from our room Mom!

And, I will end with a bit of Christmas Cheer!

One of our friends is a photographer, and every year my hubby dresses as Santa for pictures with Santa - here is a shot of him and my youngest - super cute!

And the three youngest:

and the Christmas Card my class sent out:

And now... ready for a relaxing Christmas break!

Christmas Freebies

I know the last week before Christmas vacation can be a bit of a scramble, so I have scoured out a few great freebies to help with your planning!

I will be printing out this Trim the Fractions freebie for a few of my higher kids who have advanced to reducing fractions in Accelerated Math while the rest of the class is working on division.

Here is a fun writing prompt that could be used in January as well - If I Was In A Snowglobe Writing Prompt

My Sweet Story is a great way to review adjectives!

If you are trying to teach your kiddos about the true meaning of Christmas, you might want the check out this Kind Kids pack.

Enjoy your week!

Cookies for Santa - A Fun Way To Practice Our Math Facts

In keeping with the holiday spirit, I decided to spruce up our math fact practice with these adorable Cookies for Santa Kaboom game!  The kids had a blast!

I put all of the "cookie" pieces in a leftover Christmas cookie tin upside down.  The students pulled the cards out and attempted to answer the fact. If they got it correct, they got to keep the card.  If they got it wrong, it went back into the tin. If they got the dreaded KABOOM card - they had to put all of their cards back.  The winner is the kiddo with the most cards when time was up.

Sorry about that yucky glare!  And yes, we were wearing coats in the classroom - it has been FREEZING this week!

You can find the Cookies for Santa Cards in my Teachers Pay Teachers or Teachers Notebook Stores below:  I have addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division versions.

Teachers Pay Teachers

Addition 

Subtraction

Multiplication

Division

Teachers Notebook

Addition 

Subtraction

Multiplication

Division

If you would like to win one, leave a comment below with your email address and I will send one to the first three people who leave a comment!

Christmas Expanding Vocabulary & Imagination Fun!!

Are you loving the EET companion packs for the holidays/seasonal themes!?  I am FINALLY done with my Christmas version and I think you will love it!

There are two different types of activities included!

Expanding Vocabulary Christmas Tree Game:
-Print and laminate a tree for each student.
-Print and laminate the ornament pieces and place them in the middle.
-Print and laminate the visual/directions and display them for your students.  If you have a Smart Board you can display this page on it for your students to see while playing.  This will help them understand what they need in order to win!

-Place the object pile in the middle.  Students will take turns picking an object.  On each object card is an EET “bead”.  They must express the describing concept requested (EET bead).  Once they express that description, they can locate the ornament piece that has that EET bead on it. Students will take turns picking an object and describing it while adding decorations to their tree until all of the cards run out.  The first student to fill their Christmas tree with all 7 types of ornaments/EET beads is the winner!  (**48 object cards included!**)

Expanding Imagination Christmas Writing Fun:   Recommended order for each activity:

-Use pictures to help students practice using EET to describe.
-Show students a model of your creation and how you used EET
-Let students expand their imaginations and draw/write using the EET model
-Let students share their creations with the group and use the EET strand to help guide them! 
-5 different writing activities included with a Christmas theme!

-Can also be used to work on compare/contrast.


You can access this activity pack in my TpT store by clicking HERE!

Christmas Early Language File Folder Activities!

My students have been benefiting SO much from my new thematic file folder activities.  It seems like you have been enjoying them as well!!!  Your comments include: I love the sentence strips, variety of skills addressed, and great for the younger population!  Well....my Christmas pack is ready and available!!

What is in this pack and how to do you use it?!
**Activities that can be used as file folder activities or printed and used as is.  Activities are created to build vocabulary, use complete sentences, and answer questions while incorporating theme concepts.  Tons of visuals and sentence strips provided!

-What Do They Have?:  Print and glue the boy and girl images onto one side of a file folder.  For each item card, students must use the sentence strips provided to express which person has the different items.  This activity can also be used to work on “who” questions, pronouns, and possessives.

-I Spy In The Christmas Scene: Print the scene picture.  Students can use the visual to locate all of the named items.  Goals you can address with this activity: prepositions, answering/asking questions, describing, and using vocabulary in complete sentences.

-What Color Is It?:  Students will sort the Christmas items into the correct color category.  Each color has a sentence strip to encourage students to expand utterances as they express the different colors.

-Singular or Plural?:  Students will sort the Christmas items into the correct category, singular or plural.  They can use the sentence strip to express which category it belongs into.

-Present or Past Tense?:  Students will sort the Christmas verbs into the correct category, present or past tense.  They will also be provided with the sorting visuals for regular or irregular past tense verbs.  Sentence strips will be provided in order to express answers in complete utterances.

-Let’s Describe Presents!:  Students will be provided with a variety of presents to describe.  A visual page of adjectives will be provided (you can glue these adjectives on one side of the file folder).  Students can use the sentence strip provided to describe each present with one of the adjectives provided.  Can it be described with more than one adjective? 

-Does It Go On A Christmas Tree?: Students must determine which items go on the tree and those that do not.  They must answer the yes/no question provided and use the sentence strip to express complete utterances.

You can access this activity pack in my TpT store by clicking HERE!

Holidays Roll, Say & Color Articulation Fun! (AND GIVEAWAY!)

It seems like you have been LOVING my roll, say & color articulation activities.  I keep getting requests for more!!  Well, as promised, my December Holidays version is ready to go!!

Using this activity:
-Grab 2 dice, print the page of the target sound working on, and some crayons and you are ready!  No laminating involved!

-Students roll the two dice.  One dice will tell them which row to look at.  The second dice will tell them to count across to determine the target word to say!  You can even make them say that word that many times!!!

-Once they say the target, they can color the fall themed picture!

-Keep rolling and practicing those target sounds until the entire page is colored!  There are 36 opportunities to practice each target sound!  Can send home the worksheet for review home practice!

-Target sounds included, in the initial and final positions:
/k, g, s, f, v, th, sh, ch, l, r, z/ 

Initial clusters included: /s/, /r/, and /l/

You can access this activity in my TpT store by clicking HERE!  (while you are there, check out my other themed versions!!)

You can enter to win a copy!!!  Enter below!
a Rafflecopter giveaway

A RACK {Random Acts of Christmas Kindness} linky party!

I am definitely one of those people who believes it is better to give than to receive!  My favorite part of Christmas is finding the perfect gift and seeing the joy in the receiver's eyes!  That is why I was excited to link up with this linky party from First Grade in Foxwell Forest. 

The rules are simple:

You choose 2 blogs that you follow {one newer blog that you recently began following and one blog that you have been following since you first began} and highlight them on your blog by explaining why you think they are such a gift! Then you give them a RACK by offering them one item as a gift from your TPT store!

Here are the 2 blogs I am passing my RACK on to:

One of the newest blogs that I have begun to follow is If You Give A Teacher A Treat. I found her adorable blog from another blog I have been following and I have only just begun to look through her posts - lots of fun word work and Daily 5 activities to try!

The blog that I have been following FOREVER is Ladybug Teacher Files.  Her CRAFT board has been amazing! I always have other teachers asking me where I got them and I always direct them her way.  Recently our instructional coach asked me again where to find them because she was giving a class on using Daily 5 with the upper grades and she loved what I was doing in my classroom.  I told her the credit goes to Ladybug Teacher Files!

Now it's your turn! Link up and join in the giving!

Merry Christmas!

Fun Faux Stained Glass Picture

We made these fun faux stained glass pictures of candles today and they came out super cute!

We started with these supplies:

• Candle picture template (click to download)
• Black Yarn
• Glue
• Sharpies
• Aluminum foil

We first put glue on the black lines and then covered them with yarn.  We found it easier to do it piece by piece, measuring the yarn first, cutting it to size, then gluing it down.

When it was completed, we wrapped it in tinfoil with the picture side upside down.

Then we pushed down to make the yarn impression show on the foil.

Then the kids used sharpies to color the insides.  We found that using the sides of the markers kept the foil from ripping.

And another final project done: