It's Beginning To Look a Lot Like Christmas...

Heyo!  I don't know about the rest of you, but when I came back from Thanksgiving break, Christmas was in full swing! We had off school this past Monday for the first day of hunting season, which is AWESOME for people like me who've never shot a gun and would pass out if they had to gut a deer. I took the opportunity to decorate my room so it was all ready to rock and roll when the kids came back on Tuesday. I also spent some time making a set of Christmas themed math and literacy centers, which are now available on my TpT site!

Click to check it out in my TpT store

I was also SUPER excited to get started with my elf on the shelf. Last year, my students decided to name him Mistletoe, which I love love love. On Tuesday, I mentioned to my kiddos that I had an elf visit our room last year, but I was worried that he might not find my room, since I switched schools. I told them that he showed up right after Thanksgiving last year, so we should be on the lookout for him. Totally took the opportunity to talk about things that Mistletoe would be happy to see if he were watching... My favorite response: "We shouldn't pick our noses while he's here." Priceless. (I wrote don't be yucky).

He showed up in our room Wednesday morning, hiding in one of the cups on my amazing word wall. The kids were VERY excited to see him, and some of them even said they saw him blink or turn his head... I love how much they believe! I caught one of my students whispering to him at the end of the day once everyone else had left... Made my heart smile!

The MOST exciting part of the day was when we came back from lunch. They started saying that they saw him move. I, being the slightly overly dramatic person that I am, played along. I was COMPLETELY dumbfounded when I went into the room and saw that he really had moved. One of the teachers in my building, and I'm STILL not sure who, snuck in and moved him while we were at lunch. So here's little old me, JUST as excited as my first graders. He really is magical!  Today I decided to have him start a little mischief. He destroyed our calendar, and the kids thought it was the funniest thing.

If you use an elf in your classroom, what are some fun places that you hide it? I'm ALWAYS looking for silly things for Mistletoe to do!

Turkey Day!

Happy Thanksgiving, ya'll! I love this holiday because it's an excuse to eat like a pig without anybody judging you! My wife and I are spending the day with (very Italian) family today, so it will be a non-stop eating adventure, with red wine flowing, from the moment we walk in the door. Our cocker-spaniel, Charlie, is in the doghouse with Uncle Angelo right now because he stole a piece of cheese off the antipasto while it was being delicately prepared last night. Oops!

Yesterday was our first day of Thanksgiving break, as Tuesday was a Hurricane Sandy make-up day. I decided, what better time to decorate my room for Christmas!? I've now got a delightfully tacky Christmas classroom that I can't wait for my kids to see! While I was there I took some pictures of our little Turkey project that we made just before break.  Meet my wild bunch of sight-word turkeys!

I told the students to choose 6 sight words off the word wall that they needed the most practice with! It was neat to see them reading the whole wall and deciding which words to write on the feathers!

I don't know about your students, but mine sure go gaga for googly eyes! They really enjoyed making these little guys, and it was a neat way to throw in a craft (which there's never any time for) and keep it a learning experience. Do you have any fun ways that you like to practice sight words with your students? 

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

Lots To Be Thankful For...

This week, I am thankful for many things!  I am thankful to have half my parent-teacher conferences done.  I am thankful for a little break around the corner.  I am also thankful to be having my first TpT sale!  Everything is 20% off, including my Thanksgiving Centers Unit!

Click to visit my store!

I'm also thankful to have 24 of the most amazing first graders in the world!  Today we were classifying dinosaurs by meat eaters and plant eaters.  I figured they would name the standards -- T-rex, raptor, triceratops, etc.  One of my girls raised her hand and said "diplodocus."  At first, I didn't know what to say, as I was unsure if it was actually a dinosaur at all!  I asked her how she knew that word and she promptly told me that she read about it in a book at home.  Naturally, as we were classifying the dinosaurs, I had to ask if she knew whether it was a meat eater or a plant eater.  "It's a plant eater because it has flat teeth."  Blew my mind and made my day for sure.

Speaking of things to be thankful for, my students have been enjoying learning all about the Pilgrims and Indians, as well as sharing the things that they have to be thankful for.  We did this little craft as a jump-start to November writing.  Each student decorated their turkey feather with things they were thankful for.

What types of things do your students do around Thanksgiving?  Always looking for new fun ideas to do with my kiddos :-)

Ahoy There!

Hey hey!  I was sitting in my room thinking about my centers for next week when I saw one of my kiddos reading How I Became a Pirate, which I LOVE. SOOO, I came up with these pirate themed centers activities to use.  Check them out on my TpT store :-)

Click to see in my TpT store!

This centers unit includes an addition activity, short/long vowel sort, noun sort, sentence scramble, word search AND writing prompt... I must admit, I'm pretty happy with the way this little baby turned out :-)  ENJOY!!