Elves, New Year's Presents, and TWO Freebies Coming At YOU!

I know we are actually getting out earlier than usual for the holiday break, but I have to say I feel like time is moving so slowly (but of course there is NEVER enough time to get everything done).  I shared some ways we celebrated Hanukkah in our classroom last week and today I will be sharing one way we celebrated a Christmas tradition (CUPCAKE style!).  I also have TWO FREEBIES in the post for you!  Happy EARLY break!

I joined in on the Five For Friday Linky Again...

1.  Winter I Have...Who Has...?  FREEBIE

A few weeks ago I made a December/Holiday I Have...Who Has...? FREEBIE that has turned into my most downloaded item on TPT.  I am so thankful for everyone who has downloaded anything from my store or even just visited.  This experience has been really AMAZING for me - mentally, professionally, and personally. I honestly can't thank you all enough.  Here is a little treat to try to say thank you!!  I made a Winter version of I Have...Who Has...?  You can find it HERE! Take a look...

2.  Happy New Year Calendars - Presents for Families

Melanie's, my co-creator of the phonics packs, daughter came home with a calendar present for her last holiday break.  And ever since then, we have been thinking about how to make it work for us.  This is what we came up with...

We are taking pictures of each kiddo holding this super cute frame...

Then I will get them printed and I will attach them to this calendar...

I will then laminate each and attach a ribbon holder at the top.  How cute will they be?  Any pretty painless.  I will share a finished picture next week - Sorry to the families in my class who read this and find out about their New Year's present early - I just HAD to share!

I am also trying to get the Little Lady to make one for her teacher...Have to admit her picture is not turning out so well...At least the first graders did better :)

3.  Elf Magic

We all know that I LOVE all of the craftivities over at Cupcake for the Teacher and this week I made one of my favorites, so I needed to share.  Check out these cutie pie elves (girls and boys of course!).  You still have time to make them with your kiddos so take a look for them HERE.

4.  Animals in Winter - FREEBIE

We have been talking a lot in science and guided reading about animals and where they live.  This week I read Animals In Winter aloud and we talked specifically about what animals do during the winter.  It was great to see and hear them talk about what they thought animals did and then find out what animals actually do when it gets cold!  

I uploaded a quick FREEBIE reading response to match the book.  You can find it HERE.  

Here is a preview!  Enjoy!

5.  Always Remember...

I will say goodbye for now, but if I get to tackle my To-Do list this weekend (sounds like we'll be snowed in!), I'll be back with more goodies!  Of course, since the HUBS works in the snow, I also will be on shovel patrol, so we will see what actually gets done! :)  

Stay warm and cozy!

Ribbon Tree Shirt and Glued Sounds Pack

I am making a quick stop over to say hi tonight and share a couple of goodies!

I found pictures of a ribbon T-shirt on Pinterest last year, but never made one. I decided to try this year and of course, the links sent me to an Etsy store that has closed!  In took on the challenge of making a tree out of ribbon for the Little Lady (She loved the turkey shirt from last year so much!).  
Here's a look at the finished product:

I started with 15 pieces of ribbon 3 inches long each.  Then I hand sewed them into loops - It would be MUCH easier to machine sew them, but I am machine sewing incompetent!  Then I lined them up in rows (5, 4, 3, 2, 1) and sewed each row together overlapping the pieces slightly.  Finally, I attached the rows to the shirt.  This was BY FAR the hardest part since I needed to make sure the rows were even and level - I didn't want a wonky tree! :)

In the end I was mostly happy (I would re-do the second row from the top if I could.), but over all I was happy - That is of course until a loop fell off of the shirt while she was at school today.  How you ask?  She says it happened during the "crazy dance party"!  

I also want to share our newest product.  It goes along with the other phonics units we have put out.  This one focuses on the glued sounds -ang, -ing, -ong, -ung, -ank, -ink, -onk, -unk.  You can find the pack HERE.

Here's a preview...

I hope to be back again later this week with more goodies, but who knows the way things have been lately I am scrambling for time to get anything done!  For now, I'm off to address my Christmas cards!

A Writing Celebration, A Freebie, and Some Dreidels - Just Another Week In First Grade :)

Welcome to FRIDAY!

doodlebugsteaching.blogspot.com

After such a long break last week for Turkey Day, you would think I would be well rested and rearing to go, but to be honest, I am EXHAUSTED!  So ready for the weekend, so I can recharge!  Before I get started on the weekly recap, I want to take a quick minute to say THANK YOU, to all of those who celebrated  TPT's cyber Monday sale and purchased one of my products!  I want to say an extra special THANKS to those of you who left some TPT feedback!  I love to hear what people say about my products!  Here's one that made my night!

1.  Personal Narrative Writing Celebration!

I know I have talked a lot about Lucy this fall, but I had to share how happy I am that we are finished with our first unit!  I think I mentioned before that my district is only using 2 of the 4 units this year (personal narrative and opinion) and we will do all 4 next year.  This has given us some extra time to get to know "Lucy" and own it.  While teaching this unit was challenging, I have to say how incredibly proud I am of the progress ALL of my first graders made during this unit.  And even though I  COMPLAINED a ton about the pre and post on-demand writing assessment (and how stressful it was for my firsties), having such a clear comparison of before and after was AMAZING and I can't wait to make a graph of my data (wait - DID I JUST SAY THAT??)

Here is a panoramic picture of the celebration banner I made for the share.  I tried to make the room a little more exciting and fun for the share to show how special it really was!  This pic isn't from my room, but from my WONDERFUL friend and collaborator, Melanie.  She used the same banner and has better IPhone Photo skills than I :)

The kids LOVED sharing their stories and giving out compliments to their classmates.  It was fun and reinvigorating!  Makes me feel happy about the next writing challenge that begins next week!

2.  Random Acts of Kindness - FREEBIE!!

Last year, the whole Sandy Hook tragedy really rattled me.  I couldn't talk about it without getting teary for a least a week and I am NOT a crier!  I found someone who made some Random Acts of Kindness cards for kids to use and I tried them out last year.  The ones I found were made for a parent to use with a child, so they needed to be modified to use with a classroom, but it was still fun and I felt the kids got a lot out of it.  This year, I wanted to make some cards that I could use ready made in my room (and a few I may not get to, but would like to).  They are free in my TPT store (but if you download this please consider following my store and/or leaving feedback on TPT).  Check them out HERE.  

Here's a sneak peek...

3.  Dreidel Fun!

So, I am a little LOT late for Hanukkah.  I feel bad.  We talked about it before Thanksgiving and all this week, but we never made our dreidel books until today.  It didn't seem to matter to the kiddos though, they LOVED the craft books we made (and are now hanging in our room).  I modified this from a craft I found in a book, so it's not available on TPT, but maybe if I learn how to make the dreidel clip art I can put a craftivity up for next year!

4.  Sleigh Sorting Math Facts

I LOVE Cara Carroll from The First Grade Parade.  She has some great Math Tubs units that I have always wanted to check out, but never have.  To be honest I wasn't sure exactly what a math tub was.  Turns out they are centers! I purchased her Merry and Bright Math Tubs and have been using them this week to supplement my math lessons.  We did the Trim A Tree clock matching game (time to the half hour) and then yesterday we sorted math facts with sums from 7-12.  The best part of this math sort was that kids had to do addition, subtraction, and recognize numbers on a ten frame.  

Here's a picture of one group's sort. 

5.  Informational Text Intro

How many of you called informational text nonfiction before the CCSS came out?  I know I did!  I still catch myself calling it nonfiction :)  This week we started exploring informational texts.  We started off just noticing some things that were new in informational texts (table of contents, index, glossary, etc.).  Then we spent a couple of days exploring specific text features.  The kids just ATE this up!  Here is the anchor chart I made.  I want to tell you where I got these pieces (I know they were free), but I made it last year, and don't have the file or link anymore.  

 Stay tuned for more informational text activities next week!

Thanks for reading about our week.  How was yours?  What are you up to this weekend!  Headed out to a Toys for Tots party tomorrow night and the Little Lady is having a sleep over at Gram and Nonno's.  Which means I can sleep in a bit on Sunday!  (And I have a little extra time to figure out what that silly elf will be up to!)  What has your elf done so far?  Hopi Hopi has left a shopping list, threw cottonballs all over her bed, hooked up a zipline, hung her undies up on the stockings, and played hockey with a marshmallow and candy cane!

SO Much To Say...HUGE SALE - CURRENTLY LINKY - NEW PHONICS PACK

How was your Thanksgiving weekend?  Mine was great.  Didn't get all the bloggy things done this weekend that I had hoped, but I got some AMAZING family time in!  It was great to spend time with my amazing little girl - Time is moving so quickly and she's growing up so fast!

I come to you tonight with a few goodies!  

First BIG SALE NEWS!!

My WHOLE store is 20% off Monday AND Tuesday December 2nd and 3rd and TPT is having a sale too, so you will get all my products for 28% off! Stop by and check out my goodies (and the other goodies on sale in other stores too - of course!)

Currently...December!

I can't believe that it is December already!!  I am linking up again with Oh Boy 4th Grade and her monthy Linky.  Here's a sneak peek into what's going on with me as December begins!

Suffix -s Phonics Pack

WIth the sale tomorrow it gives you the perfect reason to check out our newest phonics pack focused on adding the suffix -s.  This unit aligns clearly with unit 6 in the Fundations program.  Here are some shots of the unit!

You can find this new pack HERE!  You can even see a preview now on TPT (I learned how to make collages this weekend!!)

I have lots more in the works and will be popping up on here a few times (hopefully) this week).  Looking forward to getting into the holiday spirit this week!

Thankful for you! And a Holiday FREEBIE!!

Happy Turkey Day!

I hope you all had a great day and were able to spend the day with your friends and family.  We went to my mom's and it was so nice to be able to spend time with everyone together.  Except of course, when the Little Lady went a little (ALOT) Thanksgiving cray-cray.  With no nap and everyone in the same place at the same time, she was a bit over excited.  Now we are home and relaxing (She was just watching a re-run of the Macy's Parade which she LOVED this year) and I thought I would take a minute to share how thankful I am for all of you - whether you are a regular reader or tonight is your first visit.  This last year has been tough for me in a few respects and this is one place that I have felt at peace and hopeful.  This blog has given me an outlet that I didn't have before and for that I cannot be more thankful!

I have a new FREEBIE up at TPT.  I hope you like it and that you can use it.  It is a bit Christmassy.  I love so many of the Christmas items for sale by my bloggy friends and I wanted to join in.  I'll be honest though, this is not something I will be able to use in my classroom (trust me it's not religious, but it does include Santa and gifts and elves, which won't fly in my district!)

Here's a peek at the free file!

Let me know your thoughts on the FREEBIE and tell me all about your Turkey Day festivities!

Enjoy your day of shopping tomorrow (if you dare).  I will be leisurely sipping coffee for the morning at a coffee shop as the Little Lady heads to an indoor playspace for a Princess Ballet Tea Party - not really sure what she will be doing, but it includes her 3 favorite things, so we signed her up ;)

Take Me Back Tuesday (A Day Late...) and a TURKEY TREAT!

I have been seeing lots of my bloggy friends link up to Hope's Take Me Back Tuesday and I kept thinking that I can't do that, I haven't been blogging long enough.  However, I realized that I dipped my toes in last Turkey Day and have a goodie or two to share.  I also have a newbie turkey day treat (thanks Pinterest!) that my co-workers enjoyed today!

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Wednesday, November 21, 2012

CORNUCOPIAS, THANKFUL FOR KIDDOS (PART 2), AND CUPCAKE TEEPEES (FAIL)

Don't get used to daily posts!  Let's not get too crazy, but I'm into this whole blogging thing now!  I got my first couple of comments on the blog (Please leave a comment at the bottom!).  One of which is another teacher blogger Heather's Hearts.  Check out her site!  I have only had a quick minute to check it out, but at first glance it looks great!  Also, she taught me how to add a way for you to follow my blog!!  I love followers!  The link is at the top of my blog, right under the title.  PLEASE FOLLOW ME!!

Cornucopias

I made these cornucopias for my daughter's teachers at school,  for a few of my favorite ladies at my school, and of course my friendly neighbors!  My husband was very skeptical as we were buying the ingredients!  He was sure this would be a big FAIL!  Shockingly they were a success!!  

Found these on Pinterest too!  The original idea came from Make Life Delicious.  You start with sugar cones and dip the bottoms in hot water.  The original link says warm water, but I found the cones weren't flexible unless the water was H-O-T!  The you nuke the cone for 20-25 secs.  Be careful you don't burn the cone!  Immediately after taking the cone out of the microwave, mold the cone around a pencil and hold for 20-30 seconds!  The let is set for a few minutes and it re-hardens pretty quickly.  I filled them with Christmas M &M's mostly because that's what I could find, but they would have probably looked better just with regular since I made them for Turkey Day.  Finally, I used a FREEBIE (I love FREE!) from Amanda's Parties To Go to make the gift tags.  Easy Peasy!

Thankful for the Kiddos (Part 2)

I had a free minute before the kiddos arrived today and took a quick pic of the project I blogged about yesterday (check it out if you missed it!!).  

The link to the FREEBIE is also on yesterday's blog!  It's not too late to make these for your kiddos.  We can be thankful any time!

Cupcake Teepees

FAIL

Tomorrow we are headed to my mom's for dinner.  Among other goodies, I told her I would bring over a new dessert I found on Pinterest - Cupcake Teepees.  They looked SO CUTE.  The original project can be found a These Are A Few of My Favorite Things.   I had 2 WHOLE hours to myself this afternoon and I decided to try cooking without an almost  year old underfoot!  This would be a breeze right??  WRONG

Promise me you won't judge me for my disaster I'm about to post!  And don't be discouraged from trying it - You are probably better than I!  

Here they are in the oven...

I especially loved the mess of cupcake that ended up on the bottom of my oven- AWESOME!!  

Oh well - We all must fail sometime!  I must feel comfortable with this blogging thing already as I am already sharing a HUGE FAIL in public!  :)

I hope you all enjoyed today's blog.  Comment below and follow me!

Most of all have an amazing Turkey Day with your families and friends.  Remember all that we have and be thankful for it all!  I'm already thankful for you!

Abbey:)