DIY Snowmen Ornaments!

I've been making the same fabulous ornaments as parent gifts for the past 3 years. As the time has gotten closer I kind of looked around at all the cutesy little ornaments students can make for their parents on Pinterest. There are so many!!

I always test things out on my own kids first *just in case* it's a fail. I had seen these cute little snowmen handprint ornaments so decided to give it a try. It was super simple- I just painted their hands up with white acrylic paint and then place the ornament in their hand and wrapped their fingers around it to make a print. Easy peasy. I thought "I HAVE GOT TO MAKE THESE IN CLASS!"

Then..I let the hand print dry and started painting the scarves. I used a teeny tiny paint brush for the scarves and a black paint bottle with the tip on it for the rest. It wasn't so bad. Not until I got cramps in my hands from squeezing the paint bottle so hard and then painting the tiny scarves on. They're adorable, don't get me wrong. But I do NOT want to do this for 23 students.I'm glad I have them for my own 2 kids, but it's back to the clay ornaments we go!

What special ornaments or gifts do you have your students make? Read THIS post about how I make the ornaments.

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Christmas behavior incentive!

Y'all... my kids are 50 shades of crazy this week! I know they're excited about the holidays and all the funtivities that lead up to them. We've had crazy cold weather (for us... highs in the teens and sleet/ snow/ cold stuff that I don't like) and we've missed {outside} recess!! 

I was thinking about how I could change up my incentives a little bit at least for this next week and I remembered my bestie's (I'm pretty sure that is an incorrect use of "'s" :D) blog post about her Halloween table points. I used her adorable jack-o-lanterns during Halloween and I'm so excited to introduce these adorable trees into the mix!

I bought felt in green, red, teal and white. You could get a lot more creative here, but I'm keepin' it pretty simple. I used a Christmas tree template to trace onto the green felt.

I cut 4 trees out- because I only have 4 tables but you could cut out as many as you need. I free-handed the circles and stars for ornaments and now I have a super easy table point system!

I *love* using table points for my kiddos. It is such a great visual and it really encourages team work rather than JUST individual behavior. I love how it brings out the kindness in my kids when they see a friend is struggling to get the right calendar page out or are not quite on task like they should be and they help them.When my students earn a table point they get to add an ornament onto their tree. Once the tree is decorated they earn an incentive!

I hang these up with tape and then keep a little baggie with the pieces tacked to my bulletin board. 

If you'd like the template I used for the tree, click on the picture below to snag it up!

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Cyber Monday {and Tuesday!}

I hope you all had a fabulous Thanksgiving!

And maybe you got a little shopping done?!

I went out yesterday with my mom and sister. We didn't go to any of the big name stores.. really, we went shopping for ourselves! ;) Today though the hubs and I are going out to look for home decor. We have this fabulous new house and not one single thing up on the wall! 

So, now that we are all in Christmas mode are you ready to do some school shopping?! TpT is throwing their Cyber Monday sale tomorrow and Tuesday, so start filling up your carts! I have mine all ready! Just use the code CYBER and TpT will throw in an extra 10% off the 20% that I will have my store on sale!

Here are a few of my new favorites!

{click on the preview to view it on TpT}

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Winter Comprehension!

So this is *way* late... but maybe you can save it for next year!

So we had Thanksgiving at our house...but we don't have enough place settings for everyone 

{there were 16 of us} so I made these cute little napkin/ silverware holders to fancy thing up a bit. All I did was fold the paper so that there were equal amounts of "white space" around the "give thanks" part then cut the extra paper off. I unfolded the paper and then used the paper cutter to trim the top half of the paper off. I used a good 'ol Elmer's glue stick to glue the flap onto the back paper. Easy peasy! Click on the picture to snag these up from Google Docs.

I also finished up this new Winter Comprehension Pack that I'm sooo excited about! 

I know some of y'all can't use Christmas themed things in your classroom so this works perfectly for the season without being Christmas-y. I'm planning on using it AFTER Christmas up until Valentine's Day in my own classroom. My kids go bananas for these {they love finding the matching pictures and then drawing them} 

Here are a few sample pages {I copy them front to back}

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Do you Cameo?!

Hi friends!

Happy Thanksgiving! I hope you're having a wonderful day spent with family! I'm thankful for so many things, but mainly these special people: 

{photo credit to our fabulous photographer Heather!}

So after turkey day today I'm planning on heading out to the shops...I just can't help it!! It's more about being around all the people and the hustle and bustle of the holidays. I don't have to buy a darn thing but I love being around all the people! {does that make me crazy?!}

So if you're in the mood to get your shopping on... read below!

I'm excited to be hosting a special holiday deal for you my fabulous fans!!

Have you been seeing all the ADORABLE things that can be made with a Silhouette Cameo?!

I've made a few things for my classroom {and Ella and her teacher}  that I absolutely adore! 

Ella's teacher's name is Mrs. Brown...she also has a slight fetish for all things Charlie Brown- so how cute did this sign turn out?! I used my Silhouette to cut the words and the chevron stripe. {have you ever tried to paint one of those boogers by hand?! Impossible even with tape! lol!} The Silhouetter made easy work of this project! Other than paint drying time, it took me no more than 15 minutes!

 Ella has a reader's theater that I made for her this summer. My original plan was to add on some type of pennant to the front..but.. it just never happened. I love this option even more, though!

 

So, if you're looking for an awesome Christmas present for that crafty person in your life- you NEED one of these! You don't have to buy cartridges separately for the fonts and graphics- just simply use what you have already on your computer {or peruse through the Silhouette store for tons of great graphics!} 

So head on over to Silhouette's website and use the code ROWDY to snag one of these great deals! The deal only last from today until December 8th so let your mom, aunt, husband or whoever know that it is on your wishlist. You can only get this deal using the code ROWDY at Silhouette's website!

           (1)          A Silhouette CAMEO®, Silhouette Studio® Designer Edition Software, a dust cover (the color is decided by Silhouette), a $25 download card, a hook, a scraper, a spatula, and a pick-me-up® tool for $229.99. Retail price for all of this would total $406.93 (over 40% savings!)

(2)          A Silhouette Portrait®, Silhouette Studio® Designer Edition Software, a dust cover (the color is decided by Silhouette), a $25 download card, a hook, a scraper, a spatula, and a pick-me-up® tool for $129.99. Retail price for all of this would total $286.93 (over 40% savings!)

(3)          A Silhouette CAMEO®, a Silhouette Portrait®, and two $25 download cards for $299.99. That’s right: If you buy a Silhouette CAMEO® at full price, you get two $25 download cards and a Silhouette Portrait® ABSOLUTELY FREE! Retail price for all of this would be $406.93 (over 40% savings!)

(4)          40% off consumable products at silhouetteamerica.com. This excludes machines, subscriptions, download and gift cards. Cannot be combined with any other offers. Rain checks not available.

(5)          FREE SHIPPING on orders over $25.

I hope the rest of your day is fabulous!!

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Christmas comprehension!

Happy almost- Thanksgiving! We're having dinner at our house tomorrow so I'm going to make this short and sweet! 

I've been working with Ella today on fluency and comprehension- it is SO much fun to see her become a reader and grow this year! I created this Christmas comprehension pack to make it a little more exciting. She was putty in my hands! 

I love this packet because I added a back side to the pages where students write a sentence about the passage and then illustrate a connection that they have. Click HERE to see it on TpT!

First, students will color code the sight words and then illustrate the passage to check for understanding. Then they get to pick through the visuals that are included and add them to the work board to help with the illustrations!

 End product....amazing!!

"get toys and they get cars and they get hats" LOVE!

Grab this freebie page from the product preview HERE or on the picture below! Click the "preview" button underneath the thumbnails.

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Who will carve the Turkey?!

Good morning!

We got our first snow last night- I'm so glad I decided to go to the grocery store last night!

Are you out for Thanksgiving break already?!

We have Monday and Tuesday still to go... 

I *love* teaching Thanksgiving to my kiddos- so many good books and lessons to teach this time of year! Last week one of the many books we read was "Who Will Carve the Turkey This Thanksgiving" 

I took the opportunity to do an interactive writing with my students. What better way to get those brains active and really thinking!?

First we brainstormed some animals and what silly things they could do with a turkey..

 {does anyone else HATE writing on the Smart board? It doesn't matter how many times I realign it, it writes all wonky!}

Then we began writing..I love all the illustrations my kids used- they really added a lot of details!

If you want to snag this page up, click HERE or on the picture below!

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Thanksgiving homework packet

I don't know about y'all.. but I've got some serious Thanksgiving fever!

Do you send home work for your students to complete over the break? I was thinking about what I was going to do this year- usually we make a little packet up with a few printable pages and then ask them to write a thing of two. As I was getting started, I figured I would whip up a little packet of homework for the fall season. A little late to the party, right?! LOL Well.. next year! I guess I will start tomorrow on the Christmas pack :) 

Well, anyway.. we send homework home every week. Most of the time it is something simple like "count to 100 by 10's and 1's" or "count and compare how many forks and spoons you have" but sometimes we do send home a worksheet or two for parents to complete with their child. None of the homework takes more than 10-15 minutes to complete. I like the parent involvement it takes AND parents get to see exactly where their child excels or struggles. 

I send a newsletter each week that looks like this:

If you want to grab the free template for this newsletter, download the product preview HERE {green bar that says "preview" and you will just add text in the text boxes.

My students all have punch cards that I use like sticker charts- once they fill up 20 punches, they get to choose from the coupon box. Each night of homework equals 1 punch. Sometimes, if I send home an extra special project they receive more than 1 punch (like turkeys in disguise- it's a lot of work!)

I always reinforce skills for homework that we have been working on at home- nothing like a little extra practice, right?!

 

These printable sheets could easily be used for morning work or station rotations (or a SUB!!) 

If you'd like to check out the packet they're from, click on the picture below:

Now...because I'm so late they are on sale for the rest of November. 

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