Holiday Gift for Students *FREEBIES*

Hi Girls,
I've been sitting on what to do for my kiddos for the holidays.  Of course I was a day late and a dollar short when it came to ordering books through Scholastic. {drat} Some years I purchase certificates instead of specific books. Didn't quite get to that either. {fiddle sticks}

So what does one do when they find themself in a pickle like this? {Oh wait, why am I flipping out? I still have a w h o l e ... w e e k ......t o........g o!} They turn to their fellow bloggers....

Ms. Fiorini saved me - thanks darlin'! 

Click on the picture below for her version...

I tweaked it a bit for a couple of reasons - I teach first grade {not second} and we currently have a Paper Cop policing our paper use...so I needed to make the font smaller and put two games on one page rather than one. 

Clipart: Scrappin' Doodles ~ One of the games "Subtraction Battle" was found at Mrs. Barron's blog Flying into First Grade

Room 8 is in the spirit of giving, for sure - GERMS!  We've had the critters running rampant in our classroom.  I found this somewhere on the internet years ago and use it every year.  I'm not sanitizer crazy...I believe in a firm scrubbing with soap under warm water...but let's face it, how many times a day do you find yourself asking, "Did you wash"?  Thought you might find this useful.  I place the labels on the outside of two sanitizer bottles and adhere with book tape.  Stays put all year long.  When the kids need to use the bathroom they go grab a bottle and put it on their desk.  This lets everyone know somebody is in the bathroom and ensures that, if they forget to wash in the bathroom, at least they got a squirt of germ gel. {And if they remembered to do both - all the better}

Hope you're all staying healthy - I've got a frog in my throat that makes it super hard to talk.  Tomorrow should be interesting....{think they'll take pity on me?!}

Happy Friday Eve...

i'M aLl OvEr ThE pLaCe! *Snowman Freebie*

Oh Girls,

I don't know up from down these days..I can't decide if I'm happy we still have two weeks before break {Because I still have a whole SLEW of stuff to get done} or if I'm freaking out because we ONLY have two more weeks before break {Because I have a whole SLEW of stuff to get done}...not to mention my Christmas shopping isn't done, I have piles of laundry just screaming "We can't stand our own stank - please wash us"...which makes me feel like break is TOO far away.  Seriously, I have issues - don't I?

In spite of the hustle and bustle in Room 8 - there's a lot of fun and cuteness to be had too!

We did "tear" art which is so great for those "finger muscles" {you must pronounce the "c" in musCles when talking about fine motor skills}.  They turned out ADORABLE {not one item was drawn or cut - well, we did color in the snow at the bottom}.

After we made our snowman creations we used them to help guide us in a "how-to" writing exercise where we explained how to build a snowman.  I love the linear thinking and planning of ideas that has to take place in order to write a how-to.  One of my kiddos even noticed the words we use when retelling are the same words we used when writing our "How to Build a Snowman".  Love when they make those connections!

Here's a cuter snowman paper than what I used...

Snowman digistamp is from Cre8tive Hands - go check her out!

I've seen an abundance of Gingerbread ________ {fill in the character} floating around our blogs.  Here's an awesome CD that I know you'll love.  There are lots of fairy tale favorites put to bee-boppin' beats.  I can't even tell you how many requests I've had for the Gingerbread Man. {Click on the picture to take you to the website}

And... I can't stop eating these...

Back to business...

Today in guided reading groups we focused on comprehension -  "gameshow" style.  The kids had an absolute blast "buzzing in" to answer a variety of questions about their stories.

They make them wireless now too!

{click on the picture to take you to one site where you can purchase it}.

Have I lost you yet?  I told you I'm all over the place! 

I also wanted to say thanks to my bloggy friends at Fun for First, A Cupcake for the Teacher, First Grade Magic, and Apples and Papers who passed along the Liebster Award! 

This award is for "new" bloggers, and its goal is to spotlight up-and-coming blogs with less than 200 followers  If awarded, you must:

Copy and paste the award on your blog

Thank the giver and link back to them

Reveal YOUR top five picks and leave a comment letting them know

Hope your followers will share the love with them :) {I just know you will!}

If you're looking for some blogs to add to your daily addiction I hope you'll check those girls out.  They have such great ideas to share!!!!  Mrs. Cupcake is giving away a $10 gift card to Target {woo hoo} click HERE to find out more! {Better move quick - you've only got until December 14th!}

Here are my top five picks for girls who are knocking my socks off {And would love to knock yours off too - so go check 'em out!!!!}

Crayons & Curls

Ed Link - First Grade

KinderSmarten

Ms. Rachel's Room - A Special Ed Classroom

Peterson's Pad

{Peterson's Pad is having a $20 Amazon gift card giveaway in celebration of her "new look" - only NINE have entered.  Better move quick - you only have until December 14th!}

There you have it!

Oh, by the way - the cute little letter you saw{here} - you know, the TOELIT one?  That was my OWN son who wrote that! Yeah, it was a proud mom moment, let me tell you. Not sure if I'm more proud of the rock in the toelit or him charging a dollar to get into his recess Lego club {We got a call from the principal for that one too}.  Yup, that little bugger keeps us on our toes!

See the tears? Those are the crybaby letters - get it?

Now go out and buy yourself some wasabi peas...seriously.

Full Moon = Random and a *Think Sheet Freebie*

Hi Girls,
I have started this blog post a million times and have to keep "x'ing out" because of this, that AND the other.

Report cards are *almost* done. Just have to check them over before saying "FINITO!" 

There was nothing that could be done about that full-moon/holiday-high combo this week.  Holy chick-a-toli.  Were your kids completely OFF?  I'm not kidding you.  I had kids singing in the bathroom {we have a bathroom in our room - I know, I'm pretty lucky}.  For some reason, that little somethin' somethin' spread like wildfire...they all thought it would be mighty funny to give it a try.  It probably didn't help that when my first little Grinch tried it I hushed the whole class and we listened in on his echo-y rendition of  "Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer".  It was a hoot and we laughed our tootsies off over that silliness...but c'mon guys; didn't anybody ever tell you "First time is funny, second time is silly, third time makes Mrs. W ornery"?  I did finally have the originator of said silliness write a note home about it - to which I added "George {name has been changed to protect the not so innocent} has been singing his heart out in our bathroom the last few days.  Could you please have a conversation with him about it?  His mom called me the next morning and asked if I would make a copy of his "think sheet" because she just HAD to put it in his memory book. 

Click on the picture to grab it for yourself!

Sort of like this little "I'm sorry letter" my own first grader {he was in kindergarten at the time} wrote for his teacher and  principal after tossing a rock in the toilet toelit.

What can I say?  Must have been a full moon...

So, I guess teachers aren't immune to its effects either because I took all these wonderful pictures of the wintery fun we've been having in Room 8 and I left my camera at school....you'll just have to wait on pins and needles for that shivery fun. 

I did purchase some of THIS from Walmart today: 

And cannot WAIT to make these next week {Click on the picture to read all about it over at First Grade Blue Skies who tweaked Mrs. Jump's original idea HERE}:

I still have two more weeks...TWO MORE WEEKS.

Gonna have to stock up on some DC - for sure!

Isn't that clipart just the cutest?  You have to go check Nikki's blog over at MelonHeadz she has some of the coolest stuff!!!!!

I think I can, I think I can, I think I can...

Pukes or Crying Wolf?

'Tis the season...

For the pukes, that is.  You might be aware that we don't "celebrate the holidays" at my school.  Well, some people do - but it has been "highly recommended" that we don't.  So I don't.  Which is really hard for me -  because for 11 years I did and {{{POOF}}} now I don't. 

BUT....

Lucky me, I do have the pukes in my classroom - 'tis the season for THAT. In a BIG way. Holy Toledo, I had four kids out today.  One of my little girls walked in the room and the first words out of her mouth were "My mom says if I don't feel well I can tell you and you can call her".  Ummmm, Mom - that little trick rarely works so don't try it.  It never fails they come right to you with this little nugget and expect to be sent to the office right then and there.

But I don't. I usually wave them off and say "oh, you look fine to me - go sit down".  Figuring if they were REALLY sick, mom would have *never* sent them to school that way, right? {Okay, I'm a mom and I think I may have accidentally sent my kids to school sick a time or two...but they really did act pretty okay when I had to make the big decision ... call in for a sub, scramble around and make sub plans, or not, call in for a sub {get the bottom of the barrell} lose my mind making last minute sub plans or not...}...

It never fails, a few minutes later "sick kid" comes back up to say "I think I need to go down to the office, my mom said I could".  To that, I usually say "Go get a drink, try to go potty, I think you'll be okay".  I do usually keep a secret eye on them though.  You know, looking for some tell-tale signs that they may be crying wolf.  You know, laughter, sillies, excessive chatting.

So, after my little dumpling was sent for some water, a potty break or two, and a "just try putting your head down", she wasn't going to give up {although she very happily hopped off to recess}.  Right after recess I see her skipping down the hall toward our classroom. When I asked her where she was going she said in a sing-songy voice "I'm going ho-o-o-me". 

Hmmm, I thought - she's totally faking it.  I went down to the office to let the secretaries know of my suspicions  and they were in complete agreement - they thought she was a total faker too...remember that later.

Cutie patootie swears she's not faking it - even after I explained to her that moms are really top secret detectives and they know when you're really sick and when you're not and that I bet mom will bring her back to school if she thinks you just came home for some snuggles. 

Mom picked her up, mom took her home, mom emailed me to let me know that while she thought she might be faking too {reason for sending her to school in the first place} she was two steps away from walking out the school doors when she threw up EVERYWHERE.

Thank goodness I didn't trust my instincts ...

Sending up a prayer of thanks...

Report cards have me crazy busy - someday I'll be back to posting something helpful.  Hey, maybe this post will help somebody.  When a kid tells you they aren't feeling well...just send them down to the office so your story can have a happy ending like mine. {If my custodian blogged his story might go a little differently}

Happy Wednesday Eve!

Zangle Report Cards, Procrastination and a Freebie {or two}

Good Gravy...

I should be doing report cards - but I'm here instead. Isn't that how it works for you?  My house has never been cleaner.  I'm being even more of a procrastinator because of the new program they have us using.  In the end, it's going to be sweeeeeet, but wrapping my brain around it is going to take some time.  Do any of you use Zangle for report cards?  If you do - any tips or tricks?  If you aren't familiar with it - it's a computerized report card.  We've been doing computerized report cards for some time but they were in Microsoft Word. Now, it's a program full of tabs and various areas...so many different areas, I'm afraid I'm going to forget one.  The best part though {Well, I happen to think it's awesome- but I've heard people grumbling about it} is there are a whole slew of canned comments to choose from.  I used to write a novel.  I mean, I didn't leave a thing to the imagination.  I personalized them, I spent hours upon hours upon hours on my report cards especially the comments.  Once I get used to the whole system I just KNOW I'm going to love it.  It's going to cut time spent on cards in half...at least.  Another plus?  I don't have to print out the cards.  They are available online for parents to print out.  Woo hoo!!!!!!!!!!! No more printer jams, mixed up papers, collating, folding, stapling, signing{Another MAJOR time saver - not to mention major paper-saver}.

More time to create...right!?!

Here's something I made for a friend whose class needs to memorize their lunch pins.  She's going to have the kids write their names on the sheet once they have their lunch pin numbers memorized.  Thought somebody else out there may find it useful.  Luckily, we don't have to memorize ours.

Clipart: Scrappin Doodles

Here's a word work activity for Daily 5:

That's all I've got - not a brain cell left.  I'm hungry - it's late.  I shouldn't eat but I've got some peanut lovers chex mix just SCREAMING my name... but... I looked at a  picture on facebook of a friend who just ran her bajillionth marathon and she weighs two pounds. 

Shut the cupboard door...

*Warning* Read at Your Own Risk *Warning*

**You cannot blame me for neglecting your family, household chores, lesson planning or holiday shopping because of this post.  You have been warned.**

I saw that a friend "liked" this guy on Facebook...followed her "like" and happened upon this:



This guy {Mr. Smith} is an absolute riot.  He's got some really clever ideas. You watch one video and you're hooked. I mean it, I spent all last night watching one, then another, then another.  I even woke up in the middle of the night and crept downstairs to watch another few.  I think I have a crush on Mr. Smith. 

Watching him made me wonder how common it is for teachers, especially lower elementary teachers, to act so silly when they teach - in hopes of getting and keeping their students' attention.  Are you girls a little theatrical in your classrooms or are you pretty straight laced? 

I've got my "sister" who works "down on the farm" who sometimes comes in to teach a lesson {not often though, I have a hard time maintaining a southern accent}.  I use the receiver of my classroom phone {I unplug it and bring it to my carpet area...this serves two purposes: 1.  The kids are wraptly attentive 2. The office's calls can't come through} and pretend I'm calling a good friend to make a book recommendation, retell a story to one of my BFF's or tell Mr. W. how excited I am to have one of my first graders teach me something I didn't know - "Like, OMG Mr. W., did you, like know that, like 'th' makes you, like stick out your tongue?!?!  Isn't that, like, so naughty Mr. W.??? Yeah, one of, like, my really smart first graders just taught me that. Like, you should, like tell your middle schoolers that, like just in case they didn't, like already know" {Please don't tell my secretaries I sometimes conveniently forget to, like, plug my phone back in after the lesson}.  One time, we were reading a story in reading groups and came to a really "sad" part and I grabbed a tissue and started carrying on, crying, blowing my nose, the whole business.  One of my little guys said "You better man up Mrs. W." - so darn funny.  We put tissues in all of our reading zippies just in case their parents needed one.  One parent had a better sense of humor than me because he colored in the tissue with greenish marker and put it back in the zippie.  What a jokester. 

Do you ever put on your comedic teaching hat?

I'd like to shout out some giveaways while I'm at it too...

Farley over at Oh' Boy 4th Grade is hosting a HUGE giveaway with a lot of bloggy goddesses!  You'll want to check it out for sure!!!!!!

Jenn over at Finally in First is celebrating her blogiversary by giving away anything from her TpT store to 12 lucky followers!  Go enter now cuz she's got some really cute stuff!!!! {Like her Sight Word Superstars that I just purchased!!!!}

Barb over at Grade ONEderful is celebrating 100+ followers - WOO HOO! She's giving away a 25 dollar gift certificate to either Amazon or Starbucks {I see many chai tea lattes in my future as I plan on winning this one - so maybe you don't want to enter afterall}.

Rebecca, Kristin, Jennifer and Caitlin are all having an awesome giveaway over at Teaching First! Lots of goodies to be had!

Hope you are having a great weekend!!! Both my boys made their first baskets in their basketball games.  I overreacted...just a wee bit...with my cheers.  I was so darn happy for them since we only have one more game to go!

Time to go read under my new reading lamp....ahhhhh

Pssst - It's Friday! {In case you didn't know} *FREEBIE*

As hard as it was to get back into the swing of things, we didn't really have a choice, did we?  We had conferences in November, but report cards don't go home until December.  I'm not sure who the genius was who thought of that craziness...but they'll be getting coal in their stocking this year..I'm pretty darn sure of that!

I wish I could figure out how to balance it all; or at least not feel so guilty when I don't.  Seems that assessments come right when things are coming together and we've found our groove.  Remember my post about loving Daily 5?  Wasn't that just last week that I was all geeked and excited about it?  Yeah, so things can take a nose dive fast when you change the routine a bit, expect the kiddos to last "just a wee bit longer so I can finish up this running record".   Some little dumplings were taking advantage of Mrs. W's red-cowboy-hat-with-a-red-tinsel-brim...{You wear one too, when you test, right?}  I tell you, it works...lightens the mood when they sit down next to me to read, "Howdy pardner...ya'll gonna show me what you'ns got?" {they just giggle and read and nobody bothers me - not even other teachers because they know what "the hat" means...SHE'S TESTING}.

I've got some smart kids, though.  I'm so darn tootin' proud of them!!!!

Maybe it's my teaching? 

Teaching has changed so much over the years, hasn't it?  I don't know if I could be a new teacher today {I swear I feel like one half the time though...we change what we do and how we do it so much it makes your head spin}. With that, I have to say in a lot of ways I love the teacher I've become because of these changes.  I think we've probably all changed in a lot of the same ways - we encourage thinkers rather than sponges. 

Michigan has adopted the Common Core - with that my district adopted the Bridges math series.  This spiral approach toward teaching really threw me off at first.  It's largely game-based and relies heavily on visual models (ten frames anybody?).  It also encourages divergent thinking through questioning. 

We were given question stems to hang up in our classrooms - not so much for the kids, but for the teachers...just to help us remember to delve deeper.  Of course they weren't cute enough for me...so I fancied 'em up.  Here they are in case you want to hang them up in your whole group area {that's where I have mine}.

Psssst....don't forget, it's FRIDAY!!!!!!