Vacation Is Here!

I'm exhausted. 

I can't believe I'm attempting to blog right now. I've had such a fun and busy week! Not to mention I just made about 50 cake pops. Yes, it's 11:00. I must be crazy! And tired. 

I have a very long to-do list for the next few days and blogging was on it! I wanted to share all (or maybe just some) of the awesome things we did this week (before life gets too hectic with all the holiday fun). 

Our week started off with the Christmas program. Our kids were awesome! They sang Jingle Bells. The kiddos shook jingle bells in their hands as they sang. They were adorable!

Our elf got into some mischief this week. Here are a couple pictures of our adventures with Candy Cane this week. 

I must admit, I was a teeny tiny bit sad taking down all the Christmas decorations after school today. I had so much fun with the kiddos this month. I absolutely love Christmas...and elf on the shelf:). Candy Cane brought each student a brand new book and goody bag this morning. The kids were over the moon excited! Here is one of the firsties enjoying his new book:

The kids also got some other very special treats today (my mom & gram spoil my students every year:)) that they were VERY excited about! I'll spare you all the pictures:). Here's just one:

I know I promised to share our polar bear writing & craft that we finally finished up this week. Here it is! Aren't they cute?!

Here are some Christmas trees the kids made today. They were very simple but cute. I made the circles out of scrapbook paper. The kids practiced overlapping the circles. 

The kids made some Christmas cards to go with their ornament gifts for their parents.

Another exciting moment today....cookie decorating! I save this station just for my grandma every year:) (she volunteers in our classroom two days a week)! The kids LOVE it...and so does gram:).

Oh, I almost forgot...the best part of staff development on Wednesday! We made gingerbread houses. Teachers love doing stuff like this. We also wore ugly Christmas sweaters and ate A LOT of food!

Ok, I think that's all for now. My bed is calling my name! Good night! Happy three weeks of vacation! Woo-hoo!

A Special Game Of Tic-Tac-Toe!

Is it just me, or is everyone else ready for Christmas break, too?! I'm already exhausted knowing that Monday is less than two days away! We have such a busy week ahead! I think the kiddos know that Christmas vacation is right around the corner. This may call for some extra special reinforcement next week from our special friend, Candy Cane:). Speaking of Candy Cane...he's been in a game of tic-tac-toe with the kids this week! The kids are loving it! I wonder who will win:)?

Candy Cane also had to leave us for a day. The kiddos were very upset:(.

Because Candy Cane has become such a big part of our class...we did this super cute elf craftivity! The kids wrote about things they would like to do if they were an elf. I think they turned out adorable!

I just LOVE this picture! The kids came in before school and were admiring their work!! It makes me happy when the kids are proud of something they've created!

Well, I thought I'd also be blogging about our polar bear writing & craft...but we didn't get to finish it yet. It was a long week:). Hopefully it will be up early next week! Happy Saturday!

Ornaments, Reindeer, & The North Pole!

We had a visitor this week! You're probably wondering who, right?! I'll give you a hint...he came straight from The North Pole and his name is Candy Cane. Yep, you guessed it, we have an elf in our classroom! This is my absolute most favorite time of the year! I just love getting into the holiday spirit with my little firsties. I still haven't quite decided who enjoys this stuff more? Me or the kiddos? 

This is the package we received from The North Pole:

We named our elf:

Here are a few places we found Candy Cane this week (I forgot to take pics of all the places):

Apparently Candy Cane loves dark chocolate-like the teacher:)

As part of a math project this week, we made these cute lil' ornaments. We are working on graphing so I thought the kids would enjoy making ornaments and graphing the colors the class chose. Full disclosure-the pictures you are seeing are from round two of the ornament making. Yes, round two:). Round one didn't go as planned. This lesson was a great reminder for me that firsties need step by step instructions. Always. No exceptions. Any-hoo...the ornaments came out adorable and we were able to learn some awesome graphing concepts!

Next up...reindeer writing! We spent the week reading and writing about reindeers. Did I mention how much I love this time of year?!:)

Reading and gathering facts!

Drafting-look how good those finger spaces, capital letters, & ending marks are coming!:)

Crafting time-doesn't our wall look cute?

Here is one final thing I thought I'd share...tracking sticks! I was amazed at the excitement these sticks created! Who knew a simple sticker and popsicle stick would make reading so much more enjoyable?!

Have an awesome weekend! I'm hoping to join the Christmas decorating linky party this weekend...stay tuned for that post:)!

Giveaway Time!

I'm back! Two posts in one week...I must be on vacation:-)! I just wanted to share how excited I am to have my Winter Math Activities and Centers included in Easy Teaching Tool's big November giveaway! All the fun starts tomorrow!

 

Giveaway ends on December 1st

I don't know about you, but this school year is flying by.  I feel like I was just prepping Thanksgiving centers and I'm already rushing to get December centers and activities ready.  Holy moly, is it vacation yet???

Here's what all 26 of us came up with!  You can click on the photo to see more.  All you have to do is enter the Rafflecopter below!  Ready, set, go!!!

a Rafflecopter giveaway