New Years Resolutions - Linky Party

Yes I am still alive!  Sorry It's been a while since I posted but I had to take a real vacation week for a little family time!  I am enjoying my time with friends and family and am excited to still have one more week left!  We did not start our break until the 23rd.
Okay...New Year fast approaching... and I am feeling a little midlife crisis coming on.  My birthday is a week away and I am having trouble coping with the fact I am inching my way towards the big 4-0!  Being only a few years away, I am beginning to realize how life can fly by!  Take this year for instance.  I think this has been the fastest year of all!  Maybe that is why I am taking advantage of the time I do have to spend with my family!  It helps having a four year old to cope with not getting any younger!.  I can still chat with the younger generation moms group!

Now for the Resolutions!  I have never been a fan of these things because I end up throwing in the towel by day 4..haha!  Forget weight loss and getting rid of stretch marks!  I am seeking resolutions that can last longer and be real reachable goals for me!

Personal:

• Take a real vacation this summer with my family without having to teach summer school.
• Learn Photoshop to fulfill my enjoyment of drawing and make it look more professional.
• More random acts of kindness (I started by giving a homeless person $2 in the grocery check out line so he didn't have to put back his deli sandwich)

Professional

• Stop bringing work home with me!
• More understanding that things are not always going to go the way I would like them to.
• Organizing my classroom files so I can actually find things! (I always go buy things I already have!)
• Learn to leave things be until the next day.  They will always get done!

Okay, it's your turn now!!  Click the picture link below to join The Teacher's Treasure Linky Party and  share your resolutions with us!!  Happy New Year!!!!

Christmas Gift Ideas and Polar Express Freebie

I hope many of you are enjoying the start of your Christmas break!  I'm not because we have 5 more days!  BLAH!!  I have been Little Miss Craft-o-holic these past few days getting ready for the last week of school and putting together some gifts for my daughter's 3 teachers and my parent helpers!  Wowsers!!  It was exhausting!!

I saw this super cute idea on my co-workers desk and fell in love!!  I decided this would be a perfect gift along with ornaments and gift cards!  All you need are the jumbo size binder clips, scrapbook paper, ribbon, and beads or buttons.

I have been working on a new Polar Express Unit but it is not quite ready for my TpT store...sorry.  I decided to offer a part of it free and will update you when I finish it.  Click the picture link to download.

Polar Express: Build-A-Train

Happy Holidays!!

Sharing a Few Great Pinterest Finds!

Okay, I have procrastinated in getting Pinerest going for myself and, now that I have, I can't pry myself away!!  Anyone else feel that way??  It makes my life a little more organized when it comes to needing great ideas all in one stop!

Here are some of the many great Pinterest finds that I wanted to share with you!

From Shelley Gray at Teaching in the Early Years

Christmas Gift Ideas For Your Students

(Click Picture Link)

From Rachelle at What the Teacher Wants (via her friend You Can Make the Sun Shine Anytime)

The Grinch Behavior Management

(Click Picture Link)

Also from Rachelle via The First Grade Parade  

Elf Application

(Click Picture Link)

(Free TpT product) Christmas Word Problems From Runde's Room

(Click Picture Link)

 From She Wears Flowers

PVC Pipe Puppet Theater

(Click Picture Link)

Remember that you can follow me on Pinterest too!  See the side bar for my Pinterest Link!

Giveaway Winners and a little more Christmas fun.

A big CONGRATS goes out to the two winners of the $10 Teachers Pay Teachers gift card giveaway!  Winners, please send me an EMAIL so I can get these gift cards to you.

Here is a look back on the last couple of weeks while getting ready for the holiday break!

The students have been enjoying Holiday Centers.  In math they had holiday fun with addition and subtraction with 2 and 3 digits.

 Students played bingo by picking a number and finding out how many more they needed to make 10.

Students built snowmen by choosing a head and mid section then finding the bottom that matched the answer.

This was a freebie Gingerbread game with adding 3 numbers.  Gingerbread Freebie Download

In Reading, they had holiday fun with Long and Short Vowels, inflected endings, and words ending in y.  We had holiday writing fun as well.

Our family Project:  Decorate your Gingerbread House

Our poor palm tree was feeling left out so the students decorated it with their favorite word wall words.

If you are interested in any of these activities, they can be found on my store at 15% off for a limited time only!

Literacy Centers: Holiday Edition

Math Centers: Holiday Edition

We unfortuantely have one week left and don't have our last day until the 23rd!  So, we still have more activities with the Grinch and Polar Express to do and will share soon!

Pinterest "Pin It" Tutorial for Blog Posts

For all of you who have joined the world of Pinterest, you might find this tutorial helpful in allowing followers and blog viewers to "Pin" your blog posts.  Click the link below to see Julie Ann Art's Awesome tutorial!!! 

Happy Pinning!!!

Teachers Pay Teachers (TpT) $$$ Giveaway ends Sunday!!!

Don't forget to enter yourself into the TpT Giveaway by midnight Sunday, December 11th!  2 winners will be selected via Random Generator to receive a $10 gift certificate to the popular Teachers Pay Teachers Store!  Winners will be announced Monday, December 12th. Click the picture link below to enter!

Literacy Freebie, Our Gingerbread Cowboys, and so ready for the vacation!

I don't know about you but I feel like my kids are on overload with excitment for Christmas to come.  I still have 14 days left!  Our district decided to start our winter break December 23rd!  Hello?  Who's idea was that?  I may have to take a day off just to take my daughter on the Polar Express train ride that is 5 hours away!!
Oh well, I guess I will have to put up with one more week of classroom management...C-R-A-Z-Y!

I am still in the holiday spirit of giving so here is another Freebie from my Holiday Literacy Center Unit.  I have added this and a few more activities so if you have already purchased it, go back and download again for the new additions.

Click Link Below to Download Freebie

Since we live in Arizona, The Gingerbread Cowboy has always been a favorite of mine and the students!  We made Gingerbread Cowboy Glyphs to go with the new ending to the story.  Some of them turned out so cute and funny!!  This activity is also available in the Literacy Unit.

We still have a lot more fun activities to do and I hope it continues to keep my class engaged!   I hope your countdown goes smoothly too!

Happy Holidays!!!!

Loving a Little Sunshine on such a COLD day!!

I was surprised and excited about being nominated by 2 fellow bloggers for the Sunshine Award!  Thank you Christine at Hopping into First Grade and Rebecca at Teaching First!!

I was told there are rules of accepting this award so here they are:

The person who awarded you, blog about it, answer the questions, and then pass the award on to 10-12 bloggers, letting them know you awarded them the Sunshine Award.
Questions

• Favorite color: Hmmmm, I'd have to say purple.  Why?  I hadn't really thought about it...lol
• Favorite animal: White tigers!  I have lots of pictures and have a very large white tiger stuffed animal at home for my daughter as well!
• Favorite number: 18 because what teenager can't wait to turn that age (even though I turned 18, 18 years ago...YIKES!
• Favorite drink: Fat Tire (especially after a long week of teaching ..ha ha)
• Facebook or Twitter: Facebook (haven't looked into the Twitter thing yet)
• Passions: drawing, cooking, building projects, and my adorable 4 year old and husband too!
• Favorite day: Friday...TGIF yippee
• Favorite flowers: Tulips and daisies

Here are only a few of the awesome blogs I'd like to share and pass this award on to.  I am passing them on in no particular order.

Denise at Sunny Days

Erica Bohrer's First Grade

Jen at Runde's Room

Michelle at Fabulous in First

Melissa at F is for First Grade

Vintage Teacher

Erin and Leslie at First Grade Fanatics

Sarah at First Grader at Last

The Pixie Chicks at Frogs, Bees, Under the Seas

Mrs. McKown at Little Literacy Learning

Thank you all so much for taking the time to visit me and things I try to share from one classroom to another!