Gingerbread Freebie plus a Mega Photo Dump!

Happy Monday Teacher Friends!
Hope your day back from break wasn't so bad:).  I know that it was a little bit rough waking up and  getting going.  However, I was lucky *cough cough* enough to get a big old JOLT to life when I walked out the door and realized that it was literally 10 degrees out.  Brr.  Who needs caffeine..you can just live in Minnesota and not have a heated garage.

I haven't posted any photos for awhile and I have lots of random ones so I thought I would just throw them all up at once!!  We've got some Thanksgiving ideas to file for next year, a super cute  math lesson (a pattern hunt) from my pre-student teacher and a Corduroy  bulletin board idea...told ya it was random! Here is goes...

We colored some turkey patterns for table time in the morning. The big highlight was getting to use makers instead of crayons! Whoop whoop!

This was our check-in activity the Tuesday before Turkey Day.  Usually mine are more academic I promise, but these were just too dang cute! I left them up for two days! 

Classic turkey lurkey craft-trace foot on brown and hands on at least three different colors. Use a scrap of the yello w or orange paper to cut into a diamond, fold over and turn into a beak.

We read The Great Turkey Race at our Listen to Reading station.  Here's the link to it on Amazon.

We made the cutest ever turkey hats!!!  These worked out pefectly as our gym teacher was hosting a turkey trot activity for the kids that day.  So we were literally turkey trotting away doing laps around the school yard.  We got many smiles and compliments!

What on earth is that you ask?  Looks appetizing doesn't it? Haha...it's pumpkin pie in a bag! It was actually delicious though... Here's the link to the recipe.   You put the ingredients (milk, vanilla pudding, cinnamon, ginger, pumpkin) in a baggie and have the kids knead it.  Then you cut a whole in the corner of the bag to squeeze it into cups.

These are the cups--we put graham cracker crumbs in the bottom for the "crust".

Add a little Cool Whip to the top and enjoy with a spoon!  The kiddos loved having their own cup of the sweet treat!

Everyone is digging into their pumpkin pie treat!

This friend gives it a big thumbs up!

I had kids tell me how they would cook a turkey. This sheet is available for free at my TpT store.  Grab it now to be ready for next year!

This was my student teacher's super cute shape lesson.  She had the kids hold shapes to make a pattern and decide what should come next...

Then she had these sentence strips with patterns on them posted around the room. The kids had to find all of them , copy them, and continue them on their own recording sheet.  I LOVE how this activity got them up and moving!

My Christmas tree at home-just because I was happy to get it up this Saturday (told you this was random random random)

Here is my cute A Pocket for Corduroy  display-the pocket was made by my pre-student teacher!  We all traced the same Corduroy template and the same overalls but chose our own real buttons and cut out our own pockets. Fun times!  Yes.. I do have the best student teacher ever!  She is actually only a junior so she's a pre-student teacher.  But still the best thing that's ever happened to our class!

Okay...the part you've all been waiting for... a gingerbread freebie! This comes out of my Kindergarten Gingerbread Literacy Activities pack that's available at my Teacher's Pay Teachers store right now.  It's on sale for 28% off right now as we speak, as is the rest of my store!  I was going to post this freebie on TPT also, but it's so busy right now that I'll just put it on Google Docs for now. Click the image to go to the freebie.

Check out everything that's included in my gingerbread pack again below:

New Blog Design, Gingerbread Fun, and SALE!

I sure hope everyone out there is enjoying their last day of Thanksgiving break!  Mine was a great one-I hosted Thanksgiving dinner for the very first time and managed to not burn down the house while cooking (I have horrible/non-existent cooking skills)...actually though, I think the meal turned out pretty well! I also got some Black Friday shopping in and had a date night with my wonderful hubby! Pretty nice and relaxing!

I also managed to sneak in time/stay up all Saturday night to finish up my Gingerbread Literacy Activities just in time for the big TpT Cyber Monday sale.

I'll be using the activities in this packet in my own classroom the week after next and will be sure to post some pics of them in action.  The packet includes three original leveled readers with accompanying activities, which I think are a big lifesaver!  I am always looking for meaningful, differentiated leveled books that fit with our weekly theme.

I am actually starting my sale TODAY and continuing it through Monday so please stop over and fill up your wish lists. Remember, you get 20% off my store on Sunday and 28% on Monday and Tuesday.  Yay!!
Here are some of my new and/or popular products: Click on them to check them out on TpT.

            

Lastly, you may have noticed something a bit different around here...my blog has been totally updated to a beautiful new custom design by Christi Fultz...scroll to the bottom of the blog to click on her link to see more of her amazing designs.  She was a breeze to work with and I love the end result!  My old design was getting tired, and too many bloggers had the same exact one!

Introducing the TH digraph

Yay for a three day week coming up!  Even though I am pretty bummed that we don't get Wednesday off this year, I am trying to think * positively* and am still thankful for a short, fun week with my kiddos.

This week, I am introducing the /th/ digraph for the first time to most of my class.  My search online and in all of my resource books and files only turned up with digraph sorts with the typical ch, th, sh, wh.  This is great for a digraph review...but way too much for my students right now.  So, I whipped up a little T vs. Th Sorting Activity pack tonight to help introduce /th/ more gently.  Plus, if I hear someone mix up Tuesday with Thursday during calendar time I may scream.

I will post pictures tomorrow of my class using some of the T vs. Th sorting activities so you can see them in action!  You can pop over to TpT to see more for now--this pack is on sale for $1.00 for the next 24 hours so hurry and go check it out!

Also-tomorrow, my new phone is finally coming so I hope to be able to access my pictures/take new pics to continue my Daily 5 series.

Short and sweet-that's all for tonight.  Happy short week to all!

Holly Bloggy Christmas Plus More Bear Unit Pics

I'm so excited to have just gotten my secret Santa assignment for the 2nd annual Holly Bloggy Christmas!  I have never done any sort of bloggy exchange so this is kind of a big deal for me! lol  This years theme is "Favorite Things" like Oprah's favorite things show.  I am going to have to get creative--the price limit is $15!

If you want to participate in this super fun gift exchange, go to Ms. Preppy's blog to see exactly how it works and to sign up!  It's super easy.

Here are some more pictures of my kiddos having fun learning about bears.  Today we read a nonfiction bear book and completed a graphic organizer about the life cycle of a bear.  Tomorrow is Teddy Bear Picnic/ PJ day! Yay! I am so pumped that I get to wear comfies to school.  It's definitely going to be one of those days when the 5th and 6th grade teachers give me a look like "What the.....are you wearing crazy kindergarten lady?".  "Oh, who me?  Just my doughnut and cupcake printed flannel PJ set from Victoria's secret with coordinating slippers. No Big Deal."  OH well!  The looks have happened before on many occasions...Dr. Seuss Day...Halloween....ETC!

Anyway, here are the pictures of the day!

Students drew bear habitats as their check-in activity this morning.

Okieee dokie...this lovely Bear life cycle visual made by moi is definitely not making it to Pinterest...lol. In my defense, I did it quickly in front of the class.

Student life cycle drawings

Another bear life cycle.

We also read two versions of Goldilocks and the Three Bears  and sequenced them using these cards that I borrowed from a co-worker and my sticker board (it came with my math curriculum).  I think I've seen these cards online, perhaps at DLTK Teach or something.  I will figure it out so I can give fair credit.  If you know, please let me know!

We sung this three bears song to the tune of Three Blind Mice.  I also need to find the source of this-I found it a million zillion years ago on a website.

A poem about bears that we added to our poetry notebooks.

Well, that's all she wrote for tonight! I'm going to get my comfy PJs lined up for tomorrow! Yippee skippy!  Happpppy FRIDAY!!!!!!! whoop whoop!

Kindergarten Bear Unit!

Sooo...this post was supposed to be about Daily 5 and the Work on Writing component.  However, my phone decided to die in the middle of downloading the pictures to with the post...liiike go crazy haywire and turn black forever never going to work again.  So needless to say, there are no work on writing pictures to share tonight!

I did manage, however, to download some pictures of my kiddos having fun with our Bear Unit!  I was lucky enough to win a whole slue of bear units last spring in a giveaway.  The pictures feature activities from Rachelle Smith's Bear Unit which is available on TpT.  I would highly recommend it, as it has a ton of engaging activities for your students.  

Here is what we have been up to...
We watched the story Bear Snores On on Bookflix during Daily 5-Listen to Reading and did a story sequence sheet with it.
Here's the link to Bookflix.

We played the "Bears Unit a Cave" missing addend game from Rachelle's bear unit. Students played in partners and took turns guessing how many bears were in the "den" (cup).  It was tricky but fun!

For snack, we sample bear foods!  Raspberries, salmon, and honey with crackers were all on the menu for my little cubs. I used the Chicken of the Sea packaged salmon.  Warning: this smells up your classroom:).

Yum! Bears in this neck of the woods eat good!

We graphed our favorite bear foods using the graphics and title from Rachelle's Bear Unit.  

Looks likes raspberries won!!

We analyzed our graph and wrote down the results.  We did this as a whole class on clipboards since this is a somewhat new concept to our class and the recording sheet was a little complex for early kindergarteners.  They did great though!

I have some bear unit freebies available at my TpT store from last year. Click the graphic below to go scoop them up. Hope you can use some of them in your own classroom.

Doesn't it feel like tomorrow should be Friday?!?! We've had a bunch of short weeks in a row and I'm not used to this 5 day business! Oh well...at least we are getting a ton of work done and I feel like I'm finally making some progress with my low babies...thank gooodness! Hope to have some pictures of my kiddos doing Work on Writing recovered and posted tomorrow. Goodnight to all!