Gobble till you Wobble

Wowzer, It’s hard to believe Thanksgiving is next week!! It seems as though this year is truly flying by.  It doesn’t feel like I can get ahead of all the hustle and bustle. Luckily, I found these adorable Thanksgiving themed centers from the ever talented Katie King from the Queen of the First Grade Jungle.

 

I knew as soon as I saw them I had to snag them up and put my Scotch laminator to work. (I thank the man upstairs for my son’s sweet girlfriend Kayla. She is my official center cutting partner.)

My kiddos have been working hard and love working with their “center companion” during our daily center time.

I knew I wanted to really teach my kiddos about the Pilgrims and the “first” Thanksgiving. When I discovered Stephanie Stewart of Falling into First adorable All about Thanksgiving packet on TPT, I was actually excited to complete my weekly plans. This packet is busting with engaging Thanksgiving Activities.

Here is a snippet of our “meet the pilgrims” craft  we made. Oh so many skills are incorporated in this packet. Thank you Stephanie for helping me teach my 2nd graders all about the “first” Thanksgiving.

Well as many people know I am not much of a “holiday” person. Yes, I am known as a scrooge or even the “grinch” in my family. The holidays just don’t seem to have the same “spark” that they used to when I was little. Well, even though I may not get into the “swing” of things at home, I LOVE to make things for my kiddos to give as gifts. I saw all those “adorable turkey handprint crafts on pinterest. Ohmyword, the turkey handprints were literally taking over my boards. My favorite idea came from Pampered by Tammie. I loved her thinking

Thanksgiving = turkeys = food = cooking = POTHOLDERS!!

Winner Winner Turkey Dinner!!!!

I gathered all the necessary supplies

The project was pretty simple to complete. My 2nd graders were able to complete this with very little assistance. I do not have a sink in my classroom but I filled a few disposable pans with water and laid paper towels nearby. My kiddos submerged their “painted” hand into the water and "rinsed off prior to heading out to wash their hands. This was the smartest thing I have done. Note to self…purchase a couple plastic dishpans for future craft projects. Once the turkeys were dry, I let the kids add the finishing touches. (An eye, legs, and a waddle)

We talked about being thankful. We decided this was a “perfect” gift to give to the person making Thanksgiving dinner. My kiddos will all be taking one of their adorable personalized Turkey Potholders home to give to the person “slaving” over their dinner on Thanksgiving. I think all those cooks will be super excited to receive these turkey lurkies.

My momma always told me it’s all about presentation. Yes, I was the girl who woke up every Christmas morning to beautifully wrapped packages. You know the kind that are actually too pretty to unwrap. Thanks Mom for always taking a little “extra” time to make everything in my childhood a little more beautiful. Well, how does one wrap a potholder to make it as precious as the gift inside? Well, in this day and age, you head on over to pinterest for some inspiration.  I was lucky one evening, okay I admit it one early morning when I had insomnia to run across Save the Turkeys by Jessica Todd. The best part about this adorable writing craftivity… It was FREE!!! Well, I didn’t need a writing project but I loved the adorable turkey craft. I swapped the writing paper for a XL brown paper bag and BINGO!!!! We have our “gift bags”.

All lined up and ready to go

Even though we still have a few more days of school until our Thanksgiving break arrives, I knew I wanted to do our “thanksgiving” celebration a few days earlier. I opted to have a “Charlie Brown” themed party for the kids. My parents were amazing. They sent in tons of goodies. Yes, we had it all popcorn, pretzel sticks, buttered toast, strawberry parfaits with whipped cream and maraschino cherries, and jellybeans (well the jellybeans were for display only!!) I added cute “charlie brown” accents to my water bottles. (This was simple to create. I made a zigzag pattern onto white paper and then copied it onto yellow construction paper. I cut them into stripes and attached them with tape.) We watched the movie “A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving” during our feast! I even got a kick out of a few who said, “Look Mrs. Freshwater they copied us!” Oh My.. I was shocked they had never seen this “classic”. I was very thankful to share this special time with each of my second graders.

 

One of my “sweet” parents brought in their Smiley face toaster for us to use. The kids “loved” it!!! This was a little glimpse at our plates. Yummy!!!

I’ll leave you with one of my Favorite quotes from A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving

But Thanksgiving is more than eating, Chuck. You heard what Linus was saying out there. Those early Pilgrims were thankful for what had happened to them, and we should be thankful, too. We should just be thankful for being together. I think that's what they mean by 'Thanksgiving,' Charlie Brown. –Marcie

 

Always, Melissa

Super Spellers

One thing I have been trying to reinforce this year is spelling word practice. I know not all of my kiddos have the opportunity to practice their words every night. As I stated in an earlier blog post, I have begun implementing daily centers during my intervention time. I have a total of ten centers and I have “paired” my students. It takes two weeks for us to go through our centers. I have two centers that help to reinforce our weekly spelling words and phonics skill.  I have been using Rachelle Smith’s adorable 1-2-3 Spell with me!

After using this set for the past 9 weeks, I noticed some of my kiddos were a bit restless so I began searching for a few new ideas to “mix” things up a bit.

I found this cute freebie by Jen Ross of The Teacher’s Cauldron it covers two things spelling practice and money counting!!! (LOVE IT!!)

My kiddos are very “hands-on” this year and seem to need multi-steps in order to stay focused and on-task during centers. They also love anything to do with “artsy” things. Okay, it’s probably my fault. I love anything that is colored or scented. (i.e., pens, pencils, markers, crayons, etc.) I decided to help “spice” up my two spelling centers by creating a few “artsy” things to help them enjoy the “dreaded spelling centers. (I uploaded these to my TPT store for FREE. Just click on one of the pictures below to head on over and download the packet.)

COLORFUL WORDS

Who doesn’t love a dice game?? The students will roll a number cube/dice to determine what color they will write their spelling word. I included three different styles. Simply print onto cardstock, laminate and add to your center basket. I have included recording sheets for 10 words, 12 words, and 15 words. (Please note this is a “freebie”. I hope you could make use of these three different styles.) I print mine front/back for my early finishers. Extra practice never hurt anyone.

 

PPM

Pencil, Pen, Marker

This is a “fun” activity that keeps the kiddos busy for a little bit. Key for PPM “neatness” counts. You always have a few students who think finishing first is the winning ticket, but I stress neatness and will even reward a sticker or smelly stamp for a neat PPM paper. I plan on adding my “famous” labeled tin cans  filled with pencils, colored pens, and markers  to my center baskets. I needed a PPM that fit all 15 of our weekly spelling words, that’s why I created this page.

Write It! Stamp It!

My kiddos “love” to use stampers. I thought this would be a great way for them to stay active and practice their weekly word lists. For this activity the students will write the word first and then they will stamp the word. ( I may through one of the colorful word activities in with this center too.)

I picked up a bunch of alphabet letters stampers at the Target Dollar Spot. Oh how I love you!!

Well, I am off to work my Thanksgiving Center Packet. With some luck I will have it posted by tomorrow morning. I am super excited about this packet. It feels great to be creating again.

Enjoy your Sunday.

Always, Melissa

Goodness Gracious it’s November…

Oh my, I can’t believe how quickly this year is flying by. I have a nice little center system going. I was trying to change my centers weekly, but this little gal just couldn’t keep up with it all. I opted to do ten different centers and my kiddos do a center a day, but it takes my sweeties two weeks to go through the centers. One thing I decided was to reinforce my past weeks skills. I feel this was one of the best decisions I have made because my kiddos are learning new skills during our weekly lessons, but they are practicing older skills during our center time. I only have 30 minutes ( yes, you read correctly) in my jam-packed day to complete my rotations, that’s why I opted for only one rotation a day, five per week. At first, I grouped my kiddos in small groups and only had five centers, but the noise levels were way too much for this teacher. After reading several different blogs, I opted to try the pair grouping. Thus far,this seems to be working rather nicely. My only group of four is my intervention kiddos (they normally leave the room, but if an interventionist  is absent, they simply join in the center rotations).

For the first two weeks of November we will be doing centers focused around a Veterans Day theme. My boys were very excited to see all the military themed activities. I have some real military lovers this year.

Here is a snippet of my Veterans Day centers. I have eight different centers in this packet and then I do two different spelling centers. I use spelling sheets from Rachelle Smith's 1-2-3 Spell with Me Packet. Oh My….. I love this pack!!! This helps my kiddos practice their spelling words each week in a fun and engaging manner. (Thanks Rachelle)

You can snag up my Love, Honor, Remember Veterans Day Packet at my TPT store.

Hope you enjoy

Melissa

Made it Monday 8-5-13

Last week on Instagram, I shared a snippet of something I was creating. I have an overage of scrap booking supplies in my storage room and I am determined to use up some of the supply before my big move. (This is a “small glimpse”, I am too afraid to show you the whole thing. (Oh My Goodness!! Sorry for the mess… I have been digging through my inventory looking for more B/W paper. Plus that adorable German Shepard my son adopted and brought home thinks my storage room is his “safe haven”. He finds comfort sleeping with my craft supplies and shoes.)

Last year, I created those adorable glittered clothes pins you see popping up everywhere! I added a strip of magnetic tape and my kiddos used them to hang their behavior sticker charts. Well, needless to say they drove me insane... Yes, I addict I am a bit (ok very OCD) about things staying in tact. Those clips were everywhere and every which way especially when one of my sweeties shut the locker or walked past with their ginormous bags. ( BTW when did those bags get so big?) This summer I was determined to come up with an idea... I thought about mini chalkboards ( too expensive and too heavy) pieces of wood ( hmmm will have to paint) then the idea hit.... BINGO- scrapbook paper.

Everyone knows I love black and white. It has always been in my classroom decor ( except for the one year -I had a pink/brown fetish)

 

I knew I wanted to use black and white and pops of color!!

I gathered my paper. I opted for dots and stripes.

I measured my reward charts. (Standard size 5x6) I started out by making a template. (Yes, I am old school.) It's all about trial and error right!

After I had everything mapped out size wise, I began cutting!! It was done in less than 5 minutes. Next, I warmed up the laminator while I began tacking the pieces in place with a small dab of glue. ( I used a glue stick. I was only wanted to tack the pieces in place to hold during lamination.) Then, I went to town laminating.

 

I had some extra space so I added my birthday tags to the button. ( I hate wasting lamination) you can head over to my TPT shop to snag up the birthday tags for free.

( They are editable so you can add your name or your kiddos names!) Next, I cut, hot glued a black clothespin, and added a wide strip of magnetic tape to the back.

 

I am super excited about these reward chart holders for my lockers.

 

This week I also made my BTS welcome gift.There seems to be some controversy about B2S gifts. I am a giver- do not receive as well as I give. I have always been that way. (Guess years of growing up watching my momma!) I saw these smencils at Michael's.

(Yes, I am one of those scent infatuated people!)

I whipped up a round label

and grabbed some ribbon from my stash. (Yes, I have a stash of ribbon too. Maybe I should post a picture of my “store room” literally looks like a mini Michael’s.)

 

Bam- I have an adorable gift for the first day!!

 

I just added these to my TPT shop  if you want to snag them up!!

Well, the creating has just begun from me... Stay tuned for more Fun, Fresh and Polka Dot Ideas!! Don't forget to follow me on Instagram or bloglovin'!!