Thankful!

I have so many things to be thankful for. This week was just like icing on the Thanksgiving cake (or maybe pie). This morning one little cutie came in with a bag with this in it:

I mean how could you not love a child who gives you that? I beamed.

My favorite part is the stick picture drawing of the child and me he did on the back of the sign. Man I look skinny. :)

The sign sparked the following conversation with another child:

Child: Miss R, I don't know if you're the best teacher.

Me: Why is that?

Child: Well, I've only had 3 teachers.

Me: That's true.

Child: I guess you're the best teacher SO FAR.

We had a blast on Monday making these turkey hats inspired by this pin on Pinterest.

Today was Book Fair Preview Day and our sweet librarian made each teacher a turkey! They were so precious!

This had to be my favorite Thanksgiving craft! The kiddos chose someone they are thankful for and then wrote one reason they are thankful for that person on each leaf. They wrote the most adorable things like "you always tell me you love me" and "you play video games with me". Later we filled the jars with m&m's for the recipients to enjoy.

Of course my assistant and I had to make our own for another teacher on our team. We're one big happy family.

And what day before Thanksgiving at school would be complete without leaf jumping! I showed my kiddos the proper way to make a leaf pile and jump into it the other day and ever since that's all they want to do outside. It's so fun to watch them! We set some ground rules for safety (and I sat closely nearby) but I let them loose. They made a huge line (like 20 kids) and cheered for each person when it was their turn. Afterwards today they also had a "leaf party" where they threw leaves into the air for 5 minutes and then made "leaf angels" on the ground. So precious!

My list of things to be thankful for could go on for a long time. I'm thankful for all of you - thanks for reading and hanging out! I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

It's Turkey Time!

Sorry I've been MIA lately, it's been super busy here! Is anyone else ready for Thanksgiving? Turkey Day is my absolute favorite holiday. I rank it above Christmas. I can't wait to wake up on Thanksgiving and watch the parade. :)

We have started a new creative writing project that I am LOVING. My kiddos need practice writing letters so I decided we would make it fun by writing from the perspective of the Turkey. Their job is, as the turkey, to convince people NOT to eat turkey for Thanksgiving. They are coming up with another food that they think should be eaten instead.

We started off by reading Don't Let the Pigeon Stay Up Late by Mo Willems. We discussed how the pigeon was trying to get the reader to do something. Then we wrote down the sentence starters that the pigeon used to sound convincing. The kiddos also brainstormed who they could write the letter to and what food they would advertise instead of turkey.

I made a plan using free turkey clip art that Natalie's husband made. It's super cute. Feel free to download your own copy of my plan by clicking here.

Next, we'll use Ashleigh's Turkey Paper (Free on TPT) to write our letters focusing on the parts of a friendly letter. I can't wait to see how these turn out!

How are you getting ready for Thanksgiving?

Thank You Apple!!!!

Yesterday as I walked out to my car after school, I dropped my ipad. I really didn't think much of it then. That was until this morning I opened the case at school and saw that the screen was cracked! It must have hit the corner because that corner was smashed and cracks all came from there. Needless to say I was upset.

The ipad still worked but the only thing holding the screen together was the clear screen cover. :( After talking with our tech contact, she said I would need to take it to the Apple Store.

After school I made a trek to the Apple Store, hoping for some good news. The store was packed but I got an appointment at the Genius Bar. After telling my story to the nice Genius lady, she told me that they would do a one time replacement! WHAT??? I was sooooo excited! They literally gave me a BRAND NEW ipad! I walked out of the store without paying a single dime.

I am so grateful to Apple! They really went above and beyond for me! Since I got my Mac in college I've always been an Apple fan but now I am a customer for life! They really take care of their customers! Apple, thank you for helping this poor (and clumsy) teacher out!

Shaving Cream & Adjective Alphabet

Today in one of my literacy strategy groups I brought out the shaving cream! In this group we have been learning about blends and digraphs. This week we learned about th, ch, wh, and sh. Check out Carl's Corner - I found some great blend/digraph activities there. Naturally I thought it would be fun to practice sh words using SHaving cream!

The kids LOVED writing in the shaving cream. Such a fun sensory activity!

We made a little mess, but it was all worth it!

In Writing, we used Courtney from Swimming into Second's Adjective Alphabet to make a class book.

I gave each student a page with a letter. They got to color in their letter.

Then using a page I made I had them write a few sentences using their adjectives. They turned out great!

I loved seeing their creativity!

I can't wait to pull this out as we talk about adding adjectives to writing. :)

Well, I'm off to enjoy a relaxing and fun weekend! :)

Moving in Math - SCOOT

Need a little something to spice up your math time? Need to get your kiddos moving? SCOOT is the game for you! Scoot is a game that I learned about via Christina Bainbridge. Basically you can break up any worksheet or activity so that the kids move around the classroom in an order. The kids have their own recording sheet (I use this one from Christina) to write their answers on.

An easy way to play Scoot is to write problems on the kids desks with a dry erase marker. I did this one time with basic addition problems. The kids thought I was crazy but it wipes right off with a clorox wipe (another excuse to clean!).

A while ago I made some cards for when we learned about comparing numbers using greater than and less than. I printed the cards on cardstock and laminated them. When it was time to play Scoot I just put the cards on the desks and we were good to go. The kids wrote both numbers on their paper, along with the greater than, less than, or equals sign. As Christina suggests, it's a good idea to first train your kiddos how to move about the room. I usually have one student model the path to follow during Scoot.

My kiddos love Scoot! It's a great way to review and keep the learning going while getting wiggles out. :)

I hope you find this helpful! Click here to get your copy of my Scoot cards.

Note: Numbers 21-24 have smiley faces because they are "free spaces". The recording sheet has 20 spots and I have more kiddos than that so I spread out the free spaces. The kids get to take a break when they are at a smiley face spot.