Holiday Linky, Elf and a Freebie!

I'm joining up with Daina from Sticky Notes and Glitter for a Holiday Linky!

When I think of holiday foods, two things come to mind:

True story: when we lived in Germany the Commissary would get a very limited supply of Archway cookies. And since we were overseas, it wasn't like we could just head to another store to get them. So, when the Wedding Cookies hit the shelves I would end up buying like 10 boxes! The cashiers thought I was nuts, but they are truly the best holiday cookie!

Alright, onto the classroom! Today we had Pajama Day/Movie Day. The kids watched Despicable Me 2 in the gym while the teachers got report cards/permanent records done. Well...actually I just picked up my permanent record cards and slapped them next to the pile of report cards, but its the thought that counts, right? I have NO IDEA what I did for that 2 hour window, except that I did eat a lot of beer batter bread and dip since the lounge is holiday goodie central now. I went in for coffee and came out 5lbs heavier!

For some reason I thought that we were actually going to be able to be academic this week. Umm, no, not so much. My kiddos were ALL over the place. It could've been the full moon, but the frequent counting down of days to Christmas makes me think its more Santa's fault. Seriously, they counted the days in line for breakfast. Forgot the count and counted again in line to go to the movie. Had to recount after the movie, debated whether to count today or not during lunch and finally decided not to only count to Christmas Eve. By the end of the day I wanted to tattoo the number 9 to my forehead just so they would stop counting lol!

Anyways, One thing they DIDN'T do was mess with our Elf. Am I the only one whose elf hasn't been touched yet?! Today our elf, Chippy, was playing tic tac toe with our friend Alpine!

Alright, I am off to contemplate procrastinating on report cards some more. I'll leave you with this little gift. Last year I created this fun little Holiday Gift Pack freebie as a thank you to all of my followers! Its still available for free in my TPT store in case you need something fun for the last few days before break!

5 Days and Counting!

Woot! Just 5 days to go until Winter Break! I think I can, I think I can! I am battling some major exhaustion since I still have not caught up on the sleep I lost Thursday night when we were in the Er with Sullivan until 2am. His eczema flared up and he had an infection of the tissue around his eye. Luckily with a dose of oral steroids he was as good as new the next day - although he's still teething and sucking on everything in sight lol:

Can you believe he has 2 teeth already?!

In class we used my Gingerbread Fact Family Craftivity which turned out super cute:

 

Its free on TPT if you want to grab it!

We've also had a lot of fun with Chippy our elf!

His "magic" tree was beautiful!

I have it on good authority that you can get a similar tree at the Dollar Store right now - along with other "magical" activities that are perfect for an elf to deliver!

 

Alright, I'm off to get ready for Pajama Day! Our PE and Music teachers take all the primary kids in the morning and show a movie and serve popcorn and hot chocolate while the teachers fill out report cards and permanent records. Have a great Monday!

Come Meet Our Elf!

We had 3 Snow Days here in Oklahoma - Friday, Monday and Tuesday! Losing all that time meant that I was way behind with getting my Elf on the Shelf installed in our classroom. I was also hindered by the fact that my two boys ages 7 and 9 come to school with me and hang out in my classroom before and after school - which makes it hard for the Elf to work his magic if you know what I mean! Luckily our Elf somehow got delivered during one of the Snow Days - but wait, he couldn't just sit in the box indefinitely, waiting for the snow to melt and for us to come back to school, right? So Santa sent him with a little extra magic:

 We came in Wednesday morning to find the box open and this note:

 

Then we had the fun of naming him:

I was actually pulling for Pudding, but I was just relieved that "Cool Guy" didn't win!

This morning we came in to find that Chippy had climbed onto the window and had somehow managed to find a pen and Elf  notepad:

 

His note says "Pour magic water in bottom. Chippy"

So right before lunch I added the "water". By the time we left 3 hours later the tree looked like this:

It's growing snow crystals! We can't wait to see what it looks like tomorrow!

In other news, we've been going Gingerbread Crazy! We're working on comparing and contrasting:

These are my 2 new favorites. The gingerbread bear is a cute new take on this tale while this version of the Gingerbread Man has him running from different nursery rhyme characters like Humpty Dumpty! LOVE!

And:

 My kiddos were so thrilled that the Gingerbread Girl survived! We had a great connection to cause and effect too - one of my little guys said 'if she hadn't heard the old man and grandma while she was in the oven she wouldn't have known not to trust the fox!" I always have my story elements posters sitting on my desk so we can refer to them during reading and he pulled out these two:

So thrilled to see all the connections being made!

Alright, I'm off to play with Sullivan and work on report cards, have a great night!

Gingerbread and Freebies!

Good morning! Oklahoma has been hit by some winter weather and I enjoyed a Snow Day on Friday! That is our second one of the year already! Something tells me that we may be having Saturday School come May. We have extra time built into our schedule, but in the last few years we haven't even had 1 Snow Day let alone 2 before Christmas! I'm blaming it all on our classroom tree which I decorated with snowflakes since the chances of actually getting snow are usually so slim:

The kids loved it when they came in and saw it. It's the little things that make a classroom fun, isn't it?

This week we have been doing all things Gingerbread:

We have a new whole group classroom management system - just for fun to help us control ourselves at carpet. I'm sure you know how excited they get at this time of year! So we have a Gingerbread Friend and every time we are doing well - sitting in our spots, paying attention, we get to add a sticker piece. If we can get him completely finished before Christmas Break we will get to have a party! Next to him is Alpine, our new visitor. We have a stuffed animal visit us monthly and write letters to us. The kids love getting letters and its a great way to get them writing in reply!

On our math wall are my Gingerbread Ten Frame cards. I frequently swap some of them so the kids are always looking at them to see if they can catch me. Its great for building automaticity!

On Thursday when the weather started getting bad we had kids being picked up early - by the end of the day I only had 6 out of 27! I keep fun things like this Color By Sum Gingerbread sheet on hand so that when things come up we can do something academic without getting ahead of everyone else.  Its a freebie in my store here.

I used my Snow Day to finish up my Gingerbread Math pack which has so many fun activities and print and go sheets:

I also created a freebie based on the feedback of my Facebook fans:

 

Click here to grab it from my TPT store!

Today we will be decorating the house for Christmas and I have to share the cutest thing that I found at Dollar General of all places:

Nutcrackers of my husband and me! How sweet is that?

And, because this post doesn't have enough pictures yet, take a look at my fridge:

My daughter decided that it was too cold outside to make a snowman, so she made one in the kitchen!

Now, before you leave, here's a hint - you'll want to check out my Facebook page at 2pm Est for a surprise!

Sale and a FREEBIE!

There are just a couple of hours to go on the Cyber Monday (ad Tuesday!) Sale over at TPT! Don't miss out on 20% off my entire store PLUS an extra 10% off when you enter the code CYBER at checkout!

Here's a few of my best sellers for the season:

Gingerbread Skills Pack

Gingerbread Fact Family Pack

Gingerbread Sight Word Game

 

Gingerbread Cowboy Roll & Cover Games

 

Christmas Ten Frames Pack

Winter Ten Frames Pack

Snow Much Measuring Fun Pack

And, here's a new Gingerbread Friends graphing freebie!

I want to thank each of my followers for supporting me! It makes me so happy to share my creations with you. Your support means the world to me and my family! Without selling items on TPT I could not buy so much for my classroom nor afford to indulge my clipart obsession!