You might be a bad blogger if...

You might be a bad blogger if...
you almost go a WHOLE month without posting! Especially when that month is December and you actually had some fun stuff to post about!

Like:
Our Merry "Cat"mas Week with Pete and Splat! We has lots of fun with this!

 

 

 

 

or this:

You might also be a bad blogger if...

you don't actually log on to your blogger account for weeks... yah, that's bad! I have just been so super busy with my kiddos (I mean my actual, biological kids!)

We went to ICE... without the hubs (who had to work!) That was a single-mom experience I NEVER want to have again! If you're a single mom, you know what I'm talking about!!!

 

Jaydon started back to basketball this month! I don't how it happens, his team seems to get the 8 a.m. games every Saturday!! grrr... I do love watching the games though!

He's the blond in the middle! 

He's got the ball!

Also, taking care of these cuties... Look at them before we went to see Santa! (Yes, that was one of those Saturdays where I shamelessly took my kids to work for a few hours before Santa!)

You might be a bad blogger if... 

if you didn't tell your friends about New Years sales! 

Woo.... glad I am missing this one... because I am telling you now! 

Check my newest January Math Tubs: 

and the beginning of Unit 4 Treasures:

I am hoping to actually do some work this week and get the rest of Unit 4 posted! 

Hope y'all have had a wonderful break! I am glad I get one more week with my babies :)

make your own picture book- for free!

Remember a couple months ago... when my sister had her sweet baby girl? Well, my camera just happen to be the one in the delivery room that night... and.....

I just now uploaded the pics! Bad sister... I know. So, I was thinking about making it up to her by making a photo book for her with all the pictures! Every year I make photo calendars for my parents and our family with pics of my kids online from Shutterfly, and on that site you can make photo books too.

You might have some special pictures that deserve a book too... or maybe a special friend that would love that kind of gift....

Shutterfly Photo Books: The Best Gift Ever

 2 lucky readers can make their own books. Just enter this giveaway... ends Sunday!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Good luck!

geome-tree

Are you working on geometry? How about making a Geome-Tree?! We made one this week... LOVE IT!!

This was the example one... of course, we added some glitter tinsel to ours :) Then, we did some graphing. My kids had so much fun and we got to practice identifying solid shapes (which we just happen to be working on right now!)

The best part about this tree is it fits the season and is especially friendly to classrooms that aren't allowed to celebrate the holiday season (which is a serious bummer!)

You can create this in your classroom too... Just download the freebie here:

Just click the picture to get to my TPT store. 

In other holiday news, we decorated our HUGE window today! I try to hang something up in the window every month so our window can be recognized from the street... September was apples, October was candy corn, November was cloud people (for our science unit), now December is ornaments:

I used green window chalk to make a big tree on our window and we added these little ornaments we made! They are made from black construction paper circles, wax paper and tissue paper. We made it just like we made our candy corn in October, I actually found this craft from The Teacher Wife. 

Here is what you need to do:

1. Cut these circles from black construction paper (each student needs 2). 

2. Trace circles on wax paper. 

3. Cut tissue paper into small squares. 

4. Glue pieces of tissue paper on the wax paper on the front and back of the wax paper. 

5. Glue the wax paper in between the 2 pieces of construction paper. 

6. Put the ornament under a towel and iron for about 30 seconds. 

7. Hang your ornament. 

I love this craft and it looks awesome on windows! Our big window is actually behind the futon in our Book Nook (that banner says: I "mustache" who loves (with a heart) reading?). 

Anyway, that's all I have for tonight. We will be doing some gingerbread questioning and graphing over the next couple of days! 

tata for now :)

December Currently

Farley has got us all linking up again... and I love it!

I always love this linky! 

I need some creative ideas for my sweet copy ladies at school. They are amazing! They copy and laminate everything! I wish I could spend some major $$ on them but you know what kind of salary I am living on over here... plus my kiddos are about to make Santa broke! 

Anyway, link up with Farley :) and keep your eye out this week for a fun freebie! I want to test it on my kiddos before I post! Have a good rest of the weekend!

Sale starts TOMORROW!!!

Yes, you read that right!

My sale starts tomorrow! I know you probably want to wait until Monday (if you are going on TPT), but if you are in need of something before then....

If you wait until Monday or Tuesday for TPT, put in bonus code: CMT12 at checkout for an additional 10% off!!

If you shop Teacher's Notebook, they will take an additional 10% off on Saturday, Sunday and Monday! 

If you have been following along with my treasures series then you can snag the Unit 3 Bundle Pack this weekend... yes, it is FINALLY done! Woohoo! 

Click this pic to head to my TPT store :) Of course I also have it on sale at Teacher's Notebook HERE. 

I am all ready to start shopping! I have a few things in my cart already...

I am sure I will be throwing in a few more items! What are you shopping for?? 

Have a shop-a-holic weekend! Back to work on Monday!

Here is a TREAT for you!

I know I have posted a couple times recently about order cards from TinyPrints. (Adorable!) They also have another branch of their company called TREAT. Treat allows you to create personalized cards! Perfect for your secret santa! We just picked ours at school... I can't wait to order one of these clever treats for mine :)

Just click the picture above to go straight to the TREAT site. Enjoy!

Have a Happy Monday!

It is Turkey time in Tennessee!

I have to admit... I am not feeling the holidays yet. I mean, I feel like I don't have any TIME this year to do some of the stuff I was able to do last year. We have had so much going on at school, and time is flying... I just haven't been able to fit it all in! So, my firsties got a lack-luster Thanksgiving this year. We read some picture books all last week about Thanksgiving but I just didn't have time to do a HUGE Thanksgiving unit ;( I really wanted to though!! 

We did have time for this: 

The adorable Turkey Glyphs this week from Deanna's Thanksgiving unit. 

And this:

yes, that is pigeon. 

We did this play on disguise a turkey with Turkey Wants a Hot Dog. This was so much fun and look how cute they turned out! Technically we were working on Persuasive writing, but I don't think the kids felt like we were doing any kind of work... because this was so much fun (did I say that already?)

Look at some of their persuasion:

Since hot dogs can be prepared quickly, dinner will be ready soon. We will have more time to eat desert. 

Hot dogs can come in different sizes because for kids you can slice it to make it smaller. You can make a big hot dog for a grown up. 

I think hot dogs taste delish.

How funny are those!! Plus we got to read an old fave: Pigeon Finds a Hot Dog.

So, I mentioned earlier how I haven't had time for all the other Thanksgiving stuff. Our district provides us with Science kits that we "have to" use as our science curriculum. They are generally very helpful and supply us with almost everything we need to effectively teach the topic. The problem is we only get the kit for a limited time. So, it was either do weather during Thanksgiving or Christmas. I decided Thanksgiving so we could do a fun focus on Holidays Around the World for Christmas (I have a VERY multi-cultural class). 

The past couple weeks we have been learning about clouds and rain. The kids have been so excited about it. They love science!!!

We made cloud people:

I loved the idea on Abby's blog to show the height of the clouds by using legs. The kids had fun with this!! 

We talked about why clouds turn gray:

 

We did a little experiment on how rain comes from clouds:

I know we are all keeping busy... hopefully we can relax over Thanksgiving break! 

Have a great weekend and upcoming Turkey day (had to throw in my baby- she is ready for turkey!)!

another long week ahead... oh, and an elf!

This past week was a crazy one...

Tuesday we went to the pumpkin patch- for the whole day!!! 

Wednesday was Halloween and we had our Fall Celebration (joy!)

Just 2 days of pure exhaustion! This week isn't much better-

Tuesday we don't have school for Parent/Teacher Conferences...not really stoked about these

Friday...morning- Veteran's Day assembly

             afternoon- another field trip to the Children's Theatre. 

All this "stuff" is no good.... It is messing up my kids schedules! We are becoming talkers and unfocused and we keep asking "When's recess??" 

At this rate-- we don't have time for recess! (But we will have recess, or I might go crazy!!!)

I want a normal week... where I can teach ALL 5 days and KNOW that my kids have gotten those skills and not just an overview! 

Anyway, sorry for the complaining but I think we have all had to deal with strings of weeks like these, where there are lots of interruptions and it seems like not enough learning happening! 

Off my box... here's my currently:

You should check out the Children's Lullabies on Pandora. My firsties enjoy them but so do my 3 year old. I put it on at bedtime and she is out like a light! 

This week I did get something exciting in the mail:

I can't wait to use this little guy after Thanksgiving! I got the whole kit for FREE! There is a teacher portal on elfontheshelf.com... Click here to check it out. The first so many teachers who signed up got a free elf kit! I also bought this:

Pretty excited about our little elf! Did you use him last year? Leave me a comment and give me some ideas for his hiding place! 

Gonna finish this weekend strong with a nap! Have a great week! 

p.s. Check out my newest Treasures packet...