Secret's Out!

I didn't want to say anything...

I mean I know it is not really socially acceptable... but.... I've been listening to Christmas music for a week now! I have been keeping it under wraps, because I have been seeing tons of facebook posts that look like this:

I guess now it's okay though... ya know... Now that it's December! A new month brings a new currently. Link up with Farley here. 

So I started writing this earlier today and then got caught by the hubs.. and drug.... I mean literally drug away to do my least favorite holiday duty... tree trimming! 

I mean, I love spending time with my family, but I absolutely hate dislike (really really dislike) putting the tree up and decorating. I guess since I mostly have to do it by myself while the kids are messing around and the hubs watches... it becomes a chore. 

But, now it's over-- thank goodness! I don't, however, dislike decorating at school, but still haven't done that either! Oh well!

In other news, I am sure by now you have heard about the Cyber Monday (and Tuesday) sale TPT has going tomorrow! 

Click the pic to go straight to my TPT store!

You might be wondering what you could get.... and here are a few of my favorite things (just happens to be on the radio right now...hehe)

In the mood for math....

   

Do you teach with Treasures?

 

How about Journeys?

 








Of course there is LOTS more out there in my store and in the other fab sellers on TPT. I need to go get my wishlist ready!! :) Happy shopping... Only 20 days til Christmas break!!

a TREAT for you

I love this time of year...

Time to order Christmas cards and teacher gifts! I always try to put extra thought into the teacher gifts I give (mainly because I work with these people!). I am super lucky that my son can go to school where I work, but the pressure is on!

I love to get personalized gifts and treat.com is the perfect place to get them! At first glance you might be thinking that treat.com is a card site. And... you would be correct..but...

Treat.com is also full of personalized gifts! Check out the selection they have of personalized stationary, coffee mugs, and i-phone cases. I actually got my son's first grade teacher some personalized stationary last year and she loved it!

Here are some of my fave adorable stationary choices:

Of course, they do still have some awesome personalized one-to-one cards that can be holiday or anytime cards. Last Christmas I ordered personalized cards for my whole team and they were super impressed :) 

Here are some of my personal faves this year:

Something fun and new to treat this year is many of the cards on the site have a digital option. This means your can send the cards through email for a little less $$.

To learn more about all the goodies Treat offers, join @ResourcefulMom for a #TreatCheer Twitter party tomorrow afternoon. RSVP for the party here.

So, here is the best part...

You can win a set of personalized stationary and a personalized mug just by checking out their website!     All you have to do is visit the link in the Rafflecopter below and comment as to what your favorite holiday card is!

a Rafflecopter giveaway
Unfortunately this giveaway is only open to U.S. residents. Ends Friday, 11/22. I must disclose that Treat is also treating me with a set of personalized stationary and a mug too for posting this post. http://bit.ly/1cSRxaf

November is CURRENTLY here!

Well, November just snuck right up on us... with daylight savings time and everything! Does that mean an extra hour of sleep tonight?!

I am linking up for November with Farley for her monthly Currently linky. Yay!

My son has recently become obsessed with Pokemon. I'm sure you have seen a card or 2 floating around your classroom. I guess it is better than being obsessed with a fighting game or a gun or something! I accidentally found a pokemon movie "on demand" while looking at the movies tonight and now we are stuck watching it. You think I would be able to get more done since I am blocking it out... but there is still pinterest to distract me!! lol

So proud of my 4 year old tonight! She has been learning her sounds at school and most of the time she won't practice with me (she only likes practicing with Daddy). But tonight she came over to me and wrote "ot" and "at" on a paper. She was sounding out the families, so I told her to add a p to the "ot" and a h to the "at". Then she sounded out the whole words without my help! shocked... and PROUD! My sweet girl is getting so big!

Which makes me feel better about the crazy amount of money we pay for pre-k! I know it is just one more year of $$ for childcare but it kicks our butt! $160/week is crazy! 

Needing.. some sleep! I don't feel sleep deprived during the day but at night I am! For the past couple of weeks I have been waking up in the middle of the night and then struggling to sleep through the night. I feel miserable in the night! I am about to resort to some Tylenol PM... hopefully it will do the trick! 

Do you make dinner calendars? We have been trying to make dinner calendars. We made a really great one that we pretty much followed in September, then slacked off in October (b/c I was off for 2 weeks!) but now that November has hit I feel like we should get back on track! It was so helpful in grocery shopping and for those busy weeks at school... knowing that dinner would be on the table by one of us. It is just one more thing to make though. (and one more thing to distract me from work!)

I have 2 yummy pins for you! I am going to try one this week for dinner and the other I have made a couple times and it is delicious! 

This looks super, quick, easy and yummy! I've always loved some chicken pot pie!

These are an awesome Smores dessert!

Click the pics above to get these recipes! Yum!

Also, tonight I found out about this:

K5 Learning has an online reading and math program for kindergarten to grade 5 students. I've been given a 6 week free trial to test and write a review of their program. If you are a blogger, you may want to check out their open invitation to write an online learning review of their program. - See more at by clicking here. 

procrastinator...

That is what I am.... Got a stack of papers next to me... Don't want to check them.... hmmm.....

I love this time of year but am feeling a little jipped on the activities! I mean there are a TON of activities out there (just look on TPT!). I just haven't had time to do many of them! We had a 2 week fall break at the beginning of this month...which I am NOT complaining about... but now I am in catch up mode!

So, we have been able to get ONE solid Halloween activity in! I saw this on pinterest and just happen to be in Home Depot the other day...

Here was my example acrostic. We had just studied them before Fall break so this was our review! I made these 2 cuties with the help of my son, but everyone else made their own and they turned out a.dor.a.ble!

You must read this poem... It is hilarious!

 

Aren't these the cutest little paint chips?! They turned out so adorable.. thinking they will be up well past Halloween! The kids LOVED making them too!

While I was on that long break, I attended a training on Project Based Learning. Have you heard of it? Chances are you already teach in this manner!

The training I went to was 3 days long and when we left we basically had the ideas for our PBL project in place. So, that is another reason I haven't been Halloweenie... I have been doing my project! My project is on types of government and so far, so good!

Second graders have basically NO background knowledge on this subject so for once I am doing something that they didn't do in first grade! (Does that happen at your school?!) I made a HUGE project that is about 4 weeks and we are working on the 2nd week this week! Like I said, so far, so good... Maybe I should take some photos!? I will try :)

I posted my project on TPT:

Anyway, I suppose I will go grade these papers :/ I leave you with 2 things:

1.

2. 

I might be one of the luckiest moms out there... Every afternoon I get to watch this guy in the back seat just reading away! Such a smarty pants! 

autumn review

Tomorrow marks the beginning of a 2 week fall break!

You read that right.. 2 weeks! I am so relieved that I will get this break, but this past week was ROUGH! Everyday I had to drag myself out of bed and I wished for Friday. I hate feeling like that... not only am I dragging but I don't feel like I am all there for my kids.

These 2 weeks to recharge should help a lot!

So, to keep us busy learning before fall break, we learned all about Autumn. We read informational texts about fall, animals in fall, and how plants change. We kept a circle map going all week, where we continually added post its to our map and schema. On Friday we took all the things we learned and discussed and created AUTUMN acrostic poems.

This one is my favorite! 

We also made origami leaves to hang with our poems in the hall. **Note: We probably should have done some other origami before this to get them use to the folding. It was a definite process, but the leaves turned out pretty good!

Click here to download the Autumn Acrostic!

You might be wondering what those long strips of paper that are hanging... 

We have been studying measurement with inches, feet, and yards. I think the best way to learn about this concept is by working with measurement tools, so that is what we have been doing all week. 

First, we measured each other with yarn and then used rulers to measure the yard we cut:

They had to measure in feet and inches. I think they really enjoyed this!

Closer to the end of the week we did something called Measurement by the Yard. Basically you cut yard-length pieces of register tape and students follow directions to measure and draw pictures at specific heights. 

I adapted my Measurement by the Yard to be Fall by the Yard:

Here is one more picture to leave you with:

As I was taking my pictures, my son insisted I take a picture of his work too! He is such a smart boy! 

Well.... I'm sure you will hear from me later this week :)