Santa, Gingerbread, and a Freebie!

This week was a miracle.  Due to blizzards and frighteningly low temperatures we were stuck with inside recess all week long.  But somehow despite that and despite me being pretty poorly prepared (ahem, confession...), lessons were taught, objectives were reached, and children were happy and well-behaved! 

Side note: I'm gearing up to be extra prepared for this week because these kinds of miracles do not happen twice.

The lovely view from my classroom...during inside recess.

We started talking about writing letters this week.  I modeled writing a letter to my sweet sister who just left for a mission in California (and I nearly cried in front of the class while writing it...I miss her so much!). We discussed the 5 different parts that a letter must have, using these pages from The December Packet:

Almost everyone caught on very quickly and suddenly there was a great urgency to begin writing letters to anyone and everyone! Each morning as I greeted my students this week at least 3 of them handed me a sweet hand-written letter.  Apparently it is very exciting and even liberating to know how to properly write a letter!  I started stapling their sweet cards up to our letter-writing bulletin board.  Eventually all of this led up to writing letters to our dear friend Santa himself!

I realized after modeling my Santa letter that it was probably a poor choice to tell him I wanted an ipad for Christmas...suddenly half the class wanted some pricey gadget...but James and I have been scrimping and saving and we are really excited to check our stockings come Christmas morning...so I was just being honest :)

Everyone did a sloppy copy first and then a nice copy on pretty paper...which of course I forgot to photograph until they had all been sealed and stamped in their envelopes...

I'm going to mail these (i.e. walk them down the hall to Santa's sixth grade letter-writing elves) and am so excited to discover the responses with my little ones.  I love their sweet and innocent belief!  It inspires me to try for new levels of goodness.

We also talked adjectives and gingerbread this week.  I brought out a real decorated gingerbread man to show everyone (we ate him before I could get a picture...) and then we did our best to brainstorm words to describe him.

Teaching adjectives (or any of the parts of speech for that matter) is still something I am trying to perfect.  It is brand new in our curriculum this year, but luckily this activity seemed to work pretty well.  My students designed their own gingerbread men and then wrote adjectives to describe them.

I love this one from my first grader with a crazy football obsession...

The students were really excited about creating their own unique thing and then being responsible for describing it via adjectives.  I hope to dive into those parts of a speech a little bit deeper in the new year so we'll see what lies ahead!

And this is totally random, but I had to share.  My sweet and fearless team leader gave me this incredible mini Christmas tree that plugs into any usb port....it brings me such joy!  

It brings me such joy, in fact, that I feel like a freebie!  This is a great little activity I used as literacy center this week and it worked like a charm.  The kids had fun hunting for words and becoming more aware of the print around them.  Grab it here or click the picture below!

Thanks for reading! Have a very merry weekend!

1

Santa, Gingerbread, and a Freebie!

This week was a miracle.  Due to blizzards and frighteningly low temperatures we were stuck with inside recess all week long.  But somehow despite that and despite me being pretty poorly prepared (ahem, confession...), lessons were taught, objectives were reached, and children were happy and well-behaved! 

Side note: I'm gearing up to be extra prepared for this week because these kinds of miracles do not happen twice.

The lovely view from my classroom...during inside recess.

We started talking about writing letters this week.  I modeled writing a letter to my sweet sister who just left for a mission in California (and I nearly cried in front of the class while writing it...I miss her so much!). We discussed the 5 different parts that a letter must have, using these pages from The December Packet:

Almost everyone caught on very quickly and suddenly there was a great urgency to begin writing letters to anyone and everyone! Each morning as I greeted my students this week at least 3 of them handed me a sweet hand-written letter.  Apparently it is very exciting and even liberating to know how to properly write a letter!  I started stapling their sweet cards up to our letter-writing bulletin board.  Eventually all of this led up to writing letters to our dear friend Santa himself!

I realized after modeling my Santa letter that it was probably a poor choice to tell him I wanted an ipad for Christmas...suddenly half the class wanted some pricey gadget...but James and I have been scrimping and saving and we are really excited to check our stockings come Christmas morning...so I was just being honest :)

Everyone did a sloppy copy first and then a nice copy on pretty paper...which of course I forgot to photograph until they had all been sealed and stamped in their envelopes...

I'm going to mail these (i.e. walk them down the hall to Santa's sixth grade letter-writing elves) and am so excited to discover the responses with my little ones.  I love their sweet and innocent belief!  It inspires me to try for new levels of goodness.

We also talked adjectives and gingerbread this week.  I brought out a real decorated gingerbread man to show everyone (we ate him before I could get a picture...) and then we did our best to brainstorm words to describe him.

Teaching adjectives (or any of the parts of speech for that matter) is still something I am trying to perfect.  It is brand new in our curriculum this year, but luckily this activity seemed to work pretty well.  My students designed their own gingerbread men and then wrote adjectives to describe them.

I love this one from my first grader with a crazy football obsession...

The students were really excited about creating their own unique thing and then being responsible for describing it via adjectives.  I hope to dive into those parts of a speech a little bit deeper in the new year so we'll see what lies ahead!

And this is totally random, but I had to share.  My sweet and fearless team leader gave me this incredible mini Christmas tree that plugs into any usb port....it brings me such joy!  

It brings me such joy, in fact, that I feel like a freebie!  This is a great little activity I used as literacy center this week and it worked like a charm.  The kids had fun hunting for words and becoming more aware of the print around them.  Grab it here or click the picture below!

Thanks for reading! Have a very merry weekend!

3

My Three Headed Dragon and a Freebie!

Do you ever have a teaching day where you know you are just off your game a little bit?  That was me today.  Maybe I can blame it on the fact that I stayed up past midnight reading (um, oops!).  Spending your day with 26 energetic first graders is a little bit challenging when you are going on 5 hours of sleep...

At about 2:30 this afternoon I was at my limit.  Student after student needed me for one reason or another while I was attempting to do guided reading groups.  So-and-so had lost their glue stick, so-and-so had to go to the bathroom AGAIN and I couldn't help but thinking over and over, We have routines for these things, people.  Haven't we discussed what to do in this situation a zillion times? I must be the worst teacher in the world!  I know this is all ridiculous and I apologize for the complain fest...I'm almost done...

The last straw came when one of my sweet students came up to me and confessed he'd just dropped one of our new KindleFires on the floor.  I literally closed my eyes and took a deep breath. The Patience Fairy thankfully appeared and allowed me to handle the situation well, but it seriously took all I had!

I'm really note entirely sure where this bad day came from and I'm going to stop talking about it soon because my eye is starting to twitch at the thought of it.  

After my kids had been dismissed for the day I started looking over some of their work from a few days ago when I had been gone at a training.  I read this paper and couldn't help but laugh out loud and smile to myself in that empty classroom.

Sometimes that is what teaching feels like.  There are so many things being asked and expected of us, but when you come right down to it, our job is to nurture and enlighten sweet little children.  How lucky are we to be surrounded by them each day?  At the end of my super-grouchy-teacher day I feel grateful for the opportunity that I have to be with these precious friends!

p.s. I got that awesome "Where is Mrs. Gardner" writing idea from Cara Carroll.  I highly recommend putting this in your sub plans if you are going to be out.  It is HILARIOUS to read the responses!  Click here for a free template to use!

p.p.s. We have a few more days for my giveaway so go to this post and leave a comment.  Free stuff!

0

My Three Headed Dragon and a Freebie!

Do you ever have a teaching day where you know you are just off your game a little bit?  That was me today.  Maybe I can blame it on the fact that I stayed up past midnight reading (um, oops!).  Spending your day with 26 energetic first graders is a little bit challenging when you are going on 5 hours of sleep...

At about 2:30 this afternoon I was at my limit.  Student after student needed me for one reason or another while I was attempting to do guided reading groups.  So-and-so had lost their glue stick, so-and-so had to go to the bathroom AGAIN and I couldn't help but thinking over and over, We have routines for these things, people.  Haven't we discussed what to do in this situation a zillion times? I must be the worst teacher in the world!  I know this is all ridiculous and I apologize for the complain fest...I'm almost done...

The last straw came when one of my sweet students came up to me and confessed he'd just dropped one of our new KindleFires on the floor.  I literally closed my eyes and took a deep breath. The Patience Fairy thankfully appeared and allowed me to handle the situation well, but it seriously took all I had!

I'm really note entirely sure where this bad day came from and I'm going to stop talking about it soon because my eye is starting to twitch at the thought of it.  

After my kids had been dismissed for the day I started looking over some of their work from a few days ago when I had been gone at a training.  I read this paper and couldn't help but laugh out loud and smile to myself in that empty classroom.

Sometimes that is what teaching feels like.  There are so many things being asked and expected of us, but when you come right down to it, our job is to nurture and enlighten sweet little children.  How lucky are we to be surrounded by them each day?  At the end of my super-grouchy-teacher day I feel grateful for the opportunity that I have to be with these precious friends!

p.s. I got that awesome "Where is Mrs. Gardner" writing idea from Cara Carroll.  I highly recommend putting this in your sub plans if you are going to be out.  It is HILARIOUS to read the responses!  Click here for a free template to use!

p.p.s. We have a few more days for my giveaway so go to this post and leave a comment.  Free stuff!

2