FFF Day 3 - The Naughty Leprechaun Giveaway

Happy Saturday friends!! I hope you've been following along with my flashbacks, fotos, and freebies this week!

If you missed out on the fun already, it's not too late!

You can still enter for a chance to win both giveaways here:

Welcome to...

Let's start with the flashback and fotos!

Earlier this year, we had so much fun planting our very own little flowers :)

The kids added the soil to their cups and then planted the little seeds.

Each day we completed our Plant Observation Log as we watched our tiny plants begin to grow!

  

 


You can snag a copy of the Plant Observation Log by clicking below:

Before we get to the giveaway, just a quick reminder about the HUGE Cyber Monday sale coming up on TeachersPayTeachers! This is the perfect time to snag all of the holiday goodies and other things that are loading up your wishlist. Here are a few things from my store that you might be interested in:

And now the extra fun part... I AM SO EXCITED ABOUT TODAY'S GIVEAWAY!!! EEK!

Earlier this year I had the awesome opportunity to give away a copy of the super fab and totally  AMAZING "The Naughty Leprechaun" story by Stephanie Hicks. She has so kindly offered to let me give away another copy to a lucky follower!

Let me tell you a bit about it! This is an adorable tradition to do with your littles each year. The Naughty Leprechaun tells the story of 2 leprechauns named Liam and Leyland. One of the brothers is a naughty fellow, while his twin brother is always making the right choices! Your kids will get to decide which of the twins they would like to visit them for the 3 nights leading up to St. Patrick's Day! If they get a visit from Liam, they will find treats the next day. If they get a visit from Leyland, there will be mischief waiting for them :) They need to make good choices to have a visit from one of the brothers, or else it will be left up to chance! The whole story and the pictures are seriously adorable. With whimsical illustrations and a creative story, this activity totally reminds me of the elf fun we have around Christmas, and it comes at a time when our kids are getting a bit cray-cray and we could use it!

I am so happy that Stephanie and I are pairing up to do this early so that we can get the news out about this. This would make an awesome Christmas gift to a family or teacher that you know. My kids had a total BLAST with this last year and I can't wait to do it again!
Take a little peek at this special treat!

Hooray! I'm so happy that I have this opportunity to give a copy away to a lucky one of you!! Be sure to enter below:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Get yourself entered before it's too late :)

Love and hugs!

Woo Hoo! FFF Day 2 - TPT Giveaway

Good morning my dears!!! Is everyone enjoying their break as much as I am? I just LOVE relaxing! I cannot wait to hear how your Black Friday shopping went, or should I say Black Thursday. What is up with that anyway? Stores opening for Black Friday at 6:00 pm on Thanksgiving?!? That's crazy. And it ruins the fun for me. Sigh. What is this country coming to? Of course I still went though, so they win in the end :) I go to Target each year and buy a bunch of crap that I don't need. The hype just gets to me. When I see people grabbing things I automatically go into panic mode and think I need one, so I buy random things and then have buyer's remorse the next day. Kinda feeling that right now. Except for the blankets and pants. Target always has these softy soft blankets on sale and cozy PJ pants that I buy in bulk each year. I am all about the coziness in life.

So let's get moving with the:

If you missed my post yesterday, be sure to go check it out HERE. You still have a chance to win my Font Pack giveaway!

Today's flashback and fotos come from the beginning of this year.

My kids LOVED making Friendship Fruit Salad. It was a huge hit.

You will need:

Large Bowl

Spoon

Pre-cut Strawberries

Grapes

Bananas

Apple Slices

Marshmallows

One Rotten Banana

Paper Bowls

Spoons

This is how I explained it to the kids:

The bowl is our classroom. Right now it is empty and what was how our classroom wasb efore you got here. Pretty boring! That's why I was so excited when you came! Let's add some fun to our bowl, just like you add fun to our classroom. There are so many important things that our classroom needs to help it to be a special place to learn and play. 

We then discussed different things that are important! Each fruit represents one of those things.

Apples represent the hard workers

Grapes represent the friends who share

Strawberries represent the love we have for one another

Marshmallows represent the kind words we use

Bananas represent honesty

  

 

 

Then I said we had one more ingredient to add and pulled out the rotten banana. I pretended like I was going to add it and they started to freak out a bit. I asked them why they didn't want me to add it. That led us to our next discussion - we don't want to add the rotten banana. This banana represents the people who don't share or follow directions, or call people names, etc. They shared why they did not want those type of people in our room and how we could be the yummy ingredients instead!

After making the fruit salad, we went outside to enjoy it together!

 The next part of my flashback comes from one of my favorite times of year - Apple Time!!

We usually do an entire week of apple themed activities in our room to celebrate Johnny Appleseed's birthday! We started with an apple taste testing to see which color apple we liked the best!

 

{The kids were seriously amazed by the apple cutter!}

 

First we tried the green apples! They were pretty tart!!

{Most of them really liked them though!}

 

 {After trying all of the apples, we made a SmartBoard graph to see which type we liked the best. I was surprised to see that yellow won by a long shot!

The next day, we made cute little Johnny Appleseed hats. I found the apples at the Dollar Tree. I bought black posterboard and chopped it into 6 inch wide strips for the pot. Then I cut the handles and the kids glued it all together :) The hats have their name on it with Appleseed after it. For example, Jackson Appleseed. Not an original idea, but totally cute!

We then made Rice Krispie apples! They are always super messy and fun to make and the kids LOVE them. The recipe is super easy. We make Rice Krispy treats using the microwavable recipe. When it is still hot and gooey we add a pack of strawberry jello and some red food coloring. We mix it all up and then the kids shape it into circles. They push their finger into the top to leave a little indent for the stem.

 

 

 

 

{The stem is a tootsie roll and the leaf is just green frosting that the kids squeezed on}

 

We also made delicious  crock pot applesauce/chunks! It's not truly applesauce because we don't squish it into sauce. We leave the big chunks so they can chew it. It's more like apple pie really. This is one of my FAVORITE treats to make. It makes the classroom smell so good while it cooks all day and it tastes yummy! We used red apples, brown sugar, cinnamon, and butter.

 

 

We topped it with honey Teddy Grahams, which tasted just like crust! Mmmmm!

 

Apples are so much fun. They had a blast throughout the week!

And that concludes Day Two's flashbacks and fotos! Ready for the freebies?!

Since it is day 2, today's giveaway is the choice of any 2 products from my TPT store. And I will be choosing 2 winners! To have your chance to win, all you have to do is:

*Follow my blog by clicking the button on the side

*Follow my TPT store HERE

*Leave a comment sharing either: one fun thing you bought on Black Friday, one funny thing you saw on Black Friday, OR one of your favorite things to do with your class in the Fall!

Be sure to do the things above by this Sunday, December 1st at noon.

Hooray for Day 2! Good luck - I hope you win :)

I'M BACK! Flashbacks, Fotos, and Freebies - Day 1

HELLO SWEET FRIENDS!!! It's me! It's really ME!! It has been 6 looooong months since my last post and it is about time that I creep my way back into the blogging world. I have to start by saying HAPPY THANKSGIVING to all of my lovely friends! I hope you are spending time with loved ones today and eating lots of goodies. I am with my amazing family, curled up in my favorite chair, watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. It is so nice to have some time to chill out! And I am seriously chilling out. It is a frosty 50 degrees here in Tampa! My dogs are shakin' in their little puppy boots.We went to get our Christmas tree last night and put it up. It's not decorated yet, but it still makes the house feel so cozy! I am so excited that the holidays are here!!

So I'm not going to give a string of excuses for my absence, however, this has been the craziest year in my teaching career. We have a new reading and math series this year and sh** has been hitting the fan everywhere! HA! It has taken every ounce of me to just keep it together. The district has been making changes non-stop and I am also the team leader this year, so it has been difficult keeping up with everything. I am also developing trainings for our district which has been time consuming. So now I'm done with the excuses, but I had to share with you why I have been away and I just feel terrible about it! I've missed you all!

So now for the fun news! To make up for my lack of posting, all this week I will be doing

FLASHBACKS, FOTOS, AND FREEBIES!

Every day I will be recapping the events of the past 6 months, showing tons of pictures, and (best of all) each day I will have a new FABULOUS freebie to share with you! So let's get rolling!

Today is

I'll start with the flashbacks and fotos first! I'll start by recapping the end of LAST year, since my last post was just before the end of the year.

At the end of the year, I always have a promotion ceremony for the little ones to celebrate their successes and their journey with me :) I do a travel theme, because we always say that the littles are packing their bags and moving on! Here's how the room looked: 

Each of the chairs had their name on a plane! The "Baggage Claim" was where they picked up their awards - including the always popular candy awards :)

 

  

{Here's the little runway that they 'fly' down}

On each of their desks, I put their special gifts. Here is what I include:

{A graduation photo to keep}

{A framed graduation photo with the "Great Expectations" poem}

{A gift for the daddies! To make the footprints, the kids press their foot into wet sand to make an imprint. I then fill the footprint with Plaster of Paris and once it hardens, the sand sticks to it making it look like a sandy footprint. My amazing teacher friend next door, Elaine, taught me this awesome trick! The poem is called "Walk a Little Slower Daddy". It's a super sweet poem!}

{The tables all set up}

 {The hanging clouds were made from Poly-fill and hung with fishing line}

{My little friends sang "First Grade, First Grade" for their families! It was a huge hit!}

{The yummy snack table and cake!}

 

On the last day of school, we all wore our shirts that we made! Each child's handprint and name (plus mine!) is on the shirt and the front says "I made it through Kindergarten 2012-2013".

 

{These are unique wordles that I made for each of them. It includes words that describe them}

{The class video filled with photos from our year together}

{Our FINAL photos together!!!}

And there's my first flashback full of fotos!! I love making their final days with me special :)

So now for the SUPER fun part - the FREEBIE! This freebie is actually a giveaway!

I will be giving away my Complete Set of 111 KB Fonts to two lucky followers who will be chosen by random!

All you have to do to win is:

*Follow my blog by clicking the button on the side

*Follow my TPT store HERE

*Leave a comment sharing something special you are doing for Thanksgiving

Please be sure to do the things above by this Saturday, November 30th at noon to have a chance to win!

YAY! I am so excited to have a post to share with you :) Be sure to check back every day this week for more flashbacks, giveaways, and freebies!

Thank you so much to all of my followers who stuck with me while I was away. I am so happy to be back with you! Have a fabby fab Turkey Day - gobble gobble!

And don't forget...