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 :)

Survivor Week Fun & Freebie!

Monday Monday Monday! I do NOT have a case of the Mondays though, because I know there are only 2 more left after today! Wahoo! Toward the end of each school year, our school does something super fun called "Survivor Week". Throughout the weeks leading up to survivor week, the entire school reads the same book. It is usually book that is centered in Florida! During Survivor Week, there is no paper or pen allowed. Every grade level creates a station somewhere around the school that pertains to the book and each class rotates to the stations throughout the week. There are SO many fun activities that the kids get to do. It is probably one of the most stressful and exhausting weeks ever, but the kids have a total blast.

This year the entire school read the book Dillo by Kyle L. Miller. It is about a little armadillo who is born with a birth defect - a permanent smile! Her sisters are very mean to her and leave her lost and stranded. The rest of the story is about Dillo's adventures on her way back home and all of the animals that she meets along the way. It was a pretty cute story :)

To prepare for Survivor Week, last week we had lots of fun learning about armadillos. Here are some of the things that we did!

We started by creating a KWL chart about armadillos. The students had individual charts that they wrote their K's and W's on. Then we came back together and they shared their thoughts with the group for me to add on the big chart.

As we read the book, we added little visuals to our pocket chart to help us remember what happened in the story! One of my besty teacher friends down the hall came up with this wonderful idea during survivor week last year. This year I created a version for Dillo! The kids really enjoyed adding the pictures to the chart.

The littles also created a Dillo retell book to summarize each chapter! I don't have a picture of a completed one, but I will be sure to post one soon!

We also went on an web "Fact Hunt" for armadillo facts! We visited a variety of websites and discussed the various facts we discovered about armadillos. The kids wrote 4 facts that they found most interesting on their chart as we went through the different sites.

 

If you are interested in any of the armadillo activities, you can snag them all for FREE by clicking on the picture below:

 

 

 

This week begins  Survivor Week and my littles are BEYOND ready to go. They are unbelievably excited. One of the best parts (I think) is the fact that each class in the entire school has to create a Totem to display and bring around the school with them all week. It is a huge competition and it is extremely secretive. The kids don't tell ANYONE what their class is doing for their totem. The totem has to be created using a broom. Here is what it looks like right now:

 

The kids brainstormed some different ideas of what they think our totem should be!

 

 

 

Here is an example of my totem from 2 years ago when we read the book "Kidnapped in Key West":

 

 

 I cannot wait to see what we come up with for this year! Hmm....

 

Here are my plans (in progress) for the stations this week. Can you imagine how EXHAUSTED my 18 five and six year olds are going to be!?

 

I'm tired just looking at it! Well I am off to get some serious rest because I am going to need it :)

Hope your Monday was cool, calm, and collected!

 

Don't forget to link up and Share Whatcha Wear!

 

And keep filling that wishlist because the TPT Teacher Appreciation Sale is going to be here before you know it :)

 

 

Love and Hugs!

Busy Life!! Circus Fun, Whatcha Wearin', and a FREEBIE!

Oh my sweet lovelies!! It has been SO long since my last post. I have missed the blogging world like crazy and am happy to be back. I feel like there are about 10 million things to do at every. single. second. Anyone else feeling cray-cray lately? Sigh.

I have been so busy. I feel like there is no time to breathe! This was FINALLY my last week of physical therapy - hooray! Going from 3 times per week to 0 times per week suits me just fine. I have also been busy finishing up my last course to get my Reading Endorsement! This is a long time coming and I am super excited to be done soon. Just a few more sessions of that.

And in super exciting news - WE FOUND A HOUSE! It is beeeeeautiful and I love love love it. We close at the end of the month. The very best news is that my sister only lives 3 doors down. I can have a conversation with her when we are both standing in our driveways! I could not be more excited about it. I can't believe that I am almost an official homeowner. Gosh I grew up fast.

My school district sent me an email yesterday asking if I could train the trainers over this summer for our in-service next year and I said yes. I hope it's not too much more work, I'm pretty swamped. At least it's extra money that I will be needing very soon to pay for my new house :)

And it is official - I will be team leader for my grade level next year! I'm thrilled about it really. It will be a challenge I'm sure, but one that I am ready and eager to take on. Any tips out there for a newbie leader?!

Moving on to our classroom fun!!

This week was circus week in my room! We did so many exciting activities to prepare for our circus field trip that we went on yesterday. Most of my activities came from these two amazing purchases:

 

They were both FULL of awesome centers, printables, experiments, and more.

Here are two of the centers that the kids worked on and loved.

 

CIRCUS MEASURING

(from Deedee's Silly Circus pack)

The students used little star rulers (included in Deedee's unit) to measure the silly circus pictures and record how many stars long each was. It was a perfect fit for our measuring unit that we are currently working on in math.

 

CIRCUS WRITE THE ROOM

(from Miss Davis' Under the Big Top unit)

The kids had to find the circus vocabulary words around the room and write them on their recording sheet!

One of the littles favorite things of all was the cotton candy experiment! I think they liked eating it the best :)

 

 On Thursday we made a super cute circus snack and the kids were totally pumped. Here are all of the yummy snacks we included:

 

 

Click on the picture below to grab a fun circus snack mix bag topper freebie and see what each piece of the snack mix represents.

 

 

We worked together and mixed everything up. Then each of the littles scooped some out and filled their ziplock baggie with it. They then put the ziplock baggie inside a brown lunch sack with a Hi-C juice box and some fruit snacks. We also brought some deeeelicious cotton candy!

 

 

 So finally it was time to go yesterday. The kids were just ecstatic. I made each of them a little ticket with their picture on it.

 

 

 Here we are, all ready to go, and on our way! I had them all wear matching t-shirts that said "We're On A Field Trip" to help make sure I could spot them all in a crowd.

 

 

 Our picture with the clowns

 

 

We bought all of the kids light up wands to use during the show! They sell them there for about $12 a piece (ridiculous) so we pre-ordered them online in bulk and got them super cheap. The kids were ecstatic and it looked really cool when all the lights went out.

 

 

 After the show, the kids were able to see the animals and feed them carrots!

 

 

At the end of the day, we were all completely exhausted. The kids had an unbelievable time though, so it was well worth it.

 

 And now I am happy to share an awesome new venture that I am starting with the amazing Brittany over at "Closing the Gap... in a Cute Outfit!"

 

 

 This is going to be a super fun, super chill monthly linky party where bloggers can link up and share their fabby fab teacher style. You can link up as many times as you want during the month with all of your different outfits. Feel free to link up once, twice, or twenty times each month!  We will be starting this Sunday (as in TOMORROW) and I am totally excited to see what you are all wearing!

 Check out the guidelines below:

 

You know I love you guys. You are the best :) Check back tomorrow - I have some ridiculous stories and some cute outfits to share! Love ya!