Merry Christmas!

I have the internet for just a little bit and wanted to wish everyone a Merry Christmas!  I'll be back in a week to share my newest products!!   Enjoy your break!  

Where have I been? Update

Well hello!  I apologize for being a little MIA!  We have had Comcast internet at home and they were not being very friendly with us so we cancelled.  We installed Dish which is wonderful but will not have internet for a while. Instead, I will try to multi task a little of blogging at work which means I'll probably be short and sweet often. :( 

I do have lots of pictures to share!  Just take a look at what we have been up to and leave me a comment if you have questions. I'm hoping to create many new products over the break so stay tuned,  I will be without internet until January 6th. I'll share everything I make when I get back!

 

Ok...that's enough for today!  I'll be back hopefully before the end of the week with a few more things to share!  (before my 2 week hiadus) :)

Have a great evening!

Ornaments and Guided Reading

Well....here's my super cute ornaments that the kids have made.  I was looking for something to make this year without spending a lot of money myself.  They really turned out cute.  Take a look:

For the large snowman: 

I used a large popsicle stick, black and purple foam to make the hat, a piece of cloth to make the scarf, buttons for the buttons, orange bead for the nose and google eyes.  They kids painted the stick white and it dried a few days.  Then we used craft glue to stick everything else.  The kids used a black sharpie to make his mouth.  I think they turned out really well!!

For the small snowman:

I used 4 small popsicle sticks glued together.  The kids first painted all 4 popsicle sticks white.  It dried and they glued a 1/2 stick sideways to show the hat.  We painted that part black, painted black coal for his mouth, google eyes and a small orange pipe cleaner for his nose.  

After they all dried, I hot glued black yarn to the back as a hanger.  These will go in a gift bag with 3 other ornaments that my students will put under the tree for their parents.  

So...since these are oh so cute!  I decided I needed to make a set of snowmen to give to my teaching buddies and then some rudolphs, elves, and santas to give to my students and my husband's fifth graders.  Here's what they look like:

So for the reindeer: 

Again, a large popsicle stick painted brown, a red mini pom ball (the smallest you can find), green form and bell for the colar, brown pipe cleaners for the ears, light brown foam for belly, black craft paint to make eyes and brown yarn as a hanger.  (Again, I made these as the gift that I give my students for Christmas.)

For the elves, 

Again, a large popsicle stick painted green, foam for the face, hat, and belt, craft paint for the eyes and mouth, cotton ball pulled apart for the hat and a green pom for the top.

For santa:

Again, a large popsicle stick painted red, foam for the face, hat, and belt, craft paint for the eyes, nose and yellow buckle, and a cotton ball pulled apart to make the beard and hat.  

I was hoping that if I posted this early enough, some of you might still have time to make them! :)  I think they turned out awesome!!

And finally, I wanted to share a video I made that I will send to my student's parents.  As a visual learner, I always think it's a great idea to send pictures or videos when you can for parents to see what you're asking them to do at home.  Take a look at the video and let me know what you think.  

Do you use videos and pictures to communicate with parents?

I'm going to link up for Monday Made-It.  Omg...I can't believe I actually have something to share.  So go check out what everyone else has made.  

Peek at my Week {Gingerbread} 12-9

I'm here to link up with Deedee and Mrs. Laffin's Laughings for a Peek at My Week! 
 Here are my plans.  They are kind of small, so you can click on my plans to open the PDF in Google Docs.

This week will be all about gingerbread.  I will try to do a better job of taking pictures during the week and sharing with you! 

Well, stay tuned for some other posts this week.  Now hop over and check out these great linky parties to see what others are doing this week.  

   Have a wonderful week!!

Five for Friday - On a Saturday - 12/6

This week was all about reindeer!!!  It was fun to hear the kids talk about "caribou" instead of reindeer.  They loved writing about what they would do if they were reindeer.  Ok...I am back to the top to tell you that I didn't take ANY pictures of our reindeer activities :(!  I have their cute writing craftivity hanging in the hallway so I'll be back Monday to share those!!  But keep reading to hear about some math stations and assessments!  (all of which we did last week too)

1.   My kiddos were doing an amazing job with counting tallies so I decided to change my jump around station to number words.  This is a challenge for almost all of my kids.  I have provided them  a chart that has the number words beside the number so they are able to reference it.  This is very helpful for them!

2.  This is another math station where the kiddos walk around and survey their friends.  The question this time is "How many pets do you have?"  They love seeing what their friends say.

3.  I have 3 reading groups that are doing great with reading.  This little girl is doing an awesome job at pointing to the words while she is reading.  This is the first strategy I teach them in order to track the print.

4.  Ok...this looks easy...but guess what.  My kiddos have really struggled just talking to each other.  Well...if they talk about video games or dancing, they are fine.  But when I ask them to use 'math talk' they can't!  This math station is simple.  Pick a coin, name it and say it's value while sorting.  Here are 2 partners working (since I'm taking their picture) :).

5.  I made these books last week and my kiddos did the 11 book for one of their morning work centers this past week.  They are included in this pack from _.  I really like how they are repetitive about the number with counting it, representing it and even writing the number word.  Go check out the pack!!

 This roll and write is from her pack too!

 And just as an extra thing.....Here is my table full of assessment "stuff".  We had to assess for interims that went home last Wednesday.  This little guy was sick the last few days before Thanksgiving, so I had to get him assessed at the beginning of the week!

 
I hope you had a good week too!  Have over to Doodle Bugs Teaching and link up or just check out everyone else's week!
Happy Weekend!