Our Classroom Elf and a Birthday Sale!

 

Howdy Blog Hoppers!

 

I am so excited about my newest resource!

My kiddos adored their elf, Jingle Belle. She was so much fun to have in the room!

My class loved coming in to our classroom each day to see where she had landed. Not to mention, they were always so excited to write anything and everything they could about her. I have pictures, stories and letters about Jingle Belle that are just priceless!

 

Jingle Belle is going to be very missed when we return in January!

 

So I created this resource for my littles to use when they return.

 

 

It's full of pages for my kiddos to write letters to Jingle Belle!

I plan to add this to my writing station for my kiddos , along with envelopes, glitter pens and holiday stickers.  There are several different types of pages to accomodate all our little writers. I can't wait!

 

Included in the resource is a Parts of a Letter Anchor Chart!

Just {click here} to download!

 

 

The best part is that since it's almost my birthday and I'm having a sale!

 

 

I wish you all the happiest New Year and many blessings in 2013!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Martin Luther King, Jr. Day!

This mini-unit is a perfect way to teach your students about Martin Luther King, Jr. and all of the great things he did for human rights. 

Include in this mini-unit are:

Tree Map

Was, Had, Wanted Graphic Organizer

Describe Dr. King

The Life of Dr. King Book

The Life of Dr. King student mini-book

Peace Means... {writing}

Dove Craft

Heart to Heart and Hand to Hand craft and poem

Vocabulary cards 

Vocabulary game

I have a dream craft and writing

This mini-unit is for K-2, but don't worry my upper-grades friends... Natalie is working on mini-unit for the upper-grades and will have it posted soon! YAY!

Click {here} to check it out!

Or stop by our blog to see more!

Polar Animals Unit Revised and a thank you to Blog Hoppin'!

Hello Friends!
Well, I have officially been bloggin' for almost one year and I have officially been a member of TPT for about a year and a half. Amazing things have been happening to me for these past months; mainly a wonderful support from amazing teacher bloggers! When I became an author on Blog Hoppin', I didn't even have my own blog... luckily Deanna took a risk on me and allowed me to be a part of Blog Hoppin' WITHOUT my own blog and I thank  Deanna for that! I also look back on my first TPT resources and shake my head in wonder at JUST WHAT WAS I THINKIN' when I posted those first units! So..... I have been revising, revising, revising those first units and my Polar Region unit is one of them. My units are written to be a supplement to the other amazing units that are being offered on TPT. I concentrate mostly on the science/social studies end of the units; although I do offer an occasional literacy or math component to them. I like to start with a book that I write that incorporates realistic photographs with simple text. (I actually import the pages onto my interactive whiteboard rather than print the pages.)  Each of my students have their own book with the same words as the book imported onto my white board.  Each child then illustrates their book with drawing/cutting techniques that I teach after we have learned each animal fact. In my revision, I have added black line drawings of each animal because I know that some teachers just do not have the time to teach step step drawing techniques. If you purchased my Polar Region unit previously, please, please re-download it! It is almost a totally new product! Here is a preview of what the revised unit offers:

 FULL COLOR REALISTIC PHOTOGRAPHS THAT CAN BE PRINTED AND BOUND INTO A BOOK OR PROJECTED UPON AN INTERACTIVE WHITEBOARD (Not all pages are shown)

BLACK LINE PAGES THAT CAN BE BOUND INTO A STUDENT BOOK WITH 2 OPTIONS: ONE - STUDENTS FOLLOW STEP BY STEP DRAWINGS TO CREATE EACH ANIMAL or TWO - STUDENTS COLOR EACH POLAR ANIMAL BLACK LINE DRAWING (Not all pages are shown in this picture.)

STEP BY STEP ILLUSTRATIONS OF HOW TO DRAW AND/OR CUT FROM PAPER EACH POLAR ANIMAL (Not all animals are shown in this picture)

WORD WALL CARDS FOR EACH ANIMAL (Not all cards are shown)

As I said previously, this unit was written to supplement your existing Polar Animal unit. Polar bears and penguins are always fun to teach when the new year begins! It also fun to learn about some of the other cool animals that live in our polar regions and for kids to realize that polar bears and penguins do NOT live in the same habitat!

Peace and blessings to all! If you are interested in my polar unit, click the image below! And if you already purchased this unit, re-download it!

CVCC Word Work- Free Printables

Hello there. I am back with some word work ideas that you can use with your students when you return from winter break. I started making some activities for CVCC word patterns. These will help meet several learning objectives plus differentiate instruction. Some of the objectives that I want to address are beginning sounds, ending sounds, missing vowels, and identifying word patterns. When the students return from break, these will serve as review for some and a good challenge for others. So, I came up with a list of 40 words and created the clip art for it. Here are some of the word work activities that I have so far. You can download your free copy by clicking on the picture.

Here are your free CVCC Word Work Printables

This will help review beginning sounds. 

This will review ending sounds.

Are your students ready for identifying the missing vowel?

With this next one, students will stretch the word to find the letter sounds in words.

Then, they will write them in the boxes. 

And, if you would like to see the rest of the clip art that I created, here it is.

Lidia R. Barbosa from Kinder Alphabet

Lots of Holiday Freebies!

Start your New Year off with themed monthly writing paper!  With several days of the holiday break under my belt, I've begun preparing for my return.  I created this writing paper for my daily independent work stations.  During my book study, I explored various options to elicit excitement for writing.  This controlled choice gives students options while providing motivation for story topics.

I hope you find them useful too!!

Unsure if I shared a few holiday freebies with you!  If you are still working yourself through a final week before break, you may enjoy a few simple activities with your kids!  I'm linking my blog posts to the graphics below.  My post contains pictures and links to additional freebies. 

 Lots of Resources Featured!

Silence For Sandy Hook Elementary

Simple tribute to the Victims of Sandy Hook Elementary School

We at Blog Hoppin are heartsick over the tragedy that occurred at Sandy Hook Elementary School. As fellow teachers, our prayers and tears are with those affected by this senseless tragedy. As a form of our support for the families of the teachers, principal, and students who lost their lives, we will be joining many teacher bloggers throughout the country in a day of silence on Sunday, December 16. Simply put, we will only be posting this image on Blog Hoppin and titling our post "Silence for Sandy Hook Elementary." Please join us in this simple, but powerful memorial for the precious lives lost on Friday. Thank you to Farley at Oh' Boy 4th Grade for creating this tribute.

Peace and blessings, Cindy

Polar Express Movie Party Ticket

Next week my first graders and I are going to watch the Polar Express in our pajamas while enjoying hot cocoa.  I created tickets to invite them to the party and a few other extension activities.  Grab this free download by hopping over to my blog.  Click on any of the pictures above.

Thanks! 

Erica Bohrer

Hey Friends, 
It's Michelle from Fabulous in First. Erica Bohrer and I just started a Linky Party. We took a break from teacher talk to do a fun post on holiday gift ideas. We'd love to have you link up. Show us what you are buying for the holidays and help others out who need some great gift ideas. You can link up at Erica's blog or my blog. Can't wait to see your gift giving ideas, because Tis' the Season to Shop! 

Short Vowel Clip Art and Some Freebies

Hello Blog Hoppin' friends. I have been spending some time on my new passion. Can you believe that I am actually making my doodles into clip art? I have done so much research on how to do this, but have not found an easy way. It is very time consuming for me, but I love it. Here is a sample of short vowels clip  art that some friends requested. I love drawing:) Make sure to go to the end of this post for some freebies.

Click here to see where you can download these short vowel graphics, if you need them.

Here are some Christmas freebies. 

Just right click on each picture to save them to your computer. Make sure to read my terms by clicking here.

The Grinch, Gingerbread Cowboy, and a Freebie!

Hello Blog Hoppin Fans!  I know it's been a busy couple of weeks for all of us for sure!! I've been getting ready for the holidays by doing tons of shopping and just about the same amount of decorating! I feel just as busy in my classroom! One of the traditions I started last year came from an idea I found on Pinterest (SO ADDICTING!!). It was posted at What the Teacher Wants. My students love coming into the classroom to check their boxes for notes. Each student has a box. I got these boxes at Michaels. As they finish their assignments they can get a small paper to write a nice note to someone in the class. The idea is that since the Grinch's heart is 2 sizes too small, we will try to make his heart grow bigger by saying nice things about each other. Each week we notice the Grinch's heart growing a little bigger. They love it!!!

This week we finished up an activity I have in my Holiday Literacy Center Unit. They love the Gingerbread Cowboy! It is a favorite here in Southern Arizona! After reading the story, the students came up with a different ending to the story. Here's how a few turned out!

You can download the Gingerbread Cowboy activities and other literacy center games and activities by clicking the picture link below.

We also got started with the Christmas Math Centers! Here is a fun game that they love!! They are learning how to add 3 digits so they play this Gingerbread game for practice.

You can download it by clicking the picture link below.

If you are needing more Math center games you can check out my Holiday Math Centers. Just click the picture links below. The 3 digit Gingerbread math game is part of this larger unit.

Hope you have a wonderful weekend!!