Randall Reindeer Finally Shows Up!

Hello, friends!  Well, I have always sort of marched to my own little drummer -- at least that is what my parents always said.  "Oh, you know Lesley.  She marches to her own little drummer."  I never really thought that was true.

But when it comes to that elf that appears every year around this time, well, yeah, I'm not marching to that drumbeat.  Not that I hold it against anyone who does.  I love the idea.  I think it's adorable and cute and gives the kids something fun to remember years from now.  My daughter still talks about all the classroom elves she's had over the years.  (4th grade now = no elf on the classroom shelf this year)  And I do want my kids to have fond memories of first grade.  But I was not giving in to the crass commercialism of the elf at 25 bucks for the kit.  'Cause I'm sort of cheap like that.

Enter a trip to World of Values last year.  As I  nosed through the store, stocking up on clothespins, googly eyes, and red pompoms to make reindeer, (you can revisit that post by clicking {here}), I wandered into the book aisle, and there I saw, in all its only $6.00 glory, Randall the Reindeer.

Oh, yeah!  Now we're talkin'!  I snapped up that little guy right quick, and he's been a classroom Christmas tradition since. (If doing it one year makes it a tradition?)  This was perfect.  Same basic concept as the elf, but none of the competition.

No, well my elf did this at home.  Or my elf did that at home.  Randall is a whole, unique ball game with no comparison, so whatever I choose to do with him in the classroom is original and fun!

He arrives around mid-December (when I dig out the December box) and stays until the last day before Christmas break.  He arrives in the classroom with a gift for the class.

This year he brought Charades for Kids.

From now until break, he will leave a naughty or nice behavior report for each child at least once.  Randall is very observant, and his reports will be specific, like, "You moved over on the riser yesterday so Lucas would have room for his feet." If he leaves a nice report, he also leaves a candy cane for the child. If he leaves a naughty report, no candy cane. So far, he has not had to leave a naughty report, but you never know...

He doesn't get up to the same mischief as the elf does.  His job is to hide where no one can find him so he can send a report back to Santa about each child's behavior.  He starts off with easy hiding places, but it will get progressively harder for the kids to find him.  When I left school today, he was hiding behind the schedule cards with just his eye peeking out.

He might get up to some mischief over the weekend.  It is pretty boring sitting alone in the classroom over the weekend.  Or maybe he'll bake us up some cookies.  Healthy ones, of course.  Or who knows. 

This year, he will bring my kiddos this Randall Report Journal where they can journal about where they found him and who got a behavior report and what they would like to see Randall do in the classroom.  You can click on the picture below to download your own Randall Report Journal -- yes, I even made a cover for all of you who have an elf.  

 Do you have any ideas for Randall?  Leave a comment below and let me know what Randall should get up to in the next 6 days.

Counting Blessings -- Celebrating with a Flash Freebie Tonight

(This started as a FB post, but I realized it was probably going to be too long.)

Just sitting at my computer watching the snow come down again, and thinking about  how blessed I am.  My son, my Marine, just received his promotion.  Yes,  you can now call him PFC Boatright.  And in exactly one week, he will be coming home for a 30-day recruiters assistant job while he waits for his schooling to start.  Very proud of him.

And yesterday, my daughter, who marches in a local marching group called Marvellete Stars, received the honor of becoming the "Up and Coming Sophomore Princess," complete with roses, a sash, and a real diamond tiara!   Okay, maybe not real, but still, it sparkles and shines.  Now, what 9.5-year-old girl wouldn't be thrilled with that?

I feel like celebrating!  I am currently working on a geography resource that I think is dynamite.  I am thisclose to being done with it, and I should finish it shortly.  

When it is finished, I will put it on flash freebie, so watch my FB page  (Hint - if I run a flash freebie, it is usually around 8-ish on Sunday evenings) tonight, December 8, for a flash freebie, followed by (in case you miss the freebie) the product being 50% off until tomorrow evening.

Have a fabulous Sunday, everyone!

Christmas Ideas Freebie Video

Hey friends! I'm super excited to share with you this fantastic new video by Tabitha Carro of Flapjack Educational Resources I found on YouTube that highlights and reviews freebies that can be found on TPT!  It's really nice to see the freebies made and described so you can get a better idea if they would work for your class.  Tabitha also provides links for all the products she highlights

If you like what you see here, you can subscribe to Tabitha Carro's YouTube video channel!

Don't forget the Cyber Sale coming up Monday and Tuesday!!!

Have a great day.

Wishlist Link Up

Did you know that Teachers Pay Teachers has a cyber sale coming up on Monday and Tuesday, December 2 and 3?

Just like all of you, I've been filling my shopping with items that I think will be beneficial to my students.  Here are a few of the items that I will be purchasing on Monday.

I am going to Christopher Teague's store and buying all levels of his sight word songs.  We use the iReady computer program with our students, and there is a really  nice analytic component to the program.  I was looking over my students performance right before Thanksgiving break, and I noticed that all my kids, across the board, were significantly lower in sight word recognition.  That tells me I need to bump up the instruction in that area, so I started looking around Pinterest for free resources, but there isn't much out there yet.  So then I checked TPT, and found these songs that will play and flash the words on the SMARTBoard for the kids to read and sing at the same time.  These will be perfect for transition times, down times, early finishing times, and they will be a great supplement to the activities I will be doing to build the high frequency word recognition skills.

I'm also looking for rhyming word clip art, so I've added these items to my cart to help  me make my morning work pages.  

And these

I love the variety and the fact that black and white images are included.  By the way, did you know that Whimsy Workshop is running a 12 Days of Christmas freebie giveaway of clip art?   You can check her blog post {here}.

I've been slowly working my way into the interactive notebook market, and I spotted that Graphics from the Pond has these little gems out.  

Honestly, I was so excited I didn't even wait for the Cyber Sale.  I bought them already!

So far that's all I have on my wishlist for the Cyber Sale.  I'm sure I'll find more as I look through the stores over the next few days.

As usual, you can visit my store, where you will find everything marked down 20 percent.  If you use the code CYBER at checkout, you will receive an extra 10% off, making your total savings 28%!  

If you're interested in seeing what's new in my store, you can look {here} or through scroll through the items in the sidebar.  

If you would like to see what other bloggers are wishlisting, you can visit Wish List Wednesday by clicking on the button below!

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Black Friday Sale!

Hey everyone!  I hope you had a fabulous Thanksgiving or first day of Hanukkah.  I'm in a bit of a food coma here, and I am anxious to just lay on my couch a bit.  I'm trying to watch the Steeler game, sadly losing to Baltimore at the moment, but it's still early in the third.  I also promised my son his Christmas present early, so shortly I will be leaving to go hang out at Game Stop until midnight to try to snag an XBox 1.

But first, I wanted to let you in on some exciting news.  Starting at midnight tonight -- or would it be midnight tomorrow morning -- everything in my store will be 20% off all day, PLUS If you make your purchase between 12am and 12pm EST on Black Friday (November 29, 2013), you can take advantage of my Buy 2, Get One free deal. Buy 2 products from my store, and I will send you one item for free that is of equal or lesser value.

                             

Now, here is the important info to take advantage of the B2GO Deal!

You must email me at practicemakesperfect1286@gmail.com BY 12:00 PM EST on November 29, 2013 with:

1. Your TpT username

2. The name of the products you purchased between 12am and 12pm EST

3. The name of the free item you would like

I will send you your choice by the end of the day on Friday!

If you haven't visited my store recently, here are some of my new products.  A holiday bundle that includes four great resources that will take you from the beginning of December through the New Year!

Here's my updated My New Year's Resolution.  I've changed all the dates to reflect the New Year of 2014 and added an interactive notebook component. (The picture is from last year.  I've changed the date on the hat to 2014)

If you're looking for something to help your students understand Hanukkah, look no further!  This package has a teacher read aloud informational text, 3 levels of guided reading texts, a focus on key ideas and details, a comparison study between Hanukkah and Christmas with a writing activity, sight word review, and math and ELA worksheets as well.

And finally, my Delicious Data Tracking is a unique and engaging way to  get your kids involved in tracking their mastery of common core standards.

A bunch of my bloggy friends are having sales too, so be sure to check out their stores.

Check out these stores for Black Friday sales!

And of course, my store will be participating in the Cyber Monday and Tuesday sale as well! Have a great weekend, everyone!

Count Down to Thanksgiving Break

I don't know about you all, but I am so ready for an extended break.  I'm just plain old tired.  We've only had one day off since school started, Veteran's Day.  We've had half days followed by faculty meetings and teacher clerical days as well.  I don't know how some schools get fall breaks and a week off at Thanksgiving and still manage to get out of school before we do?  Maybe they started earlier.

But before I can luxuriate in some time off -- well, if you don't count planning and searching out resources and checking papers and entering grades, all of which I will be doing -- we still have 2 1/2 days this week.  I know from past experience that the kids will be antsy and hard to keep focused, so I've saved some of my best November lessons for these few days.

In math, we just started formally learning about addition strategies.  On Monday, I will introduce the add in any order and count on from the bigger number strategies.  Now, technically, my kids do know about this because we've talked about turn-around facts.  I've pointed out the facts to them when we've come across them.  I've helped them think through problems with oral prompts -- you know what 4+1 equals right? So what's 1+4?  But we've never actually used manipulatives and shown how it works.

After introducing and practicing the strategies, on Tuesday the children will get the chance to practice applying the strategies while using the SMARTBoard Game I created called Turkey Toss. It is a fun game, similar to Bump, but I have added differentiation to the game by adding a few twists.  In the two-dice version, the children can add or subtract to find an open number.  The three-dice version, shown below, is played the traditional way.  I'll divide the class into two teams, and we'll use the SMARTBoard to play the game as a group.

As the children are playing, I am encouraging them to add in any order and add from the bigger number.  If they roll a 3 and a 6, I'll use think-alouds to help them by saying, "If it were me, I'd start with the 6 and count on 3.  It's a great and fun game to have the children practice addition, subtraction, strategy, and mental math.

On Wednesday, I will have the children work in groups of 2 or 3 with a game board of their own, and play the same game again.  This time, I'm circulating, watching, assessing, and seeing who is applying the strategies to solve the problems already, and who may need to have the concepts reinforced.

I've also created two worksheet to go along with the game that I will give the children as homework on Monday and  Tuesday evening.

You can find this bundled set in my TPT store.  It is bundled as zip file that includes the game in a PDF version and the Notebook file for the SMARTBoard.  Click on the picture below to see this resource in my store.

I also have a freebie for you!  If you click on the picture below, you can download this addition and subtraction practice sheet from the game.  It's one of the sheets I use for homework.  

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!  I hope you have a wonderful break with many things to be thankful for. 

Making Sentences and a Thanksgiving Linky!

Hey, everyone!  Happy Saturday!  With only a week and half before Thanksgiving, I wanted to share my fun Thanksgiving-themed freebie with you.  It makes a great center, small group activity, or even a lesson on subject and predicates.

Some of my firsties are still struggling with the concept of what makes a complete sentence.  Our reading series introduces the concept of subject and predicate by calling it the naming part and the action part.  When I use these cards with my class, I start by showing them just one piece of the sentence. 

 We identify it as either the naming or the action part, and talk about what part is missing to make the sentence complete.  We then make up oral sentences that would complete the sentence. We repeat the process with other parts of the sentence.

After doing it orally about 4 times, I put the children into groups of 2 or 3, give them wipe off boards, and a part of a sentence.  They work together to come up with the missing part of the sentence to make a complete sentence.  When they share, they say whether they had a naming part or an action part, and then read their complete sentence to the class. 

Finally, after practicing with the whole class, I put the cut apart puzzle pieces into a center, and they can use it during center time to practice matching naming and action parts of sentences to make complete sentences. each puzzle has a unique cut for self checking.

Click on the expanded pin above to download your free Subject/Predicate teaching resource.  While you're there, be sure to visit my {Thanksgiving}section for additional resources to help you through these last weeks before Thanksgiving break.

And check out my newest resource that I adapted for use in a first grade classroom in conjunction with my sweet friend, Wendy, from Teacher's Toolkit.  It's a quick and clever way to track your students' progress as they journey through the common core standards.  I have the ELA standards, and Wendy has the math standards in her store.

You can track your children's progress several different ways using this resource.  

You can track for complete mastery, partial and complete mastery, or basic, proficient, and advanced mastery.  All of this is explained in the directions on the resource.  Click the cover below if you would like to learn more about Delicious Data Tracking.  

     

You can find the link to the Wendy's Math Delicious Data Tracking in the product description on my page, or you can click {here} to visit her store.

Looking for more Thanksgiving ideas?  Click on the button below to visit Tales from Outside the Classroom and see what others are sharing!

I'm also linking up this post to another Thanksgiving freebie hosted by Life Over C's.  Head on over there for even more Thanksgiving-themed freebies!