Heavy Heart

I came to post about a giveaway, but it just doesn't seem like the thing to do right now. My heart is heavy, thinking about all those innocent children in Conneticut, and all those families whose lives are being turned upside down by this tradgedy. I can't make sense of it, just as I've not been able to make sense of any school shootings anywhere in the world. Why?

As teachers, we can't help but think about our own school situations. We know no place is immune, but are we doing all we can to make our schools the safest they can be? Schools are run by routines, and anyone with bad intent just has to study those routines to figure out a way to get in. All we can do is keep our doors locked, stay alert, and practice our emergency procedures. And keep a big bat by our classroom doors.

Please pray for the children, staff, and families of Sandy Hook Elementary.

Crashing and Burning

In my previous post, I talked about the stress that disrupted schedules can cause to a school day. Well, it is Wednesday evening, and we made it through the schedule distruptions with minimal damage! Tomorrow will be a normal schedule, normal learning day. Praise God!

The only fatality is me! I'm crashing and burning right now. It started on the way home from school with sneezes and a scratchy throat and is now progressing to headache and stuffy nose. Boo :( I see two nyquil tablets and an early night in my future!

Here's a picture I snapped of my little elves. Aren't they the cutest little bugs?

They made and wore these darling elf hats freebie by Over the First Grade Rainbow.  We made 5 different crafts in a little over two hours and ended with a cup of hot chocolate.   I could never have done it without my parent volunteers.  I'm so grateful for the willingness of our parents to help out in school.

Click on the picture to get your freebie Elf Hats for next year!

That's it for me tonight.  I'm off to take my Nyquil!

Schedule Disruption Survival Plan

Before I begin this post, I must make a disclaimer:  I really do love the holiday season.  I love the traditions that surround Christmas, the concerts, the crafts, the Santa's Shops.  I really do.  BUT. . .

Oh my, how they disrupt a daily schedule, and if you teach young children, you know...know...KNOW what a disrupted schedule means...hyper-vigilence on your part and ENGAGING and EXCITING activites to keep them focused.

This week we have -- Monday, dress rehersal for Christmas play.  Monday night, Christmas play, Tuesday afternoon  (all afternoon) Santa's Helper's Craft  Day,  Wednesday morning, mass, Wednesday afternoon, Santa's Secret Shop, and Friday, regulary scheduled superstar student guest reader.  That's a lot of schedule disruption.

So what's a teacher to do?  Pull out the big guns!  Pull out those extra special fun learning games to keep everyone involved.  I've got two I've been saving... one I created just yesterday, and one I created about a month ago.  In math, we've been learning addition strategies, so I created this game.

I'm using one paper dice with numbers on it and one dotted dice.  The idea is the children will practice counting on from the numbered die  instead of counting each dot on both dice.  Most of my kids are getting this concept, but I still notice some putting up fingers for both numbers when adding.  Hopefully, playing this game will help that concept sink in for a few more.  Ive also differentiated the resource by including number dice from 1-6 and 7-12.  This will give you sums to 12 or sums to 18, depending on which die you use with your dotted dice.  This resource can also be used to reinforce subtracting from the bigger number.  Don't you just love a versatile resource?

You can claim this FREEBIE from my TPT store by clicking on the picture above.  For our public school friends who may not be able to race to Bethlehem, I created an alternate version:

 

Same concept as above, but you're racing to the North Pole.  Click on the picture above to grab this FREEBIE from my TPT store.

The other game I've been saving for math class is Elf Toss.

This is a fun and fast-paced game that is similar to bump, but I've added my own unique twist to it.  It also includes worksheets that I can use as homework this work.  So math is taken care of for this week!

In language arts, I will be ditching the reading series for this week -- but not the reading series skills!  This is the week I will pull out my stories of celebrating the holidays around the world.  I have a wonderful SMARTBoard presentation that I found on SMART Exchange.  If you've never looked there, you should check it out.  I use various literature resources and crafts and interactive learning activities to illustrate how Christmas is celebrated in other countries.

In addition, I will be using my Bearly Orderly resource with the whole group and with small groups.  In addition to alphabetical order, we will be practicing phonics and writing skills.

Because of our crazy schedule this week, we probably won't have time to do more than focus on math and Language Arts until at least Thursday.  I think I've got the first three days of the week covered pretty well with my "Schedule Disruption Surivival Plan."  How do you get through weeks like this?

Chance to win a Nook Color HD!

I feel like all I've been doing lately is promote giveaways, but this is a good one!  The Top Teachers over at Tips For Teachers are giving away a boatload of free resources AND a Nook Color HD.  As soon as I finish this post, I'm running over to enter!  I'd love to put a Nook Color HD into my center rotation, and now Scholastic is offering Storia for many of their books.  If you get the enhanced stories, it makes them interactive.  I wonder if that would work on the Nook Color HD?  As someone else said, I'd sure love the chance to find out!

Good luck to all who enter!

'Tis the Season for Giving

I have two more giveaways for you to take part in.  First, rush over to Angela's blog, Hippo Hurray for Second Grade (how cute is that name?) and enter to win one or all of her prize packs.  She has two different giveaways going with great teaching resources in both packs!  But hurry because these giveaways end in two days.

From there you can stroll on over to The Realistic Teacher's Blog.  She's got 5 different prize bundles you can enter to win! Her giveaway ends in 5 days.

Congrats to both on reaching 100-plus followers!

Something Just for You: A Gift Card Giveaway

Wow, here's a super chance to win $80.00 in giftcards from Katie over at I Want to be a Super Teacher just in time for the holidays!  She has so many ways for you to win!  Be sure to click on the picture and enter her giveaway!

GOOD LUCK!

It's a Freebie Linky Party!

Thank you to the fabulous Ladies over at Feebielicious for hosting a Fabulicious Freebie linky party.  I'm sure there will be lots of great freebies, so click on the picture above to see what interests you!

Here's my newest Freebie I'm offering at my TPT store.  I'll be using this in December wth small groups.

Look for the companion products, Spn-a-Word blends.  It includes blends wtih R, L, and S, as well as follow-up worksheets!  I plan on using all of these products in small groups during the month of December, since our focus this month in our reading series is blends.

In case you missed it, this has been my best freebie.  I used this in the first month of school as we reviewed each short vowel sound, and I constantly refer to the sounds in the context of the stories when a child is sounding out words and mispronounces a vowel, as in "Remember what Miss Short U says with her umbrella?  U-u-u-u-u!"

I hope you find these resources helpful and find lots of great resources over at the Freebielicious blog!  I know I did ; )