Thursday, December 4, 2014

Gingerbread Palooza 2014: Days 1, 2 & 3

They're baaaaaaaaaack!
Monday morning, after a MUCH needed 4-day rest, it was story time & snack and I went to get out snack for those who needed one and it happened.....just like last year: I opened the cupboard and a letter and several books fell out on me.  And there stood the culprits on top of a cookie tin...the Gingerbread Friends!  Even though they scared me and riled up my students, they brought us gingerbread cookies for snack :-D

Then on Tuesday, we came into the classroom and found this MESS on the front carpet:
The GBF thought it would be fun to get out my big drawer of extra crayons and color.  Even though they don't have a binder (like each of my students) they still wanted to color a December binder cover.  AND they left us a hint....the letter G on the paper.  We concluded that one of the GBF's names starts with that letter.

Then today (Wednesday), we came into the classroom and as students put away their stuff and I put some things on my desk, the GBF were discovered.  I have a "bank" in my classroom each morning and students get paid for coming to school AND bringing their home-school binder back so we can make sure no money or notes go unread.  Well the GBF thought it would be fun to get into my cash register:

Even though they made a MESS, they did bring chocolate (coins).

They also left us a little something...
We ended up opening it and figuring it out during reading groups.



One of our GBF's names is Gina!


One of the best things about this Gingerbread FUN is that my students are doing a quick journal entry each day to describe what the GBF are up to.  This year, for some reason, I just can't squeeze in enough writing time and it's really bothering me....so this makes me happy!

Can't WAIT for what happens tomorrow with the GBF!!





Monday, December 1, 2014

TPT Cyber Monday SALE!


Click to go to my store.

I don't know about you, but I did not get up at the crack of dawn the day after Thanksgiving to go out and deal with the CrAzInEsS of Black Friday.  Cyber Monday seems so much easier and relaxed...if only we didn't have school :-D And speaking of Cyber Monday...rush on over to TPT and take advantage of all of the HUGE savings on all of the AWESOME teaching resources that are available!  All my stuff is on sale and I'm going to go pick up all the stuff I've had my eye on ;-)

I got an idea this evening when my daughter and I went to Target.  Of course we always peruse the dollar bins and they had some cute felt advent calendars. It hit me...MathVent!  For the month of December, each (school) day there will be a new math challenge problem to solve from the MathVent calendar.  Since this is a last minute idea...and I can't NOT do it since I'm already so excited about it...I'm flying by the seat of my pants with it.

The white tickets are school days when there will be a math challenge and the red tickets are non school days.
If students correctly answer the math challenge, they get a star to add to their MathVent calendar.

And finally I just wanted to share 2 pictures from this weekend.  Our tradition is to put up the tree on Thanksgiving Day (if we're not hosting).  We have vaulted ceilings in our new house so my husband suggested getting a new, bigger tree and thought a 7ft. tree wouldn't be tall enough.  So I went to Michael's late Wednesday night and bought a 9 foot tree.....holy tall Batman!  I had to use a ladder to put it together and fluff out the branches, ha!
We put our ornaments on the next day.

We also collect Christmas ornaments.  We take a picture of each one and write up when and where we got it and any other details.  Then, as we put ornaments on the tree, we read them aloud and have a great time remembering the good old days.  My son and daughter also make their own ornament each year.  My daughter always has a ball and my son always has a flat ornament.  As we decorated the tree, we put all of hers together to remember the different styles in which she did them....to get her thinking about what she wanted to do this year.  I LOVE family traditions!

Have a fantastic week everyone!