Cute Christmas Gifts and Giveaway

I'm joining Little Warriors in her Best Teacher Gifts Ever Linky Party.  While her gifts were totally awesome (you should check them out on her site!), mine were pretty clever, too.

1. 

I think this one was Pinterest-Inspired!  I need new socks, and love Bath & Body Works lotion, so it is totally appreciated.

Two pairs of socks and some lotion

2.
This unique cookbook from schools across the country has some yummy looking recipes.  I will love reading the dog book, too!



A Taste of Home cookbook with recipes from teachers!
Dog Lover's Devotional book

3.
Do you have a Culver's near you?  It's a restaurant that's famous for their delicious custard.  The packaging of these gift cards was so cute!

Culvers gift card with in one of their cups with white raffia inside to represent ice cream.

3.
A grandma of a student who works in my classroom presented me with this decorative plate!  It matches the colors in the my kitchen so it's perfect!

Love this wooden plate from my class - they all signed their names on the back.


I'm taking part in a New Year's Giveway with my friend Jen from Sparkling Second.
Each item in the giveaway is brand new from some creative bloggers.
My contribution is a word work week-long unit for the -tion chunk.

We use Words Their Way but don't have any of the books so have to make up the sorts and activities on our own.
This packet includes two levels of word sorts so you can easily differentiate instruction.
The titles for each of the activities includes a -tion word, too!

Suggestions for reading -tion words!

There are word sorts for the classroom, and for homework, too!



I also included some math work with the sorts!  There are two levels of this activity included, too!

You can find this product in my TpT store here.
Or,
check out Jen's blog to win this product and others by December 31!



Five for Friday - More Christmas Crafts!

I just love Winter Break.  Its' so nice to have time to relax, sleep in, cuddle with the dog, etc. etc. Oh yes - there are Christmas doings to prepare for, but there's a different layer of (fun) stress associated with that.

 

On to my Five for Friday post. 

Thanks to Doodle Bugs for the linky!

 

1.

My teaching partner and I are leading a monthly after-school S.T.E.M. Club for third and fourth graders.  This past week we had them do some Candy Cane Science experiments, and I created a tri-fold for them to record their predictions and observations.

You can get it free in my TpT store!

 

2.

We've been working on more Christmas Crafts during the last 2 weeks!

Recently we made these simple ornaments.

We just used snowflake stickers and sequins to decorate plain white balls.

I love the ribbon I found for  hanging. 

 

3.

We did an update of the mitten wreaths I had mentioned in a previous post.

The students cut out mittens from a holiday scrapbook pack I purchased at JoAnns.

They then used glue to place the mittens in a pattern, and I hot glued the tops of the mittens onto the paper plate so they laid flat.

We added a ribbon bow and a string for hanging on the back.

Each was different but turned out cute!

 

4.

At the last minute I decided to have my third graders make a card from green cardstock that I had.

I was inspired by all the cute reindeer thumbprint ornaments I've been seeing on various blogs.

We used a brown stamp pad for the thumbprints, and added details and border with markers.

They wrote a sweet note on the inside for someone special.

 

5.

At our classroom party I gave a my students a book from Scholastic, and a pencil case that I had purchased last summer for a penny!

I can't remember if they were from Office Max or Office Depot, but they were a special deal at one of the Back to School sales.

I added some Washi Tape, and a snowflake label with their name on, and they were pleased as punch.

 

Hope you are enjoying a wonderful holiday break!

 

Five for Friday - Christmas Crafts!

I'm joining up with Doodle Bugs for my first Five for Friday Linky in a loooong time.

 

And I'm actually going to shake this Five for Friday post up a bit, and share five ideas for Christmas crafts.  These are crafts we've done over the last few years, and now that I'm a blogger I have the opportunity to pass these ideas along.

Most were not my original idea, but something I saw in a magazine or got from one of my creative colleagues.

 

1.

Tree Wall Hangings

I purchased 10 packs of artist's canvas boards for these wall hangings. 

The gray border was better on the student pieces because they used a thin line of fabric paint.

The snowflake and silver circles were from Michaels.

The parents loved these.

 

2.

Mitten Wreaths

I found blue paper plates and cut the inner circle out.

Then I made cardboard templates for the students from a mitten shape I had.

We used scrapbook paper for the mittens, and paper punched from the scraps for accents on the solid color pieces.

I liked that this craft could be on display through the winter months.

 

3.

Snowman Doorknob Hanger

Home Depot donated the paint sticks that we painted white on the bottom, and black on the top.

A craft stick was painted black for the brim of the hat.

We painted on the facial features, and added googly eyes.

I used a hot glue gun for the raffia and button the hat, as well as the string hanger.

 

4.

Decorated Placemat

I found some stencils and foamy stickback tape at Walmart. 

The students colored various designs on the placemats, and then added the different varieties of foamy tape.

 

5.

Dog Biscuit Reindeer Ornament

These were so cute!

We started with a larger dog biscuit and used a hot glue gun to attach the antlers (slotted craft sticks broken in half) and ribbon hanger.  We turned them over after they were dry and attached the nose and googly eyes.

This one was my model and I lost one eye, and I couldn't find a replacement that was the same size. 

So,  this one looks a bit goofy. 

With the same size they're very cute.

 

I'm always on the lookout for new crafts if you have some to share!

 

I also wanted to let you know about a giveaway that I am a part of.

Lacey, at The Fabulous Life of an Elmentary Teacher, is having a giving away 12 winter-themed products, as well as a $25 TpT gift certificate.  Check it out here

The giveaway ends on December 13.  Good Luck!

 

OMG - It's Currently Time Again

Yes - it's been a month since I blogged! I have the best intentions to share more posts but somehow one thing or another gets in the way.  At any rate  - here goes!

I had watched the first few episodes of  The Voice and liked one guy enough to buy one of his songs on iTunes.  The next time I caught an episode he was gone.  Darn. 

 

Over the weekend I was able to do a good cleaning of my garage.  I love driving in now and seeing how spotless it is. 

 

We're working on writing non-fiction pieces, and I'm getting my thoughts together on the best approach for tomorrow.  I also hope we have enough books for researching.

 

Even though I'm good on the cleaning, I'm behind on the decorations. This coming weekend is targeted for tree set-up, etc.

 

I have been on the look-out for some black boots but haven't found any in my price range that I like.

 

I love our tradition of going to Christmas Eve mass around 4:00, and then going out to dinner.  We've found quite a few nice restaurants still open on Christmas Eve (although I feel for the people who are working), and then we open presents at home afterwards. 

I wanted to share some pics from my classroom while I'm here!

This is one of the "I Can...." statements I created for our non-fiction unit.

 

We started the unit by looking for text features in big books.

 

 

Our local Lions Club came to our school to do a presentation, and gave each of our third graders a dictionaries.  The students love them!

 

And - yes, the items in my TpT store are on sale today and tomorrow!

Thanks to Farley for hosting the monthly Currently party!