One Word New Year Resolution: Focusing on Improving FOCUS While Teaching in a Very Busy Classroom


If you could sum up a New Year resolution in just one word, what would you choose? One short but very BIG word immediately popped into my mind. It is something I struggle with on a daily basis and it just drives me bonkers! I want to stick with my goal this year so I'm not even going to call it a resolution. This year, it's more than that! I will be on a MISSION! 

What I want to improve can be summed up in this one word!


FOCUS has several meanings. I think all of them are just SO perfect for me!

focus: to concentrate
focus: a thing or place that is of greatest importance to an activity or interest
focus: a guiding or motivating purpose or principle
focus: to view clearly

Spending a day managing a busy classroom of 28 seven year old learners can cause anyone to feel like they have attention problems. It's hard to ever have a complete and organized thought without an interruption of some kind. It's a day full of constant distractions. But I also believe that life and teaching has gotten so COMPLICATED lately that it is challenging to stay on track when there is so much going on at once and so many demands. Do you feel like this too?

I can only imagine how much more effective and productive I could be at work if I could only FOCUS better. To me this means... better concentration, prioritizing tasks, sticking to a plan, and accomplishing as much as possible so I can then focus on the things and relationships that matter most in life inside and out of the classroom.

Right now, I'm honestly not sure what my MISSION will look like but here is a tentative plan:

  • limit distractions I can control like email alerts
  • make lists and remember where I put them!
  • no chit-chat during prep (mornings only)
  • finish something before moving on
  • simplify life in and out of the classroom
  • stick to my lesson plans and schedule
  • begin with the end in mind
  • be at my personal best every day
  • get out the reading glasses so I can actually see my math TE!
Hopefully my improved FOCUS will come in baby steps and I'll be able to notice a change! We'll see! :)







Tacky the Penguin Story Activities

Every January, our grade level does a fun thematic unit plan centered around the story Tacky the Penguin. I few years back, I created a packet of activities for our kiddos. I've been wanting to add to it and finally got around to doing so. I can't wait to put the activities into action when we return to school. 


Here's a peek at just a few of the many pages inside:




The item has had a complete makeover including all of the fonts and graphics. Newly added to the file is a Tacky with a shirt craft, interactive notebook flip-flap pages, room to write graphic organizers, some poetry pages and more writing and word work activities.

 I 'm pretty sure my class is going to love this, especially the penguin project! I can't wait to see how these look on our bulletin board! 

 Maybe you LOVE Tacky the Penguin too or want to add some new fun to your penguin unit plan! If so, you can read the full item description and see this packet at my TPT store {here}.

Have a Lovely, Perfect day!

Holiday Recipes for December Deliciousness: Cheesy Potatoes, Pineapple Cheese Spread, Hot Rum Cider and Poinsettia Dirt Cake


Hello my friends and happy holidays to you! I hope you had a WONDERFUL Christmas! The thing I love most about the holidays~ other than being with family and watching the kids open gifts~ is EATING my way all over town from one gathering to the next! Yummy food just happens to be our theme for this edition of the Weekend Warriors! This month, we are bringing you some December Deliciousness! I'm here to share some of my favorite holiday (or any day) recipes that you can PRINT and save in your recipe book! Here you will find an easy peasy side dish, a festive dessert, a tangy appetizer and an adult beverage too!


When someone in my family offers to entertain, everyone helps out and brings a dish. There are certain favorites that make their way to the table every time. My delicious favorite and the easiest ever thing to make is...CHEESY POTATOES! Oh, I could eat those potatoes every day of my life and never be tired of them! Do you love them too?

We ate them twice on Christmas Day! Once for brunch... and again at dinner! If you have never made them before, they are really easy! Just dump in all the ingredients, mix and bake! I usually make a huge tray and double the recipe for a party.  They can be made with all low fat ingredients and that means we can go back for seconds! :) The secret to success for me is using the Ore-Ida brand cubed hash brown potatoes. I have discovered that all hash browns are not created equally!




The kids in our family BEG for dirt cake (Oreo cookies, pudding and cream cheese) for birthdays and the holidays. I purchased a plastic pot and garden trowel that I ONLY use for serving up my dirt cake. This is my Christmas version. A plastic poinsettia stem or two peeking out from the cake adds a nice festive touch for any holiday party.






For the adults, a delicious holiday treat is some hot buttered rum punch! You can brew it in a large percolator or serve it piping hot from a slow cooker. Add a cinnamon stick and you have a wonderful warm, winter cup of goodness. It also makes the whole house smell nice!




My family loves this recipe for an appetizer that was shared by my dear friend and former teaching partner. It's one that was just told to me so I never do any measuring. It's just a mix to taste sort of thing! I serve the pineapple cheese spread with pretzel chips. I use almond slices on top instead of pecans.





All this talk about food has made me hungry! How about you?
:)

If you think you might want a copy of my recipes for your cookbook too, you can download a set of 3x5 cards {here}.
 I made a set in both color and black and white.


The Polar Express Classroom Theme Party: A Magical Bell Student Gift Idea and Free Polar Express Tickets

Every year, my class watches The Polar Express movie on the last day before break while the teacher gets cleaned up from Christmas, organizes lessons and materials for January and all of that good stuff. We have a PJ day and the students bring a small blanket and pillow to flop out on. 

Sometimes, we go all out and have a Polar Express theme party complete with a hot cocoa bar, golden tickets, reindeer treats, crafts, sound track music and tons of fun! If you have a Polar Express Day or theme party like I usually do, you might like this easy and very special student gift idea! It's a nice keepsake of their year with you too.


I found these beautiful bell ornaments at Pier 1 for $1.00 each. 
It's a small price to pay for a really nice quality bell! 


They come with a pretty ribbon already attached. I like my class to look back at their ornament years from now and remember who gave it to them, so I always add a gift tag with my name and the year on it. 

In the past, I purchased a tub full of smaller bells and used golden metallic scrapbook paper with a different tag, but I could not locate a digital file or my master to share with you! I'm so disappointed about that and sure hope it turns up somewhere! I was out of time to try to recreate one, so this year I just went with a simple tag on festive red cardstock. It says ALWAYS BELIEVE!

This is my sample from 2012. I added a burgundy velvet ribbon and it looked very much like Santa's first gift of Christmas! My name is on the back of the tag.


I did locate my colored version of the party tickets that I hole-punched as the students entered the room and some golden gift tags to share!

 You can download them here.

If you think you might like this idea to file away for next year, or to even to give to some special BELIEVERS in your family, you can still get the bells at Pier 1. I am watching for them to go on clearance and then I will pick up a class set for next year! 

I plan to bring you more flashbacks from weeks past during my time off, so I hope to see you back again over the break.

Wishing all of you a very merry Christmas! 
Enjoy the time with your family and some well-deserved lazy days!
:)



Santa's Stylish New Suit! December Holiday Projects for Second Grade

It's time for a new look for Santa! This year he is really stylin'! You are cordially invited to the annual Santa Style Fashion Extravaganza brought to you by my second grade class! This is such a fun project and bulletin board idea for December. 


A few weeks ago, we read a story about a mishap with Santa's suit! Mrs. Claus and Elvin the Elf had asked the children to help create a new suit for Santa. Our naked Santa went home with a letter and the children worked together with their parents on this fun project!

 When the projects were returned, I decided to display our Santas on the whiteboard. It almost looked like they were walking down the runway... so we called it a fashion show! One by one the children came up to the board to tell all about their suit design. This was a great listening and speaking activity.

 Here is a better look at a few of the many creative ideas!





We also did some writing and gave lots of great detail about Santa's new duds!


This activity one of the BEST things we did in the month of December and the class absolutely loved it!

What's really great is that this activity, the letter, the story and the writing pages are a freebie!


If you'd like to try this activity out some time, click on the picture above!
Thank you Nicole Shelby!
 We had so much fun with this!
:)

Let it Snow! A Beautiful School Craft for a Parent Holiday Gift

Are you looking to send home a unique hand made gift that your students can give to their parents for the holidays? If so, head on over to my guest blogger post at Primary Powers to read more about this beautiful holiday gift my kiddos made for their parents! This is a great project idea for any special occasion, not just the holidays!


I hope to see you there!
:)

Holiday Classroom FREEBIES! Christmas Sequencing Story Events - Paper Chains

'Tis the season for blog hoppin' to find all kinds of great holiday ideas and fantastic FREEBIES for the classroom! I'm linking up with my friends at Primary Powers to share some cute Christmas activities to help keep your kiddos engaged in learning activities during the month of December!


 Do you remember counting the days until Christmas by tearing off a link from a paper chain each day? 
I used to love making those in school!

This little FREEBIE is a mini chain with a different purpose!


 It's to practice ordering events. 

There are six sentence strips for each of three different stories.
There is one story about a child getting a gift from Santa, one about Rudolph and one about the Grinch. 

To make it fun and festive, I copied mine on red paper!

The Grinchy chain will be green of course!

There is even a blank template so your kiddos can write sentences to create their own story chain.

I'm not using them as a countdown chain, but just as a holiday-style reading activity.
 I think my class will really enjoy this quick and easy project.
 I hope your little ones will like it too!

You can grab the sequencing chains at my TPT store {here}!

You can also grab some cute paper for that very important letter!
 It's a sampler from my December Writing Center Kit.




 You can find the Santa letter paper {here}.

Enjoy!

Keep caroling on over to Primary Powers for more Fa-La-La-La Freebies!
 We'd love to have you link one up too! :)
:)

Holidays Around the World PowerPoint Lessons and Activities for First and Second Grade

Do you teach holiday traditions around the world to your students? It's amazing to think that across the world, children put their shoes out for St. Nicholas Day! I always loved teaching about holidays around the world to my first grade class. After some discussion with my second graders, I realized that they have forgotten basically ALL of it! They knew something about wooden shoes and that's about it.


That's when I decided to take on holidays around the world a second time around, the second grade way and we are getting out our maps and globes once again! I made this holidays around the world PowerPoint lesson to use with my kiddos over the next two weeks during our oh so short social studies block. Boy was it fun researching all of the different traditions and learning about throwing porridge on the ceiling and all sorts of good stuff!

Holiday Around The World PowerPoint Lesson


I learned so much myself in the process of researching the various celebrations so I know my class will too! As an introduction to each country we study, I am using the PowerPoint sort of as a big book on the SMART Board. There are a few slides for each country I selected.
 It includes Hanukkah and Kwanzaa.

Here is just a sample of the 70 page file:

 I'm pretty sure my kiddos will be interested and engaged with these colorful slides.

If you are interested in something like this to add to your unit, you can see the full description{here}. 

:)




December Writing Prompts for Second Grade!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...! I can't wait for all of the fun holiday teaching themes in the classroom! I'm here to share some new ideas, activities and projects for the winter holidays with all of you throughout the month! The first on the list is this December writing center. 

This one has a fun Christmas theme!


I use this as a pick-a-prompt center after the mini-lessons during my writing block!
 This month the kiddos will pull them out from a stocking!
:)

The set has 36 different prompt cards with popular holiday themes.


Isn't this clipart by Teaching in the Tongass just the cutest?

There are also lots of writing papers included.
 Just a few of them are shown here:


 My kiddos are LOVING these so I will keep monthly centers going as long as possible! If you want to read the full description you can see it {here}.



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