Hilarious Classroom Halloween Party Treats!

Oh my goodness! These are hilarious and SO cute! Have you seen them? I just had to post this picture here to show you! I've been searching Pinterest for new ideas for party treats and gifts for coworkers and the kiddos. If you are planning a party or looking for some yummies for your own child to pass out to classmates, you might like these too! They are good for a laugh either way!

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We usually serve up cider and donuts at our classroom party, so this will definitely work!

I spotted bags full of fangs at Target the other day for three dollars and I'm going back for them. 

I'm pretty sure you can pick up the candy eyes at Michael's or Target in the aisle with the baking stuff.

Done! 

Last Week of School Activities

I am officially on summer vacation now that district math curriculum mapping work is done! But before I jump into my summer blogging series that I'm really excited about, I thought I'd flash back a little here and show you some of our end of the year fun! Our last week of school was short and sweet! With only one full day and two half days, we tried to squeeze in all of the activities we could! Here's a peek at our last week!

The kids had a blast lookin through all of the projects from the year as we filled up our pizza boxes with all of their keepsakes! 

The parents loved the finished projects too!

The kiddos had been working hard on a little memory book from Michaela Peterson.
We mounted the book pieces on polka dot paper. They turned out super cute!

In order to get them excited about reviewing for third grade, the class also decorated the cover and previewed their summer practice books by Amy Lemons. 

When they bring it back completed in the fall, I will give them a special certificate and treat! Suggestions?

I always like to give my new class a letter of some kind on the first day of school that was written by the expert second graders. 

My experts published their Words of Wisdom . It's a freebie from Lucky Little Learners.

After the first full day, we wiped down the room and organized like crazy. Then we stacked up all of the tables and chairs so carpets could be cleaned. This left two half days with no pencil/paper tasks which was lots of fun. It also gave us a huge space for other great activities!

I have taken a zillion photos of the class in action. This year, rather than sending home a DVD, I uploaded them all to Photobucket and shared the link with parents so they could save or print them. We gathered together to watch the 45 minute slideshow on the SMARTBoard. The kids had forgotten about the fun we had at the start of the year, so they really enjoyed it!

A few kindergarten siblings had spent their PBIS coupons to visit our classroom for the day. They were a delight. I checked out a microphone and they performed their nursery rhymes for us. 

Too cute!

On the last day, I gave the kids their special mini-frame word clouds. 

They loved them even more than I thought they would!

Since we had all that open carpet space, we sat in circle and played a few rounds of hot potato by passing around a beach towel.

My Teamie had reserved the Kona Ice truck for all of the second graders. 

We all gathered on the playground and enjoyed the special last day treat!

Our room parents organized a Hula Hoop contest for the kiddos afterward. 

This was so much fun and I will definitely do it again next year! 

It was a rush at dismissal so I was happy there was no time for a long, drawn-out, sappy, teary goodbye (by me). It was hugs or high fives and a see ya later! 

The staff all went out to wave off the buses and then relaxed and enjoyed a fabulous BBQ potluck luncheon.

It was a great last week with my oh so sweet class! :) I am really going to miss seeing them every day.

 HURRY UP SUMMER!
You all know that I am a summertime girl and how much I love the beach and lounging at the pool! Well, the weather has not exactly cooperated during my first week off for my favorite summer fun activities to start yet. But that's OK (for a few more days only) because I've jumped into some big home organizing projects I never have time for during the school year. During cleaning breaks or if I see the sun peek out, I've also been doodling away on the patio creating a few new fonts I think you will love for your littles.

Check back soon to see the reveal and to kick off a summer of blogging fun!

What have you been doing with your summer so far?
I hope that it is off to a great start!
:)

St. Patrick's Day Party Treats!

It's always fun to add a little treat to any holiday celebration in the classroom! I usually give the option to parents to send something in if they like. The parents this year went all out! They are just the best!

There were tons of grapes, a few different kinds of cookies and even some pickles! 

 Share your fun ideas or cute treats!

St. Patrick's Day ELA Teaching Resources and a Treat Bag Topper

What are your plans for the big day?

We are celebrating with green treats, leprechaun activities, wearing green and sporting some silly accessories! 

The cute leprechaun craft is from Miss Kindergarten.

Are you thinking about surprising your little leprechauns with a treat on St. Patrick's Day?

This is my kind of gift, quick and easy! 

All you need are some sandwich baggies, some gold Hershey Kisses and a cute poem to staple to the top!

And there you have it!

You can grab the topper here if you like! :)

If you are searching for some other quick and fun leprechaun activities to do with your class on St. Patty's Day, you might like this "wee" bundle of ELA printables for the holiday!

                                        

 The kids already started working on a few of the activities. 

We are making some class books to display for conferences! 

I have a St. Patrick's Day Pinterest board full of more cute ideas for March fun!

 This is my favorite Pin from A Differentiated Kindergarten! Ha Ha!

She has a tutorial to show you how to make the green feet if you want to play a little trick on your kiddos Monday morning!

Groundhog Day Classroom Fun!

A SHADOW??? Oh boy! I'm not all that happy with Phil right now, but I'm still sad to see him go! We said goodbye to groundhog as we finished up our furry friend activities today. The kids had lots of fun in the days that we spent learning more about groundhogs, shadows, hibernation and celebrating the silly side of the event.

 It was a jam-packed two days of playing catch-up from our snow days off so we didn't quite get to publish our peeker writing project, but the groundhog heads went up on display anyway! Isn't he cute?

The craftivity comes with paws to hold onto an expository writing piece about groundhogs. 

The kids each made their shadow predictions on Friday and we created a class graph.

 This year, I decided to make printable pieces and laminate them to reuse, rather than create a new graph each year on butcher paper. The whiteboard worked great for this!

As you can see, we ran out of room with so many YES votes! 

Oh well. Our graph is not completely accurate, but it was cute!

The students kept tally as each child voted and then created a graph on their own recording sheet. 

Afterward, we talked about our data, made comparisons, did some mental math and wrote a summary statement about our graph. 

We also read this sweet Groundhog Day story, Gregory's Shadow. It's always a favorite and a great one for leading into the science of shadows.

We talked about shadows and how they are created. The weather kept us inside, but we may venture outside to test out our groundhogs and make shadow observations as soon as we can! 

There is a great Groundhog Day video on Safari Montage for those of you who may have access. The students learned a lot about woodchucks, hibernation and the history of the Groundhog Day tradition.

We learned even more with some reading activities too! The video introduced some new vocabulary which was very helpful.

Several times each week, we work on a nonfiction selection. This reading selection about groundhogs was used as a guided highlighted reading activity. 

First, the students number each paragraph. Then, I give verbal directions about what they need to look for and highlight in the selection. 

For example, I will say...

In paragraph 3, highlight the part of the sentence that tells the reader when the groundhog goes into the burrow to hibernate. 

or... 

In paragraph 1, highlight the proper noun that names the continent where groundhogs live.

There is no script, I just make it up as I go! 

The kids are getting to be really good at this skill. 

This is a great stepping stone for being able to provide text evidence.

If you have never tried a highlighted activity like this, I highly recommend giving it a try! You get a lot of bang for your buck while combining a reading lesson with science and a holiday theme!

For reading fluency practice, we worked on repeated readings of this Fun on Groundhog Day poem. This one was great for talking about rhythm! 

After reading and coloring them, our weekly poems go into the student's poetry binder. We have a really nice collection going!

You can find all of the printables, the graphing pieces and the craft here if you are interested.

 The kiddos really enjoyed our yummy last hurrah by putting together their groundhog burrow pudding cups with Oreo dirt and a tiny Teddy Graham peeking out!

 It was easy peasy and adorable!

Thanks for stopping by to take a peek into our classroom!

 Hope you were able to get some ideas for your class too!

 :)

Getting Ready for Groundhog Day and a Freebie!

That groundhog had better not see his shadow! I've never been more anxious for warmer weather! I love a surprise snow day here and there, but I am so ready to get out of the house and see my kiddos tomorrow! It's been absolutely frigid so I've mostly been hibernating inside, although I did venture out today to do a few errands. I have also kept busy cleaning, creating, and finding cute ideas for Groundhog Day on Pinterest.

Here are some adorable treats I found for my Groundhog board!

I never get to pack a lunch for a little one anymore, but this was just too stinkin' cute not to share! It falls under the too cute to eat category!

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Now this one, I may make for my class to enjoy on Monday!It looks like chocolate pudding with crushed Oreos on top, some almond slivers for ears and chocolate frosting dots on a Nilla Wafer for a face. ADORABLE!!!!

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With Groundhog Day on a Sunday this year and so many days home due to the cold, I won't be able to spend an entire day devoted to all things brown and furry, but I thought my Pins would be good to keep for another year.

 I also spent my work at home day updating and expanding this Groundhog Day Pack!

It includes activity pages, reading passages, poems, writing pages and more in color and printer-friendly black and white. 

A craft is also included for a fun shadow puppet. If the weather is nice, I take my class outside with their puppets to see if our groundhogs see their shadow. We also use them at recess and they make shadows on the wall near the lamps and in front of the overhead projector lamp! They love this! I only had old tracers for my little guy and so I made new patterns to include in the set as a craftivity to double as a writing peeker too!

There are also pieces that can be used to create a large class graph on a whiteboard, on butcher paper or on a bulletin board. Kiddos can add their yes/no card to the graph. There are title posters and header cards for the graph because it's got to be cute! While each child comes up to cast their vote, the rest of the class can tally and later graph the data collected on the recording sheet.

One of the items in this pack is a fun word search. You can download this little hurry up spring freebie here! 

I hope you can use it with your class!

Well... Hi Ho, it's off to work I go... tomorrow for sure! 

Have a great end to your week!

A Christmas in the Classroom Rewind

Don't you wish we could all rewind and do our favorite parts of the Christmas holiday again? I want to rewind back to the start of break! This is just going by too fast! In the rush of the holiday, I barely posted any of the fun we had in the classroom leading up to the big day! Here are some highlights!

Parent Gifts

The students sponge-painted wooden frames from Michaels. We added snowflake punches (made with a Martha Stewart tool), a little Mod Podge to seal the cutouts and paint, some crystal glitter and a pretty bow. This was their gift to their families. I asked that the kiddos earn the money to pay for the materials for the craft by doing chores around the house. The students had to turn in sentences they wrote, on a special paper, telling what they did to earn the $3. The parents really liked this idea! :) The frames were so easy to make and they turned out beautifully!

Santa Letters

These jolly giant elves, our fun administrators, delivered a snowy envelope from the North Pole! Each child had written to Santa earlier in the month and he wrote back to all of them in a personalized letter! Shh...don't tell... Our second grade team buddied up with a high school language arts class. The high school students write back to the kids and decorate the letters! 

 This student asked for a butler and his Santa is sporting a tank top!

The Santa stationery is from Nicole Shelby!

The letters were adorable! Santa returned them and they are going into the end of the year keepsake box! This is a flashback from my First Grade Gallery blog! 

 You might find some other cute ideas for your classroom there! 

 Our Shelf Elf

We had all sorts of fun with our friend, Jingles.

 Here he is reporting back to Santa through the Elf on the Shelf website!

 Jingles also reminded students to be bucket fillers and to follow the classroom rules throughout the month! He left awards and treats during his visit with us! You can read more about our classroom elf here.

Holidays Around the World

The kiddos studied how December holidays are celebrated around the world. This was a perfect activity for that long last week because they were really into it! Each partner group was assigned a different country to research. They read a passage aloud (after many practice reads for fluency) to the class and then summarized the main ideas from that country's traditions and customs. I was able to take several grades (speaking, listening, oral reading fluency and main idea) in one activity and the students learned so much from each other!

 The passages we used are from 24/7 Teacher

 Present Time!

This was just one of the many gifts from my class! Yes, I'm a spoiled rotten teacher! Each child added their thumbprint to this canvas frame. It has a bow at the top and when standing on end, looks like a present! I LOVE this! 

Of course, I got many other adorable holiday things, gobs of sweet treats, useful items for home and school and gift cards to my favorite places which I really appreciate! 

Here's a great idea to adopt~ our PTO asks teachers to compile a wish list and favorites list which is shared with the room parents. The room parents organize a class gift by sending home a letter. The kids know me so well, they know just what I like anyway, and many picked out things for me themselves! So sweet!

Project Central

We made many projects for bulletin boards and to hang around the room during the month. These cute ones are from A Cupcake for the Teacher! 

Feeling Grinchy

It was Grinch theme for the classroom party!

 This student had Cindy Lou Who hair! 

I encouraged the students to dress in wacky and festive holiday wear! These are a few fun hats!

No party is complete without some very special treats. These Grinch cookies, reindeer candy cane yummies and Grinch kabobs were my favorites! 

My room parents organized the party crafts and treats! I'm so blessed to have their help!

 The kids made Grinch ornaments like this one too!

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My room mom also wrapped up our door like a present! 

To see more classroom fun from last year's Polar Express party, click here.

My Mommy Rewind

December was great fun and I'm sad that it's done. With my own little cutie pie all grown up and teenager-ish, I'm happy I get to experience the holiday magic through the excitement of the littles in my class! 

Aww... look how cute he is... this is a big blast from about ten years in the past!

(Note~Santa is allergic to milk!)

 I wish I could really rewind and relive these happy times again! They grow up so fast!

He doesn't cooperate for a photo shoot like he used to, that's for sure! 

 My little boy is 6 feet tall now and puts the bow on top of the tree! 

Here we are today making new holiday traditions like a laugh-your-head-off game night with Grandma!

Well, that's a holiday wrap! I hope you found some great ideas to put in your December file for next year! :)