Only 3 Hours Left!

I just found out from What the Teacher Wants' Facebook page that since TPT runs on eastern standard time, there are only a few hours left for their amazing Leap Day sale.  Whoops!  I hope you will hop on over to check out my little TPT shop.  I may or may not have bought six a unit or two today and am so happy I did.  This sale is an amazing deal!  Happy shopping :)

Click {HERE} to visit my store, and don't forget to enter the code L2P9Y at checkout to save an additional 10%

Happy Leap Year... HUGE Discount at my TPT Store

Get 20% plus an additional 10% off at my TPT store starting RIGHT NOW!

Click {HERE} to start shopping!

The Sunday Blues, and a SALE!

I have a SERIOUS case of The Sunday Blues.  All I want to do is plan which PJs I will change into next, or which errands I can do at a very leisurely pace next week on vacation.  Instead I am lesson planning and writing 22 progress reports and feeling all NERVOUS about tomorrow.  I haven't seen the little ones in nine whole days, which to a four year old (and maybe even to a 27 year old) is an eternity!

In other news, EVERYTHING in my TPT store is 20% off from today through Wednesday the 29th.  On Wednesday, TPT will give you an addtiional 10% off, which means that everything will be 30% off.  I think.  The banner that TPT gave me says 28%, but when I add 20 + 10 I get 30.  Who knows?  28% or 30%... both are a super good deal.  Woo hoo!  Just enter the promo code L2P9Y. 

Might I recommend Plants and Seeds Math, Science and Literacy Fun!

or perhaps Family Themed Word Cards and Word Walls in English and Spanish

or maybe even Fun with Fire Safety?

Happy shopping!

More Dr. Seuss Ideas

Here are a bunch of fun activities that we did last year for Seuss Week.  Click {HERE} to read about all of the details and snag some cute printables too!

Adorable Horton Activity and Writing Prompt

Cat in the Hat Rhyming Game

Seussified Self Portraits

Morning Messages from Dr. Seuss

Confessions and Dr. Seuss

I am on vacation.  It is glorious.  I am SO SO SO sorry to those of you who don't get a February break.  If it is any consolation, I'm pretty sure that this vacation started in order to save the school systems up here in the Northeast some money on heating bills.  Don't be too jealous... last year at this time I was in Cozumel drinking Margaritas in a bikini.  This year I am in sweatpants in the suburbs of Boston.  Almost as beautiful, but not quite as warm.  Wink, wink!

I have been super busy picking paint colors and forcing my boyfriend to paint and repaint our den.  To be fair, it's his fault because he insists on keeping the ugly atrocious outdated wood paneling and pretty much nothing goes with it.  So far we have tried gray, four shades of blue, two shades of green and now are moving on to a creamy beige type color.  Poor guy!  I have also been cooking, organizing, going to the gym and hanging out in my vacation uniform of yoga pants and sweatshirts.  It's magical!

In my spare time I have pinned a few fun new ideas for Dr. Seuss.  We will be having Dr. Seuss week the week after his birthday (the week of March 5th) so that the teachers kids have a week to get back in the swing of things before we start doing tons of fun and crazy activities and wearing silly outfits.

Homemade Truffala Trees!

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How freaking adorable are these?  They are made with plumbing foam (very cheap), yellow duct tape and tissue paper!  I would LOVE to have these all over our entryway on Monday morning when the kids come to school.  

Green Eggs & Ham Snack

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This is so easy!  Just two pretzel sticks, a white chocolate candy melt and a green M&M.  Easy and delicious... my two favorite things :)

Cat in the Hat Snack

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Jello and Cool Whip (I think?).  Yum!

Seuss-spiration

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I am definitely printing up one of these babies and posting it on my classroom door.  I might even think of a cute way to send it home for the parents to keep to remind them to turn those reading logs in!

What We Did on Valentine's Day...

Okay so of course I realize that this post is very belated.  I blame this on a bad case of the pre-vacation jitters.  All of the little cherubs can feel a vacation countdown in their bones.  Only 6.5 more hours until freedom (not that I'm counting or anything!).  Anyway, here are some of the fun things we did on Valentine's Day, in case you want to get a few ideas for next year :)

The Valentine Card making center was open for the week before and week of V-Day.  I was SO impressed by how much interest there was around writing!  Here are just a few of the materials available for little writers to use:

Paper phrases like "Be Mine,"  "Happy Valentine's Day" and "Hugs and Kisses," plus paper valentine decorations to fancy things up.  I ended up having to number each container because some of my little girls were slathering their cards with about 234354 decorations.

 

Paper hearts and strips of hearts using a heart hole punch

 Here are some of the cards in action.  Later I added large paper hearts for them to use as cards also.  There were also tons of sparkly stickers to jazz things up a little.

 This was a last minute and super easy gift for the little ones to give their parents.  They cut and glued a photo of themselves (well okay, we might have helped a little...) onto a foam heart that I grabbed on sale at Michael's.  They wrote their names and the year on the back, hole punched it and strung a ribbon through.  Voila!  A super fast and easy gift.

 Ms. C made these adorable "Love Bugs" with them.  I love how they all looked a little silly and different.  She used foam for the feet, a large pom pom, googly eyes and bits of pipe cleaner with a little glue.  Then they glued on a little Valentine's message from the writing center.  Ta Da!

Even though some of the card holder ideas I have seen on Pinterest are WAY cuter than these, sometimes I just love to let the kids go crazy decorating their own bags.  I had tons of stickers out, but they really seemed to like drawing the best.  After they were done, I recruited a few fourth graders to help me sort the cards into each child's bag.  BEST. IDEA. EVER.  It would have taken me a ridiculous amount of time without their help!

I hope your Valentine's was fabulous!  I was lucky enough to bribe my boyfriend into taking me out for burgers and to see The Vow last weekend.  I came home to two very pretty bouquets of flowers on Tuesday.  What a sweetie!

Valentine's Day

This link is all over the internet and you have probably seen it, but I thought I would post it anyway just in case you hadn't!  What an amazing collection of free printables.

I just printed these adorable labels to tape onto the boxes of Conversation Hearts that I bought on sale at Target a few weeks ago.  Voila!  A super fast and adorable Valentine's gift for the little ones.

Or I might go with these ones.  I'm still not sure... they are both just way too cute to handle!

I also just printed this super cute print to put in my house.  I love how it is simple and not in your face, and I love the puzzle pieces!  SO sweet.

Not sure what to get your man?  Check out my post over on The House Fairies for some very cute, creative and inexpensive ideas!

Funny Things Kids Say

My kids have been absolutely hilarious this week.  Usually they are a pretty mellow group, but lately they have been absolutely cracking me up. 

 We have been talking a lot about Valentines.  As in what do they mean, who can we make them for, how can we make sure they are special, etc.  The writing center has been turned into a Valentine card making factory.  This little friend was DYING to make a card for his cat.  Hilarious.  After I helped him sound out "Kitty," which is supposedly the cat's real name, I asked him why he decided to make a card for his cat instead of someone else in his family.  His response?  "Because my cat really loves getting mail!"

A few days later, my best amiga was observing me (she is almost done with her Reading Specialist Master's... yay!).  She watched me do a read aloud of Swimmy.  Before I started reading, I pointed out the Caldecott Medal and asked if anyone could remember what it was and what it meant.  My bff sent me the following conversation:

You: (gasp) What's this? (pointing to a Caldecott Medal)
Student: A medal!
You: What's it for?
Student: 'Cause it got beautiful pictures.

I die. ♥

 The last adorable thing my kids did this week was spontaneously integrate literacy into math centers.  This little guy started it by writing his name with our little transportation math manipulatives.  I made a big fuss about how creative and fantastic this was, and it caught on like wildfire.  Before I knew it, the rug was covered with kids using all different types of manipulatives.  They also had some great conversations about which manipulatives would be good to write your name with, and which ones wouldn't work.  Blocks are too big, they decided, but links and counting bears would be great!

Nathan, written with counting bears.

 Jalisa, written with links.

I just LOVE when the kids come up with something that is more creative than anything I could have come up with.  I will definitely be doing this center when we learn names next September. 

Currently February

I am linking up to Oh Boy Fourth Grade for my very favorite monthly fiesta.

Here we go...

Valentines Freebie

Hey y'all!  I have been super MIA lately.  I apologize profusely.  Would a cute and fun freebie make it up to you?  Yes?  Well here you go!

This fun little freebie is a class list for Valentines Day, plus a quick letter to parents explaining that this is an opportunity to integrate literacy and social studies as well as a fun celebration.  You can download it for free at my TPT Store.  Enjoy!

Hey Girl

I am being professionally developed today, and I just couldn't help but share this... hilarious!  If only Ryan Gosling lookalikes really did show up at PDs...