Elfcapades!

It's time for Five for Friday!

Monday was the day our elf made his official visit.  Everyone was so excited when our package arrived!  There was a letter from Santa telling us all about our elf and how to take care of him.

 We named our elf Jingle.  Jingle has been busy keeping an eye on our little sweeties.

On Monday Jingle stayed on top of my desk.

Tuesday, he ventured out to the chandelier!  

He had a better view of us during circle time!

Wednesday, he flew on top of the projector of the Teamboard.

On Thursday, Jingle settled right next to our class rules.  Imagine that!  

We made our own elves.

 They did a fabulous job of listening and following directions.  Check out those 'waiting hands' before we move on to the next step.  :)  We have been working very hard on that.

 

I got the idea for the elf craftivity from The First Grade Parade.  I think they turned out pretty darn cute!

We also have been keeping a journal of our 'elfcapades', which was a part of Cara's post.  You can check it out HERE.

Depending on the level of my little learners, we worked on color recognition and color word recognition.  

You can grab these for free HERE.

We also read 'Mooseletoe' and made these.  Love!

Link up 5 random facts about your week at Doodle Bugs Teaching!

Also, be sure to check out the Elf in the Classroom Linky Party hosted by Mel D from Suesstastic and Michelle from Apples and ABC's!

Thanks for reading!  Have a great day.  :)

Christmas Questionnaire

I am linking up with Michelle from Fabulous in First for a fun little Christmas Questionnaire.  

{I love getting to know other bloggers through these linkys}

Hot Chocolate or Eggnog?  I know I am weird, but I do love eggnog!  I drink the Silk soy milk version so it's not that rich, but it has a great flavor.

Does Santa wrap presents or just leave them under the tree?  When I was growing up Santa just left presents under the tree, but with my own kids Santa wrapped them.  He wrapped my daughter's presents in one kind of wrapping paper and my son's in a different type.  If the present was too big to wrap, Santa would sometimes leave clues and take the recipient on a 'treasure hunt' to find it.

Colored lights or white?  I have gone back and forth over the years, but white probably wins out over colored.  When my kids were little, I tended to lean towards colored.  Now I use white more often.

When do you decorate?  When my kids were small we would decorate the weekend after Thanksgiving.  Now, I am a little slower to get on the decorating train!  It's already December 12th and we have yet to put up a tree!  That's bad!!!

Real or fake tree?  That is another thing I have gone back and forth on.  When my kids were small we would go to a Christmas tree farm and cut one down.  Those were some great memories.  The past couple of years I have had a fake tree.  I was just telling my significant other I was ready for a real tree again.

What tops your Christmas tree?  An angel tops my tree.  It was a present from many, many years ago that has special meaning.

Favorite Christmas memory or tradition?  Growing up, Midnight Mass was our Christmas tradition.  I did that with my own children, too.  We also watched a very special movie, but that will be answered later.  :)

Do you remember your favorite gift as a child?  Absolutely!  I was one of eight children growing up.  My dad was an English professor and my mom stayed at home while we were young.  We did not have a lot of extra money, so when I received two baby dolls (boy and girl twins) I was over the moon!  

Do prefer giving or receiving?  GIVING!  I love picking out the perfect present for someone.  It is so hard for me to keep it a secret.

Favorite Christmas song?  There are so many I love from a traditional mass that it is hard to name just one.  I also love the soundtrack from Love Actually.

Candy Canes. Yuck or Yum?  Just ok for me {unless it is crushed and embedded in ice cream :)}

Favorite Christmas Movie?  Muppet Christmas Carol was a movie my kids and I watched growing up every Christmas.  Loved it!  Now-a-days, my daughter and I always watch Love Actually.  Such a great movie!

Do you shop online or at stores?  Both.  Online is nice because you can find what you want fast.  However, I love being able to see something before I buy it.  It is also fun to go shopping with someone and making a day of it.

Photo cards, letter, or store bought cards?  Love photo cards!  I, however, send store bought cards.  I am not sure anyone would want my mug on a card.

Thanks for reading!  Have a great day.  :)

Gingerbread 5 for Friday!

Our theme this week was The Gingerbread Man.  We read several versions, including the Gingerbread Baby and the ever so popular 'Gingerbread Boy' by Paul Galdone.  Year after year this is a class favorite.  I have the CD reading of the book, which captures and keeps my little ones' attention.  This picture is one of my all time favorites. While we were getting ready for circle, one of my afternoon sweethearts asked if he could play the CD and read the book.  Of course I said YES!  I love it when my littles show an interest in books.  When I looked over I saw this.  :)  It made my heart sing.  How sweet is this that he was holding the book so everyone else could follow along?!  LOVE!

We also measured gingerbread picture with Unifix cubes.  We compared and talked about greater than and less than.  Big stuff for pre-k'rs!

The  little bakers played a fun game during circle time.  After a letter was called out, the first one to scoop it up with a spatula got to keep the 'gingerbread cookie'.  Each little learner counted his/her cookies at the end to work on counting with one to one correspondence.

Of course, we had to go on a school wide search to find the Gingerbread Man who was leaving us clues.

After leaving clues all over, we eventually found his friends in our classroom!

 He was delicious!  Snip, Snap!

Here is a picture of our door for December.  The littles love it!

Next week I have a feeling that we may be getting a visit from an elf.  :)

I redid my 'Where is the Gingerbread Man?' emergent reader.  Click HERE or on the picture to grab your new copy.

What did you do this week?  Link up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for the weekly Five for Friday Linky Party.

Thanks for reading!  Have a great day.  :)

Currently December!

Holy Smokes!  I can not believe it is already December.  November just flew by!  It is time for CURRENTLY hosted by Farley over at Oh'Boy 4th Grade

LISTENING: With such a crazy busy weekend the laundry was piling up.  I love lazy Sundays to get caught up on necessary evils, such as laundry, cleaning, and paperwork.  There is nothing like hunkering down in the afternoon with no place to go just getting caught up on things.  Of course once the Chiefs came on TV I am nervously listening to and watching the game.

LOVING: I love this time of year.  There is such an excitement with the little ones in my class that is contagious.  I also love spending quality time with family and friends during the holidays.

THINKING:  Wow!  I can't believe there are only three weeks until Christmas.  I need to get a move on with decorating and shopping!

WANTING:  A peppermint mocha from Starbucks or a concrete from Custard's!  I can't wait to find out the new flavors for December.

NEEDING: I am finished with all but one class this semester.  I need to motivate myself to finish this week's assignment!!!

FAVORITE TRADITION: My sister has a killer peanut brittle recipe.  The sisters get together to make several batches.  It's such fun and great bonding between us.  

On another note, be sure to check out the sale on Teacher's Pay Teachers Monday and Tuesday.  I will have 20% off my products and with the extra TpT promotion you can save 28%.  I just posted a Gingerbread Math Pack.

 

Here are some of the activities from the pack.

They are aligned to Kindergarten Math CCSS.

I also recently added There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Bell

and There Was a Cold Lady Who Swallowed Some Snow.  

The great thing about these packs is that they are pretty much print and go, so it saves you lots of prep time during this busy time of the year!

Thanks for reading!  Have a great day.  :)

5 for Friday & a Gingerbread Man Freebie

It's time for another Five for Friday hosted by Doodle Bug's Teaching.

This short week at school was action packed!  Here are a few of our activities.

 We played a math game using turkeys, feathers and dice.  After rolling the dice, each little learner gave a turkey that many feathers.  We talked about greater than and less than, too.

Another math game consisted putting beads on pipe cleaners.  This idea came from Pre-K Pages.  The littles loved both games.  

We also made this turkey craft.  They used their their fingers to paint the paper plate.  This can be very hard for the sweeties who hate getting their hands messy.

We also made these turkey headbands.

I love how they turned out!

We had a feast!

 We had a great turnout of family.  

I think Thanksgiving may be one of my favorite holidays.  I love getting together with family and enjoying good company and good food!

 We had a hand drawn banner and everything!

I also appreciate all the support I have received from the blogging community and the supporters of my TpT and TN stores.  To show my appreciation I will have all items in both stores on sale.  My TN shop will have items on sale from Saturday through Monday.  My TpT shop will have items on sale Monday and Tuesday.

Also enjoy this Gingerbread Man freebie using positional words.  Click HERE to download.

Thanks for reading!  Have a great day.  :)