Polar Express Day!

One thing that I have always wanted to try in my classroom was Polar Express day!  Now that I am in a school that will allow for a little more freedom, I had the chance to celebrate Polar Express Day with my little cuties!  We had such a fun day!

The kids walked into the room to see Elfie's clue for the day.  He was in a cup of marshmallows with a train ticket, and they were so convinced we would be making marshmallows and building a train!  How cute.

We began our day by reading The Polar Express by Chris VanAllsberg.  I absolutely love this book, and my students did too.

Then we made hot chocolate from a Polar Express recipe I found on Pinterest!  All of my photos have students, so I can't share these.  But it was sure rich and chocolatey!  Find the recipe here.  We did the crockpot option and it worked very well!  

Next, I set up the room to look like a train and they got to bring some cuddly friends along for the ride.   We blew a train whistle, handed our tickets to be punched, and boarded the Polar Express to watch our movie!  

We even had our hot cocoa at the same time as the kids!  What a fun filled Christmas tradition!  I definitely plan to do this again!  

Merry Christmas to you, and only 1 more day with my babies before a much needed break!

Snowmen, snowmen everywhere!

I wanted to share with you all a super cute snowman craft and a snowman parent gift.

First, the snowman craft.  All you need is three different sized circles, two of each size per student, yarn, and scraps for decorating! 

Sorry about the poor lighting.  

Students cut circles, glue back to back on yarn, and decorate however they like!  I love them because they are two sided, each one is different, and I can leave them up until Valentine's Day!

The parent project is a snowman handprint ornament.  I'm sure you've seen these on Pinterest!  All you need for this project is glass ornaments, white acrylic paint, and sharpies.  

Students dip one hand in white paint, and I used a paintbrush to fill in any missed spots.  Then they hold out the palm of their hand, you set the ornament in it, and they close their fingers around it like you'd hold a ball.  Then I set them in dixie cups to dry over night.

Students wrote their names on them and the year.

We decorated with sharpies.  I helped! 

We are going to attach a cute poem with ribbon that goes like this:

These aren't just five snowmen

As anyone can see

I made them with my hand

Which is a part of me.

Now each year when you trim the tree 

You'll look back and recall

Christmas of 2012

When my hand was just this small!

 

Elf on the Shelf!

So I am following in many of your footsteps, and on Black Friday this year I purchased my very own Elf on the Shelf!  Now, my hubby thinks he is creepy, but I think it is so much fun for the month of December!  We all can use a little extra classroom management trick up our sleeves!

Here are some fun poses that Elfie has been caught in!

Hiding in the Sparkler jar.

He built a house out of blocks!

Reading Christmas stories

Cooking up some eggs!  This has probably been the favorite so far.

What an artist Elfie is!  What I love is that one of my babies said, "It looks like Elfie scribble-scrabbled on the tree!"  Haha I guess my artistic skills need work.  

If you are looking for a great unit to buy to go with your Elf on the Shelf, I purchased Elf Magic from A Cupcake for the Teacher and I love it!  It has some fun writing and crafts, as well as a journal.  

Here's to only two more weeks to go!  We can do this, Elfie!

Some late turkeys, my break, and Elf on the Shelf!

 I hope you all had a wonderful and restful holiday!  I know I did.  It was amazing and I'm not ready to go back tomorrow!

The day before Thanksgiving was our grandparents and special friends day.  Each grade level performs something, and kindergarten sang "Albuquerque Turkey" for everyone.  They were pretty adorable if I do say so myself!  We made these turkey headbands to wear.  I love how they turned out, especially the googly eyes.  I didn't use a template and made up this idea, so I am pretty happy with it!

My Thanksgiving was pretty untraditional this year.  My husband and I were away from our families for the first time and it also happened to fall on my birthday this year.  So, we went to Disneyland!  It was both of our first time and we LOVED it!  I have been to Disney World but it is awesome living so close to Disneyland now.  

We also did some black Friday shopping and decorating.  Here's my little cutie Charlie napping under the tree.  Love him!

Tomorrow, a special package will be arriving in my classroom!  It's... 

you guessed it...

The Elf on the Shelf!!!

I am trying out this craze for myself this year.  I can't wait to see the kids' faces!!  

Turkey in Disguise

I have always wanted to do the Turkey in Disguise homework assignment, but at my last school the third grade class always did it so I never wanted to steal their idea.  Now that I'm in a new school, I finally got to do the assignment with my kids!  They turned out so cute!  In case you've never seen this, I sent home a turkey template printed on cardstock with the caption, "I am not a turkey, I am a _____."  The directions were for the family to work on the project together to help disguise the turkey so it is not eaten for Thanksgiving.

Here are a few of my favorites:

Easter Bunny turkey

Peacock turkey

Santa Claus turkey

Angry birds turkey

Love these!  So precious.  If you'd like the template or note that I sent home, leave a comment with your email address and I'd be happy to send it your way!  Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Happy Veteran's Day!

Happy Veteran's Day to you all!  I'm so jealous of those of you who got to stay home for a three day weekend today!  I did not.  But we found so many fun ways to celebrate our veterans today.  I have to say that this day holds a special place in my heart.   My little brother served in the Marines and is thankfully home safe and now going to college!  I am so thankful for him and the other men and women who put their lives on the line for us.

My school started the day with a beautiful and touching assembly honoring veterans.  I teared up for sure!  Then I did several patriotic activities with my little cuties today.  In math, we completed a flag math activity and discussed shapes and patterns found on the flag.

We made flag windsocks.  We used white crayon to draw stars onto blue construction paper, glued on streamers, and glued together to form a tube!  Ta da!  Easy, 15 minute patriotic craft.

We used a freebie I found on TPT to write what we would say to thank a veteran.  Find the freebie here!

I just love this!  Thank you for fighting for justice.  So cute!

And this one! Too adorable!

To complete the day, we started our patriotic symbols booklets.  We will be learning about important US symbols.

My classroom looks so patriotic now!  It's very fitting for Veteran's Day.  I hope you all had a great one!

Bats,pumpkins, and spider hats oh my!

Is anyone else relieved that Halloween is over today?  I hope it's not just me!

So I had the best intentions of posting my Halloween activities BEFORE Halloween, but that just didn't happen!  So sorry!  We've been busy, so prepare yourself for a looong Halloween related post!

We went to the pumpkin patch last Friday, so we learned all about pumpkin life cycles!  We read the book Pumpkin Pumpkin by Jeanne Titherington and made this cute pumpkin life cycle!

Each stage in the life cycle is cut out, and glued onto yarn.  Then we made paper jack-o-lanterns and attached the yarn to show the final stage of a pumpkin.  I found the life cycle cutouts here.  

Then we made our own Pumpkin Pumpkin books and illustrated each stage.

We read several bat nonfiction books to learn about bats!  I saw Cara from the First Grade Parade had made a FREE bat craftivity and graphing printable, so I used it with my kiddos!  They loved it.  They just could not believe that I would think bats are creepy!  Too funny!  I think the bats we made are just too cute.

Finally, for Halloween day, we made an adorable spider hat that I saw on Pinterest (of course)!  All you need to make these are strips for the headband and legs, then two circles of each color for eyes!  Cute and easy, so it's a win in my book.

Next week we will begin our unit on our country, beginning with a mock election with campaign posters and all!