Say it 'Aint So. . .Back to Work I Go??

Fall Break. . .oh how I love fall break! Mine is officially over in a few short hours, but man oh man I was definitely in need of it! I love my kidlets to the moon and back, but it can't be denied that we all needed a little time apart. Over the break I made sure to eat, shop, and then eat some more. I spent time with the people that I'm most thankful for and of course cuddled with my fur babies. They look stoked out of their minds to be in yet another picture don't they! :)

With Christmas only a few short weeks away I'm more than excited to get back to work and get into all of the cute holiday stuff that I've planned. As always, the excitement meter is through the roof during this time of year and my usual behavior motivators (table race, fun friday, stickers, skittles, treasure box) just can't overpower the Santa fever that is running rampant in my room. . .yes, even the skittles have lost their luster. I'm not big on being the grinch or scrooge that takes away from the magic of the season so I decided to try something new. Enter. ..Elf on the Shelf. I had plans to start this last year, but it never happened (I blame it on the final stages of planning a wedding). Even with my persistent headache I made sure to pick up my kit today and oh.my.word. it's so stinking cute I can barely stand it. I had to have a girl elf because of the cutesy skirt option &&&& after much digging. .. I got the.last.one. We'll be naming her tomorrow, but this is her! (I'm such a dork. . .I know. . .but I'm ok with it).

Last, but not least in case you haven't heard. . .TpT is having a HUGE cyber Monday/Tuesday sale. There are a lot of sellers offering discounts. . .including me!Everything in my store will be 20% off all day tomorrow. On Tuesday it drops to just 10% off. Nothing says 'Tis the Season better than a sale to help you stock up on cute stuff for your class! Be sure to enter the promo code CMT12 at check out to get the full discount! Happy shopping!

'Tis the Season. . .to go crazy!

Crazy seems like an understatement to describe my classroom today. My lovelies have caught the talking bug and it just. . .won't. . .go. . .away! They also have major seasonal excitement bubbling up inside of them and it's almost more than I can take. At 8:00 I realized that I was really going to have to pull every ounce of energy and creativity out of me to make it through the day with my sanity. It wasn't easy, but a little Christmas measuring activity (using M&Ms) helped pave the way. My lovelies each got a handful of M&Ms and a measuring sheet with reindeer, presents, Christmas trees, Gingerbread men and other holiday favorites. I hand drew these so I don't have a file uploaded to my computer to share, but I'm working on it. They had to measure how tall (or long) each picture was and record their answer on their sheet. They absolutely LOVED this. . .almost as much as coloring the pictures when they were finished. After everyone got a chance to practice measuring with their M&Ms, we made a gingerbread man craft. Each of my lovelies made their own Gingerbread man out of brown construction paper and decorated them using crayons and buttons. They turned out so cute and my lovelies really took their time decorating their little brown men. When all of the decorating was complete, they got out their trusty M&Ms and measured how tall and how wide their Gingerbread men were. They recorded it on their writing sheet and up they went on our bulletin board. Super cute if I say so myself!

Frosty's Fact Families

I think everybody knows how this feels...you make all of these fabulous plans full of fun and BAM!! You get sick! Before my ear infection took me down, I got in one last cutesy activity with my kids. We were learning about fact families and my lovelies just weren't getting the whole concept. Soooooo craft to the rescue! (I bet you didn't see that one coming)! Seriously y'all the only people who love crafts more than me are my kids....and they always seem to "get it" when their little hands are busy creating something connected to what they're learning about. For this lesson we read Frosty the Snowman. Then each of my kids got to make their very own Frosty! I have to tell y'all they were a little upset that they wouldn't be making a top hat, but who would have known that ear muffs are the coolest thing next to Justin Bieber! Seriously...there was a lot of cheering...a lot! They each got to pick their own design of Christmas scrap book paper and a colored pipe cleaner to make their ear muffs. They were so excited and so cute making their paper choices...it was a very serious decision for some of them to make! A million teeny tiny paper scraps later (seriously how do they get paper that small???) the Frosty clan was complete and it was time for the math portion of the activity. Each of my lovelies picked a dominoe that they used to find their fact family's 3 numbers. They used these numbers to write their facts on their special writing paper. Everyone had so much fun that they didn't even know they were working so hard and what can be better than that?