steppin' up to first grade: December 2014

Five For Friday

It's time again for FIVE FOR FRIDAY!!

More Adventures with Elf on the Shelf

A few weeks ago I went to my cousin's wedding and her favors were lego candy! How cute is that! I was enthralled :)

My family members were happy to give me their favors so I happened to have just enough to give to my students. Of course they think Buddy our elf brought them gifts from the North Pole. This was a fun surprise!

We also found him lifting marshmallow weights and building a fort.

And lastly, this week we had our gingerbread hunt.

The elf brought us a gingerbread friend to decorate.

Gingerbread Hunt!

Every year I decorate a gingerbread man with my class, then we put him in our play oven and go out to recess. When the students come back in, they discover that he is missing and in his place he's left gingerbread friends for us to eat instead.
We then hunt for him all over the school.

My favorite part of the hunt is when we visit the principal. She is so funny and convincing, almost all my students believe that the gingerbread man tied her up.

If you're interested in incorporating the gingerbread theme into your classroom this year, feel free to check out my

gingerbread unit on TPT.

It includes a gingerbread hunt, glyph, graphic organizer to help writers create and organize their characters and a story template to help them create their own gingerbread story.

Christmas Inspiration

This was such an incredible find! My mom actually gave me this book the first day of December and encouraged me to read it every day in preparation for advent.

I decided to incorporate it into my classroom and I'm so happy I made that decision.

Each day it retells a different story from the Bible and weaves it into a message about Christmas. It has such beautiful writing and amazing artwork.

As I read from this book each day, I have my students cut out and color an ornament that they can glue on a their tree. This gives us something to look forward to everyday and we've fallen into a nice routine of listening, coloring, gluing and pondering.
It has been a very sweet time.

More on Dressember

So I already shared about Dressember on my Currently post, but I wanted post this weeks pictures to prove that I've been participating every day.

Day 6

Day 7

Day 8

Day 9

Day 10

Day 11- School CANCELED due to inclement weather (I cheated just a bit) I wore my pajamas all day (let's pretend I was wearing a nightgown- I actually don't own one!)

Day 12

If you want to learn more about Dressember feel free to read on HERE or if you're interested in doing something incredible this December, consider donating HERE

Sight Words, Punctuation & Reading Words!

Here are a couple of freebies I picked up on TPT that were seriously a lifesaver this week.

I feel like my students were extremely engaged with each of these activities!

Sight Word Hunt

Punctutation

Now I'm off to pass out Christmas cookies to the neighbors and snuggle in for a movie night with the hubs.

Have a wonderful weekend friends!

Wordless Wednesday- Sick Day and No School!

It's time again for Wordless Wednesday!

http://secondgradesugarandspice.blogspot.com

What do you do when you're feeling icky?

Last week I was feeling miserable. I got a cold right after Thanksgiving. Our flight from Ohio got delayed twice Sunday night so by the time we made it home it was close to midnight.

I was not ready for a sub Monday so I decided to just push through and teach anyway (*note to self, make emergency sub plans ASAP!!)

So long story short, a parent volunteer who helps me every Monday, saw me looking pretty sad (and sick) and decided to make up this little get well gift.

It was packed with all the essential items to help me feel better quickly.

I don't think I've ever received a more thoughtful or timely gift. It totally hit the spot!

Thankfully I'm much better now and will be enjoying the rest of these items for many weeks to come.

We just had school canceled for tomorrow due to inclement weather so I'll be snuggling up on my couch, enjoying this tea and donning my new fuzzy socks :)

I'm one happy camper!

What's your secret "cure" when you're feeling sick?
My main "go to's" are airborne, Emergency, hot tea, cough drops and juicing (I like to juice fruits and veggies). I figure maybe the combination of all those things will speed up the recovery time. post signature

December Currently and a FREEBIE!

It's that time again! I'm linking up with Farley over at Oh Boy 4th Grade for the December Currently.

Here's what's going on currently in my world:

~Listening to~
Disney's animated A Christmas Carol I've got a confession for ya: I actually love watching kids movies! When I'm home alone, I usually browse by Fox Family to see if there is anything worth watching, and for the months of October and December I am one happy camper since they show 31 Halloween movies and now they are celebrating 25 days until Christmas with Christmas movies GALORE! I'm in heaven. I also love A Christmas Carol (animated version) because I know two people who actually worked on that movie! Two of my co-workers have husbands who work in the movie industry. It's cool to know the person behind all of those special effects- I think it makes the movie more interesting :)
~Loving~
Dressember
Recently I learned about this amazing movement. The challenge is to wear a dress for all 31 days in December to raise awareness and funding to help fight human trafficking and violence against women. I feel like it is something little that I can do during the holiday season to try and make a difference and be a voice for the voiceless victims.
Here's how my challenge is going so far:

< Day 1 Day 2>

< Day 3

Day 4>

If you are interested in learning more about the Dressember movement feel free to read about it HERE

And if you want to join the movement or do something incredible this December feel free to check out my page HERE

~Thinking~

All about Elf on the Shelf!

Our elf has been up to some funny things this week. I'm trying to brainstorm some fun things to surprise my kids with for the next 2 weeks.

~Wanting~

To pig out on Christmas cookies. I got invited to a holiday cookie party tonight. I'm required to bring 72 cookies to exchange at the party.

Let me just say- it's taking ALL the self control I have to not eat my cookies before bringing them to the party! AHHH! So tempting!

It's a fun tradition that started 4 years ago.

I love the idea of bringing 6 dozen cookies to the party and exchanging what I baked with everyone for a dozen of each of their cookies.

That way all of my holiday baking gets done in one night- and I don't have to mess up my kitchen! HA!

I'm looking forward to sampling all the tasty holiday treats tonight!

Oh and in case you're wondering what I decided to make:

Lemon Squares

If you are interested in making them here's the recipe:

Lemon Squares

Ingredients:

1 C butter (2 sticks)

2 C flour

1/2 C powdered sugar

4 eggs

7 TB. lemon juice

2 C white sugar

1/4 C flour

1 tsp. baking powder

Icing:

2 C powdered sugar

3 TB butter

3 TB lemon juice

Directions:

Mix the first 3 ingredients to a cornmeal consistency and pat into a 9"x13" pan.

Bake at 350 degrees for 20 min. Put the next 5 ingredients in a blender. Blend well.

Pour over warm crust and bake for 25 min.

When crust cools, glaze with Icing.

To make icing, blend powdered sugar, butter and lemon juice. Spread on cake and let cool. Cut into small squares.

Enjoy! :)

~Needing~

To seriously finish up some TPT units I've been working on for awhile now! It may not happen until Christmas break when I've got a good chunk of time and some serious caffeine in my hands! :)

~Giving~

And lastly, I'll be giving away a little FREEBIE!!

This year for Christmas our elementary students will be performing for their families. Each class was responsible to prepare and present something and I thought it would be fun to teach my students a poem.

Since I could not, for the life of me, find a Christmas poem to teach them, I decided to just go ahead and make one.

It's not a masterpiece by any means, but if you're in a pinch and need something cute for your kiddos to share- it'll do just fine.