Shop til you drop

Happy post Gobble Gobble Day.  I don't know about ya'll but I'm still having dreams about Thanksgiving dinner.  This year my mom and I took a road trip up to see my sisters new place in Alabama and we had our first smoked turkey. . . one word ~ YUMM-O!!!

Like many of you I spent my Sunday ignoring the piles of school items in my house and got down to business getting ready for (insert echoing booming voice) CYBER MONDAY, MONDAY, MONDAY!!!

This year I have no buyers remorse but thanks to TPT I may have to duck a few creditors by next month.  Here are some of the things that I picked up.

Writing activities from Susan of TGIF

Susan - TGIF

Susan - TGIF

Writing activity from Reagan of Tunstall's Teaching Tidbits 

Reagan - Tunstall's Teaching Tidbits

Writing activities from Kelley of Teacher Idea Factory

Kelley - Teacher Idea Factory

Adjectives activity from Kelley of Teacher Idea Factory

Kelley - Teacher Idea Factory

Subtraction activity from Tara of Little Minds At Work

Tara - Little Minds At Work

I can't wait to start using everything that I purchased.  Thanks to TPT and to everyone who participated in the sale.  So how about you. . . what are some of the things that you got during the sale?  Stephanie from Falling Into First and Blog Hoppin' are both having a linky parties.

Click here and here to join the fun.  Well I'm off to warm up my printer.
SHINE on everyone. 

Teaching Tip Linky Party

Today I am linking up with one of my favorite bloggers Hadar from Miss Kindergarten for her Teaching Tip Linky Party.  I have a really simple tip that I use in class with my kids every year ~ Stamp and Sticker Books.

Growing up I use to love collecting stickers and amazingly kids nowadays still do too.   Each child has their very own mini book where they keep their stickers and stamps that they collect.  At the beginning of the year I cut 3 - 4 sheets of copy paper in half, staple a cover sheet around it and ta-da a place for kids to hold their stickers.

My firsties books are on the left, my kinders are on the right  

Nine times out of ten when I give my kids the option of taking a sticker home or putting it in their book, they put it in their book.  I think they like the idea that they can go back and look at it whenever they want to.  They also seem to like comparing their stamps and stickers with their friends.  Whatever the reason. . . the kids love it, I love it and the custodians love that they don't have to peel fallen stickers up off the ground.

So there you have it short, simple and cheap.  If you want to join the party, click here. Well I'm off to read some more teaching tips.
SHINE on everyone!!!

The vote is in

Well the vote in Florida has FINALLY come in and the winner is (drum roll please) ~ FROSTED COOKIES!!!!  This week we had such a great time in my class.  I had no assessments due, no conferences and only one meeting which means I actually got to . . . wait for it, wait for it ~ TEACH. Here is a peek at my week.

My kinders were focusing on the letter C so we made these adorable cook hats as one of our projects. It's hard to see in the picture but the brim of the hat has pictures of  C words.  

Since we were already talking about C words, I thought let's make election day fun so instead of a mock election, my kinders and firsties voted for our favorite cookie.

Long lines at the polling booth (well it is Florida)

Decisions, decisions

The vote was close, but frosted cookies came out the winner.

The kids all had a great time and were so excited when I gave them frosted cookies the next day for snack. As they were eating it made me smile to hear them actually talk about some of the concept of voting that we had discussed on Tuesday.  Believe it our not, they had actually been listening to me, go figure.  I hope that you all had a great week, I'm off to do some blog hopping.

SHINE on everyone!

Currently - November

WHAT??!! The November Currently is popping up on the sidebar on my computer. . . REALLY??!!??  I actually did a double take but yep, it's that time of the month.  I'm linking up with the Fantamolous Farley for one of my favorite parties.  So here is what I am currently up to.

Farley, I LOVE having music as the new category this month.  I use a lot of great kid songs in my classroom to help teach my kids concepts and to help with transitions.  Last year thanks to blogging, I found Have Fun Teaching songs and videos and my kids love them.  If you want to check out their site just scroll down and click on the link on my sidebar.  If you want to join the party with Farley (hey that rhymes how cool is that??) then CLICK HERE and link up.

So what else have I been currently up to?  Honestly during October I couldn't tell if I was coming or going. In class we had: nutrition classes, fire fighters visit, a picnic, a tea party, pink and purple day, terrific tie Tuesday, 4 birthdays, storybook festival, crazy hair day, silly socks day, pajamas day, 50's day and Halloween. Oh and by the way I still had meetings every week, report cards and conferences with all of my parents.  No wonder I'm pooped.  Thankfully my kids just go with the flow of craziness.  The topper to my month was that Halloween and the 50th day of school were on the same day so. . .

In the morning I celebrated Halloween with my kindergarten students by having a storybook parade with the kindergarten team.

We dressed up like a pumpkin patch after reading the story Too Many Pumpkins

Then presto chango I went to celebrate the 50th Day with my First Graders and the first grade team.  WHEW, what a day.  

Yes, I'm actually holding a rotary phone

Thanks again to my friends for all of your help keeping my sanity this month.  Hopefully November won't be such a crazy hot mess.  Well I'm off to do my rule of 3 and then get my Monday Made It ready to link up with Tara next week.  SHINE on everyone