New Adventures for the New Year

I'm so excited about this new blog I've gotten involved in. Erika from The Honey Bunch has started a new blog called The Best Endings (You can check out the button on my sidebar.). This blog is all about books which are some of favorite things. I love to read and am always looking for new books to read. Anyway, check out my post over at The Best Endings and all my other blogging friends who are contributors.


Speaking of reading books, I'm reading The Daily 5 on my kindle. I've read almost the whole book. I still have 2 chapters left. I can't wait to start this new adventure in my classroom. I've taken copious notes and I've been working it out in my head. I have a few questions for those that use Daily 5.

•  Are there other Kindergarten teachers out there who use Daily 5? (Any of you live in Tennessee so I can come observe.)
• Do you do any other literacy centers or do you just use Daily 5?
• Where does your basal fit into Daily 5 or do you abandon it all together?
• How much time do you spend on Daily 5 each day?
• Do you do other writing workshop time?
• How did you set up their book boxes the first time?
• If you do this in kindergarten, what kids of materials do you use? It isn't always easy to find on level reading material.

Right now I'm just going to work on introducing Read to Self. Once that gets going I'm really wanting to introduce Read to someone. I'm not sure about the other components yet. I will have my students again next year in first grade and I think I can definitely get it all up and running then.
This is the idea of how I want this to be structured:
1. Mini-lesson on Comprehension skill with a read aloud
    A session of Daily 5
2. Mini - lesson on Phonics and Phonemic Awareness
    A session of Daily 5
3. Mini lesson on Writing and Grammar
    A session of Daily 5
I'm trying to figure out where I'm going to fit in some fluency practice. I attended this great workshop about fluency and I'm super excited to try some of his ideas. I hope to post something about these ideas in the future. I'm thinking that Read to Someone and Read to Self might be the best ways to fit in fluency practice. This would also tie into the kinds of things kids have in their book boxes.  I would appreciate any advice, suggestions, or tips that you have. I would love to have someone to bounce ideas off of so if anyone is interested in that, please let me know. Leave me a comment or email me kheinrich9@gmail.com

100 followers Giveaway

I'm so excited that I've reached 100 followers and right before the new year. I've only had my blog for about 6 months and it has changed so much about the way I teach. I have really come to love this community that I've become a part of. There is so much support and so many great ideas out there. I'm excited to continue this journey into the new year. So to get the new year started off right I'm having a giveaway.
You can win a lanyard and lotion all hand made by a friend of mine who has a craft shop here in Gatlinburg. The name of her shop is Rocky Flats Pottery and she makes awesome stuff. She's willing to make a lanyard with whatever colors you want. I have a purple one and love it. Although my id is broken in half so I haven't been wearing it as much.

You can also win my Cupcake Math pack from my teacher's notebook store.

Here's how to enter.
1. First entry is to just follow my blog and leave me a comment telling me you follow it.
2. Another entry can be earned by following my Teacher's Notebook store.Leave me a comment tell me you made it a favorite.

3. A third entry can be earned by liking my friend Alison's store Rocky Flats Pottery on Facebook. Click here to like and then tell me that you did so by leaving a comment.

The contest will be over on Saturday January 7th. Happy New Year and Happy blogging!

11 in 11 linky party

I'm super excited to get to participate in this linky party finally. After going to church last night, I'm finally able to share my exciting news.  11. Favorite movie you watched
I have no idea what my favorite movie watched is. I haven't seen The Help yet and I feel like the only person out there who hasn't. It's on my netflix list. Chris and I watch a lot of super hero movies. I really liked Captain America.

10. Favorite TV Series
I love Burn Notice, Closer, NCIS, Madmen, Criminal Minds. Are you sensing a pattern here? I love crime shows and spy shows. My fiance (did you catch that change in how I'm referring to him?) banned me from all murder shows during the holidays. At least when he was around. I've still watched a lot of these shows when he's not around. I'm like Mrs. Coe at Little Miss Kindergarten and really like Jerseylicious too. 


9. Favorite Restraunt
Mellow Mushroom is probably my favorite. Or Little Tokyo. They know Chris and I at Little Tokyo because we frequent it so much. 


8. Favorite New thing you tried
Part of me wants to say blogging but it's not really a new thing. I've been blogging for a while but this is the first time I've been really successful at it. Well, I think it's successful. I'm only one follower away from 100. But I think creating materials for my class and sharing them with others is my favorite thing I've tried. I really enjoy creating new materials and using clip art. I wish I was artistic enough for creating my own clip art. I haven't been that successful selling anything but I hope that people have used my freebies and it's helped them in their classroom.


7. Favorite Gift I received

On the Friday before Christmas, my boyfriend took me up to where we first went on a hike and proposed to me. It was the best Christmas present ever. He picked out the ring all himself and it was perfect. We had a very busy Christmas of telling his family and my family. We don't have any dates set yet. His parents are leaving in a couple of weeks to be missionaries in Africa. I don't think I can wait for them to come back. I'm ready to get married to the love of my life.

6. Favorite thing you've pinned

I pinned a lot of different things that I loved. I enjoyed making some of the things I've pinned for Christmas presents. I also enjoy trying different recipes I've found. This is my favorite recipe I've pinned and made. 

They were delicious. This is a pin of my favorite craft project I made. I didn't quite follow the directions on it but I was making bracelets instead. I made several of them for Christmas presents and they were a big hit.

5. Favorite Blog Post 

I really don't know what blog post is my favorite that I wrote. I just write about what is going on in my classroom in hopes that someone can benefit from it.

4. Favorite Accomplishment
I think my favorite accomplishment is just being willing to try to new things in my classroom. I've been working really hard on being positive this year and trying to be a positive influence at my school. I started a prayer group at school and I'm pretty proud of that. I think it's helping to create a more supportive environment amid all the changes and difficulties we're faced with as teachers.

3. Favorite Picture

This is the other love of my life my sweet niece Sophie. She's 16 months old and is the funniest, sweetest child I've met. I love her to pieces. She's a lot like me. It cracks me up. She loves books, paper, and is fiercely independent. We have had a ton of fun playing together this Christmas. 

2. Favorite Memory
My engagement is going to be one of my favorite memories of my life and this year. I'm also just loving this past year that I've spent with Chris. We've camped, hiked, eaten and just spent a lot of time together. He's the best thing that has happened to me. He believes in me and supports me through all the new things I'm trying. My brain is always going 90 to nothing about school stuff or church stuff. Chris does a pretty good job trying to keep up with all my random thoughts.

1. Goals for 2010 
I've already posted my New Year's resolutions. I hope to get more organized this year, try Daily 5 and run more.

Goals for the New Semester!

There are several linky parties I'm wanting to partcipate in. I can't wait to do Kristin and Hadar's 11 in 11 party. But my answer to some of the questions I still can't share in the cyber world yet. (I know I'm being really mysterious and I don't want to be. I'm busting at the seems to share my great news with my blogging friends.)
So I've been wanting to post about my goals for school for the upcoming semester and I thought I'd join the party at A Teacher's Treasure and include my resolutions in general.

 

My personal  resolutions are:

1. To start running again and get healthy. My mom and I are joining Weight Watchers in January and I miss running a lot. So I'm not setting a weight loss goal but just trying to get healthy. My stomach has hated me the past few weeks with all the junk I've been eating.

2. To get organized and clean. I have pinned a ton of things on pinterest about cleaning schedules and being organized and I really need to get on it. I've lived by myself for the past 8 years and now that my boyfriend spends a lot of time at my house I need to do a better job of keeping things clean.

3. To have quiet time in the mornings - I was doing really well with reading my Bible and praying every morning before school until the last week of school. I just need to get back in the habit. It's the best way for me to start my day.

My professional resolutions are:

1. I want to start Daily 5 this semester. I downloaded the book on my brand new kindle on Christmas day and I'm almost half way through it. I plan on introducing a little at a time in hopes of having the structures in place when I have my kids in first grade next year. 

2. Working on writing workshop type of structure in my class as well. I have been slowly adding in more writing in my class and I hope that this will tie in with Daily 5 as well. 

3. Tailoring lessons and groups more to my students' needs rather than trying to do what is always expected of me. I want to really use the common core to guide my instruction and where my students are at.

My blogging resolutions:

1. To blog 3 or 4 times a week.

2. To offer a freebie once a week

3. To create a unit for Teacher's notebook every 6 weeks ( I have not been successful with Teacher's notebook so far but I need to finance my addiction to buying stuff.)

I'm only 5 followers away from 100. Once I reach 100 followers I plan on having a giveaway. So if you're just checking me out and not a follower yet, please consider following me or at lease leaving me a comment. I love getting comments.

Top 3 Blog post of 2011 and Holly Bloggy Linky Party

I'm joining the linky party over at Fern Smith's Classroom Ideas about my top 3 blog posts of the year. (Really it's 6 months. I've only had my blog since July.)

My top three posts are all from other linky parties.
1.Color Week Activities  _ There are a variety of activities to use when teaching colors with some freebies included.
2. Recipe Linky Party from Growing Kinders. - This was my first linky party I participated in. Aww. This is still one of my favorite quick recipes. So check it out if you are looking for something easy to make for dinner when school starts back.
3. What's in my School Bag linky party - This was one of my favorite linky parties from The Inspired Apple. It was a lot of fun to see what everyone had in their teacher bags.

I'm trying to post a little more often and I still have some exciting news but I can't share it yet. I had the best Christmas as an adult this year. I loved what I got from my Holly Bloggy Christmas partner. It was Hadar over at Miss Kindergarten. I can't find the pictures of what I made my blogging partner, Stacie Guerra. I made her a sign, some binder clips, book marks, and a Christmas ornament. I hope she loved it. I don't think she has a blog. I really enjoyed participating in this fun. I especially loved winning the new blog makeover. I love it!
 Check out Kindergarten Korner to see what everyone got.

Merry Christmas to All!

I have some exciting news I'll be sharing after Christmas is over. So be sure to check back after you enjoy your time with your family and friends.

The border is one From the Ponds and the clipart is from scrappin doodles.

Recipe Linky Party

It is obvious I'm on Christmas break since I'm participating in linky parties two days in a row. Jennifer at Rowdy in First Grade is having a holiday recipe party. She made a cute recipe card to use. So I'm including my recipe for a cheese ball. This is something I kind of made up using a friend's recipe. Hope you enjoy. It's easy and yummy.

Check out the other recipes at Rowdy in First Grade.

Currently

Today is my first day of Christmas break! And of course I still woke up at 7 am. It takes me about the whole break to be able to sleep in. We had a wonderful party and day yesterday. My four moms that came and helped did a wonderful job with the food and the games. One mom made these awesome cake pops and I might have overdosed on them and other sugar. I had quite the sugar hangover by the end of the day. I decided to try to participate in Farley at Oh' Boy 4th Grade currently linky party.

 

Check out Mrs. Ricca's Kindergarten. She's a brand new teacher and has great ideas. 

Also check out the other currently posts at Oh' Boy 4th Grade.

Awards!

I'm still dreaming of Christmas break. Only one more day left, thank goodness. I plan over the break to post all about this awesome and incredible workshop I went to yesterday. I got so many new ideas my head is spinning a bit. Once I get it all processed, I'll be sure to share.
But I wanted to post about the awards that I recently got. Lauryn at Paste and Pearls awarded me the Sunshine Award. I've already followed all the rules for that one but I wanted to say a big thank you to Lauryn. It really makes my day to get these awards. I love this world that blogging has opened up to me and my teaching is definitely improving everyday.

Wild about K awarded me the Liebester award. Thanks so much for the award. Here are the rules:

• copy and paste the award on your blog 
• ♥ thank the giver and link back to them
•  reveal YOUR top five picks and leave a comment letting them know
• hope your followers will share the love with them :)

Here are my five newbie picks. Enjoy!!

• Kindersmarten _
• Laughing and Learning with Kinderkids
• Kindergarten is A Hoot!
• Work Smart Not Hard in Kindergarten
• Live, Laugh, Love K
•  

So check out these great new blogs. I've already starred lots of their post to refer to later. I think I can make it one more day! I guess I'm going to have to. I really feel for all of you that have to go til Friday. Wednesday is a reach for me. 

Dreaming of Christmas break

I'm super jealous of all those that are already out for Christmas break. I still have 3 days next week. Friday I felt like I was fighting a losing battle. The kids just got more and more wild as the day went on. We spent the morning doing some crafts. I was lucky enough to have my boyfriend's stepmom coming and help. We decorated gingerbread cookies, decorated the foam gingerbread men I found at Target, with assorted dried beans, made Christmas cards and ornaments for their parents. It was a busy busy morning. Luckily I had some extra hands helping me. The best part of the day was where our Elf set up shop. Rainbow had set up a tent and was drinking hot chocolate and reading a Christmas book. (It was my wonderful boyfriend's idea and he came in and set it up.) The kids were so excited and they did so good not touching the tent. One of my teaching neighbors came in to check out our elf and the kids freaked out because they were afraid she would touch him. This has to be one of my new favorite Christmas activities. I can't wait to have kids and do it with them. I have to go to an inservice day on Monday about phonics and fluency instruction. I'm not thrilled about leaving my kids the week of break but I am required to go. I feel for my sub on Monday.
I am spending today doing some Christmas gift crafting. I've been working on ornaments mod podged with scrap book paper, paper clip book marks with bows, binder clips for organization, jewelry, a way to display my Christmas cards, and a sign for my boyfriend's father. I'm covered in mod podge and my house is a wreck. Eventually, I need to wrap everything and clean up but I needed blogging break. Here are some pictures of our crafts yesterday and some of my crafts from today.

This is the Christmas card holder I made. Just ribbon and scrapbook paper and clothes pins.

Our elf after climbing the rope to the flagpole.

Rainbow camping.

Bookmarks

Scrapbook paper, mod podge and ornaments

Present for one of my teaching friends

A grinch or just a pragmatic!

Every year the local Rotary club has a Christmas party for the more needy kids in the school. They leave during lunch time and come back with a clear, plastic bag of toys. Anyone guess where I'm going with this? Today was  that party. I had 3 kids go. No big deal . The other kids didn't really say much about it. The kids were sent back to my room while we were at recess and they wandered around the school looking for us. Luckily my first grade teacher neighbor grabbed them and kept them with her. I told them to put their toys by their backpacks and not to talk too much about it with the other kids. We didn't want to make them feel bad for not getting to go. Things went pretty well until there was about 20 minutes left of the day. They kids were all packed up and sitting on the carpet ready to play a game when it all went awry. One of my little boys freaked out over the other kids having presents. He didn't understand why they had presents and he didn't. He didn't understand why they got to go to a party and the whole class didn't get to go. He yelled "That's not fair." And part of me completely agreed with him. I really wasn't sure what to say. This is my fifth year going through this so you'd think I'd have something to say by now. But this is the first year, I've had a kid get so upset about it. I finally pulled him outside the room and told him that these kids didn't have a lot and one of them didn't even have a Christmas tree (That's another story.) He seemed to understand but now I think he felt bad. So to make up for it, I let all the kids that didn't get to go to the party go to the treasure box in my room. That seemed to help smooth some things over. During bus duty, I had a parent ask me if the kids carrying the white plastic bags were undreprivildege because he knew for a fact one of the kids with the bag was not. I didn't really know what to say. All I said was I had no control over who gets to go to the party and I don't. I don't even get a say in who goes from my class. So this whole experience brought up a ton of thoughts and questions for me. I couldn't help but think of confidetiality of these kids who are considered needy. Then what about the kids who don't get to go. I think what the Rotary does is wonderful. They are trying to fill a need. It is just difficult when it happens during the school day. Do you schools have any events like this? How would you  have explained it to the upset kid yelling It's not fair? I couldn't help but agree with him a little. And then feel a little Grinchy for being annoyed by the whole thing.

This week in Ms. Kerri's Room

I'm having a much better week this week. I think an attitude adjustment on my part has helped. Last week I was so cranky and the kids were awful. This week (I know it's only been 2 days) has been a lot better. I think it helps that we're doing a review week in reading. We started our Gingerbread Unit this week. This is the first time I'm doing this unit with my kindergartners. I only had the standard gingerbread books, then Stinky Cheese Man and the Runaway Tortilla. But last week I placed a Scholastic order and added to my collection. These are the books we're reading this week: The Gingerbread Man (Jan Brett), The Gingerbread Boy, The Gingerbread Baby, The Stinky Cheese Man, The Runaway Tortilla, The Gingerbread Girl, and The Gingerbread Pirates. We have to go to school 3 days next week so we're going to continue reading them. My kids have been so excited about it. When I told them Monday what books we were reading, one of my more enthusiastic students exclaimed, "Oh Man! This is going to be Awesome!" We're then making a chart to compare the stories. Currently the chart is just a table on my promethean board. But after seeing some really cool anchor charts out there, I might have to spruce mine up a bit.  Friday the kids are going to decorate a real cookie and we're making a bean gingerbread man. I took the foam gingerbread men from the dollar section at target and a bunch of beans I've had for a variety of things and turned into this week's art center. Here's my example:
Elf on a shelf update. Monday Rainbow returned from the North Pole. The kids were worried he wasn't going to come back after they had a rough day on Friday. I had my best inspiration for a place for him yesterday. He was ziplining on a ribbon from the light to the flag pole. The kids went crazy over it when they came in. But during center time he fell. It was awful. The kids were freaking out hoping he was ok. Luckily while they were taking a bathroom break he climbed back up on the flag pole. It was a close one. Tomorrow, my boyfriend thinks Rainbow should be camping in a tent. We will see. He wants to set up his big tent. I think maybe we should just make a small tent for him. We've been writing in our Elf journals everyday and it's a great opportunity to work on some writing skills. I'm trying to train them to be more independent writers and sound words out. It's working out ok. But I can see I need to work more on some writing instruction after Christmas. Does anyone else have a list of things to implement after the break? (I'm thinking that's a whole post in itself.)
Anyway, I leave you with a picture of our Elf Rainbow. How's your week going? We have five more days of school before the holidays and I can't wait.

Mischeivious Elf and other random things

Oh my. It has been quite a week. I started out cranky and it has just gone down hill from there. As much as I'm loving the fun holiday activities, I'm ready for a break and then a regular schedule. My kids have been wild as can be. There are have been a ton of teachers out this week at my school for various reasons. Some were at a workshop that every math teacher in the county has to attend and then one of my fellow kindergarten teachers was sick. There were not enough subs so it's been pretty chaotic. Our Elf on the Shelf made his appearance on Tuesday. It cracked me up how taken in all the kids were with him. We are using the journals from Kreative in Kinder's Elf on a Shelf pack and the kids are begging to use them. I plan on doing a post that shows all the places our Elf, Rainbow, was found. But currently my sister has my camera. My mom, sis, niece and I decorated cookies yesterday and my sis needed to get some pictures off my camera for Christmas presents. That was a lot of rambling. I think this post will be full of rambling. Especially since I started in Friday and am just sitting down to try to finish it. So here's a rundown.

• I made some marshmallow reindeer pops for my kids yesterday. They were a pinterest find. They turned out pretty cute. I really struggled trying to attach the pretzels so some of them look like derranged bunnies. But luckily I teach Kindergarten and they will love them anyway. Our Elf is going to leave them for them one day this week. (Don't have a picture but hopefully will add one later when I get my camera back.)
• Friday we read this book about the Snowbelly family's Christmas that I had gotten from Hallmark once upon a time. We then drew our own snowman families. They turned out pretty cute. It was good labeling practice.
• I fell in love with some cardinal scrappin doodles clipart. It's christmasy but some of it is just wintery. So I took some of the wintery and made calendar pieces for January. This is my first attempt at this. If you can use it, click here. Be sure to leave me some comment love.
• I still have this week and three days the next week. So we're tackling different versions of the gingerbread man. Check back later this week and hopefully I'll have some more freebies for you.

Help Needed!

I have recently tried my hand at creating some units and have a ton of ideas for other units I want to do and have some units in the process. I have  Teacher's Notebook store but I have no business. Hadar at Miss Kindergarten gave me the tip to show a few more picture of what I have in the unit. I thought that was a good suggestion and made sense. I was wondering if anyone else out there had some tips like that for starting successful Teacher's Notebook store or TPT stores. So I have a few questions that I could use some answers to. If you have some tips or answers, please comment and then I'll turn this into some kind of guide for others. I love the teaching blogging community and how helpful and encouraging everyone is.

• What is your favorite program to create units on?
• How do you turn multiple pages into a jpg?
• How do you decide what to charge for your units?
• What kinds of activities seem to sell the best?

I love to create things to use in my class and love to share them. The only reason I'm considering selling my stuff is to pay for my habit of buying more stuff. I love to have new units and ideas to use in my class. But spending $10-20 each week is getting a little out of my budget. If you can offer any wisdom or answers to these questions, I would greatly appreciate it. I hope to compile any tips or hints into a blog post to help others.

New Blog Design!

I know I've already posted today but I have to post again. I won one of the Holly Bloggy Giveaways for a new blog design. And it's up. Alicia from Dreamlike Magic got it all installed today. I love love love it! I am obsessed with butterflies and it is all butterflies now. So if you're looking for a new blog design check Alicia out here. I'm so excited about it and I could just stare it all day. Lame I know but it's the little things in life. Back to getting my work done so I can leave school and go to the store and blah blah blah.

One of those days

Yesterday I started a post on how cranky I was and how I didn't want to do anything. No idea what made me so cranky but it didn't help that my kids were not on their best behavior. My sweet boyfriend took me to dinner since I was cranky. Although he says he didn't want me to cook because he was afraid I would poison him. Maybe I should rethink that sweet comment.
We started Elf on the Shelf today and my kids have been so cute. While I was reading the book, one student was waving at the Elf the whole time. I let them vote on the name and they chose Rainbow.  I just purchased Krystal at Kreative in Kinder's unit Elf on the Shelf and have printed out some activities to use. I love love her units. She has some journal pages in it that I'm making into a book for each students. I have a few other ideas of what the elf can do. Hopefully this will help improve their behavior for the next 12 days of school. I'm not sure I can take it if it doesn't. My crankiness will just reappear. And I'm not sure my boyfriend can take that.
I'm really enjoying all this Scrappin Doodles clip art I've been purchasing. I think I might be obsessed with clip art. Now that I have a license to share some freebies on my blog I've got a couple of things to share with you. One is writing sheet. We're using it with a Christmas Word List I found over at Busy Bees. They make the words using magnetic letters and then use the words to write sentences and draw a picture. There are 2 different versions. Click here if you're interested. Please leave me a little love if you can use it.
I really don't know how all you wonderful bloggers out there do it. I can't seem to finish one unit that I have ideas for. I have all kinds of ideas in my head but I can't seem to get them produced. Oh well. I'm still working on a letter detective pack. Maybe I'll finish over Christmas break. I'll be offering a freebie of it sometime this week so check back with me.

Holly Bloggy Christmas!

I am definitely in the Christmas spirit. I finished my decorating on Thursday and then started crafting on Friday. I also put up my Christmas tree at school and plan to start Elf on the Shelf on Monday. My students were terrible on Friday. I found myself saying things like "I hope Santa's not watching because some of you might be getting coal in your stocking." I about made myself laugh. I was determined to find the Elf on the Shelf this weekend when my boyfriend and I went shopping. But my wonderful assistant principal came to my rescue. She offered up her daughter's old Elf. So my class will be receiving a package from the North Pole on Monday. I hope it helps or I might not make it.
Here are some of the things I've been crafting this weekend:
I decorated some glass ball ornaments for some of my fellow teachers.

This one is my favorite. I put paint inside the ball and then let it drip down. It took a while but it looks cool. One of the first grade teacher got married on Nov. 11th so I put her new name and the date on their.

An up close of the ornaments. I just need to add the ribbon to them. 

I made one of these for my Holly Bloggy partner. Not sure if I'm suppose to tell that or not. But oh well.
The next project I worked on was pinterest inspired. The paperclip bookmarks. I found some large silver paperclips at Target so I painted them with craft paint and added some ribbon. I'm not quite done with all of them

Another pinterest inspired gift, were some binder clips. I mod podged a few labels on them. I want some of these for myself.

I also painted a class sign for my Holly Bloggy partner but you'll have to wait til after Christmas to see it.
Saturday, I spent some time at Target and Hobby Lobby  getting some crafts for my students and I to do. I truly have the best boyfriend and he puts up with all the craft store trips. He even helps me pick things out for the kids. I found an ornament to make with their pictures and got the materials for making reindeer bell necklaces. I plan to have our Elf on the Shelf bring the material for the necklaces on Friday. I still have quite a few pinterest inspired crafts to make before Christmas.
What are you crafting this holiday season?

 

Sight words, crafts, and new blog design excitement!

More randomness brought to you by Ms. Kerri. I have completely forgotten to share the fact that I won last weeks Holly Bloggy Giveaway of a new blog design. I can't make up my mind on which blog design I want yet. But I'm super excited to be getting a new design. I've been wanting one for a while but I'm too cheap to buy one. So be on the look for a whole new look and button.
I have a couple of favorite holiday crafts. The first is a reindeer made out of the kids hands and feet. You trace one foot with brown paper and then their hands with either red or green. The kids cut them out and then add googly eyes and a pom pom for the nose. It makes a cute craft. I don't have any pictures because it's been a while since I've done this one. But I plan on the kids doing it next week in the art center.
The second favorite is a present for the parents. You need glass ornaments. I usually buy mine  after Christmas at 75% off for the next year. You paint their hands white and they hold the ornament. It makes five little snowmen. Once the ornament dries, they can use sharpies to decorate them. (They think that's really cool.) I usually add their name and the year on it.

Those are my favorite crafts to make with the kids.
Now on to the sight word sheet I promised yesterday. My students got to use markers yesterday to practice writing their sight words. They thought they were pretty lucky. We of course had to discuss the rules of using markers and how you have to close them and hear the click. It was good practice and it kept them engaged. It is getting harder and harder to keep them focused with December and Christmas right around the corner. So click here to get the freebie. If you have some other words you would like, just leave me a comment and I'll try to make some more. It was pretty easy.

I'm considering one of these Elf on the Shelf activities to get me through the next few weeks. Not sure I can get it together in such short notice but tomorrow being December 1st we'll be starting our Christmas book unwrapping activity. I'm feeling a little crazy about it but I'm thinking of putting our tree up on Friday. Not sure if I can handle it or not. We will see. When do you usually put your tree up?