Counting our Blessings.

I didn't have to think hard about this one.  Now doing it is another thing.  I'm linking up with Amy at Step Into Second Grade.  Today's post is about downtime in the new year.  Downtime? Really?  This is what I think I should do with downtime... clean my house, paint walls, comment more on blogs, work on all of the unfinished TPT projects sitting on my jump drive, document all of the data for my little firsties .  Now for the things I like to do....

 

 

Many of the days in the pictures are spent on days off from school.  Who has down time during the school year?  With a teenager in high school, a 5th grader with tons of homework, and a hubby who owns his own business, our evenings are very full.  However, with our parents getting older, a recent health scare with my dad, a dear friend's husband surviving a major accident we are MAKING time in our busy days to enjoy all of the people in our life.  The power of prayer gave us happy news with my dad and more prayers continue help our friend improve everyday.   We are truly blessed and enjoy every minute of our crazy life. 

 

I hope you take the time to enjoy the downtime in your life.  As teachers we pack so much into a day (can you say multitasking) that we forget about our own families.   Our families are the reason we are able to be such dedicated teachers.  Take time to tell them how much they mean to you.   Blessings.

 

 

Tammy



New Year's Unit Linky Party

Hey everyone.  I hope you had a wonderful holiday.  I am linking up at Teaching is a gift blog with my Happy New Year Unit and my FREE Squirrel's New Year's Resolution activity.  You can click the pictures below to take you there.




Teachers Pay Teachers Store

 

Teachers Notebook Store

Squirrel's New Years Resolution


Have a great night.

Tammy





Reindeer Ornaments and Free Poem

My dear friend who is a kindergarten teacher at our school is on leave this year.  I have her precious little guy in my room.  She found this idea on pinterest and asked if she could come in and do them with the class.  Of course I said yes.  They turned out so cute.  The biggest problem was finding plastic ornaments.  I have the glass snowman handprint ornament she had made with my daughter in kindergarten.  I am always so afraid I am going to break such a precious keepsake so plastic was a must for this project.  We mainly used the silver, but I have several students who have divorced parents so we used clear for those children to make two ornaments. 

She also created this sweet little poem to go with it.  You can find it here.

 

Every year I also make these mason jar lid ornaments using the kid's pictures with glitter.  You can see that post here.

 

 

 

Take Care.  I hope everyone is enjoying their much needed break.

 

 

Thoughts and Prayers

Today I went on a field trip with my daughters class. I had planned on sharing photos. We had such a happy day and then after returning to the bus we heard the horrific news about Sandy Hook Elementary.  I have watched the news... cried, prayed and cried more for these families.  As a mom and teacher I can't imagine this happening.  My thoughts and prayers go out to the families tonight.  May God watch over them and help ease their pain at this time.

Math Wall and Birthday Display

The bulletin boards in our classrooms are from ceiling to floor.  We have 4.   That sounds wonderful but you lose a lot of space when you have a table pushed up against it.  Sooo, I decided to make my own.  I went to the dollar store and purchased 4 sheets of foam board.  Taped them together and covered it in the fadeless paper from Lakeshore.  I bought the big roll and had a lot left over after doing the 4 bulletin boards.  This is how it turned out.  The dot posters are from Creative Teaching Press.  $11.99.   They were handing out the paper flowers at our fall festival, so I added it to fill the space. The Addition Strategy Posters on the tall bulletin board are available for FREE in my TPT store.  I also have FREE Subtraction Strategy Posters too.

Remember in August when Walmart had all of those 88cent goodies.  This is what I did with my cupcakes set.  I have a small area near my door where they fit perfectly.  I bought the ribbon at Walmart and laminated the cupcakes.  I used a Vis-A-Vis marker so that I can use them over again.

Have a great night. 
Tammy

Talking Turkey and a Cyber Sale!

Happy belated Thanksgiving everyone.  I wanted to share some of the activities we did in class on Tuesday.  I have enjoyed 5 glorious days off with perfect weather.  We didn't have the big feast in our class but we did enjoy some pumpkin pie.  I have many little ones with allergies this year so some passed on the pie and went straight for the whipped cream!



For those of you who shop at Publix.  In the background is the Publix Pilgrim Activity page I got at our local Publix years ago when they visited our store.  Love those chubby Pilgrims.  

 

 

Our school improvement plan is focusing on using more informational text in our classrooms.  So we read this little ol book about turkeys. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lots of information and the kiddos loved it.  We made an anchor chart with all of the new info we learned.  They were also very impressed with my version of a turkey. Let me say I am NOT an artist.  I leave that to my son and hubby.  But I have to say I was very proud of myself.  When I texted my husband a picture of the little guy, he asked what kind of "cobra" turkey is that?...hence the face and neck on my turkey.  He later said he was pretty proud of my new found artistic ability.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then we made these cute little gobblers from kindergartenmonkeybusiness.blogspot

 

 

Finally, I'm having a sale. All of my items will be 20% this Monday and Tuesday.  Plus TPT is adding an additional 10% off.  Click on the picture below to take you to my store.  Don't forget to use the promo code cmt12.  Have a great week back.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Made It Monday and a Behavior Chart Freebie

Finally I'm participating in Made It Monday from 4th Grade Frolics.  I had been looking for a mailbox for my classroom.  They were a little pricey so I continued to make my own center  folders for my kids.  One of our teachers was cleaning out her room and decided to give away this little gem.

My first thought was Eeww yuck, but it was free so I wasn't complaining.  Then after going home and remembering that my daughter had an enourmous amount of duck tape in her room, I got an idea. I chose a color and after 30 minutes I have this.

Not too bad, right?  After looking on the back I realized this mailbox has been handed down a few times at our school.  It had several teachers' names on the back.  They just didn't see the potential.  I added numbers to clips and attached them to each slot.  My kids each have a number so they know where to put their work.  I just love it. 

I have also attached the behavior chart I use in my classroom.  I use the clip chart where the students can move up and down the chart, but some of my little ones still need a daily reminder note home to keep them on track.  I just add a smile, straight, or unhappy face to the bottom of the "eyes".  It's quick and easy especially when trying to get them out the door at the end of the day. If they get an unhappy face I write a comment so that my parents can talk with them about it.   Click on it HERE.  Have a great night.