First Week of December Must Reads!

HO HO HO!

Did you know?

These are some great books

That you should show! 

To fill your students minds

With thoughts of holiday times!

Here is a list of my must reads for the first week of December with my students! There are just so many holiday books I thought I would share them during each week leading up to Christmas. Enjoy! 

Gingerbread Books: 

I love to read a few gingerbread stories to compare and contrast them and see which one is the students favorite.

If you haven't read about the smarter, sweeter gingerbread girl who leaps and twirls I highly recommend you get this book! It is always a class favorite with boys and girls because of the twist at the end!

This little baby is too adorable and it is so fun to build gingerbread houses after reading this book! 

A new favorite that our librarian read to my class this week! 

Happy Reading! 

P.S. I thinking about reading the Hunger Games...is it too much of a teen novel or is it for all ages? I would love to know and hear your feedback about the books! 

Cyber Monday Sale and Update

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I will be participating in Cyber Monday tomorrow on TPT! Everything in my store will be 20% off and then if you add the promo code CMS28 at checkout you will receive another 10% off everything you purchase! I have just uploaded some great new products for the holiday season.

Hope you all had a fantastic Thanksgiving break! I enjoyed having the week off and spending time with my family. Now I'm ready for all the fun holiday things I have planned for the next three weeks with my kids! I will also be sharing some of my favorite activities and books throughout the month of December starting this week.

I'm Thankful!

1.  What are you thankful for in your classroom? I'm most thankful for my parent volunteers! I've never had such a wonderful group of parents who volunteer weekly and go above and beyond in helping me out! Last week for our school play they helped make props, shirts, and decorate the stage. Then they sent me cards that they are thankful for me! Wow such a group of amazing parents that make my life easier and make my job even more fun! 

 2. What person are you most thankful for? I most thankful for my significant  other who is a wonderful person. He always has a listening ear, good advice, a shoulder to cry on, big arms to cuddle me, and is my best friend. I love him more than he knows and I'm so thankful we've been in each others lives for five years.

                      

3. What 3 blogs are you most thankful for?

Reagan Tunstall from Tunstall's Teaching Tidbits has been an inspiration to me. She always has interesting blog posts and leaves the sweetest comments.

 

Made for 1st Grade is another blog I'm very thankful for. They continually make great activities that go along with my first grade curriculum. They set the bar for me as a blogger and creator for TPT. 

   

Abby at The Inspired Apple is such a funny, creative person. I love her new activities and look forward to reading her posts. 

                                                                                                                  

4. What guilty pleasure are you most thankful for?

Blogging for sure is my guilty pleasure. I steal away moments to come check out exciting new ideas while the significant other tells me to stop working. I love to find amazing new resources and spend time printing and laminating. I feel like its a guilty pleasure because sometimes it takes away time I could be face to face interacting with someone or doing something off the couch. I also feel a little like a secret blogger because my team mates know I follow blogs but have no idea I actually am I blogger or have a TPT store.

5. What are you most thankful for?

-my wonderful family

-my amazing friends

-my great job (team members, principal, classroom, children, parents)

-my beautiful home

I hope you all have a very blessed and special Thanksgiving with your loved ones.

Thank you followers for entering my giveaway! Sorry this true random number thing looks funky but the winner is: 

True Random Number 

Result:12Powered by RANDOM.ORG

Delighted said...

Just signed up to follow your TPT Store!

First Grade Delight
imgoingfirst@gmail.com

Congrats to First Grade Delight for winning Spaghetti in a Hot Dog Bun signed by the author Maria Dismondy!

I will be e-mailing you for your mailing information! 

Thankful Freebie!

I'm feeling so thankful! I just started my little TPT store and I'm feeling thankful I already followers.

I just want to show y'all a preview of what I have and give you a freebie!

                          

Thanksgiving-Compare-and-Contrast-Writing-Activities

Making Short /a/ Words

Wrapped Up in Addition

Last but not least your freebie for being a wonderful follower:

Cornucopia Sight Words: First Grade

Don't forget to enter my giveaway too! It ends 11-11-11 at 11:11 p.m. Enter here!

Books on Bullying & Giveaway!

 Bullying has become a major problem in schools today. Don't let your students be bystanders empower your students to make a difference! Addressing bullying in elementary school can be a hard task and teachers need all the resources we can get. Maria Dismondy is the author of  three amazing books about standing up to bullies: Spaghetti in a Hot Dog Bun, The  Juice Box Bully, and Pink Tiara Cookies for Three (coming soon!).f Maria was a teacher for 11 years and then took time off to become a writer and start a family. She has written three books about bullying and friendships with the main goal of reaching as many children as possible to make a difference. I certainly think that she has made a difference because her first book award winning Spaghetti in a Hot Dog Bun sold over 25,000 copies. Whoa! She is such an inspiring author and her message rings true to problems our students face everyday in school. These books are amazing to use for character education and with bucket filling books. So what are you waiting on? Go pick up a copy of her book and check out her website Maria Dismondy : Children's Book Author from Michigan. She has resources that go along with her books.
                                       

Maria contacted me earlier this week to feature her books on my website and I felt so honored! She was even nice enough to give me an extra copy of her fabulous book Spaghetti in a Hot Dog Bun. So because I love all my blogger followers sooo much I am going to give one lucky follower a signed copy of Spaghetti in a Hot Dog Bun!

You have 4 chances to win:
1. Follow my blog and leave a comment or become a follower!
2. Follow my TPT store and leave a comment. It's brand new and needs some love!
3. Visit Maria's website Maria Dismondy : Children's Book Author from Michigan and leave me a comment which book you think you would use and how.
4. Blog about this giveaway and leave the link in a comment.

Let's get the word out about these wonderful books on bullying issues! Good luck! The giveaway ends on 11-11-11 at 11:11 p.m.

Favorite November Books

Veteran's Day Books:

A is for America

This is a delightful alphabet book that features highlights of America's history through thoughtful rhymes a beautiful illustrations. Our first grade play is based off of this book so I love to use it to introduce our play.

H is for Honor

H is for Honor is a alphabet book describing the military lifestyle. This book is a wonderful way to explain to children about veterans, soldiers, and their families who serve in their own special way. This book is a favorite of mine since my brother serves in the Navy. I know I will be giving this to his children one day.

Pilgrim Books: 

You Wouldn't Want to Sail on the Mayflower

This hilarious book gives inside information on what it was like to sail on the Mayflower as a pilgrim chid. It's creative flair and text features keep even your most uninterested readers wanting more. The illustrations are excellent conversation starters on how people lived on the Mayflower.

Sarah Morton's Day and Samuel Eaton's Day

These classic books explain about the day in the life of a pilgrim girl and boy. These are  great books to use to compare and contrast pilgrims chores and daily lives to children now.

This is the Feast

A poetic book that focused on the first Thanksgiving feast.

Native American Books:

Arrow to the Sun

This Pueblo Indian tale lends is self to teach retelling and sequencing events. It's vibrant illustrations will keep your students interested in the hero's quest to find the Solar Fire. This is a Caldecott Honor book.

Tomie dePaola is a wonderful author and illustrated who tells the legend of Texas Indian girls who are brave. These are greats books to use with painting activities, to learn about another state, and to learn about state flowers. 

Turkey Books: 

10 Fat Turkeys

A crazy counting book that will keep your children laughing and having fun while learning. I use this book in my listening center each year and it's a huge hit! 

Turkey Trouble

This funny story is about a turkey who is trying to find his way out of being dinner and how he hilariously disguises himself and out tricks the farmer. This book lends itself to a "Tom Turkey" activity of disguising turkeys for Thanksgiving or a writing activity of what else you could eat besides a turkey on Thanksgiving. 

T is for Turkey

A wonderful alphabet book that tells the Thanksgiving story. This is a great book to use as an overview of the Thanksgiving holiday or as a review for older kids. 

Hope you have enjoyed my favorite books to use in November. 

Happy reading!

Halloween Recap!

This past weekend and the week so far have almost been a blur. I have been way too busy to even sit. But since most of my conferences are almost done and I'm finally able to catch my breath I thought I would recap my Halloween activities.

We had a wonderful character parade and my kids were so cute! Then we had fall party full of fun centers for the kids. My room my is simply wonderful because she put together all the activities and crafts! This is a picture of one of the crafts a goodie bag that looks like candy corn made out of a paper plate. She bought pencils, erasers, candy, etc. to put in the bag.

The student also made this cute craft with their picture in sepia which I just loved! I wanted to keep all of them and hang them in my room. The parents loved this one!They also got to decorate their pumpkin after doing educationally stuff with them of course! Did you know pumpkins float? That was my kids favorite experiment with the pumpkins.

The candy corn bandit also came and took some of our precious candy corn on Halloween and made us chase around the school trying to find him! Only to find out that he was gone and off to the next location! But we finally found our candy corn safely back in our classroom-it was missing a few but is was still a yummy treat! We had so much fun doing this activity! Check it out at The Inspired Apple. My kids wrote about the candy corn bandit and made the craft! Too cute for making predictions which we are learning about this week and sequencing events which we did last week. I totally forgot pictures at school but this is what our special candy corn jar looked like! This was a huge hit with the kids and a great way to keep them learning on Halloween.

One of my other awesome volunteers who helps our class out so much had a Halloween party for my whole class after school on Thursday. (we didn't have school on Friday) This mom went all out for the party! She had a kid table with pizza, soda, candy and an adult table with catered sandwiches, sushi, wine, and beer. The kids played games, danced, and had a great time. It was nice for my to catch up with some of the parents I don't see that often too. I don't know if it is just me but I find that each year there is always that one creepy Dad...that likes to joke around but is soo not appropriate for school. This may seem off topic but I bring it up because one Dad asked me if I was going to drink (around parents ummm NO WAY!) and said that I should loosen up a little since it was a party. Then when I saying goodbye to everyone he said that since I was leaving he may as well go to since I was the life of the party. Yes, I know these things are not terrible but the way he said them made me just feel weird. It still does not beat my first year when I putting a darling little kinder in her car and the Dad says " Kindergarten teachers didn't look like that when I went to school." To which I polite responded " Sir, I'm sure you wouldn't have realized if they did."

Ohh parents! I have been having conferences all week and so far they are going really well! I think it is due to the fact that I have such an amazing class and everyone is on or above grade level. I'm so proud of them! :)

Okay up next on my blog:
Exciting book talk about a new bullying book!
GIVEAWAY! (I know I've been hyping this up but I waiting for the actually item to arrive!
A super cute new blog from a teacher friend I know!