New Year Sale and Visuals!

Have you seen all of the wonderful sales going on today?! I have splurged once again on Tpt! That's okay though because my New Years Resolution is to stay ahead for the remainder of this school year!

This girl is going to be busy, busy! The fiance and I are relocating to the Columbus area next year so I will be applying for a new teaching position!.somewhere? I am completely scared... for this reason... what if I don't get to teach next year? I will feel like a lost puppy---that is seriously no lie! It is so hard in Ohio to find a position in the elementary teaching field and I am just nervous about getting an interview!!...then after that getting the job! Bahh..talk about a nervous girl right here!

Anyway... back to what this post is really about.

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Jessica-Williams-5937

I have created SIX New regular & Winter Themed products over my Winter Break. Yes, I was one busy girl!

Here they are---they're awesome--I'm not just saying that either ha ha! I am digging into them next week!!

Click on any of them to check them out!

I also spent winter break getting ahead and I have ALL of January planned and I am literally excited about each week!! 

But, I'm not going to show you the whole month--too overwhelming so here are my plans for this week. We go back on Thursday and Friday so I planned some New Years fun!!

There are a ton of free clickable items in here so make sure to download as a PDF to find it all.

Click on the pictures!

I also created these cards for my students to follow when they come into the classroom each morning. Some of my kiddos have trouble remembering the order to do things so I am going to try these to see if it'll help. :)

Okie Dokie there you go! Be sure to shop till you drop today!

I got some shopping done on TPT.. now it's time for some Shopping at the mall!!!!! ;)

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The Gingerbread Man Recap!!

Teaching with the Gingerbread Man is seriously so much fun! Here is an outline of some of the fun we did before our Christmas break! We had lots of delays and cancellations so we didn't get to all of the GIngerbread Man fun but I did make sure we go to the EXTRA fun stuff! 

The kids participated in a shared reading retell activity. We read, "The Gingerbread Man" together as a class and then students read their book with a partner. We came back and made a story map to review the 'main parts' in the story.

Students re-read the story the next day and then worked on retelling the stories main parts and organizing it into beginning, middle and end.

Another day, I read the story, "The Gingerbread Man Loose in the School" to students and then they got to complete a fun inference activity! This story is Hiiiiilarious!! 

We tossed around a retell beach ball to practice our retelling skills after reading the story!

You want to talked about engaged... get one of these!

Then, students were put into partners and assigned a very important task... help a girl who WROTE them a letter to find the missing gingerbread Man!!
 I explained the activity to the students and they got right to work! The goal was to look at the clues in their bag that I gave them and try to figure out where the gingerbread man went in the school. It was a great way to work on those ever so important inference skills!!

Students looked through their bag of clues and discussed what each clue meant. Then, they had to write what they thought the clue meant on their inference form. At the end, students wrote a letter to 'Cinnamon' to let her know where they thought the gingerbread man went based on the clues they had in their bag.



The following day we had a two hour delay so our reading block was about 20 minutes long. So, the focus was ABC order! This is something my kids struggle with quite a bit so we completed the first 5 together and then they had to do the last 5!

The Next day was all about our senses!! 

The kids had to use their 5 senses and come up with a descriptive word (adjective) to use to describe their gingerbread man cookie. They came up with a word for each of their 5 senses. 

We brainstormed describing words to go with each of our senses together. We wanted to see how many words we could come up with to describe our cookie with each one of our senses. It was like a little competition between the senses. :)

Then, students completed their five senses page.

They added some yummy icing to their gingerbread cookie and ate it up!

(Notice the Kiddo licking the icing off of the fork---Oh myy)

After the eating and excitement was over students completed their 5 senses paragraph. (standard HIT!)

After all of this fun we were about to end our Gingerbread Man Unit! We of course had to somehow squeeze in a story response and a craft. Originally, we were going to do lots of comparing and contrasting but with all of the delays and cancellations it just was not possible.

We read this cute story... **(Love)**

Then we completed a story response form together and a cute little craft!

You will notice that they all look a bit different... I like giving a lot of freedom to the kids when they do crafts because then I get to see their cute little personalities and creativity come to life! :) I gave them the templates, cut up pieces of blue and pink paper and just let them go!!

That same day we also fit in some fun math explorations and we broke into our Gingerbread Man math station activities. I only snapped one picture though. 

I hope your enjoying you break! I will be back soon with some visual plans for Jan 2 and 3!! ---YES... we go back this Thursday!!!!! Bahh











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A Christmas 5 for Friday!!

I feel like a little giddy kid right now! There is extra time to take part in this week's Five for Friday linky! 

*Jump up and click heals*

I am linking up with Doodle Bugs! 

Here we go! 

My week/end/ started off with a fun Christmas party in Columbus at Hyde Park with my Fiance! He just accepted a new position with a company about three weeks ago so it was very nice to get to meet all of his new co-workers! Needless to say... we had lots of fun!

 

This week in the classroom we made our parent gifts. The students decorated ornaments, wrote cards and made a reindeer gift baggie!

Here is a collage of their ornaments in action!

They placed their ornaments in these cute reindeer gift bags that they made. These are super easy to assemble! A++!!

Student gifts were passed out at the end of the day today after we had our fabulous Winter Party--which is to come in #4! I used up my scholastic points and 'purchased,' "Mice on Ice" for the students! Wrapped it in some prettiness and slid a pencil and candy cane inside! Perfect, pretty and simple! They loved it. I also wrote each student a little card that I gave to them when they received their gift. :) They actually loved the card the most which warmed my little heart. :)

 

This week we read all types of Christmas and Santa stories. My favorite activity we did was a letter to Santa. The students wrote the most heartfelt letters to Mr. Santa! While they were writing I knew I had to display these in my room. I quickly grabbed some red construction paper, cotton balls and white strips of paper... & tadaaa... Santa hats!

 

Today, we had our Winter Party before the kids went home! The kids decorated cookies, made reindeer food, played twister, pin the ornament on the Christmas tree, and played Bingo! Busy, busy party-- But, Oh so fun!!

That's all for now! Have a fantastic Christmas break and a Happy New Year!

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Week Revised == SNOWDAY!

You all know that feeling when you phone starts making noises in the morning and first you think... time to wake up already? But, then you realize that, "Hey! That's not my alarm... that would be that ringtone that arrives the morning of a school delay!" Then, you reset your alarm, sleep for two more hours and the entire time you're thinking... come on second phone call... cancel, cancel, cancel... because let's face it... 2 hours delays send the kids into haywire mode and nothing gets accomplished!! Well, before my alarm went off I got that phone call... and you would have thought the Bengal's scored a touchdown! My arms went up and I said that infamous, "yessssssss!!"

 

 

Now, onto the revised plans for the week! You will notice that they are all over the place this week.

1. It's because there are so many fun things I want to do and we only have 2 weeks to fit it all in!

2. It's because today was a snow day. As excited as I am about these lovely days... I also get bummed when they happen because they always means something has got to go. It might be something fun this week or something fun next week!

 

Onward ...

Click on the plans to see a bigger version!

 

 

 

As always I liked up with Dee Dee!!

 

Later this week I will be sharing some photos from my new gingerbread man unit so stay tuned! 

 

Also, if you are introducing Magic E, Sneaky E... you know.... the E guy... then you need to check out this unit from 'First Grade Wow.' I LOVE this blog! She has so many great ideas and units and they're all free!

 

This week we are kicking off a reindeer study with a reindeer book read and a retell craft!

Continuing with my obsession this is also from First Grade Wow.

 

I am reading the book from http://www.wegivebooks.org.

If you haven't signed up at this website then I high recommend it! There are a tons of free books that you can read to your students. I display these on my smart board. The kids LOVE it! Click below to check out this book!

 

 

 

After we read the book we are going to complete a story retell craft!

 

 

Welp, I'm off to be somewhat productive today! :)

 

 

 

 

 

 



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'oooo' LOOKIE HERE.. & A Giveaway!!!

I so had to stop myself from shopping these past few days on Tpt! There are literally so many amazing ideas out there and I wish I had a bazillion hours in the school day so I could fit it all in but sadly it's just not possible. So, with a lot of thought I had mini-battles with myself of things that were 'needs' and not just 'wants'...okay, some were wants and I will figure out a way to squeeze them in! :)

 

Now... here is what I bought!

You can click on the pictures and it'll either take you to their store or the product!

Also, I just created a Gingerbread Man unit and my kids are eating it up! In the celebration of all the deals I am going to be giving away ONE!!

 

The giveaway ends on Friday!

Enter away!!

 

 

 

 



a Rafflecopter giveaway Here is the preview of the unit! Trust me... you'll be covered for the week!

 

 

Have a great rest of your week!!!

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