My Favorite Things Freebie

     We had a full afternoon of Parent Teacher conferences today and boy, am I tired of hearing myself talk!  On the ride home I decided that I was going to get home, relax and not say another word all night. That was before I realized that the remake of The Sound of Music was on. Now I'm sitting here, an old nostalgic fool, singing along with Maria and the children at the top of my lungs. (I'm not taking it personally that my dog is next to me howling . . .) My poor voice will no doubt pay the price tomorrow, but I consider that a small price to pay for bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens! The Sound of Music just makes me happy. (And I have to say, Carrie Underwood had some big shoes to fill and I think she's doing a great job!)
     As Maria belted out, "A Few of My Favorite Things," it made me think of a book I just used with my class during our Early Print Strategies unit.  One of the strategies we worked on was "Getting you mouth ready to say the word." To reinforce and strengthen this skill, I made an emergent reader that really requires the kids to attend to the first letter of the word, because after looking at the picture for clues, the unfamiliar word is not always the obvious choice. Is that a dog or a puppy? A computer or a laptop? A coat or a jacket? There are a couple of different versions of the book, so you can keep the kids on their toes!  You can grab a copy by clicking on the picture if you'd like to try it with your kids.
Have a great night and try to sing out loud at least once tomorrow!
   

Shopping in My Long-Johns

Even though I have been known to partake in the past, I made an effort to stay away from the Black Friday craziness this weekend. It was just too cold to go out at 5 am to get a good deal. I'm holding out for Cyber Monday instead.  I plan to come right home from school tomorrow, build a fire in the fireplace, fire up my laptop and do my Christmas Shopping online. My family has become very skilled at adding to their Amazon wishlists throughout the year, so I have a great place to start. My challenge is going to be to not play the "one present for them, one for me" game which I love to play.

I'm sure you've heard about the big Teachers Pays Teachers Cyber-Monday sale. It's definitely on my "shop in my long-johns" list of places to visit tomorrow. I spent a couple of hours filling up my wish list today so I can just check out and stock up for the winter. (I sound like a squirrel - LOL!) I'm also offering an additional 20% off all the items in my store for the next two days, so you can get a total of 28% off by using the code "CYBER."

I have a few new items listed for you to take a peek at. (As usual, I'll send the first three comments their choice of the goodies below . . .)

My favorite is the Holiday Pattern Block Cards I made for my Math Stations. My kids LOVE to make pictures with pattern blocks and I came up with a set of Christmas and Hanukkah cards that I think they're really going to love. Click on the picture to get a better look.

Keeping the kids engaged during December is always tricky because they're so excited for the holidays. You know what they say - if you can't beat them, join them!  With this in mind, I made a set of holiday themed math sheets to reinforce counting, addition, graphing and using ten frames.

The last new item is based on my favorite Christmas carol, The 12 Days of Christmas. This cute booklet will give the kids practice writing numbers and number words, using ten frames and representing quantities up to 12.  I also made an alternative version, The 12 Days of Friendship for the kids in my class who don't celebrate Christmas.

I wish you happy cyber-shopping tomorrow. I hope you get tons of good deals and find presents for both yourself and your loved ones!