A December Post

I hope everyone is enjoying their winter break. I have been home for a week already and for those who just got out this week... I hope you take some time to just BREATHE. I am enjoying my break. I even thought to myself that this is what I should have been doing all summer instead of thinking about school... NOTHING!!

But I did want to take a minute to give some shout-outs to a blog called Technology rocks... seriously. This blog helped me out tremendously during my last week before break. On Thursday our principal said we needed to use technology all day throughout the day in every subject. Well in our morning lesson for reading is pretty much difficult to do but I did get in a lot of Christmas fun activities to do. So I know sometime during the break you are trying to pack up your winter holiday stuff so just add in this blog of fun Christmas websites to try for next year. But if you just want to check out some other things on her blog it is called Technology Rocks... Seriously. Just this year our whole grade level got Smartboards so I have been trying to use mine, or to figure out how to use it to its full potential. So I love the already made up ideas that I can just plug into my lesson and go from there. I'm not to handy with the notebook software and making my own yet but I will get there.

I also trying to "catch up" on reading the blog posts from Google Reader. I say "catch up" because I don't think I can actually catch up when the ALL ITEMS says 1000+, it is kind of like my email when it gets over 1000 I just don't want to deal with what is beyond it. But as I was trying to catch up I hit the star button on several Christmas/holiday items you can always use for next year.

Christmas
Kelli from Castles and Crayons is doing 12 days of Christmas. Check it out so you can grab the freebies and great ideas for this holiday season. If you like brownies and oreos then this recipe is for you. Click throughout her blog for the rest of the 12 days of Christmas.
Ordinal Number practice from Wise Owl Factory over at Classroom Freebies. And if you haven't checked out Classroom Freebies yet you should. Those who post FREEBIES usually tag their stuff according to grade level. So you can bypass the things you don't want and get to the good stuff.
As much reading and fun Christmas activities we try to get our students involved in, I found a Candy Cane Observation sheet from 2 Teaching Mommies. See we can add science into holiday stuff. And if you like this observation sheet be sure to check out their PUMPKIN unit for the pumpkin observation sheet. It was an easy recording sheet that told me as a teacher whether or not my students understood the concepts of the 5 senses.

Winter/Snowman
If you have a really great winter idea that you always use with your students, submit it to be included in the Winter Packet from Me and My Gang. Submissions are accepted until December 28th and they hope to have the FREE winter packet to us by January. Doesn't that sound awesome? We share our ideas of fun things to do then we get to enjoy everything free!
If you are interested in adding your item to the packet please email your activity and the following information to meanmygang@gmail.com and add Winter Favorite to the subject line.
Please include the following: Your First and Last Name & Your Blog URL.

Each entry will be credited with your name and blog information.  

(This is a great opportunity for ALL you new bloggers to get your name out there:)

We welcome ALL grade levels and ALL subjects.  The packet will be organized into categories once all of the entries have been submitted. 

We will be taking entries until December 28th. 

We hope to have the FREE packet up the first week in January!

For All of your hard work we will also be putting every person's name that submits an activity into a drawing for a $15 Target Gift Card!  

YIPPEE!  After Christmas SHOPPING!

Heather's Heart Save the Snowman and Winter Tally Marks freebies!!

Non-standard measurement ideas from Little Miss Kindergarten

FREEBIES!!
Freebie Friday... I just stumbled upon all the Freebie Friday posts that I have missed from Teaching Blog Addict. WOW! I can't want to go through and stumble upon more stuff.

Beginning and Ending Sounds: My kids really struggle with hearing the ending sounds so I like to practice as much as I can. Especially since the kids are assessed on their phonemic fluency weekly.