12 Dogs of Christmas

If you have not heard of this Christmas book, you need to head on over to Amazon and get yourself a copy!!  It includes a CD of the song that is so fun to listen to!  This has been a favorite of mine (I have a habit of saying that every picture book in my library is a favorite of mine) since I did my student teaching back in 2001.  My cooperating teacher bought a copy for me and now every year right before the holidays, I play it for my kids.  They beg me to play it over and over again.  It kind of reminds me of the excitement they had when I first played Pete the Cat for them!!!  I tried to find a sample of the song on the Internet, but had no luck.  You will just have to buy it and hear it for yourself!!!

What is your favorite holiday book?  I think A Wish To Be a Christmas Tree comes in a close second for me!!  Polar Express used to be on the top of my list until the movie came out and ruined the magic that the book had on its own. 

Parent Volunteer Gifts

Every year around the holidays, I like to give my parent volunteers a little gift to thank them for coming and helping in our classroom.  I have been known to send my poor husband into Home Depot on Black Friday (when in fact, he secretly loves to be sent there) to grab the beautiful poinsettias that are just 99 cents!!!  He says he has nightmares for days after of little old ladies shoving him out of the way to get their hands on the little red plants.

This year I have NINE awesome moms that come in once a week or once every other week to help with our intervention block time.  Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday I have a parent in my room helping with sight word games or math intervention tubs.  I wish I could take them all to Hawaii...they deserve so much more than those 99 cent poinsettias, so I made them these:

You need a clear acrylic frame, scrapbook paper, cooridnating ribbon, ink pens and sticky notes to make these adorable sticky note holders.  A few glue dots or a hot glue gun wouldn't hurt to have on hand as well.  Trim your scrapbook paper to fit inside the frame.  Add embellishments inside or outside of the frame, which ever you choose.  Attach the sticky note pad with glue dots or a dab of hot glue so they stay on.  I also found a four pack of matching pastel ink pens at the dollar store that work perfectly!!!  Wrap in a clear treat bag and tie with some ribbon and you have got yourself a pretty awesome gift!!!  I am also making them for my kids' preschool teachers with a little bible verse "fancied up with embellishments" inside the frame. 

My coworkers tease me because this is type of a project is so NOT me at all.  Me + scrapbook paper are usually not said in the same sentence.  ; )  

What do you do for your parent volunteers?

In case you missed my post last week...click {HERE} to see what my students make for their own parents for the holidays!

HTML WHAT?

I have watched tutorials, read blog design tips, looked at DIY blog articles and messed with HTML codes until I couldn't see straight.  I finally got rid of the pastel blue background, birds and butterflies, found a background to match my header, and installed it.  I think I lost a few strands of hair in the process...

And I have decided that HTML stands for this:

How in the HELL-O do
They
Make it
Look so easy?

-or-

How many
Thousands of
Monkeys did it take to make up this
Language?

I am not in love with what I ended up with, so I might play with it a little more later.  : )

I'm making my parent gifts this weekend and will post directions and pictures, soon!

Bound and Determined

I am bound and determined to do a little DIY blog makeover!!!  Please pardon the construction mess as I play with things...

Singing Penguins and Struggling Readers

What do singing penguins and struggling readers have in common you ask?  Keep reading...

Once every few months, my son is in charge of a snack for his preschool class.  Being a first grade teacher and wanting to make everything cute, I usually make a "creation" out of food for his snack.  I have made skeletons out of veggies, turkeys out of melons, cheese and grapes, Christmas trees out of Styrofoam cones and grapes, rainbows and pots of gold out of fruit and marshmallows, etc.  His teachers always tease me and tell me that it is ok to send in plain pretzels or goldfish crackers.  My friend's son also goes to the same preschool and she just rolls her eyes and wonders where in the world I find my time.  The time I brought in little penguins made out of olives and cream cheese, she said "let me guess, these penguins sing, twirl around and explode firecrackers from their beaks."  I just about died laughing!!! 

I forgot to take a picture, but I also had a cheese ball in the shape of an igloo for these little guys!

Hang on...I'm getting to the part where these penguins have something to do with struggling readers. : )

Almost every blog post I write, I feel like I have to come up with this "exploding with fireworks" post that is about glitter, cupcakes, and butterflies so people will read it.  Who wants to read the boring stuff (like the pretzels and goldfish) about struggling readers?  So if you are all about the fluff, stop reading now.  If you would like to hear more about the amazing day and information I learned about this past week, keep on reading!!!

I was blessed to have spent the day with our District Literacy Coach (if you have been with me for a while, you have heard of the Amazing Kate!).  We met to talk about what we can do about those readers who are stuck between DRA levels 3 and 4 (C and D).  WOW, did we get some awesome professional development!!!  We are now armed with some great mini lesson topics and conferring points for kids who are stuck at those lower levels.  Here they are (underlined headings are the big ideas and bullets are the teaching points):

How to Teach "Picture Walks"
• Readers use pictures to tell about the setting.


• Readers use pictures to tell what the character is thinking.


• Readers name the things in the pictures during their picture walk and make it sound like a story.
 How to Teach "One to One (1:1)"


• Readers touch under, not on the word.


• Readers touch under each word to keep their place.


• Readers use phonics to check for 1:1 using letter sounds.


• Readers know that spaces separate words.


• Readers know that words with more syllables need to hold their finger under the word longer/slide finger under the word until the word ends. (ex. The word umbrella would be held longer than pointing to the word is.)
 How to Teach "Look Through the Whole Word"


• The size of the word needs to match the word coming out of the reader’s mouth. (Ex. Umbrella is much longer than the word under.)


• Ending sounds must match the word readers try while reading.


• Middle sounds must match the word readers try while reading.
 Look at the Picture


• Readers name the things in the picture and check with the first letter in the unknown word to see if it makes sense.


• Readers recognize that pictures can have more than one name. (ex. Couch, chair, sofa)


• Readers cross check pictures with letter sounds.


If you made it this far, I hope you enjoyed my singing penguin story as well as the not-as-exciting topic of struggling readers.  : )  I wish you all could meet Kate and enjoy her as much as my coworkers and I do.

Parent Gifts for the Holidays

This is an easy and fairly cheap project to do with your students to give as a gift for their parents.  We ask our local big box hardware store to donate the supplies and they are usually very willing to donate everything we need!

To make the decorative tiles, you will need the following:

6x6 white bathroom wall tile for each child

an assortment of fine and extra fine Sharpie markers

piece of fine sandpaper

clear lacquer spray paint

Lightly (very lightly) sand the tile (this is so the marker will "stick") and wipe it clean with a dry paper towel.  Give each child a piece of paper with a 6x6 square traced on it to use as a practice before they attempt the real thing...there is no turning back once a first grader is armed with a Sharpie!!!!



This is my attempt at making a practice sheet for the example.  Don't laugh at my artistic abilities!



Next, read the kids the riot act about not dropping the tile because the nice folks (over at the store that rhymes with Gnome Sheep-o) only gave us enough for each child to have ONE!  Have the nice little talk about how moms and dads won't be too thrilled if permanent marker gets on their clothes and how the markers are NOT smelly markers and that they should not put them anywhere near their nose.

When the kids are finished, I have them CAREFULLY place the tiles on a large sheet of butcher/bulletin board paper on the floor.  When they all go home for the night, I lightly coat them with the clear sealer.  (Make sure your windows are open and you warn the custodian not to be alarmed when he smells a strong odor coming from your room.)  You may want to clear your senses before you attempt to drive yourself home.  That sealer is wicked strong!!!

It is totally optional, but you can put tiny sticky felt pieces on the four corners on the bottom of the tile so it doesn't scratch tables and things.  Parents LOVE this gift and cherish it for years to come...except for the one single dad that emailed me 3 days after receiving it with a warning to tell other parents not to put it in the dishwasher.  It completely erased the whole entire image that his child put on the tile!!!  I didn't have the heart to tell him it was for decorative purposes only.  LOL

I found some red and green bubble wrap this year that I will wrap the tiles in once they are completely dry.  The kids decorate a white paper lunch bag to use as a gift bag, too!

What do you have your students make for their parents????

I will be back soon with my parent volunteer gift idea that is easy peasy and el-cheapo!

Amazing Sale!

Starting Sunday, November 27th, I will be holding a 20% off sale in my TPT store through Tuesday, November 29th!  If you shop on Monday, enter the code CMS28 to get another 10% off your total purchase!

Some of my more popular items include Mo Willems' extenstion activities for his Pigeon and Elephant and Piggie books, Santa Countdown Craftivity, Conferring Shortcuts, Reading Workshop Printable Sticky Notes, Sight Word packs and Nonsense Word games.

Click {HERE} to go directly to my store!  Happy Shopping!



Secret Santa

Does your staff need a little boost in the culture department?  Do you forget the true meaning of the holidays in the hustle and bustle of things at your school?  You need to participate in a Secret Santa Gift Giving activity!!!  We do this every year in our building and it is so much fun!  Each day you act as Santa to your recipient and give him/her a small $1-$2 gift for four days.  You have to get creative on how you deliver the small gifts so he/she doesn't figure out who you are!  On the final day (usually the day before break) we gather in the media center for a wonderful holiday breakfast before school starts and reveal ourselves to the person we have been showering with gifts all week!  We also give a bigger gift at this time, usually around $10.  Of course, not everyone participates, but it is still a blast!

I have cleaned up (and "fancied") the form that we use and have it as a FREE download for you if you would like to start this awesome tradition with your staff!  Click on the picture below to get your copy!

Candy Corn and Turkey Toes???

Somewhere out there in the world wide web, I stumbled upon Turkey Toes...never to be able to find the exact same one I originally found...so I created my own tag.  What are Turkey Toes, you ask?  Place candy corn in a clear bag and attach the tag with some cute yellow or orange curling ribbon.  I thought it would be an adorable gift for your students or your coworkers!  Click on the labels for your FREE download!

Plus

Equals a cute Thanksgiving Treat!!!

If you missed my post about the next set of Conferring Shortcuts you can click {HERE} to go directly to the listing in my TPT shop!

Also...a HUGE favor to ask...I am in the running for an awesome grant opportunity!  I need votes to win!!!!  It literally takes 30 seconds to vote and they won't even send you junk email!  I would appreciate as many votes as you can get for me!!!  November 24th is the last day to vote!  Click {HERE} to vote!  Thanks a million!

New Conferring Shortcuts! {and winners}

A huge thanks for everyone who entered my Brag Tags giveaway!!!  What a fun giveaway!!!!

The lucky 10 winners have already been contacted by email.

Did you download a set of my FREE Conferring Shortcuts yet?  If you have, and you love them, a new set of 10 are now posted and are $2.00 for a limited time!!!  Click on the picture below to go straight to the listing!

Included in this pack are the first 5 from my original free set and 10 more series books:

Princess Posey
Roscoe Riley Rules
Poppleton
Max Spaniel
Lighthouse Family
Biscuit
Iris and Walter
Moose and Hildy
Fluffy
Frog and Toad

A total of 15 Conferring Shortcuts for only $2.00!  This deal won't last long, so don't delay!

If you aren't familiar with Conferring Shortcuts, and you teach reading using a workshop model or the Daily Five, these are for you!