Monday, November 28, 2011

Cyber Monday is my fave holiday!!

Ummm we all know I have a minor problem with online shopping so the temptation today with all the emails about great deals has been really hard. :(
I will not shop...I will not shop!

But, I wanted to throw a sale for you guys since it is still hard to believe people actually want to buy stuff I make?!? Thank you so much! Enjoy 20% off on all of my prodcuts, and don't forget the extra 10% too! Code is: CMS28

15 DAYS!!!!

Monday, November 21, 2011

Winner and I am THANKFUL!

A lot of you had some good answers to my question on what I do the Friday after Thanksgiving, BUT
REAGAN TUNSTALL got it spot on! I like to sleep and then do absolutely NOTHING!! I do consider myself the avid shopper, but I just cannot get myself up to go do all that craziness! So, Reagan email me and I will send you your free copy of the phonics pocket chart sorts!


Now, I saw that Rachelle over at What the Teacher Wants is having a lovely linky party about what we are thankful for, and I knew I had to join in!
1.  What are you thankful for in your classroom?

I am thankful for my students. They brighten my day everyday, even when they drive me crazy. Some deal with things I have never seen or could understand but they still come to room 103 ready to learn. I don't have kiddos of my own so I am proud to say I am a mom to seventeen! I am also thankful for my new ActivBoard. :)

2. What person are you most thankful for?
I am thankful for Ms. Simoneaux! Thank goodness she teaches next door to me because I need her at least 5 times a day. It has been the best experience to have a great team to work with and come up with amazing ideas and prove that any group of kids can learn.

I am also thankful for my amazing family. My stomach already hurts from laughing and I have only been home for two days!

I am also thankful for my manfriend. :) He supports me in my profession and understands I just need to ramble sometimes, but he knows how important my students and career are.

3. What 3 blogs are you most thankful for?
I am thankful for umm ALL of them? I guess I will try my best to narrow it down...
I have to say sweet Cara at The First Grade Parade. She has made me think outside of the box when it comes to math tubs! Thank goodness for her amazing ideas!
Diane and Kelly at Made for 1st Grade are amazing! They have the best ideas and I have used a couple in my classroom and my kids loved them!

Last, is Mrs. Lemons and Step into 2nd Grade. She has the best ideas and she offers all of her products for free! I love her thinking and she is a Texas girl which I love. :)



4. What guilty pleasure are you most thankful for?
Online shopping. Seriously, I just love doing it. You can ask Ms. Simoneaux. She walks into school with something on, within ten seconds I am asking where it is from and then probably buying it. I also am thankful for gluten free treats because I get them very rarely. I am thankful for coffee even though my Keurig broke this week. :( I am thankful for bad television too, because there is nothing better than some real housewives drama sometimes. Last, college football and NFL. I may be a girl but I love me some football....GEAUX TIGERS and Go Cowboys!

5. What are you most thankful for?
I am most thankful for the amazing people who surround me and support me, and all the amazing opportunities and experiences I have had in my life.  I consider myself blessed. :)

Hope y'all are having a good break!

Sunday, November 20, 2011

Amazing what gets done on a break!

I have been working on this beast for two weeks now and I finally finished it! The craziness of the impending holiday and grad school threw a few road blocks my way.

I started to notice at the beginning of the year that I needed something new for my pocket chart station. I decided to make these fun phonics sorts so I could put them in the work station when we go over the phonics skill of the week. Here is a picture of my students doing the short vowels:

It is a great activity for them to sort words and to also blend and read those words and put them in their vocabulary! The unit includes seven different sorts. I based them on the phonics skills we use in our reading series, Treasures. It has short vowels, long vowels, s- blends, l- blends, r- blends, digraphs and triple consonant blends. Go check it out!


Also, first person to answer this question gets a FREE copy of this unit!

What do I do the Friday after Thanksgiving?

Friday, November 18, 2011

I am thankful for Thanksgiving!

Here is a quick little update on our Thanksgiving activities! I don't know about y'all, but this year I did not get everything in that I would of liked to. I did find though that my kids have a better understanding about WHY we celebrate Thanksgiving compared to last year, so I consider it a small victory!
We made these cute Mayflower fact books thanks to Cara Carroll:

I am happy to say they know what the Mayflower is and when it sailed!

After this, we did cute Indians and discussed how they helped the Pilgrims. I got these from Mrs. Lee's Kindergarten. We also did Pilgrims and compared and contrasted our lives with Pilgrim lives. Those are from the lovely Cara!

AND last, we made our tie-dye turkeys! So fun, and they turned out cute. We gave our turkeys picket signs saying we would eat something else. I am pretty sure this is a lovely Deanna Jump idea!



WHEW! Seriously what happenned to the year already?! Cannot believe it is time for holiday activities when we get back!
I hope you all have a blessed Thanksgiving! I am ready for some family time in Dallas!

Saturday, November 12, 2011

Thanksgiving already?!

WOW! Where did the week before Thanksgiving come from? Sorry, I have been MIA, but with a crazy week with the kiddos, a new student, and grad school projects....
Ms. Thomas = bananas
Anyway, I wanted to share the pumpkin pie in a bag receipe with y'all if you bought my how to make pumpkin pie unit! I had previously got it from another unit, but then googled it and found it in 5 seconds. So here it is! 

Also, just saw that I now have 300 followers!!! So, to be thankful to all of you that stop by this thing I am throwing a sale at my TPT store! You will find most of my products 20% off for the weekend! 
Thank you so much!


Happy Saturday! GEAUX TIGERS!

Monday, November 7, 2011

How to cook a turkey!

So, I had a few requests from some people to see if I could make a how to cook a turkey mini-unit. I said hey why not?! I just posted it this morning! Go check it out! It is similar to how to make pumpkin pie, so for the impending holidays you can get your kids excited about writing and you will probably be hungry!

Friday, November 4, 2011

Winner winner pumpkin pie dinner?!

A lot of good guesses and I really thought I would have you fooled but the first one MJ from Teaching in Heels said trifle! I guess she knows I am british??!? Trifle is delicious! Have ever seen the friends episode where Rachel tries to make it but does shepherd pie with it??? Best one ever! "Cream good! Fruit good! Meat GOOD!"You need to make it because it is so yummy!
MJ email me so I can send you the goods!

Here are some pics of our completed pumpkin pies! So cute!

And if you haven't checked it out yet....

TGIF!

Thursday, November 3, 2011

Pumpkin Pie Yummm!

This week in writing we are doing how-to writing! I decided that since we were going to be eating pumpkin pie on Monday that it would be perfect to do how to make pumpkin pie! I used some of the elements from First Grade Fanatics "It's a Pumpkin Parade" unit. This was such a cute unit, and we did the pumpkin pie in a bag recipe on Monday to start off the writing unit.

It was so tasty and a great way to kick off our writing! I decided to make a mini-unit for this so that everyone could join in the fun! It includes 3 pre-activities to help students visualize, a writing web, a sloppy copy paper, and a final copy paper. I also included a cute craftivity to make a pumpkin pie to display their writing. Click the picture below to go and check it out!


Also, I am giving ONE away to the person who can answer this question!
What is my favorite Thanksgiving dessert??