Search results matching tags 'freebie' and 'winter holidays'

Giving a Gift to the World

Anonymous — Wed, 19 Dec 2012 11:49:00 GMT

Today is the last visit from my guests for this holiday season. It's been great having so many of my friends stop by and it was just awesome that they all brought a gift for you! Today I'm welcoming a new friend, Gina from Third Grade Tidbits. She's got a fantastic lesson for you today that I know you're going to love!

I am so glad to be here spending time on Denise's blog! She has so many great ideas (as I am sure you know)and I feel honored to be able to share with you here! Today I am going to share a way to get your kids to think about Christmas outside of their box!

Do your kids get wrapped up in the Christmas chaos? Always thinking about what gifts they might get, are they on the nice list, what will they do over break? Or even worried about what Christmas will be like (for the less fortunate)? Each year I try to take the time to get my students to think outside of their world and think about the rest of the world. Where there are people that may not get to celebrate like they do. Where these people might just want a warm place to spend Christmas eve and maybe a meal to eat on Christmas. The people who have loved ones overseas fighting in war and just want them home. I have my kids think about what ONE gift they would give to the world if they could.

It starts off with a whole group activity, completing a circle map of gifts we would give the world if we could. Students have come up with things such as: money, housing, jobs, ending war, peace, toys for kids that don't have any, shoes/clothes for people who need new ones, etc. Afterwards, students do individual bubble maps, followed by flow maps. Finally they work through the rest of the writing process. The packet includes all of the pre-writing pages (I included two different flow maps, the one seen below and another type that we have used in my class) as well as "fancy paper" for your kids to write their final copies on. My class just loves having "fancy paper"!

Once students finish, you can turn this into a display by covering the writing with some wrapping paper. I usually use wrapping paper but have not done this activity yet this year with my kids and wanted to give an idea of how to put it together. If you don't want to use wrapping paper, you can easily use construction paper like I did below (don't mind the messed up bow... I never said I was an artist). Of course their writing will be on the fancy paper, not plain paper, but I didn't have it printed at the time. (This is why I am now taking pictures of everything we do in class just in case I ever need it again! Before this year I hardly took pictures of work... so I have no pictures of former displays of this-sad face).

Any way you choose to use this idea (with or without my pages), it will be great to get kids thinking outside of the little part of the world they live in. A lot of kids have no idea what it is like outside of their town. And some kids, sadly know all too well what it is like to be less fortunate. But this way, instead of writing a wishlist for all the material things they want (and some that some kids may never get) they can think about how they could spread their love and joy to the world.

You can download this FREE writing activity on Teachers Pay Teachers. Thanks for letting me visit!
-- Third Grade Tidbits

Don't Get Skunked!

Anonymous — Thu, 13 Dec 2012 11:00:00 GMT

Part of the fun of the holidays is when friends stop by for a visit. It's even better when they stop by with a little gift! Well, that's exactly what's happening this week on my blog. I've invited a few of my friends to come over and visit with us and they all brought a gift to share! I have some great friends, right?

Today I'm welcoming Arlene from LMN Tree. Arlene is a true inspiration. After 30+ years in the classroom, she is enjoying her retirement by blogging and creating teaching materials! To me, that's just amazing. Welcome Arlene!

I'm Arlene from LMN Tree and I'm so excited to share another freebie with all of you . In case you have never had your students play any of my "Don't Get Skunked " Games here is your chance to get my December Holiday Edition for free. Your students will learn the 3 December Holiday Words with a great Word Wall and then play the "Don't Get Skunked" Game to practice becoming fluent with the words. How much fun to be able to win the "Funky, Spunky, Sweet Smelling Skunky Award for reading their words!

The winner gets to wear the "I Didn't Get Skunked !" headband. It's a great fun game to play with vacation right around the corner.

Thanks for all you do to make a difference for your students.

Christmas Around the World Reflective Journal freebie

Anonymous — Wed, 12 Dec 2012 11:00:00 GMT

Part of the fun of the holidays is when friends stop by for a visit. It's even better when they stop by with a little gift! Well, that's exactly what's happening this week on my blog. I've invited a few of my friends to come over and visit with us and they all brought a gift to share! I have some great friends, right?

Today I'm welcoming Heather from HoJo's Teaching Adventures. Heather has stopped by before and everyone loved her cool magic square freebie, so I'm so happy she's sharing a holiday version with us today. She's also got a really awesome follow up activity for all of your Christmas around the world activities. It's a reflective journal. Such a cool idea - and it's free! Thanks for stopping by and bringing such great goodies Heather!

Hey Sunny Days fans! Heather from HoJo's Teaching Adventures here! Denise was looking for guest bloggers, and I thought you might like a few of the Christmas freebies I have. So let's get to it!

The first is a Christmas Magic Square puzzle that will work for grades K-2. You can click on the picture to get your free copy directly from Teachers Pay Teachers.

The second item is my Christmas Around the World journals. They are 25 pages of journals so your students can write/draw about the countries/traditions they are learning in the classroom. I find this a great way for students to showcase their work for families, and it's also a great way to remember all that's being learned during this sometimes hectic time of year!

If you're looking for even more ideas, I have several others on my blog (including a fun writing activity about decorating a Christmas tree!) or on my Christmas Pinterest board. Feel free to check them out!

Have a happy holiday season!
~HoJo~

February Facts & Fun Freebie!

Anonymous — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 12:42:00 GMT

Well this week was CrAzY! It went something like this: Day off, meeting, bad news, migraine, meeting, good news, teach one day, migraine, teach half a day, fun luncheon, painful massage, great news, planning day, sucky news, great date night with hubs. And now you're up to speed. Sound familiar to any of you? In reality, this is just kind of normal life, right? It just seemed to be a little more magnified than usual. Fortunately, the good news seriously outweighed all the bad news and the migraine is gone (for now, shh...I don't want him to find me!)

In between all the save the drama for your mama moments, I did manage to make a fun freebie to share with you! Honestly, that's kind of my therapy. When I can sit down at my trusty mac and play with fonts and graphics and think about holidays and fun stuff to do with the kids...all the stress of the day seems to disappear. I made cards like this back in October and they were a big hit, so I decided to make another set.

These are just fun little cards that have facts about different events in February and then pose a question. I like to hole punch these and put them on a ring. Then if I have a few extra minutes to fill, I grab the ring and read a card for a quick discussion. It never fails that a kid will ask if they can take the ring and read it to themselves & of course they can! I try to remember those kids and then ask them if they'd like to be the teacher and read a card to the class - talk about giving a kid an ego boost!

Just click on the picture above to download your set free from TpT. Enjoy!

In other kind of exciting news, I'm starting a newsletter! It's something I've wanted to do for a super long time. If you subscribe by adding your email address to the sign up box below, you'll receive the Sunny Side Up newsletter once a month. (Is the title too corny?). In the newsletter I'll include tips and ideas and (here's the exciting part...) a freebie that will be offered exclusively to newsletter subscribers!

I'm using a great service that will not fill up your inbox with junk and I promise to send just one newsletter a month. Well, unless something super fun and exciting pops up and I just have to, have to, have to tell you right away! And P.S. I'm not 100% sure about the Sunny Side Up name...feel free to leave me a comment with your thoughts. If you have a better suggestion and I pick yours, I'll thank you with a free item of your choice from my TpT store!

See you soon, my friends!

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New Pals and New Pencils!

Anonymous — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 03:36:00 GMT

Hey Friends!
First of all, THANK YOU for all the kind words about my mojo! You all are just too funny, sweet and kind, especially you, Louise for lighting a candle for me!! As a good Catholic girl, I've lit many candles in my day and just to know that someone thinks enough of me to light a candle? Well, that about melted my heart. And good news: my mojo seems to be back! Keep reading past my rambling travel log below for my last freebie of 2011! 2012's first freebie is also in the works ;0)

So, I've just returned from a few days away with the hubs. First we traveled up to Orlando to see Ice at the *** Palms. If you ever have the chance to see it, don't pass it up. Carvers turn huge blocks of colored ice into amazing scenery and sculptures. They keep it at nine degrees inside, which for this flip-flop girl was a bit too much to take by the the end. I couldn't even bring myself to take my hands out of my pockets to take a picture! It was all Shrek-tacular this year. It was awesome as usual, but I think I liked the regular Christmasy themes better. This year it seemed like every room was pretty similar, still glad we saw it though. That hotel beautiful, really. Everything was so perfect...until the morning of check-out when there was NO WATER! To the entire hotel!! So, no water = no flushing, tooth brushing, hand washing, showering, coffee making, pill taking. I didn't realize what a major inconvenience being without water would be for two stinkin little hours! The worst part was that it delayed checkout as we kept thinking the water would be back on any minute, then we spent some time listening to other people bitching at talking to the concierge before we had our turn. What can you do though? It's not like they planned for it to happen. Still, it put us a little behind on our drive to Ft. Meyers for our big date with Charity Preston and Tamara Chilver! Surely, you know these ladies. Charity is the author of The Organized Classroom Blog and Tamara is the founder of Teaching Blog Addict! It was so cool to meet them in person! Charity is just as funny and real as I knew she'd be and Tamara was just so sweet, warm and genuine. It really, really made me wish we all lived closer. We were also met by three other fans who made the trip to hang with us. Here we are - my hubs took the pic for us:

After we said good-bye at the restaurant, I got to hang with Charity for a bit longer at the SWEET beach house she rented and party for just a big longer. Such a great night that stretched out into an impromptu hotel stay halfway through the two hour drive home. Better safe than sorry. It worked out well - we ended up spending most of today exploring parts of Fort Meyers we hadn't seen before. Can you tell I love winter break? Love my job and all, but enjoying time off like this makes me the well-rounded, rested and energized teacher my kids deserve...right?

And now, your reward for reading all that ~ a cute lil' freebie for you! There is hardly anything my kids love more than a sharp, new pencil. It could be the way that I guard the sharpener like it was made of gold and encrusted with diamonds. You should see the way my head whips around if I hear the sharpener buzz. Heaven help the poor child who "accidentally" uses the sharpener. What can I say? I'm tired of spending money on those dang sharpeners. This sharpener is the best one I've found by far, and as long as I'm the sole pencil patrolman it will last twice as long as usual. Man, am I rambly today or what? So, here's what the flags look like attached to a shiny new pencil. Just cut them apart and glue-stick up the back, wrap it around the pencil, stick it together and you'll have these lovely little welcome back pencils to help your nuggets get off to a fresh start in 2012:

Click {HERE} to download your flags from Google Docs.

In case I don't post again before the big ball drop - have a great, safe and very, very happy New Year!

December Checkpoint

Anonymous — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 15:24:00 GMT

I've been thinkering and tinkering (and perhaps reading too much Seuss) and I redesigned the blog a bit. What do you think? It feels so *bam* in your face big to me, but I think before it was a little to subtle. I tend to overthink these things...

In the elf update category, CC made me some coffee on Friday. An elf after my own heart. I guess they do have Starbucks at the North Pole, complete with little itty-bitty elf sized cups!

Monday is the last week of school before break. I'm guessing most of us are on the same schedule, so I thought this would be a great time to make sure you've seen and downloaded all the freebies from December. Just click on the pic to download if you see something you'd like:

I've also got some fun stuff for sale in my TpT store if you care to take a peek.

Hanukkah Activity Pack:

Elf on the Shelf Classroom Resources:

December Writing Center Task Cards:

Whew! That was a lot of linking! Hope you enjoy, my friends. I'm off to shop for my Secret Santa gifts.

Have a great weekend!