Winter Party {TP challenge and Sugar Cube Missions}

What a party!  Yesterday was so much fun.  We had our Book Exchange in the morning, then finished up our Charlie and the Chocolate Factory movie with (crock pot) hot chocolate.  We had a couple of minutes before lunch, so I pulled out a quick time filler and the kids played the toilet paper snowman game.  Each group of 5 were given a roll of toilet paper, and only 10 minutes to create a snow person.  They got so into it, and took it very seriously.  Accessories were used, toilet paper was flying into designs, and the kids were showing some major teamwork.

After lunch we made our sugar cube missions.  I've done them in past years too - it's just my thing I love to do (instead of gingerbread houses).  We are right in the middle of studying about missions, and it just ties it all together.  I ask for sugar cube and white frosting donations, and from there the kids create their buildings.  They decorate them with our candy box candy, spice drops (for the bells), and lasagna noodles for the clay roofs.  At the very end the kids do an earthquake challenge, and walk their mission on an obstacle course.  If they can complete the walk without it falling down the mission would have withstood the natural disasters.  :P  The kids get a kick out of it.  

I love my home traditions, but also love the traditions that I have at school.  It means a lot to me to share these activities with the kids - to have fun with them after half of year of pushing them constantly.  I recently ran into one of my past students - that I had over 10 years ago - and she still remembered some of the fun moments.  It does make a difference. I hope you have a wonderful, relaxing break!  

Snowman Ornaments

Every year I like to have my class make something to give their parents for Christmas.  This year I saw a cute idea over on IG to have the kids use glass ornaments and fill them up with marshmallows to create snowmen. I changed it up a bit and they filled it with 2 cotton balls, then used black sharpie for the eyes and a smudge of orange paint for the nose.  It was super simple, pretty cheap, and the kids were so proud.  I will definitely do this again!

Sugar Cube Missions

That day before break, I once again had my students create Sugar Cube Missions.  It's pretty simple to create and it doesn't give me a headache.  :)  I should explain that the last day before break it's basically a full day party in our PJs.  

Here's our schedule:

Before PE/Recess: Correct HW, Listen to the choir singing, open presents (so I can write thank you notes during the movie), start watching the movie "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory".

Between Recess and Lunch: Play a Book Swap game (like the White Elephant game) - students bring in a book and then we pick numbers, choose books, and swap when needed.  It's fun and totally optional.  We also watched the rest of the movie and had hot chocolate (in the crockpot) with popcorn cups.

After Lunch: Friend Friday Reading (partner reading), Sugar Cube Missions, clean up/pack up, Fun Friday with the grade level.  

See - an easy fun day!  

Families were asked to bring in sugar cubes and white frosting.  I picked up a couple of lasagna boxes (for the roofs), spice drops (for bells), and then pulled out our candy box and grabbed other options (peppermint candies, smarties).  The leftover marshmallows from our hot chocolate that morning also were pulled out for use.  Each student was given a heavy duty paper plate, and they went to work creating their mission. 

Now why do I do missions, instead of gingerbread houses?  Because we have been knee deep in learning about them. We learned about how the Spanish built them, and all the disasters that have occurred.   

This year it wasn't raining (Praise God!), so we completed the creating outside.  One long piece of butcher paper kept everything neat and tidy.  Super easy to just roll up the paper afterward to throw away.  When done the students had the option of doing an "Earthquake Challenge".  They had to walk to the far building and back while carrying their creations.  If they didn't fall apart then they were deemed earthquake proof.  When we do this inside the challenge is to maneuver through the desks in an obstacle course.  It's fun and an easy way to see who will be able to carry them home at the end of the day.  

How did you celebrate winter break with your students?  

Christmas at Home

Hi Everyone!  I hope you are having a fabulous break.  Goodness knows, we NEED it!  I wanted to share a few pictures of what my Christmas has consisted of so far... I love this time with my family.  

 My boys have kept me busy.  Hubby had to work a lot last week, so I had my boys help tackle all those before Christmas projects... We hosted the big family meal (which meant a lot of extra cleaning since my parents and inlaws would be coming over - ha ha), so to keep the boys busy I had them make the place cards and decorations for the table.  These little trees were wooden doll bodies that they painted in different shades of green, and then decorated with puffy paint.  I had these little star/snowflake stickers that they attached to toothpicks, and placed in the top hole of the tree.  All in all they were so cute and helped make our table festive.  

I had to go to the grocery store on Christmas Eve for fresh bread and ended up finding three of these five drawer units too.  It's a wonder what the grocery store carries... Now, my boys didn't know it at the time, but they were getting new "big kid" desks and I wanted everything organized... no more pencil boxes upon pencil boxes of art supplies.  I ended up taking rainbow color stickers to help them sort their supplies and they fit perfectly on the shelves of their new desks.  

My older boys have been using folding tables as desks for the past 2 school years, so between their excitement over a real desk, and my kindergartener's excitement over having a big boy desk - well it made for a happy, functional Christmas present.  

We hosted the big (both sides of the family) dinner on Christmas.  It's a family favorite to have Party Chicken so I wanted to share the recipe with you.  :)  It's a flattened chicken breast, with a chunk of swiss cheese and a piece of ham tucked in the middle... then rolled up within a slice of bacon, and held together with one or two toothpicks.  Yes, it was delicious... then the sauce is cream of mushroom with sour cream (equal parts), and optional to add a little cream of sherry.  Bake for 3 hours at 275...  We had this and lobster tails, Napa Cabbage Salad, Baked Mac and Cheese (since the kids aren't adventurous), and Roasted Green Beans.  So good...

Hope your holiday was fabulous!  

A Bunch of Kindness (RACKs)

My class completed a bunch of RACKS this week. We couldn't help ourselves, it was addicting.  We used this free pack of notes by Diamond Mom - mainly since there were 9 per page (and I wanted to save on copies).  We took a bunch of new books, wrapped them up, and delivered them to different grade levels with a RACK note.  

Then we took more RACK notes and taped them to a bunch of pencils to deliver to the primary students.  Other students were writing notes to our school parent helpers to put in a basket in the office.  Then we took time as a class to make cards for our Reading Buddies (added a little candy cane to them), and wrote thank you notes for the office.  It was a little bit of chaos, with a huge helping of fun.

Today we made posters for the middle school teachers with the saying, "We can't wait to be in your class when we grow up." The kids signed and delivered them too. They also signed cards for their PE teachers and gave a candy bar. 

The fun part was seeing the smiles and random thank you emails of staff that had been RACKed, and they didn't know who was behind it. The kids were tickled hearing the emails. :) So glad that we were able to do something to reach all 9 grade levels. 

After all of that, we did a little RACK for each other.  I had a bunch of these gingerbread men that I've held onto for the past 5 years… since I used to do the Me Doll project back in 2nd grade…  anyhow, the kids chose a person and wrote their name on the person's belly.  Then the kids flipped them over so the backs were showing on their desks.  I gave them 15 minutes and they walked around with their pens, writing compliments or adjectives to describe their classmates.    

I collected them, hole punched, and tied some yarn to the top.  These are now high above our carpet area as a reminder of all the kindness in our classroom.  

I hope this helps you in some way!  Have a great day!  

Math Poinsettias {Factors, Multiples, and Prime/Composite Numbers}

Yesterday for math we made poinsettias.  The kids each had a half sheet of pink, red, and white construction paper.  They folded it, cut out their petals, then glued them onto a large piece of construction paper into 3 flowers.  

The white poinsettias we labeled prime and composite numbers.  Each petal had their own number that had to be labeled with a P or C. 

The pink ones were all multiples.  They chose a random number between 2-10, and then went around the flower, writing the multiples.  

The red flowers were factors.  Students chose a 2 digit composite number, and then wrote the different factor equations on the petals.  

The kids enjoyed getting out their scissors and glue sticks during math, I enjoyed seeing how they transferred their learning into an art project.

Hope this helped someone!  

Looking like Christmas

It's looking like Christmas in my classroom.  My patience level is dwindling, my room is looking messy, I feel completely overwhelmed, AND progress reports go home this Friday!!!

I really do love the winter holidays though.  Here are 3 "projects" we've tackled lately and completed with the holiday spirit.  

 

Traditions books are DONE - yes, capital DONE!!  They are all tied up with ribbon, graded, and just needing the kids to wrap them tomorrow.  It turned out that we had time to complete 8 pages inside… that's all that time would allow though.  The kids put them in order for the year: New Years, Valentines, Easter, Summer Break, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Birthdays.  Then we trimmed up the cover, glued it onto card stock, and ran it through the jumbo binding machine in the library.  (It was supposed to be spiral bound, but somehow the machine was adjusted to a 3 hole punch - and I didn't know how to change the setting - so we just used yarn instead.)  They came out so adorable!  I loved reading their family traditions - what their families do for each holiday.

(In case you forgot how I set this up in my classroom - we would brainstorm full class for each holiday.  The kids wrote a rough draft, went through a rainbow edit, had a friend check over their paragraphs, then would come to me for their final copy/ and fancy paper.)  I collected, and then last week we had a major paper passing out party just regarding these papers.  We then put them in the correct order, dealt with gluing the cover onto card stock, and then yesterday we hole punched & tied with yarn.  This morning was a final pass out/look through to see if they wanted to add anymore illustrations, and then I collected for the final grade.  I didn't write their grade in the book at all, just made notes on a separate paper, and tomorrow the kids will wrap them up.  

In addition to the books we have also been crafty. :)  

The kids put together an elf writing craftivity.  They had so much fun.  I shrunk the pages to half size so  I didn't use as much copy paper, but that meant they also fit perfectly on a 9 x 12 piece of construction paper.  Such a fun way to celebrate!

We also used this lightbulb template (found in this pack) to have the kids write what their one wish for Christmas would be…  whether it was one gift for the world or for themselves.  I just wanted us to learn about each other a little more.  I strung some yarn on the outside of my cabinet and hung the lighbulbs up on it.  You can't tell by this picture, but one side are my girls and one are my boys.  It was a little competition to see what "team" would finish the project first (plus it made it easier to find a specific kid).  

What have you done or made lately?  

My 500th Post

500 posts… When my friend first told me that I should start a teaching blog, I actually told her that I wouldn't know what to say….  In real life I'm not much of a talker.  I'm a ponderer, a list-tackler, but I don't talk much to adults.  

Except on here.  

I wanted to link up with Doodle Bugs Teaching today to share some random things about this past week.

1 - Monday and Tuesday's Shopping Spree

I had a lot of fun over at the Cyber Sale.  It mainly continued the fun that I had with all the Black Friday sales.  

See what I mean?  I actually checked out 4 times.  Kept thinking I was done, but then I just kept coming back for more.

Winter Wonders Story Starters

Robots: Grammar Mosaics

Illinois Tornado Relief Fund 3-5 Bundle

HUGE Seller's Toolkit Bundle #2

Winter Holidays - Color by Parts of Speech & Punctuation

Math Mat Multiplication Glyph

Digital Doodle Frames (The Sophia Line)

Digital Doodle Frames (the Lori Line)

2: Royal Mail

On Veteran's Day I was catching up on email when I noticed a note from a publishing house located in London.  At first I thought it was spam, but it turned out to be legit.  They were contacting me about a new children's series for intermediate age kids and wanted to send me some books.  Of course I said sure (who can pass up free books).  On Thursday I got this package in the mail and my own boys have been busy reading the books.  My oldest (age 9) is really into them, and has almost finished the first book… it's a survival theme with animal characters.  

3: Asthma Stinks!  

Thursday was just a hard day.  I didn't feel good and kept gasping for air… seriously every 4th word was a big breath.  I had a half day training, came home, and immediately called the advice nurse.  They told me that it sounded like I was having a bronchial spasm (again - same thing as last winter), but they didn't have any more appointments in the after hours clinic, and the next phone appointment was at 7:30 pm.  I made it another half hour before my husband (and boys) took me to the ER.  2 hours later, after having an EKG, breathing treatment, blood tests, and getting my blood pressure to come down (of course it spiked when I saw the needle), I was able to come home with a new inhaler.  Now, I've had asthma before… all throughout elementary, middle, and high school… but I had outgrown it.  I was supposed to be in the clear - and it has come back.  Totally stinks that it's now become a pattern.  

4: Nancy Fetzer Training

Like I said above, on Thursday was a big training.  Nancy Fetzer came to our school district for a follow up training and the 4th /5th grade teachers went to another school to participate.  This is the year that we are transitioning to Common Core, and we are trying to see how that change is going to work (especially since we aren't getting new ELA materials anytime soon).  Nancy is an awesome teacher, and has a ton of freebies & videos on her website.  Such great ideas!  

5: Shopping for Winter Wonderland

This morning I went out with my little helper and bought some supplies for our grade level table's fundraiser.  For Winter Wonderland the 4th grade teachers will be hosting a table that students can create glitter ornaments and personalized tiles, so had to pick up 2 boxes (100 each) of 4 inch tiles and 10 boxes (8 each) of clear glass ornaments.  They have both been a hit in the past, so we decided to combine both of them.  Here are my boys' tiles from last year…

For the tiles we just had the kids draw with Sharpie markers.  The cost of one plain tile is 15 cents at the store, but we were able to sell them for $2.  The glass ornaments are on sale at the moment for 50% off (at Michaels), so $5 per box - and we will be selling them for $3 each.  A fun experience for $5.  We asked our student families to donate red and white yarn, paper lunch bags, tissue paper, and different colors of glitter.  This has saved a lot of start up costs.

The ornaments are super easy - we just take off the hanger of the ornament, put a couple of drops of Pledge's Floor Care Multi Surface Finish and swirl around to make everything wet.  Then we dump out the extra, and sprinkle in some glitter, cover the top, and shake to make everything glittery.  The glitter sticks to the inside shell of the ornament - beautiful ornaments without the mess.  Then it's just a matter of sticking the hanger back on, tying a little yarn to the top to make a loop, wrapping everything up in a piece of tissue paper, and sticking it into a lunch sized paper bag.  Easy peasy!

Here is a picture and directions from The Ornament Girl.  


I hope you had a great day!  We celebrated our 1st Christmas celebration with my in laws early this afternoon, then went to my aunt's 60th birthday party (it was a surprise), now I'm home drinking some hot tea, and contemplating another inhaler treatment…

Have a great night.  :)  

My House Decorations - Want to See??

Linking up with Christina to share some pictures of my decorated house.   

We use these wooden garlands around all the downstair doorways.  Some of the doors also get a little wreath.  

Outside we have Frosty (and 2 deer).

I've always had this thing with nutcrackers.  The little "traditional" one in the front I've had since junior high or high school… long enough to forget when exactly I picked him up.  The teacher one my student gave me a couple of years ago.  

Yes, somehow my boys' stocking holders broke while in storage - and those things are expensive to replace.  Between our extra curious dog and our 3 year old (they would have pulled them down from the mantle), we decided to use wreath holders on the boys' bedroom doors.  I love them!    

My in laws like to move every couple of years… and every time they move they give us more of their stuff.  I loved this little town, so my mother in law sent them over about 7 years ago.  As the boys have grown, they are in charge of setting this up every year.  Some years they put "snow" under the houses, this year they didn't.  

Our tree makes me happy - even though we have to rearrange the furniture to fit it.  This year hubby had to take all the lights off of it (it was a pre lit tree), since all the lights died after 10 years of using it.  Now it has LED lights that will last a lot longer.  

My sister is letting us use this tree on our kitchen counter.  It is extra festive!

Go show off your house decorations over at the linky party!  

Hope you had a great day!  Thank you so much for your support with the TPT sale!  I picked up some great deals the past couple of days too.  :)