Gearing up for WInter...and a last minute FREEBIE!

Good Evening, blogging buddies! Kerri here...
This past weekend was pretty rough for me, and I was so happy to get back to my kidlets this morning (after hugging my own kidlets extra extra all weekend). Even though they have FULLY embraced the HOLIDAY spirit (if you know what I mean...), I am still so so thankful for each and every one of them, and my heart aches for the families in Connecticut.

We are in the final stages of our HOLIDAY EXTRAVAGANZA SUPER CRAZY WEEK over here in my neck of the first grade woods. Here is a little peek at our Parent gifts (all finished, thanks to my FAB student teacher!!), as well as the Magic Elf letters we wrote today...

I gave them choices and they almost ALL chose snowmen!! Can't say I blame them...I heart snowmen too!!

Our Magic Elf letters were HILARIOUS! My kids took it sooo seriously, and most of them want Magic Elf to write back. YIKES! Maybe we have a little problem??

I love this: "Can you tell Santa that Santa is my favorite guy?"

Question of the day: "Am I on the nice list??"

This one was the best: "This is what I want for Christmas. A dog. A girl dog. So my cat Maury can have a stepsister." CLASSIC!!!

I am also gearing up for the Loooonnng month of January when we come back, and I will be using these fun Wintery centers that I created last year (click on each picture to take a closer look)...

Arctic Life...

Winter Games...

Winter Words Writing Pack...

And coming soon soon soon, to feed my obsession with snowmen...

I cannot wait to get these ready for my kidlets!!

Finally, here is a little Dice game FREEBIE if you are still in school this week like me. Since my kids are SOOO full of the Holiday Spirit, I thought a little dice adding, ornament coloring activity would keep them quiet engaged and learning for maybe, possibly, 20-30 minutes (hopefully? Fingers crossed??)

Click on the tree below to download your own copy via Google Docs!

3 1/2 more days for me, friends!! And then, on Saturday, for my Hubs and my 14th anniversary, we're going to see the Hobbit and dinner (giddy squeal!!)
Hang in there, peeps! Unless you're already on vacay, well then, whatever! Jealous...

Kerri B

Roll A Turkey - A Thanksgiving Freebie

Greetings blogger buddies! Lindsay here . . .

How many of you can remember back to your first year of teaching?  I can clearly remember being so young, so clueless, and so POOR!!  Man, waiting for that very first paycheck seemed like forever!!!!  In the meantime, I was super resourceful and creative . . .In fact, I used to make a lot of hand-drawn or self-created worksheets, charts, etc. because the price was right . . . they were free! 

Well, next week I will be celebrating Thanksgiving with my kinder kiddos and I needed one more fun Thanksgiving center. I found an idea for a game online, and harkened back to my teaching roots . . . (drumroll please) . . . I created this one-of-a-kind, handmade "Roll a turkey" game template.  Here's how you play:

Students play in groups of two or three, each with their own "Roll a turkey" mat and something to draw with.  Students take turns rolling a 10 sided dice, and whatever number they land on, they get to draw the corresponding turkey body part.  If they already have rolled a number, they draw nothing and lose that turn. The first one to complete the picture wins.  This is a fun way for my kiddos to practice number identification and have fun too! I will probably laminate the playing mats so they can use wet-erase marker to play again and again.  For older students, you could create mats with math facts for each body part (such as 4+6 = beak).  Students would have to look for the math fact to correspond to the number they rolled.

(Click on image for link to worksheet)

Hope you have lots of super fun Thanksgiving celebrations planned with your kiddos as well!  If you decide to have your kids "Roll a turkey" let me know how it goes! :)

Lindsay