We Heart America! Michaels finds, and Groundhog dimensions!

Happy Monday, friends! Kerri here...
I am excited to announce that I just uploaded my latest unit, We Heart America!! Take a little look...

This is my biggest one yet! And, let me just tell you, it was a MAJOR PAIN in my rear end to get it to upload to TPT because it is so many pages!! I was literally cursing at the computer last night (my poor hubby had to hear me ranting!), but I finally figured it out, and it has 10 fun filled centers included!! Here's what you get:

Literacy Centers:

-America Sentence Scramble-

laminate and cut out word cards. Students unscramble sentences and complete the worksheet, adding correct capitalization and punctuation.

-American Symbols ABC Order-

laminate and cut out word cards. Students put cards in ABC order and complete the ABC ORder worksheet.

-We Heart America! Word Mat-

Use this mat in 2 ways: As a word bank for students to write their own America story, and for the We heart America! Noun Sort

-America Writing Paper-

-We Heart America! Noun Sort-

Cut apart laminated America word mat. Students sort the words by person, place, or thing and compete worksheet

-Betsy Ross Contraction 

Match-Ups-

Students match up the contractions with their root words & complete worksheet.

Math Centers:

-American Symbols: Spin, Tally, and Graph-

laminate spinner mats.Students use a paper clip as a spinner, and complete the spin, tally, and graph worksheet.

-American Pride! Missing Addends-

laminate and cut out cards. Students match up the addition sentences with their missing addend, then record the addition sentences on the worksheet.

-Patriotic Fact Families-

laminate and cut out cards. Students use the 3 numbers on each card to write out the fact family number sentences on worksheet.

-National Number Sort-

laminate & cut out cards. Students sort  number cards by if they equal 10, 12, or 14, and complete worksheet.

-Constitutional Counting-

Students sort numbers and put in order by 2‘s, 5‘s, and 10‘s and complete worksheet.

You can click on the picture above to go to my TPT store! Thanks, Peeps!

In other news, I SCORED major big time at Michaels and I just had to share, so hopefully you will be able to find some too! Look at these beauties...

Wait for it...these were only 9 cents!! I am not even lying! 9 cents each!! I about died when the Michaels guy told me! So, of course I HAD to get them for my kidlets! We will be mod podging (LOVE!) them with tissue paper and putting a love note in them for my kiddies to give to their moms! Awww! Isn't that so sweet? I couldn't resist for only 9 cents!!

I also saw (and purchased of course-I DO have a problem with self-control) MORE heart boxes!! 99 cents from Michaels and these are even cuter than the other ones!

The heart baskets are to store the heart boxes in. Can you tell I also have a storage obsession?? You should see my purse. Tons of baby bags inside the big bag-and each one has a name that describes what's inside...let's see, there's the medicine bird bag, the iPod owl bag, the "tweety" treats bag, and so on, and so on...

ANYWAYS, I also got some very apropos Valentine scrapbook paper from the Dollar Spot at Target, perfect for cutting into squares and teaching my kiddos to cut a heart out of...

$1 each...Easy Peasy!! We will use them to decorate something with, maybe our Valentine bags??

Finally, the dimensions for this guy here... you can get the writing paper from my previous post, but here are his dimensions. Remember, I am the NO PATTERNS! lady, so this is all cut by my firsties free form...

• 12 by 18- light blue background
• 9 by 12- green grass (cut wavy like)
• 6 by 6 light brown square for body (half a magic circle)
• 5 by 5 light brown square for head (magic circle)
• 1 1/2 by 9 light brown for paws (folded in half and rounded)
• 1 1/2 by 3 light brown for ears (folded in half and rounded)
• 1 1/2 by 3 white for eyes (folded in half and cut into magic circle)
• 1 by 2 black for eyeballs (also folded in half and magic circle cut)
• 1 by 1 dark brown for nose (triangle or circle)
• 1 by 1 white for teeth 
• 3 by 3 yellow for sun (or you can make a gray cloud if he doesn't see his shadow, your choice) 
• Sharpie for details 

That's it! I think actually Lindsay MAY have invented this one way back when, but since I can't really remember, I'll just take all the credit!! HEE HEE!!

I'll be posting more We Heart America! freebies this month, so keep checking back!! And, as always, I heart you guys!!

Penguins, Punxsutawney, and Printables for my Peeps!

Hi Friends! Kerri here...
I'm gonna keep it short and sweet, cause man, I am T to the I to the R to the E...you get the picture! 


We had a busy week this week. We made our Jan Brett project on Golidilocks and the Three Bears-sorry, no pics this time. :(  , learned about penguin habitats, and made our Dragon art (love!). 


My student teacher taught the kidlets to draw and label an Emperor Penguin's habitat, and man oh man, they were CUTE!! I decided to live on the edge and have them draw ONLY in sharpie (I know, playing with fire, right??) because we didn't have time for pencil AND sharpie, and they really rose to the occasion!! 


Of course I had to preface the lesson with, "YOU NEED TO LOOK, LISTEN, AND LEARN. DO NOT ASK QUESTIONS, DO NOT MAKE COMMENTS, AND DO NOT ASK IF YOU CAN ADD DETAILS UNTIL THE END, GOT IT??? (Imagine my most serious face ever)... 
Maybe sharpie only be our new "strategy", they like it when I make things our "new strategy"...we sound so sophisticated when we use the word "strategy" instead of "we were in a hurry."

I just heart first grade art so darn much!! It is so authentic and real!! And my kids LOVE to label! They would label the whole everything if I let them!


Up next week, good ole Punxsutawney Phil! Here he is...

If you want the dimensions, let me know and I will post them this weekend. Too tired now.


This year we are going to add a little bit of writing and glue it on the grass. We will probably write about whether or not he saw his shadow. Click on the groundhog for your own copy of the paper...it's cute, I promise!

Sooo....last year, when I started blog stalking, I came across this post from Cara Carroll, and OF COURSE, I ran out immediately to the Dollar Tree to get my own heart boxes. Unfortunately, I got there the day after Valentine's day and ALL the heart boxes were put away. Wah, wah, wah, wah! 


Well, this year, I happened upon a Dollar Tree on the way to have lunch have some samples at Costco with my hubs (I joke, half the stuff we can't eat cause we're veggie heads, but I could eat their pizza ALL the live long day!!) and I dragged him in there so fast!! Drum roll please!!

I GOT MY HEART BOXES!!! I was GIDDY with glee when I saw them (my husband thought I was a NUTTER!!) but I got my durn heart boxes, BABY!! Whoot whoot!! 
So, of course I will be doing her super cute spelling scramble AND I made this little heart addition and subtraction diddy to use with them as well. I will put 2 numbers in each box and my little darlings will either have to add or subtract the numbers, depending on the number on the worksheet. 
Done and Done! Click on the heart for your copy, and for goodness sakes, girls, don't wait until the day after V-Day to try and buy them!!

Note to self...Sharpie paint pens MAY look pretty when you first write the numbers on the boxes, but the ink rubs off after about 30 minutes!! Dagnabit!! I rue the day I bought THAT paint pen!


And, thanks for buying my little February words writing packet! You guys are so sweet! I am excited to introduce it next week!

I know I said it would be short, but obviously I have a blogging problem. I'm off to watch Gold Rush Alaska, snuggle under my blankie, and PROBABLY fall asleep on the couch until all hours of the morning. I CAN'T WAIT!!
XOXO Kerri