50th Day Photo Dump...and more Magic Elf Madness! Plus. some FREEBIES!

Happy Sunday, Peeps! Kerri here...
2 more days and I am one free lady!! We have to school Monday and Tuesday, and then we get 5 glorious days off! I CANNOT wait! 

Here are a couple of fun pics from our 50th day of school, which was last Thursday!

We drew ourselves as 50's kids...

We wore our 50's outfits...

Mini Danny Zuko

Mini Sandra Dee

This one was my favorite of all. She kept asking me all day if her lipstick was still on! A girl after my own heart!!

We also had rootbeer floats (yumminess!), listened to 50's music (which invoked lots of giggles from the children), and did lots of activities from Cara Carroll's 50th Day of School Unit (LOVE LOVE LOVE!!)

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In other news, my Merry Christmas, Magic Elf! Christmas Math and Literacy Centers Unit is finally posted and ready to roll! I know what I'm going to be doing over Thanksgiving Break (cutting out laminate and watching my stories~Can I get a what what!!)

Here's a little sneak peek...

These centers are perfect for the month of December, and can be used alone or in conjunction with my Magic Elf Writing and Activity Pack. While you are visiting my TPT shop, you can also pick up this Magic Elf FREEBIE...

AND, I made a cutesy little poster to display that shows Magic Elf and some of the words he is going to teach my children about during the month of December. Click on the picture to download your own copy via Google Docs!

Hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving!
XOXO Kerri B

Magic Elf 2.0! He's baaaaack!!!

Hiya Peeps! Happy Veteran's Day! Kerri here...

First of all, I think I am in denial that I actually have to go back to school tomorrow. I'M NOT READY!! It has been glorious having an extra day off, like for serious! I think we should implement 4 day work weeks for the whole year. Anyone with me??

This is just a quickie post to say that I have TOTALLY re-vamped my Magic Elf Writing and Activity Pack, and it is UBER-CUTE now! Like, I'm gonna die from all the cuteness! Also, I added 4 extra activities for the same price! Check it out...

The magic elf notes are OH MY WORD cute now, and here are all of the activities that are included...

What’s Included:

Magic Elf and Daily Messages-Purchase a stuffed elf or laminate the clip art elf that is included in this packet. Laminate messages for durability and cut out. Each morning before your students arrive, hide “Magic Elf” somewhere in your classroom along with one of his messages about the true meaning of Christmas. I have included 17 days worth of messages, so you can choose the ones that work best for you, depending on how many days you are in school the month of December. 

Magic Elf Story Paper-Students can write a story about Magic Elf visiting their classroom, and then illustrate their story.

Magic Elf Letter-Students can use the writing paper to write a letter to Magic Elf about what he has taught them, or what they would like him to tell Santa!

Magic Elf Book-Copy the cover and inside pages back to back, including as many inside pages as there are school days in December. Instruct students to draw Magic Elf on the cover. Every day, after reading Magic Elf’s clue each morning to your students, instruct them to write what Magic Elf’s meaning of Christmas was for the day and illustrate what that means to them. At the end of the month, your students will have their own book on the meaning of Christmas to take home and share with their parents!

Magic Elf Acrostic- Students can write their own acrostic poem about Magic Elf, or write one together as a class!

Magic Elf Certificates- Let Magic Elf pass these certificates out to students who are caught showing the true spirit of Christmas! My students find their certificate on their desk each morning!

Magic Elf Scramble-Students can unscramble the Magic Elf sentence, glue it in the correct order, write it, and illustrate it!

Magic Elf Art Project- Students follow directions to create their very own Magic Elf art project. These look great mounted next to the acrostic poem or Magic Elf Story on construction paper and displayed for all to see!

So, if you purchased this last year from me (And I know there are bunches of you who did!) then PLEASE re-download so you can get all of the new activities. This was THE BEST most FAVORITEST thing my class did the whole month of December and their behavior was FABULOUS, because they knew Magic Elf was watching!! HEE HEE!! Plus, they learned that Christmas is so much more than just getting presents (you know, sharing, caring, and being thankful for our many blessings!) 

Here are a couple links for some Magic Elves you can purchase online to use with my Magic Elf pack:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Fiesta-Plush-Christmas-Santas-Secret-Elf-BOY-12-inch-Stuffed-Animal-/360507501512?pt=Stuffed_Animals_US&hash=item53efebebc8

http://www.amazon.com/Santas-Secret-Elf-Boy-Fiesta/dp/B000LLJSDS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1352779037&sr=8-1&keywords=stuffed+elf

And, coming soon to a TPT store near you (well, that would be my TPT store!), presenting...

Stay tuned, friends!!

XOXO Kerri B

Winners, Pass the Turkey locked and loaded, and a some FREEBIES of course!

Happy Sunday, Peeps! Kerri here...
This Sunday is even more glorious because we have Monday off!! WHOO HOO!! What am I going to do with all of my free time tomorrow?? Let's see...watch my stories, online shop all the good Veteran's Day sales, see if I can coax my hubs into going out to eat. Yup! Sounds like an AWESOME Veteran's Day to me!

We have winners, Peeps!! Here they are, courtesy of Rafflecopter!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

I will be emailing you girls today so you can choose your Writing Pack! YAY!

In other news, I have my Pass the Turkey! Thanksgiving Centers locked and loaded and ready to roll for the next 2ish weeks. Well, ALMOST completely ready to go, except that we ran out of laminate on Friday at school (I HATE it when that happens! And this was NOT my fault. Yes, I am the laminating queen, but I haven't laminated anything for at least a week!) so let's just say I am 2/3 ready to go!
My hand had a wicked cramp in it yesterday after cutting out all the centers, but it will be soooo worth it when my little babies get their hands on these beauties. Check them out!

Thankful Noun Sort

Pass the Turkey Sentence Scramble

Give Thanks! ABC Order

Plymouth Rock Digraph Sort

Wampanoag Making Words

Let's Eat Bar Graph

This one's a two-fer! Turkey Lurkey Number Order AND Turkey Lurkey Odd/Even Sort

Thanksgiving Number Sentence Match

It's Turkey Telling Time (sad...printer running out of ink!)

Thankful Part/Part/Whole Addition AND Subtraction (my printer ran out of ink on the recording sheets-darn!)

If you are intrigued and would like to learn more about all of this Thanksgiving Goodness (which is in a week and a half-YIKES!! I'm NOT READY!) then click here!

Finally, here is a little freebie for all of you, our faithful followers who we love and appreciate so much! I was inspired by Christy at First Grade Fever, who makes the cutest Sight Word Scrambler worksheets, so I made a few for Thanksgiving using Thanksgiving vocabulary words, specifically Turkey, Pilgrims, and Wampanoag. I do these every week with my kidlets in centers and they LOVE them! Click on the Turkey Lurkey below to download your own set! ) 

Welp, that's all I got today, friends! I am off to shower and get ready for church, followed by Target, Trader Joes, Petco, blah blah blah. You know, the usual Sunday drill! What are YOU all doing tomorrow?? You have it off right?

XOXO Kerri 

Book Buddies, Writing Pack Bundles, and ANOTHER GIVEAWAY!!

Happy Thursday, friends! Kerri here...
Well, it is actually truly raining here in So. Cal. I cannot believe it! It was 90 flippin' degrees on Monday (lovely weather for conferences, if you ask me! NOT!! I was SWEATING like CRAZY!) and now today it has been chilly/rainy ALL DAY. Me loves this weather! I am currently wearing my flannel fat pants and a sweatshirt, and I feel so comfy cozy! I have 2 more conferences tomorrow, and I am SOOOOOOO darn tired. Do the rest of you feel exhausted after conference week?

I wanted to share with you the CUTEST thing EVER! My friend Sarah (who my eldest daughter is named after!), and who I have been friends with since we were babies, lives in England (you know about my obsession with England and all things British right??), and she is the most creative person I have EVER met! Not only that, but she has MAD skills with a sewing machine and makes the most ADORABLE things EVER!!

She sent me her Book Buddy creation last year for my classroom, and I about DIED when I opened the box. Check these guys out...

Here is mine sitting in my library at school. My kiddos LOVE him!! He has a pocket in the front to hold a book or two, and I put all of my National Geographic Kids magazines in the pocket. I just love him to BITS!

If you would like a little bit of this cuteness for your classroom, click HERE to go to my friend Sarah's ETSY shop. She has LOTS of other cute hand-sewn things in her shop, perfect for Christmas gifts for your little ones at home. My Katie has her eye on one of the Indie girls...

Aren't they just ADORBS??

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Okay, here comes the teachery part of the blog post! I FINALLY finally finally bundled all of my writing centers together by theme at a discounted price (YAY for discounts!!). 

This has been bugging me for AGES, and I finally buckled down and got them done! Anything to put off doing my report cards (*procrastinator*)!

So, here we go...Set #1-Awesome animals!

Set #2...Super Storybooks!

Set #3...Lots of Learning!

Set #4...Fabulous Fun!

And my older ones...Wowzville Writing!

and finally...Fantastic Fairytales!

Can you tell I have kind of an obsession with creating writing centers?? I just can't STOP! My kidlets absolutely go cuckoo for cocoa puffs over these writing mats, and their creative juices really get going by using them!

You can check them out by clicking on each picture above, but let's do a little giveaway, shall we??

Three people will choose the writing pack bundle of their choice, and all you have to do is enter through rafflecopter! Rafflecopter will choose the winners Sunday night, so hurry up and enter already! :)

a Rafflecopter giveaway 

Can I just say how excited I am to get Monday off?? God bless the Veterans!

See ya later, Peeps!

XOXO Kerri B

Gobble, Graving and Giving Thanks - Math and Literacy Centers for November

Happy Tuesday folks!  Lindsay here . . .

Well, I have been experiencing some major technical difficulties over here on the Mrs. Messyhair side of Teacher Bits and Bobs and I have been SO frustrated to not be able to share with you all the things we have been doing in Room 17!  (Darn you Google for not letting me upload pictures and documents!! - insert angry shaking fist here . . .)

Soooooooooo . . . today I will be brief.  You will just have to take my word for it that October was amazing, that my kids and I did a unit of study on bats culminating in them filling out a bat outline and presenting their "research" to our neighboring kindergarten class, that we had so much fun with our Haunted House art and writing about our field trip to the farm.  Cuz it happened.

But alas, October is over, and I wanted to share with you some Thanksgiving goodness for you and your chitlens before its too late!  Hot off the press, I give you GOBBLE, GRAVY AND GIVING THANKS - Math and Literacy Centers for November (click on the image to check it out in my TPT store):

Your students will GOBBLE up these math and literacy centers for the month of November! Included in these centers are:

1. Giving Thanks Graph (sorting, counting, graphing, comparing numbers)
2. Turkey 10s (Writing, counting and sequencing by 10s)
3. Mashed Potatoes Measuring (measuring to the closest inch; recording data)
4. Gravy and Gibblets Sentence Scramble (write, cut and glue scrambled up Thanksgiving sentence)
5. Pumpkin Pie and Picture Puzzles (building Thanksgiving words)
6. Ten Little Turkeys reader (original text reader that will help students practice counting down from 10 to 0, numbers/number words, reading)

I used the Giving Thanks Graph, Picture Puzzles and Turkey 10s today in centers and they were such a hit!  Easy to follow directions, but the classroom was SO QUIET (as often happens when their little brains are being put to good use!!) 

Here are Pumpkin Pie and Picture Puzzles - building words...

 

Here is our Giving Thanks Graph: sorting the pictures, counting, graphing and answering questions about our data....

And last of all, the completed Turkey 10s!  I was so proud at my kiddos for getting this by themselves!  I had a volunteer mom cancel for centers at the last minute, but I explained to my kiddos what they were to do, and left them with some 100 charts (just in case!) and they did great!

Sorry that is it for now!  Hopefully I can figure out the problem with Google (maybe it just hates me?) and will be back with more soon!

Have fun watching the election results tonight!

Lindsay

Pass the Turkey, Y'all!!

Happy Saturday, Peeps! Kerri here...
Well, it's come full circle. First, my daughter asked for Doc Martens for her 13th birthday, and it made me remember when I got my first pair. I was 15, and they were black and AWESOME. I had to drive to some obscure hole in the wall in Whittier to find mine, but I found Sarah's bright purple ones online in about 30 seconds! Oh, how the times have changed!

Tonight,  we were at the mall and I found myself buying her a sweater at Wet Seal. Anyone out there in blogging land ever shop there in high school? I know I did. That store and Charlotte Russe were the bees-nees back in the late 80's-early 90's. Oh wait, did I just date myself? How is it possible I was in high school in the 90's when I am only 28?? :)

Anyway, back to full circle. I can't believe that A-I am the mother of a teenager, and B-I can't believe she is shopping at the same stores I used to shop in! It is totally surreal!

But, back to the subject at hand...Pass the Turkey! I finished up my latest set of centers this morning, because I hate to remind everyone, but Thanksgiving is in 3 weeks. HOLY GUACAMOLE, I say! How on Earth is that possible?? I feel like it was just 90 degrees and the first day of school, and yet here I sit, wearing a sweatshirt and blogging about turkey!

Take a look at these cutesy cute centers... (click on each pic to go to my TPT shop)

This month there are 11, count them, 11 centers for your kidlets' learning pleasure! Because my kids and I have been doing these types of centers each month since September, they are becoming such independent learners! Since they know the format, they are able to focus on the learning objectives and content standards without asking "What do I do again?" a million times. It is heavenly!!

We will also be starting our November Words Writing Center this week. Here is a sneak peek...

Here are some pictures of my kids using the October Words writing pack, so you can see the format. Their writing is REALLY coming along using these mats every month, and they LOVE it when I pull out the new mat! Lots of ooh's and aah's. It makes me feel so accomplished!

Well, that's all I got tonight. I have 23 report cards hanging over my head that I have not even started yet, and Conference week starts on Monday. I know, I know, but don't judge, peeps! This is how I roll. Procrastinate until the situation becomes dire, and then bust a move and get 'er done! Works every time!

I leave you with these 3 questions...
1. Did you wear Doc Martens in high school?
2. Did you shop at Wet Seal?
3. Are any of you obsessed with the show Gold Rush like I am?

I'd LOVE LOVE LOVE to know! 

Wish me luck, I'm gonna go show those report cards who's boss!
XOXO Kerri B

Friday FREEBIES...and a FANTASTIC find!

Happy Friday, friends! Kerri here...
Oh. My. Snaps! Praise Jesus that it's finally Friday! Was this not the longest week EVER?? And, we had no kids on Thursday due to a staff development day, but it was STILL the LONGEST.WEEK.EVER! 

I was super excited today, because A-Some of the staff got together at a fellow teachers house after school and had a...ahem...beer. Am I allowed to share that? Did I really have a beer today? I haven't had beer since my wild college days involving 40s of Miller Lite and parking lots outside the restaurants where I worked. Gross.   
Anyway, back to today's beer story. This one involved my mom, who came with me since she helps out in my classroom every Friday, but did NOT have a beer (she only does White Zin-the 2 buck Chuck kind), and a kegerator at my colleague's house. Yes, you read that right. A kegerator. This guy is SERIOUS, peeps. He has a kegerator AND a pool. Now that's living!!

Here is the other reason I was excited. I got to have a real live date with my Mister, without the children! YAY!! But here's how pathetic I am. We sat in our car in our driveway for like 5 whole minutes because I COULD not for the life of me decide where to eat. Cheesecake Factory (too far), BJ's (too busy), Mexican (over it already). We settled on Stonefire Grill because it is DELICIOUS, and guess what's right next door?? LAKESHORE!!! You bet I dragged my Mister on over there after dinner! Darn straight!

Guess what I found whilst at Lakeshore?? These little gems...

WORD RALLY!!!! It's like a little baby boggle game that is 2 inches square! I am SOOO excited!!
These babies were only $2.99 at Lakeshore and I cannot wait for my kidlets to make oodles and oodles of words with them. I was going to make a worksheet to go with them, and I still might, but then I might just save a tree and have them use their wipey boards to write the words on. Either way, LOTS of spelling and learning is sure to take place! Here is a closer-up view...

Aren't they TOTALLY WICKED AWESOME?? I know my kidlets will think so! So Hurry Hurry Chicken Curry over to Lakeshore, or google it, and get your own Word Rally cubes!

Here is a FREEBIE for y'all to help your kiddos with sequencing. We are using the 6 traits of writing this year, and to help our kids with organization (specifically Opening, First, Next, Last, and Closing or as we call it "The Hamburger" style of writing), we created a story sequence activity. For this activity, our kids will have to cut out the sentence strips, glue them in the proper organized order, and then illustrate each sentence in the boxes below. 
I made 3 different ones for them-A Day at the Beach, Getting Reading for School, and Making Lunch. I plan on making more of these for them, if they do well and seem to enjoy it. Of course, I will be sharing with all of my blogging buddies, so stay tuned!

Click on the picture below to download your  own Sequencing set via google docs...

Well, I've gotta jet. Gotta get ready to watch my Gold Rush! Is anyone else as obsessed as me with that show?? I LOOOOOVE that show, and last year, when I went to Oregon, I seriously considered stalking the Hoffmans, who live right near where we were staying. Isn't that so creepy? That's how obsessed I am!

I'll be back tomorrow with a sneak peek of my newest set of Lit and Math centers (which are soooo close to being finished, I can almost taste it!)...

This pack is chock full of Thanksgiving goodness...and it is turning our SUPER cute!! I can't wait to tell you more tomorrow!
Toodles!
XOXO Kerri B