It's official... and we have a winner!!

Christmas has thrown up in my classroom!! Not literally, of course, but there is Christmas joy ALL OVER THE PLACE!! :)

Happy happy, Peeps! Kerri here...
This, my friends, is an official Christmas photo dump. Let's take a little tour through all of the joy and good cheer that is permeating my room lately...

My cute little Charlie Brown tree!! $10 at ACE hardware!!

We will be making this precious little snowflake ornament during our Christmas party next week!

Step one of our Holiday plaques is complete! We will paint the plaques tomorrow and then I'm busting out my Mod Podge!!

Family Wreaths brought in by my students. I heart them so!!

Look at our reindeer farm!! Aren't they ADORBS??

Christmas tree art, hot off the presses!

Here are some pics of our Magic Elf fun, straight out of my Magic Elf Writing Pack! (There is still time!! You can still get in a whole week of Magic Elf goodness with your kidlets!!)

Hello, my little Magic Elf friend!! Just chillaxing, are ya??

She wrote, "Do you want food?" "Thank you!" How cute!

Magic Elf likes to eat candy canes?? Of course he does, silly!!

We wrote this acrostic today as a class, and they came up with such awesome ideas!!

We have also been using lots of Holiday words in our writing...

You can find this little writing pack here...

We have also been working hard on our Merry Christmas, Magic Elf! Literacy and Math Centers...

Luckily, there are enough centers in this pack to keep them busy little elves all through next week, which makes life so much easier doesn't it, the week before Christmas break?? I LOVE when they are busy and engaged!!
Here's a peek at what we've been working on!

Christmas Cheer! Sentence Editing

Jolly Holidays! ABC Order

Merry and Bright! Noun and Adjective Sort

I leave you with this...Santa, yes the real Santa, wrote my Katie a personalized letter and sent it to her in the mail. She was OVER THE MOON when it came yesterday!! She said, "He even knows my middle name!!" 

He also left her a magic key so he can get in our house (we don't have a fireplace-boo!)

Maybe you would like Santa to write your littles a letter as well? You can ask him be clicking on Santa below...

Hang in there, friends!! Only 8 more days to go!! Or are you out this Friday, you lucky ducks??
XOXO Kerri B
P.S. We have a winner for our Classroom Friendly Pencil Sharpener. Drumroll please....

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Congratulations Nikki!! I will be contacting you shortly!

He's Making A List, and Checking It Twice . . .

Evening folks!  Lindsay here . . .

Ahhhh . . .it feels good to be at the computer in my fat pants sipping some delicous coffee and catching up with y'all! 

Last week was a rough one for the Messyhair familly. I came down with a terrible cold and felt as though I had been hit by a bus . . . We're talking "mommy-is-too-sick-to-shower-today-and-we-are-having-grilled-cheese-for-dinner-again" kind of sick.  Luckily, I have one amazing husband.  He stepped up and did the grocery shopping, let me sleep in, ran errands, cleaned the house . . . UNTIL . . .

He got sick too.  Dangit.  That moment was too good to be true. ;)

And then, of course, Baby Jack got sick too.  So there we were . . . three snotty, irritable sickies all sipping tea in our fat pants. 

Well not really, but you get the idea.

But now, I am happy to say I am feeling quite better - and I am excited to share with you all what the Mighty Mites in Room 17 have been up to lately . . .

First off, we did some writing for Christmas.  Rather than having my kiddos write what they wanted for Christmas, I had them write a letter to Santa explaining WHY they had either been A: naughty, or B: nice, this year.

(Of course, they ALL assured Santa they had been very, very nice!)

Adorable, right?  This student gives lots of high fives to her friends . . .

 

 

A few more reasons to be on the "nice" list: kissing and hugging mom, eating his vegetables, and going to the grocery store with her mom. 

 

 

(If you'd like a copy of this Naughty or Nice template, click the Santa below)

 

 

 

So, of course to go along with our letters to Santa, we also had to make some adorable Santas . . .  I changed up my Santa from last year and had my kiddos rip loooooooong white pieces for a wilder, blowing-in-the-breeze kind of beard, and I love how they turned out! 

 

 

 

 



The dimensions for "breezy beard Santa" are as follows:

9x6 peach for face (horizontal)
1x2 red for nose
2x4 pink for cheeks (makes two - fold and make two circles)
3x3 white for hat poof
9x7 red for hat (fold and cut triangle from bottom corners in to the top at the fold)
9x2 white for hat trim (make oval)
12x18 green for background
And each student needs one 9x12 white piece to start ripping for the beard, although more white will probably be needed!! :)

I used our Santa letters and art for our December Kindergarten hallway bulletin board and it turned out so cute!  And a great reminder to my kidlets that Santa is making a list . . AND HE IS WATCHING!!!!!!!

Along with getting ready for Santa, my kiddos have also been having fun with my Merry & Bright Holiday Math and Literacy Centers (click cover image to check out the whole unit in my TPT store):

 

 

 

 

My kids really enjoyed the Sweet Treat Sound Count - segmenting and counting sounds in words!

They also practiced their number sequencing skills to 20 with Feliz Navidad Find the Number:

This week my kiddos will be busy with more Merry and Bright goodness, including graphing, a medial vowel sort, and patterns!

Well, thats about it for now . . . just one more picture to share with you all.  We got our tree recently (before the whole family got sick) and Jack had the BEST time!  Even though we didn't get the $100 tree.  Sorry bud!

Hope you are all enjoying the holiday season with your families as well!  Goodnight!



Lindsay

Christmas Crafts, Part 2!! Freebies too!

Happy Friday, my Merry Friends! Kerri here...
I am SOOOOO happy it is Friday! Why do the days seems to DRRRAAAGG in the weeks leading up to the Holidays? Or is that just me?? Nah, I know that's the truth for all 'yall too, right?

Last year I posted about the fun little snowman plaque that my kidlets made for their parents, which turned out UBER-CUTE! Here's a little reminder pic...

Sooo cute, if I do say so myself!! 

Well, this year, I decided to give them choices. (Insert gasp!) I know, shocking right?? As a rule, I am not a fan of choices for my kidlets. I believe that it causes chaos. Well, maybe I am being over-dramatic a little bit, but overall, I like it better when I am "el hefe" (the boss) and they are my minions (kind of like Despicable me, you know, the cute little yellow guys who did Gru's every bidding??), and that makes everyone (meaning me) happy. Can I get a AMEN, sistas!!

Maybe it's the Christmas spirit in me, but this year we are having not 1, not 2, but 3 different choices when we paint our plaques. Drumroll please....

Choice #1-

reindeer!! Artist-my Katie B

Choice #2-

Christmas Tree-Artist again my Katie B

Choice #3-

Good old Mr. Snowman-circa 2011

So, there you have it! If you are interested in doing this little craft with your kiddos, you can click here to find out more from my post from last year complete with directions and everything. I bought the plaques at Michaels and they have all different sizes to choose from, so you could make it smaller or bigger if you wanted! I also added glitter mod podge this year, because, HELLO,  everything is better with glitter!!

I also have a cute little poem to share with you that I made for a fellow teacher at my school who gives her kids "Snowman Soup" every year for Christmas. What a ADORABLE idea!! I believe, although I have never made this yet, that you put hot chocolate, marshmallows, a candy cane, and chocolate kisses in a bag, and voila! Snowman soup!! 
I am sooo giving this to my littles this year! If you would like a copy of the poem to attach to the Snowman Soup, click below...

And...don't forget to enter our giveaway for one of my boyfriend pencil sharpeners from Classroom Friendly Supplies! You could win a green one (Jean-Luc), a blue one (Pierre), a red one (Marcel), or maybe even a shiny black one (Matthias)! French names are not included with this prize, unless you love your pencil sharpener as much as I love mine, in which case you could name yours too!

Toodle Doo!!
Kerri B

I'm having an affair... (awesome giveaway!)

with my Classroom Friendly Pencil Sharpener! Ssshhh...don't tell poor Mr. Electric Sharpener sitting all lonely in the corner!

Hiya Peeps! Kerri here... just check out this glorious invention!! The Classroom Friendly Pencil Sharpener, invented by fellow teacher Troy Decoff. He sent me a sharpener to check out and review, and IT. IS. AWESOME!!

I mean, isn't he soooo bee-you-tee-ful?? And, in all seriousness, this is the single best pencil sharpener I have ever used EVER in my ENTIRE life! Would you like to see him in action??

DISCLAIMER:
First, let me tell you that I do NOT have child labor in my classroom, however, I do have a group of little girlies who LOVE, with a capital L.O.V.E., to clean. They will spend every moment of their free time picking up trash, clorox wiping the tables, organizing all my chotchkys, counting my pens...you get the idea. 

Well, today one of my cuties wanted to sharpen all the pencils and I said, "You go girl!" Of course, this prompted all of my other maids little ladies to get in on the action, and they just went to TOWN with my beloved boyfriend sharpener, whom I have named Jean-Luc, and I have decided he is FRENCH, because well, duh, don't we all want a French boyfriend??


Check out the sharpening madness...

Hold the top to keep him steady...

Turn the crank-super easy...

Notice my little friend above in the background sharpening with my BLUE sharpener!! His name is Pierre! 

squeeze the top to pull out the pencil-notice the amazed onlooker in the star shirt...

Top view of said squeezing action...plus a SUPER sharp pencil already sharpened!!

And here is a Little Miss holding all the pencils as my Pencil Sharpener's assistant!

TADA!! A job well done!! Check out that sharpness!!

And, I have to tell you that my Pencil Sharpening Model thought I was a TOTAL whack-a-doo when I busted out my camera and started taking all these pictures! She hid it real well, though I'm sure she went home and told her mom what a weirdy I am!! :)

I am so excited to report that I get to give away one of these fabulous sharpeners!! WOOHOO!! I know, right?? How rad is that!

I will be using Rafflecopter, as usual, and as usual, Linds and I will throw in a product from each of our stores to the lucky winner! 

Click below to enter, and pretty please go and buy one, or three, of these guys for your classroom! They even have snazzy colors such as red and black, in addition to blue and green!!

The giveaway will end on Sunday morning at 12:00 a.m., so don't delay, get entering!

XOXO  Kerri B 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Christmas, Christmas everywhere!! Plus, a fun little freebie!

Happy Sunday, Friends! Kerri here...

First of all, a big old thank you for supporting my TPT store during the Cyber Monday and Tuesday sale! I appreciate you all so much!! As a thank you, I created a pretty darn cute little freebie for y'all, but first we need to talk Christmas!

Is anyone else TOTALLY PANICKING like me?? I have only 3 weeks left to get all things Christmas finished in my classroom, not to mention decorate my tree today, do a TON of Christmas shopping still, and did I mention I have raging PMS this weekend??? My poor poor husband! :)

Guess who showed up on Friday after school when my back was turned??

Isn't he just ADORABLE?? He's going to teach my kiddos all about the true meaning of Christmas, with help from my Magic Elf Writing and Activity Pack (which, by the way, sold like CRAZY last week!! Thank you so much! I just know you're kiddos will love it!)
...and don't forget to download your Magic Elf poster, to help your kidlets remember all of the things he has taught them...

click here to download!

I also spent a lot of time last week cutting out my newest set of centers (click each picture to get a closer look)...

and I am SOOO excited to bust these out this week! My kids are a SUPER enthusiastic bunch this year, so whenever I show them something new, they get all excited and sometimes they even CLAP! Yes, you heard me right! I get claps all the time from my kidlets, which of course makes me feel like Selena Gomez!!  (They also believe me when I tell them I'm only 25, but that's a story for another time...)


So, here is your Holiday FREEBIE (click on picture to download from TPT)...

TADA!! 19 pages of adorable sight word fun, with 72 sight words cards and 4 different activities to keep your little busy and engaged the month of December. This pack was made with lots of LOVE by ME to YOU, because I appreciate all of you so much!! If you download it, would you pretty please leave me some feedback?? Thank you!

I will be back on Tuesday with a giveaway for this little gem... (oh you have NO idea how obsessed I am with this!)

as well as a 2.0 version of my Holiday craft from last year...a Christmas Tree Edition!

Stay tuned , blogging buddies!! Stay tuned!!

XOXO Kerri