A funny & win a $50 gift code

First the funny...
My students are getting into writing their own "books" and sharing them.

This cutie was writing about how to have a successful night Trick or Treating.  The last page made me laugh out loud! "...Your bag is full. This aint my first rodeo."

On to my giveaway...
Have you heard Educational Insights (the company that brings us great products like Hot Dots and Classroom Jeopardy) is holding a contest to try to get 50,000 Facebook fans? Every 1,000 fans they gain they pick a winner for a prize pack worth $500! When they reach 50,000 they will reward ALL their fans.

Since I have done reviews for them before, they asked if I would help them spread the word.  
One lucky follower of my blog will win a $50 gift code to go shopping at their site!
There is nothing more fun than filling up your cart when you know you have a gift card to spend!!! My stamping center needs new ink pads so I have my eye on these scented ones I think my kids will love!

All you have to do to enter is "like" Educational Insights on Facebook and then enter via Rafflecopter below. Easy, huh? I will pick a winner next Sunday. 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Double Trouble and a freebie

We are currently working on our doubles facts {if you are Common Coring with me that's 1.OA.6.} Envision does not give enough practice on this so our team built in additional time to practice. Of course that also means I spent ALL DAY coming up with some extra activities.

We will start out making a bridge map as a class to review our facts. Here is the filled in version.

If you are not familiar with thinking maps, R.F. stands for related factor and this sentence frame helps the students understand how to fill it out.

Then partners will cut apart the doubles flashcards and play memory. I just love Halloween clip art! I will print on card stock so the sneaks can't look through it. I will also print on different colors (lime green and purple are my faves this time of year) so that it makes it easy for the kids to pick one of each type of card.

After the game I will ask my students to fill out a bridge map on their own as an assessment as I walk around to see who is still struggling.

I made a recording sheet so I can put these cards into a Math Tub.

We will also make foldables this week. The kids cut the doors apart and write the answer on the inside. In addition to the number they will draw pictures or tally marks for a visual representation.

If you can use any of these activities I have put them in my store for only $2.

I also have a Doubles Go Fish game in my store you can download for FREE.

I love to incorporate music into my teaching so I was excited to find these Harry Kindergarten videos.


Hope you found something useful in this post. If so, I'd love to hear from you.

Boo {Hoo} Broken Bones & a freebie

My ten year old son, Quinn, went to the pumpkin patch with his best buddy today. He came home looking deadly pale and holding his right arm gingerly to his chest. Apparently they got a little too daring jumping off hay bales. He put his arm out to try to break his fall. As soon as I heard that I figured we were in for it.

3 hours and some painful x-rays later, it was determined that he has broken his elbow in 2 places and possibly fractured his wrist. We will need to see a pediatric orthopedist tomorrow.  Of course it was his writing hand, too! I had to help him go to the bathroom, change his clothes, brush his teeth... My poor baby!


Before my afternoon took a dramatic turn, I had uploaded a booklet I made on American Symbols as a freebie. I usually don't like the workbook pages that come with our series so I made this to visually reinforce the vocabulary. I printed in black and white and let the kids color each page. I included an answer key as well.

Click {HERE} to download your freebie. I'd appreciate it if you would leave feedback on TpT. Thanks my friends. I have to go to trainings 3 days this week (crazy, huh?) so I'm off to go finish my sub plans.

Missing Snake Mystery

Sorry I haven't been posting lately, I am in a bit of a funk. I think it is mostly because my district has mandated 4 computer lab sessions a week and that is seriously messing with my instruction and mojo. I am so fed up with the decisions the higher-ups are making. You want better test scores? Make my class size less than 30 instead of buying programs where the kids spend their time playing arcade games and changing their avatar more than actually learning math. Apparently I am a game monitor now instead of an educator. See, Negative Nelly in the house. YUCK!

 I did manage to fit in our q-tip skeletons.  After reading Skeleton Hiccups the students wrote advice on how to stop hiccups. They got pretty creative. Hic, hic. hic!

...telling him to eat ice cream.

...standing on your head and spin around, and drink milk.

...making him scream.

I have been making the skeletons for years but the writing response idea was from Cara at The First Grade Parade last year. My writing paper is available here.

On to my snake drama. Two weeks ago my 2 corn snakes escaped. You'd think this would be a cause for concern but to be honest, it has happened before. A few times. If the cage is not secured just right these sneaky guys squeeze their way out during the night. This time I found Mini-Me within a day. Actually, I slammed something onto my bookshelf and he stuck his head out from under it, so I guess he found me. I couldn't locate Striker anywhere. The kids weren't fazed but the moms kept asking if I had found him yet. One refused to come volunteer until he showed up.

Last week we had off. Yep, you heard me, October Break. Weird, huh? It started a few years ago as a furlough week but now my district decided they like it there and extended our school year to not lose any teaching days. I convinced my husband to take a few days off (he has a terrible job where he is never home) and we drove down to Disneyland. It was scorching hot but still fun. Anyhoo, we were notified that our rooms would be fumigated over the break. I left a note.on the door,  "LOOSE SNAKE! Please do not spray this room!!!"

When I got back on Monday there was still no sign of him. I started to worry that he had squeezed under the door (remember our classrooms in CA open to the outside.)

And then yesterday, I opened the cage to let the Star of the Week hold the remaining snake and there were TWO snakes in there!!!! All I can guess is maybe one of the night janitors found him and put him back??? Either that or I am totally losing it. My staff is teasing me that it is the latter.

What else can I catch you up on? This class is completely enthralled by my Sight Word Superstars program. They are so cute, intently practicing their specific list during Daily 5 word work. This is available in my TpT shop if you are interested.

I am hoping to get out of this funk and make some new things soon but until then, here is a freebie I made last year.

Jack o' Lantern Making Words

Hope you are all doing well. I am going to visit some of your blogs right now and try to reconnect and get back some of my inspiration.