Happy Thanksgiving!

 

I am thankful for all of my family, friends/coworkers, Mike, Lily, and my students and their families.  I am thankful for finding joy in the simple things of life, and thankful that my students always help me to strive to be a better person, a better role model.  It is my favorite time of year (especially Christmas) - I just can't wait to be with my wonderful family tomorrow.  I hope you all enjoy!!

My sweeties and I had a Thanksgiving breakfast - they made these adorable table decorations with the inspiration of this pin on Pinterest from A Girl with a Glue Gun :)

 My kids LOVED making this easy freebie from Kristen on TPT! Heart penguins are the cutest :) We are getting ready for winter!

 First real snow fall was today.. I had to share this adorable picture of my sheltie-pom, Lily - I love her and I can't even stand how cute and sweet she is! Mommy's little girl :) 

 Special news! Teachers Pay Teachers will be having their annual Cyber Sale! - My store will be 20% off December 1st and 2nd on all of my products :) Please use the code TPTCYBER and receive an additional 10% off - 28% off products from many TPT sellers (including myself of course!) - this includes bundles with 100's of pages and more! Start wishlisting now;)

Adorable button from The 3AM Teacher

 I leave you with... the best face ever :) My kiddos LOVE Daily 5, and they take it very seriously - and when it is their "Listening to Reading" day, they are ecstatic.  Enjoy your holiday!

Cute displays and projects

I was so excited to get some amazing products from Creative Teaching Press for my sweet coworkers.  I feel as teachers, we know how much our coworkers really mean a lot to us - they help us copy, plan, cope, and support! I love them, and I think these are great gift ideas for coworkers to help stay organized (and they are super cute!) - PS-my sweet Lily wanted to get into the picture for this one!

 The stationery sets at CTP are adorable - they come with a folder, blank cards, list pad, and a pen :) They have many different designs - I happen to love polka dots! The whimsy and paisley styles are adorable too!

I also love their bulletin boards... one of the teachers that I gave this one to is going to laminate to use year after year! Such a cute winter display! on sale right now :) 

Since we are having a Thanksgiving breakfast next week, the kids were very excited to create Thanksgiving placemats - there were SO many to choose from online, but I figured they could let their creativity take over, and create their own! All we needed was paper, markers and crayons, a few stickers, and a laminator/laminating sheets! 

Check out those adorable turkeys and apple pie! ;) 

We also made these turkeys! I love them, you can check out the freebie HERE from The Applicious Teacher! They are actually placemats, but I just changed it up a little bit to fit my classroom and made miniature size ones! They loved it and definitely each put their creative spin on them with the sponge paint. 

During their art class, they also made these beautiful fall trees... they used tissue paper, watercolor, and cardstock!

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

Character Education

Hello all! How is your year going?  Character education is something that is very important at my school.  We have Assembly each day where we meet as a school to talk about the character trait of the month.  Each week, each teacher takes turns teaching a character trait for the whole week, and then at the end of the week, we do star student.  Do you do star of the week in your class?  I change it up every round of star students with a new "special treat" - this round has been writing a book for the star student with wonderful compliments and messages! Some of our character traits that we teach the children about are respect, patience, kindness, perseverance, and responsibility, just to name a few.

I wanted to write to you about a wonderful series that I have discovered... The Wiblets!  We have the book "Demanding Dudley" and absolutely love it.  It sends the message about being appreciative and having patience and respect for things that you want - and by doing this, EVERYONE is happy!

 Here are a few preview pages :) It highlights in bold important words like appreciate, kindness, and smile!

 This is the chart that my Kindergarten and First grade friends came up with about the main idea of the story - I think they got a great message!

 Two students also wanted to draw Demanding Dudley during their free time, and I think they did a wonderful job (they were also excited to be featured on my blog!)

I can't wait to venture more into the Wiblets series.
What do you do for character education? 

And the winners are...

2,452 entries to the giveaway makes me so happy! I really hope that you enjoyed entering and following some truly amazing people.  THANK YOU for all you do and for celebrating my giveaway with me.  I really hope that you stop by my blog and store and other pages again soon and keep in touch :)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

My 29th Birthday Giveaway!

Today is my 29th birthday! :) I have been working long and hard on a wonderful giveaway to all of YOU - I have been very blessed to get to know so many amazing people over the last 3-4 years of blogging and TPT.  To celebrate my birthday, I have teamed up with 18 amazing individuals to win some MAJOR prizes! I have never dreamed of having a giveaway this big!The best part is... I get to share the love with THREE grand prize winners.. there is no first place, second place.. they are all equally wonderful!

 3 GRAND PRIZES
The first winner will receive a $75 gift card to Amazon.com - shop for your favorites with this gift card and get anything from clothes to shoes, home decor and crafts, to makeup or school supplies! The choices are endless!

The second grand prize winner will receive a $75 gift card to Target - talk about one of my favorite stores ;) The choices are endless here too! You can get so many great things here!

The third winner will receive a $30 TPT gift card AND 18 amazing TPT products! We have a variety of grade levels, subjects, bundles, winner choices, and more! An overall prize value worth more than $100!

Besides a $30 gift card to TPT, here are each of the TPT products you could win in prize package 3! Click on each of the links to see the amazing prizes (or start wishlisting in the stores that have selected winner's choice!)
December Writing Prompts from KTP on TPT
 Winners Choice from Primarily Au-Some
Thanksgiving Dodecahedron Project Kit from Created By Mr. Hughes
Winner's Choice from Miss V's Busy Bees
Winner's Choice from Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah Designs-$5 or under
Itsy Bitsy Books-Two Sets from Anita Goodwin (I Live 2 Learn I Love 2 Grow)
Maps and Globes for Little Kids from Kinder Kay
Sun Catchers (Bundle) from Firstie Kidoodles
Winner's Choice from Emily Hutchison (Curious Firsties)
Scientist for a Day-No Prep Take Home Science from The Write Stuff
Read and Write the Room All Year Long from Mrs. Pauley's Kindergarten
November Pick a Prompt from Second Grade is Out of This World
Geometrocity: Create a Build of City Made of Math Using Geometry from Digital Divide and Conquer
Math Games Bundle-Silent Partners by Emily Gibbons
Reading, Writing, and Rounding Decimals Spin and Practice from Joy in Sixth
On The Farm Unit from Celeste DiDonato (The Education Highway)
Number of the Day (Giving Thanks) Second Grade Math from Mrs Balius
Winner's Choice from Laura Love to Teach 
*All winners choices exclude bundles.
All three winners will be chosen the morning of November 16th by Rafflecopter. Contest runs from November 10th 12:00am to November 15th 12:00am.

Here are the fantastic contributors to my giveaway:

Please make sure you enter every entry on the rafflecopter for not only a better chance for you to win, but also to follow some truly amazing people.  Also, if you share, you get extra entries each day :)
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Thanks for celebrating my birthday with me! Love you all!

 

November Currently 2014

November! One of my favorite months :] Best friend's birthday, my anniversary, my birthday, and Thanksgiving.  All wonderful milestones and memories that I love to share each November.  One of my favorite parts is thinking about Christmas and doing all I can to think of the most heart-felt and needed gifts for my family and friends.

Here is a few pictures from my fun Halloween 2014 :] The dollar store next to my house is sadly going out of business, but that means for great deals for my kids! The Halloween mugs shown below were 25 cents each... I couldn't pass them up.  Each child got that, some hot chocolate, and a goodie bag from a teacher who loves them so much :]

My kiddos painted and designed the Halloween clips below (another dollar store item that I got for really cheap!) They painted first, and then drew faces and designs in marker after :] I loved these because they had a magnet on the back so they could go up on their refridgerators.

Me and my Kindergarten team as minions.. I love us!

 Halloween didn't stop at school! I came home to Batman and my sweet pumpkin.

I am so excited to link up with my girl Farley and her November Currently! I missed last month because life just gets in the way, but I am BACK for some Currently love.  

Listening: to my microwave! I need a new one..but I'll probably wait until this one is about to blow. And there's something about tea.. I don't love the taste if it's not sweetened, but a little honey and sugar goes a long way.. and tea makes me happy :] and feel healthier!

Loving: I do love fall, and November makes me feel happy because it's one of the only months that I truly do things for ME and think about myself.

Thinking: A lot is coming up! Assessments, report cards, conferences.. I just need to make time for all of it and stay on track!

Wanting: This is a silly one, but I love my puppy more than anything, and I wish there were more places I could take her besides the park and Petsmart.. I mean, she will sit in a restaurant with me and be good! ;)

Needing: Doesn't need an explanation.. I just need a day for myself ! :)

 Reading: I am not currently reading any books, but I do subscribe to Women's Health.. this is my "me time" to become more informed about my health and making better choices.  Such a life struggle, but we all just have to keep going.

I hope you all have a wonderful November.  My birthday is on the 10th and that will start the biggest Giveaway I have ever had... with the help of amazing bloggers, there is going to be 3 grand prize winners with over $200 in prizes...COMING SOON