The Gift of a Teacher

Merry Christmas sweet friends. I hope you are enjoying your holiday and are finding time to see the blessings that are all around us. I am blessed by the gift God gave us in His son because without the manger there would be no cross.

Last week as I was gathering the goodies for my gift to my kiddos I realized that what I really wanted to give them was not something I could wrap or buy. One of the gifts that would make a difference would be to give them the best teacher that I could be. Yes, I hope they remember the fun activities we do but I would rather them remember how I made them feel.

I want to give them a teacher who has A Heart of Patience because we all have so many things going on that make life stressful. I want my words to help them when things are going wrong and I want to lift them up with encouraging words that make them strong.

I want them to find magic in the books of a book and show them small miracles that others overlook. I want to remember that when I look at them I behold the future...even when that scares me!

Seeing our kiddos as the future seems to get more difficult and difficult each year because teaching becomes more and more stressful and the dynamics of our classrooms keeps changing...and not always as we see for the best. I want to give my kiddos the gift of taking these difficult and stressful situations as opportunities to help them become kind and caring individuals.

I want to give them a teacher that sees them with Eyes of the Heart. Eyes that see the good and eyes that see past the facade and the behaviors. Eyes that see everyone with love because God loved me first and I am a sinner that is not perfect too.

I want to give them the teacher in the mirror that is enough because we often forget that teacher when we become discouraged by all of the obstacles in our way. I want to remember I am teaching a child and not just a curriculum. I want to see my kiddos with growth glasses that see achievements both big and small that data on a paper does not show.

I want to give them the gift of giggles because our days need to be full of joy. The smiles and laughter of our kiddos will be remembered in our hearts long after memories of benchmark tests fade from our brains.

I want to give them the gift of a classroom that is a special place because when they walked into my classroom they walked into my heart.

I want to give them the gift of a childhood as much as I can in the 7 precious hours I have them at school.

To you, I want to give you the gift of knowing that Because of You a difference is being made.

As you celebrate Christmas and the holidays, know that you are giving your children something precious and priceless...you are giving them the gift of a teacher.

From My Heart to Yours,

Precious Presents

Merry Christmas sweet friends! Each one of you is such a gift to me. Words cannot even describe how much I treasure you and all of your encouraging words. You are a Christmas blessing to me each and every day.

As I celebrate the birth of our Savior today, my heart rejoices at the gift of our King. My heart and mind also turn to my kiddos and the families and friends of those in Connecticut. Words cannot even capture what they are going through. But I do have a sense of peace knowing they are with Jesus in Heaven today...what a celebration that must be.

My heart thinks of my 17 little ones....my precious presents. What a gift teachers have each day to have so many blessings bestowed upon them. Presents do not have to be material things. I think we often think that presents should have fancy wrappings but some of our presents come to us wrapped in paper of brown. We must see past that paper to the beauty that is inside. We are given those presents to keep safe from harm.

Our children need to be reminded how much we love them. We sometimes get so caught up in curriculum, standards, or paper work - we forget to see the child behind that sweet, toothless grin. These precious presents are our little angels God sent for Earth to borrow....they are the future and heroes of tomorrow.

Remember those precious presents in your prayers-

Always take the time to show them how much you care.

They are a precious present from God above-

Wanting nothing more than the gift of your time and love.

These precious presents have endless worth-

They are God's tiny blessings here on Earth.

Merry Christmas!

From My Heart to Yours,

A Groovy Christmas

I haven't been this excited in a looooonnnnnngggggg time!

I finally had to tell myself to STOP because I kept adding to this packet!!!

I didn't think you would still want to be doing Christmas in January even though I know you love Pete the Cat as much as I do!

In the packet are 8 literacy centers and 6 math centers....and let me tell you that they are beyond precious once you print them.

Here is a little preview of all of the Groovy Greatness in this 120 page collection of cuteness!

Hop over to my TpT store to grab it.

Leave a comment telling me your favorite Christmas song and I'll send 2 winners this packet or any item from my TpT store. Be sure and leave your email. I'll pick the winner tonight or tomorrow. =)

Karyn and Olwyn - check your email!

Thank you everyone else for your sweet comments. I am going to listen to some Christmas music and add some more activities to this packet. It seems to be growing and growing! =)

From My Heart to Yours,

Christmas Poetry Fun *Freebies*

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Passed out and sleepy about describes me right now.

Is it seriously only Tuesday???!!!???

Mother Nature here in Texas is in need of some SERIOUS hormone pills. It was 80+ degrees last Monday. Tuesday night it was in the 30's. This weekend it was back in the upper 70's.

There was a full moon.

I had my formal observation.

I have talked about the proper way to wear our clothing a gazillion times.

I have goats....and a beaver.

I am VERY scared to talk about how sweet my class is....I am terrified of getting a new child who will send my class to the Land of Bonkers and Beyond!!!!

This post will be short and sweet. =)

Here are some of the favorite poems my kiddos like this time of year. These are the ones they will still be singing and reading until May.

Click here to grab your copy.

I hope to be back very, very soon with my Grovvy Christmas Fun. =)

I would love for you to take a minute and leave me some love in a heart note. =)

From My Heart to Yours,

Guess Who? Christmas Riddle Fun

My kiddos love riddles and they are great for helping my ELL kiddos develop vocabulary by using descriptive language. We play this game with blends and compound words so I quickly made one with Christmas words...and my kiddos LOVED it! We played today and they were very excited to then write their own Christmas Riddle.

Here is a picture of the trail game.

This game has no beginning or ending starting point. The player (or team) that has the most pairs at the end is the winner. A player draws a card and reads the word and moves to that picture or the player draws a riddle card and reads the riddle THEN moves to that picture. The players are trying to match the word card to the riddle card that describes that word. There are also special cards to take another player's card or one to trade a card. This really brings in the problem solving in deciding which card they should trade or take.

After we played, they wrote there own Christmas riddles. Here are a picture of 2 of them. We were still working when it was time to go so I was only able to get a few pictures. They are turning out really CUTE!

Click on the picture to grab your copy!

Please let me know if you have any questions about how to play. I would also love to know if you would like me to share my compound word riddle game and the one for blends. You know how much I LOVE your heart notes!

Remember, my awesome giveaway ends this Friday. If you want to read more about it click here.

You could win one of these ADORABLE shirts!

Remember if you blog about my giveaway leave me a heart note and let me know you did. That will be one more chance for you to win! =)

You bring a smile to my face and my heart with each heart note you leave me...THANK YOU for blessing me. =)

Reading with Rudolph

My kiddos have gone nuts over this game! We have been playing it during reading groups and my kiddos have been asking to go to reading groups twice. Today they even wanted to stay inside and play instead of playing on the playground! And that was fine with me since the playground is still muddy and it is cold out there! =)

This has been a great activity because I can easily modify it by what each group needs. AND Rudolph did send us the game along with some spare noses (red M&M's!).

Here is Rudolph!

Hop on over to my TpT store to grab this adorable game! This game focuses on word endings: -s, magic e and -s, -ing, and -ed. There are over 150 words to read. Just be sure to not get the Grinch because then the game is over! Check it out!

Remember my AWESOME giveaway! Click here to read more about it!

REMEMBER, IF YOU BLOG ABOUT MY GIVEAWAY LEAVE A HEART NOTE AND LET ME KNOW! THAT MEANS IF YOU BLOG ABOUT IT EVERYDAY THAT IS 7 MORE CHANCES TO WIN! WAHOO!

Christmas Addition Fun

My kiddos loved the Turkey Addition sort we did at Thanksgiving. Here is one for Christmas that is just TOO, TOO cute!

graphics by Scrappin Doodles

Please remember to check out my AWESOME giveaway! Click here to learn more about winning one of these ADORABLE shirts!

This post is short and sweet! We had our staff Christmas Party tonight and the food was DE-LISH! There were homemade sopapillas that were so yummy! I ate 8 of them and they are now expanding in my tummy...I think I am too full to go to work in the morning! =)

I would LOVE a heart note for this little Christmas math *freebie*.

Ho, Ho, Ho and some SNOW

When I came across this ADORABLE snowman today, I had to use him right away. He is from Melonheadz Illustrating. You MUST go check out this blog treasure!!!

When we come back after Christmas (on January 2nd....how yuck is that!), we teach contractions. We have already talked about them in several of my reading groups but have not talked about them whole group with my train wreck story....and they L-O-V-E that story!

Here is a little *freebie* for a matching game. I hope you enjoy it! I love ALL of the D.J. Inkers snowmen....too bad we rarely see snow in East Texas!

clip art by DJ Inkers and Melonheadz Illustrating

Here is a fun little *freebie* to use in your math stations during the next few weeks. My kiddos LOVE this game. If you want to grab my other 50 chips games, click here.

Please don't forget about my AWESOME giveaway! Here is one more shirt that Sewing Sassy can make!

Click here to go check out the giveaway!

I would LOVE a heart note if you grab these *freebies*!



Jingle A-Weigh

This is ALWAYS one of my kiddos favorite math stations. Several years ago I bought LOTS of jingle bells from Hobby Lobby when they were on sale. There are lots of different sizes but I use the small ones. Since we do non-standard measurement in 1st grade in Texas, this is perfect! All you need are jingle bells and different objects you have in your classroom. I hope your kiddos love to Jingle A-Weigh too!

If you are still blog stalking, please consider following me....I have a really awesome giveaway planned for later this week! As always, please leave me a heart note if this makes your bells jingle! =)

A Gift from God...and a fun freebie!

Thanksgiving Break went by WAAAAAAAYYYYYY too fast and I ate WAAAAAYYYYY too much! I feel as if I need to be like a boa constrictor and not eat for a week and just digest everything still in my tummy....but it sure was YUMMY!

As I thought of all the ways God has blessed me, I thought of my teeny, tiny little ol' blog and how much it has inspired and encouraged me. I am thankful for soooo many blogs out there that inspire me and give me ideas when I am brain dead. Just think of all of the little hearts we touch with all of the ideas and activities we share in our blogging friendships (and blog stalking!) We come across OODLES and OODLES of ideas that we are ready to use with our kiddos ASAP but if you are like me, there are obstacles...HUGE OBSTACLES that seem to put out our fire and burden us with even MORE on our plates. I truly believe with all of my heart that God calls you to be a teacher. Yes, every now and then we meet a fellow teacher that we wonder WHY are they teaching because they have either lost their passion or they see it as an easy job and REALLY do work from 7:30-3:30 (or maybe it is just me that hasn't figured that one out!)!!!

As we approach the Christmas season, we get caught up in "gifts" of the material nature but some of the most priceless and treasured gifts come from in the heart in love, patience, kindness and simply giving your time and attention to someone. You are a gift to each of the children in your room. A gift they will forever treasure. Here is a poem I wrote and want to share with you.....I am still uncomfortable sharing my poetry because it is a piece of my heart but if it encourages you and reminds you to give a little more love and patience to on of your kiddos then it was worth it! =)

Now, here is the freebie I promised before I started my above rambling!

You can use this as a Read the Room activity or with the kiddos browsing boxes. All they do is hunt for 3 words for each of the letters in the word Christmas. They will then color the vowels red and the consonants green.

Please know how truly I am blessed by each person that takes the time to stop by my blog and an even BIGGER THANK YOU to each person who leaves me a heart note. Each one brings a smile to my face and encourages me to continue to share freebies and words of encouragement with you!

As always, I would LOVE a heart note!