Snow Much Fun

Lots of my Texas friends have seen a white Christmas this year. I love snow but I am more of a beach kind of gal. Cold weather makes me want to hibernate inside with my mug of spiced tea, a book, and my boys...the furry ones. =)

My mom and I went to see Les Miserables this afternoon. The theater was **FREEZING***!!!! Even though I was turning into a human popsicle, I LOVED the movie.

Awesome movie...bring the Kleenex.

To help you welcome winter, here are some *freebies* to warm you up. =)

Click on the picture above to grab the snowy contractions *freebie*.

Click here to grab all of these activities and more!

Here are some of the skills included in this *freebie*:

short vowels

blends

adding and subtracting

tally marks

problem solving

I hope you and your kiddos enjoy these activities. If you grab these *freebies*, please leave me a heart note (comment).

I am working on some Conscious Discipline posts. Let me know what questions you might have so I can try and answer them the CD way. What classroom management areas/concerns do you have?

I hope you had a very Merry Christmas. I'll be back before the New Year...now saying that is cray cray!!! Where did the year of  2012 go??!!???

From My Heart to Yours,

Save the Snowman!

I am thinking it would be VERY, VERY, VERY nice if Santa and his elves brought me cardstock and ink for Christmas. I wonder how much I spend on those 2 things every year...or maybe I need to stay in denial about that. Before I share my *freebies* I would like to know:

1. Does your school/principal ever buy ink for the teachers?
2. Do you have a color printer at school you are able to use?
3. Do you go through ink and cardstock like a 1st grader goes through a box of Kleenex?
4. Do you have access to a laminator (Tara, I added this after seeing your heart note!)

Here is my first *freebie*. It is called Save the Snowman. Each kiddo has their own game board and 12 cubes or counters. Players take turns rolling the dice and either adding OR subtracting the numbers. The first player to cover all of their snowflakes saves their snowman from melting....yep, a mini science lesson too! Why does the snowman need the snowflakes? Hahahahaha....it always helps to pound it into their sweet little brains as much as possible because who knows if they are actually listening when they are supposed to. =)

graphics by DJ Inkers

The next *freebie* is just some tally mark practice for some little ones who need it pounded into their heads again! Bless my heart their hearts!

graphics by DJ Inkers

I hope all my sweet followers are enjoying their Christmas Break so far. If you are still going, BLESS YOU and I will pray for your sanity and for Santa to bring you either sweets or a large beverage! =)

Look for more about SAVE THE SNOWMAN...lots of ideas and goodies coming your way! This is what I call a brain pop! Usually they happen the night before but this one came early....can you believe it Carla??!!!???

Please leave me a heart note if you grab these *freebies*! Each one really touches my heart and encourages to create more and to continue to share!

I am also curious to find out about ink and printing at your school.....

Tally Dem Bones

Halloween may be over but we are still finishing up several "fall" activities! I am always behind because just as I am about to do an activity I have a "brain pop" and have to tweak it or add more to the activity (PLUS, I am always behind because there is not enough time in the day to teach everything I am supposed to!). Since we talked about bats last week and bones when we made our Tweet Treat I thought it would be so cute to tally with bones! So this meant we needed to receive another package from the Tweets! On the outside of the package was a note from the Tweets and the riddle puzzles. I L-O-V-E making these riddle puzzles and my kiddos go NUTS for them every year and they are great for teaching so many skills (and all you do is cut a sentence strip into puzzle pieces)! The kiddos worked with their brain buddy to put the riddle clues together and we then put all of the clues in the pocket chart. Riddles are a great way to work on inferring too!

We read each clue and talked about what the clue was telling us *might* be in the box. The kiddos inferred that there were bat bones inside the box! We then opened the box to see if we were right (LOTS of drama from me as I opened the package)! The book Dem Bones was also in the package and we read it first! =)

After reading the book, we then read the poem Bat Bones and the kiddos used their bat bones to tally as we read the poem. We then tallied and made other numbers using our bat bones. We used the recording sheets to help us. You can also give children their bag of bat bones to use in a math station or have several sets of bones to use in the math station and the kiddos can take their bat bones home to tally and eat!

Here is the Bat Bones poem.

Bat Bones

Here are the tally sheets and the large bones for making the tally marks.

Tally Dem Bones

 

Our bat bones were pretzels (and we had some white chocolate covered bones too!). Yes, I had most of my kiddos convinced they were really bones and not pretzels. I have a beaver skull I show the children and I talk to them about how they boil bones to get all of the skin off of them and to clean and sanitize them. So, the kiddos all thought they were eating *dirty* bones! Hahahahahaha I would love to see their parents faces when they tell them some of the things I say (or maybe not)!

I would LOVE a heart note letting me know what you think! =)