Win a Set of Prefixes!

It seems like no one is shopping ever since they OVER SHOPPED at the malls, before Christmas, and maybe even OVER SHOPPED at the mall after Christmas to get many bargains.

I decided that maybe I need to spice up my sales so that I could maybe attract you to look at my store again!

I made an activity to practice prefixes since that is one of our Essential Skills that we need to work on once we get back to school (we start back on Monday, January 6th).

Would you like a set? I would love to give you one. In fact since my favorite number is 3, I'm going to give 3 away on New Years Day. (did you notice the rhyme?)

So you have from now until 12:00 a.m. on the day after New Year's Day to enter. If I'm still up, I'll notify you after that. . . but if I crash and go to bed early, I will contact you on the next day. Imagine..... this could be your first gift you win for the year! How exciting is that?

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Good luck! Share the word, it gets you more points!

P.S. The adorable Happy New Year picture at the top is a freebie from The 3Am Teacher

Patty

PreChristmas Rewind. . . I know I'm a Little Late!

One of the ways that we celebrate the Christmas holiday at our school is for the 2nd graders to decorate gingerbread people. (I always buy them in January when they are half off, then save them until the next year!)

First we read several gingerbread books, compare them, make a chart about them, and enjoy their differences. 

Then we draw a couple possibilities for what our gingerbread people could look like. They have to be creating a story in their heads while they are making it. This story will have their description, likes, dislikes, where they live, etc in it. 

The parents supply the candy and frosting for us. We always have too much and then we let them eat a "bit" of it when they are done.

 This little guy had a specific plan for his gingerbread and while borrowing from neighbors, 

he was able to get enough blues to make the overalls!

 We discussed what the gingerbread would look like if we just dumped stuff on top of it. And while Brenda's isn't a complete dump, you can see that it's hard to stop yourself once you get to decorating! 

I would probably have the same problem!

Then we take a picture of each child and their cookie. I will type their stories up and display these pictures with their stories. These class books are a hoot to read for this year and the following years too.

Early in December our students write letters to Santa. We teach them the skills needed to write a proper letter. They must include 3 things about themselves and ask 3 questions of Santa. These letters get published in our local newspaper so I want to be sure that they don't sound like gimme gimme gimme!

Our local businesses support the newspaper's efforts at this time of the year, by granting the wishes of some of the children. The teachers are asked to mark a couple students who could truly need some extra help this year. I happened to have 2 of my students who got to go to a special party and get some gifts. 

Our community rocks!

But meanwhile these same letters are sent off to SANTA. 

(promise you won't tell if I share where they really go?)

(I also send a biography sheet about each student that tells their favorites, siblings, birthdays, etc. The students don't know that I have sent these!)

We send them to the high school students in our Marriage and Parenting class or to the Creative Writing classes. These high school students are taught how to write letters also. But this time they need to write as if they were Santa. They don't promise to grant their wishes, but they say a lot of nice things. They'll include some of the extra information in the letters, and my students are amazed that Santa knew about these things! 

For example. . . I have one student who is always playing with his glasses. Santa mentioned that it was important to keep your glasses on your face. . . This student was SO Surprised that Santa knew about that!

Here are just a few of the pictures. 

They want everyone to read theirs and they read them over and over again!

Can you hear her saying "Ho HO HO?"

Then all by themselves they broke into song! It was so precious!

Now, if you are still hanging around, I have one final picture to share with you!

 

This is how my daughter and her husband shared with my family on Christmas Day about their new addition!

We were all very excited and giggly after this!

That's all for now! Come back tomorrow for a chance to win a freebie from me.

Patty

Two Big Giveaways. . . You better enter!

Merry Day After Christmas!

I hope all of you had more fun with your family than ever, ate like all the junk you shouldn't, and received everything you wanted for Christmas.

That's how my day went. I was surrounded by my family (whom I enjoy!) filled with too many goodies, and I'm keeping every single one of my gifts! (that's a first!)

Do you remember me telling you about Sitspots? Well if you're interested in them, you better pick them up this week. They will be a dollar each until the last day in December. After that they will be $1.99 each. That's a huge savings for you!

Are you in the winning mood? Well there are two giveaways going on right now that you're going to want to enter! In both contests you can win my Snownouns product. 
(pictures below)

First go to Teaching With Grace to enter a 
12 Days of Christmas Giveaway.

And then for the 2nd Giveaway, read below:

Have you visited 1. .2. .3. .Teach with Me?

Tammy is having a big giveaway and I just bet you would like to win it.

Just click on the picture or on the red link above to go to her page.

It started today and you have until the 29th to enter. The winner will be announced on December 30th. Good luck! I hope you win!

If  you win, you will get this from me.

And if you can't wait, you can buy it at my TPT store. 

Just click that picture to take you to my store.

Lastly, if you're interested in finding more about DJ Inkers, click the circle below. They have lots of great clipart, fonts, and sales. See for yourself!

Patty

I Must be in Heaven! Life is SO Good!

It's Sunday night, and I can sleep in tomorrow! That is just about the best feeling ever! 

It has been a terrific weekend and if you're interested, I'd be happy to share some of the highlights of it.

First of all, my daughter and her husband are going to have a baby in early July. We are so excited for them and for us to have another grandchild! She lives in Houston, so it looks like I'll be spending some of my summer with them. I can hardly wait!

Friday night I got motivated and cleaned out the dreaded towel and sheets closet. It was a true mess. . . but now everything has been refolded and placed in the right place. I threw away some junk too.

It was on to my own clothes closet next. Finally put away the summer clothes (I know, I know, it's been cold here for long enough, that should have been done sooner!). 

On Saturday we drove to Chicago and picked up my daughter and her husband and it was so good to hug them! I haven't seen her in person since August. After dropping her off at her in-laws, I cleaned out 3 more cupboards and again threw stuff away. I am on a roll now! Don't get in my way!

Today I sat down at the computer to finally start making some new things and to work on my blog. . . . some how the first thing didn't happen and now it's nearly 9:30 and I'm writing my blog! Geesh!

For one thing, we had my daughter-in-law and my granddaughter over for dinner. My granddaughter is a hoot. If you are a friend of mine on Instant Gram, then maybe you saw her sliding down my basement steps. If you're not then click on this video to see it for yourself.

The other thing that I spent part of my day doing was Skyping with my oldest and best friend. We have known each other since we were 4 and without giving you my age, let's just say we've known each other for a LONG time!

Ok, that's all for now. I want to start on my next project and I hope to share some of our day on Friday with you soon. 

Thanks for hanging in there with me. 

Patty

He Seemed Like Santa!

Today was our Author's Day. We do this every year and every year I fall in love with another author. I love books and meeting the author makes them become alive. I am thrilled that our building values them and finds enough money to bring in good ones. 

Today it was Jeffrey Schatzer! He even looks a little like Santa Claus and he writes books about Santa. 

  

        

 

 When our school does Author's Day, we also rotate to each room through out the day doing different things in each room. 

This is a retired teacher who read the original Frosty the Snowman to our kids, then she taught them the song, and finally they got to act out the song a bit.

We had a snack of a gingerbread cookie and juice while we watched the movie Frosty the Snowman.

The next thing we did was to make a picture frame with snowflakes.

After a delish lunch we finally got our chance to meet the real author!

One of the things he told the kids was that there were many elves among us. He said we could tell if we would just rub the top of our ears. If we felt a little nub then maybe our ears would begin to get pointier and we must surely be an elf. 

My kids believed  him, and they kept rubbing their ears to see!

No she's not sleeping. . . I just happened to catch her in between a blink!

He read two stories to us and told us a lot about himself. The kids all wanted to know lots about him. His answers were perfect!

"Are you Santa?"  I don't know.

"How do you deliver to all the homes?" Time stops.

"How do you make the toys?" I don't the elves do.

"What do you do on Christmas day?" I sleep.

"Do you still smoke a pipe?" Nope I quit that in 1939, and not instead I drink Coca Cola.

The last classroom that we went to used one of his non Christmas books as a theme. 

This book is a fun one about veggies not liking their job. They come to life. So our students made their own veggies come to life too.

It was a full wonderful day. . .  the kind I like to have once in a while. . . I don't have to plan it, because someone else has done a great job making everything happen so smoothly!

Jeffrey has begun writing history books about Michigan. These are chapter books and are fun and informative to read.

This is book one. There are three so far. 

If you are looking for a Michigan author, I highly recommend Jeffrey. He's very personable and loves to come to schools. 

Patty

Remember the Kids. Remember Their Families.

Do you remember the day?  

Where you were? What you were doing? What happened that night? What happened the next day?

Has your school atmosphere changed since then? 

Are you more secure?

All of those questions come to my mind when ever I remember back to last December. We had just gone through Hurricane Sandy when another Sandy hit the news. 

Senseless.

Thoughtless.

Oh so sad. . . . . 

For. EVER.

Those families will live differently from now on. 

So will we. 

It's a pain for all of us.

We will never forget. 

NEVER.

Patty

Hungover From Cyber $hopping!

Did you have fun shopping this week? I did. . . but I must share with you that I felt a little like a drunken sailor on the morning after. I felt like I had picked up WAY too much clip art. . . . (Is there even such a thing?) 

I really felt like I was sash-shaying all over the place thinking. . . I could make this, I could make that . . . . I could. . . wait! 

When am I going to have time?

Here's a couple things I bought.

    

     

And then I found out that I won 2nd place in DJ Inkers Holiday contest.


My prize for that was $50.00 in their stuff. . . so you guessed it. . . 
I picked up MORE clip art. .. Oy Vey!

But wait. . . .  
There's more good news. .. 

They loved my Christmas Whispers so much they bought it from me!  So I can no longer sell it to you. If you want to get a set for yourself, you'll have to go to DJ Inkers to get a set of your own. 

Once I got over my slush of picking up too much clip art, I did get busy and make a couple things. 

It's a simple matching of the shapes with their names. Also included is a black and white version in case that works better for you. It's on sale until midnight Wednesday night for only $1.60. After that it's only $2.00.

The other thing that I made is my $hopping and Matching Price$.

This activity lets your students match the price of an item with the written form of the words.

This too is on sale tonight for $2.40 and after that back to $3.00.

What did you buy? Are you in copy, laminate, cut mode all the time now?

Patty