Time for a New Year's Sale-a-bration!

Excitement When Santa Writes Back!

Remember when I posted about what I do with my Santa Letters? Click here to refresh your memory. 

Today the students at my school received their letters from Santa's sleigh. It apparently flew by and dropped off our letters FROM Santa. They were really cold, so we knew they came from the North Pole (or maybe the freezer in the teacher's lounge!)

Here's a video that shows just what goes on in the room when the letters arrive. . . Sorry for the fuzziness of the video. . . It's hard to not be shaking when we are all so excited!

Posted by Wenzel Elementary on Friday, December 18, 2015

The second video shows them reading their letters with each other or other adults.

Posted by Wenzel Elementary on Friday, December 18, 2015

No Prep or Low Prep Linky! Come and SEE!

While you're home on break next week or whenever, I thought you'd like to know about some easy peasy things you can buy or grab. These things will require "NO PREP" or "LOW PREP."

click the picture to go to the linky party

Heather over at Ho Jo's Teaching Adventures is hosting a special linky about All I Want for Christmas is. . . .  Click the words in red to go to this linky. I sure hope you find some goodies that you can prepare during the break so you're ready to start 2016 fresh and refreshed!

Updating Your Blog List

When I first look at my blog, I look at my blog list to see who has posted 

something new and interesting for me to read.

 So I click on someone's list then I read their blog. 

I try to leave a comment because that's the nice thing to do.

 But I'm human and I don't always do that!

Then I look at their blog list to see who they follow and maybe

 there is someone else that I want to look at. 

However, sometimes I can tell that their blog lists aren't up to date. 

I can tell this because it will say that so and so last posted this 3 weeks ago, 

or 2 months ago, or even last year!

I may not be the sharpest crayon in the box, 

but I bet those same people follow others who have posted more recently. 

They just haven't updated their list. 

Then it occurred to me, that maybe they don't know how to update 

or didn't know that they EVEN could update such a list.

 So that's my reason for posting today. 

I even added pictures to help with this process. 

Here are the steps:

Go to your Layout page in the design portion of blogger.

Find the gadget that says My Blog List and click edit.

It will say Configure Blog list at the top. 

You can see that I have 466 blogs I follow at this point. 

Click on the link that says Add to List

Then click on Blogs I'm Following then choose to either add all or you can individually check the boxes of the ones you want to have showing on your blog. 

I had 15 new blogs that I recently started following.

 I could choose to show all or just a few of them. 

Select All, Add, then Save. 

You can see that the number of blogs I follow now is 481

 (466 + 15 = 481).

 Now click save again. 

Now when I look at my blog list it will show the updated list

 of those that I am following. 

If you noticed, during this process, this is the same place where

 you can stop following a blog that you no longer want to follow.

 I don't have many that I quit following, but there have been a couple 

that I had to say, "What was I thinking when I started following this blog?"

That's it! Now when you look at your blog anyone who has a new post

 (that you follow) will have their link show up. 

This is a great way to share your friends with other friends. 

I'm a Guest Host!

I'm so glad you stopped by to see me, but you can't see me here today! I'm guest blogging over at Mandy's Tips 4 Teachers. 

I hope you'll come by and read about a tip I wrote about a math center for my second graders. However, I am sure you are clever enough to adapt it to your classroom, no matter what grade or subject you want to use it with. 

Here's a snip-it of what's in store when you visit her blog!

And maybe you'll decide to follow Mandy if you haven't followed her before!

Kinder Center for Counting

Yes, I know my blog name is 2nd in Line. . . but since I retired I have worked in some kindergarten classrooms and both my daughter and daughter-in-law teach kindergarten. So once in awhile you will see that I make things and show you things for grades other than 2nd grade.

On Black Friday as I was wondering around JoAnn Fabrics (waiting in a 2 and a half hour line, just to get fabric cut!) I came up with this idea below. I purchased the buttons, and the button holder at JoAnn's. 

 The foam trees and gingerbread men were from Michael's. 

They weren't on sale, but I did have a coupon that helped

 cut the cost a bit. 

I thought this button box was just the cutest!

 And the lid snaps down tightly too!

This Santa box is about 2 x 2 inches and the 

colored buttons fit perfectly in there. 

I wrote a number on each tree. There are 32 trees in a pack. So you can number them from 1-18 and then you'll have extras left over to make another center with just the numbers 4-18.

 Students can decorate the tree with the correct number of buttons. 

The same applies for the gingerbread men. You have enough to do the numbers 1-18 or you can make two sets of 3-18. 

With the gingerbread, they can even make a face to go with the buttons down their tummies.

I just love these and I hope some of you will try this with your kids too. 

My Top Pinterest Picks for December

I'd like to share some of my favorite things I do in December. There are so many, but I've narrowed it down to just 3. I am all for quick and easy when our time is so precious. So take a peek and see if there's something here that can become a tradition with your family too. 

Click the picture to go to the Pinterest Page.

This is one fun treat to make and even better to eat! They are a nice cross between salty and sweet. It's time consuming to open all of the little hugs, but it's a great way to involve the family in baking!

Click on the picture to know more about this activity.

My grandchildren have made handprint designs for me before and I just love them. What a nice keepsake!

Click on the picture to find out more about this.

I have made this ornament with my students before and it's a favorite of mine and the parents too. They aren't hard to make, but I'd start in the beginning of December just to be sure you get them done with all the other things that you could have going on during December!

An InLinkz Link-up

Guess What!

 Come back tomorrow for some great ideas 

for December!