Valentine’s Day Box Awards

February is creeping towards us at an alarming rate!  I know it is hard to believe (especially in the Midwest where temps have reached almost 60 degrees!).  It is time for pink, red, flowers and lace. It is time for candy conversation hearts and valentines.  My students have always enjoyed celebrating Valentine’s Day- no matter what their age.  For the past few years I have had them create their own Valentine’s Day Box to house the cards they exchange with each other on that special day.  Last year I had the boxes on display in the morning and had my students fill out ballots to vote on the boxes.  Then, while they were at their special class, I tallied the results and filled out an award for each student.   Here are a few of the cute and clever boxes my students came up with last year. 

About a week before Valentine’s Day, I send home my letter to parents that explains the project.  Most students use a shoe box, but as you can see from the picture, some go a little larger!  After purchasing some adorable hearts graphics and pretty valentine paper I have revamped my certificates for this year and have them available for purchase in my TPT store.  Here’s an example of one:

My set includes 24 custom awards, 1 blank award to customize, class ballot forms, a letter to send home that describes the project and candy heart number cards to put on each box for voting.  The set will be revised each year with the proper date.  Check it out! 

Staples Deal of the Week!!

One of my favorite writing utensils!

I had a few minutes to spare last night before picking up my oldest at dance so I dashed into Staples to see if they had any good deals.  Look what I found!  I was thrilled to find the multi-colored pack of Papermate felt tips for a whopping low price of $5.00!  That's like Back 2 School cheap, right?  I grabbed one and proceeded to pat myself on the back.  This was perfect because my set from the beginning of the year is almost non-existent.  I lost a few here and there and the others were used to the death!  Hurry to Staples and grab your set!

Have a great Tuesday evening!!

 



 

 

 

12-12-12 FREEBIE

Did you know that Wednesday is the last time in our lifetime that we will have the same number for the month, day and year as our date?  I don't want to let this day pass by without doing something special.  Click on the 12 for a quick morning work activity to do with your students.

 Have a great day!!

St. Nick Freebie and Flash Sale!

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care in hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there....

Click on St. Nick to grab my free St. Nick writing page and while you are there check out my St. Nick Flash Sale items.  All Christmas related products are on sale!! 

                                                       I am off to dream of sugarplums!!!!

Griswold Family Christmas

Okay, so we have a 10 foot ceiling in our family room so I was thinking big on Sunday when we went to get our downstairs tree.  We bought this tree when it was all wrapped up, so we couldn't really judge how massive it really is!  This tree was one pain in the butt after another.  First, my husband went ahead and brought it in the house and placed it in the stand while I was grocery shopping with our youngest.  After Sunday dinner, we started to put Christmas ornaments on (luckily we have an obscene amount of ornaments!)  The tree began to tip as I was hanging an ornament.  So I had to stand there holding the tree up while we tried to come up with a solution to keep it from crashing down.  Seriously, is there a squirrel living in this thing!!

So here we have our beautiful tree tied up with string.  We tied the other side as well.  I filled the tree stand to the brim with water and we called it a night.

A lightbulb went off in our heads....maybe we need a different tree stand!  So my husband went out to get one after work today.  I don't even know how to describe the difficulty we went through pulling the tree out of the old stand, lights and all to get it in the new one.  Plus, the dang thing is almost to the ceiling which doesn't leave much room to maneuver!!

So, we got to put our ornaments on together for a second time tonight.  You can see my husband had to cut some of the bottom branches off to fit the tree in the taller tree stand.  Oh well, imperfections are what makes life worth living!  We still have some more ornaments to put up this weekend!

What is your family's Christmas tree tradition?  Click on the Griswolds for a Christmas Tree Writing Prompt!  Happy Tree Hunting!!

Mel

Santa Baby!

I love having my students write a letter to Santa.  It is a fun activity and something kids want to do every year.  Click on the picture to get my cute little Santa Stationary for your letters.  If you would like a little more direction, along with graphic organizers and a lesson plan you can go to my TPT store.  Just click on the link. 

            http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Dear-Santa-Letter-Writing-Activity

                                          
                                                               Happy Saturday!!

Identifying Numbers Freebie

Here's a fun little freebie for number identification.  It is based on Abby's Highlight- a- Letter Activity.  Go to this post if you want her incredible free!!
             http://theinspiredapple.blogspot.com/2012/09/rti-kindergarten-activity-freebie.html

If you want my number version just click on the picture!