Sunday, November 25, 2012

Tis the Season for Holiday Fun & Cyber Monday

Just in time for the notorious cyber Monday (and Tuesday) sale, is my Tis the Season for Holiday Fun unit. This is my first Christmas/Holiday unit. You may recognize a few of the activities as past freebies (no longer available) and find new activities included as well. 



Check out the previews below to see what is included in this unit!




You can find a more detailed description of the activities on TpT. I am most excited about the Interactive Reader! For Monday & Tuesday you can get this item for 20% off with an additional 10% off from TpT using the code "cmt12" at checkout.


Go put this unit in your cart right now! :) I know my cart is already filled with 10+ items ready to be purchased!
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Saturday, November 24, 2012

What's in My Bag--Prepping for the Cyber Monday Sale

If you are a teacher blogger, or follow any teaching blogs I'm sure you are well aware of TpT's Cyber Monday & Tuesday sale. What an awesome time to buy units for the upcoming Holiday Season, and even months to come. There are huge savings at stake! 


I will of course be throwing a sale in my own store, but I thought I would share with you some of the items I have waiting in my cart to purchase & some wonderful items from fellow bloggers that you should look into!


--What I love about these craftivity packs are how fun and adorable the craftivities are! With my pre-schoolers we can practice following 1 or 2 step related commands to complete our craftivities. i.e. "put glue on rudolphs nose and flip it over" --an I.E.P skill for some of my students. Then, in addition to the craftivities, if I ever find myself teaching K or older, I will have excellent writing prompts to put with the crafts!


--I'm always viewing items of other grades (k & 1st) and thinking if there is anything included that I can adapt for my pre-k kiddos. This unit includes some adorable craftivities-- check out the penguin, he's my favorite! (Can you tell I love craftivities yet?!) 


I think I am pretty close to having bought almost all of her store. Her resources for working with students with Autism are amazing. There's no need for me to spend time creating some of these resources when she already has them made. This item will be perfect to use in my classroom with earn systems! 


There is a lot of differentiation in this unit so I know that I will be able to find things to do with my kiddos in this pack! 

**Keep your fingers crossed for me that I am able to complete a holiday unit before Monday! I also have a paper to finish and a presentation to put together, so they might just have to take first priority! ;)

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Sunday, November 11, 2012

Turkey Day Mini Unit--Better Late Than Never!

I really need to get better about being ahead of the game when it comes to planning holiday units! I mean, I already have my plans from now to Thanksgiving break done myself and I am just now putting together a mini unit! Hence the reason this is a mini unit & not a whole unit. I'll be looking for where I can stick some of these new activities in myself!


BUT maybe you have Monday off for Veteran's day and still have some planning between now and Thanksgiving break to get done! *my fingers crossed*

Here is what you can find in my Turkey Day Mini Unit:

Vocabulary Cards: some Thanksgiving vocabulary cards to use to introduce or review some Thanksgiving ideas/foods. (pg.3-8)
Pie Matching: print 2 sets of the pie cards. Students look for the match to each pie. Or, flip cards over to play a memory game. (pg. 9-10)
Where’s the Tukey?: print the letter cards and the turkey. Hide the turkey behind a letter. Students must identify the letter before checking to see if that is where the turkey is hiding. For older students, print the blank cards and fill in with site words. (pg. 11- 15)
Thanking Writing: Students complete pre-writing activity to brainstorm ideas. Next students complete the sentence and draw a picture of what they are thankful for. (pg. 16-17)
Favorite Foods Graph: What’s your favorite thanksgiving food? Print a class supply of food cards. Students pick their favorite. As a whole group make a graph. Complete the worksheet based on your graph. (pg. 18-19)
Turkey Glyphs: make these adorable turkey glyphs with your kiddos, or send home as a family activity. Stencils included for making each piece. (pg. 20-22)
 
Here are the activity previews:



I'm super excited about my turkey glyph activity! It's the first "craftivity" I have done where I have prepared the templates, etc. in my unit. My scanner wasn't working, but I did a test print of my method for uploading the template and it worked fine. You'll have to excuse my example photos--can you believe I don't have ANY brown or black construction paper at home?!

I hope you'll considering purchasing this mini unit to supplement your plans! If you do, or if you don't, I still appreciate reading comments and getting feedback about my work! :)

 Now I'm off to start planning for Christmas units in a timely manner...maybe.
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Tuesday, November 06, 2012

I NEED YOUR HELP!


EEK! Yes, I really do need your help!

As I mentioned, this year I am the only pre-school classroom in our program that has students all day. In order for my para and myself to both have our lunches, we have a quiet time.

I ordered these fabulous cots over the summer with some grant money.

Image courtesy of Lakeshore
VERY long story short, I still don't have my cots. It's November people. NOVEMBER!
(Please note, they are not missing due to a Lakeshore issue, they are missing due to a district issue!) 

I scored some small fleece blankets from Michael's back in August for .50 cents a piece and decided they would be our quiet time "boundaries". Each student has one on the floor that outlines their space. They also have an additional pillow and blanket from home.

I have 2 students who occasionally sleep. The rest of them, not so much. I suppose that because I don't know otherwise, I am almost convinced my students would all sleep (or rest better) if they had actual cots. 

I do however give each student a "quiet time basket" 

(insert picture of baskets that I do not have, here)

I am seriously running out of ideas for what to put in these baskets. This is where I need your help! If you have any great ideas that have worked in your classroom, or anything you've seen used in your child's daycare, I'd love to know!

Some things to keep in mind:
- Must be a relatively quiet activity
- Should not be messy (i.e. playdough that can stick to blankets, etc)
- Can be played with independently

Right now, I change the items in the basket every Friday. So students have the same items for 4 days. If you have a different system to suggest, I'd welcome that too!

Please share this post with ANYONE who you think can offer some great ideas!

Thanks in advance for all of the wonderful suggestions I know you great bloggers are going to have!
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Sunday, November 04, 2012

There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed Some Leaves & FREEBIE

ACTIVITY CARDS!...of course!!

I seriously love these old lady books. They are so fun, perfect for every holiday/season. I even have a lot of fun reading the repetitive text.

I have of course made some activity cards to go along with this book.

You can purchase them on TpT by clicking the image below.


But, wait! There's MORE! I have also created 2 FREEBIE activities for you to download to go with this text/activity cards as well. In order to find them though you must go check out my post at Freebielicious

And of course I'm sure you will find a few more freebies while you are there too!
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Saturday, November 03, 2012

Currently I Am...

I know you want to know what I'm doing RIGHT THIS VERY INSTANT, yeah, I'm a nosy person too! I love reading everyone's currently post!


I wasn't really sure what to put for the music one. In pre-school we pick a song from our song book daily, and occasionally just listen to more songs for fun! I don't have a specific CD I play during a certain time of our day. 

If you haven't already linked up to the November Currently at Oh Boy 4th Grade make sure you go find out what it is all about! :)
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Friday, November 02, 2012

Baseball Theme Substitute Binder

Finally! TpT let me upload my baseball sub binder problem free! For some reason I was having trouble getting this file uploaded before. I had a request for this theme, and I hope the requester enjoys it! Maybe you'll enjoy it too! A baseball theme for a classroom must be super fun.

I'd love to see pictures of the classrooms people request themes for! Wouldn't that be fun to see?

Click here to purchase!

If you'd like to purchase this sub binder here is what is included:

Includes pages with the following titles:

-The "basic" stuff
- Important Procedures
- Behavior Management
- Daily Routine
- Lesson Plans

And a "While you were out..." page! 

**Also included: binder spines!** (1, 1.5, 2, 2.5, & 3in included)
 
If you're not interested in the baseball theme, be sure to check out my store for many other available themes!
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