St. Patrick’s Day Craft Project

Your class will show gratitude for what they are lucky for during the month of March through this hands on St. Patrick’s Day Activity. It makes a fun and simple craft decoration to display.

A Turkey head and heart feathers will be decorated and hot glued or taped to wooden skewers with the help of an adult. On each “shamrock” feather students will write about what “I’m Lucky for”. The finished craftivity product is an adorable Apple turkey which can be a table centerpiece or decoration for celebrating  St. Patrick’s Day.

I read this cute book, The Luckiest Leprechaun, as a lead in to the project.

I recently started a Facebook Group for teachers to share ideas, questions, and inspiration. 

Come Join the group!

Valentine Apple Craft | February Valentine’s Day Activity

 Your class will show love and friendship during the month of February through this hands on Valentine’s Day Activity. It makes a sweet, and simple decoration of love to display.

A Turkey head and heart feathers will be decorated and hot glued or taped to wooden skewers with the help of an adult. On each “heart” feather students will write about what “Love is…”. The finished craftivity product is an adorable Apple turkey which can be a table centerpiece or decoration for celebrating  Valentine’s Day.

I recently started a Facebook Group for teachers to share ideas, questions, and inspiration. 

Come Join the group!

Winter Apple Snowflake Turkey Craft | Christmas Gift Ideas for the Classroom

Your class will show gratitude during the holiday season through this hands on Winter apple turkey or Christmas craft. It would make a perfect holiday gift for students to make for their families.

A turkey head and snowflake feathers will be decorated and hot glued to wooden skewers with the help of an adult. On each "snowflake" feather students will write about "Gifts in their life". The finished product is an adorable apple turkey which can be a table centerpiece for December holiday dinner tables.

I recently started a Facebook Group for teachers to share ideas, questions, and inspiration. 

Come Join the group!  (Freebie ideas and giveaways are sometimes shared there!)

Winter Math Craft for Multiplication and Division Fact Families

Help your students master related multiplication and division facts with a winter holiday fact family math craft. Students will create a Fact Family snowman to show the inverse relationship between multiplication and division. These turn out so adorable on a bulletin board titled “Math is Snow Much Fun”.

I am giving away 2 free copies of this newest product over in my Facebook Teacher Group. Come join us!

Charlie Brown Thanksgiving Activities

 If you want a fun celebration for Thanksgiving, do a Charlie Brown theme. Show the video A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving and treat your students with the same meal- popcorn, pretzels, jelly beans, and toast. For toast I use cereal pieces from Cinnamon Toast Crunch. Simply put small handfuls of each item into clear plastic cups and let students have a festive feast.

My students love readers theatre, so using this script is a sure hit!

After viewing the video, you can use this Charlie Brown coloring page for some extra fun.

I recently started a Facebook Group for teachers to share ideas, questions, and inspiration. 

Come Join the group!

Thanksgiving Apple Turkey Craft

Are you looking for cute Thanksgiving craft? Your students will show gratitude and thankfulness with this hands on Apple Turkey project. A turkey head and feathers will be decorated and hot glued to wooden skewers with the help of an adult. On each feather students will write what they are thankful for in their life. The finished product is an adorable apple turkey which can be a table centerpiece for Thanksgiving dinner tables. 

Turkey, Turkey

Gobble, Gobble

Eat too much

Wobble, Wobble

I recently started a Facebook Group for teachers to share ideas, questions, and inspiration. 

Come Join the group!

Five for Friday ....

I'm joining in again this week for some shared randomness.

My last day before my week long Thanksgiving break was Friday!

My class ended our day doing some fun readers theatre scripts and a turkey apple craft.

I've been getting back into my walking routine after a long time of going without exercise.

Harley sure does like his walks. Now he is resting in one of his favorite lounge spots.

I'm busy prepping my winter holiday gifts for my students. I get decks of cards at the dollar store and have them "Deck out the Holidays" with math games. I've had parents love it as it reinforces critical math skills in a fun game format. If you'd like to try this holiday gift this year for your class you can get it in my TPT store.

I went to the store today to pick up the baking ingredients for the chocolate trifle layer cake my family EXPECTS me to bring to Thanksgiving dinners every year. It is unbelievably yummy and is always such a hit, especially for any newcomers who taste it for the first time.

I'm hoping to read at least one good book over my Thanksgiving break.

The last book I read was The Husband's Secret which I did enjoy.

I ran across the site What Should I Read Next? which I'm planning to explore for my next read.

Find more great ideas on my Pinterest page or TPT store

Teaching the Dream of MLK

I posted about the resources I've used to teach about Martin Luther King on the ATUE blog the other day.  See it HERE

And today I just found this tribute song to add to my lessons.

    

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Snow Beautiful

Well, it's a sunny 75% in California and I just got back from walking Harley.

He's decked out in bells and jingled all the way on our walk.

Since snow is a rare occurrence here I wanted some holiday inspiration.

"Snow" Beautiful

Falling Snow from Matt S on Vimeo.

Wishing everyone a wonderful holiday!

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Happy Turkey Day

Happy Turkey Day Song!

Click to listen:

Boy my Thanksgiving this year has me feeling like I'm running around with my head cut off.

To give some background, my family dinner is postponed this year until Sunday since my mom and dad are out of town. And since they've always cooked the turkey no one else wanted to take on that job. My ONLY job today was to take the turkey out of MY freezer and drive it over to their house to thaw out in their fridge for the next few days. Sounds simple, but not really. Yesterday my automatic garage door was acting up and not shutting properly, so I put it into manual mode.  So I got up this morning, put the frozen turkey in my car, manually lifted up the door, pulled my car out and then the trouble started. I got out of the car to pull the door back down and my middle finger got caught and pinched in the now closed garage door. I was literally stuck to the garage door. I started hollering for help like crazy.

Luckily some volunteer workers for the annual Turkey Trot heard my ruckus and I told them to call 911. After what seemed like forever a police officer saved the day and pulled up the garage door and I was released. Now I'm nursing a big, fat bruised finger and I REFUSE to park my car back in the garage until I can get someone to figure out how to get my garage door to work properly. Said car is sitting in my driveway and I'm icing my finger.

Hope everybody else's Turkey Day was a little less hectic.

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Mother’s Day Recipe for Mom

My students celebrated their moms by making this flower pot recipe holder craft.

They attached a "Recipe for Mom" card.

The craft came from Oriental Trading, but the exact craft is no longer available on their site.

I had leftovers from years ago when I purchased it. I hope they'll bring it back because I've done this same project every year.  Happy Mother's Day!

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Get Your Draw On

Top o' the morning on this St. Pat's Day

I wanted to share the neatest art site, Art for Kids, which is authored by Rob, a dad of 3 who shares his love of art with them. The site includes guided step by step videos plus printable "How to" sheets for each design. In shamrock spirit, here's the link to drawing a leprechaun.

Have fun exploring more "Draw It" designs from Rob {HERE}

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Learning from History Lincoln and Washington

I'm using this virtual tour of the Lincoln Memorial to bring history to life.

For Washington this interactive timeline is a treasure.

And combine both presidents in this catchy song

On another note, I shared a neat resource for a thesaurus study over at All Things Upper Grade.

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MLK Virtual Tour

Here are some more Martin Luther King finds for the classroom.

A Virtual Tour of MLK Childhood home and Ebenezer Baptist Church

Online coloring portrait

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Take a Peek ....Holiday Tile Gifts

My students make these decorated tiles for their family holiday gift.

I bought the tiles at Home Depot for 16 cents each.  In all, it cost me less than $5.00 for a class set.

Then I cut squares of scrapbook paper.

Students picked the design they liked and modge podged it to the tile.

I chose more generic designed paper that could be displayed all year, but you can also use seasonal designs.

Then I sprayed them with a sealant.

This is one of the easiest gifts I've made over the years for both the students and ME!

The finished tile can be put on display or used as a coaster.

Find more great ideas on my Pinterest page or TPT store

December Holiday Read Aloud

Holiday Freebie alert!

Go grab my Rudolph Writing freebie

I always read the story Rudolph's Second Christmas to my students and have them then write their own version afterwards.  The sequel to the original Rudolph has an endearing set of "misfit" characters who, like Rudolph, seem a little different. Santa and Rudolph come to the rescue to bring back Christmas spirit to two children who were "forgotten" the previous holiday season.

I recently started a Facebook Group for teachers to share ideas, questions, and inspiration. 

Come Join the group!  (Freebie ideas and giveaways are sometimes shared there!)

V is for Veterans Day

It's time to honor our veterans.  Here's my Veterans Day unit that includes letter writing, a poster, acrostic poem, a holiday overview, and ABC order dog tag badges.

You can get it in my store

Find more great ideas on my Pinterest page or TPT store

I recently started a Facebook Group for teachers to share ideas, questions, and inspiration. 

Come Join the group!

Halloween Jokes and Themed Book Reports

Pick up some fun treats for your classroom for Halloween fun.

  Batty Book Reports pack

  Halloween Howl Joke pack.

Themed Book Report pack

Halloween class joke book.

These two items also come in a money saving bundle.

Fall Lesson Ideas: Halloween Joke Book

I'm not sure the weatherman in my neck of the woods know it is fall based upon the continuing warm weather. But, regardless, I'm looking forward to fall holidays. Halloween will be here before we know it.  I always do a class Halloween Howl Joke book.  

Kids always get the most fun out of riddles and jokes, so I make a lesson out of it.

Students are assigned a joke to present and then illustrate for our class book.

Here is a finished sample:

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Spring Basket Multiplication Mats

My class practiced multiplication with this spring themed multiplication mat 

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