Five for Friday

Oh my goodness, I had to dust the cobwebs off my poor blog! I haven't blogged since the beginning of November! It's been a while, but I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching to share my Five for Friday.

Who doesn't love Friday??? My glorious Friday night plans include the sofa, a Christmas movie, and pizza! I like to live on the edge.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas in our classroom. Our class elf Clara Cupcake returned and this year she brought a friend! Is anyone else using Elf Pets in the classroom? I came across this in Target a few weeks ago. Such a cute little story and a cool addition to any elf at home or school. Our class named our reindeer Swifty.

 Speaking of Christmas, of course we have a decked out tree with cupcake ornaments! A teacher friend picked up the tree for me my first year of teaching. Over the years students have given me the cupcake ornaments to add.

I LOVE Christmas trees! At home I decided to do a peacock theme tree this year. There's something special about the glow of lights. 

The marque Santa sign I found at Target a couple of weeks ago. Heaven forbid Santa gets lost and doesn't know where to put the presents, ha!

This weekend I'll begin printing and laminating December Edition Fluency With a Twist to use in literacy stations next week. My students love this activity! They'll practicing reading for fluency and expression with a fun holiday theme.

You can check out this product in my TpT store. Have a great weekend friends! Don't forget to link up and share your own Five for Friday post. 

Class Elf Week 2

Lord give me strength to make it these last few days until break!
I'm normally great at remembering and organizing things I want to blog about. These things didn't happen like I wanted to last week! This is gonna be a somewhat choppy blog post, so I apologize in advance. I'm sure y'all know the struggle! I'm doing good just to get myself dressed and to school on time!

Can I get an amen?!

We got some candy canes from the North Pole on Monday to kick off the week!

Last year my talented friend made this cupcake Christmas wreath. Thankfully with the help of some velcro Clara Cupcake stayed put all day! 

My fourth grade buddy and I both have elves, and we wanted to collaborate again this year. Her elf Randy came to visit, and Clara Cupcake spent the day in fourth grade! I wish I took pics of the shocked faces when minis walked through the door that morning!

I forgot to take pics the day Clara Cupcake took a marshmallow bath, teacher fail.

I was gone Friday, but made sure the minis had a reminder about behavior for the day. My sub said my class was good, thank goodness. 

Four and a half days left! I think I can, I think I can...

Class Elf Week 1

Happy Sunday friends! Are you counting down the days until Christmas break like I am? I try not to think too much about what all needs to be done in two weeks, time because it makes my head spin.
Unless you've been living under a rock I'm certain you've heard at least something about the Elf on the Shelf....

While I was in Target I spotted some very special bandages in the dollar section. I just knew I had to buy them! I also decided our class elf needed a little oomph put into her wardrobe. Seriously, these elves seem to have better clothes than some people!

Sidenote: While looking at this picture I just realized I made an oopsie. I guess those two buttons on the skirt should face the front. Clara Cupcake has hers on with buttons in the back. I"ll be fixing that Monday morning.

Clara Cupcake arrived Monday morning direct in a chilly package from the North Pole. Thank God for great office staff who have some acting skills! You could feel the mini's excitement in the air as I read the book. Some kids informed me they have an elf at home as well. We went on about our business and left Clara alone. After returning from the computer lab we discovered her in a new place.

While scrolling through the hashtag #elfintheclassroom on Instagram I saw a wonderful idea. Nicole from All Things Apple shared her class elf has a Gmail account! How clever and cool is that? That night Clara got her own Gmail set up. 

I'm guessing a combination of tired and rushing are what caused the horrible mistakes I made in this email. Thankfully the minis didn't catch on to this one.

Clara Cupcake was found in her hot air balloon Tuesday morning!

Tuesday afternoon turned out to be a little difficult when it came to behavior.

Wednesday we found CC sitting by thinking maps and noting what she liked in an American Girl catalog.

I'm gonna keep it real y'all, Wednesday was one TOUGH day. My sweet little angels morphed into booger bears. Yes I am patient and kind with my class, however I don't play around when it comes to classroom management.

 I gave the speech about good behavior. I gave the speech about having class privileges. I even gave the speech about thinking before you act. The minis weren't having it so sadly on Thursday we lost some Christmas magic.

You could have heard a pin drop when I read this email. I love my minis but I absolutely do not put up with certain kinds of behavior. They got the message loud and clear. Behavior the entire day was 100% better.

Our Christmas magic returned on Friday!

Enjoy the rest of your Sunday teacher friends! In a couple of hours I'm headed to watch the Mavericks game, I can't wait!

December Currently

Hey friends! It's time for another month of Currently with Farley! Don't forget to link up and join the fun.

Listening- I love love love everything Christmas, so it's only appropriate to listen to Christmas carols.

Loving- Our class elf Clara Cupcake returned today! I love scrolling through all the #elfintheclassroom pics on Instagram.

This year Clara Cupcake (CC for short) got a new wardrobe and is now a fashionista. 

I'm also loving how our December bulletin board is shaping up.

I just realized I forgot to straighten the C before I left oh well. The border I picked up at Mardel last month. Our Christmas lists are getting some techy love thanks to Reagan Tunstall's Techy Santa pack.

Thinking- Who hasn't heard of the huge Cyber Monday sale at Tpt??? I'm excited to be participating in my first sale. I cleaned out my cart this afternoon, but I feel like I just gotta have more stuff! The font I used for my currently is from the amazing Cara Carroll. 

Speaking of TpT and thinking ahead, I read on the forums about the next conference coming up in Vegas. I know I'll be there! Is it too early to start counting down?  

Wanting- I'm hungry but am so indecisive on what I want to eat. I went to the grocery store yesterday so I need to eat what I bought and stop eating out so much.

Needing- Grades for progress reports are due Friday morning. I bought a couple of assignments home with me, but blogging is much more fun wouldn't you agree?

Giving- I'm going to try my best to do a random act of kindness every day. Whether is a small gift for someone or paying for someone's coffee at Starbucks I hope I can make someone smile every day.

I guess I should get to grading these papers or else I'll regret it come Thursday night. Don't forget to link up and share your currently!

Shopping Carts Ready

Hi y'all! I hope everyone had a fabulous Thanksgiving and enjoyed the day! I ate way too many rolls, but they were so delicious and worth it. My mom and I saw Interstellar after eating; great movie but I kinda feel like I needed a degree in quantum physics to truly understand everything that was happening!
Congrats to Erin M. for being the winner of my Instagram giveaway! That $10 Tpt gift card is gonna come in handy for....

Thank you Jillian Starr for sharing these adorable graphics to promote the sale!

If you braved Black Friday and went shopping, I bow down to you. I haven't done any Black Friday shopping in years, but I do love me some Cyber Monday! I can't wait to finally unload my wish list!

I haven't done too much school related over the break, but I did manage to finish up one new product.

I plan on reviewing place value and comparing numbers in more detail with some of my small groups during math stations. This is my first year having a separate rotation for math stations instead of mixed in with ELA. Hopefully I can get a blog post up about that soon. 

So get those carts ready for Monday! I can't wait to snag some more fabulous products. Enjoy your weekend!

Playing Catch Up

I'm so relieved for Christmas break!!! I had every intention of keeping up daily elf blogging, but that last week of school just about did me in. Even with all of the chaos, I witnessed some great moments in the classroom. I watched one sweetie gladly give her candy cane to a classmate who had lost hers. The entire class cheered on the last student who had to reach his AR goal. They all knew we were having a Polar Express party Friday, and tickets had to be earned by reading for AR. 

The good news is all my shopping is FINALLY done, and I found some great sales. I don't want to see another parking garage or mall until March. (Yeah right, I'll be at one of my favorite malls next week putting some gift cards to good use.) 

I was all in a panic yesterday because I knew the final week of Seusstastic's  Elf Linky would start yesterday. I haven't seen it go live yet, but I'm gonna go ahead and give a quick run down of Clara Cupcake's final week of antics. 

I was all in a panic while writing this post because I couldn't find all the pictures. It took about 10 minutes before I realized I'd already blogged about Monday's elf antics, ugh. I was having a not so bright moment.

Clara Cupcake somehow changed all the backgrounds on our classroom computers Tuesday. The minis found this highly funny. 

Wednesday she was caught trying to eat goodies from the estimation jar!

Later in the day at student wrote Clara Cupcake a note. She was concerned about the elf in her sister's class. Apparently Snowflake had been touched and lost all his magic. I had a teacher buddy place the note in her hand while we were out of the room.

The following morning this note was left with an update on Snowflake. Thanks again teacher buddy for stepping in!

The class Christmas party was the next day, and Clara Cupcake was making some mysterious preparations.

Finally Thursday arrived and we finally knew why the paper chain was on the window. Clara C. decided to give bungee jumping a try!

I must admit I felt bittersweet about Clara C. spending one final day with us on Friday. At last the day of our Polar Express class party had arrived.

This copy of The Polar Express has been read and loved by lots of students in four years.

As I mentioned before, students had to earn their Polar Express ticket by reaching their AR goal. I always love the last day before break because it's pajama day and goes along perfectly with what we were doing. 

This year I decided to set up a hot chocolate bar for us to enjoy while we watched the movie. My awesome principal let me borrow the water urn. Preparing a cup of hot chocolate for each student seemed like it took forever, but it was worth it to me. I was expecting all sorts of craziness Friday. Instead we had a fairly peaceful day filled with some great memories and yummy treats. 

We've come to the point where I get nostalgic. There'll be no more carols on the radio. The trees will be taken down and wrapping paper put away. Another Christmas is almost passed. I always get a little sad after Christmas is gone but I'm looking forward to all the possibilities of the new year. Have a wonderful and very Merry Christmas teacher friends! 

Elf Linky Fun Week 2

It's another week of elf antics and awesomeness over at Seusstastic. Before I get to the fun stuff can I vent? It makes me sad and somewhat irritated how many people are hating on the elf! I've heard everything from the elf is a waste of time, creepy, doesn't belong at school, etc. I personally have enjoyed having an elf in my classroom although I admit I'm running low on ideas for these last few days. It's fun for me to see my mini's faces light up when coming in first thing in the morning looking for Clara Cupcake. Our classroom elf has been instructional and helped us spread Christmas cheer to others. I understand not everyone is a fan, but please keep the negativity to yourself! Now moving on to the fun stuff...

I'll start with Clara Cupcake on Friday and link again to daily elf fun so I don't end up repeating myself and taking forever to write this post.

I thought her hiding place Friday morning was so clever, until it took students all of 10 seconds to find her upon arrival. 

Techie Elf- My favorite of the week!

Making A List

Where's The Ink?

Manic Monday

Just four days and a half days until Christmas break! So much to do and so little time! Papers to be graded are calling my name, bleh!

All I Want For Christmas

I saw this holly jolly holiday link from 2nd Grade Shenanigans a couple of days ago, but honestly my mind kept drawing a blank. There really isn't anything on my Christmas list this year that I must have. I already bought myself an iPad in September, and a new teacher bag in August. While there's nothing in particular that I'm drooling over, there are a few things from my favorite brands or wishlist I wouldn't mind having.

I keep looking on Amazon for a personal lamintor. A couple of teachers at my school have one and have only positives to say about it.

I love Bliss products. Bliss is more expensive than some other brands, but worth every penny. Lemon and Sage is my favorite scent.

 I'm going to NYC for the first time in April! I'm already counting down the days. A plane ticket would be a fabulous gift.

A manicure and pedicure is always on any gift wishlist of mine.