Elf on the Shelf

Well the day has arrived....the North Pole deliveries are here!

We just couldn't resist a little fun in the classroom during this holiday season and the First Grade Parade's freebie made it even easier to put this little activity together!

Erin's elf made her appearance this morning and she was FREEZING from that cold North Pole.

She was dubbed Olive Flame Robinson. The final choices came down to Olive and Flame. Olive won the vote but the students suggested we use Flame as her middle name. The middle name addition of course led to, "what is her last name?" Again, the students chose her last name as a representation of our class. Kids and their name choices are SO funny! I think just picking a name is a comedy in itself.

Amber's elf made her arrival after specials. The kids were SO excited! We watched the Elf on the Shelf book on video. There is a great one on YouTube! Did I mention I lost my son's book? I'm assuming it's still packed up in a Christmas box in the attic. Don't know how I missed it.

Someone said Jesse as a name suggestion, someone else said "That's my mom's name." and before I knew it every kid wanted to name their elf after their mother. Oh brother. I mean mother. Thankfully it came down to Cherry & Snowflake so we went with Cherry Snowflake Hatch. I think it sounds pretty nice :) Welcome to the family Cherry!

What about you? Do you Elf on the Shelf?

Christmas Questionnaire

Hello Blog World! Erin & Amber here! We are pretty new to the blog world so we wanted to link up with Fabulous in First so you can get to know us a bit more and we can know you!

Alright here goes!

Hot Chocolate or Eggnog?

Um neither?! We are both big fans of the Caramel Apple Spice from Starbucks. Erin doesn't like chocolate. So there's that.

Amber: I do like hot chocolate. I just am really addicted to the apple cider right now. Eggnog is definitely a NO though.

Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them underneath the tree? 

Erin: This will be our first Christmas experience with Santa visiting our house since our daughter is 4 months old but Santa will be wrapping the wrappable items. I believe his is bringing a gift that will remain unwrapped this year;)

Amber: Santa wraps the presents! Last year our son got a bike so obviously it wasn't wrapped ;) But normally he wraps them!

Colored lights or white?

Erin: White! I love the clean look.

Amber: White. It's the only way. 

When do you decorate? 

Erin: What Amber said...ha. We have always decorated on Friday. 

Amber: The day after Thanksgiving. It's been a tradition since we were little.

Real or Fake Tree? 

Erin: We currently have two fake trees. We grew up with one "nice" aka fake tree and one "kid" aka real tree. I do miss the real tree at times. 

Amber: Fake. Although I do love some fresh tree farm garland!

What Tops Your Tree?

Erin: The dinning room tree is topped with glittery branches and the living room tree has a natural topper made of twigs and pinecones. 

Amber: Feathers, Berries, and lots of random?! I've kinda made my own!

Favorite Christmas Memories or Traditions?

Erin: One of our childhood traditions was visiting our grandparents house on Christmas Eve. After dinner, the adults would make contact with Santa to know when he would be arriving. Once he was on his way, all the grandkids would cram in one room and listen to Santa making noise on the roof and all through the house as he delivered the goods. Our dad and uncles were always outside helping Santa unload. When we came out of the bedroom, the living room would be overflowing with gifts. 

Amber: Since having kids my favorite tradition is taking our kids to Dry Gulch to ride the Christmas Train. It tells the story of Jesus and it's like an old west movie set. You can drink hot chocolate, sit by the fire, see Santa, watch puppet shows, eat, etc. It's SO fun and meaningful!

Do you remember your favorite gift as a child?

Erin: In the words of our little brother...."We got a pooter!" Ha

Amber: I remember the first time we got a computer! It was a BIG deal! We still have the video ;)

Do prefer giving or receiving?

Erin: I love giving. One of my greatest joys is watching other people receive a meaningful gift. 

Amber: Giving. I love to buy for my hubs and sons. I never know what to tell people when they ask what I want ;) But I sure to love to spoil others!

What is your favorite Christmas song? 

Erin: All of them! Once of my favorite additions in recent years are the Straight No Chaser Christmas songs. 

Amber: Harry Connick Jr. When My Heart Finds Christmas CD I love it all!

Candy Canes. Yuck or Yum?'

Erin: Yum! I am content to enjoy just one during the season.

Amber: Yum, I don't go overboard but I enjoy the occasional candy cane.

Favorite Christmas Movie?

Erin: Elf!

Amber: Charlie Brown Christmas & Elf.

Do you shop online or at stores?

Erin: I have done both this year. I typically accomplish a lot of Black Friday but due to a baby, I didn't pull an all nighter this year. 

Amber: A little of both. I love the stores at Christmas time but with little ones around the house it's been easier to shop online.

Photo Cards, Letter or Store Bought Card? 

Erin: Photo Cards! I am soooooo visual. 

Amber: Photo Cards! I love seeing people faces! I do enjoy receiving the letters too to hear what everyone is up to!

Thanks for reading! We hope you link up to! Go join the fun!

Gingerbread Week!

Sorry for the lack of blogging! Have we mentioned that our other (not Kinder) sister got married, our mom was in the hospital and then we celebrated Thanksgiving?! Whew! What a whirlwind!

Hopefully somewhere there is a picture of the three of us together but this is Amber and the bride!

And just when we thought things might settle down we're having the Apocalypse in Oklahoma y'all. Seriously they think we're getting 1-2" of snow and the grocery store looks like a war zone and schools are already cancelled. We do not lie.

Anyway, here is what we're up to in the classroom this week! It's Gingerbread week!

And we're using Growing Kinder's Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice unit! It's GREAT!

Here's some what you'll find in the center drawers this week:

Vowel sort! 

CVC Words! 

Counting by 10's & 1's. 

Counting from any given number! 

Nonstandard measurement!

And we're practicing the -an word family for the Gingerbread MAN! And you can download a copy of this activity too! Just click the picture!

We're also working on the five senses and comparing Gingerbread stories! More on those soon!

What are you working on this week?

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Christmas & Ordinal Numbers

Can you believe it's Thanksgiving week?! We are SO excited for some fun with our little turkeys and our feast! But we're also planning ahead because it will be December when we get back to school! What?! Can you believe we're just a month away from Christmas Eve?

We put together this fun and festive ordinal number activity. You can use it in SO many ways for whatever the level of your kiddos!

It includes an ordinal number book!

And sentences! (Why are these gray?!)

And work mats for center practice!

AND we're giving one away! Just leave a comment that you follow our blog! We'll pick a winner on Tuesday evening! Happy Holidays! We are SO excited they're here and hope they fill you with much cheer! {Yep, we just made a rhyme!}

Leave a comment & good luck!

That Time We Met James Dean

Our Librarian (best one on the planet, by the way) got a phone call from Barnes and Noble that said James Dean was available and in the area to come visit our school. We were ecstatic!

He was SUPER fun! The kids absolutely thought he was the coolest. And let's face it, so did the teachers. He drew for us, let the kids draw, sang "I Love My White Shoes" and read us his newest book. He sat in the audience with the kids and was the most friendly down to earth guy you can imagine.

In case you don't know the story, he really did have a cat named Pete. He was an engineer, wasn't looking to be a children's author and always loved/did art and so did his father (his father was an artist I believe). This was his original drawing of his cat Pete, it didn't become a book until a man on the street told him he wrote him a song. When he sent James Dean the song it was none other than White Shoes. Put all that together and now we have Pete the Cat and his shoe song!

He was so kind to autograph books for us and we both had then autographed for our kids at home too ;) So that inspired our November illustrator study to be James Dean. (It's not an author study because he did not write all of the Pete the Cat books).

So we combined Thanksgiving and Pete the Cat!

Take this Starbucks/Mayflower craft Amber's done for several years (thank you to whoever posted this on their blog, we LOVE this!) 

And we combined it with a Pete directed drawing! 

And there you have one cutesie Pete saying "Land Ho!"

We love author/illustrator studies! Do you do them? How often? How do you tie yours in with curriculum, holidays, etc?

Activities Like....

We're linking up with Blog Hoppin' for a linky party!

So Activities Like this are good for our kiddos and practin' skills too!

There is just nothing better than engaging centers to practice all of the great skills we've learned!

Here is a quick little activity to practice greater/less! Below is also the work mat so students can have a colorful, hands on version ;)

Centers are HUGE in our classrooms. They are one of the biggest parts of our day. It's how we individualize instruction, do informal assessments to see what skills our students are mastering or not, and it's our time to work one on one. And what makes it even more fun is when it all works together with our theme and is meaningful too!

If you like this activity then check out our Thanksgiving center unit! Just click the picture to see it in our TPT store!

Thanks for visiting the blog! We'd love if you'd comment and follow and download the greater/less activity by clicking HERE!