New Christmas Around the World Freebie!

Today I'm off in Christmastown (aka- Frankenmuth) so I thought this would be a great day to unveil the newest addition to my Christmas Around the World unit, which is available on my website.

Almost everything for the unit (including the unit plan) are free! I wanted to incorporate more opportunities for writing, so the newest addition is a venn diagram and two different kinds of writing paper for students to write about their own holiday traditions compared to that of another country. The image below will take you to my site where you can see the venn diagram and other other items I've developed for the unit! If you have anything else you'd like to see for the unit, let me know. I really want to make it more comprehensive, so I'd love to hear your thoughts!

I hope you enjoy the resources! Happy Holiday-around-the-world-ing! :)

Fun Brain and Body Breaks

My kiddos are really enjoying these "Action Stories". They are stories you read aloud while students get a chance to take a quick brain and body break to act them out. I was so lucky to come across this laying in the copy room of my school... to the staff member who found it first... THANK YOU!

We've done "Leafy Season" a few times and they always want to do it again as soon as we finish.

If you get a chance, check out the website for the "Action Stories"... I know they will be well-needed breaks for us as the holidays come closer and closer!

PS- Happy 11/11/11... This post got posted at 11:11am just to go along with the theme! :)

Tomorrow I'm headed to Frankenmuth with my girlfriends. I can't wait! Happy weekend, bloggy friends!

Bubble Bubble Blog of Mine... Give Me Some Winners, Nice and Fine!

Hip Hip Hooray! After two nights of parent-teacher conferences (which went super well, I might add!), I am so happy to say that today was a half day and tomorrow we have no school!

I am beside myself with glee as my yearly trip to Frankenmuth with my friends is Saturday! If you don't live in Michigan or haven't heard of Frankenmuth, it's just the most magical place on earth! Ok. Fine. Maybe 2nd to Disney! It has the world's largest Christmas store, the tastiest chicken you can imagine, and just tons of shopping and fun!

But enough about that.

Today is the day my giveaway for my Strega Nona unit ends and I have two winners! My students did the activities for the unit on Monday and Tuesday and LOOOOOOVED them. My favorite is the "Go Fish" style reading game where students make pairs of story elements and then talk about the elements as they play the game. I was in Teacher Heaven when they were playing!

So... by random number generator the winners are...

Ali and Kelly please e-mail me at christina4062@hotmail.com ASAP so I can get this out to you! I'm not sure when it will be available on The Teaching Oasis, but if you need a copy, just shoot me an e-mail and we'll figure it out!

Attention Pinners: I need help!

Update: It's working now! But if you'd like to see my problem from earlier, read on!

Update on the update! I just went to start looking for some things on Pinterest and now the search box is gone AGAIN! So do feel free to continue reading at this time! I'll continue to do updates on my updates if it starts working again!

Ok. I'm no Pinterest Expert so I need help!

For some reason, I can't search for anything today! What am I doing wrong?! I want to look up some Thanksgiving projects to go with a writing for next week and there's no SEARCH box!

Also... if you didn't enter my Strega Nona giveaway or share your ideas for my Christmas Around the World unit, please do! :)

If you want to follow me on Pinterest, you can click below!

Thanks for your tech support!

Strega Nona Giveaway!

This is conference week and I know it's gonna be crazy!

On Tuesday, we're going to see the play "Strega Nona" and I am so excited! The group that does the play is fantastic... if you're a Michigan teacher, you've got to find a way to get the Wild Swan Theater to come to your area. They come to a neighboring community every year and area schools are invited to come for free and they always put on SUCH a great show!

Anywho... today is "Strega Nona" day ay school in Room 10 and I have some great activities planned including some ABC order fun, spaghetti and mathballs game (where you can type in your own math to make it appropriate for your kiddos!), character point of view, a smidge of writing, a "Go Fish" style story elements game, and eating this awesome Pinterest find...

Chocolate cupcakes, cream cheese "spaghetti" frosting, malted milkballs "meatballs", and strawberry ice cream "spaghetti sauce"!

So... I'd like to give you the opportunity to win this set before it's available for purchase at The Teaching Oasis. All you have to do is make sure you've liked my blog and The Teaching Oasis on Facebook and leave me a comment to let me know! I'm thinking this would be an excellent "emergency sub" kit too! Just pre-copy the activities for your class and pop it into a folder with a copy of the book and... no driving in to work at 6am to write sub plans for an unexpected sick-day!

I'll choose a few winners at random on Thursday! I have a half-day that day (and no school on Friday!)... so since I'll be celebrating, I'll just lump in the winnings that day too!

Here's a sneak peek at some of the items in the 21-page pack!

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like...

CHRISTMAS!

I'm looking to add some things to my "Christmas Around the World" unit. Most of the unit is available for free on my classroom website on the a new page with just Christmas Around the World stuff. I was thinking about doing a postcard for each country... and maybe some type of graphic organizer to help foster some writing...? Any suggestions for things to add to the unit? Leave me a comment if you come up with anything!

Last batch of vowel sorting cards!

Come and get it! Hot off the presses! :)

Here's the last set of vowel sorting cards for long and short e.
I'd love to hear from you if you find this file useful!

Now that this is complete, I'll be working on my Strega Nona mini-unit... we're going to see the play for Strega Nona on Tuesday so Monday will be all things PASTA DAY! If the unit turns out well, I'll be doing a giveaway in the next few days before it's posted for sale at The Teaching Oasis!

Short and Long I Sorting Freebie

Happy FRIDAY!

Here's another set of short/long vowel sorting cards. I'll work on the "e" set this weekend... but for now, enjoy the I's!
Neighbor to the East... this was just for you! :)

I'd love a comment if you download them!

Do You Dojo?

Have you heard of Class Dojo? A colleague introduced me to it this morning and I love it! After you read the post, you can click the image below to sign up if you're interested!


It's a real-time management system to help track student behaviors. I signed up my students in minutes and they were earning behavior "points" in no time! I projected mine with my LCD projector, set up my Android phone as a "remote" for it, and was adding points all day long. It was a nice visual for my students and, coupled with my clip chart, it made for a very positive day. It also helped me see who needed some more positive reinforcement.

It has charts and graphs you can print... and which teacher doesn't love THAT?!

Anyhow, I think you should check it out!

The Kindness of Others

Hi everyone! My internet has been down for a WEEK! I felt like a part of me was missing this past week without it... and that's sad!

BUT... it has been restored and I am so glad I can blogstalk, post, pin, Facebook, e-mail, and actually do some WORK from home! :)

I just wanted to share this exciting story with you...

A couple of months back, I came across this awesome book online which I thought I could use to snag my kids in on writing... especially those reluctant kiddos who think they never have anything to write about.

Sadly, the book was out of print and I could only find it listed for hundreds of dollars on ebay and Amazon. So, I psycho-ly stalked the author, found their e-mail address, e-mailed them, and asked if they knew of any way that a poor teacher like me could get a copy of the book at a reasonable price.

And... the author responded! AND the author said that the book was being re-printed and would soon be available again... AND the author said he'd send me a free copy when he got his first shipment!

AND... I GOT IT LAST WEEK!


Thank you so much, Angelo DeCesare and Flip, for caring about kids and being so generous! I LOVE that you even personalized my copy for me and my class. We will treasure this book forever! :)

Would you like your own copy? You can click here to order it from Barnes and Noble!

I promise to get back in the swing of posting and sharing useful things... I wasn't even motivated to work on my computer without any internet to distract me this past week! I will be making some new freebies for my "Christmas Around the World" unit. Anything you'd like to see in particular... let me know in a comment! I can't promise I'll do it all, but I'd be happy to see what I can do!