New Sub Product

I have had such luck with my first grade sub tub packet that I decided to make one for second grade teachers too!  One recent reviewer of the first grade product said "My sub said I had the best sub folder she's ever seen".  I love that it's helping other busy teachers!  Check it out by clicking on the pic.

A Little This...A Little That

We are heading into the end of January!  WHAT!!  How is that possible!

I sent Progress Reports home last week.  I got all of my DIBELS assessments done!!  Can I get a whoop-whoop!!

It's all about penguins in my class this week.  Wednesday is Tacky Day!  WHAAAAAAT'S HAPPENING!  Ha!  I love that penguin!!  I'm so sad that I have to go to a CCSS training that day and have to miss the FUN with my kiddos:-(.  Pity party.  Boohoo!

I do artsy crafty things on Thursday afternoon and Thursday at lunch I was still thinking about what I wanted to do.  Then I remembered the totally cute symmetry penguin I saw on Pinterest a couple of nights before.  OH YEAH!  I whipped out the black and orange paint, cut some paper and we were in business.  I simplified the process and the look a bit from what I saw on Pinterest.  Here's some samples of these little cuties.

Little Dudes

Little Gals

And for the creative ones...Macaroni Penguins!

Click here to see the original article about these little cuties


I watched Mary Poppins with my little girl (she's 22) today!  OMG...such a great movie!  I may have to show it to my class the next time they earn a popcorn party!  BTW...to earn a popcorn party my kiddos have to build two Mr. Potato Heads.  They earn parts by getting good reports from their pullout classes (PE, computers, library, lunch).  My class LOVES this!  At our Winter holiday party some little siblings came into our class and without knowing the importance of Mr. Potato Head, they started playing with him.  Holy Cow!!!  It was just disastrous!  I had to reassure the class that we would put all of the pieces back on the potato and I wouldn't make them start over!  Hahahaha!  I forgot all about it but when I came in to school the next morning, I noticed that Mr. Potato Head had been put back just as he had been before all the terror the day before!  Hilarious!  Kids take these reward things very seriously!!

I got this idea from 2nd Grade Rocks on Pinterest <3.
Click here to see the original post

Off to work on some new products for TPT!  Hope you will stop by my little store and have a look:-)

Time for a Linky!!

Richi over at Ribbons, Recipes and Rhymes is having a linky.  She created some cutie pie penguin clip art and shared it so we could create some penguin products.  I'm linking up to my new Writing Silly Penguin Sentences packet.  Check it out:-)  Oh...I forgot to tell you, it's a freebie!!

Make sure you check out Richi's blog:-)

Happy New Year blog friends! I'm having such a great break that I haven't taken the time to do any blogging.  I didn't work on any new products until yesterday:-)  But now...I'm on a roll!  I finished my January Spectacular Sentences, and redid my Washington/Lincoln Expository Writing packet as well as the Valentine stuff I made last year.  Check them out!  

This first little sweetie will get your students to write sentences that dazzle!  The packet I made for December asked students to add "where" to their sentences.  This packet asks students to add adjectives!  That what makes the difference between good writing and great writing in my book!  

And moving right along...here's the link up to my "Mad About Math" Valentines Day packet. Woohoo!

Whaaaat you say???  There's more???

Yes indeedy!  Language Arts Valentines Day packet<3

And did I mention I revamped my Expository Writing with Lincoln and Washington Writing Activity Pack? 

I gotta go back to work and get some rest!  But first, I need to finish my January Word Problems packet.  I'll get it up later today or tomorrow.  It's awesome for CGI!  My class loves doing these fun word problems.  Just before the break I gave them a tough division word problem from my December packet and one of my kiddos got out of his seat and came up to me and said, "Mrs. Thelen, that was really fun!  I had to think a lot!" Learning, being challenged, and having fun...what a concept!  

Gingerbread

Check out my new Gingerbread Galore unit on tpt! I love doing Gingerbread the last two weeks before Winter Break.  The grand finale is making gingerbread/candy houses!  What a mess!  What a blast!  Our first grade team  has the kiddos make their houses on the last day before the break.  It makes a fun party and it doesn't have a Christmas theme.  

I hope to get my CGI Problem Solving Packet up tomorrow!  Come back and check it out.

Thanksgiving Stuff

Woohoo!  Got the week off!  Unfortunately three of the days are furlough days so no pay:(.  My son comes home from college tomorrow night!  Woohoo for that too!  
I did some directed drawing for art last week that you might like to do if you still have school this week.  Here's the pics.

How cute is that guy!!!????  He is done with black ink and a chalk stain.  If you haven't done a chalk stain here's how:  Don't let the piece of chalk touch the art.  Use a scrap piece of paper and rub the chalk on it to make dust.  Wrap a tissue around your finger and dip it in the dust.  Rub the color onto the picture to stain.  First graders are AMAZED!  He look great matted on black:-)  Here's a little peek at how the display looks with some of the little guys and a big scarecrow pal.  The display is out in the hall and I keep hearing peeps say they make them smile.  Awwww!  That makes me smile!

Have your read Tomie dePaola's "The Artist"?  It's all about him drawing as a kids.  Super cute!  At the end of the book he draws a Pilgrim man and woman with a turkey.  My class did tried it too.  Here's how they look:-)  

This is a super easy one to do just using crayons.  Some years I get out the colored pencils and that's always a treat:-)  

Moving right along.....
Have your read the book "Who Will Carve the Thanksgiving Turkey" by Jerry Pallotta and David Biedrzycki?  Totally cute book:-)  After reading it my kiddos wrote their own ideas about who could carve the turkey at their house.  Check these out!

Super animals and dogs carving turkeys!  How cute

 is that!  By the way...Faith is the little author's sister:-)

And even more fun was had last week!  We dove into my popcorn unit (available at my tpt store of course).  Favorite activity was popcorn tasting!  We tasted four kinds of popcorn and then interviewed 12 classmates to see what their favorites were.  Here's a sample of the tally chart, bar graph, and data sheet.

We also did a fuuuuun rhyming activity.  Lots of my little struggling readers are still lost when it comes to rhyming.  After doing the activity, we made these fabulous popcorn boxes with rhyming words.  It was another fan favorite!

Stop by my tpt store and check out the popcorn unit.  It works well in October, which is National Popcorn Month, or I like to use it the week before Thanksgiving. "The Popcorn Book" by Tomie dePaola is a great read aloud!  I also like "The Popcorn Shop" by Alice Low.  

OMG! I need to stop talking and let you move on;-)  Thanks so much for stopping by!  Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Parent/Teacher Conferences Scheduling the Easy Way!!

Here's the link to the web site I'm using to schedule my Parent/Teacher conferences.  It's awesome:-)  On Tuesday I'll be sending notes home to parents to give them the link and a code that leads them to my scheduling page.  If I have any problems come up I'll let you know.


http://ptcfast.com/

Hooray for three day weekends!!