Christmas at Wolfelicious

What do you get your teacher?

  I know that is always a question I have for my son's teacher.  I know that being a teacher you always get lots of great things, however sometimes you get things that aren't so wonderful.  Because I am a teacher I know I always want to get my son's teacher's something they would like and not throw away.  This year I got a lot of awesome and thoughtful gifts!
  Gifts that I will use. 
(sorry don't mean to be mean, but you know the gifts that are super nice but you never use? That you rather just have the $5 they spent on it.)

This year I got tons of an awesome gifts!   Here is a picture of what I got!

There are so many reasons why I love this gift. The Olive Garden (my favorite restaurant), Target (my favorite store), Outback (another favorite restaurant), and so many more!  My parents took the time to work together and make the perfect gift for me that I WILL use and enjoy!  (I feel very blessed).  

It appears that a money tree does exist and Oh boy! Do I LOVE it!  

Besides the wonderful gift card tree, I got a lot of other wonderful gifts!  Starbucks and Dunkin Donuts cups (I guess my students have noticed my choice of a beverage in the morning, hehe). Homemade body scrubs that smell great and homemade cookies.  I definitely feel very blessed!  I truly appreciated all their gifts to me and I love how thoughtful and awesome the gifts are!

Ok, moving on....

The last week before we were off was super busy. (I am seeing a super busy trend every single week). We were finishing up the quarter so I had to finish up my assessments and their grade cards. It always takes me forever to do the comments on the grade cards.  
We made some craftivities.  Last year I saw this Santa on TPT and I know I had to fit it in this year. The Techy Santa!  I love how it looks and it fits nicely in my classroom. I am so glad I purchased it.  We used the iSanta Apps page to draw what the students wanted for Christmas.  They loved being able to choose that many things. 

We made our gift bag for our ornaments. I love making the reindeer bags.  They always turn out so cute. 

We played Heidisongs sight word game, Jingle Bell Bang. I just love this and so does the students. They ask to play it again and again.  

We continued RACKing around our school.  

Surprising the Media Center teacher. (I was hiding around the corner)

More RACKing!  Giving Smarties to another smart class.  

This year I wanted to make a different ornament.  I always make the handprint snowman, but I thought this year it was overdone so I wanted to make something different.  I thought and thought about what my students could make that their parents will treasure.  I had seen another ornament on Pinterest that the person's child drew a picture and they put that inside.  After I saw that ornament I knew that is what I had to make with my class.  I had all my students draw a picture on a piece of white construction paper.  Then I couldn't get the paper to unroll in the ornament.  I thought I found the perfect gift, but I couldn't get it to look correct.  I tried watercolor paper too and not luck with that unrolling either.  So then I thought I would try one more thing.  I used a clear sleeve pocket protector.  I cut them up to about 3" by 3" and had the students use Shapies to draw a big picture.  I stressed to them that the picture had to be BIG.  The pocket protector unrolled and looked fabulous!!  Here is how some of them turned out!

As you can see, I added a great big bow and it made them look super cute!

Here are the cups I made for my son's teacher's.  I think they turned out Wolfelicious!  Yes, I added their name and the Keep Calm.

Thanks for stopping by.  I hope you and your family had a Wolfelicious Christmas and New Year!

 

Paintings, presents, RACKing Oh My!

This week we have been working on our Christmas presents, assessments for the end of the quarter, and going on our first field trip of the year. Oh, and we begin our RACKing adventure.

I saw this awesome painting on Pinterest and I knew I had to try it with my class.  The teacher made a step by step drawing of a deer with her class and then they painted it.  I think they turned out A'deer'able!

The students finished drawing their deer and are getting ready to paint them.

First we painting the background.

The next day we painted the deer and added the finishing touches.  They turned out so cute.  I will have to take a picture of the finished product this week.  I mounted them on black paper and turned them in for laminating.

We began our RACKing adventure this week!  On Monday we talked about ways to be kind and played a game on being kind versus not kind.  Then throughout the week we did Random Acts of Christmas Kindness around our school.  It was very tricky to be so sneaky and not get caught. 

 I put each day in a bag so everyday we open a bag to let us know how we are going to do a Random Act of Kindness for that day.
 
I have really been stressing to the students that being kind does not mean you are going to get a present or even a thank you.  It is just nice to be kind and make someone feel special and by doing things like that it makes your heart feel warm.  
Here is what we have done so far:
Monday: Gave Smarties to a Smart Class.
Tuesday: Left a pop and M&Ms for our principal.
Wednesday: Sang Jingles Bells to the cafeteria staff.
Thursday: Colored nice notes and passed them to 3 different classes.  We went to the classroom when the students weren't there and laid the nice notes on their desks.
Friday: Gave a bag of M&Ms to the custodian. 

The students are looking forward to this each day.  It is SO great to see them be so kind.
Here is a picture of my students leaving notes at another classroom.

Dropping our kindness to the principal.

Our class Elf, Wolfie, has been up to surprise us each day.  Here is where he has been some of the days.

I think he looks like he is on a wrecking ball here.  LOL

Our last week before break is this week.  We have 3 full days and 2 half days.

I hope you have a great week! 

Elf, Magnets, Nutcracker, Oh Boy!

This was an exciting week at Wolfelicious!  We started the week with getting a package from Santa.  The package was cold.

The students passed around the present so they could feel it.  They couldn't believe it felt cold!  I asked them what they thought it could be and they told me ice cream.  I guess they must have been hungry.

Still checking out the package.

After everyone got to feel the box, I slowly by surely opened it.  I ripped off a little at a time.  I started ripping from the back.  Then when I went to the front I balanced the present and my camera so I could capture their faces.  I love their faces after seeing that Santa sent our classroom an elf.  The little boy in the front with his hands covering his mouth!  That is priceless!  The girls with the wide open mouth! I love this picture!  It shows so excited they were.

One day when we got to school Wolfie (don't you LOVE the name), was at the top of our Christmas tree.  Silly me, I forgot to take a picture of the other spots that Wolfie found.  Hopefully I will remember next week.

On Wednesday, my kindergartners sang their hearts out.  We had our Christmas concert!  They did a Rockin' job!

For Science this week we learned about Magnets.  The students enjoyed learning about magnets.  I tried using a Whole Brain Teaching lesson plan when teaching the students about magnets.  It made me in teacher heaven!

The students are figuring out what is magnetic and what is not magnetic.

Here is a sneak peak at what we have in store for next week.

Guess what?!  I finally added another item to my TPT and Teacher's Notebook stores.  It is perfect for the Holiday season.


It is..........


A


Nutcracker Craftivity!

 Check it out at my stores.
TPT     Teacher's Notebook


My boys got pictures taken from school.  Here is my favorite one.

Thanks so much for stopping by!  Have a Wolfelicious day!

Cyber Monday and Tuesday SALE

Guess what?

 Cyber Monday is almost here and Teachers Pay Teachers is throwing a huge sale!

That's right! 28% off! My entire store will be 20% and with the code CYBER you can save another 8%!

Amazing Number Sense Action Ideas for Kindergarten

Learning doesn’t have to be hard. In fact, learning can be incredibly fun! By giving children the chance to have a great time while they are learning, they can discover a genuine love for learning that will follow with them for the rest of their lives. These number sense action ideas for the kindergarten level will help young children learn all about numbers and counting in an exciting way that makes it easy.

Giant Dice!

 

Children love to throw. Children love dice. Creating giant dice that children can throw across the room and then learn from? Brilliant! This activity is incredibly simple to put together. Create 2 giant dice from cardboard boxes (tissue boxes, maybe?). Draw on the numbers as you would see them on a regular dice. You can start off easy by having the child count the number they get after throwing the dice. Then you can make it harder by having the child add the two numbers they rolled together.

Learning With Colored Blocks

For this activity you will need a set of blocks with different colors. Smaller blocks, like unifex, work best as they are small and come in few basic colors. Set out the blocks in front of the kindergartener. Tell them a simple addition equation, for instance 2+2. They must put together the addition by grabbing 2 blocks of one color (let’s say red), and 2 of another color (blue). Connect the blocks (or stack them together) and count how many there are. A great way to learn addition, because what child doesn’t love blocks?

Puzzle!

Another kid favorite: puzzles, of course! So why not put together a fun number sense puzzle? For this activity you will need a mat with numbers and an empty square next to the number (for the child to match). Then give your child a series of small pictures with- for example- 1 fish, 2 fishes, 3 fishes, etc. Your child will need to place the picture of 1 fish next to the number 1, and so on, until all the pictures are accounted for on the mat.

Hopscotch 

There’s an adorable obsession with hopscotch in kindergarten-aged children. Turn hopscotch into another learning experience by adding numbers to the floor and counting with the children each step they take. You can even turn this into a game, by saying ‘hop until you reach number 5’. Say each number out loud. This is an activity that is seriously fun and of course, as an added bonus, you get a little bit of exercise thrown into the mix!

Coloring Pages

Have you ever met a kindergartener that didn’t like to color? Me neither. That’s why math coloring pages are great. Simple math coloring pages could be the color-coordinated ones, such as use red wherever you see the number 1, and blue wherever you see the number 3. To make it more difficult, add addition equations to slots on the coloring pages. For instance, the frog could have 5+2 in the middle. On the chart, the color green will be 7. Therefore, the 5+2=7 will be formed and the child will color the frog with the correct color that corresponds with the right answer to the equation.

What child wouldn’t love these fun, yet very informative number sense activities?

Author bio: Tiffany Faming is a professional blogger and English teacher. She prefers to write on family, fashion and beauty, home décor, travel, grammar. However, she is interested in many other topics, too. 

November Fun!! Pilgrims, Wampanoag, and WBT

Last week we learned about the Pilgrims.  I thought I would have my kiddos complete a research project on the Pilgrims to fulfill one of the Common Core Standards.  Throughout the week we worked on the research project together.

I bought

Pilgrim Shared Research for Primary

and it made the process easy peasy and fun for the students!
Here are some pictures of our final project.
 

 My students did an awesome job on the project!  I am so proud of them!

Then, this past week we learned about the Wampanoag tribe!

Who are the Wampanoag? 

Ask my students and they should will know! 

We had so much fun this week learning about the Wampanoag tribe. 

We started our the week talking about where the Wampanoag are from.  The students drew a picture to explain where they were from.

Next, we talked about their houses and how they make their houses.

Next, we talked about the jewelry the Wampanoag people wore and tried to make our own version.

I was so surprised at how well my class did making their necklace. 

Then we make the hair of the Wampanoag tribe.  The girls made braids.

Aren't they adorable with their braids?!

The boys made Mohawks!  Did you hear my boys scream when they found out they were making these?  They were so excited!

Aren't they adorable with their Mohawks?!

Here is a whole class pic with the hair.

My students just loved learning about the Wampanoag tribe!  If you are interested in these projects, I have made a packet of them at TPT.

Do you recognize this man?

 Last Saturday I got to go to a WBT conference.  I was super excited!  I had SO MUCH FUN and I LEARNED so much!!  I had already been implementing WBT but going to the conference motivated me to do it more and I learned more tricks.

 Coach B and me

It was so great to finally get to meet Coach B after seeing him on numerous webniars.

If you don't know about WBT (Whole Brain Teaching) go to the website and check it out.  It will change the way you teach!

Thanks for stopping by!  Have a great Thanksgiving!