Blogger Meet Up

I'm so excited. Tomorrow is the SoCal meet-up. These get togethers are always such a blast! If you live in the area, please join us and bring your camera. I can't wait to see everyone. Thanks so much Kate from Second Grade Sparkle and Katie from Teacher To The Core for putting this together.  Just click on the picture above to get more information.

Spring Break Linky

I am so excited to finally be on spring break. It has been such a difficult year and I'm so glad that its almost over. I saw this spring break linky and I'm linking up. I even put a border around it like some other bloggers. I'm so excited because I finally figured out how to do that. 

I love Vegas, its close, cheap, unless you're a gambler and I love the Cirque du Soliel shows. I want to see the new one at the Aria.

I have piles of books that I keep adding to but don't have time to read. 

I haven't been to the movies in a long time and I can't wait to grab some popcorn, cherry coke, peanut M&Ms and lose myself for a couple of hours.

I love to craft but again, there just isn't enough time. Although I don't know how far I'll get with my crafts. I recently bought some oilcloth that I want to use to make some tote bags. I also bought some tole painting patterns and wood pieces to paint and some scrapbook supplies. Might have to wait till summer vacation.

And to end my wonderful spring break, I will be meeting up with some fabulous bloggers from SoCali. I'm so excited. Actually, there's one other thing on my bucket list. I need to turn this into my blog button:

Are you on spring break? What's on your bucket list? Just click on the Spring break button at the top and link up.

Queen of the First Grade Jungle: ***Super Bowl Giveaway***

Queen of the First Grade Jungle: ***Super Bowl Giveaway***:  Go check out this GREAT Super Bowl Giveaway! Lots of football packets to have fun with a Super Bowl theme!

Dear Santa....

I saw this adorable mailbox at Big Lots and just had to share it with you. I thought I'd use it for some letter writing to Santa. I checked out TPT for some Santa letter writing units. There were quite a bit. Anybody have a favorite?

Monday Made It Tuesday

It's Tuesday but I wanted to link up to Monday Made It and share my pocket chart holders.

Mini pocket chart holders

 I already posted about them here. Head on over to 4th Grade Frolics to see all the other crafty, creative projects other teachers have made or link up your own Monday Made It.

Halloween Picture Book Linky Party

Next week is October and I can bust out the Halloween books! First Grade Found Me is having a Halloween Picture Book linky party. I have lots of Halloween books so I tried to narrow it down to my top five! I always start with the following 3 books. They are great introductions to pumpkin activities, talking about pumpkin pie, and carving a jack-o-lantern.

Big Pumpkin is another version of The Enormous Turnip. Lots of different Halloween characters all take their turn at trying to pull up the Big Pumpkin. Drat...hmmmphh..Love the repetition. It's  a great lesson on teamwork. It's also a great story to act out. And there's pumpkin pie. mmmm...

A cute story of a snitched pumpkin. An old man and an old woman go searching for their pumpkin. The old man wants pumpkin pie. mmmm.....

Now that we've read about pumpkins and pumpkin pie, it's time to read about the life cyle of a pumpkin. I love this book because it is so simple and has great pictures. After we read this story, we do a quick little science experiment.

Will our pumpkin sink or float when we drop it into a tub of water? The kids love this.

 Then we carve it open, stick our hands inside the pumpkin and say "ewwww!" Everybody gets some seeds to take home and save for spring planting.

 Then we paint some paper plates orange, sequence the life cycle of a pumpkin and we are now ready to retell to our parents.

I love Diane de Groat's holiday books. I have them all, featuring the character Gilbert. I used to love to read this before we had our Halloween parade. It would set the mood. But now no more parades. But I still like reading it. And the kids love shouting "trick or treat, smell my feet" !

This last book is great to read the day after Halloween. Who can't relate to eating candy until you're sick? A little lesson on sharing and self-control. (But all that candy is soooo tempting!)

What are your favorite Halloween picture books? Link up at First Grade Found Me and see what others are sharing.

Randomness

Wow, hard to believe 6 weeks have already gone by.  A new grade level and a new LA program and I am drowning....glub, glub, glub. I miss kindergarten... I still haven't unpacked all the materials that come with Treasures, our new program... all we do is assess... no fun allowed and I think the Fun Police will be coming around soon. JK. They won't be necessary since there isn't any time for fun.

OK, kidding again. Sort of. We did make this cute project that I saw on A Teeny Tiny Teacher's blog that came from Hadar. (Click on the link and it will take you to her TPT store.) I needed something quick for Back To School Night and I thought this would be perfect so the parents could see some basic fine motor and writing skills.

No matter how much you model, there's always one that doesn't quite get it. Oh well...

 I wanted to show you the mini pocket chart stands my dad made for me. 

I saw these at First Grade Fabulosity. Why didn't I think of this? I say that because I asked my dad to make this chart stand for my puppet theater. 

Why didn't I think of going mini for all those mini charts I bought from Target?! Well, that's what Pinterest is for, I guess.  By the way, I scored on that puppet theater. I think it was regularly $28 and I got it for $5 at Lakeshore. Love that store, especially when they have great sales. I also live near their outlet store, even better.

One more thing before I sign off. It's fall, which means apple time. My friend Karen at Through The Looking Glass has a cute little apple bitty book freebie at her site. Hop on over and check out it out.