Fun With Santa!

I am SO ready with a full cart at Teacher's Pay Teachers for their big Cyber Monday sale! Maybe your cart would like my new Santa's Christmas Math and Literacy Centers pack? Take a peek!


CLICK THE PICTURE ABOVE



So, this is why my house is still a mess after having a week off! :)  I hope you like it!

My sweet blogging buddy, Leslie, The Groovy Teacher, has some fantastic new products that you really need to take a look at.  Her Super Math Pack 1 and 2 will change the way you teach problem solving with your students.  She also has a fun new Christmas Writing Pack that is great.  Click on the wreath below to see for yourself.

 

Have a joyful week!

Corinna





Christmas Fun & TpT Sale!

If you are like me, you already know about Teachers Pay Teachers' gigantic Cyber Monday and Bonus Tuesday sale--and you've already pre-shopped and filled your cart with goodies! 

In case you need some new Christmas activities, I've created my first big product: Santa's Christmas Math and Literacy Centers!

I am excited that I finally finished it (thank goodness for our Thanksgiving week break)!  I hope you go and check it out.  There are 12 centers included.  When you download the preview, a FREEBIE Making Words activity is included.  But, since you're my fabulous followers, I'm including another FREEBIE for you.  Click on the picture below to download your freebie. 

Thanks for visiting!  Have a great day!

Corinna

 

Happy Thanksgiving!

I am very thankful for the wonderful people who follow my blog and for all of my virtual "teammates" whose blogs inspire me every day! Thank you!!!

 

And the winner is...

Congratulations to Beth Ann!  She is the winner of the coveted Classroom Friendly Supplies' Quietest (and best ever) pencil sharpener!  Sorry for the announcement delay.  Rafflecopter rolled out some new features that were a little too new for the kinks to be worked out.  So, I had to do a little investigating to find who the winner was.  Beth Ann, I'll be contacting you soon to get your address and color choice of sharpener! 

 

Have a safe and wonderful Thanksgiving with your families!
Corinna

It is Giveaway Time!!! You KNOW you want this Pencil Sharpener!!!

Do you hear that?!?  It is the sound of people rejoicing that The Quietest Pencil Sharpener Ever is back in stock and ready for you to buy and/or WIN one!  Troy, the wonderful teacher/owner of Classroom Friendly Supplies is donating one of his pencil sharpeners for one of my fabulous followers!  In case you missed my post about these pencil-sharpening wonders, scroll down below the Rafflecopter.  You will get your pick of a red, blue, or green sharpener if you win!  Check out how happy my Firsties are when sharpening their pencils.  Yes, I have more than one QPSE...Don't be jealous. :)  So, what are you waiting for?  Enter now via Rafflecopter!

a Rafflecopter giveaway


So, if you are like me and you are a blog stalker and/or you spend more time on Pinterest than on cleaning, you have seen/heard about The Quietest Classroom Pencil Sharpener from Classroom Friendly Supplies. I wondered what made this sharpener so great. I know everybody has those old-school pencil grinders sharpeners that chew a new pencil up until it is a sad stump the maintenance guy says have "brand new blades and it should work like new? After spending a small fortune each year to buy electric sharpeners, I hovered around my $50 sharpener to make sure that NOBODY put their COLORED PENCILS or *shudder* those plastic-wrapped pretty pencils into it to ruin it. That is, until I finally tried The Quietest Class Pencil Sharpener. I had one shipped to me and it arrived very quickly. It comes with a clamp that you can use to attach it to a table or shelf, but I had to see how it worked without that, since it claimed to work fine that way. Well, hold on to your hats and glasses, because this sharpener does everything it claims to do! In fact, it knocked my socks off, or it would have if I didn't have shoes on! It sharpens easily and quickly. The point is VERY sharp and pointy. I had never seen a pencil that sharp! My fabulous Mama also ordered me two more of these babies, so my blue sharpener would have some company. So, the true test was if my little Firsties could use this on their own. Was it quiet? Yes. Would I settle for it being noisy if only my kids could sharpen their pencils? Yes! But, I didn't have to settle. It worked great and the kids LOVE it. In fact, they started to fight over sharpening pencils....They broke pencils ON PURPOSE just to get a chance to use the sharpener. So, I decided that whoever got their math warm-ups done first could sharpen pencils. Woo-hoo! You would have thought that I promised them money or candy, because there was a stampede of kids finishing warm-ups in record time. Now, it is a "Friday Surprise" choice, by popular demand! The kids can sharpen their pencils quietly and independently. Need proof? Check out one of my happy Firsties! This is his first time getting his hands on the sharpener and he is SO excited!

Isn't he adorable?!? Also, sharpening it was easy-peasy! Check out my other buddy who couldn't even wait to get his backpack off before getting his math warm-up done so he could sharpen the pencils. He LOVES the sharp point! LOL!

Corinna

Have a great week!
Corinna

Math Centers and a Thanksgiving Freebie!

What a week!  I was SO glad to see dismissal time roll around and my four-day weekend begin!  We have a non-paid "furlough" day attached to our Veteran's Day weekend.  Then, next week I have just 4 days to get in all of the last-minute assessments before doing report cards.  Maybe I over-think my grades, but I just want parents to know exactly how their child is doing and I want to know how best to help my struggling students. 

I finally have my math centers/math tubs going!  Yay!  They are allowing me to work with a small group of students that need extra help while they practice math in a fun, engaging way.  The first time the kids got to use them, they worked for AN HOUR without any problems!  I couldn't believe it!  Of course, by the time my centers were all prepared and ready to go, we only had about a week left of October.  But, the kids are ready to try out the November math centers next week.    Here is what I did for our Halloween Math Work Stations.  I made a chart listing the options, with a little screen shot of the games.   This allows my beginning readers to find the correct game more easily.

Does this format look familiar to you?
The district adopted Bridges a million years ago and the only part I liked was the Work Stations recording sheets.
 So, I made my own sheets with FUN math games made by great bloggers!!!

The kids have to play all of the games once, then after that they may revisit some favorite stations.  They have to keep track of which stations they've been to by coloring in a symbol on the sheet (pumpkins, Pilgrim hats, Christmas trees, etc...).  I staple the chart to the front of a pocket-folder.  When kids play a game that has a recording sheet, they put the sheet inside of the folder.  At the end of the week (or however long we use the math tubs), I staple the chart to all of the recording sheets so that I may do a quick check of how the kids did and parents can see what we're doing for math.  The kids are loving this and so am I!  I have to give some shout-outs to some of my favorite bloggers who have fabulous TpT items that I use for my work stations.  I LOVE Anna Brantley and all of her centers!  I used her "Fall is Here" and "Gobble, Gobble, Gobble" centers for our upcoming November math stations!  Her products are so good (I've already purchased her "Holly Jolly" and "Wnter Wonderland" centers)!   For my Halloween math stations, I used Leslie Hope's "Halloween Math Centers--BOO!"  Leslie is The Groovy Teacher blogger, so go and check her out.  She is one of my FAVORITES.  Her style is exactly how I'd want to make things, but I don't have to because she already did!  Teach With Laughter'shttp://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Teach-With-Laughter "Halloween Math {10 Work Stations}" is WONDERFUL!  The directions are so clear for the kids and they love the games!  I have a lot of her products on my wishlist.  I could go on and on, but I want to share a freebie with you!

Here is a quick and easy literacy center activity for November: Thanksgiving ABC Order Center!  Click on the picture to download it for yourself!  Let me know how you like it.  If you are a new follower, leave me your contact info so I can visit you, too!

 

Have a lovely week!

Corinna

Counting, Making Tens,and Tallying Freebie

One of my favorite bloggers, Leslie Hope at The Groovy Teacher, had a great Halloween counting activity that I used with my kids.  I had thought it would have been pretty easy, but I learned A LOT about who needs more help with counting.  It turned out to be an excellent informal assessment.  If you'd like to see her original post and idea, click HERE.  So, I decided we needed to do this activity again and Leslie generously gave me the OK to use her idea.  I made some Thanksgiving-themed counting activities that you can get HERE.



















Have a great week, Everybody!
Corinna