Addition Math Boxes (Freebie)

A quick post...which I meant to do last night (but I ended up waiting in the urgent care  waiting room for the whole evening instead).  Oy... today was much better.

This week, I'm celebrating all of you with 5 freebies!  This is #3.  If you missed the others, please head back to my 2 previous posts if you'd like to download the 1st two.

Today was kind of a stressful day at the office if ya know what I mean.  Actually, it's been a bit much all week.  I have a really nice class.  If I could just hide in my room with my kids (and avoid the hallway drama, the curriculum disasters and the doom that is lurking in our state government), life would be so much less stressful.

So, I'll end with three simple things that I'm thankful for (just in case any of you had a similar week).

1.  I'm thankful for kids that have good manners (my students have  great manners - really).

2. I'm thankful for the mom who stopped me in the hallway today to tell me that her daughter hated reading until she met me. (The little girl was in my reading intervention program 3 years ago.)

3. I'm thankful for my next door teacher neighbor (and friend).  She smiles when I barge through our secret door (which connects our classrooms) to tell her something not very important about every 20 minutes throughout the day.  And...she shares recess duty with me.  It is so nice to have a friendly neighbor on the other side of our secret door. Love ya, Jenny!

Yippee!  It's almost Friday!!!

Funky Fun Freebie #2 (List Making Writing)

Thanks for helping me celebrate!  This post contains freebie #2 for this week...so if you missed #1 yesterday you should could go back and grab it.

During writer's workshop, I've been talking about the things that good writers do to help organize their ideas.  We did a mini-lesson this week about list making.  I started by showing them my special pink notebook.  It's really just an lined journal with a pink leather cover that holds my precious "to do" list.  I love to put little check marks by each of the things on my list.

I also read the book, Everything to Spend the Night  by Ann Whitford Paul.  It's about a little girl who takes "everything from A to Z" to her grandpa's house for a sleepover - but she forgets her pajamas. 

I wanted my students to practice making a list about a specific topic.  I modeled "everything to bake cookies" first. 

Then I had my students write a list about "everything to make hot chocolate".  They brainstormed ideas with a partner first (just in case someone has not had hot chocolate before).  Then we shared our ideas with the group in a circle before each child worked on his/her own list.  They were super excited to work on this project. They will be using the lists they made today to help them get started on their how to writing project tomorrow.

What my students don't know yet is that we will be having a hot chocolate and candy cane publishing party in two weeks!

You can click on the image below to download a copy of a few winter themed list writing pages.   

I'm off to drop my daughter off at dance class, walk the dogs and bake cookies!

I love cookies and comments! :) 

1500 Hooray! (5 Funky Fun Freebies)

I'm ALMOST to 1500 followers! I have not been posting as much as I want to this year, but I'm doing my best to post a couple times a week. I still remember when my goal was 15 followers. How funny is that!? That was back in the day when I could barely attach a document to my post, I had no Funky First Grade Fun facebook page and I had never heard of Tpt or Pinterest. My how things have changed in just a few years! 

 I owe a huge thank you to all of you! Thank you for following my blog. Thank you for liking my facebook page. Thank you for following my Tpt store. Thank you for making my Teachers Notebook shop one of your favorites. Thank you for pinning my ideas/products. Thank you for all of your purchases. And...thank you for the super nice comments that always make me smile!  I feel so lucky to have made so many new teacher friends.  I'm inspired each day when I read all of the blogs I follow.

Now, on to the celebration!

Here is the first freebie of the week.  You can click on the image below to download a copy.  If you do, please leave a comment to let me know you grabbed it. 

And please...someone send a friend so I really can get to 1500!  

Coming throughout the week...the other freebies.  Hope to see you back here soon.  Thank you for following my little old blog!  

Happy Monday (it's almost over so that seems ok to say now)!

December Currently

It's time for Farley's December version of Currently!

Head over to visit Farley so you can read/link up/share some love by leaving a comment for other bloggers.
Happy Monday!
 

Jolly Moose Short Vowel Sort

Hot off the press... I just added my Jolly Moose Short Vowel Sort to my Tpt store and my Teachers Notebook shop.

Here are two other things that I added within the last week or so.

I have plenty of other non-holiday related items 

and the good news is that everything is on sale right now.

Merry Monkey Digraph Sort (sale!)

In between visiting family and shopping online (the only way I can handle shopping when the stores are so crowded)...I added another new item to my Tpt store and my Teachers Notebook shop. 

 You might like this if you'll be working on digraphs (or reviewing digraphs) in the next month or so. The regular price is $1.50, so with all the sales going on you can get it for much less in the next couple days. You can click on the image below to check it out.

I also loaded a set of holiday themed making words activities last week. This set is regularly priced at $2.00. It's also on sale right now (along with all of the products in both of my stores).

Now about those sales...

In addition to the 20% off that I am offering... 
Teachers Notebook is offering an additional 10% off from Saturday (11/24) - Monday (11/26). 
Tpt is offering an additional 10% off from Monday (11/26) - Tuesday (11/27). 

 My virtual shopping cart is loaded already. But, I'm pretty sure I can fit a little more in. Oh, happy day!
 

Making Words (and Sale Announcement)

19 parent conferences down, 6 more to go!  I think I can.  I think I can.


 Two quick things before I head off for round 2. I just posted a Holiday Making Words pack on Tpt and at Teachers Notebook. My kids love trying to make as many little words as they can out of a bigger word. So, I created a holiday pack with several different versions. We will be using these in our working with words center (and sometimes for morning work) during the next several weeks. You can click on the preview below to check it out.

Have a I confessed that I don't know how to cook? Now, my secret is out. I have a chef husband who is a fabulous cook. So, the only thing I could think of to do (while everyone else is cooking to prepare for Thanksgiving) is to throw a SALE!

 I appreciate all of you so much. Here are the details...

Ding, ding, ding... ROUND 2 (parent conferences)!

 I CAN DO THIS!