Happy New Year!

Graphics and/or fonts copyright Dianne J. Hook

I just love the saying above...Bring it on 2013!! 

I hope everyone has a wonderful, happy, and blessed year! I am looking forward to seeing what 2013 has in store for me!

I spent my morning prepping my new Penguin Unit.  I go back to school on Monday and will be starting this as soon as I go back! Here is a little peak of some of our activities ...

We have been practicing and practicing addition and subtraction...

I am also going to have the children hunt around the room for these penguin cards. They will count the penguins and count the fish to create an addition sentence...

Lots of letter activities!! In this one they will match the letter with the beginning sound picture

They are continuing to work on beginning and ending sounds. 

and much, much, more! We have a jam packed 2 weeks of Penguins! I really wish I could stretch the unit out to be a little longer! But, we are starting a 2 week Bear Unit when we are finished :)

All of the above activities can be found in my new Penguin Unit on TPT. 

And to start off the New Year right, everything in my store is 20% off today! 

Don't forget to grab one of my newly revised freebies while you are on TPT! You can find the Winter CVC Fun! game in my store or by clicking on the image below...

Enjoy!!

Penguins and January Word Work Words!

I have been LOVING winter break! I had a wonderful Christmas with my family and now I have been relaxing up in the mountains of North Carolina! I am a total fan of cold weather (maybe because I don't live in it...I'm not sure), but I have been so happy up here!!

Here is some of my family that is up here. Two of my sisters weren't able to come :( One has work and the other will be going into labor any day now!! I will be an Aunt for the first time!!

I also just finished my penguin unit! This one took me awhile, but I am so excited about it! Here is a preview of some of the items included...

I will leave the unit on sale until Monday!! I hope ya'll enjoy it as much as me!!

I also finished up my January Word Work Cards! Just click on the picture below, re-download the cards, and the January words will be on the last page!! 

Enjoy!!

Elf Update!

We have been having a blast with Snow, our elf!! The children really look forward to seeing her everyday and she definitely is great to have around to help me out with behavior!!

Last Tuesday Snow was fishing for some gold fish...

On Wednesday we had our first field trip of the year. We went to see a wonderful play. Snow left me some paper to write down a naughty and nice list ;)

But, unfortunately one of the students touched Snow! So on Thursday she was not feeling great! Luckily, Santa sent some magical recovery dust (I downloaded it HERE for free). The kids had a blast sprinkling the magic dust on her...

and it worked! Because Friday she was all better. But, we couldn't figure out why she was holding a marker?  

It took a while for someone to finally go to the bathroom and see this....

Snow was cheering us on for FIELD DAY!!! Woo-Hoo!!

After the weekend, we arrived to school and found this...

Eeks! I can't believe she saw a mouse!! haha ;) 

I hope your students have been enjoying their Elf as much as we have!! I just love ours!!!

Look Who's Here!! The Elf on the Shelf!

I am OBSESSED with the Elf on the Shelf! I just can't help it! I LOVE it!! I know a lot of people think he is creepy...I just don't see that haha ;)

This year I have a couple students in my class with special needs. I know a couple of them don't do well with change. So, on Thursday I wanted to make sure to give them a little 'heads up'. I told the students that I had written a letter to Santa asking him for an Elf to come to our classroom. I told them I wasn't sure if Santa was going to be able to send the Elf because there aren't enough for all the classrooms and homes. But, if we did get one then we are super lucky!! Of course they had a million questions and I answered them all...how tall is he? Why is he coming? Does he talk? Can he play with us? ....

On Friday the students ran in looking for the elf, but he wasn't there. I told them that I didn't think the mailman came yet, but maybe he wasn't coming.  Then, before school was out, a special package was delivered to our class! It was freezing (came right out of the freezer) because it was a speedy delivery straight from the North Pole!! The kids couldn't believe it!! They thought they were touching snow! (we are in Florida so any kind of frost can be considered 'snow'). We read the book and quickly gave our Elf a name...Snow!! Santa also delivered the Elf on the Shelf DVD so we watched it before we went home. The DVD is totally a MUST! It really explains the Elf and even shows Santa packaging the Elf in the box that they come in.

This morning the kids were so excited to come inside and see where Snow landed!

She was 'bored' over the weekend without us, so she decided to make us little Christmas and Hanukkah countdowns! 

I can't wait for the students to see where she lands tomorrow...this is such an exciting and fun way to get ready for the holidays!! 

I found some ideas for the Elf and have them on my Pinterest board HERE if you need any :)