Turkeys, elves and a little shopping surprise!

Wow!  When I thought I would have to take a small break from blogging, I never thought it would be this long.  I truly underestimated the amount of crazy that would be going on at school.  Not only did my school merge with another school, we had to split our campus so I moved to a new building AND I have a class of the most energetic (read wired), diverse (read no two kiddos at the same level) and chatty group of THIRTY!!!! that I've ever had.  Add to that several new initiatives and a mid year move to our (finally!!) permanent building, and my life has been nothing short of an endless running game.  I've been first week of school tired since July.

Anywho...I'm back and I am trying to learn to rebalance life again.  I just wanted to update you on all the goings on with my Eaglets, give you a long overdue freebie and let you in on a little secret.

Last week was all about the turkeys.  Because we had a two day week, I felt justified to "gloss" over the recommended curriculum and have some fun learning.  In Math we concentrated on patterning.  On Monday we made these adorable paper plate turkeys, creating a pattern around the rim to act as feathers.  Here are a couple of my favorites!

              

On Tuesday, we made Native American headbands.  After learning about how Native Americans used symbols on a lot of their attire, my students created a pattern that represented things about them, then added some feathers.  Here's the finished project!

In ELA, we focused on retelling the story.  After using Fran Kramer's retelling cards for the story of the first Thanksgiving( I forgot to snap a picture, but click here to get a set for yourself!), we used Marsha McGuire's emergent reader and made a retelling bracelet (a HUGE!! hit) to go with it.

We also worked on making a good prediction with the story A Turkey For Thanksgiving.  Do you know this story?  If not, it is a perfect book for this time of year, and for making predictions.  Click on the picture to go to Amazon to snag a copy for yourself!!

Here are some of our natural predictions that made me smile and laugh out loud!

The turkey got cut up for Thanksgiving.

He got dead.

(I actually laughed so hard I snorted!)

With my little angels this year and all the craziness the month of December seems to bring,  I know I'm going to need to pull out all the tricks I have in my tool bag to help with behavior. The problem is, I've used most of them already!  So time to call in reinforcements!

Meet Hermie!

Last year I used a little stuffed elf I'd made in my college days and most of my kids fell hook, line and sinker for it.  This year, I knew I'd need him again, but I can't find him!  So off to Target I went to buy the book and the elf.  I even snagged one for Little Miss at home.  Check back to see what mischief Hermie stirs up.

I'm going to try to milk every educational opportunity I can from it, so we are going to journal as often as possible.  I created a elf journal for my kiddos and want to share it with you.  Click on Hermie to download it!

And now for the surprise....

Several of my Kinderland friends and I are giving you an extra day of shopping!  Why not do a little Black Friday shopping for yourself?  Today only, my entire store is 20% off!

Then check back Monday and Tuesday for the Cyber Monday and Tuesday sale.  My store will be 20% off and if you use the code "CYBER" at checkout, you'll receive an additional 10% off!!  Buy a little now, get some credits after doing your feedback, then shop again on Monday and Tuesday.

I had a creative spurt the other day and created 3 new products!

I'm off to fill my cart as well.  Happy Shopping!