Free Bear Craftivity and Adorable Christmas Book

Happy December 1st!  Are you ready for the" busy season"?   If you are already running wild, take a minute, put your feet up, have a cup of hot chocolate, and enjoy a good book.  You deserve it! 

I just love the book Bear Stays Up for Christmas by Karma Wilson.  It's such a sweet story about friends sharing with friends.  If this isn't a part of your December reading list, you may want to consider adding it. 

By now you know me and know how much I love creating craftivity packets!  So I just had to created a cute little craftivity and some fun follow up activities to go with this sweet book.  This little packet has a writing prompt, label it activity, match rhyming word activity, A B C order activity, a really fun no-bake bear paws food activity, and of course the pattern and directions for making the bear.  I would love for all my friends and followers to have this for free.  Just click on the packet cover below and download it. If you are not a follower (but like my blog or my freebie) I'd love to have you join my blog but of course there is no obligation or strings attached to the freebie.  If you like it, enjoy it!

Click here

Granny (Cindy)

  

Mrs. Claus Takes a Vacation, Sale, and Give Away

Now that we are full on into the holiday season I just have to share this darling book with all of you.  Are you familiar with Mrs. Claus Takes A Vacation written by Linas Alsenas?

Mrs. Claus is tired of staying home all winter long.  She heads off on vacation leaving Santa home to do the Christmas chores.  Delightful pictures show her lounging at the beach, dancing at holiday festivals, lunching on sushi, and in general having a great time.  Meanwhile, (back at the ranch... or should I say North Pole) Santa is home baking cookies, decorating the house, and trimming the tree.  This darling story has a lovely and heartwarming ending.  This is a great book to add to your holiday collection.

Here is a little freebie with some gingerbread graphing and practice with ordinal numbers.  I just figured if Santa could have some fun with gingerbread cookies, so can our kiddos!

Click here to download

Don't forget to hop over to Learning with Mrs. Leeby.  She is celebrating her 100 followers with a great give away.  If you haven't had a chance to visit her darling new blog... now is the time.  Just click on the button and head over for your chance to win some great prizes. 

One last "don't forget"... TpT is hosting a Cyber Monday and Tuesday sale.  Almost all my products (including some really fun new winter craftivities) are on sale for up to 28% off.  Just click below.  

 Thanks to Ashley Hughes for this really cute button!

Have a great week,

Granny (Cindy)

Give Away Winner and Free Reindeer Craftivity Pack

Thank you, thank you, to all those that entered our Thanksgiving Thank You - Gift Card Give Away.  We really appreciate all our followers.  We are humbled, we are grateful, and we are thrilled to be connected to you and your dedication to teaching.

The winner of the Gift Card Give Away is: Jennifer K from Herding Kats in Kindergarten.  Congratulations, Jennifer! 

I personally love it when everyone wins something, so....  I am giving all my followers a free Reindeer Craftivity.  This little guy is really fun to make and will be free to all my blog and TpT followers from Monday 11/18 - Tuesday 11/19, so be sure to hop right over and grab this cute little freebie. 

This is a 32 page packet that contains:

• book suggestions
• 5 writing prompts
• 2 Read the Room math games
• 10 squares pages (2 pages)
• 2 mystery picture math activities
• patterns and directions for the craftivity.  

Just click on the image below and you will be directed to my TpT store where you can down load it for free for the next 24 hours. If you download it, I would LOVE it if you would also take a minute to review it.  

Have a WONDERFUL Thanksgiving.
Granny (Cindy)

Shout Out to New Bloggers

It seems that there are new blogs popping up everyday, and aren't we lucky!  More enthusiastic teachers, more new ideas, more collaboration across the internet.  Here are some blogs you may want to check out:

1st:  Lisa at The Lower Elementary Cottage is sponsoring her 100 Followers Give Away.  You don't want to miss it.  She has some great prizes.

2nd:  You really do want to check out Learning With Mrs. Leeby.  She is sponsoring a fun little "the weather is frightful" learning packs give away.  Her blog is darling- as is she.

3rd:  Nikki at Love, Laughter, and Lesson Plans has a cute new blog and a darling turkey 10's freebie.

4th Sarah at Learning is for Super Stars has great blog (and gives away wonderful freebies) and don't you just love the name of her blog!

 

Have a great (short) week and do try to hop over to these new blogs and show a little love!

Granny (Cindy) 

P.S.  Don't forget to enter our Thanksgiving Gift Card Give Away!  You don't want to miss the chance to win $100.00 in gift cards to really fun places. 

Thanksgiving Gift Cards Give-Away- $100.00 in Gift Cards

Thanksgiving is a great time to show appreciation to everyone in our lives that support us. Sooooo... four of my blogger friends and I decided to sponsor a "Thanksgiving Thank You- Gift Card Give Away"  

We will each be sending the winner a $20.00 gift card.  After all, who couldn't use an extra $100.00 in gift cards for the holidays?

All you need to do is follow our blogs (2 entries per blog following), follow us in TpT (2 entries per TpT following,) and if you can blog about our give-away- 10 entries!  It's possible to earn  a total of 30 entries. Here is what the winner will receive:

Teresa at Fun in K-1 will be giving away a $20.00 Gift Card to Target. 

Cindy at Granny Goes to School will be giving away a $20.00 Gift Card to Old Navy.




Rikki at  The Hive will be giving away a $20.00 Gift Card to MAC Cosmetics.

Megan at Mrs. Wheeler's First Grade is giving away a $20.00 Gift Card to The Limited.
 

Ash at Pixy Stix and Teacher Tricks is giving away a $20.00 Gift Card to Target

 

a Rafflecopter giveaway Thanks!

Granny (Cindy)

Six Free Thanksgiving "Roll and Cover" Games

Just want to send you all a quick note to let you know that I'm offering Six Free Thanksgiving "Roll and Cover" games.  They turned out so dang cute that I just had to share them with all my friends and followers.  Head on over to my TpT store (just click on the image below) to get your copy.

Sure hope your kiddos enjoy the games.  I would love to have you follow me on TpT.  I upload freebies frequently.   

Don't forget, head back here on Saturday for the Thanksgiving Thank You ($100.00 in gift cards give away).

Granny (Cindy)

Eight "Read the Room" Math Games and a Big Raffle!

Don't you just love all the cute turkey craftivities, activities, lessons, math and reading stations, etc.? Everyone's blogs are looking so November-ish.

Well, I love "read the room" activities. I think the kids need that kind of movement and the activity seems to really add spark to math and reading center time.

I have created a 65 page packet with 8 "Read the Room" math games. Enough to keep your kiddos busy for the next month- easily!

The packet covers the following Common Core Standards: K.MD.3; K.OA.3; K.OA.4; K.OA.5; K.CC.5 1.NBT.1; 1.NBT.2; 1.NBT.5; 1.MD.4; 1.OA.2; 1OA.6

This fun math packet is designed for busy K-1s'. The packet contains 8 games that address 10 Common Core Standards:  Tally-A; Tally-B; Addition-A; Addition-B; Ten Squares; Count to 120;

Mental Math; and How Many?

Available at my TpT store.  Click on the image.

I'm just itching to give a few away. Leave a comment and I'll select 2 people (random drawing) on Friday and send the winners the packet.  Please remember to leave your email address.  
And the winners are Kate and Christine:

KWintuska November 7, 2012 6:58 PM

christine November 7, 2012 4:18 PM

 

 Also- you all JUST HAVE TO COME BACK ON Saturday.  Why, you are asking... 4 of my blogger friends and I are having a Thanksgiving Thank You Raffle for our followers.  The five of us are each giving away a fun $20.00 gift certificate.  That's $100.00 in gift certificates, just in time for the holidays.

So leave a comment for the Turkey Tally Packet and come back on Saturday and enter to win $100.00 in gift certificates.

Have a great rest of the week.
Granny (Cindy)

The Unclipped Classroom

When I saw this Linky Party I just had to jump in.  I have never used behavior charts for a number of reasons.

First, I think all children REALLY try hard (most of the time) to do the best they can.  It's just a much easier task for some children as opposed to others.

Second, no matter how we slice it, the charts are visible to all.  The "good kids" get to be (and stay)  labeled as "good kids".  The children that find sitting still, raising their hands, and in general controlling the "ants in their pants" get labeled as "naughty kids".  Everyone knows... yikes!

Third, charts don't really honor improvement in a way that is lasting and reinforcing.  I think it's so important to honor effort, even when it just lasts for a moment or two.

Fourth,  For the most part, I don't think the acting-out child is even aware of his/her behavior.  I think students get too excited, frustrated, antsy, etc. to even be aware of their behavior and the effects on others. 

Over the years I found that quietly making children aware of their behavior (without the judgement) was pretty effective.

Simple statements like,

"I'm noticing that you are chatting with Sally.  I bet that's making it hard for her to do her work."

"I'm noticing that you raised your hand all morning when you wanted to talk.  I bet this is someting you are really thinking about today."

Anyway- you get the point.

I also had "I noticed"  cards that I made sure each child got at least once a month. I used the cards for positive "I noticed" statements only.   Actually, I kept a chart to be sure that I sent a positive "I noticed" card home each month for each child.  This allowed me to acknowledge each child's efforts and to share the acknowledgements with the child's parents.  It kept us all in the loop and all honoring effort. 

I have a number of card styles and a monthly tracking chart for anyone who would like them.  Just click
here to download.

Have a great week,
Granny (Cindy)

Turkey Time and Freebie

Halloween is over and here we are catapulted headlong into the holiday season. Thanksgiving is around the corner and then on to Christmas and New Years! Wow, does time fly.

In preparation for the Thanksgiving fun ahead I created this cute little Turkey Craftivity and Math and Literacy Activities.These little guys are really fun and SUPER easy to make. You can find it in my TpT store.

Here is a Thanksgiving Pie graph activity from the packet. Click here to download this freebie.

Have a great weekend and welcome to the holiday season.

Granny (Cindy)