Freebie: Santa, Santa, A 5 Senses Book about Christmas

We've only been back in school for 2 days since Thanksgiving break, but I already feel like I need another vacation :)  I hope it's not just me.

I wanted to share a 5 senses book called:  Santa, Santa.  It has repeating stanzas like in the book Polar bear, Polar Bear By Eric Carle.  Santa describes what he would see, hear, feel, smell, eat, and do during the Christmas season.

Here's what it looks like:

Click here to download this freebie

Check Out Freebielicious!  They are having a Linky Party!

12 Free Christmas Scrapbooking/Craft Digital Papers

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving weekend!  I've eaten a ton of food and need to work off all of those extra calories.    I'll be back at work tomorrow and the count down to Winter break begins! 

Now that the Christmas season is finally in full swing, I wanted to share a gift with you!  I've been learning how to use photoshop and created some Christmas digital papers for download.  The possibilities are endless with digital papers :)

Click here  to download

Let me know what you think?  If you like them please follow me on my blog!  

Check out freebielicious!  They are having a Fantastic Linky Party.  Tons of free stuff:

Thanksgiving Crafts & Activities for Kindergarten!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!  Every year around the month of November/December I feel completely exhausted and in need of a long vacation.  Thank goodness for Thanksgiving because it helps me to reflect on what God has blessed me with and it keeps me going until winter break.  This year I am thankful for my Husband because he encourages me everyday and pushes me towards being a better person.  I am the luckiest wife :)  Give me a comment and let me know what you are thankful for this year.


Here are some of the activities that we do in my class for Thanksgiving:

Thanksgiving book from kinderlit.com.  Here's what it looks like:

Front Cover

We also make a turkey made out of construction paper and a brown paper bag.  You can stuff the paper bag with rice or newspaper.  I also send home a recipe that families can make with their leftover turkey.  

Our class re-enacts the first Thanksgiving.  Students are given a choice of 3 characters:  Male Pilgrim,  Female Pilgrim, or Indian/Native American.  We then act out the story of the Pilgrims coming to America on the Mayflower, meeting the Native Americans, and enjoying the first Thanksgiving.  

They make headbands according to their character:

Male Pilgrim Headband:

Male Pilgrim hat instructions

Female Pilgrim Headband:

Pilgrim Bonnet Instructions

Indian/Native American  Headband

Indian Headband Instructions

Snack Ideas:

Mayflower snacks:

Beef Jerky

Crackers

Cheese

First Thanksgiving snacks:

Popcorn

pumpkin pie

pumpkin seeds

Cranberries

Kindergarten Veterans Day Lesson Plan

Happy Veterans Day!  I think it is very important to teach our kindergarteners about Veterans day because of the service, dedication and sacrifice our troops have done for us so we can enjoy the freedoms we have today.  Yesterday, I was flying back home from a trip and saw some men and women in military uniform.  It looked like they were returning home from their deployment.  I wanted so badly to go up to them to thank them for their service, but chickened out because I was too afraid.  Because I chickened out and didn't thank them in person, I thought I'd make it up to them by instilling a sense of thankfulness in my kindergarteners.

Here's what I did for Veteran's Day:

I showed my students my powerpoint about veteran's day. Here are samples of the slides.

CLICK HERE to get my Veterans Day Powerpoint.

CLICK HERE  to download this from my TPT store.  

We brainstormed some characteristics of a good soldier:

kind

helpful

protects us

brave

courageous

patriotic

strong

serve our country

hard worker

Then we integrated some writing and art to go along with our new understanding of Veterans day.

Materials needed:

White paper:  1 square for the shirt, 1 rectangle for the head, 1 rectangle for the hat.

Students cut them out to form the soldier.  

Click here to get my writing prompt.

I'd love to hear from you!  Let me know what you think!  How do you celebrate Veterans Day in your family or classroom?

Freebie: Who Let the Letters Out by Dr. Jean Picture Chart and Motions

I absolutely love Dr. Jean!  She has so many great ideas & songs that I use in my classroom.  Every morning our class sings:  Who Let the Letter's Out?  I've incorporated motions and a picture chart so kids can learn the letters & sounds kinesthetically.  My wigglers especially love doing the motions.

Click here to get this chart & suggestions for motions.  I use this chart as a resource in my student's homework folder so they can sing it at home.  If your school has a poster maker, you can also enlarge & laminate it.  

You can also follow Dr. Jean's Blog:  Click Here

I found this video on youtube to give you an example of how to use the chart above.  

 

Inconvenient Changes to Scholastic Book Club Prices Increases Ordering Time

So I recently put in my scholastic book club order for my class last month and it took me quite a while because of the recent changes to their prices.  Instead of pricing their books to the nearest dollar they have made them .99 cents.  It has added an additional 20 minutes to my ordering time and find this really inconvenient.  The change in prices have made it more difficult to make sure my order amount matches the money I've received from families.  I've also found myself having to give 1or 2 cent change.

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Here is the email I've sent them:

To: BC_RNT7@scholastic.com
Subject: Hello! I am a elementary teacher and support scholastic books. I noticed that th... [Email: 121020-000574]

Hello! I am a elementary teacher and support scholastic books. I noticed that this school year there have been changes in the prices of books. The prices of the books are no longer rounded up to the nearest dollar. Instead they are usually .99 cents. I've talked to many colleagues of mine and found that this change in dollar amount has increased our time to input student orders by at least 15-20 minutes because we also have booktrust to input as well. It makes it more difficult to balance the order with the parent payments and then do it on book trust. We also have to end up giving 2 cents change to parents which again adds more time to this task. It has discouraged some teachers in participating in scholastic book order and some are not willing to take the extra effort of their "own" volunteer time to do book orders anymore. I want to support students in their love for reading, but this change in prices really makes it more frustrating to teachers who have to take more time to do this task. What is the reason for the change in pricing? Would scholastic consider rounding up the book prices to the nearest dollar again?

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Here is their response:

Your recent communication regarding the change in Book Clubs pricing has been brought to my attention.  We’re very sorry you are disappointed the unrounded dollars and want you to know we have heard you! 

The change was made to have greater alignment with general consumer pricing which parents are accustomed to.  We wanted to make our prices as attractive as possible to encourage young people and their parents to get excited about the wonderful books we offer.  We are truly sorry that this has been an inconvenience for you.

I have shared your comments with Book Club management and marketing staffs and we are seriously looking into the matter.  I have also given you 150 bonus points to let you know how much we value your continued support of Scholastic Book Clubs and Book Clubs Ordering Online. Please do not hesitate to reach out to me if I can be of further assistance.

With best regards,

Linda Schenker
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Does anyone else have this problem?  If you do, leave me a comment and I will email them to scholastic book clubs or you can email them directly to Linda Schenker:  LSchenker@scholastic.com.  If more teachers speak up, maybe Scholastic will make a change to their prices since teachers are essential to their company's success.