Thankful Hearts

Happy Thanksgiving break, my teaching peeps!  We made it through November and we are running head first into ALL THINGS CHRISTMAS!  I love this time of year with my kiddos!

Let me recap a bit about my very favorite November activities.  We have started a little tradition in first grade at our school.  Every year our kids work for a good two weeks on a huge writing piece called "Thankful Hearts".  They have to choose a person, place, and thing they are thankful for and write about them, giving three supporting details for each one.  It's a lot of work getting all of the kids through the entire writing process before Thanksgiving break, especially with the amount of sick kids we have had recently!  Totally worth it though- they come out SO CUTE!  We have an author's celebration the day before the break and parents come to hear the kiddos read their writing.  They are so proud of themselves!  Afterwards we have some cookies and juice to celebrate.

My own little sweetie is a first grader this year, so I can show you a few pics of her work: 

Here is her "Thesis Statement"- She is thankful for her sister, her school, and her zebra blankie (in the picture).

This is what she wrote about the place she is thankful for- our school!

She loves the food.  Bless.

These little books make great keepsakes, and I know I will be keeping this one forever!  After our Author's Celebration we watch Charlie Brown's Thanksgiving and make our turkey hats.  I have made these hats every year for 13 years and I have no idea where the pattern came from, but we trace these bad boys by HAND for each kid.  That's love ya'll.

The waddle is the best part!

So, what's coming up for December?  Christmas around the world, Reindeer, and a SALE!

Have you heard about the TPT sale going on net week?  I'm so excited!  I know I have some things stockpiled in my wish list that I have been eyeballing for a while now...it looks like it's time to move them to my cart!

I just finished my December problem solving pack if you are looking for some great math activities for the next month!  My kids do these in pairs during guided math rotations, but you could easily do them whole group or independently.  I have two levels for each problems- one that uses numbers from 1-20 and another that goes up to 50.  Challenge those high flyers people, or they will be bouncing off the walls for the next three weeks!

Here is an example of the easier problem: 

And here is the harder one:

Click here to head on over to my store and check it out!