What I Did Today & Student Gifts

Today I spent a good portion of the day in the hospital surgery waiting room with my Dad and Sister... We were waiting for Mom to get her brand new hip.  It had been exactly 3 months 5 days since I had sat in that same waiting room, while she was going in for #1.  I'm happy for her - thrilled for her - but it was still nerve wracking waiting... and waiting... hoping/praying/wishing for news.  Every time she goes in for a surgery - there have been a lot with her heart issues - there have been complications.  This time around (totally thanking God for it) there were none AND they started her on Physical Therapy this afternoon.  At this point she should be home in 3 or 4 days.  :)    

My dad and sister

While at the hospital I brought school stuff to keep me occupied.  My sister drove, and I worked on stuff in the car... writing 32 Christmas cards out for my students.  In the past couple of years I have just clicked print to write them a note, this year I wanted to make it a little more personalized for them.  I bought cards after Christmas last year when they were super cheap (75% off) and have stored them.  At the hospital, I turned around on the bench, and used the window sill to write them out.  

I got really into alliterations when writing - a fantastic fun filled family vacation...  I also had to include a note about seeing them next year...  :)  I still remember my 4th grade teacher telling us that we wouldn't have any more homework for the remainder of the year (it was at Christmas time) - I got really excited for a moment, and then realized she wasn't talking about the school year...

As for my student gifts this year, well the other night I brought my big box of stuff to my parents for our big family dinner.  Mom was a teacher for 37 years before she retired, so I can still talk her into helping with the assembly line.  You might have seen it over on IG.

What's included this year:

Frindle book - got it for $1 back in September

Packet Instant Hot Chocolate Mix

Multiplication Fact Pencil (used bonus points)

Silly eraser (Dollar Store)

Applebee's Super Reader (free kid's meal) - these were a donation from the restaurant.

Hope this gives you some ideas!  

Linking up with 3rd Grade Thoughts linky party!  

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Grade Level Team Gifts

Had to share what I posted last night on FB.  

I know, I know - the second post of the day - it's okay, really!  Just breathe!

I love personalized presents and wanted to do something special for my 

grade level team since we have all had QUITE THE YEAR with our darlings. 

A T-shirt was out of the question since we would never wear it to school, a mug was out of the question since we really don't need anymore mugs... or else we would feel the need to hide it.

So, I found these medals over at Oriental Trading Company.  

There are many styles to choose from on the front, but the back is completely customizable.  

The front of ours will say "Victory", and the back is what is shown above.

I had 3 lines, but I just couldn't bring myself to add anything more to it.

I'm understated like that. 

Totally worth the $4.25 each. 

Hope you are having a great day!!

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Gift Giving - Office and Team Gifts

I need to make Christmas school gift giving affordable and I am SICK of baking cookies.  Probably because I baked and baked as I stuck cookies into oven mitts for my parent helpers.
So, since I tend to have a weird sense of humor - (I get a kick out of puns) - I am handing these little things out tomorrow morning.  I seriously doubt that my coworkers are going to be checking the blog between now and then, so I think I'm safe in posting.  :)

"Have a very berry Christmas" - These are reusable tote bags that tie up into a little strawberry shape.  I love my Amazon finds, especially when they are adorable.  They were about $1 with free shipping a couple of weeks back.  Just a little something for my teammates to help haul out the goodies tomorrow.    

"Orange you glad it's Friday, December 14th?" - These notes are tied onto personal size orange soda.  They are for the office staff.  A 6 pack of soda was about $3 tonight at the store.  
Last year, I did these for the office staff, so now I have to keep going on the puns... "We wisk you a Merry Kiss-mass"(This isn't my picture, that was before I started blogging and I wasn't thinking pictures, but I did make mine look exactly like this, found everything at the dollar store.)

Click to go to the original website

I know this was a double post, but maybe you specifically avoided my owl pellet dissection pictures from earlier this evening.  :)  I wouldn't blame you at all... I cringed while opening up the package too!  

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Parent Helper Gifts

I decided to make up my parent gifts today.  Well, I guess I really didn't have a choice since for the rest of the week I will be seeing my helpers one more time before vacation.  What I'm giving them this year is an oven mitt with homemade cookies (Ricotta), and a note that says "Thank you for lending a helping hand..."  Get it?  Yeah, I'm bad with puns.

Here is the link to download through Google Docs. 
Hope it helps!  

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Traditions Book (Writing)

This time of year I really start thinking of traditions.  I personally love them.  I love the special routines surrounding a certain holiday. So, the time between Thanksgiving vacation and Winter break I have my students create a book that includes all their special family traditions.  
Last year I had the idiotic idea of trying to have them do the entire book in a 2 day span to be able to submit it to Student Treasures on time for our publishing date.  

click to go to their website

Student Treasures is a company that publishes student work into their own hardback book.  It's a free service, they just include a note that asks parents if they want to order additional copies.  They were beautiful when they came back and we wrapped them up in Christmas wrap as a gift for their parents.  But it was absolutely nuts of the hours upon hours of creating rough drafts and final drafts for those days, plus then hauling it to UPS to be able to mail it off.... nervously waiting if it would be delivered in time.
So I'm going back to my normal routine this year, and saving the Student Treasures hardback books for a later date - perhaps an end of year memory book?   
Anyhow, below is the breakdown of the book.  The students are writing one page per day about their traditions.They create a rough draft, edit, and do a final draft on just plain lined paper (copy paper with lines printed on it) that they then illustrate with their family traditions.  I start with Thanksgiving since it's fresh in their minds.   Pages
New Year's Eve and Day
Valentines Day
St. Patrick's Day
Easter
Mother's Day and Father's Day
4th of July
Halloween
Thanksgiving
Christmas and Hanukkah
Birthdays
So, 10 pages in total.  When they are done with everything inside their book, they will create their own personal cover and a dedication page to their families (with their cute little cum picture on it).  Then I stick everything into 6 sheet protectors (back to back pages) and use red & white ribbon through the holes to call it a day.  Their own little personal books to give as a gift.
I'll take a picture when it's done for this year.  :)  
Hope you had a great day!  

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Day after Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving was a success.  Family time, thankful time, eating time... it was all good.  I was in a little food coma when we headed home at 6 pm... had to head home to let the dog out or else a little nap would have been perfect.  Then the fun of online shopping really started.  Picked up some good deals at JcPenny, Target, and Amazon.  Not as many as last year, but that's okay - I don't need to spend a lot to still have that satisfaction of getting a good deal.  I think we are basically done with shopping.  That's a good thing, right?  
Now it's today, and I just feel old.  Friends went out last night and were up all night hitting the stores, and instead I got my beauty sleep.  I can barely make it past midnight most nights... oh well!  Every year I say that I will go out, and then I don't.  I think that perhaps I need to face reality that I'm not an all-nighter type of girl.
The tradition of Black Friday in our house is a PJ day and pulling out the Christmas decorations.  The Christmas music will go on in a bit, and somehow everything will be transformed into Christmas.  I've already moved a toy collection thing upstairs to one of the boys' rooms to make room for where the Christmas tree will be placed.  
Over this vacation I've also been spending a bit of time on Pinterest.  Here are some of my favorite Christmas pins on my Christmas board and my Winter board.  Then I have a Gift board that might help you as well.  
At this moment in time, I'm considering having my students either do this activity    

Click to take you to Pinterest

or

I had my class make the trivets for Mother's Day last year.  They were nice and inexpensive (16 cents each).  If you click the trivet picture it will take you to my home blog where I walked through the steps.  
Happy Friday!    

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Christmas Bookmarks (Freebie)

Here is a freebie for you!  During this week of vacation I am creating a little gift for my students for Christmas.  I ordered a class set of books from Scholastic during that huge bonus point sale at the beginning of the year.  They are all getting the book My Life as a Book.
I wanted to make them a new bookmark since they are still using the ones that I gave them on the first day of school.

With these bookmarks I am laminating/hole punching them and using yarn on top to attach one of these cute little ornaments.

  

The tiny ornaments are from Target's Dollar Spot (16 per pack).  I will also give them a packet of hot chocolate mix and then will stick everything into a brown paper bag.  

Click the bookmark picture to take you to Google Docs.

Click above to take you to the other freebies over at Classroom Freebies!
Hope this helps someone!

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My Halloween Treat for the Kiddos

It feels great to get something accomplished.  
I found these Halloween treats over at Ladybug's Teacher Files.  Kristen had them for a free download - which I truly appreciate.  I was a little nervous about using so much color, but there are 5 per page.  Her picture is much better than mine - just saw the marker spots on my kitchen table in the background.
Michael's (craft store) had packs of 15 glow bracelets for only a dollar, which when I was able to use my teacher ID discount became even cheaper.  I ended up grabbing up 8 packages since I didn't know how many casualties I would have.  Only snapped 3 of them as I was sticking the connectors to the bottom of the sticks before I taped them on.  I'm pretty proud of myself.  I love a good deal.  
I did exactly what Kristen did and added 3 bracelets for each little note.  Isn't the note adorable?!?  
"A bit of light for Halloween night!"
I'm sure my school kiddos will love their little treat!  My own boys are just glad that I have an extra whole package for them to use on Halloween night and for the sword fights they use them for in the dark laundry room.  
Hope you have a good day!

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My First Day Gift to Students

I'm making up my student gifts to give out on Monday morning.  I love the goldfish saying that other bloggers and Pinterest have been passing around.  Here is my document if you want to download.  It is 3 per page and the font is "Fish" - yeah, I thought it was appropriate.  I'm planning on laminating them because then it can turn into a bookmark... and you know how 4th graders love their bookmarks!  Attaching them to a snack size bag of goldfish crackers, and I'll be good to go without giving out candy!

*Updated:  I still don't understand the complex workings of Google Docs - and why the font changed when I uploaded it.  Here is the same document lined up with Garamond font.  I checked it and it worked.  Sorry about that!

Hope you have a great weekend!   

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