New Year's Resolutions, Linky Party

A friend of mine described this vacation time as "defrosting."  I'd say that's pretty accurate for me.  After the hectic Christmas rush, with working up to and including the 23rd, then driving 190 miles to be with family for Christmas, followed by the return drive, well, I was beat.  So on Tuesday, my first really free day, I was defrosting.  In other words, doing nothing.  Yeah!

As I defrosted, I thought of my New Year's Resolutions and then found A Teacher's Treasure's Linky Party.  It's time to jump into the fun!

New Year's Resolutions

Personal

• To become a Weight Watchers Lifetime member.  I have about 10 more pounds to go, having already let go of 40.
• To clean out another of my flower gardens this spring
• To continue touring the night sky while the leaves are down and I can see it from my home in the woods

Professional

• To differentiate more, always something that is both necessary and beneficial, but not that easy to achieve
• To finish reading What Really Matters in Spelling by Patricia Cunningham.  I'm a big Cunningham fan.  This book is filled with research based instructional strategies that I can easily incorporate in my classroom.
• To continue blogging, a great professional development activity!

What are your New Year's Resolutions?  Link up at A Teacher's Treasure and join in the fun!

Happy 2012!

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Currently December

It's time to link up with Farley at Oh Boy Fourth Grade for the December Currently Linky Party.  Been waiting for this!  Head over there to check out everyone's Currently.  Here's mine:

I might give myself a special Christmas gift this year, a ticket to Blogging 101 at Virtual Teaching Expo.  I'm very curious.  What fun!

When I last checked, there were 60 bloggers linked up for the December Currently.  That could take care of an hour or two of solid browsing.  Go on, have a look-see.
 
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Holiday Card Exchange

One of the activities that I really love to do with my class at this time of the year is Jen Wagner's Holiday Card Exchange.  I signed up for the project in mid November, and received my group list soon after that.  Each class that registers for the project is placed in a grouping of classes from around the country.  This year there were over 1000 classes participating!

We brainstormed ideas for what to include inside the card, what we would like to tell a class of students from a different state.  Then we made 29 snowman cards and mailed them out, eagerly anticipating the cards we would receive from those classes.

Check out my class website to see pictures of our cards.

Here's our bulletin board filled with received cards.

My daughter, who teaches 4/5th grade in a different district, also participates in this project and she asked her parents to donate stamps for the mailings.  Smart girl!  It does help with the mailing costs.

If you are interested for next year, just bookmark Projects by Jen and watch for the sign-up date.  In the meantime, there might be another project there that you'd like to try.


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Holiday Fun Writing Freebie!

Ok, so I've been reading that a lot of you are now OUT for Christmas vacation.  How nice!  However, I'm sure that there must be many of us who will still be teaching through next week.  In my district, we are in session right up to and including Dec. 23.  So here's a little freebie to help get us all get through the week.  It's a writing project that I call Holiday Fun.  Just click below to download.

To assemble the booklet, just print out the pages, then cut each page in half horizontally.  Staple together to make a 5 1/2 by 8 1/2 booklet. There will be 7 pages in all, including the title page.

To introduce Holiday Fun, I usually read a book like Christmas Is... by Gail Gibbons, which leads to a discussion about the sights, sounds and smells of the season.  Enjoy!

Happy Holidays!

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Liebster and a Cuppa!

Last week, as I was inundated with two nights of parent conferences, Barbara at Grade ONEderful passed the Liebster Award to my blog!  It couldn't have come at a better time.  Thank you, Barbara!

This award brings recognition to blogs with under 200 followers and it is a way to support and encourage new bloggers.  Once received it needs to be passed on to five up-and-coming blogs.  I hope you stop in to visit these outstanding blogs.

A Day in First Grade

Marvelous Mulitagers!

Love, Laugh, and Learn

Taming My Flock of Firsties

Ed Link - First Grade

Now grab your CUPPA and head on over to check them out!

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Giveaway!

Barbara at Grade ONEderful is hosting a giveaway which ends on Sunday.  The winner will receive a $25 gift card to Amazon or Starbucks, so head on over to check it out.  Her incredible blog is always filled with great ideas and freebies.

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