Sight Word Practice Packs and a Giveaway!

Are your kiddos needing some practice with sight words?  Lord help...we know ours do!

So we created  sight word practice packs for the first 200 Fry words.  We have been using them since school started and have noticed a HUGE difference in our kiddo's writing.  They are almost always spelling sight words correctly now! Hallelujah!  (Don't even get me started on was though...I don't think ANYTHING will EVER help with that one!  It will forever be written by our kiddos as wuz!!! <sigh>)

So... our pack 2 is up for grabs in a super giveaway over at  Second Grade Nest!  Jessica has organized an awesome giveaway that includes 5 different prize packs with over 10 products in each set!  Lots of chances to win!

 Sight Word Journal and Practice Pack 2! 

 Great practice for the 2nd 100 Fry words!  

And if your kiddos aren't quite ready for the 2nd 200 Words, 

 you might be interested in our 1st 100  Sight Word and Journal Practice Pack!  

So...head on over to win our Sight Word Pack 2, plus many other wonderful goodies! (Our pack is in GIVEAWAY #3!)  Good luck!  We are keeping our fingers crossed for you!

Giveaway Winter Word Work, Post-Holiday Blues, and Which Laptop!

Hi Friends! Hope you had a great Christmas!

If you feel like us you have a little post holiday blues! Really... we shop, and plan, and wrap, and make everything perfect. Then... it's all over in the blink of an eye. Then to make things even worse, we have to take down all our beautiful decorations. :( It is so sad driving though the neighborhood after Christmas when all the beautiful lights are gone!

Well... check out my dining room decor!!! I keep it up year round! I know it's probably frowned upon and I'll be talked about, but I can't seem to take it down. Its my last bit of cheer that makes me smile :).

Also check our all our kiddos and their new toys!  What fun!

Well...on another note- it is about time for me to get a new laptop. Seriously... it... is... time! 

I have no g or h key on the laptop keyboard! Seriously!!

And the power cord slips loose all the time! Now I have duct tape (albeit...cute polka dot duct tape) taping the cord in a position so that the power will stay on. If I breathe wrong...or move- the power turns off. 

I have been reading articles about which is better a Mac or Dell. I need some input. Leave a comment and tell me which laptop will be best for all my needs including school stuff, pictures from home, and building packs for our store and we will randomly draw 2 names from the comments.

The winners get our Winter Word Work Literacy Stations and Centers Pack!  It's packed with 9+ stations perfect for your centers or word work time.  The stations include games, writing, morning work, and more!

Thanks for your help!

Too Funny!

I was blog hoppin' today in my jammies, with a hot cup of coffee... with a gargantuan amount of smidgen of Southern Pecan creamer in it (YUMMM!) and  I stumbled upon a new blog...Realistic Teacher!  

Oh... my goodness...I found one of her posts that had all kinds of things she found on Pinterest that particular week that she liked.  When I watched this video...I LITERALLY had tears streaming down my face from laughter!!!  I made the hubs watch, my kindergartener watch (just so he would KNOW!!!), and then I watched it about 2 more times! 

We ALL have days like this when it's just best to give up, call it a day, and have another go the next! :)

This video actually makes me miss my babies tons!  They are so fun when they are learning new things, and yes...we sometimes hit a wall like this...only it may end up with someone in tears (namely...me!).  But isn't this really why we LOVE teaching?  Some days it seems like an insurmountable task, so we just dig in our heels and go harder.  And when that moment of understanding hits....Ahhh (think angels singing)...the sky clears...the clouds part....the sun shines...birds sing...it's just BEAU-TI-FUL! 

 And that, my friends, is why we go through this!!! 

Enjoy your last few days of break!  

North Pole Ornament and More Baking!

 We are out for Christmas break!   WOOOOOOO-HOOOOOOOOO!  We love our jobs, but our pajamas have been missing us.  We plan on reuniting over the break and spending lots of time sleeping in, snuggling with the fam watching Christmas movies, and spending time with the rest of our crazy families.

We did not want to miss showing you the kid-made versions of the North Pole ornaments we posted about a week ago It's Beginning to look a LOT like Christmas! .  Their versions are just so much dang cuter.  Crazy candy cane stripes, glitter gone wild...they really put you in the mood for some fa-la-la-la-la-ing and dashing through the snow!

Page and Natalie also turned their "Hire Me Santa" Reindeer Writing into such a cute hall display that I couldn't help sharing it!  I LOVE the North Pole post Natalie made and the big silver snowflakes that showcase the kiddo's writing!

 And last, but not least, the BAKING continues!  I made 2 cheats and 2 REAL recipes.  Cheats= things that are store bought and I just dip and sprinkle to make the magic happen!  REAL=I had to actually mix, stir, add ingredients, and possibly involve the oven! :)

Goodie #1:  Keebler Grasshopper cookies 1/2 dipped in White Almond Bark and then sprinkled with crushed peppermints.  (These were a HUGE hit....and SOOOOOOO stinkin' easy!)

Goodie #2:  Snowflake Ritz crackers crammed full of peanut butter (which you can never have enough of in my addicted opinion!) and then dipped in the Almond Bark.

Goodie #3:  Toffee Bark:  This was a REAL recipe, but still easy to make!

Goodie #4:  Puppy Chow:  The food of the cereal Gods!  THIS is the way cereal is intended to be eaten!! :)

 We bought these little containers at our local hardware store.  They held all the goodies quite nicely.  We put the shiny silver lid on top, tied them up with some cute Christmas ribbon...and voila!  Goodies for our neighbors, teammates, kid's teachers, and office staff at school...and MAYBE a few "Fogle Treat Trays" got left behind at OUR house...purely on accident of course! ;)

 Merry Christmas friends!

Winter FREEBIE and Motion Madness

Well friends! Hope you had a fabulous week with your kiddos!!! It sure did fly by! We got lots of great goodies from our cutie pies!! Can't wait to shop, got out to eat and go to the movies! Loving some gift cards :).

Anyway, while making ornaments, learning holiday rhymes, and continuing with our word work, we still had time to incorporate our unit on Motion! The kiddos had a blast! We made a motion pack with instructions for introducing several vocabulary terms as well as station ideas with recording forms! Check out some of our pics of kids exploring motion! If you need a resource for motion, check out the link below the photos :).

Here is our FREEBIE Winter Vocabulary, I have, Who Has Game :).

Our Winter Word Work Pack will be ready soon, so be on the lookout!

Hope everyone has a great vacation!

Silence for Sandy Hook Elementary

It's Beginning to Look ALOT like Christmas!

Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way!  Oh...my...goodness...the Christmas merriment is EH-VUH-REE-WHERE!

We have been baking (see Cakes and Elves or Coooooookies!!!), decorating, partying with our K team, and making ornaments like we are in production for Hobby Lobby! ;) 

Seriously, I think our kiddos will be taking home 6 ornaments.  And they are darn cute...not the kind that you hide on the back of the tree...WAY down in the branches accidentally lose, but REALLY, REALLY cute ones!  I mean seriously cute!  Like you will actually be HAPPY to put them on your tree.  And they might even make it to the FRONT!

The key here is to find ornaments that they have a big part in creating, but that they can't really mess up too much!  You know...anything involving paint is probably gonna end up looking all jacked up and get left in the box when the ornaments get pulled out! ;)

So here are 5 of our top favorite ornaments to make.  They are ALL kid made (except the North Pole one...that's our example ornament because we haven't made them yet this year)...for real...no teacher fixin' them up, really, really done by the kids!

We have been making these ornaments for the last couple of years so we can't remember exactly where we got the ideas (some of these are PP...Pre-Pinterest...gasp...how did we EVEN survive then???).  We think we found some of them at Family Fun and others from some ideas we saw and tweaked or combined.  Anywho, we hope you find one that will work perfectly for your own little kiddos!

First up...the ice cream stick snowman! 

So cute and so easy!  Paint the ice cream sticks white (you can get a parent to volunter to do it, or you can have the kiddos do it if you are feeling brave enough!).  Then they glue on a hat (pre-cut by the teacher...that felt is a BIT ridiculous trying to cut!).  They tie a ribbon around for a scarf.  They usually can help each other out, but you may to give a little assistance with your tieing-challenged kiddos! They glue a piece of orange foam for the nose and hole-punched colored foam for the buttons.  Finally, they use a black Sharpie marker to draw eyes and a mouth.  Some of ours even added eyelashes to create a snowlady!  Cute!

 Next up, the glue snowman!

Draw the shape of the snowman that you want to use.  Then we cut out the paper and stick it inside of a zip-loc baggie.  Write the student's name on the baggie.  Then have them use glue to fill in the snowman shape right on top of the baggie.  Remind them that the glue will spread, so don't use too much!  While it's still fresh and wet, they drop on the items on their snowman.  They need to have a foam carrot nose, 3 foam hole-punched circles for buttons, 2 black hole-punched circles for eyes, a pre-cut (by the teacher) felt hat, and 2 small sticks ready to go before they spread the glue!  Then they just drop all of that on the glue snowman.  They can use a small wooden stick or popsicle stick to move anything around once it's on the snowman.  WARNING...if they use too much glue, the eyes/buttons/nose...will spread out when the glue runs and the snowman will look CUH-RAH-ZY...and probably end up on the BACK side of the Christmas tree!  Fair-warning!  So no coming back to the blog and saying your snowmen turned out all crazy! ;)

 

Now Dasher, and Dancer, and Prancer...Rudolph Ornaments

 Love, love, love these!  They are so stinkin' cute!  We have seen these on Pinterest this year, but I think we have done these for the last 2 years because we loved them as soon as we saw them!  We pre-cut the red and white circle and have those assembled.  The kiddos use a brown ink pad and stamp their thumbprint right smack in the middle.  Then they glue on a pre-cut red paper hole-punched paper circle.  They use fine tip markers to add the antlers, eyes, mouth, and bow.  Now matter WHAT kind of antlers or bow they create, it just turns out puh-re-cious!  Easy peasy!

This is a new one we found on Pinterest this year! - Another Rudolph Ornament

The kiddos put their thumb into gloss acrylic brown paint and made their thumbprint on the ornament.  The first ones we tried, the paint kept getting pulled off when the kiddos lifted their thumbs.  So we added a little cornstarch to the paint to thicken it up a bit and let it sit for about 10 minutes, and then it worked like a charm.  After the paint dried, they used Sharpie markers to add the eyes and antlers. Then a dab of glue, and a sprinkle of red glitter, and voila!  So cute and super easy!  Ours looks a bit different from the one we found at Little Bit Funky, but check hers out too!

Last, but not least, the North Pole sign!
  People..we are talking Santa's Workshop here! :)
Remember...this one is the teacher example.  The kiddos
will be making these cute puppies next week!

 You need to pre-cut the North Pole signs and holly leaves from green foam.  The kids can hole-punch the 3 berries from red foam or card stock.  (card stock is a little easier to punch!)  Then you can get the kids to paint their own stick or have them pre-painted by a volunteer.  Then the kiddos use Sharpie markers to write "North Pole" on the sign.  They use red paint pens to draw their candy cane stripes.  They can do this ANY way they want.  Some draw the lines straight across.  Some draw them diagonally.  Others make a fat line and then a skinny line and make a candy cane pattern.  We don't care...cause they ALL turn out way cute!  Then they use tacky glue to attach the sign, holly, and berries.  For the finishing touch, we call them over one at a time and put some hot glue on top of the North Pole sign and we let them sprinkle silver or "snow" glitter to jazz this baby up.  Unfortunately, or little sign has lost it's glitter after several years of cramming it in our Christmas box!  The kiddos go to town on the sprinkling of glitter and they turn out waaaaay cuter!

Well...we really hope you get some great ideas from this and give it a go in your own classrooms. Please leave us a comment and let us know how turned out for you!

****We had this post ready yesterday morning before the day's events unfolded.  Among all of our merriment, we know that this will be the MOST difficult time of other's lives.  Our hearts are hurting for the love and loss of so many in the Sandy Hook Elementary family.  To honor and pray for the families touched by this horrible tragedy, we will be joining forces with other bloggers in a Day of Silence for Sandy Hook Elementary  tomorrow...Sunday, December 16th.  Please join us in prayer!



Ff Freebies, Knitting and Hannukah!

Hi Friends! Hope you had a great week! We have been super busy around here! We have been making ornaments and treats for parents! Don't worry we will be posting pictures of finished products very soon! And just for the record, academics are still our main priority. We are lucky to have great assistants who call our kiddos one at a time to make their ornaments/treats. This allows us to continue on with our regular routine!! Helps with behavior too!!

Cristy is still baking away and well, I have taken up knitting. I know, old grandma, but I really am not quite 40 yet. I won't hit that milestone until July. We had our Kindergarten Christmas party last night and there were lots of yummy treats to eat and drink :). While we were there we visited, played Dirty Santa gift giveaway and yes, I knitted an entire scarf :). Check out some that I have made :).

Also, tonight is the 7th night of Hannukah! Presents, presents and more presents. The kids are having a blast. Before we turn around it will be Christmas. I love the holidays, but they are hard work. That Elf on the Shelf has been pretty busy too at our house :).

Page's silly boys lighting candles on the 3rd night of Hannukah.

Like I mentioned earlier in this post, we are still rollling with our Cafe and Daily 5. Check out our fabulous word work freebies for the Letter Ff. If you like the freebies, you can check out our entire word work pack.

Have a great weekend!

Cake and Elves!

So...first it was cookies!  Now it's cake!  I was not even playing when I said "Christmas has really arrived in the Fogle house when the baking begins!"  This week it was homemade, from scratch...the all the way kind, the REAL DEAL... carrot cake!  Oh my word!  My diet has SO gone out the window.  There's always January, right! :)

Anyway, we have been really getting all festive at school this week too.  We had our 3rd grade Christmas play (my kiddo was a reindeer with the line "Yeah...we even let in that weird reindeer with the red nose."- LOVED it!), our chorus Christmas program, AND our little elves were busy applying for jobs in the North Pole!!!

That's right...you are never too young to go to work!!!  If you missed our last post, Freebie Elf Application, then check that out for all the details.  Basically each kiddo applied for one of 3 jobs in the North Pole.  We then let them make something to represent the kind of quality work they would create in their new job.

We hung the applications, persuasive writing pieces, and art in the hallway for a really cute Christmas display. Let us know what you think.  Hope you enjoy!

You can pick up your own copy here!  Freebie Elf Application

Freebie Elf Applications!

Oh...my...goodness!  What a beau-ti-ful day it is here in Georgia!  I know some of our Northern friends are looking for snow, but here...not so much!  

So to get us in the wintery mood amidst this heat wave, we just created a cute freebie for you guys!  It's an elf application!  We have seen a few out there already, but we hope this one is a little different.  We read a new story The Littlest Elf that we got with our last Scholastic Book Order.  It's a cute little book about the tiny elf in the family who has to find the right "elf job" for him.  So our application lets each of your "little elves" apply for the job that they think is right for them, whether it's in the toy workshop, elf bakery, or gift wrapping!

Your students will get to draw a picture of just what they would create for their particular job (maybe a fancy holiday tiered cake, or the coolest new toy, or maybe a present wrapped in zebra print with a red bow!)  Who knows!  Just let your kiddos' imaginations and creativity flow. 

Then they can write a persuasive/opinion piece that will help them "get the job".  To add a little incentive, we always have each kiddo read their writing and the class decides if they should be hired!  They get a little treat if they are!  But alas, it's Christmas, so they also get a little treat even if they aren't hired!  But it's still tons of fun!

As an extension, you could also let your kiddos use a variety of materials to bring their ideas to life. That's our plan! Then we can hang their awesome writing a long with a really creative piece of art for a one of a kind hall display!

If this sounds like a winner of an activity, then click the link below to take you right to your own printable copy!  There is one application and 3 different writing papers depending on which job each "elf" is applying for! 

Hope you enjoy! 

Coooookies!!!!

Christmas has officially arrived when the baking begins!  

I (Cristy) retired from cookie decorating a year ago!  I absolutely LOVE to bake and decorate! But I swear I know I seriously baked over 5,000 cookies over a 2 year period.  For REAL... not exaggerating even one little bit!  And people...I tell you... I slap got burnt out! 

So I shut down the old oven from cookie baking (to hear my hubs tell it, I shut it DOWN... from all baking...well...from all cooking in general...poor thing!)  

But alas, the sweetest little lady asked me if I would bake some cookies for our Golden Age Party at church for our precious little oldies but goldies (70 years or older).  How can you say no to THAT!  You can't!  Really...you can't!

So...I knocked off the oven dust, fired the baby up, and baked some cookies!

We hope your house abounds with sweet smells from the kitchen, warm snuggles by the fire, and peace and joy fill your hearts and home! 

 Merry Christmas!

PS-I'll be happy to share baking or decorating tips if you want to bake your own batch up for the holidays!