New Blog Design- Halloween Sale!

Wowie, what a storm that Sandy is...I've been watching the news coverage the last 24 hours and it looks terrible!! My thoughts and prayers are being sent out to all of you who are effected.

I just LOVE my new blog design by Becca over at Jumpin Jax Design!! She did such a fabulous job and she is so AMAZING to work with! She was so patient with me! I am the most indecisive person, and Becca changed things and answered my questions and worked on my page until I loved it!! I totally recommend her if you are thinking of jumping into blogging or wanting to update your current blog design!

Can you believe tomorrow is Halloween?? I have the perfect Halloween BINGO Games and Activities on sale on TpT today and tomorrow! If you want to play Halloween Bingo or Pin the Spider on the Web, this game packet is for you! I will give this packet away to the first three loyal followers who leave me a comment below! (Don't forget to leave your email!)

I also have my Halloween Math Activities for Young Learners on sale for anyone in need of some academic fun!

I hope your Halloween goes smoothly and that your day isn't too crazy!! I'm playing things down this year and going as a nurse in scrubs! (Comfort rules!! It is my secret wish that teachers wore scrubs to work daily!!) What are you dressing up as? I'd love to hear from you!

xo

A Day in the Life of My Fall Break....And My Latest Halloween Packet

I apologize for not posting about the Spider Give Away yesterday...it's just that, well, yesterday was kind of crazy and then we decided to postpone the give away until tomorrow...and so, yah...

I spent most of yesterday with my Sweetie at the dentist. Day One of Fall Break: Five hours at the dentist. My poor Hubs had  THREE teeth pulled! Can you say "YOWWWIE!!!" 

Now, I'm a fainter...a total passer-outer at the sight of blood, vomit, saliva....you name it!  I pass out at the dentist every time I go. You just wave a needle in front of my eyes, and WHAM, I'm gone.  

This Scotch-Irish girl has NO relation to Brave Heart when it comes to bodily fluids! (I gag when I hear my husband brushing his teeth...I gag when I hear people chewing their food...I absolutely gag when one of my students pukes on the rug....You get the point.) And this dentist asks me if I want to come WATCH him pull out THREE of my hubby's teeth.

Another of my downfalls, I can't pass up the opportunity to be where all the action is! (Besides, who wants to sit out in the waiting room for two five hours??) 

They led me back to where my Sweetie was drugged up with this crazy plastic thingy strapped over his nose for the gas. He was gonzo. I was a bit woozy...it was already coming on....

I plopped down on a chair by his feet and put my hand on his leg to comfort him and to let him know I was there...but lets face it, it was more for me. As soon as I sat down right there two feet in front of me was a bloody tooth and two pieces of broken teeth root sitting on the dental tray....GAG!!

The room started spinning...breathe....breathe girl!! Think of something...anything!

I felt woozy....I felt sick...I figured I had about three seconds, maybe four before I hit the floor...

Then suddenly I got the dentist picked up these HUGE clunky silver plier thingies. They were seriously scary looking. You can imagine my shock when he gripped with two hands and clamped them around the molar in my Hubby's mouth!!! (Why does this remind me of that story by Robert Munch, Andrew's Loose Tooth??)     

Before I realized what was happening the dentist was tugging and yanking and pulling on my Hubby's tooth! "This sucker is lodged in cement!" he exclaimed! He stood up to get more leverage and literally yanked and tugged and pulled on that tooth and it DID NOT come out. 

It didn't even wiggle. I saw it. Nothing budged. 

I picked my mouth up off the floor and watched for over an hour as they worked on getting this one tooth out....Nevermind being nauseated...nevermind being lightheaded and feeling faint...I got so engrossed in watching them trying to get this tooth out that eventually all that went away and I sat there transfixed on how they were going to solve this problem. 

Anyway, an hour and thirty minutes later, POP! Out came the tooth, then the roots, then all this bloody...you get the picture. 

I sat there for the next tooth and never once did I faint!!! I was so proud! But I was really very proud of my Hubby for enduring all that pain and for that dentist who didn't give up on getting those teeth out.

So yah, that was yesterday. 

Day two of Fall Break: Today, the Hubs and I have been hunkered down. It's a rainy cold day. He's totally feeling yucky and all drugged up and I've just been a slug. I made a gluten free Betty Crocker chocolate cake, did the dishes, a load of laundry, watched Fox News and CNN about the debates, and then created some things for Halloween for TpT. 

If you've actually made it down to this point in your reading, you are in luck!! I'm giving away my new packet tonight to the first TEN people who leave me a comment below! (Please include your email address.)

Also, all of my Fall and October packets are on sale until Sunday at my TpT store, too!

Here's my latest:

Thanks so much for dropping in tonight! I hope you had a great week and have a restful and fun weekend! 
Hugs and loads of love,

Give Away Winners Announced!!

Thank you sooooooooo much to all of YOU for supporting my give away this week! I appreciate all of your wonderful comments and thank you for following me on Facebook and TpT. Congratulations to my three winners, Amber K., Bren P. and Cindy C. I will be emailing you shortly! I hope you enjoy your packet! :)

If you are in the mood for more spider activities, you are in luck! I'm joining up with my best bloggy buddy, Jennifer, over at Rowdy in First Grade to do Web of a Spider Give Away! Head on back here tomorrow to see the cute packets we are giving away and how to enter!

I know it is only Wednesday, but today was my Friday! We are officially on Fall Break through next MONDAY!!! I am soooo happy to just have a couple of days to get caught up on sleep! My Fall Break isn't going to be much of rest, though. My Hubby and I are getting ready for a multi-family garage sale on Saturday. Last weekend we went to our storage unit and hauled boxes and boxes of our precious junk belongings and placed them in our living room. Combining two homes into one little townhouse makes for a lot of stuff! 

The plan was to sort through things while we watched t.v. in the evenings. We are wonderful at making grand plans! It sounded so perfect...just sort through a box or two each night and we'd be ready for the big sale on Saturday. Yah, well, the boxes are still sitting there, untouched, collecting yet more dust...Ugh! So, tomorrow we MUST start sorting....Yah, there's that much stuff! 

My Hubby is sooo cute! He has been coming in once a week to help me do an art activity with my students. We've been studying about shapes this week and I adapted a cute pumpkin art activity I found on Pinterest into an activity on shape. We cut triangles, circles, ovals, squares, and rectangles to make these cute Jack-o-lanterns. 

(See the cute pumpkins that inspired this project here.)

Since we have to connect our art activities to the curriculum we covered shapes and we also wrote "How To" stories. We brainstormed ideas that they could write about. The children came up with "How to Carve a Jack-o-lantern", "How to Grow a Pumpkin", "How to Go Trick-or-Treating" among others. 

I had introduced the "How To" story structure two weeks ago, including a title, introduction, first, next, then, last, and a conclusion. We have the story map up in the classroom so the students can refer to it as they write. We took the story through the writing and editing phases and we are just starting to put up their final drafts. I'm so excited! They are doing a great job!

Wish me luck on tackling my "To Do" list the next few days! I hope you enjoy the rest of your week!

And remember, be kind to yourself...

There is Only Love,

Fantastic Spider Letter Games Giveaway!

After posting about phonemic awareness and phonological awareness I needed some games and flashcard activities for my little students who are still struggling with letter names and sounds. I put together a spider-themed packet of letter games and assessments that I think my students will really have some fun with! 

I'm giving this packet away to three random winners! I hope you'll join in the fun! 

And remember, there is only LOVE! Have you been kind to yourself today? xo

Hugs,

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Freebie! Pumpkin Numbers to 50

Our district goal for this first term is that all students in first grade will identify and count numbers to 50. Here's a cute freebie for your kiddos to help them practice their numbers to 50.
I purposefully made the grid in rows of 5 to see if my students could count without using the patterns on a horizontal grid of ten. If you prefer rows of ten, just turn the grid horizontally. It makes for an interesting assessment! 

I hope you enjoy! 

Hugs,