Happy Thanksgiving!

I know people have been posting their thankful lists with a linky party this week, but I have been so far behind reading blogs that I don't even know who is hosting.  So here is my independent thankful list on this Thanksgiving holiday.  


I am thankful for...


1.  My awesome 2 year old son.  He is the cutest, sweetest little boy I have ever met.  And I'm not just sayin' that cause I'm his mama!  Every single day he amazes me at how smart and funny he really is.  


2.  My hubby of 6 1/2 years.  Even though he travels a lot and I give him a hard time about it, he is able to provide our family with so many wonderful things.  (Like our FREE flight to Sarasota last week for my sister's wedding!)  In addition, he and I have been together for so long (10 years!) that we are truly a team and he is my best friend.  


3.  My family, who is in Florida this year for Thanksgiving.  My mom & dad help me so much with my son and I am so thankful to them for that.  This is my first Thanksgiving away from my family-EVER!


4.  My truly awesome coworkers.  I seriously work with the best people in the world.  We all have our students in the forefront and will do whatever it takes to help them learn.  I have contemplated moving grade levels/schools many times, but the one thing that keeps me from doing so is knowing that I will never work with a staff like mine again.  


5.  My super smart students.  I have a group like none other this year.  They work hard and excel.  You should see how many books my students are reading this year!  I have a group of the sweetest girls this year that seriously make me every single day.  


My list could go on and on, but that's my top 5.  I hope that everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving with their friends and family.  


On a side note, my Teacher's Notebook shop is running a Thanksgiving Weekend sale.  All shop items are 20% off!  

Thanksgiving Bingo!

I spent a lot of the day today working on a Thanksgiving Bingo game to use with my extended family tomorrow.  My husband's family goes all out for Thanksgiving and Christmas.  The family is so large in fact that the three car garage is actually transformed into a living room for the months of November & December because nobody's house is big enough to hold so many people!  There are 12 kids in the family (and one more on the way in less than a month!), 9 of which are under the age of 8.  Having so many kids in one place, you all know how important it is to have activities for them to do!  The teacher in me has taken over this year.  Prior to having kids, I didn't really care if the little ones were running all over the place-they weren't my kids after all.  Now that I have a two year old that needs to be entertained, I am taking over the activities!  Because of the time consuming task that it was, I have posted the bingo game on my Teacher's Notebook store, but I'm going to post my blank template as a freebie for all of you!  You can use the blank template by putting Thanksgiving words in random order on the card.  The file that can be purchased through Teacher's Notebook uses picture icons. I know it's too late for all of you to use in your classrooms this year, but there's always next year!  Or, if you have a large family with lots of kids like me, click over to Teacher's Notebook fast!  

http://bit.ly/thanksbingo

Click link for freebie

P.S. Did you know you can customize your bit.ly links?  How cool is that?!  

Yes, I'm Still Alive!

What a crazy couple of months I have had!  It seems my last several posts have been me apologizing for not keeping up with the blogging, and yet here it is again.  I'm soooo sorry, and I hope many of my followers will pick right back up with me.  I haven't even had time to read blogs lately.  My google readers shows 685 unread posts!  The month of November has been crazy in and of itself.  I took some personal days a week ago because I was the maid of honor in my sister's wedding in Siesta Key, Florida.  I came back Tuesday, was out for Reading Committee Wednesday, at school Thursday, and again at Reading Committee Friday.  I have seen my students a total of 3 days in 2 weeks.  Even though December brings the hectic holiday season, I have to say I just can't wait for it because that means I will be with my students in my classroom for three full weeks!  


My followers might recall that the district reading committee that I am on is taking part in the process of adopting a new reading curriculum.  When we signed up last Spring, I don't think any of us knew the undertaking it would be.  We have heard from nine companies.  After each company makes it's presentation, we have a four page rubric to score in grade level, grade band (3-5), then finally in K-5.  While I am very grateful that they are taking our input before just pushing a reading series or basal on us, it has been extremely time consuming and worrisome.  Our final selection day is next Tuesday.  It seems most of us at the elementary level are on the same page, so I'm hopeful it will not be a difficult process.  


This weekend I've been putting together a unit on persuasive letter writing.  Our writing project for December will be to write a letter to persuade someone to buy you what you want for Christmas.  I will be happy to share my Smart Notebook file when I have it finished to anyone who wants it.  I don't know of any way to share Smart files, so you will have to e-mail me.  


I also have a Donor's Choose project out right now asking for 75 nonfiction books to add to my classroom library.  My students love reading nonfiction, and it is something that my classroom library and our school library really lacks.  I have not had any interest in it at all, so I'm starting to get discouraged.  I would really appreciate it if you would share my project on Twitter or Facebook to try to get some interest in my project.  Here is the link:  http://bit.ly/uhrSEM