Gratitude Rolls

THIS may just be one of the coolest Thanksgiving traditions I have seen...GRATITUDE ROLLS.

As guests arrive, give them each a small slip of paper and have them write one thing they are grateful for.  Place each slip of paper on a wedge of crescent roll dough and wrap up the paper inside.  Follow the directions for the rolls and bake as usual.  At dinner, as each guest takes a roll, they read what the slips of paper say.  As suggested by Balancing Beauty & Bedlam, a fun twist to this activity is to then guess who wrote what.  What a fun way to bring the family closer and keep in mind all our blessings!

Chrysanthemum

For the month of September, I am thinking of focusing on Literacy Ideas.  I LOVE integrating subjects and tying everything together.  Sadly, it seems as though the only way to be able to fit art into my schedule (with a jammed pack core and list a mile long of things to fit it...including my reading program Treasures) is to integrate.  Besides, lessons like these are great to have on hand for substitutes and S-L-O-W days!  I have a crate on my back counter with stories & activities just waiting to share with my class this year!
Starting with a back to school book is Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes.

From Kinder Kraziness is a free "What's in a Name?" download (1 page) or a 13 page Chrysanthemum unit to print out.

Great ideas, including these name cards from Teaching Heart.

I really don't know where this idea originates from because I found it saved on my computer without a website.  If it's you, please let me know and I will leave a link, otherwise, I had it saved HERE.  Love the compare/contrast idea though!

Crazy For 1st Grade has this great little print out, including a letter to send home to the parents explaining what you are studying.  What a great introduction/get-to-know-you at the beginning of the school year!

First Grade and Fancy Free has a name graph available to print for FREE.  Great way to incorporate that math!

From The First Grade Parade, I L-O-V-E this idea!  Before reading the story, talk about how every student is different and unique and how they all have different names.  Hand a paper heart to one student, and as you read the story aloud to the class, have that students take turn crumpling the heart each time he/she hears and unkind thing being said.  By the end of the story, the heart will look pretty tattered.  Oh my...such a cute idea and great way to start off the year with anti-bullying.  Check out her blog for more instructions and details!

First Grade and Fabulous has a TERRIFIC unit on Chrysanthemum to download for FREE if you are interested.  It is a must have!

All About ME

So this post isn't really all about ME, but it is filled with "All About Me" get to know you activities for the first of the school year.

Simply 2nd Resources created this great "All About Me" foldable book.  Check it out to see just how fun it would be to use!  I totally love it!

Here is a FREE "All About Me" poster download from Step Into 2nd Grade with Mrs. Lemons.  She copies this poster onto an 11 x 17 piece of paper so that it is just like the ones you BUY at the store!  What a great freebie.  These posters are always a lot of fun to use around birthday times!

For older grades, you could make one of these All About Me paper bag books!  This ideas is from Mrs. Sloane's Creations.

Your students can create an "All About Me" doll to represent themselves. 

(This idea was found on Dresses N Messes.)

First Day of School Activities

This one is for the teachers out there...
I have found some really fun 1st of the school year ideas that I thought I would share.
Brown Bear, Brown Bear What do you See? is one of those great early reader books that uses repetition to teach reading skills.  Melissa from F is for First Grade, created a free downloadable version of First Graders, First Graders, What do you see?  Such a super name/getting to know you activity!  Totally using it!

Mrs. Mac @ First Class with Mrs. Mac created the original version of this book adaptation and you can print hers too!  Love it!

If you aren't a 1st grade teacher, and reading this, you might be able to find a version that would work for your grade level.  If not, this gives you the idea to create your own!

Twisty Noodle has a variety of great coloring pages for the first day of school.  These are great to have on the students' desks as they come in to class that first day!

Need a printable alphabet chart?  No problem, Judy @ KinderTastic has you taken care of!

I LOVE this name recognition activity...again geared towards the younger kids.  Have your student write their name with a white crayon on a white sheet of construction paper.  Then have the kids watercolor over the "invisible" name and watch it appear!  This idea was seen at Dresses N Messes.

Babbling Abby has a fun name idea too!  Man!  I love her site...so fun to read!

For older grades, HERE is a great venn diagram the students can use to compare and contrast their summer to another student's summer vacation.

or HERE for a printable Back to School BINGO.

I could see the following form used to decorate a bulletin board.  Have the students fill out this Guess Who I Am form.  As the teacher, tape a piece of black construction paper to a wall and using an overhead projector, trace each student's profile.  Have them cut out what you have traced and mount the black profile picture onto a different color of construction paper to make it stand out.  Attach the form to the profile picture and walaa!

 Something that I did last year in my class (that I will continue to do) is with my pirate themed class, we go on a treasure hunt.  Really, this is my way of giving the students a tour of the school, but it adds a little spice.  First I read a pirate story (any will do).  During lunch is when I set things up because it gives me time to get things ready and by then the kids really aren't expecting anything.  When the students come back to class after lunch, I tell them I found an envelope on my desk addressed to the class.  Basically it is a typed up note from a pirate named Boris, who tells us he has left treasure in the school for us, but that we have to go find it.  I have notes/clues taped up around the school (that I pray an older grade student doesn't move during lunch!) and we walk around as a class following the clues until we find the treasure.  I have a treasure chest waiting at the end of the hunt filled with a treasure of some sort for each student. Last year the treasure was some pirate fruit snacks and pirate silly bands.  This year though I found these great little pirate zip lock bags in the dollar bins at Target.  I plan to fill enough bags with some kind of treasure.  I was thinking chocolate coins, plastic money, (gold foil wrapped) Rolos or something else piratey (yes, I just made up that word!)

What ideas do you have for the 1st day or week of school??

Some Games for New Year's

This year for New Year's, we will be spending the evening with 3 other families (kids included). The kids will be sent downstairs to play games and hang out, while the adults do grown-up things, like play Rock Band. If you are hosting or heading to a party and need some ideas (that don't include Rock Band), here are a few games I have come across:

M&M Game
Pass around a bowl of M&M’s candy but don’t tell people what you are doing. Tell them to take as many or as few M&M’s as they want. Based on the # and the color, people are to describe themselves. (ie: If someone takes 5 yellow M&M’s, they are to describe 5 things that make them happy.) Feel free to change the colors to mean different things if you don't like what you see!

Red - Name a celebrity you think is good looking.
Orange - Name your favorite food.
Yellow - Something that makes you happy.
Green - Name a place you would like to visit.
Blue - Name a goal you would like to achieve.
Brown - Name an item you could not live without.

Two Truths and A Lie
Each person writes down 2 true things about themselves and 1 lie. The object is to decide who wrote down what and then which of the 3 items listed is the lie.

The Big Wipe
The leader hands out toilet paper to a group sitting in a circle. The leader tells the group to take as much toilet paper as they need for the week. After, they must share one thing about themselves with the group for every square of toilet paper.

I Have Never
Another good game for finding things out about others....
Have everyone sit in a circle except one person. The person in the middle says something that they have never done (ie. I have never drank. or I have never worn a dress). All the people who have never done that have to get up and find an empty seat (from someone else who just got up). The person stuck without a seat is now in the middle. This game has no time limit. OR THE WAY I PLAYED IT…Give everyone 30 M&M’s or other food item. Take turns going around the circle saying, “I have never…” If you have done that thing before, eat one of your food items. The person with the most items remaining wins.

Oh and I found 15 more FABULOUS game ideas for both adults and kids at How Does She?

New Year's Ideas

Like I said, we have been sick and things have been hectic. I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and hopefully I was able to provide some useful Christmas ideas before the big day hit. Unfortunately I didn't have enough time to post everything that I was hoping to, but I guess that gives me some ideas to roll over into next year. Since New Year's is next, I found a blog (Pioneer Party and Gift) that gives some great ideas for your New Year's party. I love the Christmas tree idea! Here's a sneak peek at what the idea is, but check out the link for more fun ideas!

Turn your Christmas Tree into a New Years one! Right after Christmas take down all decorations and store away. Get a combination of horns, blowers, balloons, garland, streamers, confetti - and decorate the tree! Keep it up for the week in between Christmas and New Years to get in the spirit! Right before midnight, guests or family members grab what they want off the tree to ring in the New Year!

Christmas Party

Two weeks ago, my daughter and her cousin/best friend hosted a Christmas party for their friends. Ok so her cousin hosted the party, but we helped. Here were some of the fun things that we did, keep in mind that this was for a group of 5th (and some 4th) grade girls...
The first game was a drawing game.

There were 3 teams and 3 posters hanging on the wall. Below each poster was a sack with items to draw for Santa. All of the bags contained the same items so that it was fair. Some of the items to draw were: beard, pants, boots, etc. The thing that made this game both fun and tricky was the order in which each team drew out the items. For example, a person might draw out the paper slip that said beard, before they even had a face drawn, or boots before they had the pants, etc. The girls got a kick out of this game!
We also played the Yes/No Game:

Here is the shoveling snow game:

Some of the other activities we did at the party were to play musical chairs (the girls' idea), decorated gingerbread men (a kit we got from Wal-Mart) and made a craft.

We made these mini magnet boards with the girls. The mom who hosted the party, got these scraps of metal from the welding teacher at the high school. The teacher was nice enough to not only give them to us, but also sand them to make life easier for the girls. The mom had scraps of vinyl words that the girls could choose from and also the ribbon they wanted. Then we helped each girl to make 2 marble magnets. They all loved taking these decorations home and had a blast making them too!
Oh and what party is complete without food?

I hope to get some more exciting food for parties in the future, but for this year (aside from other food), I brought these cookies. I made sugar cookies, melted some white chocolate chips and poured it on top for the frosting. Then I had my kids help me smash up candy canes and sprinkle them on top of the frosting before it hardened. I was in a crunch for time and these were definitely both easy and yummy!

The 12 Days of Christmas Singing Activity

Here is another Christmas activity to play with a group...it was also done at the Christmas party I went to the other night.

Hand out the lyrics to The 12 Days of Christmas (the group will probably need them!) Explain to the group that for their birth month, they will need to stand up when they get to that particular day. For example, my birthday is in June (SIXTH month), so for the SIXTH day of Christmas, I would stand up and sing "Six geese a-laying" and then sit back down.

Let's play it out, shall we? Everyone sings "on the ___ day of Christmas, my true love gave to me" and the January birthdays finish with "a partridge in a pear tree"...while standing. On the next round, the February birthdays stand to sing "two turtle doves" then sit and January birthdays stand to sing "and a partridge in a pear tree." It continues on like this until the whole song has been sung.

Yes/No Game

Everyone sits in a circle (on a chair). The person in charge begins asking yes and no questions. (ie: I have been to New York, I like ice cream, etc.) For every no answer, stay in your seat. For every question that you answer yes to, move one seat to your left. (You may end up on someone's lap!). The first person back to their original seat is the winner.