Snowball Fight Facebook Hop---Freebies Galore!!

Don't miss the BIGGEST Snowball Fight of the Year!!

22 of your favorite bloggers have teamed up to bring you a...

Our forts are built...
the snowballs are packed & stacked...
and we're about to BLAST you with FREEBIES!!

So lace up your boots, pull on your mittens,
and get ready to load up on 'SNOW' much good stuff!!

Hop on over to to the Mrs. Thigpen's Kindergarten facebook page to pick up my freebie!

Look for this tab on every facebook page to find the next FREEBIE.
(The picture on my FB page will not look like this because of technical difficulties---it says FREEBIE HOP and looks like a gear)
 

Note: You will not be able to access the freebies from an iPad.  

Click the image below to download a copy of the clickable map to find your way to all the 'snow forts'!

The Snowball Fight begins at 10 am CST on Saturday, January 18th.  

But don't delay because the snowballs melt at 10 pm CST on Monday, January 20th!!

We hope you have fun on the hop and find lots of fun freebies that you and your kiddos will love!

Make sure to follow our blogs too so you'll never miss a FREEBIE!  

Thanks for joining our Snowball Fight!!

Thanks Amy over at Happy Teacher Heaven for setting all of this up!!!

Thanksgiving Freebies and Station Rotation

It's almost the end of November and I have finally figured out a way to do a station rotation in my classroom that I LOVE! I'm using it for my Literacy Groups and Math Groups and it really works. It's just taking me some getting use to but the kiddos are all like ''let's do this!"

In fact, after the many years of teaching, I think I have finally found something that works. Hopefully it'll keep working! ;)

Here's a picture of the pocket chart (please don't mind their names---this was a quick put together and I'm still working on how to display their names without it looking so jumbled). The OCD in me is bothered by it but I'll figure that part out.

Basically, here's how it goes down. In the morning I do my literacy rotations. So the right side of the pocket chart displays their groups (the groups were able to pick their own group name) and then there are letters in orange. Each letter represents a particular station in the classroom. 
 
For example, letter L is the computers, G is the reading station, D is writing, etc. I (thank goodness) have only 23 kiddos this year (the past few years it's been upwards to 28 or so) so these stations will last 3 weeks!!!! I only do stations Tuesday-Friday b/c Monday is our block day.

Here is a picture of some of the basket stations:
These hold activities from my November Fun Pack (beginning sound sort and Pilgrim ABC order) as well as syllable practice and although you can't see it, one letter is a clipboard for write the room. You can see one of the cards hanging up though.  I'll post more later about what is in each station (for math and reading).

 
I just move the letters down instead of their names to the station they would go to each day. I love this. The kiddos love this. My IA loves this. Life is good.

Same concept for math. I just chose numbers obviously for the stations and that's what they do. 

Here is a picture of where I house my math stations:

Roll a dice games, counting out chips for ten frame practice, another write the room for math, and geoboards are just a few of the activities in these stations. Again these will last for 3 weeks as well.

I'm linking up with Tales From Outside the Classroom for a Thanksgiving Freebies Linky.

 

Here are a few of my favorite freebies for Thanksgiving!!

 

You can find the pattern for these awesome turkeys from Doodle Bugs Teaching!

Grab these free calendar cards from my Teacher's Pay Teacher's store!

 

Here is a Thanksgiving Number Match for free from my store as well!! Students match the number, number word, and ten frame!!

Manic Monday and Let's Get Aquainted!!

I'm linking up with Flying Into First Grade's Let Get Aquainted Linky Party (Week 3). I missed last week somehow so I wanted to make sure I did it this week. 

This week is all about nouns!

The NOUN Game

The noun game is where you simply just name your favorite person, place, thing, and animal.

 

So here it goes!

Favorite Person

Definitely my hubby. We met almost 11 years ago and have been married for 8 years now. We had our rough patch a few years back but thanks to the good Lord above, all is well. He is my best friend and a wonderful hubby. He works hard for our little family and I know that one day he will be a great dad.

 Favorite Place

If you've been reading my blog long enough, you'd know it is the beach! We are only about an hour and half away so I can go in a day if need be! :)

I don't go every weekend in the summer but we try if we can. 

Favorite Thing

This one is hard. I don't particular have a favorite thing. I guess the ipad for the classroom is great! 

Favorite Animal

Gotta be my dog. He is a spoiled rotten mess but we love him. He's our second fur baby because unfortunately our first little guy (a dachshund) had to be put down unexpectedly after 6 years, so then we got this little man. 

 

And dolphins are my next favorite. I'd never had the opportunity to get up close until last year when the hubs and I were able to go to Orlando. Here we are feeding them. It was amazing!!!! I'd love to go do this again!

 

 

Make sure you go link up to the Let's Get Aquainted Linky Party!!!

On to Manic Monday---here ya go! Let me know what you think!

 

 

Blog hop, giveaway, and basketball madness!

Quick post...It's March Madness so that means basketball. And if you are in my house...it's Duke Basketball. My hubby is the biggest fan. Me? Well---growing up---die hard Tarheel fan, now---I'd rather watch hockey! Go 'Canes!!! Woo Woo! LOL

So of course with it being basketball season and all, I created this Mimio Activity to go along with my Basketball Madness Real Word/Nonsense Word sort.

                                                graphics by mycutegraphics.com
 
The kiddos had to pull the basketball out from behind the player and sort them by real words or nonsense words. They seemed to really like this, especially the boys. 

I don't have the Mimio Activity available but you can grab up the Freebie here or here. 

One of my favorite bloggy friends has reached 400 followers!!! Irene over at Learning with Mrs. Leeby. Click on the picture to go enter her giveaway! She's got some awesome prizes to give out!



 

And while you are there....she's also hosting an awesome blog hop!




Some great freebies to grab up and then enter another giveaway she's hosting!! Be sure to check it all out!

Happy Friday----3 more days until Spring Break for me!! What about you?

Freebies, Fire Trucks and Thanksgiving Pie!

Hey fellow bloggers...it's been awhile...or so it seems. Hope all is well out in bloggy land. If you haven't checked out the freebies over at Freebielicious you need to go now!!

It all starts with Kinderglynn. So click on the picture to take you through a host of blogs with some awesome freebies!!! Have fun!



To finish up Fire Prevention this month, our neighboring fire station brought over Sparky and Freddie the Fire Truck.

Here is Freddie and Sparky (they talk!!) The kids loved him!

The firefighters were explaining the gear that they wear and how not to be afraid. (It was sooo cold--thanks Hurricane Sandy and the winter weather for a wonderful mess everyone is having!)

I just finished a couple of Thanksgiving Activities. So I thought I'd pass along a freebie and   show off the other activity.

First, if you downloaded my Pumpkin Sight Word Practice then you'll enjoy my Thanksgiving Pie Build a Sight Word. Same format, but now with 4 & 5 letter words. These are great for independent center practice.

Next, I made a set of Thanksgiving Calendar Numbers.

Now your freebie. Thanks for reading all the way to be able to grab it up!!

It's a number, number word, and ten frame matching activity.

Click on the picture to grab it.

It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown...and a few other odds and ends

What a week. It was our first full week with all students and I don't think I've ever been as tired as I have been this week. And I have got to get my legs and knees used to standing on that hard floor again. They are killing me!  

Anyhoo---so one day this week a man visited our school with one of the largest pumpkins in Eastern NC. It weighed 550 lbs. It was definitely a nice size pumpkin. So I snapped a few pics.

Crazy huh.

My students enjoyed seeing that---it'll be a nice reference point when we start talking about pumpkins in October.

We are planning are Apples theme right now 

so here's a little something something for you. Grab it up--it's a freebie! :)

Graphics by http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Lita-Lita

And here are some Farm Puzzles for you too.

Happy Saturday!!!