Elf your Students

Have you ever wanted to make your students into little elves? This little trick is super easy if you have adobe photoshop. All you need to do is click on the filter  tab found up top and then liquify. It takes two seconds. 

Right now I only pay $9.99 a month for photoshop and lightroom. They are both awesome resources to use in the classroom. I added the free elf hats from searching santa hat clip art vector images in google images. I love my cute graphics because there tons of free images.

Have you seen Christmas Jammies? I can not stop watching this precious video. How cute? 

Hope everyone is surviving the last couple of days.

Snow Globes and Reindeers

Have you read the book The Snow Globe Family? It's such a neat story and it really got my students writing today. The family that lives inside the snow globe is just like the family who owns the snow globe. The little family keeps wondering when will it snow. They long for a snowstorm. We used the prompt -If I lived in a snow globe.... My students were using some great adjectives and really trying to pull in their five senses. I was so impressed.

I think the original idea was Deanna Jump's idea found here. You know I love talking photos so I tweaked mine a little.  

Here is our version

Directions

1. I printed my photos 5 x 7 on my home printer and then used an x-acto knife to cut out the background.

2 Mod podge the photo to the clear plastic plate. I used gloss mod podge but I think matte would be better.

3. Add hole punched circles with mod podge. I just emptied my three hole puncher. 

3. Lightly paint an area using mod podge and sprinkle some glitter towards the bottom of the plate.

5. I free handed the base of the snow globe with scrapbook paper.

6. Hot glue snow globe base to the bottom of the plate and add ribbon up top for a hanger.

We also made these darling reindeer. It was a directed drawing found at Artventurous. It was super easy but oh so cute! We used watercolors instead of oil pastels. Click on the link to see the step by step directions.

What fun things have you been making this holiday season?

Ho-Ho-Holiday Gifts for your Students

Ho-Ho-Holiday Gifts for your Students

I'm so glad Stephanie over at Third Grade Thoughts is hosting this fabulous link up because I love getting ideas for student gifts as well as parent gifts.

This year I am making jars of White Cheddar Snow Balls ( cheese balls) for my students. This is what I used

Mason jars

1 glove ( Michael's had them on sale)

Ribbon

Sharpie Paint Pens

Snowballs (Wal-Mart)

I'm also going to be passing out these elf behavior beads which are really from me! Mr. Jingles has been eyeing our behavior bead stash. 

I also went to a Pinterest Inspired PJ party on Friday night. We had a blast. Who doesn't like crafting and eating in pajamas? I made some yummy treats for next week. Thanks Alison for letting me use your supplies and ingredients. 

The original pin can be found here.

Have you tried Neiman Marcus Dip? YUM

 Neiman Marcus Dip

5 - 6 green onions

 8 oz. cheddar cheese, shredded

1 1/2 cups mayonnaise

1 jar Hormel Real Bacon Bits 

1 pkg. slivered almonds

Chop the green onions.

Shred the cheddar cheese.

Mix the onions, cheese, mayo, bacon bits,

 and slivered almonds together.

Chill for a couple hours.

Serve with Ritz crackers or corn chips.

I'm off to get some more ideas even if I have to use them next year! 

Busy Little Bees

This week was a busy week of Social Studies and Science. We wrapped up our Matter Unit with the Science Guy. The kids had so much fun making oobleck, experimenting with sinking and floating, making density bags and learning about Matter. They also loved playing the game Solid, Liquid, Gas.

We also started our unit on Wants/Needs and Goods/Services. This is my ALL TIME FAVORITE unit to teach. I usually follow along with our Social Studies book but also include this Wants and Needs packet.  The packet covers all of the terms dealing with economics but it's definitely kid friendly. My first graders LOVE it!!! At the end of the unit, First Grade puts on a Holiday Market. We set up shop and sell "goods" usually in our cafeteria. The students have so much fun producing their goods. We have already brainstormed a class store name and even started making our goods. The parents are so supportive and love participating in this event. Students and parents come shopping. Usually items are $1-$3.

Here are some goods we've sold in the past:

notecards 

cookies 

chocolate dipped pretzels

chocolate dipped spoons

ornaments
artwork

wrapping paper (butcher paper stamped with stamps)

Grinch slime

oobleck

hot chocolate

lemonade

Most items are around $1. This way the students don't  have worry too much about change. We do it as a grade level but you could easily do it as a class. You can invite parents, teachers, other students or have it just within your class.

We usually plan about a week getting organized, producing our product, and marketing our store. I show my students videos about starting a business. Our library has a great selection. We also market our store by hanging up advertisements around campus to drum up business. In the years past, we have  raised as much as $300. We usually donate the money to a local charity. One year we sponsored a goat from the heifer foundation. There are so many different twists you can do with Market! If you need any advice or ideas please leave a comment or shoot me an email at missnelsonattpt@yahoo.com. 

This is my economics booklet on tpt that covers wants, needs, goods, services, consumers, producers and income. 

Making some art to sell! You should have heard them discussing their prices. 

Cheese balls in a Mason Jar. 

Clay Pots- Michaels 

Half-Off ornaments Hobby Lobby

Bean Bag Filler

Paint Pens

Pom Poms

Making lumps of love

Tonight starts my 9 day vacation. I'm off the entire week for Thanksgiving Break. We are headed to North Carolina. I hope everyone has a nice time Thanksgiving with family and friends. Be sure to check back as I am planning a fun giveaway this week :)

DIY Ornaments

Well it's the first Monday of the month which means I'll be linking up with Tara over at 4th Grade Frolics for Monday Made It and Angela at Hippo Hooray for Second.  I just love giving handmade ornaments as gifts. I use them for my student's families, co-workers, and even friends and family. I've been searching for some fun way to incorporate pictures and left over ornaments. Did you know I ALWAYS stock up on Christmas crafts when they are 75-90% off? Micheal's and Target have awesome deals the day after Christmas. Lucky, I had all the supplies on hand. My inspiration came from  here but I've seen them all over pinterest.

I really didn't follow any directions. First, I tried a wallet size photo and it was a hair too long so I snipped off a tiny bit. I also tried backing the photo with cardstock. I'm pretty sure the photos worked best by themselves  I'll be making one for each of my families. I used plastic ornaments. I found them last year at Michael's. What do you think?

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Now I didn't stop there. I needed some cute crafts for the students. Since our class tree is decorated in pinks, purples, and lime green I just had to have these little cupcakes found here. I know the students will love these!

Here are the materials:

light pink or white ornaments

paint

glitter

sprinkles (optional)

pom-poms for cherry

cupcake liners

hot glue

All I did was paint the ornaments to look like icing and while they were still wet, I sprinkled sprinkles and glitter. Next, I hot glued the ornaments to the liners and then glued cherry on top.

Doesn't get much easier than this! I promise.

I'll be back later this week for one more DIY ornament and some yummy cookies!

Can't wait to check out the other crafts! 

Oh, Christmas Tree... Oh, Christmas Tree

I just love decorating for the Holidays so when I saw Learning 4 Keeps Christmas Tree linky party, I knew I'd link up. 

Every year I get together with my sisters and mom and we tackle the trees. I usually do two trees when I can't decide on a color scheme. I guess you can say I'm non traditional when it comes to the tree. I have a little OCD. All ornaments much match. I always do white lights and even my wrapping paper must match. YIKES! I always make one new ornament each year to add to the tree. Whenever I have children, I'm pretty sure I'll have a tree dedicated to the handmade ornaments. Speaking of ornaments, I'm off to Michael's to grab some supplies to make some cute DIY ornaments. Check back this week as I will be linking up to the Monday Made It hosted by Tara. 

Teacher's Gonna Snap- Elf Edition

Our elf is arriving today! I'm so excited and I know the children will be too. Instead of doing a November Teacher's Gonna Snap linky party this one will be focused on Elf shots. Get as creative as you wish! There are tons of ideas here or get those juices flowing. I can't wait to see all of the pictures. They do not have to be just of the classroom elves. Any elf will do!

Here is your Elf Freebie! Our elf will be leaving these brag tags.

Be sure to link up early!  You can always add more pictures to your original post! There will be lots of chances to win prizes for linking up to the Elf Edition linky party. You may just snag you a little gift for having fun. I'll be back to post some more pictures!

4 winners total:

$25 to Amazon  or TPT( 1 winner)

$25 to Carrabbas/Bonefish/Outback (1 winner)

Elf  (1 winner)

 Camera Strap (1 winner)

Just found another party over at the Seusstastic blog! Why not link up to both?