Hi guys!! Welcome to another Thoughts on Thursday! Thanks for joining Kristi and I for December's topic: Your Favorite Christmas Traditions!

I love Christmas! It really is the most wonderful time of the year. There is so much going on all around the city and the state and the Internet and everything!

I know in our family we always do Christmas in a big way. One reason: my grandmother was born on Christmas Eve and we have her birthday party every year on that day. We do it themed and have the best time.

One year we did the Grinch!

We also have our Elf, Sparkle. She has a pet reindeer, Ginger. And graphic tees. 
We've had Sparkle for about 7 years now. She comes each Thanksgiving and hangs out with us. 

Another family tradition is the purchase of our Hallmark Keepsake ornament for the year. This year it's bittersweet because it's the final ornament in the Santa's Sweet Ride series. We started this when Carly was six and this is the tenth and final one. 

Carly and I watch movies starting Thanksgiving day. Sometimes sooner. Okay a lot of times sooner!!
Hot chocolate and movie time!! That's our favorite things to do!

In the classroom I love to decorate for Christmas!! I know that not all of my kiddos celebrate Christmas, but we can still have fun with the themes and activities!!



We even have a classroom scout elf!! 


This year I'm doing it with my sixth graders. They love it, too! It's just something fun and new for them. And they are only 11 years old!! 

Though one of them did touch Gatsby and he was sick. They wrote him get well soon notes!! 

He brought stickers!! 

And of course we love playing all sorts of Christmas themed games!! My favorite, any math game that let's us have fun and celebrate the season!!
These are from my Addition and Subtraction shortcuts centers. These centers help with Mental Math. They are helpful for reinforcing mental shortcuts like adding and subtracting 10 or 20 and doubles and doubles plus 1.  


And because I love Christmas and you so much, here's a little Christmas present!! Here is a FREE center for place value sorting. 


Well thank you so much for stopping by and reading up on my Christmas traditions, both in and out of the classroom!

Make sure to check out the linkup below to read about other Christmas traditions from my teacher friends! 

Join us for the next Thoughts on Thursday: January 5th!

Happy Holidays!

Oh my goodness you guys! I cannot believe that my Punchie buddies and I have been blogging together for a whole year! The Primary Punchbowl is turning 1!

It is so exciting to share our celebration with you. I am so incredibly fortunate to know each and every one of the amazing Punchbowl ladies. They inspire me all the time and I am always in constant awe of the fabulous-ness of their lives!

So in honor of our celebration we are giving you cause for celebration as well with TpT stores on sale, a blog hop to gather some freebies, AND a rafflecopter to enter for a chance to win some more goodies!

My entire store is on sale for 20% for three days. Enjoy!


How do you celebrate exciting things in the classroom? I love to give kiddos a special treat such as line leader for the day or a giant pixi stik or a bag of candy loot. They love just to have happy birthday sung to them by the whole class! It's a policy of the school that we don't do cupcakes or actual parties so acknowledging them first thing in the morning makes for a great big smile on some faces!!

I used to give the birthday boy or girl a sticker "ribbon" to wear all day but you know stickers, they get un-sticky after being put on shirts, sweatshirts, pants, taken off, placed on books and binders, etc. and they were getting a little expensive at my local teacher store. I've also tried brag tags and birthday bags and birthday buttons. But I thought I'd try something different.

So I made some Birthday Bracelets!


So simple. I just print them out and tape them around a little wrist. They are perfect for helping to make a child's day a little more special! These are wider than most paper bracelets - they remind me of slap bracelets! I will print them out on card stock, cut apart, and keep them on hand for birthday days!


So here's your freebie! It's the Birthday Bracelets - but they're EDITABLE! And black and white! The black and white ones not only save ink, but could be given to the special kiddo so they can color it in and make it theirs! Maybe print out a blank one and they can write their own name, too!

Click {HERE} to make a copy for your Google Drive so you can start editing and making it your own. You will need to be signed in to your Google account (it's free!) to access and edit it.

Thank you so much for celebrating with us!

Hop on over to visit Elisabeth at Literacy and Lattes to continue this fabulous celebration! Make sure to visit the Punchbowl to enter the Rafflecopter and Happy Celebrating!

Hi guys! Has your fall so far been going by in a very busy blur of pumpkin flavored everything and stuff to do? Mine has and it's insane and awesome! I'm so happy to be back today with my #bloggybestie Kristi from Pelicans and Pipsqueaks for Thoughts on Thursday for this month. 

We are talking about Fall in the Classroom today! Why? Because, pumpkins of course. 

There are so many way to celebrate fall in the classroom. You can do pumpkin things, turkey things, bat things, leaf things, coffee things-ok, maybe not so much that last one. But you get the idea. I wanted to share with you my favorite ways to celebrate this special time of year!




I love to read books about all things fall. A few of my faves include: 
The Biggest Pumpkin Ever, by Steven Kroll
How Many Seeds in a Pumpkin? by Margaret McNamara
Apples and Pumpkins, by Anne Rockwell
From Seed to Pumpkin, by Wendy Pfeffer
Scaredy Cat, Splat, by Rob Scotten
Pumpkin Hill, by Elizabeth Spurr

and my FAVORITE
Spookley the Square Pumpkin! by Joe Troiano

This book is so fun and teaches such an important lesson: We're all different on the outside and that's what makes us special and unique!



We read the story and make our own square shaped pumpkins. 

Around this time of year, we are learning how to balance equations. So I made this little activity so the kids could decorate with a fall theme while practicing a great skill. 

You can read all about this and grab it for free HERE.

We also do a ton of addition and subtraction review with tens frames. How cute are these ice trays from Dollar Tree? 


This fun little larger than life whole group and center activity can be found in my TpT Store for free also!
Who doesn't love candy?? Especially Halloween candy because it comes out in like August and it's everywhere you go so you might as well eat it, right? 

Here is a simple, Fun Friday activity for you! 
Fall Bingo!

Simply print it out, cut out the call cards, pass out the bingo cards and some candy for markers, and you're set! The kids get to play a game and eat candy. What could be better? This is such an easy thing to put together and play on a rainy day for recess, or as an end of the day reward and it fits the season without Halloween concerns. 

Download this for yourself HERE and then head to Dollar Tree to get some candy!



It's not really a secret that my favorite flavor ever (until Christmastime) is pumpkin spice. Of course I want my classroom to smell just like the inside of Starbucks at this time of year. So I make sensory bins and it's amazingly simple!


I blogged about my sensory bins last fall when we launched The Primary Punchbowl (birthday is coming up soon! Stay tuned!) Read about how I made this!

Fabulousness!!

I use my Brimming with Blends onset and rime activity with these bins. It's fun! 



So fun, simple, engaging, and smells fabulous!

Well that is all I have to share with you today. I hope I gave you some ideas for celebrating this season in your classroom. Here is the line up for the rest of the year: 

Put us on your calendar and check back!

And please feel free to link up with us below! 



Hi guys!! I am having such a fun October so far! Enjoying pumpkin spice and flavored everything.

Hi guys! Just a quick jot this morning to tell you about my Spooky Saturday Sale!


Get my October Math Centers on Balancing facts for only $1 today!

Join in on this sale by grabbing the image below, putting a product on sale for $1, and using the hashtag #spookysaturdaysale in the description and on social media.


Thanks!

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