The Classic Crafter

What's so special about the 101st day? (with a freebie!)

2012-01-26T14:30:00.000-05:00

Here's my newest post over at Teaching with Grace: Come over and check out the new place if you haven't already!

Everyone celebrates the 100th day of school, right? Well, lower grades do anyways! At our school, we also do the 101st day of school. It's so much fun to have activities about 101 dalmations! We had a blast! I do not claim any of these ideas as my own! I got all of these great ideas from a fellow team teacher who was kind enough to share them with me :) She has been a huge blessing this year!

We had several centers during about an hour block of time. The big hit was Origami dogs! The students used the directions on the manila paper. If you want to make your own, it's fairly easy. First, trace an attribute block (square). Then, cut it out and fold it in half to create a triangle. After that, fold down the two opposite tips to create ears. Finally, draw a face and decorate!

I also used a foldable (love those!!) to show the students step by step how to draw a dog. After that, they could try and free hand the dogs on a larger sheet of paper.

Last, but not least, I had to include a writing prompt. This one simply says," If I had 101 Dalmations, I would...." If you would like it (in all of it's D'Nelian greatness) just check it out right here! (My link will take you right to the Google Document!)

Have a blessed day,

100 Days Smarter

2012-01-25T20:11:00.000-05:00

Welcome to my first dual post from my new blog. Remember you can find it here!

Last Thursday we celebrated the 100th Day of School. Since our district started way sooner than many others, I thought that some people out there might could use some ideas for this year. It's always a ton of fun to get one or two new ideas!

We started out our day with reading Miss Bindergarten's Celebrates the 100th Day of Kindergarten (of course). I love all of these books! I even had a sheet from the Mailbox. My students drew and wrote about what 100 items they would bring. Most of my boys wanted to bring cars and the girls wanted to bring the balloons! I loved seeing all of their answers!

Our grade level does a lot of holiday rotations (Fall, Winter/Christmas, 100 days, etc.). It's a lot of fun for the students to go to the different rooms and have a different teacher while doing their activities. In my room the students got to do this:

That's right! We made Fruit Loop necklaces. All of the students had a blast! They had to count out 100 pieces of cereal. Some of them sorted the colors and some made patterns. They did such a great job.

In other classrooms, they created 100 day headbands (sentence strip hats), 100 day cookies, built with 100 legos, and stamped 100 stamps. They were so excited by the time they came back to me!

Here are some other great ideas that we did in our room and that I saw in the other rooms:

-Predict where you will end up in 100 steps, draw it, walk it, and draw it again. I got a great picture of my kids doing this! They were so excited because 100 steps took us right to the playground!!

-Draw what you'd look like at 100.

-Count 100 objects.

-Make 100 Day Trail Mix.

-Write about what you would do with 100 ______. (I did this more the next day on the 101st day of school!)
I would love to hear any great ideas that you all do so I can file them away for next year! Please leave a comment or send me a quick e-mail.

Don't forget to stop by my new blog Teaching with Grace so you don't miss anything!

Have a blessed day,

Drum roll please... I'm ready to announce...

2012-01-25T20:05:00.000-05:00

May I have a drum roll please? I am ready to make my big announcement!

(Nope, not pregnant! I've noticed that trend going around on blogs lately!)

However, it is kind of a bundle of joy ;) I would like to share with everyone, my newest venture:

I have decided to create a brand new blog just for teaching. You can go here to check it out! I am so excited about this new step! I've been praying, thinking, and deciding about this for awhile. I have loved the past two years here at Classic Crafter. But I've gotten away from crafting and am heading towards posting more and more about my teaching, strategies, and activities.

I hope that each and everyone of you will follow me over to my new blog. I will continue to post here until the end of February. I will double post so that no matter which blog that you check, you will read the newest post. By the end of this week, I hope to have my Facebook page up to date as well. If you want to continue getting the most up to date posts on your dashboard, make sure to click over and follow my new blog!
Have a blessed day,

Hey there!

2012-01-16T20:59:00.002-05:00

Hey there everyone! I know it's been a really long time with the holidays and everything else! Please stay tuned because I have been working on something big and CAN NOT wait to share it with everyone! I am so excited!

Have a blessed day,

Did you do for parent gifts from your students? Minor Freak Out!!

2011-12-10T15:16:00.000-05:00

So as my first year teaching Kindergarten, I have done my best not to drop the ball on lots of the fun and creative things that make each year special. However, my students making gifts for their parents has truly been something that was about to get dropped. I have not been able to come up with something that I thought would be quick, easy, and fun for my students but also special for the mommies and daddies of my sweet pumpkins. BUT I just found this post (literally like 3 minutes ago) from Kindergarten Crayons. Look at these adorable gifts:

So, I tried to save it to my computer in order to crop so it's just the frames but it didn't work :( But at least you can still see the adorable frames!! I have tons of popsicle sticks and will be doing these this week. If you want the step by step directions click here.

Luckily, the photos to be added to them... I took on Friday! My students were so cute in their jammies :) We have a Christmas tree up in the Media Center as well as two fireplace displays on bulletin boards. At the end of the day, we went down and I took their pictures in front of both. I think that I might even have them decorate two... one for each picture. But first we have to decorate 75 tress... that's another post :)

Please leave a comment telling us what great gifts you are doing this year!

Have a blessed day,

Polar Express Day for a Newbie

2011-12-09T21:22:00.000-05:00

Source

Today was our Polar Express Day in Kindergarten. As a newbie to the whole celebration it was SO much fun!! What other job do you get to wear your PJs, drink hot chocolate, and watch a movie? The whole day was so much fun :)

We started off the day with reading the picture book and then retelling the story with a coloring sheet from The Mailbox. All of a sudden our room was buzzed from the front office. Our secretary told us that all of a sudden there had been a flash of red and a gust of wind in the office. When things settled, there was a package waiting for us. Our whole class lined up and went down to the office to find our cold present waiting. Inside were our bell necklaces from Santa! However, Rudolph must have wanted to play a trick on us because they were all twisted together :(

(** Tip #1 for a better time next year: put necklaces in individual baggies so they don't do this!!)

After we came back from specials and had snack, we started the movie. I stopped the movie for the hot chocolate scene. I have seen several different ways that other teachers do their hot chocolate but I used plain cold chocolate milk that is premixed, pour into a crock pot, turn on low, and heat until needed. I turned the crock pot off and cracked the lid about 15 minutes before serving. That way it was warm but not hot. My students were so excited to be able to have their choice of big marshmellows or small marshmellows. I had planned on having them compare numbers of marshmellows (big vs small) for math but ran out of time.

We took a break from the movie to do a writing response. I have a paper from The Mailbox that has a cute graphic of a train and the sentence starter "If a train pulled up to my house, I would go to..." My students came up with the cutest responses!

-To the North Pole
-To the beach
-To Heaven (there was a small discussion amoung the kids about Santa vs. God)
-To tell their Mom and Dad (afterall, who would get on a strange train without their parents.. magic or not!)

The over all day was simply fantastic! Now we only have 1 more week until vacation!!

Have a blessed day,

Thank you to all!

2011-12-09T20:25:00.000-05:00

I just wanted to say a quick thank you to everyone who reads this blog, follows my Facebook page, purchases from my Teachers Pay Teachers, and follows my Pinterest. I appreciate each one of you!

Photo Source

Isn't this a cute picture?

Have a blessed day,

It still thrills me....

2011-12-05T15:06:00.000-05:00

Remember a looong time ago when I was so very thrilled about Esme Codell following me on Pinterest? Well I am just as excited about this newest person who started following my pins the other day. You might know her as well by this little site called: Mrs. Meacham's Classroom Snapshots

She is just toooooo stinkin' awesome for words! My grade level and I use her for so much each year! Tons of her lessons and ideas are used throughout all of our kindergarten rooms. She is great!

Have a blessed day,

Just a funny piece of mail to share...

2011-11-30T06:00:00.001-05:00

This is what I got in the mail the other day.... I thought it was hilarious. Maybe I'll get lucky and some one from there will see this and contact me to send me a new one :) I doubt things like that happen though! It looks like it had some awesome articles in it this time too! Too bad they were highly redacted! Do you have a funny mail story? Leave a comment, I'd love to hear it!!

Have a blessed day,

How do your kids measure? FREEBIE ALERT

2011-11-29T16:00:00.000-05:00

My students have been learning about how to use nonstandard measurement this week. They are having so much fun with it so far!

Our first day, we read Leo Lionni's Inch by Inch.

It's an adorable book about an inchworm who measures different birds and their parts. On each page, we used unifix cubes and paperclips to measure the different parts of the bird. Our second day was spent with the students collecting 5 objects and measuring them with unifix cubes. To summarize our learning we talked about what was the longest object, the shortest, any the same, etc. They had a ball with it!

Our next step is going to be measuring each other's arms. That's where the FREEBIE comes in! I have a printable chart for you to use. I'm planning on them doing just an arm tomorrow and then next week we will be measuring how tall we are. We'll use that data to create a class graph to compare sizes.

Below is the printable that I'm goiing to use. I will have each partner pair have 1 so it's all on the same page as they work together.

Measuring Partners Arms With Nonstandard

I hope you enjoy!

Have a blessed day,

Blog love.... Clover Lane

2011-11-29T13:18:00.000-05:00

I have been addicted to a new blog the past few days. Actually, it's more like a new-old blog to me.... one that I just rediscovered! I started out looking at her amazing tutorials and computer scrapbooking. But then I got sucked in to how she manages her house (5 kids!) and keeps it clean. She is definitely an inspiration and a fantastically easy read! Several of her parenting posts have really made me reflect on my parenting style (or somedays my lack-there-of )

I hope she inspires you as much as she inspires me!

Have a blessed day,

How Can We Pray for You?

2011-11-23T10:26:00.000-05:00

Who else is feeling the resistance this week? I am! This is the second or third time I've tried to post this!

Me- Prayer for my mom for healing during this difficult time. She is having a blood transfusion today. Also, please pray for several of my small group members. One of my good friends has a non-life threatening medical situation. Also, a couplein our group is having an extremely difficult year for their first year of marriage.

Don't forget you can e-mail me through out the week with any prayer requests that you would like posted on each Monday.

Have a blessed day,

Last minute Thanksgiving Ideas

2011-11-21T14:29:00.001-05:00

I know that some of us are lucky enough to have all of this week off. But there are those few who still have to go on today and Tuesday. I htought I'd show you a couple of last minute fun ideas that we did today. Maybe you can plug them in tomorrow or next week. I also have several more that I will take pictures of tomorrow that you can pin for next year or squeeze into this week.

I really love the Oreo turkey. I had a mom come in and do the activity with us. The kids LOVED this. But really, what Kindergartener is not going to love candy, cookies, and frosting all put together?

The paper turkey off to the side is a cute math idea. The kids made their turkeys today and will write math sentences tomorrow about adding the yellow and red feathers together. I let the kids just count out the number of each color that they wanted. One of the other teachers on my grade level suggested letting them roll a die and then count them out. Definitely doing that for next year!

Have a blessed day,

How Can We Pray for You?

2011-11-21T14:28:00.000-05:00

I may be a day late on some posts, but they are still important. I promise! Yesterday's service at my church (Compass Church in Athens, Ga) was all about the resistance that we can feel in our lives when we are doing what we have heard God telling us to do. I swear sometimes that I feel that in all the overwhelming feelings that I get during a day as I think abotu the list of things I "have to get done" or "need to get done". Craziness!!

Any who, I want to extend my invitation to anyone and everyone! If you would like to be added to our prayer list for this week. Please feel free to e-mail me any time at:

penniesforluck @ gmail.com

I will be posting the list tomorrow for anyone who views to pray. If you would like yours to not include your name, please just include that in your e-mail.

Source: Telling Secrets

Have a blessed day,

Fabulous Foldable Friday Finish

2011-11-19T16:22:00.000-05:00

I was so tired yesterday after our Thanksgiving festivities that I decided my Friday post would have to be put off slightly. I thought that the best way to end such an awesome week of foldables would be to show you two AH-MAZING sites that I have found for folables, lap books, shape books, etc. These two are the best resources for teacher of all grade levels!

There is a humongous section of templates for any possible one that you could want!

A site that I have shared in the past is my friend Katie's Real Classroom Ideas. She has an entire section form Foldable books. I figure that's just futher proof of how awesome these things are! Katie has included two great sites that I have used over and over:

Portfolders are a lot like lapbooks only bigger. Bigger is better right?
Parkview Middle School's amazing PDF has many, many detailed instructions for various foldables.

I love sharing great ideas with everyone. I hope that they are as useful to you as they are to me!!

Have a blessed day,

Spectacular Social Studies!!

2011-11-17T21:32:00.000-05:00

Happy Thursday everyone! I can't believe that there is only one more day of school until a FULL WEEK OFF!!! That means 9 blissful days of relaxing at home and with family. But... until then, I thought I'd share some of my Social Studies foldables. I love, love, love these! I think I use foldables in Social Studies and Science more than anywhere else because of all the vocabulary that students have to learn. Below are some of the great ones that I have made before:

One of my favorites! I love the three flap foldables!! Some years I also put the different branches on the outside. But I felt that this ups the level of thinking required because it's not right in front of them.

I always use the inside of the flaps- top and bottom!

In third grade we have 9 American Heroes that we have to learn throughout the year. My students made these at the beginning of the year and as we learned throughout the year we added the important dates and information on each flap.

This is a cruddy picture because I wrote in pencil but you can get the drift. We stuck to where they lived, why they were important, important dates, important events, and character traits.

Enjoy! But don't forget to go check out the awesome ideas over at Thinking of Teaching. Simply amazing!

Have a blessed day,

Science Foldables: Because I'm not Bill Nye

2011-11-16T13:33:00.000-05:00

Raise your hand if you love this man:

Provided by Popular Mechanics

I'm not sure if anyone could explain Science like Bill Nye. I love every second of his videos... even the songs. lol! All kids that I have taught (regardless of age) love to watch his videos over and over. Now, I will clarify that we do not watch them over and over but if the kids have seen it before in another grade level they definitely don't mind seeing it again!

However, since I am NOT Bill Nye, I have used foldables to make it easy for my kids to have the important information in their hands to ensure their learning. Below is a step by step tutorial for one of my favorite foldables!

Start with a full sheet of paper and fold one corner over until it is flush with the side.

Once it the top is flush with the side, make a crease so that your paper looks like the one below.

Cut off the extra piece at the bottom of the paper. These can make great book marks for your students to decorate later!

When you unfold the paper it should look like the one below. A perfect square!

Next, fold each corner into the middle crease like in the picture below:

Once you have all four corners folded in, it should look like the picture below. Now you are technically done and open up to a world of possibilities!

I've included pictures below of one sample idea. I think putting the essential question on the back is great for the kids to know. Then on the inside you can put the definition or answer.

I included each type of pollution on the flaps...

...and different types of pollutants for each pollution. I also added the definition/answer for my essential question.

I just love foldables! Don't you??
I'd love to see some more amazing ideas. If you have a foldable, please go over to Thinking of Teaching and link it up! There are so many fabulous ideas there already!!

Have a blessed day,

Meet Rocky!

2011-11-16T07:00:00.004-05:00

Our science special's teacher at school has always used a puppet to help engage her students in learning and questioning. Well, the other day I needed a little bit of extra oomph with my students when teaching position words. So, I planned on just pulling out a Beanie Baby to move around. Then have the students describe where it was at (i.e.- it's on the chair, it's beside my foot, etc.) Then, I accidentally grabbed this little guy:

Isn't he precious? I, of course, had to name him and what better than Rocky the Racoon?! He is just so adorable! My students were completely enthralled with where Rocky was and using their position words when describing his location. Too amazing!

I have even pulled Rocky out over the past couple of days as my students would become "bored" with one of our Mentor Texts. (I definitely have struggled with keeping my higher group of pumpkins on task when rereading books.) With Rocky helping us to read it has been like having a different group of kids when rereading. Now, I will warn you even the best bunch, like mine, can become silly at times. So Rocky has had to be put back to bed once or twice.

It's also great to have the students sing him to sleep with whatever songs you have been learning. My kids have struggled with their coins a bit. So, I have them sing the songs for each coin to get Rocky to "sleep".

Have a blessed day,

Language Arts Tuesday: More Foldables!!

2011-11-15T15:50:00.000-05:00

Language Arts is by far one of my favorite subjects to teach. I have always been a reader and love to pass on that love to my students. I could definitely use a lot of my favorite foldables in many different ways: sequencing, cause and effect, author's purpose, etc., etc. The list could go on and on! However, the other side of Language Arts is also Writing and Grammar. I think a lot of time these areas might get over looked. If I was ever going to teach college, I'd teach How to Teach Writing 101 :)

Anyways, when I taught third grade, a lot of my students needed a review of their basic components of writing. So, I created this foldable:

It was an excellent review of the important types of words. Many of my students couldn't remember a noun from an adjective. On each flap, the students wrote the definition and lifted the flap above to write examples.

You can also include hints for the hard ones :)

This foldable is made by using full sheets of paper. The first thing to do is to decide how many flaps you want. I wanted 6 so I used 3 sheets of paper. Lay them on top of each other and stagger each one just a bit.
Next, fold them so that your layers make the flaps. This is a bit harder so don't actually crease the paper until you are sure tha tyou have them the way that you want.

I usually make sure to use multiple colors when modeling to the kids so they can see the difference. My students had a mix of whatever colors they grabbed from a stack of construction paper. I hope my directions were clear. But if anyone is interested in a photo tutorial, just let me know!

Happy folding!!

Have a blessed day,

Math Foldable Monday

2011-11-15T09:37:00.000-05:00

Don't you just hate when your pictures that you swear were on your jump drive just... well... aren't there any more?!?! That's what happened to me yesterday. So, that just means you get double the fun today! You get to have two different foldables: Math and Language Arts.

But first, for math I want to show you these awesome ideas that you could use in your classroom. I have definitely found my favorite types of flip books and reused them over and over in multiple ways for each subject.

This first is by far one of my favorites! Simply fold your paper long ways (hot dog style) and then cut ONLY one side up to the fold however many times that you need. This one shows the different number forms. You can also do this for new vocabulary, steps in a sequence, etc.

On the inside you can show whatever information you need. For my third grade class last year, we did a number together all the way across to show them how to do it. Then they had to roll dice to come up with their own number and complete all the way across.

I also have used this kind of flip book as well. It's very similar but you fold it hot dog style. Then fold the two sides in to meet the middle. That way you have way more flaps! I used it below for my kindergarteners to practice counting.

That way they can count and open up the flap to see the numeral and the word. This way they can self check and see all versions of the numbers: model, numeral, and word.

Make sure to go check out all the other amazing ideas over at Thinking of Teaching for Foldables Week!!

Have a blessed day,

Foldables galore!!

2011-11-15T07:00:00.001-05:00

I love linky parties! Don't you? You have all of these fabulous ideas all in one spot. It's amazing! You definitely want to check out the party going on over at Thinking of Teaching. It is a fabulous foldable party!

I will be sharing several days of foldables as well over this week. Head on over and check it out!

Have a blessed day,

How can I pray for you?

2011-11-14T19:38:00.000-05:00

Happy Monday! While no one e-mailed me any prayer requests :( I still feel like this is something that I am meant to do. Maybe some one would like me to pray for them in the coming days. I figured I would go ahead and add my own personal request though, jus tin case anyone out there would like to add me to their own prayer list.

Me- My mom is definitely at the top of my list! My prayer would be that she have the Lord's ever watchful eye on her as he helps her heal and overcome the cancer. I would also like prayer to help listen to His voice better for the direction of my life and how to be a better mother and wife.

Thank you to anyone who would like to add me to their prayer list. Please feel free to e-mail me any time this week to be added to next Monday's prayer post!

Have a blessed day,

New Blog Alert: Life in Grace

2011-11-13T22:20:00.000-05:00

I just found the most amazing blog thanks to Pinterest. I first saw this amazing button:

If you click the button you will be transported to an amazing tutorial on how to make the cutest possible tags for presents this holiday season!

What really had me was her amazing banner. I just want to curl up on that comfy looking couch! Plus her subheading is also amazing. I believe I will be spending quite a bit of time perusing her site in the coming days. I hope you are able to head over and enjoy it as well!

Have a blessed day,

One for all and all for one!

2011-11-13T15:34:00.000-05:00

I love my church. I get to wear jeans. I get to volunteer with kids. I get to worship God. It's fabulous! My preacher is an amazing speaker. He's a lot like a 40 year-old kid that gets to get on stage and share his love with Christ. One of the things that really hit me today was when Jim (our preacher) was talking about the purpose of our church. He explained that all of what we do while serving our city is "Doing for one what we want to do for all." I think this is such a fabulous and simple purpose statement. So, in that same spirit, I would like to be able to help support any one and everyone who needs it.

If you have a prayer request, big or small, please leave a comment or send me a message (penniesforluck @ gmail.com) and I would love to pray for you! Each week I will make a list so that we can pray for each other. Being someones prayer partner is an amazing thing!

Source: Telling Secrets
I will post the prayer requests each Monday. I will only use first names but if you don't even want that said, please just let me know. I want this to be able to help people in any way possible!
Have a blessed day,

Random thoughts

2011-11-12T22:07:00.001-05:00

Every so often, I think everyone should be allowed to jot down their random thoughts that are important but aren't really enough to turn into a single blog post. I haven't done one in awhile and thought that it was about time!

Some of you are wonderful, wonderful followers who read everything that I write. It's hard to know how many dedicated people there are because a) I sometimes stink (capital letters are probably due there) at posting regularly and b) there aren't a lot of comments left (everyone is super busy and I'm bad about reading a post and not commenting, I definitely need to be better about that!). But I thought for those of you who might be wondering about the major events in my life here's a run down:

-My mom seems to be responding well to her chemo treatments so far. She's had 2 and is about to have her 3rd this week. After 1 or 2 more treatments, they will be re-evaluating her cancer to see if it is responding at all to it. Her spirits are good but she's had to make some tough decisions about her living arrangements, bills, finances, etc., etc.

-A good friend has been blessed and is expecting a baby the middle of next year! Her and her fiance will be getting married Dec. 27th of this year :) She was so very sweet and asked me to be her bridesmaid. We even went today and found her wedding dress. It is beautiful!!

-My adorable little bits and my awesome husband are doing great.

-I love teaching Kindergarten this year and need to make a point of asking my principal to please keep me there for next year too. Apparently enrollment is looking iffy for next year in upper grades- rumors are already swirling about displacements!!

I'm already in the mood for Christmas. I know that that is horrible since we haven't even passed Thanksgiving yet. But, I really am very excited about it! It has always been a favorite season for me and I think it's hitting me hard that it may be my last with my mom. While that's hard, it also makes me want to make the holiday season as amazing for my kids as she always did for my brother and me while we were growing up. Just tonight I sat down and made a list of who we need to make/buy for in the family and who I need to make/buy for at school. Does anyone else bake or make for people at work? I love to bake for my coworkers. Last year I carried in so many different bags of goodies that I had to make several trips from the car to inside! I also have a couple of really good friends that get specials gifts in addition to their baked goodies. This year one of my friends will be getting this book I think:

I would love a copy too but I have so many books and projects that I haven't even touched yet. My mom is cleaning out her craft books and I've been bringing home the ones that I want. So now I have even more than before... which means that my project list keeps on growing!

I pray that everyone is having a fabulous weekend! Don't forget to spend some time outside in the beautiful fall air!

Have a blessed day,

The Classic Crafter

What's so special about the 101st day? (with a freebie!)

100 Days Smarter

Drum roll please... I'm ready to announce...

Hey there!

Did you do for parent gifts from your students? *Minor Freak Out!!*

Polar Express Day for a Newbie

Thank you to all!

It still thrills me....

Just a funny piece of mail to share...

How do your kids measure? **FREEBIE ALERT**

Blog love.... Clover Lane

How Can We Pray for You?

Last minute Thanksgiving Ideas

How Can We Pray for You?

Fabulous Foldable Friday Finish

Spectacular Social Studies!!

Science Foldables: Because I'm not Bill Nye

Meet Rocky!

Language Arts Tuesday: More Foldables!!

Math Foldable Monday

Foldables galore!!

How can I pray for you?

New Blog Alert: Life in Grace

One for all and all for one!

Random thoughts

Did you do for parent gifts from your students? Minor Freak Out!!

How do your kids measure? FREEBIE ALERT