All Set for "There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Pie"! {mini giveaway}

Hello friends! I just got back from working in my classroom to get set for next week. Sadly, we are testing most of the week. We have to give the benchmarks from our Central Office for Math and ELA. They have made these in such a way that they have to be given one on one. It takes FOREVER! On top of that our interims go out on Thursday (again, one on one testing). We don't have them yet (which is stressing me out a little bit). So I'll have to get that in somewhere too. Their thinking with interims is that if we test as we go, we shouldn't have to test before we fill them out, just copy our previous assessments onto the interim. However, MY thinking is that I want to send home the most up to date information to these parents to prevent many unnecessary emails and parent notes.  Ok, rant over, I promise. 

Anyway, I'm hoping to squeeze in some Thanksgiving activities. I'm going to start with "There Was an Old Lady to Swallow a Pie". I adore these books! 

We will use this sequencing circle to retell the story. I have pocket chart cards so we can do it whole group as well. They also love it when I put these cards in a station for them to do on their own. 

 This is my absolute favorite writing from the pack. On this one they get to pick their favorite thing she swallowed and write about it. 

 We have been working on syllables kind of informally. Most of it has been during our morning circle time. So I feel it's about time to do it "for real". We will be sorting based on syllables with the pocket chart cards. Then students will get their own pictures to cut and paste to sort the syllables.

 I'm sorry trees, but I love using emergent readers. I know not all of my little ones have many books at home. They do such an awesome job reading this little books and always get excited about taking them home. 

I'll have these on my focus wall for students to use in their writing. It helps tremendously! 

You can click here to see this pack in my little store:

Now if you have stuck with me this long, I have a funny...

While working in my room today, I was getting things ready to start running records next week. As I was reaching for one of my notebooks, a big ol huge spider darted across my books! Here is a Google image similar to the one in my room.

I'll be honest, I screamed. I will never casually grab anything from that shelf again!

I'm going to be giving 3 of my "There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Pie" units away.

Leave a comment (with your email) about what you have been  up to in your classroom.

I'll use random.org to pick the 3 winners tonight before I go to bed!

Are You Ready for Veteran's Day? {with a giveaway!}

Hello friends! What plans do you have for Veteran's day? Our school has a special assembly planned to honor veterans in our little community. This is pretty close to my heart since my daddy is a veteran. However, this is a hard concept to explain to kinders, especially if they don't know anyone in the military. So, here is how I'm going to tackle this:

 Our morning messages should help provide background and give my kinders an idea of what a veteran is.

We will also write a letter to a veteran. I give these to veteran's that I know. My daddy gets a kick out of them each year. I was also thinking of sending them to our soldiers that are overseas right now. I saw a thing on FB about sending your extra Halloween candy to the soldiers and had a website to get the addresses. We have tons of candy left from our "Fall" party that we could send with the letters. Have any of you done something like that before, successfully? What did you do? 

Ok, now the giveaway...I'm giving 2 lucky followers my Veteran's Day Morning Messages. To enter all you have to do is enter through the rafflecopter below!

a Rafflecopter giveaway