The "Elves" from Mattel

I am exhausted!!!  We had quite an exciting day at school today!  Today was our annual Snow Day, provided to us from our corporate "friend" Mattel Toy Co.

Though the weather did not cooperate this morning (it was raining), there was a back-up plan.  The snow was trucked in, the downhill slide was constructed, and a huge awning covered it all!

The students got to play in the snow, slide down a little hill in a saucer, eat Panda Express, decorate and eat cupcakes, race Hot Wheels cars, dress up like Barbie, pose for pictures with various backdrops, and on and on!

I wonder how many packages of polaroid film they went through!  And all of the students received a toy from Mattel.  The whole school had a great time.  One of the highlights was the Santa-led Conga Line!!

Back to business as usual tomorrow... ;)

Thanks to all the Mattel employees who came to the school to hang out with the students!  THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU, MATTEL! 

Checking my Wish List for BIG TpT Sale!

I am super excited and can hardly wait for the Cyber Monday (and Tuesday) TpT sale!  It will be the first sale that I am participating in (as a buyer and a seller)!!!

I have linked up with Shuna from Pocket Full of Kinders!  We are giving readers a little peek at our wish lists for TpT purchases.

I have a few items poised and ready to hit my shopping cart on Monday!  Let's take a look.

Phonics Vowel Sounds- Pink Cat Studio

Letterbox font - Graphics From The Pond

Clip Art Baby Birds - Sonya DeHart Design

Ten Frames Color In - Graphics From The Pond

Be sure to head over and take a look at my store!!!  I am adding lots of new items for the K-2 classroom.  And don't forget to use Promo Code: CMT12

Thanks to Mercedes of Surfing to Success.  She made the cute sale announcement above!  You can also head over to her blog to see a long list of stores that are particpating in the sale.

Happy Black Friday,

Get Out and VOTE!

It has been a BUSY day!  And the highlight of the day was taking part in our own mock presidential voting!  Here are the pics!

Outside of our classroom - The sign and flag apparently fooled a few colleagues who thought that we weren't in our classroom today!!!

Inside the voting booth - I printed wallet-sized photos for the students to choose and deposit in the ballot box.

One of the voters, taking her time to make a decision.

Voting stickers for all who participated.

The votes were tallied and the winner is.....OBAMA!  {at least in Room 13!}

I voted today,

... and Jack-O'-Lanterns! Oh My!

Boo!

... and Brains ...

I am always thinking of new and exciting ideas to keep the interest level high in the classroom.  A new gimmick or technique keeps the students engaged in their learning.  The classroom is continuously evolving. 

As I was driving to school one day, I heard the jock on the radio talking about a Brain Buffet.  It got my wheels turning, and I thought it might be a fun name for our literacy and/or math work stations.  I mean, we have a variety (buffet) of learning centers that are great for our brains!

Well ... I googled "Brain Buffet" and found that it is the name of a bizarre video game in which you are a zombie searching for brains to consume!  Not what I wanted for our classroom...

So I thought a little more and came up with this idea!!!

So now we have our Brain Building Buffet time each morning!  The kids love the name and the centers!

Build Your Brain,



Mooooo!

We had an exciting visit last week from the CA Mobile Dairy Classroom! Most (if not all) of the students in my class had never seen a live cow before, so it was a great experience for them.

Since we are just beginning to learn about the 5 food groups, I did a little pre-teaching of the Dairy group. 

We read The Milk Makers by Gail Gibbons and did a class pictograph of our favorite dairy product.  No surprise that ICE CREAM was the winner!

And then the cow came!!!

Actually the cow AND a calf came!!!  Clara and Oreo!!!

We learned all about dairy cows and back in the classroom we worked on labeling some of the parts of a dairy cow.

I added the cow labeling sheet as a FREEBIE for you!

Enjoy,

Ten - Eleven - Twelve

10-11-12...  You might think that I am counting (I teach Kinder after all), but I am actually just writing the date today. Pretty cool.

   10-11-12...  The day that I wrote the first post on my new blog!

   Come back soon and check out all the adventures going on in Kindergarten Room 13!