Free Polar Express Train Tickets

As a general rule I don't do anything Christmassy before December 1st. There are no holiday books in my classroom library, no Christmas art has been completed by my students, and my house won't see a Christmas tree for at least a few weeks.

But today...I am breaking that rule. I know the next three weeks are going to fly by, so I'm trying to get a little jump start on anything holiday related.

A few years ago I blogged about The Polar Express by Chris Van Allsburg and included some free train tickets. You can read that post {HERE}, but I thought I'd kick off this holiday season by updating that freebie.

The Christmas season is a great time to make lasting memories for your students. Host a day filled with The Polar Express by having students wear pajamas, setting up your chairs to resemble train seats, and serving hot chocolate. Round out the day by providing students with a train ticket to help make the day complete. You can click {HERE} to grab the tickets.

In other news, Christmas for many means a lot of sales and a lot of shopping trips. If you are looking to get some TpT shopping done, make sure to head over there tomorrow or Tuesday for the Cyber Sale. If you do shop, make sure to use the promo code "CYBER2016" to get up to 28% off!

Thanks to 1st Grade PandaMania for the cute sale button

If you're in need of a few Christmas resources to get you through the next few (very busy) weeks, I've got quite a few for you to check out. Just click {HERE} or the pic below...

Happy Holidays…too early?

Winter Break Freebie!

One more week until winter break, are you as excited as I am?

I don't know about you, but this week is going to be CRAZY! I was looking at the schedule and it is packed with assemblies, last minutes field trips, more assemblies, sing-alongs, class parties . . . the list goes on.

Rather than having time to complete our regular activities, we are stuck with little pockets of time between all the other craziness. To fill this time, I didn't want to provide students with the regular filler colouring sheets, but rather with something *slightly* more substantial.

To help keep the students busy, but also using their brains, I've created a new freebie, my Winter Break Mini Pack of printables. It is filled with fun, winter-themed printables for students . . . and you know what printables mean, no extra prep for teachers!

You can click the pictures or {HERE} if you're interested in taking a closer look!

Have an amazing week!

New Winter Morning Work & TpT Cyber Monday Sale

Whew! Talk about preparing last minute. I have been working my butt off to finish my new winter Daily Language packet and I *just* uploaded it - just in time for the TpT Cyber Monday & Tuesday sale! Wahoo, who's ready to do some shopping? I don't know about you, but as soon as that calendar switches over to December, I just hear the ka-chings start as I begin my holiday shopping.

If you're interested, let's get onto the shopping details, shall we?

My whole store will be 20% off for Monday and Tuesday, and if you use the code TPTCYBER, you'll get an additional 10% off at checkout! Talk about a perfect time to shop!

So, with my whole shop on sale, that includes my new pack:

Some more winter-themed products:

And of course, some holiday units:

I am excited to start some holiday activities in the classroom this week, what are your plans?

Cold Weather Teacher Essentials

Well, it happened. I've been crossing my fingers and hoping that I would not get sick, but I've got the dreaded wintertime cold. The flu has been spreading around since December, so I'm really hoping that I will avoid that. Last week, some teachers had ten students absent - TEN - for the whole week! Those classrooms were peaceful and quiet and I think it's going to be a shock for them to have full classes again.

Since many people are in the middle of cold weather, or just the common cold, I think it's the perfect time to talk about some of my favourite cold weather essentials.

**Snowflake graphics from Melonheadz, fonts from Hello Fonts and Kevin & Amanda**

1. My lips are always chapped and I used to use *every* lip balm, trying to find some solution and I think I've found it - eos.

Via Evolution of Smooth

This lip balm is all natural and full of great stuff, while leaving out all those parabens that you don't need. It's even gluten free! Right now I'm using Summer Fruit - which has lasted forever - but I think it's time I picked up another one - I'm looking at you, Strawberry Sorbet!

2. Besides cold weather items, I think another theme for this post is going to be "items I have spent years trying various brands of, and now may have found great ones." Along with my lips, my hands are always painfully dry and being in the classroom does not help. I think I must wash my hands every five minutes, in addition to all the hand sanitizer I use, so a great hand cream is a must. For years I've tried tons of different brands and there are many that I like and still use occasionally, but when my hands are in need of extra moisture, my absolute go-to-works-like-a-charm brand is Glysomed.

Via Glysomed

I actually was given a small tube of this and left it on my shelf before trying, but once I did, I was hooked. This is the only hand cream that really solves the extra dry skin I experience in the winter. If you have dry hands at all, go get this.

3. When the winter cold and flu season is in full effect, hand sanitizer is a must. This year, I found my new favourite - Bath & Body Works Foaming Mousse Hand Sanitizer.

Via Amazon

I was recently introduced to Bath & Body Works and I'm hooked already. Just before Christmas, I was in there and found this foaming mousse and purchased it on a whim - impulse at the register - but I am so glad I did. As it says, it comes out as a mousse, light as air that absorbs very quickly. Am I the only one who always seems to use too much regular hand sanitizer, which takes too long to absorb, and them I have a gloppy gel mess on my hands? Anyway, this sanitizer is absolutely my favourite I've found (love the Vanilla Bean Noel scent!) but when I just went to the Bath & Body Works website, I could not find any foaming mousse sanitizers. I really hope they didn't discontinue it.

These are only my top three picks for wintertime essentials, what are yours?

All Things Snowmen

To be honest, that blog title was completely exaggerated. I am way too tired to delve into most things snowmen, let alone all things snowmen, but I am still here to talk about a few things snowmen.

So it's January, is everyone deep in some kind of snow, penguin, snowmen studying in the classroom? Do you have real like snow to go with these activities and lessons? If so, you're lucky (even if you don't agree with me!). Even though I live in Canada, where I live, we really only get a day or two a year with a dusting of snow - and that's during a cold winter. If we ever get more than that, well then lucky us, schools shut down and we get the elusive snow day!

Despite our lack of snow, we can still have fun with snowmen in January. I think some of the cutest art I've done with students lately has been winter/snowy/snowmen art. I have said it before and I will say it again - I am no artist, so I really like it when the students can look at my embarrassing artistic example and make something amazing.

This year, I tried some Van Gogh snowmen that I've seen floating around Pinterest. Of course I never have time to sit down at school, let alone whip out a camera, so I'll show the Pinterest image that inspired the art:

Via Jamestown Elementary Art Blog

We carefully traced the snowman with pencil on white card stock and then traced with a black pastel. We used white, blue, and for some adventurous students, pink pastel to draw the Van Gogh inspired wind, then painted with watercolors. They really turned out amazing and brightened up the hallway. Make sure to remind students to just use a wash in the background (bright blue looks the best), so the pastel wind can still be seen.

We also read some the of the Snowmen series by Caralyn Buehner - perfect for winter,

Via Amazon

The students loved looking for the hidden pictures, though I have to be honest, I'm still searching for some of them!

After reading, we talked about what snowmen could do at night. I think the most creative answer I heard was "drink milk from my fridge." Love those sweet answers! I then showed students the following pin and let them create their own artwork using pastel and black paper.

Via A Faithful Attempt

Ahh, SmartBoards - I love when I can show the kids a great example of art to inspire them! The students loved looking for the hidden images in the books so much that they decided to include their own hidden images - I do love when they are excited and inspired. It was interesting how a few hidden pictures ended up being white mice hidden in the white snowmen, no wonder we couldn't find them!

I haven't been stuck on snowmen though, I've also been thinking slightly ahead. I've uploaded a few more Word Problem a Day packets, including Valentine's Day (for 3rd and 4th) and Spring (for 3rd, still working on 4th). In addition, I've got some Winter Printables (Differentiated for 2nd) and a Valentine's Day Write the Room packet for Kindergarten. Click on any of the below pictures to check out the units if you're interested.

Now, I guess it's time to think about this upcoming week, I can't believe it's almost February!