It's hard to believe tomorrow is the FINAL week of Freaky Friday for 2018!
We're all hoping you found lots of great deals each week and will be ghoulishly happy with what we have to offer this week!
If you are new to 'Freaky Friday' here is how it works!
40+ Teacher Authors have teamed up to bring you a dollar deal each Friday in October.
The deal is good for ONE DAY ONLY, so you'll want to set a reminder not to miss out tomorrow!
To find all the deals simply:
1. Click this image:
It will bring you directly the the list of deals being offered on Teachers Pay Teachers!
2. Use the linky at the bottom of this post to find the participating stores. You can click the first image in the linky to find ALL THE DEALS for the week or click each individual seller's picture to find what they are discounting for the day!
I have been making these for years and they parents always comment on how cute they are sitting on the table! The years that I have had a feast, we used them as our placemats for that too!
You have the option of using mats with the year on them, or not, and I update the mats each year, so once you purchase it you'll always be entitled to the updates! It is normally $3, but on Friday October 26th you can grab it for just $1!
There is also an option to add a turkey handprint to the back!
There is a cute little poem that goes with it.
I have my students make their mat and then we glue it to a 10x13 piece of yellow construction paper.
I then paint their hands to make the handprint (because I like the bold look of the paint), but you can trace hands if you're not too keen on the paint mess!
I have them write their names and the year.
I have them laminated and then send them home before Thanksgiving break with a little note explaining that this special keepsake can also serve as a placemat to spur discussions about things everyone at the table is thankful for!
Are you ready to find all the deals for the FINAL week of Freaky Friday?
We sure hope you have enjoyed the weekly dollar deals this October!
This group has decided this is an annual event we will host, so please be sure to be on the lookout again next October when Freaky Friday returns for it's 6th year!
This year I have started incorporating morning explore tubs into my classroom.
It gives my students the extra practice they need- hands on practice- that we unfortunately don't have enough time to do during the day.
I have been trying to keep some of them 'seasonally' based because the kids really enjoy the added holiday/seasonal fun!
Here are two we started using this week!
This first one was inspired by a pin I saw where someone used a paint chip to make a slice of pumpkin pie. I thought it was so cute- but wanted a way to make it more 'educational!'
So I headed to the hardware store and grabbed some paint chips
The pin I saw had you add burlap as the 'crust' but I opted for some of the brown chips!
Making the pie was- well- as easy as pie!
I cut/taped the brown chips to the orange ones.
I found the middle of the chip and drew a line from each side to the middle point and then cut:
I used a sharpie to add words we have been working on.
I also numbered each slice so that I could have different pies out the on table. The number on the pie matched the number I put on the spinner!
(I even included a blank spinner so you can write in the words you are working on- just don't forget a number in the 'dollop' if making different sets of pies/spinners!)
I found some real cute white pom-poms in the Target Dollar Spot (I originally bought them for a fun winter station I have yet to make, but realized they would work great for this too!)
If you don't have white pom-poms, cotton balls will work the same!
Here is how they will play:
They continue to spin, read, cover...
They then clear the pie and can play again, try another slice/spinner and/or record the words on a white board and/or use one of the words in a sentence!
But that wasn't the end of the paint chip fun!
I also found these color chip 'mini books'
I chose the 'pumpkin' colors
And then used a sharpie to write the numbers 0-5 on the squares (we are in our 0-5 unit)
I made these 'count' cards to go with them:
Print/laminate/cut the cards and then place them face down on the table (I like to print on patterned scrap book paper for things like this- you can read about it HERE).
Students draw a card, count the number of objects and then take a dollop of 'whipped cream' and cover that number on the board.
Continue until all the numbers are covered.
You can also use dice in place of the cards.
Give students 2 dice for addition practice!
You can program them with any numbers you are working on!
I had purchased 'build a turkey' clip art and was itching to use it, so I made these:
Students roll the dice, count out that many beads and drop it into the bottle!
If you're visual like me, this might help:
I originally thought the tweezers would be great to use for extra fine motor practice BUT they wound up being too hard so I just had the kids use their fingers (thumb/pointer so we were practicing that 'pinch' grip!) to put the beads in.
You could have a whiteboard there for them to practice writing the number and or use for addition and have them write the number sentence for what they added to the turkey!
The kids had SO much fun with this one!
They said to me 'Mrs. Drake can we use these even after Thanksgiving is over?!'
Now my wheels are turning....feed Santa maybe?!
Must save more bottles!
You can find the turkey bodies/feathers to tape onto your water bottles for FREE HERE!
Here are a few of the other fine motor stations we worked with this week:
Ordering numbers 0-10
Although we have only covered 0-5, I left 6-10 in there and told them to reference the number line if they needed help. This one was super popular (and quiet)...a lot of concentration to get those links on!
I don't have any pictures of us using this fun pasta yet, but I made a few things to go with it for counting, sorting, same/more/less and number ID that I hope to post soon!
And while I was at The Christmas Tree Shoppe I grabbed the Hanukkah and Christmas versions of the pasta too!
Hope some of these ideas help you make your classroom exciting and fun over the next few weeks too!
You can grab each FREEBIE from the links above or find them all HERE!
If you need additional Thanksgiving Resources, be sure to check out what I have in my TpT Store:
Here are a few of my favorite things to do in my classroom this time of year:
Thankful Crown/Hat
We wear these at our Thanksgiving 'feast' on the day before Thanksgiving.
Pilgrim & Native American Readers
A lot of books about Pilgrims and Native Americans are WAY above my students' reading levels, so we make/read these and keep them in our book baggies all month.
Thankful Mat
We make these, I mount them to construction paper, add a handprint turkey to the back and then laminate. We use them as our placemats for our class party and then they take them home to use as placemats for Thanksgiving dinner. Parents LOVE them!
***This is a re-post of a blog post I did on The Primary Pack back in 2014. Since I no longer blog at that site, I thought I would share this post with my readers.***
Happy Fall Y'all!
(I always wanted an excuse to say that! As a NY gal, we never say 'y'all!')
Today marks the first FULL day of Fall, so I thought it would be fun to 'serve up' an easy fall 'treat' that you can make with your students!
You may have read about it on my blog last October...if so...sorry for the 'repost!'
If not, grab some pumpkin, graham crackers and pudding...we're about to fill our bellies!
This is a perfect, easy, no-cook way to bring some 'pumpkin pie' into your classroom this fall, that also has your children be active participants in the process!
So here is your ingredient list & recipe:
I doubled this recipe last year because I had 17 kids. This year I have 21...I guess I am going to have to go for triple...or smaller portions!
Before you get started here are some things to have ready:
*DOUBLE bag and use a good quality bag (freezer style would be best) for the cracker smashing and filling squeezing! You will THANK me for this tip!
*Don't forget a can opener or open the pumpkin at home and scoop it into another container! Nothing like 20+ eyes staring at you and a can with no way to open it!
*Have a tray...it will catch any crumbs that escape from a popped bag!
The How-To:
I started by having my kids take turn smashing the crackers! You could easily do this step at home but denying them the chance to unleash some pent-up kid energy would be mean!
We used a meat tenderizer...a rolling pin would work as well!
Next you will measure out the pudding and milk into bags. If making a double batch, use 2 bags...believe me...trying to conserve in one winds up making a HUGE mess!
Once the pudding and milk are in the bags, release as much air as you can and seal them tight.
Pass them around to be kneaded:
Once kneaded (it will begin to get thick), add the pumpkin:
Seal them back up again and pass around for another round of kneading!
Once it looks like this, your filling is ready!
If you are a multi-tasker like me, you will appreciate this!
While they are kneading, 'sneak' to the table and put 2T of the crumbs into each cup:
Then snip the end of the bag and use it as a 'pastry bag' to fill up the cups.
(This could get messy!)
Here are all the cups filled with pumpkin pie!
The next part is optional, but no pie is complete without...
WHIPPED CREAM!
(Thank you Reddi-Whip for being so convenient!)
To make it even more 'authentic' and festive, I also like to sprinkle a bit of pumpkin pie spice on top:
And with your extra filling, don't forget to make some 'grown-up' size portions to bribe, butter, sweeten distribute to secretaries, administrators and custodians:
Now if you are going to a fall party this year and wanted to bring a tasty treat, this can also be made as a 'dip'! Simply make the filling and scoop it into a bowl. Add some whipped cream and spice on top and then have graham crackers around the side of the bowl for dipping!
If you are looking for some fun pumpkin crafts and activities to do with your class,
