More Flat Stanley... and It's been WAY too long!

Hey everybody!  I'm finally getting around to posting some of our recent school stuff.  I have an adorable class this year and we've been having lots of fun learning about all sorts of things but life has just hit me hard and I haven't had it in me to blog, which is totally ironic since this is the first time in 2 years that I haven't been  teaching full-time and going to graduate school.  (Did I ever mention I finished my masters degree this summer? Hooray me!)  

So first, if you've ever read my blog before you know I'm a bit of a Flat Stanley-aholic and my school teaches the Core Knowledge Sequence.  I love that several of the FS Worldwide Adventure books highlight countries and cultures that we learn about in Core Knowledge.  Two of those are Flat Stanley and the Great Egyptian Grave Robbery and Flat Stanley and the Mount Rushmore Calamity.  Every time I read one of the FS books my kids just eat. it. up. I love immersing them in literacy in such an addictive way! :)  hehehe.  So I created this unit....

And this one... at the TPT request of another fabulous teacher (thank you Ashley Wren)! 

 Then I started to think that some people might be interested in the Ancient Egypt activities aside from Flat Stanley so I removed the FS stuff and posted it separately as Ancient Egypt Activities on TPT & TN too.  (Click any of the images to purchase)

FLASH Back to School Sale

I'm jumpin' on the bandwagon and hosting a back to school sale!  Click here to check out my store.  

Image thanks to Amy Lemons.

Here are a few things you'll find in my store... (Click the image to view in my TPT store).

Check back soon because I'm about to reveal photos of my whole Dr. Seuss themed classroom AND host a great 100 followers giveaway. You don't want to miss it!  :)

Volunteer Gifts & My Little Ninjas

For the last few weeks I've been deliberating about what to do for my classroom volunteers.  I thought about mini first aid kits from the dollar store, and sure, they're practical, but where's the fun?

 

So I did some Pinterest perusing and was inspired to create these:  voila!  (PS - it's hard to see, but the baggie is full of smores goldfish, but I'm also using the regular cheddar ones and swedish fish too. The water bottle (dollar store find) has lemonade candies and lemonade flavor packets).  I think they turned out pretty cute.  :) You can click any of the images above to download the tag template for free. Also, after I had decided to do these I saw some great ideas on The Teacher Wife's blog - check them out.

  Now... the picture below is not for the faint-hearted I will tell you that much. I saw an idea like this on Pinterest months ago (I'm sure you've seen it - adorable!)... and I'm a little over-ambitious at times and couldn't shake the idea out of my brain.  So of course I had to try it and here it is!

    I just ordered prints and cards with this photo on the front from Walmart.  The occasional volunteers will get a print.  The regulars will get a card with a written message inside.

 Now who could these little ninjas be?  Surely not escaped from Flat Stanley's Japanese Ninja Surprise!?

 Oh look, there's more!  Aren't they cute? 

Oh boy, put on a mask and a whole different side comes out.  Check out some of their cute Ninja stories below.  (This page and mask are both in my Flat Stanley unit - see previous post to win it for free!)  You can click here to download the Ninja Adventure Writing Page for free.

 

 Also, I've seen this cute idea all over all of those fantastic teacher blogs out there, (sorry I don't know who to credit for the original idea) but I didn't jump on the bandwagon until there were just 8 days of school remaining for us.  The idea is each day you pop a balloon and inside there is a surprise note telling the class something fun they get to do that day. 

Mr. Smiley is now nose-less and my students were ecstatic to discover that their surprise fate for day #8 was..... (drum roll please.... ) An EXTRA recess!  They can't wait to see what tomorrow's balloon brings.  Thanks for whoever started this fantastic wildfire idea. :)  Obviously, I love it.

What fun things are you doing for your last few days of school?

PS - I just joined my first Linky party (I know, where have I been, right?) on Courtney's blog over at Swimming into Second. You should come join too!

Flat Stanley Unit Giveaway & Award

I don't usually ever blog twice in one day, but it just so happens that I've been sick in bed/on the couch for two days now and had a lot of computer time on my hands :( so it brightened my day when I was awarded the Lovely Blog Award by Tori @ http://toristeachertips.blogspot.com/. She truly has great ideas! Check her out! I'm so excited to have made some new blog friends!  See the end of this post for my blog award recipients - Hopefully I can brighten their day! Do any of you new bloggers ever get discouraged with how cumbersome and tricky it is to learn the blogging world like I do? Sigh.


 And next up... FLAT STANLEY!  As I said earlier - my kids LOVE him.  I'm so excited to use this integrated all-things-flat-Stanley unit with them in our remaining 2 weeks of school.  You can click the image below to grab the unit on Teachers Notebook, or you can click here to get it on TPT.

Also... I'm going to do a little GiVeAwAY of the unit to the winner of my HUSBAND's random choice next Sunday! :)  Here's what you need to do:  1 - Follow my blog. 2 - Follow my TN or TPT store 3 - Leave a comment.  (PS - If you blog about this giveaway I'll give my husband extra encouragement that you deserve to win:)

Here are a few Flat Stanley crafts we've done:  We read Flat Stanley and the Egyptian Grave Robbery several months ago with our Ancient Egypt Unit and made these cute mummies.  Currently we're reading Flat Stanley and the Japanese Ninja Surprise, so on Friday (by student request) we did some ninja star origami - wouldn't recommend for first graders without additional adult assistant.  Next week we're going to be making ninja masks, but I couldn't resist making mine beforehand and doing a ninja photoshoot with myself some... uh... friends afterschool.  :) 

 

And FINALLY here are all the FABULOUS blogs that I found and am awarding the Lovely Blog award. It really was fun to sift through so many teaching blogs to find these hidden gems!  Here are the award rules: 

1) Follow the person that gave you the award.  

2) Link back to the person that gave you the award.  

3) Pass the award on to 15 new bloggers. 

http://www.mrsjonescreationstation.blogspot.com/

http://1stgradewithmisssnowden.blogspot.com/

http://funforfirst.blogspot.com/

http://teachingwithloveandlaughter.blogspot.com/

http://thewizardofboz.blogspot.com/

http://thefirstgradereader.blogspot.com/

http://www.adventuresn2grade.blogspot.com/

http://hellomrssykes.blogspot.com/

http://runteacherrunriley.blogspot.com/

http://lakairways.blogspot.com/

http://thirdgrade-firststate.blogspot.com/

http://teach123-school.blogspot.com/

http://theteacherschatterbox.blogspot.com/

http://tangledupteaching.blogspot.com/

http://classfullofspecialkinders.blogspot.com/

http://munchkinmanagement.blogspot.com/

http://madlylearning.blogspot.com/

http://publicschoolteachersodyssey.blogspot.com/