What the Teacher Wants!

I'm Thankful {our first ever linky party}

I know we all have so much to be thankful for! I was inspired by Mrs. Saoud's blog, Primary Graffitti. She's been posting all week about what she's thankful for. I thought this would be the best time to have our first ever LINKY PARTY! I hope you join!

1. All you have to do is tell the bloggy world about what you are thankful for and post about it.
2. Then, come back here and link up! Enter the exact link to your post {not just your homepage url, but your exact thankful post}.
3. Add our "I'm Thankful!" button {just right click the button and save it to your computer} to the bottom of your post with a link back to this linky party :). Or you can just link back to us without the button.

If you're not sure of a format you'd use, you can use these questions {just copy and past into your post}.

1. What are you thankful for in your classroom?
2. What person are you most thankful for?
3. What 3 blogs are you most thankful for?
4. What guilty pleasure are you most thankful for?
5. What are you most thankful for?

1. What are you thankful for in your classroom?
In my classroom I love my Macbook Pro. I just bought one for home too! I {heart} it!
Ok, After reading what everyone else was saying, I TOTALLY feel superficial! When I wrote this question, I had an item in mind, not people. But I am thankful for my students, I PROMISE!

{source}

2. What person are you most thankful for?
I'm thankful for a lot of people {my family, my besties, my students, and my co-workers}. Today, I'm most thankful for my husband. I love him more than anything. I can't imagine what my life would be without him. It has never been easy, but we always make it through. He reminds me to not stress and things will be ok! Love you Brian!

3. What 3 blogs are you most thankful for?
This is VERY difficult because I love SO many blogs.
I'm thankful for Lesson Plan SOS. These gals help us out so much! They have such amazing ideas, awesome TpT products, and they are our blogging BFFs.

I'm thankful for The First Grade Parade. Cara and I started blogging about the same time and I feel like we know each other! She pushes me to become a better teacher when I read what she's doing in her class....I think to myself....DANG, she's on top of it! I'm pretty sure she put the cute in cutesified!

I'm thankful for Kristin at The Teeny Tiny Teacher. She CRACKS ME UP. Kristin has given me some VERY good laughs lately! I seriously can't get enough of her posts. I really would like to sit down with her and just talk {and laugh a heck of a lot}.

4. What guilty pleasure are you most thankful for?
I'm very thankful for HUNGER GAMES {trilogy and upcoming movie}!!! I'm obsessed with it like most of my students are obsessed with Justin Beiber and Littlest Pet Shop. I cannot even wait for the movie. I even went to {this} website to figure out what district I would be in. I'm in district 3-technology. HA! So if a Twilight fan is called a Twi-hard, then what is a Hunger Games fan called?

5. What are you most thankful for?
I'm most thankful for my health and happiness {Thank you Lord!}. I have many friends and family members who have health that is poor and I pray for them each day! Which reminds me of how thankful I am for my close family. I love family dinners, card games, and just making fun of each other! HA!

I am thankful for the wonderful blogging family that I have made. I love all of my blogging buddies! I have made so many great friends and I hope to meet all of you in person one day! I am also thankful for Teacher Pay Teachers. It's been such a blessing! I should be thankful for my hands/fingers....I type lots and lots each day! :)

I am also thankful for my sorority and sisters in Alpha Phi! I could go on FOREVER!!!!! :) They were my besties in college, my bridesmaids at my wedding, and are going to be aunts to my kids {one day}.

I am SO thankful for Natalie. You now, Natalie. She's the better half of this blog. She does some amazing work ya'll! I have loved getting to know her even better and I feel like we are a great team. I just love her!

I hope you link up! AND PLEASE...head over to Oh' Boy 4th Grade and link up too! We both posted a linky party for what we are thankful at about the same time {great minds think alike!}.

Holidays around the world

Each year I do my Holidays Around the World, I like to give you a sneak peek of what it looks like in my classroom. This year I will complete ALL 13 countries (available in my bundle)! Did you know I just updated this pack last week? It's new and improved for sure (with lots added).

Something I wanted to add in my unit was a complete EXPERIENCE that the students get! Play the sound of an airplane taking off, dress like a flight attendant, pass out the in-flight snack, and fasten your seat-belts! The WORLD AIRLINES will take off in 3, 2, 1.

I really wanted to talk about Netherlands on December 5th and Sweden on December 13th because those dates are important to their holiday. Many of the other holidays begin either before we start our unit of after...so the date that you introduce that country doesn't matter. I had to do a little rearranging to make it happen for those two countries, but it'll work! (plans from 2016)

This lesson plan template is also available in my pack!

These informational reading passages are EVERYTHING! It's nice to have all of the key points right there on one sheet of paper. SHOUT OUT to my friend Carly who helped me!

Remember, in my pack, there is such a variety that each year you can change it up! You don't have to do all of the countries each year. The wonderful part about being the boss of applesauce is that you decided. With my new update of my pack this year, I've included more writing components and supplementals. It's JAM PACKED! Each country also has a reading passage to go with it so you can stop googling each country right before you "teach" it to your students (I'm talking to you Carly, hahah). I've also included links to websites and books.... so I have pretty much done all the work for you. You're welcome. Kidding!!! ;) Kind of.

Here's a picture of just some of the extensions included:

Ok, ready to take a look? The best deal is the BUNDLED pack (which includes 13 countries). Or you can break it up and buy JUST Part 1 or JUST Part 2.

I've made it a tradition each year to show you an outline of my plans for Holidays Around the World in my classroom. This is the first year that I'm doing ALL of the countries! EEK! I'm excited! I know to always give myself more time than I think I need because we somehow fall behind. That's why I don't do any countries on Fridays (except when we do Gingerbread Houses for Germany). That way, I can catch up on anything I want on Friday.

This lesson plan template is also available in my pack!

Reminder: Thanksgiving Math

Hey everyone!! This is a really fun Thanksgiving Math activity for the upper grades. I just wanted to re-post it in case you haven't seen it before. Also, this is a reminder that if you want to do this with your students next week, you will need to remember to grab your grocery store ads this weekend!!

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This is a super fun activity for upper grades, but could easily be adapted for younger grades as well. Click here for a download.

Preparations:

You will need to gather some grocery ads from a couple different stores beforehand. (You'll need one per group from each different store.)
Divide your students in groups and make sure they have a poster board, scissors, markers, and glue.
You'll also want to have blank copies of the budget form.

Assignment:

Groups will work together to create a menu for a Thanksgiving dinner on a $40 budget.
They will need to go through the ads, compare prices of different food items to make sure they get the best deal.
They will need to calculate the total cost of the meal using the budget form, making sure to add, subtract, multiply and divide as needed. They cannot spend more than $40.
They will make a poster showing the final menu (using the pictures from the ads) with prices of each food item clearly marked. Make sure they write which store they purchase each item from.

Important Information:

Tell students they need to be able to feed a family of 6 people.
They can choose whatever they want to eat; but should include a meat, a vegetable, some side dishes, a dessert, and a beverage.
Students do not need to buy condiments, dishes, silverware, etc.

Teacher's Notes:

My team has been doing this activity for the past 4 years. Each year my students walk away with a whole new appreciation for what their families go through when planning a big meal such as Thanksgiving. They see how expensive food is and how hard it is to budget. A lot of times they even go home and tell their parents which store has the best deals on different food items. It is overall a wonderful learning experience!!
Groups will most likely argue about what food items to choose. I tell them beforehand that part of their grade on this project is teamwork and they have to work together to make everyone happy. That way, when they start arguing over which dessert to choose and complain to me, I just tell them they need to work it out together as part of their grade.
HAVE FUN! If you try this activity, make sure to leave a comment to tell us how it goes!

Explorers Jackpot!

I was searching the internet today for resources to help teach about Early Explorers.

(I know I'm a little bit behind in my social studies instruction - I figure that as long as I get to pilgrims by Thanksgiving, I'll still be in good shape.)

*Do you all know the special trick about search for things on the internet? Just add 'pdf' in your google search and you can find some pretty good, ready-to-print resources.*

These are the two INCREDIBLE resources I found today... thought I'd share:

1: Hands on History: Explorers

A 48 page resource of hands-on, fun projects on explorers. My favorite is the accordion style book that can be found on page 9.