Whew!  Where do these weeks go?  Just a minute ago, it was the beginning of school!  

I really had anticipated getting this posted over the weekend.  But it snowed here.  Not much, but enough to play outside with my niece.  Then we made pumpkin bread and watched the Wizard of Oz.  I love hanging out with my sweet niece!

Okay, back to business.

Last week we began our Native American unit.  With the wonky schedule we have this year, it’s really hard to get everything in {I know you all feel that way too}.  So during centers my Littles beaded their pattern necklaces and made really cool Native American pictures with our magnetic pattern blocks {pictures below}.

We also worked on a fun stamping activity from Deedee Wills.  Great practice for our HFW and Word Families.  It is an editable version so you can add what you need.  Love Deedee!  

Click on the image above to take you to DeeDee's TpT store.

We also did the Number Fun activity from this packet.  I know this is a back to school pack.  And, I did the activity at the beginning of the year in small groups with my Littles to get an idea of number sense. But what a great assessment tool {you know, since report cards are right around the corner}.  So I put it in a center and they worked independently on it.  I was very impressed how well they did!  

Click on the image above to take you to Alessia's TpT store.

Here they are....just workin' away.

 This is one of my Lakeshore finds.  It is Puuurrrfect for my kiddos!

Here are some of our Tricky Turkey Disguises

You can get the turkey template here at Mrs. Nelson's Class website.  She has a ton of great resources. 

 We made a TeePee on the Plains picture.

 And...our paper bag Native Americans

Two Post in 24 Hours....What???

So as I am laying here wide awake on a Sunday at 5:55 am {my internal clock knows it’s really 6:55 and is having nothing to do with the Tom Foolery of trying to go back to sleep}, I checked my  phone and there was a notification from my BLoglovin app.  You must give this a try....all you do is load the app, plug in your favorite blogs, and WHAM, you’ll get a notification when your favorite bloggers post.  Amazing!

Anyway, back to why I’m posting..........again 

{in less than 24 hours, this never happens}.

Deedee Wills and Greg Smedley are teaming up for a great giveaway!  Those of you that are familiar with Deedee, know that she is just {for lack of a better term} a super star!  She has helped me out so much this year with my setting up and managing my centers, I can’t even begin to tell you how wonderful the transition has been!

I just found Greg of Smedley’s Smorgasboard of Kindergarten through Mrs. Wills Kindergarten blog.  Literally, within the last 30 minutes.  I plan on taking time later today to go back through Greg’s previous posts.  He is hilarious, a HOOT, a kick in the pants!!!  Laughing out loud before 6 am~great way to start the day!!!

So now it‘s your turn to head over to both of these wonderful blogs, show some love and enter to win the giveaway!!!     

  

Fall Break & A New Unit

Fall break is coming to end.  Which in all honesty is probably a good thing too.  For a couple of reasons.  The first being the evil DVR!  Seriously, it's the DVR's fault that my “to do” list....really didn’t get done : )  Second, when I'm home, I bake therefor I EAT, and eat, and eat.....The DVR + food = a very bad thing!

Any way, back to the DVR.  A couple of weeks ago I watched an episode of Treme and was hooked.  On Demand makes it waaaaaaaay to convenient to "watch what you want~when you want".  Needless to say I download the ENTIRE series.  And watched the ENTIRE series.  Excellent show!   I found some great new music to add to my very eclectic music library. 

And added a visit to New Orleans (anytime really, but during Mardi Gras would be fantastic) to my bucket list.

While I watched I created and posted my newest unit to TpT.  

It's right around 185 pages of pure cheesy goodness!!!  

Click on the picture to take you to my TpT store.

Or.....be one of the first three to comment and share about the unit on your blog to get it senza alcun costo, in other words F to the R to double E.

You can see pictures from last year's pizzeria fun here.

Other than that, I cleaned out some of the closets in the house, made a couple of trips to the Goodwill both to drop off and also to see what treasures they had to offer.  Met my bestest cousin in the world for Thai, and made a visit Lakeshore for their splendiferous sale.  

(Yes, splendiferous is a real word...it was Dictionary.com’s word of the day)

Each of these items were marked down at least 30%!

As we get back school, I have some fun planned for us.  I send home this Save Tom the Turkey activity each year for families to complete together.  If you would like the PDF files for the turkey & the family letter leave a comment and I’d be happy to send them to you.  (I can’t get Google Docs to cooperate with me right now...grrrrr)

These are some great disguises from years past:

China Doll & Power Ranger

Señor Mariachi, Leopard Ballerina, Santa Clause & Soccer Player 

Dinosaur, Cowgirl & Typical St. Pius X Student (uniform and backpack)

 We will also begin our Native American unit.  I love teaching this history to the kiddos.  I’ll post photos and updates this week.