Girl's Night, Thanksgiving, and Polar Express!

I hope you all had a fabulous Thanksgiving!  Now we are in the home stretch until Christmas break!  I would first of all like to say how relaxing it is to get to visit with family and friends during long breaks from school.  I was so blessed to spend my weekend before Thanksgiving with a close friend that I used to teach with. It was motivating to talk to someone who shares a positive attitude about our kids and their potential in meeting their end of the year goals in reference to testing.....and have a couple of glasses of vino:) Add to that a 6 day weekend with family in FL, and voila!  Relaxed and ready to go!

I have posted a new product on Teachers Pay Teachers that I will be using with my third graders in the weeks leading up to Christmas break.  It is a Polar Express Writing Unit, and is a BLAST!!  There are so many great options for using The Polar Express in the Classroom, but I absolutely LOVE using it for writing!  Check it out HERE:  THE POLAR EXPRESS WRITING UNIT

Also, here are a few pics of things that we did during Thanksgiving.  The newspapers and paper plates were used in a budgeting lesson teaching kids how to plan for and budget for Thanksgiving dinner.  Whew!  That was a toughie, but definitely an eye-opener for my students!  (Think:  What do you mean the turkey cost $20???)  Priceless!  It is amazing the street smarts that come out during lessons like that too!  (Think:  I am going to get green beans in a can, since they are cheaper.)  I hope you all had success teaching Thanksgiving to your kiddos too! 

Comparing and Contrasting the Pilgrims and Wampanoag Tribe

Budgeting sheet and plate with cut out food from the Sales ad.  For more, see my Thanksgiving Unit on Teachers Pay Teachers.

We don't have bulletin boards in the hallway, so this is my makeshift attempt at displaying our Thanksgiving work:)

Getting Serious!!  Budgeting our Thanksgiving dinner!

A little Pilgrim girl and flow map for the First Thanksgiving

Bulletin Board in my classroom with Pilgrims and first Thanksgiving flow maps.  Had to post this so that everyone could see the pink/blonde pilgrim:)

Halloween Time!

Halloween is absolutely my FAVORITE holiday to teach.  And I am totally sure that when Christmas rolls around, I will be saying the same thing:)  I wanted to share a few fun moments we had during the holiday lessons!

Thanks to Rachelle from What the Teacher Wants, I got to use this ABSOLUTELY adorable witches brew lesson.  LOVE LOVE LOVE!!  It was so much fun, and even though it was a lesson for younger kids, my 3rd graders loved it!  To check out her unit, click HERE!  Pics Below:

The day after our crazy fun Witches Brew, we had the 3rd annual PUMPKIN MATH DAY!!  The kids were absolutely hyper!!  But, I figure, if you can't beat the Halloween madness, why not JOIN IN!  I have a PDF file of the unit.  If you would like me to email you the unit, just leave me your email in a comment, and I will send it to you!  Here are a few pictures of our Pumpkin Math Unit:

Now that we have all survived Halloween, let's get going in NOVEMBER!  On to the next fun holiday!  Happy Friday!