ABCs of Thanksgiving

November always makes me pause a little more and really take stock of my life - what things do I have, what can I do for others, how can I show the people in my life that I love and appreciate them, and many other internal ponderings. Last year, I started my ABCs of Thanksgiving activity that ran on my blog for a bit. Every day, I'd throw one of the ABCs up on the board for my students to work on before the morning bell rang, and by Thanksgiving, we had a whole book of things that we were thankful for!

This year, I think I might do the same thing on the blog, but with a little less elementary teacher kitsch. Stay tuned! Ya girl has some MAD blog post catching up to do...

If you wanted the link to the ABCs of Thanksgiving zip file, here you go!

Thankful for Fridays

Its that time of the week, people! Friday could not be coming at a better time. With these weird 4-day weeks we've been having (last week Tuesday was Election Day, this week Tuesday was Veterans Day) I can never remember what day of the week it is, and Wednesday and Thursday have been getting in my way of celebrating the weekend! Here's my Five for Friday, linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching!

Let me just say how excited I am that my baby brother is coming home from his first semester in college in exactly 39 days!! We're 4 years apart in age, so when I left for college, he was just a freshman in high school. Now that I'm home from college, he left! We're the best of friends, so it was hard not being there for him while he was going through high school, but I'm so proud of him for all that he's done so far in college. I can't wait for him to be home!

Over the weekend, KDog and I went to the first major craft fair of the season (hooray!!!) and then had a nice lunch date at one of our favorite casual spots, The Counter. We always get their burger salads and the dill pickle chips. If you live on Oahu, or are even visiting for a bit, I definitely recommend stopping by The Counter at Kahala Mall!

I'm obsessed with nail polish. I think my collection comes in at around 90+ bottles or so…I haven't counted recently. I admit I have a problem, but an even bigger problem I had was trying to figure out how to nicely store my polish so that I could easily see all of the colors and choose which one I wanted to wear! I went to Ross by my house and picked up a shoe organizer that hangs on the back of a door, and voila! Clear pockets perfect for me to see through, and a pretty cute design as well (apologies for the terrible lighting, I only have one working bulb on my ceiling light when there should be 4 working bulbs…)

If you haven't been tuning in to my blog lately, I've been putting up my ABCs of Thanksgiving, created by yours truly, to get into the theme of giving Thanks during this month! What I'm trying to do even more, however, is remind myself that there are many things in life to be thankful for, and that I need to take the time to appreciate what I have. Today's letters are I and J. Here's a link to my ABCs of Thanksgiving file if you want copies of the blank letter templates for your own blog, classroom, or other personal use!

Those sales I mentioned in my ABCs of Thanksgiving for the letter I? Here's a few of the awesome threads I picked out from Nordstrom and LOFT, which will be arriving shortly! Yesterday's blogpost has the link to all of the tops pictured, as well as the code for the LOFT sale! Happy shopping!

Have a wonderful weekend! Don't forget to be thankful!

November is for Giving Thanks

Linking up with Primary Powers today to share some of the many things in my life that I'm over-the-moon thankful for. Included in this list of thankfulness are the following: my family and friends (especially KDog) who put up with my crying, hyperventilating, late nights and early mornings, Sunday panic attacks, crazy hours, and the insane monster that I tend to morph into when I get stressed, my crazy students who let me test out bizarre (but super fun and educational) lesson plans on them, good health, and coffee, glitter, and post-its for getting me through this first semester of my first year of being a teacher.

Keeping up with the theme of thankfulness, here's the link to my ABCs of Thanksgiving file for you to use in the class, personally, or any other creative way you can think of! 

Thanksgiving Letter: H

Ever have one of those days that makes all other "bad days" seem like a piece of cake? That's the week I'm currently having. But I'm thankful for those hard days, because they make me appreciate the good days more than usual.

Make sure to look back at the other ABCs of Thanksgiving posts to get the other letters, or download the entire pack here! 

ABC's of Thanksgiving, continued!

Welcome back to the ABCs of Thanksgiving! My "Tried It Tuesday" is a little less academic based, and more focused on character building. For November, or the weeks remaining until Thanksgiving Break (hooray!), I'm completing the ABCs of Thanksgiving, and also having my kiddos participate when we do morning work! They thought it was corny when I first told them what we were doing, but a few students came into class and reminded me that today is for F and G! For those of you who want to have the entire alphabet for use with your students, or personal, here's a link for you to download the zip file! If you wanted just F and G for today, here you go! Make sure to look back at the other ABCs of Thanksgiving posts to get the other letters!

ABC's of Thanksgiving

Good morning, everyone! My Monday Made It is my wonderful ABCs of Thanksgiving! Not only am I posting it on my blog, but I'm having my kiddos write or draw what they are thankful for when we do morning work. Today's letters are D and E for the ABCs of Thanksgiving! I've included the template below if you want to participate! If you want the entire file of letters, here's the link!

Sunday Scoop: ABCs of Thanksgiving!

I HAVE to finish making my lesson plans for this upcoming unit (yikes!), finish my literature review for grad school (9 out of 15 pages is progress, right?) and CLEAN MY CRAZY ROOM. I swear I clean my room at least 3 times a week and it always manages to look like a tornado passed through…

I HOPE to get my danged Yankee Candle order in the mail sometime this week. My patience is wearing thin, postal service. Also, I'm hoping to make or find more resources for my unit on consonant blends/digraphs. I'm trying to find passages specifically focusing on reading those digraphs, but can't seem to find many out there.

I'm HAPPY to start my ABC's of Thanksgiving! I did this in student teaching with my first graders, where we went through the entire alphabet, one letter a day, until Thanksgiving, taking each letter to say something we're thankful for. I might combine a few letters a day just because we're short on time, but if you want to participate, I've included the blank template for letters A, B, and C below! I'll try to post each template for each day, so check back during the week if you want to join in on the thankfulness!