It’s Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas {{GIVEAWAY}}

It’s officially December and I am officially in the Christmas mindset.

Christmas candles are lit, Christmas lights are up, and our tree is completely ornamented.

{{Ornamented might be a made up word}}

I’m also in a pretty darn good mood because the TpT Cyber Monday (and Tuesday) SALE starts tomorrow!!!!

My cart is stocked. 

See, I like to shop on Monday, earn credits, then go back for more on Tuesday.

It’s my version of “extreme couponing”.

My lil’ store is so stockpiled with Christmas goodies you might think I don’t sell anything else.

But I do!

It’s just, I love Christmas so…

Here are my NEWEST Christmas items. Hot off the presses and posted today! Today, you guys!!!

My Winter-Holidays Comprehension sheets are up.  They’ve also been added to the BUNDLED version, so if you own that, make sure you redownload before the holidays!



There are 8 passages, and they cover such topics as…
*German Christmas Markets
*Santa’s Many Names
*Traditions
*Christmas in Australia
*Hanukkah
*Santa Claus
and, of course,
*Christmas!

I can’t wait to use them with my kiddos starting this week.  We have just really been getting into going back into the text to support our answers. These passages are beyond perfect for enforcing such an important skill.



I’m a million kids of excited about my newest Christmas addition…”Santa’s Little Helpers”



It’s an “Elf-Themed” Hallway Hunt/Read the Room Activity with 3 R/LA and 3 Math activities.  Common Core Aligned and Perfect for 1st and 2nd Grade!

To get your kiddos excited about the Hallway Hunt, I’ve provided some fun printables that they’ll need before they board Santa’s sleigh…

An “Official Letter”…


Boarding Passes…


ID Badges…

PS: They're not really gray. I don't know why Blogger is doing that.  

and then, of course, there are the “missions”

Not all “missions” are shown. There are 6 in all, plus recording sheets to keep your students accountable!

And a few days ago I added my Christmas Clues Inferring and Context Clues Center. If you’ve seen my “Costume Clues” or “A Feast of Clues” it’s set-up a lot like that!






Those are the new items, but my hands-down favorite item in my store is my “Christmas Around the World” unit.



I created it because I wanted my students to have resources to read about each country’s celebrations.  I didn’t want to have to buy a bunch of books from Amazon, or rent them from the library, and I wanted my students to do the reading…



All mini-books are interactive, which means students read about different customs and traditions for each country and then complete an activity on each page…







It’s a HUGE hit and the best part is that my kiddos RETAIN what they’ve learned because they’ve done the reading themselves and interacted with the pages.

Read more about Christmas Around the World in my classroom here.



And here are some other items you might want to add to your cart..

Click the image to check it out on TpT!

Now, for the GIVEAWAY…I’m making it SUPER SIMPLE!  Just comment below with your email…I won’t even make you answer a question this time!  I will pick one winner to pick $20 worth of product from my store. You can have anything you want! It doesn’t have to be listed here!

I will pick a winner before I go to bed tonight. The winner will be announced on my FB Fan Page, so make sure you like me :)

Last time I did a giveaway a few people had trouble commenting. If that happens to you, email me (acrossthehallin2nd@gmail.com) and I'll add you to the "Husband Random Numer Generator List". Please only email me if you cannot leave a comment.

Whatever you’re buying, I hope you have shopping the sale tomorrow and Tuesday :)

It’s Freezing Here {FREEBIE}, & Yoga in the Classroom

Freezing cold weather and yoga are semi-related in this post. I promise.

If you live by me {East Coast} or pretty much anywhere in America, you know it’s been freeeeezing lately.  Indoor recess freezing.

We’ve been doing benchmarks in our classroom, which has left us with some time here and there.  On the fly I decided to read “Bear’s Winter House” {well my student teacher read it} and then we brainstormed things we like to do when it’s cold outside.  I made sure to differentiate between what we do when it’s cold, versus snowing, because it seems kids always associate the two.

It was a quick and simple activity, but I encouraged them to write WOW sentences, and they came through big time!  It was a nice little break from tedious testing!






Grab it here for FREE.

If you like it, leave me some love!

Now to the second part of my title: Yoga!

Like I said, we’ve been going a little stir crazy lately with all that indoor recess.  Teachers at our school are lucky enough to have duty free lunch 5 days a week, which means we’re not responsible for indoor recess.  Students either go to the Music Room and watch a movie, or the Gym to play games.  That being said, my little ones were still very wiggly this week.  It’s a law…kids need to get out and run around!
On a whim, I did a few yoga moves with them early in the week.  Just a few basic moves I had learned in my basic yoga class.  And what do you know?  They loved it!  We turned the lights off and I brought up a Yoga station on Pandora.

It was so successful I spent my whole lunch period looking up Children’s Yoga videos.  I couldn’t find any free ones that I was a fan of, so I decided to see if any of the online book wesites I used had a yoga book…and…jackpot!!! 

www.Wegivebooks.org had the book “You Are a LION!”

{Source}

I projected it on to my whiteboard and we did all the moves in the book.  Very easy, very basic. 

 I’m tellin’ you this is my new Friday routine!!!!!  After yoga, we did “Zen Paper Passing”, which is code for super-quiet, hand-back the week’s graded work.  And what do you know? They LOVEDDDDDD it!

I strongly recommend making yoga part of your classroom routine.  

And…If you have a video suggestion please head me in the right direction in the comments below!

I’m off to catch up on laundry do some online shopping.

Enjoy your Sunday :)

Halle

Winter Math Freebie

Well hello.

Happy {the school week is now more than halfway over} day!

I’m popping in really quick to offer up a freebie from my “Snow Many Math Centers”.

As I said here, my favorite thing about my centers this time around is that I made an extension sheet that correlates perfectly with the center itself, but is also great as a stand alone sheet for classwork, homework, or assessments!

I uploaded one of the extension sheets to Google Docs.  It’s a number story sheet that covers a few different common core topics.   Please check it out, by clicking here.  If you like what you see, you can check out “Snow Many Math Centers” over at TpT. 



Have a good night friends!

{Tomorrow is Thursday already!}

~Halle

Winners, Clip Art Linky, and New Math Centers!!!!

Phew…are you still with me after reading that title!?!

First things first, we have winners!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Ladies, check your email within the next few days…I’ll be emailing you the product you won, as well as asking for your mailing address to send you the perfect pair book! 

I think I have a few repeat winners from my last big giveaway!  If I ever go back to Vegas, you’re coming with!

Thank you to everyone for entering my giveaway!  I had so much fun reading your "perfect pair" suggestions, and I even got a few ideas of some new perfect pairs to try!

Lindsay, over at Primary Polka-Dots is having a super fun linky all about clip art.

My name is Halle and I am a clip art addict. {The first step is admitting your problem, you know}.

I hope you were able to discover some new artists or clip art sets!  Hop on over to Lindsay’s blog to link up yourself, or check out some favorites of other bloggers!



Also…

I just finished up my Winter Math Centers.

I wasn’t gonna make any.  I wasn’t.  Then I found some really, really cute clip art. {Because I’m addicted, remember}?

I present to you “Snow Many Math Centers”



Five centers aligned to the Common Core.

Each center comes with a Center Sign/Label, Student Directions Sheet, Recording Sheet, Center Materials, and my favorite…and extension sheet that you can use as a follow up with your whole class, in small groups, or as homework!

I love that I can do center rotations in my room, then give homework or classwork that mimics what they did during centers.  It’ll help me see who really “gets” it!
Here are a few close-ups of the centers:

“Snow Much Fun Subtraction”:

“Snow Much Fun Subtraction” Extension Sheet:



From “Hot Cocoa Café”:



From “Addition Mittens”:



From “Penguin Problem Solving”:



I am really excited to use them in my room, and to share them with you.  These centers took a lot of hard work, but I think they were worth it!

I hope you love them too!  If you do, leave a comment below.  I will pick a winner before bed!

Bedtime for Me!  Tomorrow's a Monday!  Congrats Luck Number 7, Amanda! {Picked randomly by none other than my hubby! I hope you love these centers!!!}

Click below to head over to TpT and read more about them if you'd like:

Have a good night friends!  Good Luck to all of you returning after 2 or more weeks away from your little cuties!

Halle

I Survived {my first day back!!} + a Winter Writing Freebie!

Well, I did it.  I survived my first day back from break.

The kids made it pretty easy.  They’re still as cute as they were in 2012 {if you can believe that}!!  Once I saw them I stopped pouting about not being able to sleep in and I just sort of went on with my day.  We had fun.  It’s gonna be a short week, and short weeks are easy peasy!

We’re learning how to “Zoom In” on our topics in writing, so we started with a list of all the fun things we did during our Winter Break, then we looked at my {superrrr long on purpose} list and decided what I could zoom in on.  Then, we worked on creating a really detailed paragraph about the White Elephant Exchange the Mr. and I hosted at our house on Christmas Eve.  Then I sent them back to their seats, and they picked one item from their list they want to write about.

Tomorrow we’ll write our sloppy copies, and Friday we’ll write final copies on the paper below.  I’ve uploaded it to Google Docs if you would like a copy for whenever you head back.  Just click the picture to head on over and grab it.

{There’s a “back side” with more lines for students who will use more than the 5 on the front}

Just a reminder, I’m hosting a giveaway until Saturday!  Click the picture below to enter!



I’m also part of a giveaway that Amy over at 3 Teacher Chicks is hosting.



Head over to wish her a Happy Birthday and enter!

~Halle

Warm Up to a Good Book {FREEBIE}

Happy Sunday!

If you’ve been following us for awhile, you might remember that one of my very first posts was a bulletin board freebie called “Warm Up to a Good Book”.  Well, I decided over break to give it a little make-over.



It’s back and better than ever! 
The first time around, I posted one writing prompt.  Version 2.0 features:
*A planning sheet
*Tracers for mug & chocolate
*Marshmallows {or use real ones!}
*4 different prompts





Click any of the pictures above to head over to TpT and grab it for free :)

And remember to stay tuned…I’ve got a pretty cute giveaway coming up {if I do say so myself!}

~Halle