It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year...

I love December in my classroom!  You are thinking, lady you are cah-razy.  I know, I know.  

But...BUT!  

I get to do a Christmas Around the World unit in Social Studies.  My {absolute} favorite!

I use Christina Bainbridge's Christmas Around the World 

And this year I'm combining in with What the Teacher Wants' Holidays Around the World unit.

Today we started by making our suitcases:

I made my own {as an example} too!  Love to color :)

Next week, we start our "virtual field trip" and the kids are so excited to add to their suitcases!  I told them that if they were well-behaved, we could do extra Social Studies.  Bribing them with extra work, haha!

TGI{almost}F! 

Christmas in July!

Christmas has come early this year my friends.  Seriously, I was in a store yesterday and saw one of the employees putting Santa Claus decorations out on the shelf.  Really?!?  Of course, there was NO patio furniture to be found, which is what I was looking for.  It's July!

Blog Hoppin is celebrating Christmas in July too!  But this is way more fun.  The button below will take you to my store where all my seasonal products will be 20% for 1 day only!  July 25th is your only chance to get these items on sale!  Stock up now! 

Hop on over to Blog Hoppin to check out the sales in the other stores:

P.S. ~ yes this is my second day in a row of posting twice in one day.  I'm going to be kicked out of the blogosphere for sure now.

Where did it go?? (and a freebie)

This post has been moved to my new blog, The Colorful Apple.  Check it out here!

7-Year Olds and Things that Break

Ok, it's not as bad as it sounds.  But, really?!? The PTF decided it would be okay for our second graders to purchase glass items and take them home on the bus.  Isn't it a general rule that breakable things and single-digit aged human beings should not mix?

Here's the deal.  The PTF sets up a Holiday (politically correct, people) Workshop in the gymnasium for one week during December.  Each class is given a time to go down and the students can purchase crap gifts for their family/friends.  It's all cheap-o things, but the kids love it.  I do really like it too.  It gives the children a lesson in setting a budget, purchasing items, adding money, making decisions, etc.  Usually it's stuffed animals, scarves, school supplies and all those simple things.  Not this year!  We decided, apparently, that large glass items were okay to sell too.  Well, let's just say that not all of my kids "gifts" even made it out of the gymnasium.  I don't want to even think about how the bus rides went...

Aaanndd rant over.

Anyways, as a Social Studies teacher, the holidays are my favorite.  In the past, I've always done Christmas Around the World.  This year I'm working on switching it up a bit.  I'm changing it to a Holidays Around the World unit.  I think that it's important for my students (who live in a town that has very, very little diversity) to learn, not only about Christmas, but other December holidays as well.   As soon I get it together, I'll share!  I've got time, we go to school all the way up till the 23rd.  Yep, you read that right.  December 23 we are still in school.  Needless to say, I'm a little jealous of all of you who are out way before then!