Freezing and a Freebie

Brrr….It's freezing in California. We are gearing up for several days of freezing temperatures!! Today my car read 19 degrees. Now I know to some that probably really isn't that cold, but in California we think 55 and 60 degrees is cold. So imagine how we are all freaking out with temperatures in the teens and twenties!!  

In honor of our freezing temperatures, I made a little freebie to share!!! All you need to do is click on the picture to download the freebie. 

I got the idea from Susan at Thank God Its First Grade. I bought her terrific What's The Difference? subtraction unit. There is a great activity in it where they build numbers on the tens frame and then remove a specific amount to find the difference. My kids were super engaged with this activity and it really enforced the concept of subtraction.

So,…here is what my kids will be doing tomorrow. They will have the Sippin' On Subtraction mat below. 

They will also have the below book to do their recording in. My students will read the problem and then build it on the hot cocoa tens frames with their real mini marshmallows. Yes, I did say real marshmallows! I might even throw in some real hot chocolate since we are having these freezing temps!!! LOL!! I love to get my kids excited about learning. 

The square in the book is for them to write their answer in. The rectangle at the bottom of the page is for them to write the number sentence that goes with the problem. 

I hope you enjoy the activity! 

Rudolph's Crazy Cousin, Math, and Dear Santa

So we are back into the swing of things after being off a week for Thanksgiving break. My kids were pretty mellow on Monday. So mellow that I wasn't sure if they were very excited about the little elf that paid a visit to our room or maybe the teacher just needed another cup of coffee!! LOL!! 

But…on Tuesday the walked in eagerly looking for her. They voted on a name for her and our elf is now called Rockstar! They are so into our Rockstar theme classroom that our magic elf had to be named after it. I thought I took a picture today, but apparently that was just a figment of my imagination. I promise I will share photos of Rockstar at a later date!

I wanted to share a super cute art activity and quick writing that we did on Monday. Thanks to Stacy over at Funky Fresh Firsties I know have Ruldolph's Crazy Cousins all over my room!! Here are 2 samples from my firsties!! They loved making these. I had them add the cute light bulb clipart!!

We have been practicing our math and language rotations. Since I am new to first grade this year it took me a little bit longer to get things rolling just how I wanted. I am quite pleased with how well my students are engaged and on task. They sure have made leaps and bounds since the first day of school. I can't imagine what they will be like after 2 years!! (I am looping with them to second next year.)

Here they are working on a super engaging subtraction task from Susan at 

Thank God Its First Grade. Her unit What's the Difference? is full of fabulous activities!!

The girls were building a number that was given to them. Then they were told to remove a certain amount. Finally they recorded the difference. For an added challenge, I had them write the equation to go along with the problem. They loved it! I loved how engaged they were and I could go around and help anyone who needed help.

Tomorrow during our language stations students will be working on working on writing a letter to Santa. I decided to make it a little more inviting by creating this:

I will let you know how it turned out!

It's time for me to go to bed. Five o'clock will be here shortly! Happy Hump Day!!!

First Grade Madness!!

I can not believe it is December 1st! Time sure does fly!! It has been very crazy busy the past several weeks!! When I moved to first grade this year I knew it was going to be a fun, new, and time consuming journey, but… it really should have come with a warning label…

First Grade kicks your @$!

Don't get me wrong, I am LOVING first grade!!! However, I have been sick twice in the past 5 weeks, my mom was in a car accident, I had my first round of first grade conferences, and we are in the process of changing our report card over to common core. Can we say it has been a little stressful!!

I seriously do not know how all you bloggers do it. I would love to blog way more than I do and create so much more for TPT, but seriously peeps do you not sleep??? Every time I turn around two of my favorite bloggers...Reagan from Tunstall's Teaching Tidbits and Kristin from a Day in First Grade have posted another AMAZING unit  and blog post!! Reagan has kids of her own too…I seriously think she has magical powers or is related to SUPERWOMAN. It is just me and my husband and sometimes I have emotional breakdowns because I can't handle just the two of us!!!! LOL!!

Anyway, I did have the week off and it did allow me to get a little rejuvenated!! I was able to create a new product for my TPT store just in time for...

(Thanks Krista Wallden for the cute graphic!!! Love her products!!!)

All of my products will be 20% off including...

Of course, I had to link up with Farley from Oh'Boy Fourth Grade for the December Currently.

Wishing everyone a happy first day back!!!