All I Want for... BLACK FRIDAY Linky + Giveaway!

I'm joining my best blogger friends over at The Primary Pack for another fun adventure! We are celebrating Black Friday in a fun way (and a little early). There is no word yet if there will be a Black Friday sale but regardless, we are sharing a few of our most wish-listed items in our carts and our stores. We are also a HUGE Black Friday Giveaway, check it out below, you don't want to miss it!

There are so many things on my wishlist but here are a few that I absolutely HAVE to have:

1.  December Math Bins by Kristen Smith ~ I LOVE her monthly Math Bins!  They are all so comprehensive and they push students to the line.  They are easy to differentiate, to both the low riders and high flyers.
2.  Writing Activities and More! by Jane Kim ~ I have never actually bought any of Jane's products, but I've had my eye on her and she seems to have some excellent products!  This one in particular, I love the way she's laid out the images and work on the pages and it just looks visually appealing.
3.  Martin Luther King Jr. images by Messare Clips ~ I love Black History ANYTHING and these images are right on!  They are drastically realistic and some of the best I've ever seen.  These are a must have for any of your MLK Jr. products you're going to make!
4.  Holidays Around the World-Kwanzaa ~ This product is from Tweets Resources and Bonnie Kathryn.  These ladies have seemed to take a Christmas topic and make it magical for the students.  And this Kwanzaa resource is no exception!
5.  And last but not least, from one of my favorite clip artists, Glitter Meets Glue, I just love her Dipped in Glitter Bows she just came out with.  These will dress up any product you might be making for Christmas or any holiday!

Here are a few products you gotta check out from my TpT Store that are my most wishlisted and best sellers:

1.  Hi Ho, Hi Ho, It's Off to Work We Go ~ These are one of my best sellers in my store!  They are classroom Attention Grabbers that you must have for your classroom management arsenal!  You really give these a try!
2.  Famous Folks of Black History ~ This is my number one seller in my store!  It is a product that gives you everything you need to celebrate Black History Month and more!  It is packed full of posters, interactive materials, and other goodies that you just need to see for yourself.
3.  Hand Signal Editable Posters ~ Do you see a trend here in my classroom management tools?  This is another goodie that you just need to use in your classroom.  The best thing about these posters is that they are editable to your own needs.  And trust me...hand signals WORK!
4.  Black History Mini-Foldable Books ~ This is a set of mini-books that feature Black History greats, perfect for quick projects and just enough information if you're pressed for time.  Definitely give these books a try in your primary classroom for Black History Month!
5.  Shaped to the Core ~ This is my number one math product by far!  It's packed with posters and no-prep printables to teach both 2d and 3d shapes to your kiddos.  Nothing but fun!

And now for some giveaway fun!

Drumroll please.... Check out this HUGE giveaway package you can win by entering below! There is a resource from almost everyone in The Primary Pack, perfect for all primary grades!! Good luck, friends and happy shopping!



a Rafflecopter giveaway

Now It's Your Turn To Join The Fun! 

Just a few rules to follow and your on your way:

1. Download the images above!

2. Add your favorite sellers products in your TpT cart to the "My Black Friday Wishlist"

3. Add your own products to the "For Your Black Friday Wishlist"

4. Link up below to share your Black Friday Wishlists!

5. Don't forget to enter our fabulous giveaway above AND visit others linked up below!

An InLinkz Link-up

Now That the Candy Buzzzzz is Gone, Let's Talk Turkey!

Hello friends!   As you can tell from the title of my post, I'm here to talk turkey, but first I have some pictures to share with you...

Halloween is my favorite holiday by far; can you tell?  Ladies and gents, I have over 20 different wigs in my Halloween arsenal!  No joke.  If I could wear a different wig everyday, I would for sure.  It's just SOOOOO fun.  Give it a try; you'll be addicted!

Another thing you might notice from the pictures above is that I adore Melonheadz, an illustrator from Teachers Pay Teachers.  I finally got a chance to meet her in Vegas this past Summer and she went above and beyond my expectations.  She's a very humble and quiet lady, that has a rags to riches story that'll make you cry.  So if you're a TpT'er, it CAN BE DONE!  Also, I recently asked her to make me as a Melonheadz clip.  This is what she sent me today.  I'm absolutely giddy to have her draw me.  What?  I'm a Melonheadz clip?  Get outta here.  No, really.  Look...I'll show you:

Look at my necklace!  She got it down to even the details of that!  If you look closely, it's a letter G for my son Garyn.  He is also Autistic and the necklace I'm wearing above has an Autism symbol of a puzzle piece on it and a silver heart.  OMWhat?  And I'm artsy-fartsy and love to draw, hence the markers and paper chain.  Melonheadz is my idol-4-life...

OK, now let's talk turkey!  Are your kids still spinning from their candy buzzes too?  It really didn't matter that it was on a Friday; today's what... Thursday?  They're still buzzin' from that darn candy!

So I was thinking of a craft for Thanksgiving that would be different (for me at least!) than what I usually do, which is BOR-ING!  I knew I wanted to come up with something that involved the family; there was something about that Melonheadz necklace that I kept thinking about over and over.  Isn't your family one of the most Thankful pieces of your life?  Unfortunately, it's not for a lot of our little ones.  But most of them do have someone they can call family.  

What's the fall-back-on-Thanksgiving-teacher-craft that we ALL have done, at least once?  Yup, I'm also guilty... Trace your hand.  Slap on a waddle and call it a turkey.  HAPPY THANKSGIVING kids!  Well, I'm going to top that this year, do the same craft, and add a twist!

Here, take a look.  It doesn't look like much until you know what it's made of:

OK, so here's the special part... The hands used to make the turkey are from each of the members in the student's family!  So Mom, Dad, Granny, the dog, whoever the student lives with makes a print of their hands in different colors and those make the feathers!  Awesome!  It is the old standby that finally has some meaning!  Here are the materials you'll need and parts to cut out:

The turkey above is of my family and there are only three of us.  Garyn wanted to do the dog, but the dog had other ideas of what he wanted to do.  Wouldn't that have been cute though to have dog prints for the turkey's feet?  Hee, Hee.  The poem you see above I wrote; I know, I know.  I'm a teacher, not a poet.  I can rhyme though!  At the end of the post, I'll give you a link to the poem should you not be able to come up with a better saying or poem to attach to your turkey (yeah, right.  Don't worry, my feelings won't be hurt.  Just make sure you send it to me to use too for next year?  Deal?)

I also typed up this family letter to send home...

This letter is also included in the poem download, should you want to use it.  There are both pros and cons to sending home the paper.  Depending on your kiddos ages, they might not be ready to cut out five family member hand prints when they can barely hold the darn scissors.  You'll be doing prep work the day of the craft, so why not do it all ahead of time?  So I decided I'm going to precut different colors and send those home.  Or you could send home plain white paper and have families do their tracings and send those in.  It would just be easier to do it the first way for me.  If you have a different idea, shoot it my way with your poem too!  I'm ALWAYS open to suggestions of how to make my life easier!

Once the prints come in, we'll assemble the turkeys.  Here's a breakdown of the basic shapes needed:

I made the shapes basic because I plan to knock two birds out with this one...  Kids, today let's learn about turkey waddles AND heart shapes!  Yes!  Love to make my life easy!  So that's the theory behind the basic shape madness you see above.  Believe me, I draw clip art so my hand wants to jazz up that turkey like she's from Vegas, but my head says I'm ____ years old, not 7 or 8.  And I already know my shapes.

I haven't really gotten far enough to get to the presentation of this project yet, but I just know that as a Mom myself, I'd love to get a project like this that has such meaning to my entire family.  I hope you feel the same and can use a project like this with your kiddos this year or even with your own family at home!

I'd love to hear how you'd present this project...  Glue them both onto a larger sheet of construction paper?  Roll the turkey up in the poem and tie it with a holiday ribbon?  Please share your ideas in the comments below for us all!

Click here to download the poem and family letter printables!

Until later my friends,