Family "selfie" at the hospital--after meeting their little brother for the first time!
*This was last week with me and last night with his big brother Carson! I just love baby toothless smiles! Melt my heart!
Camden was born on his due date (mama had an induction set for that day, since I knew he was going to be big---and since he was my #3 son, they knew it would be okay to go ahead!) We had a pretty easy birth (compared to my other two, that is!) and he's been pretty easy going so far (again, compared to my other 2!!!) :P He's even given us 6-9 hours of sleep each night, with a few less in between there---but it's all more than I slept when I was preggo!
Next week starts "H" week... you can call it what you want. Halloween.... start of the Holiday season... a week of H*#@?!! :P I've found through my experience that you can either dread it, or embrace it. I've found the latter to be what saves my sanity! While checking out the dollar store before Camden's one month appointment (which is next door!!!), I found these adorable styrofoam pumpkins.
Walking around inside, they had these packs to create pumpkins!
Driving home, I had the idea of having the kids create pumpkins for fun---but I wasn't buying one for each... That's a bit pricy. However, thinking about our bucket filling and class community, they COULD create it as a team (which is their table)---but they had to behave to get pieces! And out popped this quick freebie that you could use if you want! {click on the picture to grab your freebie to use in your classroom!!!!!}
Each group gets a laminated sheet with their team name. I write TREAT on it. If anyone has to move their clip or the team isn't behaving, I erase a letter. If no letters are left at the end of the day, they do not get a piece for their pumpkin. I haven't decided if they need to have ALL of their letters to get a piece or not. Since it's the week before, I would suggest that having any letter left gets them a part. I will let them know that they can lose a piece of their pumpkin too! Fast forward to day 2... if they have a piece from day one, but have NO letters left on day 2, out pops the piece!
(my poster pictures and names match the sets I got at the Dollar Tree. There is a second set in the pack where you can name your own team, but the pictures are the same)
*You don't need the Dollar Tree pumpkin, any would do. However the Dollar Tree one can be used year after year. The same with the pieces. I had to go to 2 different ones to collect all 4. I was thinking of using all of my kids' Mr. Potato Head pieces! How fun would that be? (and I know, since we have them too... there are Halloween versions for pumpkins of Mr. Potato Head!)
Here are the different pumpkins you can make from the Dollar Tree:
I know that it could be awhile before another post, so I wanted to let you know about this! Another fun thing we do this week is our "hunts." You can read my original post HERE and HERE. I have parents send in flashlights with their kiddos. We turn the lights off and "hunt" for our math or language arts problems! Give kids clipboards and a flashlight---holy engagement batman! :)
I just created and uploaded a Second Grade version--completely aligned to the Common Core Standards. Since I moved to second grade, and I had many of the kids last year, I needed something a little "different" and the skills SHOULD have been easy from my first grade packet. You can check out my packs by clicking on the pictures below!
Second Grade:
First Grade:
Now, run. Don't walk! To your nearest Dollar Tree Store! Get those pumpkins and have a fantastically frighteningly good behaved week! Halloween is on a Friday! It can't get better than that! ;) (But that means November is the following week! Oh, my!)
