I am slightly obsessed with elves.  Joy is our Elf on the Shelf and John Henry is her pet :)  They are wearing adorable masks from Keeping Up With Mrs. Harris.

Two of my favorite read aloud Elf books are How to Catch an Elf and The Littlest Elf.  Both books have vibrant illustrations and a storyline that hooks students!  After I did my How to Catch an Elf activity with my second grade group, one of the boys begged me to ask the teacher to let the whole class read the book during, "whole g. reading"  :)  That's what he calls whole group reading!

You can download my free writing activity where students can design a trap to catch an elf.  It is free in my store!  To extend the activity, students can actually build their trap!  My STEM journal to record all the steps and processes involved in designing a STEM project is also FREE!

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Here are some of my favorite holiday freebies for language arts for grades K-1.  They include sight words, comprehension, and class building activities!

This first set of activities are focused on sight words and letters and sounds.  The first activity is a Christmas color by sight word by Kourtney Payton.

Another sight word activity is by Mrs. Thompson's Treasures.

This great set by Games 4 Learning is focused on Christmas words.  Games 4 Learning has numerous seasonal freebies!

Teaching Treks has this fun comprehension set for emergent and early readers.

Rachel Lynette has a fun Elf themed holiday game to play with your class!  

Kindergarten Kiosk has created a fun freebie elf language arts activities!

The Moffat Girls have some creative Elf on the Shelf Writing paper.

Teaching in the Tongas has a free Kindness Elf set for you to use.  

In addition, here are two other activities that promote kindness in the classroom!

One Stop Teacher Shop has compliment cards available.  

In my store, we have a kindness bulletin board that you can download  for free.  It is ink-friendly.  I printed the banners on teal blue card stock.  

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It is so important to teach students how to have a growth mindset.  I really enjoyed Carol Dweck's book Growth Mindset because it taught me how to give specific feedback.  Telling a student to try again isn't the same as teaching them how to persevere.  My Growth Mindset Pinterest Board has lots of ideas.

Having a growth mindset means:
-Wanting to improve
-Engaging in challenges to improve
-Demonstrating perserverence
-Using feedback to grow

Here are three great picture books to help teach students how to have a growth mindset.

This page by Boy O'Boy Designs can help students change their words to a growth mindset!

Finally, in my TPT store, I have posters for a bulletin board that encourage having a growth mindset.

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I love this fun link-up!  This month is focused on Thanksgiving and you will get lots of great ideas for school and home!  

Being a mom and a teacher, I find that I put myself last.  Something I've tried really hard to implement in my life is Gratitude 365.  It is an online journal where you can keep track of daily gratitudes.  I love linking pictures to my posts, so later when I look back, I have a visual memory of my day!

Students can use tickets they earn in our positive behavior program and buy "Reward" work stations. One favorite "Reward" work station that students love to pick are detailed coloring sheets.  Carisa has some great sheets available on her blog!

Thanks to Dawn at Cupcakes and Tiaras I now have a delicious easy to make pumpkin pie recipe to bring to school when we have our staff Thanksgiving feast!

Ingredients:

• 8 oz brick of cream cheese (I use Kraft Philadelphia), softened
• 1 cup of canned pumpkin
• 1/2 cup of white sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon of pumpkin pie spice
• 1 tub of COOL WHIP (8 oz), thawed and divided
• 1 premade 8 inch graham crumb crust (bought or make your own)

Directions: 

Step 1:  Beat the cream cheese, canned pumpkin, sugar and pumpkin pie spice in a mixing bowl and beat until smooth.

Step 2:  Gently stir in 2-1/2 cups of the thawed COOL WHIP.

Step 3:  Spoon the pumpkin cheesecake mixture into the pie shell.

Step 4:  Refrigerate for 3 hours or until set.

Step 5:  Serve topped with the remaining COOL WHIP.

Dawn has lots of great ideas for cooking, crafts, and organizing your home!!

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I just started the 2nd nine weeks of school and finally feel like I have my head above water.  Here are some of my favorite Thanksgiving freebies for literacy work stations!  

I have an easy to play CVC game in my TPT Store! 

Practicing CVC words is fun with this great work station activity from Ms. Dossin's Firsties.  

My students love spending their good time tickets for a "reward" work station.  One of their favorite rewards are coloring sheets.  This Thanksgiving themed freebie is perfect from Peg Swift!

The Moffat Girls have you covered for some sight word practice.

Practicing sentence building at the pocket chart workstation is a favorite!  

For students that are working on letters, this fun acorn emoji activity from Kindergarten Smorgasbord will reinforce upper and lower case letters.

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Happy Fall Y'alll!!!  My students love having some seasonal activities.  Here are a few of my favorites!  Make sure to keep reading, because at the end of the post are links to some fabulous fall freebies!

1.  Candy Corn Letters and Sounds!  Students can match upper case letters and lower case letters.  They can also match the letter to the picture with the matching beginning sound.  

This set also comes with candy corns that students match the picture with the correct beginning sound.

2.  Phonemic Awareness Mats and Letter Sound Activities.  This set has lots of different activities.  I found these small squishy balls and these sprinting spiders at the Target Dollar Spot.  As I say the word, students can push the ball up for each sound they hear.  You can also laminate the Sound Boxes and it comes with a variety of pictures that students can write the letters in each sound box.

Finally, this set has 16 different fall pictures and upper and lower case letters.  This Letter Practice mat, allows students to match the picture with the correct letter. 

3.  This is something I have used with my students that are already reading at least at a D+ level in the fall.  Students practice sorting the short and long vowel words.

Freebies!

This QR Code freebie allows students to practice reading simple CVC sentences.  Students have to figure out the missing word.  For example, For example: My ____ is red. (hat, big, mad)

This sight word matching game is free in my store!

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Literacy Without Worksheets