A Few of my Favorite Things Blog Hop

Today kicks off the BIGGEST blog hop I've ever participated in! Over 70 bloggy friends have linked up thanks to the hard work of Where the Magic Happens and PAWSitively Teaching to share some of their favorite things! Be sure to read all the way to the bottom because you DO NOT want to miss the biggest GIVEAWAY of the season!

If you know me, you know I love shopping and I LOVE TARGET!!! I make weekly trips to this store. I don't know any teacher {or person} that does not like this wonderful store! I have grown to like it even more since I don't work there any more, but I do miss the discount! hehe I can not just go into Target for one thing because I end up coming out with way more than I planned. And I justify each item I purchase haha... My favorite place in the store is that little SPOT right when you come in the store--the Dollar Spot! I've bought so many goodies there for my classroom. If you are a teacher and you have not checked out the Dollar Spot, make it happen SOON. You can find many activities, prizes, or manipulatives for your classroom at a great price! This store is super convenient because I can get all the things I need at a great price--especially when I use my red card and Cartwheel App.

I love this time of the year. I like to see all of the decorations, listen to the Christmas music, watch Christmas movies, and spend time with my family. In my family we have many traditions. One of my favorite traditions is to go to my grandma's house with my aunts, uncles, and cousins. We play silly games and do a Chinese gift exchange. IT IS SO MUCH FUN!! Then I stay at my parents house on Christmas Eve. I am 29 years old and still like to wake up at my moms house on Christmas morning {with all of my doggies}!!!!! Christmas would not be Christmas if I didn't stay at her house. My grandma comes up, we open presents, and have the traditional breakfast made by my beautiful mom--crapes, breakfast casserole, bacon, and toast. Yummmm!! My mouth is watering just thinking about it!! I will continue this tradition till I have children of my own and can then start a new tradition--moving the Christmas traditions I love to my house and enjoy making new memories with my sweet, sweet family. I am very blessed!

My best friend introduced me to this amazing line and I LOVE IT! I don't wear a lot of smelly stuff because I am picky and many scents give me headaches. I don't splurge on perfume and expensive body wash but I did make the choice to by myself these goodies from ZENTS. Earth is my favorite scent! I am obsessed with the body oil spray and perfume! Oh my stars! The body oil spray is nice to put on after you get out of the shower. It makes your skin feel so soft and it has a clean smell. I even put a bit of the oil on my dogs when they have dry skin. It's all natural and isn't an overpowering smell so it doesn't harm them. Plus it makes them smell good!

I got this wonderful resource my first year with my homeroom class and I love it! It is from Lakeshore Learning. Math in Minutes is a great tool for students to practice math skills. Each week my students get a sheet to write their answers on. I change out the questions each week. They start working on them on Monday and we check them on Friday. If students do not have them done, they work on them at lunch on Friday. I do not punish students who miss questions, but those that get all questions right get a treat. It is a great tool for students to constantly work on math concepts so they do not forget what they have learned!

My featured products will be HALF OFF till Sunday Dec. 14. You can find them HERE or search MyFavoriteThings14 on TpT to see all of the products on sale!!

7 PRIZE PACK GIVEAWAYS, 7 WINNERS:

I am giving away a $25 dollar gift card to TJ Maxx, my other favorite store to shop at!!!!! It is part of prize pack 7. Be sure to check out all my sweet bloggy friends and their favorite things!!!!!!

Happy Holidays and Happy Shopping!

Good Luck!!!

Because we value our followers and wanted to treat you to our favorite things Oprah style, we have put together the best giveaway of the season! My bloggy friends and I welcome you to the best, biggest, most cheerful event of the season:

7 winners for 7 prize packs!

Come and enter the giveaway and check out my bloggy friends' favorite things:



a Rafflecopter giveaway

An InLinkz Link-up

Unwrap a Gift Linky and some silly Elf Antics

Hi friends! I love this time of the year! This was a CrAzY week! I'm excited to link up with The Primary Girl for her fun linky party! She has the CUTEST ideas for linkys and some of the best products I've used in my classroom. Check her Facebook, blog, and TpT store out! I promise you won't be disappointed!!!!

So my busy week all started on Monday... We had a special delivery from SANTA! Our principals came rushing down to our room Monday afternoon with a package ICE COLD, from the North Pole. It was filled with our elf, a letter from Santa, our elf's classroom key, and Reindeer Nose treats. The letter and key came from the sweet Khrys Bosland from Keepin' It Kool in KinderLand and the reindeer nose treats are from my shop. Khrys has LOTS of cute products so check her shop out!

Back to our delivery, I don't know who was more excited, me or the kids! The silly elf antics started Monday and continued from all week. My class voted to name our sweet friend Buckeye! Take a peek at Buckeye's first week...

DAY 1... 

DAY 2... sELFless CHALLENGE
This was inspired from my FAVORITE clip art artist Krista Wallden from The Creative Chalkboard! If you are not following her or using her clip art CHECK HER OUT!

DAY 3... EAT MORE CHOCOLATE

DAY 4... ELFIE sELFies

 

DAY 5... Buckeye did not return today due to a situation on Thurs. that was out of our control.

  

I made this paper bag elf log for my class to keep track of Buckeye's silly elf antics. The kids LOVE it! You can snag a copy for yourself HERE in my store. IT IS ON SALE TODAY AND TOMORROW!

 

 

I've included many other goodies for you to use that include:

Paper Bag Elf Antics Log—color and printer friendly version

Emergency Elf Magic Dust

Magic Glove

Certified Elf Handler Certificate

Elf Kisses treat tag

Elf Pillows treat tag

Christmas Grams

Postage Labels to use if you “deliver” your elf

 NOW... On to my GIFT for you! I have made some tags and signs for you to use with your classroom elf. These correlate with my ELF ANTICS set and another elf file that will be uploaded to TpT by Sunday evening. I hope you enjoy them!

Don't forget to hop over to The Primary Gal to unwrap more GIFTS that are sure to make your December a littler easier!

Follow Kristina's board Elf on the Shelf on Pinterest.

Looking for some Inspiration? Look no More!

I am so excited to be linking up with my two very sweet bloggy friends from Inspired Owl's Corner and PAWSitively Teaching for their Pinterest Pick 3 Linky! Who doesn't love Pinterest? Quite frankly, I am OBSESSED with it! I don't "Google" anything anymore, I "Pinterest-it" then PIN-IT! My best friend first introduced this wonderful site to me 4 years ago and I am so glad she did. I use it for my classroom and home on a daily basis. When it comes to the bigger projects I ask for assistance from my not-so-handy-still-learning-husband. Love you babe ;-) He gets tired of me asking him "Hey, can we go to Lowes? I want to make this thing I saw on Pinterest." or saying "This is easy. You can make this! It won't take long." {and then it really takes longer than it was supposed to.} He fusses a bit but then I, we, he gets it done! I do help--I help supervise and boss guide him so he doesn't make any mistakes. :-) I'm such a nice wife aren't I?

Anyways, back to my *3* great Pinterest finds that I want to share with you and that I will be using in the classroom this month! I will do my hardest to post about them when I incorporate them in my class. We all know December is a busy month so if I don't blog about them till later, please forgive me. All of the pins I am going to share with you can be found on my Christmas Board, which you can follow HERE. Many teacher friends have linked up so please visit their blogs and read about their 3 picks for December. I hope you find some inspiration that you can use or incorporate during this busy, joyful, holiday season.

I ABSOLUTELY LOVE these ornaments! I came across this pin last Christmas and was so excited because I LOVE owls--but you didn't know that already--and each year I make cinnamon ornaments with my kids so this was perfect!!! If you click the picture above or HERE it will take you to the site to learn how to make these cuties! I had my students make these for their parent gifts for Christmas. Each student made 2 ornaments and then wrapped them up to take home. I had some difficulty with the dough, not sure why, so I had to make some changes to some of the ornaments because they were falling apart and did NOT look like owls.

Instead of folding the wings over like the site suggested, I left my owl in the shape of a circle {I used an empty Bath and Body Works 3-wick candle jar to shape all my ornaments}. I then used various plastic containers, a marker cap, and paper clip to add the details. Lastly, I used a straw to make the hole for my hook or twine. I then let my ornaments dry on a rack for 24 hours. 

Below is one of the few ornaments that turned out.

 

This little Rudolph gift idea is adorable!! And perfect for co-workers and teacher friends. I am going to be making these for my sweet teacher friends. If you click the picture to the left or HERE it will take you to the website to download the FREE printable to make your own Rudolph Christmas Gift!!!

The last pin I want to share has to do with everyone's favorite green Christmas Scrooge-- The Grinch! I know due to copyright laws many things can't be made with this special character but these tags and cookies are too cute--and super easy to make!!! The week before Christmas break is my FAVORITE time of the year. Instead of having a Christmas party on the last day, I do a special theme each day planning educational activities and lessons to go with each theme. I will blog more about my Christmas celebrations next week!! I save the Grinch Party for the last day because it is the most fun! I plan lot of educational activities to go with the book and the movies. Then we enjoy Grinch Crinkled Cookies and Grinch Punch. Below is a few pictures from my classroom's Grinch Party!

I hope you have found some inspiration to use with your own classroom. Don't forget to visit my sweet friends and see what other wonderful Pins they have to share with you!

Happy Holidays my sweet followers!

An InLinkz Link-up