Who's On Vacation?? Not Me :(

Are you one of those lucky people who gets this whole week off?? I am jealous.  I have the regular three days this week.  Wednesday doesn't really involve too much teaching though.  We have our annual Turkey Trot.  It's basically a field day with different activites at each station.  There are relay races and lots of silliness to keep everyone busy.  It ends with a 500 yard dash for each of the grade levels.  It's lots of fun and parents always come out to help with events and cheer the kids on. The kids look forward to it every year, especially because the prize for winning your race is a pumpkin pie!

Speaking of pumpkin pie are you cooking your Thanksgiving dinner?  If you have followed my blog for quite sometime then you know that I am not a one who likes to cook!  Don't get me wrong, I love Thanksgiving, but I rarely prepare anything besides dessert.  This year I am making a Haupia Pumpkin Pie.  Haupia is a coconut dessert that we eat a lot here.  I am basically adding coconut into the regular pumpkin pie mix, and then a layer of haupia on top.  I think it will be really yummy!



Ted's Bakery Haupia Pumpkin Pie

My hubby who loves to eat and luckily loves to cook with be doing everything else.  I guess that I better head to the store sometime this week and actually pick up all of the ingredients, lol!! 

I wish I had some exciting pictures or activities that I could share with you, but I have been terrible about remembering to take pics of my kids at school.  This month we have been working on fact and opinions.  We have been reading tons of non-fiction books about animals and finishing up our Nocturnal animals unit.  I also had a formal evaluation this week, so I wanted to do a lesson on Opinion Writing.  I searched for something to use with my kids, but I honestly could not find exactly what I was looking for.  So of course I created something.

I just wanted some templates and ideas to help my kids with writing their opinions and giving reasons for them.  I came across a website that suggested this book.

I Wanna Iguana

It is about a little boy who is trying to convince his mother that she should let him have an iguana.

This was perfect because I knew it would be a great attention getter for my boys as well as my girls and I already had it in my class library.  I read the story to the class, but did not read to the end.  We spent some time before hand discussing opinions, so they were ready to roll.   They wrote some really cute reasons why he should get the iguana, and there were lots who said he should not get it.  They were all really engaged and couldn't wait to share.  The lesson went really well and for the most part I forgot my principal was even in the room.

I wish all lessons went so smoothly!  Anywho I thought maybe others might be in need of some Opinion writing ideas so I put together a little pack to get you rolling.

If you think this might be helpful you can pick it up in my TpT store, but of course I will send it to the first three people to leave me a comment below along with their email.

If your not one of the first to comment, I have some other freebies for you :)  First is a little Turkey Glyph that I put together for my class this week.  It should keep them busy for a little while.

Just click on the pic to grab it in Google Docs.

I also have been doing some doodling and made some fun  frames.   I know it's a bit early for Christmas, but some of you are creating your Christmas goodies already, and I thought you might like to use these. All you need to do is plug them into a Word or Powerpoint Doc and you can make some cute little worksheets or newsletters.

Just click on the pic to grab these in my TpT store.

I hope whether you are on vacation or not, that your week is a fabulous one, and that you are gearing up for your day of being Thankful!