This & That... {updated with winners!}

{I used the random number generator to choose 3 winners: Sandra, Marlana, and Kristen check your email!  Also, thanks to everyone who gave feedback for a Valentine's exchange.  We are planning it right now and will let you know when all of the details are worked out!  Can't wait to do it again!}

I'm finally home from the annual Christmas Extravaganza.  I think I had about forty Chistmases, saw two movies: New Years Eve {great!} and War Horse {aka a 2 hour and 45 minute NAP.  Very seriously the longest, slowest movie ever.  I think I only laughed 3 times.  That's not good.  I like to leave the movies nearly peeing my pants from laughing.}, ate about 30 pounds of my mom's infamous chex mix, won one out of five games of dominoes, and had fun eleventy million different times with my family!  We also had family pictures made for the first time in for like ever.  Some of just the five of us, then the rest of the gang came along and suddenly the photographer was trying to squeeze all 15 of us into a picture.  Fun times!  I hope all of you had a wonderful Christmas with your families!  I've been slowly catching up with everyone.  Being out of town and not constantly connected can get you way behind in blogland.

Before break, I posted a new pack in my TpT store but I don't think I ever told anyone about it!  Crazy, I know.  It's just a wonderful Wintry Mix of Math Fun!  You'll have to check it out; several winter themed math activities that are perfect for a K-2 classroom.  Especially since I'm having a 20% off sale from now until January 1st!

A few of you party people have requested more gift exchanges.  Mrs. Miner from Mrs. Miner's Monkey Business suggested a Valentine's exchange and the sweet girl even offered to help Sarah and me!  And if you guys are up for it, I'm up for it!  I never miss a party, because I keep them going constantly... 

I would love your thoughts on a few things:
-Do you just want one partner or would you want to send a homemade valentine to a group of grade level partners?  How many people would you be willing to send a card to?
-Do you want to do just cards or a gift along with it?  {In which case, you would only be assigned one partner.}
-Would you like to involve your class in the project and exchange valentines with a fellow blogger's class?
-Other suggestions?
I'll hang on your every word and do my absolute best to make it something everyone totally hearts.  {Get it?  Hearts?  Valentine's Day?  Yeah, I'm cheesy.  What of it?}

There are a hojillion linky parties out there that I'm itching to participate in.  So I'll be back tomorrow with something brilliant to say, for sure.  But in the meantime, I'm in a giving mood... I will give away 3 copies of my new Wintry Mix of Math Fun unit!  All you have to do is comment on this post about something {make sure you leave your email in the comments}!  The giveaway will end at 9am on Saturday, December 31st and I will use a random number generator to select 3 winners. 

Holly Bloggy Christmas Link Up!

Merry Christmas!  I hope you all had a wonderful day with your families!  I also hope that my Holly Bloggy friends were able to wait until yesterday to open their gifts!  Sarah and I had so much fun organizing this and seeing all of the neat gifts everyone exchanged.  Over the next few days, we will get up all of the pictures we have.  But we also want to hear from you!  I've seen a few of you already post about your awesome partner, so please link up so we can all read about it and ooh and aah over your gifts!

I know a few of you still have gifts that are MIA.  We are working on it!  Feel free to shoot us an email; we are reading them and working on getting in touch with everyone as time allows during these busy holidays!

Please make sure you link directly to your post about Holly Bloggy Christmas, not just to your blog in general.  Make sure you include a link to this post and Sarah's blog {http://kentuckykindergartenkorner.blogspot.com/} in your blog post about Holly Bloggy Christmas.  Also, if your partner is a blogger, please make sure you include a link to their blog in your post!

Wishlist Wednesday

Ahhh...my first day of Christmas break has just been wonderful! I LOVE Christmas break! I'm heading out of town to visit family tomorrow and I can't wait to see everyone!

I hope everyone has received their gift from their Holly Bloggy pal by now. If you haven't, please shoot us an email at hollybloggychristmas@gmail.com.  On Christmas day, we will send out your stocking full of goodies and we will start posting pictures of what everyone received.  Can't wait to hear from everyone about their gift!

Sorry this is short, but I'm off to do some last minute Christmas preparations.  But wait, there's more!  You can find me over at Cachey Mama's Classroom today.  Click below to head over and read my guest post.

Winner!!

We have a winner!!

Congrats to Lisa G. over at Connecting the Dots: A Kindergarten Blog!  Please send me an email with your mailing address and I'll get your copy of Little Lilly's Polka Dot World!

Make sure to check out Little Lilly Polka Dot's website, it's been recommended by Teachers First as a valuable resource for kindergarten teachers and parents!  It's also just plain adorable!
Just some Holly Bloggy housekeeping...we've received several emails of pictures and are so excited about what everyone is going to open a week from today!  If you haven't sent in a pic, please do that soon!  Also, if you haven't mailed your gift yet, please let us know {you aren't going to be in trouble!!}.  Several have emailed wondering where their special package is.  Thanks again for participating and we are so excited to hear about what you received from your partner.  Feel free to contact us if you have any questions, hollybloggychristmas@gmail.com. 

Low fuel light's been on for days*...

Oh dear.  This past week has just been an absolute whirlwind.  I run, run, run, then come home and I'm lucky to get my pajamas on before I collapse.  I'm sure we're all in that same boat.  And it's sprung a leak.  And we are about to drown.  SOS!  Here are a few highlights from the past few days:

-I now have 30 kindergartners.  Thirty.  How is it that my first year I only had 22, now just two years later we are all sitting at about 30?  Why are there so many children?  But more importantly, what am I supposed to do with them?  Do you think maybe I can say, "Be still!" and tame them with the magic trick of staring into their eyes without blinking once?  And maybe they will be frightened and make me queen of the wild things and then the wild rumpus fun learning can start?  Because I definitely feel like I'm where the wild things are right about now.  Hopefully it will be better after Christmas.

-I also have a few farm animals in my first grade class.  I'm not exactly sure how this happened, but the other day I asked a student a question and he oinked at me.  Oinked.  Like a pig.  At first I thought maybe he was calling me fat, but after talking to the 90somethingpound skinny teacher next door, she confirmed that he oinked at her too.  Please explain.  In that same thirty minute time span, I looked up and a different student had his shirt down over his shoulder and was licking his shoulder.  Like a cat.  At that point I just wanted to scream, "Pinocchio, you're a REAL BOY!"  Why are we oinking and licking ourselves?  WHY?  We are people, not animals. 

-Our copy machine has been broken for a week.  I might be up all night hand writing worksheets for 90 students because my dry erase markers are starting to run out and I can only stand on my head to entertain them for so long.  Do any of you have your own copier or maybe you went in with several teachers and bought one?  Make recommendations if you have a good one because I'm ready to buy one so that my life doesn't have to stop when the copier does.

-Today I looked out the hall just in time to see one of my students run, drop down to his knees, and slide half way down the hall.  I sent him back to the reading teacher's room and called her to explain what had happened.  After school she told me that he walked back in and she asked him why he was back.  At that point, the phone started ringing.  He pointed to the phone, hung his head and quietly said, "That's Ms. Preppy."  Oh my.  My, my, my.  They know they're doing the wrong thing.  They know it.  But they do it anyway.  WHY??

-There's also some awful stomach bug flying around school.  I had two run out puking before 8am today.  That's never a good sign.  I'm thinking about getting them all an early Christmas gift--a pail attached to a string so they all have a little bucket right there.  Fashionable and functional.  Thoughts? 

-One of my second grade friends ran up to me at recess the other day and said, "Soandso called me a b-i-s-h."  A bish?  Really?  By second grade we should be able to spell that correctly, right?  I told the reading teacher that she might want to work on that a little bit.  But at least it gave us a new catch phrase: she's such a fish-with-a-"b".    Feel free to use that one.

Alex, I'll take "Reasons Teachers Drink" for $500...

* Bonus points to anyone who doesn't have to consult Google to figure out where my post title came from.  Hopefully I'll have a friend or two on here who are cool enough to know.

Holly Bloggy Giveaway #8

I'm late.  I know.  Life is crazy.  Crazy!  {I'll bore you with the details tomorrow.}  But better late than never right?
Without further ado..Holly Bloggy Christmas is in its eighth week of giveaways!  I can't believe it has flown by so quickly.  I'm super excited about this one!  I want to introduce you to the cutest little character... Little Lilly Polka Dot.  You guys know how I feel about polka dots!  Little Lilly lives in a fabulous polka dotted world and it's just so stinkin' cute!  Check her out here.

Wendy Grimm, the author and creator of Little Lilly Polka Dot is giving away a signed copy of her book!

To enter to win a copy of this super cute book, please do the following:

- Follow her blog here and leave me a comment to let me know.

- Like her on Facebook and leave me a comment to let me know.

- For fun, what is your favorite polka dot item?  I have so many polka dotted things but my favorite ones are definitely my dishes.  Who can resist some cute polka dot plates?  Now, even though they're polka dotted, I still dread washing them...  Share your favorite polka dotted item in the comments!

Since I'm late posting this, the giveaway will end Saturday, December 17th at midnight.  I will post the winner on Sunday!  Good luck!

Winner!!

Whew!  Busy day!  So sorry I'm just now getting to post, but we have a winner of the Schoolgirl Style giveaway...

Congrats to Jennifer from Rowdy in First Grade!  Look for an email from me with your goodies!