2nd Annual Great Canadian Valentine Swap 2016: Sign Ups are Open

UPDATE: Sign up for the Great Canadian Valentine Swap English version is now closed. 189 classes have signed up. Information will be emailed to participants the week of January 11, 2016. 

 

It's that time again! It's time for the 2nd Annual Great Canadian Valentine Swap. The 2016 edition! Last year we had over 60 classes from across Canada participate. I'm hoping that this year will be even bigger and better!

Do I have some exciting news! Julie from Plaisirs du primaire have joined forces to bring you a FRENCH version of the same great swap! All the same rules apply.

What is a Valentine Swap? 

It is a way for K-6 classes to connect with other classes from across Canada and to learn about their communities. Each class will be responsible for making and decorating 20 valentines. Please, no store bought cards. Classes are encouraged to write a letter describing their community and school. You can photocopy the letter to save on time, especially for younger grades.

If you are looking for Valentine art ideas ideas make sure you check out my Pinterest Board.

These are the cards that my grade one class made last year.

 A coworker made these adorable bees with her grade ones.

By Wednesday, February 3rd, you will need to mail all 20 of your Valentines to the 20 different classes from around Canada. Then, keep your eyes on the mail! I can't wait to see how excited my kiddos are to get 20 Valentines from around Canada this year! 

We mapped where our Valentines came from last year.(Yes I know my map is super old and no longer correct.) We also looked up the different communities on Google Earth. 

Here are some other displays.

Sign Up Information

Sign ups will be open until January 11th or until the maximum number of participants has been reached. 

Inscrivez-vous ici pour recevoir des valentins en français.

By Signing up, you are committing to:

• making 20 valentines with your class
• mailing all of the valentines by Wednesday, February 3rd, 2016
• paying for the postage

More details will be sent out the week of January 11, but you can start making your Valentines right away if you want. If you have any questions please comment below or email me before signing up. 

All I Want For Black Friday

It's hard to believe that it has been a year already. The ladies and gent of the Primary Pack are back for our 2nd Annual "All I Want For Black Friday" Linky. Now being from Canada, we already had Thanksgiving back in October and we have nothing as amazing as our neighbours to the south's sales. But, we over the last few years we have started to have more. Who doesn't love a sale right??? 

There is no word yet if there will be a Black Friday sale but regardless, The Primary Pack is sharing a few of our most wish-listed items in our personal wishlist, our carts and our own stores. We are also hosting a HUGE Black Friday giveaway, check it out below, you don't want to miss it!

My birthday is on Wednesday, so these might make some great gifts. We'll see if my husband actually reads my blog or not! :)

• Fit Bit: So I'm dying to jump on the Fit Bit wagon. I feel like the only person who doesn't have one. I love the colour of this teal Fit Bit. It's so different then the normal black. True it probably won't match everything. Hmmm...maybe I need one in each colour?
• Kobo or Chapters Gift Card: So I am a total bookworm. In fact, I have become such a bookworm that I have spent way more time reading than TPTing or blogging. Which is sad, but it's so hard to put down my ereader. Have you heard of BookBub? If you love to read, you need to check it out. Lets just say the free and discounted books are not helping my bookwormishness (is that a word?)
• Swim Cap for Long Hair...that actually keeps my hair dry!!!!: I have been trying to find a swim cap for long thick hair for over a month. Anyone have any suggestions? This one by THT is suppose to be good

Here are a few of the items that I want to pick up for my classroom!

• Holiday Writing Paper by Kennedy's Korner: My group of firsties love to write this year. I think they will love this set. I can't wait to get my hands on this!
• Warm Up to Writing by Jennifer Reynolds: This set looks adorable!  It is full of winter themed creative writing activities. The best is it will get me through December and January since the activities aren't just Christmas themed!
• All About Winter by Proud to be Primary: I absolutely adore Proud to be Primary's units. This unit is over 200 pages of amazing!
• The Thankful Turkey by Laugh Eat Learn: I love this little turkey activity. Although we have already celebrated Thanksgiving, I need to make sure to pick this activity up for next year! It's sooo cute!

Here are a few products to check out from my store, Emmy Mac's Class. These are some of my most wishlisted items.

• A Year of Open Ended Problems for First Grade: A full year of open ended problems. Each month includes 20+ differentiated problems, that include different topics (numbersense, money, area and perimeter, fractions, graphing, etc.)
• Writing Bundle: This bundle includes 5 of my popular writing units. Topics include Recounts, Letter Writing, Writing Narratives, Writing Retells and Writing Centres.
• November Open Ended Problems: It's not too late to use the November open ended problems or you could check out December's Open Ended Problems.
• "Suit Up" Santa: Your students will love practicing their sight words while helping Santa get "Suited Up" for the big night. Who will be the first to get Santa ready.
• Trim the Tree: This is another great sight word game. Students decorate the Christmas tree while practicing their sight words. Over 150 words are included  in this set.

Drumroll please.... Check out this HUGE giveaway package you can win by entering below! There is a resource from almost everyone in The Primary Pack, perfect for all primary grades!! Good luck, friends and happy shopping!


a Rafflecopter giveaway

Now It's Your Turn To Join The Fun! 

Just a few rules to follow and you're on your way:

1. Download the images above!
2. Add your personal holiday wishlist to the image titled "My Personal Black Friday Wishlist"
3. Add your favorite sellers products from your TPT wishlist to the "My Classroom Black Friday Wishlist"
4. Add your own products to the "For Your Black Friday Wishlist"
5. Link up below to share your Black Friday Wishlists!
6. Don't forget to enter our fabulous giveaway above AND visit others linked up below.

An InLinkz Link-up

Tricks & Treats: A Halloween Blog Hop and Giveaway!

It's one of my favourite times of the year!!! We are getting so close to Halloween. I don't know what it is about Halloween, I personally don't like getting dressed up but I do love watching how excited my little Firsties get, not to mention my own girls.

The Bloggers from Under The Maple Tree have decided to have a "Trick or Treats" Halloween Blog Hop and wait for it...a Giveaway!! Who doesn't love a giveaway? Am I right?

So the treat is a giveaway and a freebie, and the trick? Well that's is the easiest art activity ever, that your kids are going to love. 

My firsties have been learning about mixing colours. So I decided we would make some plasticene pumpkins. I know you are thinking...really Emily, this is your trick. Well...there is a trick to it! Wait for it!!!

I always tell my kiddos that they are going to make pumpkins out of plasticine and they get so excited. But then, I tell them I have a problem. I don't have any orange Plasticine!  There little faces always get so serious. You can see their little gears turning. Then you get the little hand that pops up, "Mrs. MacGillivary, could we make orange plasticine?" BINGO!!!!

I give each students a piece of yellow Plasticine and a piece of red Plasticine and set them to work. 

And they really have to work. It is actually a pretty hard task to mix the two colours. It's great for building finger strength.

They mix and mix and get more and more excited. 

Finally, once they have made orange Plasticine, they can decorate their pumpkins by adding a stem. 

This year my students added a piece of purple to some of their orange to make brown for the stem and the face.

Have you tried using Open Ended Problems in your classroom? Check out this Freebie! 

I hope your kiddos enjoy it!

Don't forget to record my secret word!!!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Make sure you "Haunt Over" to my friend Bryn's blog to get her secret word. Click on the ghost or her button.

Thanks for stopping by my blog today! I hope you liked my Trick and my Treat. Happy Halloween!

Back To School Bash with The Primary Pack

Our hop is a 3…2…1… BACK TO SCHOOL BASH because each member of The Primary Pack will be giving you 3 teacher tips, 2 giveaways (one on each of our blogs and one BIG one on the Primary Pack), and 1 freebie!

To enter our BIG giveaway, you need to head over to THE PRIMARY PACK FIRST! As you "hop" through each of our blogs, you will collect a letter from each of us… 28 total. Those letters spell out a secret code that you need to enter our BIG giveaway! You will use the secret code to enter the rafflecoptor on The Primary Pack at the end of the hop.

 You need to collect the letters from us IN ORDER, so please make sure that you start from the beginning of our hop. Click on the button below to head over to THE PRIMARY PACK and start our BACK TO SCHOOL BASH!!

I don't know about you, but the thought of Back to School has fried my brain. I'm exhausted thinking about it. So here are a few tips to help you get off to a great start for the new year. 

If you have read any of my posts in the past you may have noticed that I am not the most organized teacher in the world. I'm that teacher that has a desk overflowing with stuff...I'd like to say that it is organized chaos. But to be honest, usually it is just chaos.

That is until this past year, when I made my Teacher's Tool Box! This helped with my organization so much, and it even matched my classroom theme! 

Surprisingly, for most of the year my desk looked like this! Not sure how I managed it, but I did!

If you like my toolbox, you can pick it up HERE.

Laminating poems, saves a ton of time each year. Instead of having to write out the poem over and over again. Just wipe off the white board marker. (HINT: If the wipe board marker doesn't come off easily, try a little bit of rubbing alcohol.)

Of course, than there is the problem of storing all of your poems and anchor charts. Tape a plastic hanger to the back of the laminated chart and hang on a hook, old pocket chart stands work great. (HINT: children's clothing stores will usually give away the hangers for free.)

Collect plastic fruit trays. They are an inexpensive way to organize almost anything! 

Do you use writing folders? Make sure you SNAG these free writing folders! FOUR different designs!

These folders are great for showing how each student is different. The folders have both boys and girls, glasses and no glasses. They are also black and white which, allows students an opportunity to colour and make there boy or girl look like them. 

Remember to enter our BIG giveaway, you need to head over to THE PRIMARY PACK first, that is if you haven't already started there! As you "hop" through each of our blogs, you will collect a letter from each of us… 28 total. Those letters spell out a secret code that you need to enter our BIG giveaway! You will use the secret code to enter the rafflecopter on The Primary Pack at the end of the hop. You need to collect the letters from us IN ORDER, so please make sure that you start from the beginning of our hop. Click on the button below to head over to THE PRIMARY PACK and start ourBACK TO SCHOOL BASH!! If you have already hopped along to me, you are fine to continue your journey!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Make sure you hop along to the blog of one of the newest members of the Primary Pack!  Check out Chad's  from the blog a Male Kingergraten Teacher, BTS Tips and don't forget to find his letter!