12-12-12 Linky

I have a confession to make...I am addicted to Linky Parties!! ("Hi my name is Gina and I'm hooked on Linkys!") I think they are so much fun! I get to meet new bloggers and read what everyone is up to.

Today, Stacy at Simpson's Superstars, is hosting a 12-12-12 party. 

I had to take 12 random photos throughout the day on Dec. 12. 

Here they are:

I knew it was going to be a great day when my bestie, Denise at Sunny Days in Second Grade, sent me an early Christmas present through the pony. The little ornament says "Happiness is sand between your toes!" Perfect for me and my blog. The monkey thing goes way back...I mentioned I liked sock monkeys once...I think that is how it started! LOL! Anyway, she made my day!

I use CAFE and Daily 5 in my class. The students spend a great deal of time reading in their just right books. I thought it would be fun to pull out books with a winter/holiday theme and let the kids read, review, and rate the books during Read to Self. I came up with this anchor chart for their post its. The students helped me come up with the "snowflake ratings". I'll keep this up this month and perhaps into January. 

Here is a student working on words. We have been studying adjectives and the students are illustrating and writing sentences with adjectives that we have studied.

A couple girls are involved in a reading partnership. These smarties are reading The Lemonade War. They  are discussing the pages they read and asking each other "thick" questions that they wrote.

 PTO set up a Holiday gift shop as a fundraiser. We had about 30 minutes to shop.  It was fun helping the kids pick a gift for moms, dads,  siblings, and relatives.

We will be making starfish ornaments for a winter project exchange. We will make 20 ornaments and write about winter in South Florida.  I send them off to a teacher in Pennsylvania. In exchange, we will get 20 projects back  and information about winter in other areas of the country from the other classes participating. I was working on making the patterns. The kids will paint these brown and add glitter. These look neat after you fold them on the lines....a little 3D. To get this pattern, click {here} to go to my pinterest board.

Later in the day, our read aloud was Snowflake Bentley. If you haven't read this please do! It is the true story of Willie Bentley. He loved snow. He found a way to photograph snowflakes and discovered their beautiful, unique designs.  Snowflakes in Photographs is a book with his snowflake pictures. The kids are amazed at the designs. The book of photographs is a little hard to find, but check out  Better World Books. They sell used books that are usually inexpensive and they offer free shipping. They also donate books for every book purchased. Everyone wins!

We cut out snowflakes after we read about them!

Now I cheated a little (might be part of my addiction LOL!)...this photo was not from the 12th, but from the day before. The kids made these adorable polar bear masks during art. I just loved them. They used paper plates, white tissue paper, a white plastic cup for the nose, and a black pom pom. CUTE!!

For our writing time, the kids wrote lists of "12".  Twelve math problems that equal 12. Twelve favorite foods. Top 12 of 2012. Twelve book characters.  They collaborated and shared during this fun thinking activity.

So that is my December 12, 2012. 

Don't forget to link up!!