Winter Blog Hop, Giveaway, and Free e-Book

One thing I do miss about living in Pennsylvania is the change in seasons. Now, I surely don't miss the snow [I certainly miss the snow days], but I do love everything that comes along with it. Cozy sweaters, fireplaces lit up and glowing, and all of the fun activities that you can plan for the season.

Here are a few ideas I'm planning for February... more specifically, Valentine's Day:

(PS. Make sure you read all the way to the end for 2 special gifts).

So I have a really amazing para in my classroom who made this super adorable Valentine's Day bulletin board for our class this year.

We did a really fun estimating and measuring activity (grab it free here), and then we made the bulletin board graph of how tall each of us is. These are all of the supplies needed to complete this activity.

Not only was it a hands-on counting activity that the kids really enjoyed, we were writing, practicing our counting and 1:1 correspondence (some of us got up to 70!), working as a team, sharing materials, talking about more or less than, laying still ;) ... I mean, it really encompassed A LOT of skill work.

Since I have seven students, we paired up 2-3 students per adult in the classroom. It was a lot of fun and the kids really enjoyed it... then we ate a few Hershey kisses for doing a good job. #itsthelittlethings

I'm really excited to do this puzzle heart activity with my students this year too. It's a great fine motor activity, having them draw puzzle lines between the letters of their name and then cutting the puzzle pieces out. Once they glue their puzzles down on construction paper, I will probably let them get out the glitter. Yep, the glitter! You can grab the free template here.

One of our work task boxes has this really fun link-N-learn activity (those links are always a huge hit with my friends!) for Valentine's Day too. The numbers go to 30 and there are a few different sets of cards. I just store the cards and about 50 links in a plastic container.

You can grab it here.

Fun Food Friday. Visual Recipes. Food. Cheesecake. Strawberries. Social Skills. I LOVE FRIDAY'S in my classroom.

Every year for Valentine's Day, our school has class Valentine's Day parties. This only happens 3x a year, so I try really hard to make it special for my friends and their parents. And this year, the Valentine's Day Party just so happens to fall on a Friday.

So every Friday we attempt to "cook" a no bake recipe in our classroom. Last year, we made no bake cheesecake, cut up some fresh strawberries, and dug in! We always make A LOT of food (hey, there's only 10 of us in the classroom total), so we use this opportunity to practice our social skills... and feed teachers and staff in the building. We grab our communication rings and off we go.

Last year, we even made chocolate covered strawberries for our parents as a Valentine's gift. I mean, who doesn't love strawberries covered in chocolate... for free... that your kids made at school?

February is one of my favorite months to teach.

To help make February a favorite of yours too, my friends and I have put together a FREE e-Book just for you. It's a great mix of activities that are easily differentiate-able for your students (grades K-2). Just click on the image above to grab the FREE e-Book.

Now for the fun part... as if all of those lesson and activity ideas weren't fun enough for you.

See that word in the arrow... "arctic" ... YEAH! That's my secret word. Now you need to find my name in the Rafflecopter below, follow me on Pinterest, enter that code and BAM! One entry down, 23 more to go!

Be sure to scroll down past the Rafflecopter to hop to the next blog. Once you've hopped all the way back to me, you'll have found all of the secret words! Have fun!

 Thanks for stopping... I mean, hopping by :) Good luck!
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