Showing posts with label Thanksgiving. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Thanksgiving. Show all posts

Happy Thanksgiving & Liebster Blog Award

What, what?!?!  Happy Turkey Day peeps!!  My house currently smells amazing – no thanks to me – but to Mr. Realistic who (thank God) does all the cooking. We don’t need anyone here dying of food poisoning. 


I received an awesome nomination today – which made my Thanksgiving even sweeter – for the Liebster Award.  Thanks to Learning with Mrs. Leebywho nominated me.  I am really flattered!!

The Liebster Award is given by bloggers to up and coming bloggers who have less than 200 followers – yep, that’s me!! It’s to show that new bloggers are appreciated and help spread the word about our little pieces of cyberspace.

Here are the rules:
1. You must post 11 random things about yourself.
2. Answer the questions that the nominator set for you.
3. Create 11 questions for the people you nominate.
4. Choose 11 other blogs with fewer than 200 followers to nominate and link them in your post.
5. You cannot “tag back” the other blog, but leave a comment on this post with the URL of your Liebster post so I can learn more about you & see who you nominate.

Whoa – 11 random things about me…
1.  I love Zumba!!! I’ve never been a workout girl, but I joined the gym and am now addicted. I go to Zumba twice a week and work with my trainer the other day.

2.  I wanted to be a teacher since I was in 1st grade. I had an amazing teacher (Mrs. Mock) who inspired me to love reading and writing.

3.  I love reading! Every year I try to read at least 200 new books.

4.  I eventually want to teach abroad – even if it is only for one or two years. I couldn’t leave my boys for too long and I definitely won’t be able to do this until they are both in college. Mr. Realistic isn’t as passionate about this goal!

5.  I have an obsession with reality TV. It drives Mr. crazy but I can’t help it – Storage Wars, Buried Alive, Hoarders, American Pickers…if it’s on A&E or the History channel I love it. I know – nerd (ha, I’m really okay with that!)

6.  I talk to myself – all the time! It doesn’t matter if someone is in the room with me or not. This even happens in public – sometimes it’s embarrassing when someone catches me, but I can’t help it! My guys are always saying, “What?” and I have to admit, “Sorry, I was talking to myself…again”

7.  I practice my handwriting. I have since I was little, because I always knew I would need perfect teacher handwriting!

8.  If I don’t do things well I choose not to do them at all. I am a perfectionist so if I don’t exceed expectations then I just don’t do it. That is one of the reasons I don’t cook! My contribution to Thanksgiving is usually Jello. Yes, I’m that cousin!

9.  I want to spend my whole summer in Michigan. I miss my family sooo much it hurts and I want to spend the next summer with them. I’m working on making that goal happen, but I currently teach at a year-round school and I’d have to move to a traditional school. I hate the thought of leaving my school because I love it there!!

10.  I despise math. I don’t tell my students this, but I do tell them that we all like certain subjects better than others, but that we need to do our best at all of them. Most of them have figured out my favorite by the end of the year though!

11.  I have a passion for children’s literature and collect children’s books! Yes, it is an obsession. I love to figure out what students like and find the perfect book for them to read. I also love to read aloud to my students!!!

Questions from Mrs. Leeby:
1.  Do you plan an instrument?
No – I “played” the flute in middle school, but I couldn’t read the music so I just copied the finger movements of the first chair.  Yes, I was last chair. My poor parents had to listen to me try to play every night. They are saints!

2.  Where have you traveled?
I have been to 29 states. I want to make sure that my children see the entire country before they graduate from college. I think it is super important for them to understand the country they live in.
Outside of the United States, I have only been to the Bahamas, Mexico, and Canada; but there are so many places I want to see!!

3.  What is your favorite thing to cook or your favorite recipe?
I hate to cook – but I have tons of favorite recipes for others to make for me. Yes, that is the princess in me talking!  My grandma makes the most amazing pasta from scratch and I have amazing memories of baking and cooking with her in the kitchen. I love when my mom makes me meatloaf – it is the best!!

4.  How long have you been teaching?
I’ve always loved to teach people new things; but officially this is my sixth year in the classroom.

5.  What’s your zodiac sign?
I am a Libra.  You can definitely tell because I like balance in my life – although I rarely get it because I am always busy with one project or another.

6.  Camping or hotel on a beautiful summer weekend?
Hotel!!! I am not an “outdoorsy” girl. I am fortunate that my parents have a cottage on a lake in Michigan, so I am really a cottage kinda girl! The last camping trip I went on was for my boys Cub Scout group and we went in a camper.

7.  Most embarrassing blogging moment?
I can’t answer that. I haven’t been blogging long enough to have an embarrassing moment. I’m sure, with my luck, that it will happen soon enough!

8.  Bath or shower?
Shower – I don’t have time for the bath. Some of my best ideas happen in the shower!!

9.  Wine or beer?
I am really not a beer girl – long story & probablydefinitely not appropriate for my blog.  I recently found a wine I finally like, but I am more of a liquor girl. Give me cake vodka in a cookies and cream milkshake any day!!

10.  Real or fake Christmas tree?
I only have real Christmas trees growing up and I only had real trees when we lived in Michigan, but now that we’ve moved, it’s easier to put up a fake one.

11.  Is blogging taking over all of your free time?
Blogging is beginning to take up a lot of my time, but I am not letting it take over my life…Mr. Realistic would not agree!  I make sure that I take time to work out too, but I’ve put reading on the back burner. I’ve also started tutoring lately so that is starting to take up some of my “free” time.

Blogs I’m Nominating

Questions for blogs I’m nominating:
1.  What is your favorite genre?
2.  Do you parallel park or find another spot?
3.  Do you have any tattoos? How many? Of what?
4.  What is your favorite book?
5.  When did you last laugh?
6.  Where have you traveled and what was your favorite place?
7.  Do you like to dance?
8.  What is your favorite type of music?
9.  Have you ever, or would you ever, go skydiving or bungee jumping?
10.  Do you garden?
11.  If you could eat lunch with a favorite person who would it be?

Don’t forget to leave me a link to your blog when you’ve answered!  I can’t wait to read more about you and I hope you enjoyed learning a little something about me.  



Double Freebie Friday & Holidays Galore

I am so excited that I finished some huge holiday projects this week! I am gearing up for Christmas already!! It helps that I have full free days to get stuff done. Have I mentioned I love track out!!

The other thing that has me so excited is that I talked to my son who is in college last night! I can’t wait for him to be home next week! He shared some (what I think is) great news. He got a haircut and new clothes!! Sending your child away is hard. It’s the little things you worry about. Haircuts and new clothes were always the things I took care of for him. I am so glad to know that he does them on his own now…or at least with his girlfriend’s reminder! It was nice to hear him so excited about how much money he saved shopping…again, he hasn’t had to think about that in the past!

Anyway – I know I’m rambling about my personal life so let me focus on my teaching world. I’m linking up with Teaching Blog Addiction to share my Friday Freebie! Actually I have two freebies to share!!
 
Freebie Fridays

I can’t wait to use this in my classroom this year and thought you might like it too! It is my Christmas Eve Day activity pack. I am planning on sending these packs home with my kiddos to give them something to do besides get on their parent’s nerves play video games, watch TV or ask “are we there yet?” from the backseat. What a better way to keep them occupied and keep their brains turned on.

Here is another quick freebie that I created this week. Hopefully you find it more useful that I do – it has a Thanksgiving theme, and did I mention I’m not in school during Thanksgiving so it probably won’t do me any good? It’s a quick morning work item to keep students thinking about figurative language!


I already posted about my Nutcracker unit – which I am still so excited about; but I also finished my gingerbread stations. My kids loved, loved, loved this last year. I actually had my son come in and help me run some of the stations.

  No, he did not skip school and yes, he is old enough that my students listen to him. He loves my little people!! I tell my school kids they are a part of my family for the year, so when my boys come in to see my students they love to hear what my kiddos have to say. Okay – enough rambling – I know, on with the show!

Here is my gingerbread station day! I divide my kids into small groups (3-4) and they rotate between 10 stations throughout the day. It is fantastic. We set up a cocoa bar and the kids get to work while they sip their hot chocolate. What a better way to finish up before heading home for the holidays! I also love that it is easy clean up for me! Everything is included – teacher directions, student response sheets, station directions (I posted them on table tents last year) and everything that you need for each station.


Even though I haven’t been in school this week and wasn’t able to post about what we’ve been doing, I’ve gotten a lot of things done and am so happy to share. Make sure you head over to TpT to save, pin or print! Thanks for sticking with me through my ramblings today – I just have so much great things going on in this brain right now…and have had about 5 cups of coffee too many this morning! Happy Friday!!

A Thankful Little (but growing) Blog

I’m linking up with Teaching in Room 6 today! She is hosting a Thanking Fellow Bloggers linky party.



I’ve already been keeping my list of things I’m thankful for this season, but I’m adding to it and sharing it with you!
1.  I am thankful for fellow bloggers who take the time to share what is happening in your classrooms. It motivates and inspires me to be a better teacher. Although I don’t know each of you personally, I feel like we are connected through out blogs, so thank you for investing the time to make be a better teacher and blogger. 

2. I am especially thankful to Carolyn Wilhelmat Connect-a-blog.  She has been a gracious guide since I started blogging.  There are really a ton of places that you can find her! I’m not kidding – she must have a trillion projects going on!

Connect-a-Blog K-12
 
Another blogger that I am especially grateful for is Jodie at Growing Book by Book.  I am so excited to be working with her on a new collaborative project.

3. Thank you for TpT and Pinterest. Besides blogging, this is where I find really amazing, fantastic, tremendous material. There are endless ideas shared for free and it is always inspiring to know that at the end of the day teachers really care about our kiddos learning, and sharing their resources so graciously.
Yes, I have a lot to be thankful for this year!  Make sure you head over to Teaching in Room 6 to link up. I can’t wait to see all of the wonderful things you’re thankful for!!

Scattered Pilgrim Hats Freebie Monday

I’ve linked up today with Manic Monday Classroom Freebies!  My students are really struggling to put numbers in order from greatest to least and least to greatest.  Here is just a little something I created for morning work.



Enjoy!

 
Classroom Freebies Manic Monday

Friday Flashback, Thanksgiving Books and more!

Wow – I have so much to post about today! I was going to post Friday, but time got away from me! Holy guacamole! We were so busy in our room this week – with elections, our school-wide technology run, and track-out I feel like I hardly had time to sit down!

I’ve linked up with Teaching Maddness’s Friday Flashback....I know it's Sunday, but better late than never!

 

Here is our week looked like in photos…



In writing this week we finished up our Veteran’s Day letters. I can’t wait to send them off to the troops. Our kids are looking forward to getting some great responses. They had great questions and did a fantastic job describing themselves and their interests!

I got a real laugh out of one of my students this week who dubbed himself the “King of the Redneck Kids”. If I can remind you, I teach in a suburban school… Here is a picture of how he described himself during his Daily 5 writing time.



Yes, I am still laughing…ah, the things kids say – love it! The picture isn’t the best quality and it’s hard to read, so let me interpret for you…”I am the king of the redneck kids. When I grow up I’m going to have a monster truck.” There is a picture of him singing “Sweet Home Alabama”. Gosh, I love that kid!

Unfortunately, I forgot to get my camera out for Election Day! Ugh, I’m so disappointed! The kids had a great time comparing and contrasting President Obama and Senator Romney on Monday. It was great that a 5th grade teacher friend could stop in for a quick visit. I think some of the comparisons really shocked her. My kids are still so concrete – yes, Romney has sons and Obama has daughters…let’s get real guys!

I’m also linking up with Beach, Sand & Lesson Plans and First Grade Found Me! this week to focus on Thanksgiving books!



Thanksgiving is actually my FAVORITE holiday. Really, it’s perfect – there is no stress to find the perfect gift, not a whole lot of decorating to do – most of the fall stuff is already up – it’s just a great holiday to celebrate family and friends and what is truly important in your life. It is also when I get 3 weeks off – an added bonus of being a year-round teacher!!

Although, I do miss spending my summers with my boys and relaxing “up north” with my family. Even though I am officially “out” for Thanksgiving, I still love to create fun projects and activities for other people’s classrooms.

A few of my favorite Thanksgiving books are:

Thank You, Sarah: The Woman Who Saved Thanksgiving



I Know an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Pie



A Plump and Perky Turkey



My favorite – and only – turkey product is my Thanksgiving Literacy, Math & Problem Solving activity pack. There are 14 great activities to incorporate into your classroom. Why not have a Turkey Party with a variety of stations!




Finally, yes, this is the end of my post – I told you I’ve been busy and had lots of things going on! I finally started my own Facebook page. I'd love you to like my page!

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