Tried It Tuesday - First Time!!!!

I keep telling myself that I'm going to get ahead with my blogging, but it never seems to happen!  Here I sit at 8:00 at night after putting the little one to bed to blog... sigh... at least I'm blogging, right???

Well, today I'm linking up with Fourth Grade Flipper  for Tried It Tuesday for the first time!

I try new things every week, but usually I'm either too busy or tired to blog about them. Today, my "tried it" doesn't technically have to do with teaching in school, but definitely teaching my daughter! 

 So last week, I got a text from my cousin in PHX asking me if I wanted to do a kids book exchange.  Of course I said yes even though we have a book shelf overflowing with books.  Is there such a thing as too many books???? I think not!  Well today, I got my letter from my cousin and the directions for how the book exchange works.  There are two names on the letter, one I didn't know and then my cousin's son's name.  I send a book to the first name and then I send out the same letter out with the names of my cousin's son and my daughter out to 6 people.  Basically it's a chain letter but the outcome isn't some bogus "you will live x number of days" but BOOKS!!!!  I sent out a round of texts and Facebook messages and actually got 8 friends to agree!!!  I made my copies and addressed the envelopes and will get them out in the mail tomorrow!!! 

Then I got on Amazon and bought this book to send the little girl on my letter.

This was way easier than going out and buying a book, plus with my Amazon Prime account, I got free shipping!!!  SCORE!!!!  Now, I just wait to get books for Ainsleigh!!!  I can't wait to see what books we get!

If you want to start your own Kids Book Exchange here is the link to the form I used.  Enjoy!!!

Monday Made It - Cardinals Blanket

It's Monday and Columbus Day... which means I got an extra day with the hubby!!!!  I love three day weekends!!!!

It's Monday and that means it's time for Monday Made It with Tara at Fourth Grade Frolics!

I only have one item to contribute and it has absolutely NOTHING to do with school, but I love it and so does the hubby!  It was a joint effort by me and the hubby.  So, my hubby is a huge fan of the St. Louis Cardinals ( We are watching game 3 of the NLCS as I blog).  A few weeks back we bought some Cardinals fleece at Johann's to make a no sew blanket as fall is finally setting in.  Our date night on Saturday included Star Trek: Into Darkness and blanket making! :)  Doesn't get much sweeter than that!

Here is the fleece.  We got two yards of each.  It's a great STL pattern.  As I said, it's no sew so all we needed was scissors.  

There was some remnant edges, so the first thing I did was cut off the edges so I would have a clean edge to start with.

Next, just lay the two pieces on top of one another.  Try to line them up as best as possible.

Now here is where I made a mistake.  I should have cut the corners out first, but I got a little ahead of myself and starting cutting the strips to tie.  I also made a second mistake here and didn't cut my strips long enough the first try.  I tied about 5 and then had to take them out and cut everything a little longer and start tying again.  

I did all the cutting and then the hubby would start tying at one end, while I started tying at the other end.  We did one side at a time, cut then tie.  I didn't get any pictures of the tied strips.

Here is the final product!!!!  It's just the perfect size for curling up and watching the Cardinals win another World Series!!!

I think he likes it!

Now I'm off to go check out everyone else's Monday Made It's!!!

Five for Fraturday

I've been MIA from the blogging world for a while, and I am terribly sorry!  With conferences and the hubby's administration schedule, life has been a little hectic!  I'm even late for Five for Friday, with Doodle Bugs Teaching but I really want to get caught up and recommit to blogging!  Here it goes...

Little Bit has started walking!!!  I can't believe how fast she is growing.  We are slowly trying to get her to wear shoes more often... she HATES them!!!  Hopefully she will grow out that!  She got a sweet new ride this week that she loves to play with.

Our school's fall carnival was this week, because as of yesterday, we are October Intercession!  Each class has a booth and the teachers who work the carnival for an hour get a cut of the money made from the carnival.  Last year, it was about $80!  

My booth was baseball toss and here is one of my awesome parents working the booth!

No carnvial would be complete without an adorable little 9 month old dressed up for Halloween!  She doesn't have her costume yet, so this had to do!

Yesterday, all of the teachers in the district who won 21st Century Technology grants got together for some PD.  This is a picture of us doing a fishbowl discussion outside on a beautiful October day!  It was so good to be able to talk and discuss what we are doing with our laptops and how the students are progressing and learning.  Teaching can be an isolating profession if you let it be, so collaboration is key!

One of my wonderful friends, Lisa , who moved to the other side of the country this summer, came for a visit this week!  I didn't get to spend a lot of time with her, but it was so good to see her!!!

Last but not least, we took the little girl to her first pumpkin patch today!  We went with some of our friends who also have a daughter almost exactly 1 year older than Ainsleigh.  It was great day for beautiful pictures with my wonderful new camera that I got as an early birthday present! 

Overall, I'd say it was a great week!  How was your week?

Peek at my Week!

I'm trying so hard to stay on top of everything in my life and Sunday nights always come way too quickly!  As I prepare for my week, here's a little peek at what's going on.  I'm linking up with Mrs. Laffin's Laughings for

 I am working with my kids this week on my very PBL that is an integrated math and social studies project.  They are designing a trip for their October beak.  I learned quickly last week that my kids don't know how to to search on the internet.  I will spending quite a bit of time teaching them how to search and find reliable resources on the internet!

 My team has a planning day on Wednesday!  We get one planning day each semester and I am really looking forward sitting down with my math partner to plan out the rest of our semester.  We have so many resources but haven't had the time to go through them all.  I hope to perhaps be a little ahead after Wednesday!

I'm so excited for Friday and the field trip that I will take my kids on!  Our wonderful PE teacher has written a grant that allows our school to take several outdoor classroom field trips.  My students get to go out into nature and learn about water erosion, make music with stream water, and learn about electricity out in the real world.  The kids love these field trips and I do, too!

What are you up to this week?

Five for Friday

Wow!  It's been a long week!!!!  I'm so happy that it's Friday Saturday! I'm a little late, but better late than never!  I'm linking up the Doodle Bugs Teaching for...

 I can't believe it, but my little girl is now 9 months old!!!!

She has so much personality and is seriously the best baby EVER! 

 I actually cooked this week!  My amazing hubby normally does all the cooking for our family, but on Thursday I was quite inspired to do a little cooking!  I went to my food/recipes Pinterest board to find this recipe!  These were some of the yummiest enchiladas we've had in a while!

 I gave my students their unit 1 math assessment.  My district has the CCSS math standards broken down into 5 units with varying strands in each unit.  This first unit covered most of the NBT standards, plus some metric measurement to help with the concept of 10x as many.  I spent my Friday grading them... we have some corrections to make next week!  

 Our school district asked for a millage to get a 2nd high school this week and it passed!  I did my civic duty and voted of course! We will have a new high school in the fall of 2016!

My dear friends Jamie and David headed to Dallas with their daughter Callie Anne for her first of many surgeries for her Apert Syndrom.  This first surgery is a cranial surgery.  You can read all about the surgery and how pray here.

Here are the girls playing at Connection Group this week!

Lockdown Drill

Today we had our first lockdown drill.  Can I just say that these are my least favorite kind of drills.  The kids had all been prepped for the drill, but that didn't stop them from asking a thousand "what if" questions, some of which stumped me.  I explained to the students where each would go and why it was safe to be there.  For our drill today, we actually our 2nd class, not our homeroom, which added a different level of anxiety for the students.   The students knew the time the drill was happening, and they were visibly on edge as the clocked ticked closer to 1:00.  As my students went to their safe spots and I turned out the lights, I couldn't help but think about what I would actually do in a true lockdown...
During the drill, I crouch down with my students trying to keep them all quiet. I get jumpy just doing the drill as my principal comes down the hall to check to make sure that my door is locked by jiggling the knob.  My heart beats fast and double and triple count my students.

I hate it that we have to have lockdown drills.  I hate it that I have to explain to innocent 9 and 10 year olds that someone might come to our school wanting to hurt them.  I hate it that scenarios like this have actually happened in our country.  I don't want to get all political, and start a gun debate, but schools should be a safe place.  My heart has been heavy all day as my mind drifts to the teachers and students who have had real lockdowns, some that have ended tragically. I pray that I never must encounter such an ordeal.  I pray that gun violence will be brought under control.  I pray that no child will fear coming to school.

Budding Blog - A Linky Party

I started this blog on June 24, 2013 and I have so enjoyed sharing my teaching life with other blogger buddies across the country.  Jess over I {heart} Recess is hosting a Budding Blog linky party for those of us with less than 200 followers.

1. Why did you start blogging?

I started this blog over the summer as part of an agreement with myself that because I got a 21st Century Classroom grant, that I better get on the ball and start blogging.  I also wanted to join the community of teachers that I had watched from afar share ideas, engage one other, and inspire other teachers!

2. What is your favorite subject to teach and why?

I really love teaching science.  It take a little more preparation, but the kids, especially at this age really love it.  One of the reasons I like to teach science is that it is in the world all around us.  Science is real life and it gets the kids excited about learning!

3. Describe your teaching style.

Well, if you had asked me last year, I would have said cooperative learning is my main style of teaching.  I am still using cooperative learning, but now that I have my cart of laptops, I am doing everything possible to incorporate technology into everything I do.  I like to teaching using hands on items as much as possible!

4. Give three interesting facts about you.

* I love to garden.

 I have 2 raised beds in my backyard where I grow a plethora of vegetables. I've already planned a project for my students to plan how to build a raised bed to incorporate my love of gardening into the classroom

* I like to think of myself as an amateur wine connoisseur.  My hubby and I love to go wine tasting, especially at local vineyards.  We also have a wine party every spring where our friends bring wine to share!  It's a blast!

*I love Pinterest and making things from there!  I even have a blog (not very well kept up) dedicated to my Pinterest inspired projects!

5. Do you have a TpT store? If yes, post the link :)

I do have a TpT store, with only a few items in it.  

I'm working on making more things for my classroom that I want to add to my store.

Thanks for visiting my blog!  Make sure to go check out the other budding blogs!