Monday Made It! (A little early)

Friday was my son's very first Christmas party at school!  I signed up to bring goody bags and was so excited...then my procrastination kicked in and I wasn't as thrilled about making them the night before!  BUT I got them done and I think they turned out adorable!

Here is what all went inside the bags.

My son loved these marshmallow pops I made for his birthday and insisted they go in there too.  They are super easy to make, just dip a marshmallow into candy melt and add sprinkles.  I think next time I will put the same color sprinkles as the candy melt.  But I don't think 4 and 5 years olds noticed the difference.

We made playdough using red and green Kool-aid.  I found the awesome recipe and tags here.  I changed the tags up a little and put the entire recipe on them because I gave them the playdough already made instead of a kit to make them.  I included a package of kool-aid in the goody bag so they could make more at home.

I found these adorable treats on Pinterest and knew I had to make them for Rope's classmates.  Super adorable and easy to do.  The brown "noses" are Whoppers and the red "nose" for Rudolf is a cherry sour.  Thanks to Pam and Lisa at Over the Big Moon  for the awesome labels!  I didn't take a picture of the back of the label, but it listed all of the reindeer names.

Finished!  And it only took me til 2:00 a.m. to do it!  I think they turned out awesome!!  Maybe I'll be better prepared for the Valentine's Party!  

I hope you all have a very MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!

Day of Silence for Sandy Hook Elementary

What a wonderful surprise!  I have been nominated for the Liebster Blog, not once, but THREE times.  How awesome is that!  I'd like to thank Erin Beers from Mrs. Beers' Language Arts Class; Mrs. Penna from Fantastic Fifth Grade!; and Kristin from Teach n' Tex for nominating me!

 

The Liebster Award is given by bloggers to up and coming bloggers who have less than 200 followers. It is to show new bloggers that they are appreciated and to help spread the word about new blogs.

 

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The Rules:

• You must post 11 random things about yourself.
• Answer the questions that the nominator set for you.
• Create 11 questions for the people you nominate.
• Choose 11 blogs you love (with less than 200 followers and link them in your post.)
• No tag back, but please leave me a comment on this post with the URL to your Liebster post so I can learn more about you! 

Randomness:
1. I hate chocolate!
2. I am the HS cheer coach.
3. I'm extremely forgetful!
4. I love watching the Food Network, but I hate to cook!
5. I love watching football on tv.
6. I'm obsessed with owls!!
7. I play the flute and the piano.
8. I have 2 grandkids and 1 on the way.
9. I'm not a fan of cats, but have one that loves me!
10. I love FRIENDS and have watched every episode numerous times.
11. I can juggle.

Questions for me:  (I combined the list from the 3 who nominated me)

1. What is one item that you could not live without?  My phone!

2. When did you start blogging?  June 2012

 

3. What is your favorite TV show?  Grey's Anatomy and Modern Family, oh and Big Bang Theory

 

4. How long have you been teaching?  What grades have you taught?  I've been teaching for 13 years.  I have taught 9-12 art, 1st grade (self-contained), 6-8 resource math, 6-12 resource English, 7th grade ELAR, 6th grade math

 

5. What do you do to pamper yourself after a tough day?  Veg out on the couch!

 

6. What is your favorite holiday and why?  Christmas!  I love the spirit of the whole holiday.  I also love decorating my house for Christmas.  I put a tree up in every room - including my bathroom!!  I have 10 trees up this year!
 

 7. What trait do you admire most in others? Why?  Loyalty.  I can't stand people who are not loyal, especially in the work place!

8.  How did you end up in your grade level and/or subject area?  I BEGGED!  I taught English  (7th grade writing) for several years when they asked me to teach reading as well.  I'm actually a math person, but I love teaching kids to write (came from my resource experience).  I am NOT a reading teacher and had a very stressful and hard year last year.  When a math position came up I begged to switch positions.  I LOVE teaching math and I am much more comfortable and happier this year!

 

9. How many teammates do you have?  There are 5 of us on our 6th grade team, and 4 of us in the math department (6-8 grade)

10.  Do you plan alone or as part of a team?  I plan every Thursday with my math team.   

 

11. If you weren’t a teacher/educator, what would you be doing?  I'd be a stay at home mom!!

Questions For You:

 
1. Do you have a hobby?  If so, what is it?

2. What is your favorite holiday dish?

3. What is your favorite thing about being a teacher?

4. What is your favorite sport or team?

5. What are your top 3 movies?

6. How do you balance blogging and teaching with the rest of your life?

7. How did you get into education?

8. How did you get into education?
9. Why do you blog? What inspired you to start?
10. If you could live in another part of the world, where would it be? Why?

Blogs I'm Nominating:

Colorful Teaching

Diary of a 6th Grade Teacher  

Fifth Grade Dugout 

Fifth Grade Fancy

Zombie Math Teacher

The Superlative Six

Teise's Tidbits

The Bomb-Diggity Classroom

Owl See You in Third Grade

Hodges Herald

Learning's a Hoot

When I was in Linky Party!

Ok I've be MIA for a couple of months and decided that I should get on here and catch up on all the great things I've been missing.  I stumbled upon this fun linky party from Kate on Second Grade Sparkle and couldn't resist...
 

Although I am the only one so far who teaches JH and will not get to post my cute kinder picture, I instead have to humiliate myself with an embarrassing haircut and fashion sense from when I was in 6th grade.  And to top it of it was the 80's of all decades.  So snicker away...here I am in 6th.  (Sad part is, I thought I looked GOOD!)

6th Grade 1988

 Last Christmas

Ok so here are the rules:

1. Post a picture (or two!) of you from when you were in the grade you teach (or around there).
2. Post a picture of you now! :)
3. Be nice and visit others to comment.

Have fun!!

September Currently and Roaster Coasters

I really enjoyed having the day off today! We took the kids to the local amusement park Joyland for the day. The kids had a blast! Here is my favorite pic from today:

These are our two youngest boys. I LOVE their expressions. Our youngest Rope was really excited to ride the "roaster coaster" until that first dip! :)

Want to link up? Check out Farley's blog!

Survived My First Week Back...barely!

I survived the first week of school...but barely! After reading all your blogs this weekend, I'm relieved to know that I'm not the only one who is extremely exhausted! I thought this week was gonna kill me! Not only did I change subjects and grade levels this year, but I am also the high school cheerleading coach. Because school started later this year, it also meant that the first varsity football game was this week. Boy was it overwhelming to plan lessons for the first week plus a pep rally and two football games!! I didn't leave school until 7 everyday this week!

Here was my schedule the last 4 days:
My JV cheerleaders cheered their first game (away) on Thursday night - while my varsity cheerleaders were at the local radio station hosting the Hot 8 at 8 countdown . That was a blast!
My son also had his first JV football game on Thursday
Friday was the big pep rally (outside on the football field in 100 degree heat! bad planning on my part) and it was a success!
Friday night my daughter cheered at her first varsity football game and marched at halftime with the band and debuted her flute solo.
EARLY saturday morning, she ran in the first cross country meet of the year and did great!
That afternoon the high school cheerleaders held their first annual mini cheerleader clinic. We had 32 little girls in attendance. It was awesome, but extremely tiring. My girls were funny because they couldn't believe how hard it was to entertain and teach all those little girls. I told them they should now have a new respect for their teachers who do it all day, everyday!
Today was my anniversary so my hubby let me sleep late. Later we went to dinner and a movie. Hope Springs is hilarious.
I know that it won't slow down until about February, but I'm sure hoping to get my body used to the fast pace. I love being busy with all my kids activities because one day they will all be grown and I'll have nothing to do.

I love my 6th graders! I'll admit on the first day I wasn't too sure about 6th graders. They were a little needy and clingy and asked a TON of questions! But after a few days and lots of hugs, and sweet comments, I LOVE my 6th graders! Why didn't I move down sooner? They are still needy and have tons of questions, but we are working on that. They want to learn and they want to please you. They are funny and for the most part listen and participate in class. I'm loving it! What I'm not loving is that I am still totally unorganized!!! It's driving me insane! My co-teacher and I have basically planned day by day. I'm used to planning a week's worth. That is our goal, to get more organized.

Thank goodness we have tomorrow off for Labor Day! I really need the extra day of rest! How was your first week?

A few pictures from my week:On Mix 100!

Pep Rally (Wipeout theme). That's my son trying to do the "big balls" competition.

My varsity cheerleaders. (My Hannah is on the far right.)Hannah cheering!

Classroom Reveal...FINALLY!

WELCOME!!

It seems like I have been working on my room all summer! BUT I've finally finished getting it all together. I love the way it turned out and I have to admit, I got a lot of inspiration from all my blogger friends! THANKS! Alright, I'm off to bed!

View from the door

My small group table.

Close up of my owl table markers. (from Pinterest!)

My word wall.

Classroom library.

My desk area.

My new and improved desk.

Also another Pinterest find. LOVE my filing cabinet!

Love my owl I painted on the wall.

My rules and expectations.

Saw this little guy on Pinterest. I think he turned out great!

This is my behavior/rewards system that I created. It's hard to see up close, but all the stops on the Eagleopoly board (our school mascot is Eagles) are places around the school. For example Mr. McCall's office (principal), Basketball arena, mini theater, Coach T's class. Here are the rules to how the game is played.

A fun spot for kids to work.