I Appreciate You ~ TpT Gift Card Giveaway!

I know that we teachers don't do what we do for the accolades (or the money), but it is nice to be appreciated once in a while. So, Happy Teacher Appreciation Week! Today our awesome PTO kicked off the week with an adorable Trail Mix Bar. The table was covered with a textures "bumpy road," complete with grass growing in the cracks & potholes! The bags held things like popcorn, M&Ms, nuts, and pretzels, etc. for us to create our own snack mix.

Pin this! Isn't it seriously cute?? It would be a fun construction themed birthday party tablescape.

The end of our "Road Work" is coming up soon! Out last day is May 25! (Where did the time go??)

I can't wait to see what goodies PTO has planned for the rest of the week! 

Hopefully, you are being spoiled, too! :-)

It may not be a street full of snacks, but I want to give away a $10.00 gift card to one lucky winner. 

Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Back to School Giveaway!

It's almost time! Get ready for the new school year with a $10 Teachers pay Teachers gift card! I'll select a winner on Sunday at midnight & announced Monday morning. Good luck!




a Rafflecopter giveaway

Five for Friday!

It's Friday again & time for another Five for Friday!  This week just flew by (like all of the weeks have done this summer...).  It has been unseasonably cool this week ~ a little bit like fall.  boo!  This has been an unusual year weather-wise ~ with e Polar Vortex & the cool summer temps.  The fair started yesterday, and as a former fair mom, I know that cooler weather is actually nice for fair week.  I remember summers spent melting in the horse barn.  Actually, while I didn't like the humid weather, I did love time spent with my girls at the fair.  4-H was an important part of our life.  In fact, I still am involved with 4-H as a project superintendent.  I am excited for the day when my darling granddaughters are old enough to be 4-Hers.  


1. First day at the fair!  Isabella & Olivia love their little cousin Amelia.

 Ride swap! 

Olivia had fun riding in Amelia's stroller & Amelia had fun riding in the wagon with Isabella. 

 

 I have never seen a big bag of cotton candy disappear as quickly as the one we ate yesterday did!  Isabella & Olivia are fans of the sweet treat.  Amelia wasn't quite sure what to make of it.

 My granddaughters & their mommies.  We watched a high diving act warm up. 

It was pretty exciting ~ I can't wait to see the whole show!

 

 

2.  I have spent lots of time with my little darlings!

 





 Olivia really likes ice cream drumsticks.  Isabella had fun playing with her mom's old

Polly Pockets.  I took this selfie one day while holding a snoozing Amelia. 

 

Isabella loves to color.  Olivia gives her dolly a kiss. 

Amelia's new favorite activity ~ standing & walking!

 

 

3. Serious pain in the...toe!  I will never claim to be graceful or light on my feet.  I walked into the corner between the dining room & kitchen.  Everyone in the dining room heard the crack.  :-(  My toe is definitely broken (but, I did manage to hobble around the fair).  Luckily, I have my little pup to keep me company.  Macie loves to hang out with me in the sunroom or on the porch.



 

 

 

4.  Rainbow!  This was not only a full arc, but a double rainbow.  I took the pictures with my phone, so the double part doesn't show up.  It was really beautiful!

 



5. Covered Altoids box.  I was in our local Halmark store & saw some cute covered metal tins.  They had a tiny note pad & a little pen inside of them, and cost about $12!  I was able to make a replica for a fraction of the cost.  (And, I do think mine is better ~ I wrapped the paper around the top edge so it won't lift off & lined my box!)  I'm not really sure what I will do with it, but it was fun to put together.

Have you entered my giveaway?  Click HERE to enter.

Sweet Summer Giveaway ~ 2014

Last summer I had a great "Sweet Summer Giveaway" complete with wonderful prizes.  Well, thanks to some of  my blogging buddies, I have been able to put together another AWESOME giveaway!  Check out the wonderful products you could win.

 

 

Winner's Choice from: Second Grade is Out of This World,  Shifting Teacher K-2, and $20 to spend in my TpT Store

 



a Rafflecopter giveaway

Stay Book Blitz

As a parent there is nothing more gratifying than seeing your children succeed in doing what they love.  This post is part of a Book Blitz hosted by Contagious Reads.  Today they are promoting my daughter's book!  It is amazing to think that my "little Emily" has fans of her writing all around the world.  (She sold over 200 copies of this book yesterday!)  So, with that, I turn over this post to Lori...

 

 

 

“I felt like I was walking to the end of a plank precariously hanging over shark-infested water. When I jumped, sharp teeth would rip into me and the cold water would steal my breath away. The monsters would take everything from me, leaving me shivering and naked in the water. The only difference was that tonight I would be pulled from the icy darkness and forced to do it again. There would be no release from death, only pain.”

Home after her first year of college, Adeline Miller is looking forward to a stress free summer filled with reading, working on her blog, and spending time with friends. But all that changes in an instant when she is witness to something terrible, something she wasn't supposed to see.

Beaten, drugged, kidnapped.

Adeline Miller is ripped from her innocent and carefree life and thrust into darkness, into a world full of pain and horror. As a sex slave, she is forced to do horrible things, and have horrible things done to her. One of her captors has a past as dark as the world she is now living in. Will getting close to him mean freedom? Or will he pull her deeper into the shadows? GOODREADS | AMAZON      

Adeline’s summer TBR list.

Adeline Miller from STAY is a self-proclaimed book nerd. She runs a book blog called Contagious Reads (yes…I named it after the REAL Contagious Reads blog!) Before Adeline is kidnapped and her life is forever changed, her summer plans include relaxing with a good book and getting caught up on her summer To Be Read list.  

So what was Addie looking forward to reading? I stumbled upon her Summer TBR list and picked her top 10. (The list was long…very long!)  

1.)The Killing Woods, Lucy Christopher

2.)Midnight Thief, Livia Blackburne

3.)Dissonance, Erica O’Rourke

4.)A Castle Made of Sand, Daniel Cotton

5.)Little Dead Man, Jake Bible

6.)Mr. Mercedes, Stephen King

7.)The Hunt, C.J. Ellison

8.)Savage Possession, Belinda Boring

9.)City of Heavenly Fire, Cassandra Clare

10.) Dangerous Creatures, Kami Garcia        

About the Author:

 

Emily is my daughter!  She lives in Northwest Indiana with her husband, baby daughter, and German Shepherd Vader.  She has degrees in psychology and nursing, and works part time in healthcare.  Emily loves animals ~ big & small, and has been an avid equestrian for many years.  She still hops on her Arabian, Mystery, whenever she has a free moment.

GOODREADS | BLOG | FACEBOOK

a Rafflecopter giveaway Thank you so much for posting with us! Lori

 

 

 

http://contagiousreads.com/cover-reveal-beyond-the-sea-by-emily-goodwin/

Springing into Science Blog Hop

I am excited to be a part of this fun Science themed blog hop.  As a busy kindergarten teacher, I find that I don't have a lot of time to devote to all things Science. Literacy & math take up lots of time.  But, our Kinder kids recently had the opportunity to participate in a special presentation by our county Soil and Water Conservation department.  My Kinders got to be Soil Scientists for an afternoon!

 Our guest presenter, Mrs. Benson, taught us about the types of soil in our area.

 Each student was given a "soil" sample made from kitchen ingredients such as cornmeal, cocoa, and flour.  After observing the samples with their eyes, ears (shaking the containers), and noses, the kiddos got to feel their samples.  Mrs. Benson gave the kids words to describe their "soil."  Rough, smooth, powdery, etc.  Some samples included cinnamon ~ which smelled much better than real dirt!

 Before adding a spoonful of water, the Kinders were instructed to give a practice stir in the air.  Mrs. Benson explained that soil scientists add water when studying soil.  The samples really did mimic different soil types ~ the cornmeal was like sand, and the cocoa/flour mix really looked like real mud!

After stirring their little pots of "dirt," the kids had fun trying to make mud balls.

I plan to schedule this presentation with my future Kinders.  What a great, hands-on way to learn about our Earth & be scientist for the day!

Thanks for visiting!  Check out my post about our recent Science Fair project, and enter to win $20.00 worth of items of your choice in my TpT store. 



 

 Hop over to Sweet Integrations for the next stop on the Springing into Science Blog hop!

 a Rafflecopter giveaway

 

100th Day 2014

It took a long time to get to 100 days of Kindergarten (so very many days off because of snow & crazy cold temperatures), but we finally got to have our 100th Day Celebration yesterday!  It was So. Much. Fun!  I thought I would use our 100th Day fun for my Five for Friday.

 My teaching partners and I dressed up as 100 year old ladies.  (I'm the one in the lovely frock on the right.  FYI ~ I'm wearing a wig!  My hair is not really that color! lol)  We had so much fun.  Of course, I really hammed it up pretending to be an old lady.  I don't think I've ever called the students "whipper snappers" as many times (if ever) as I did yesterday.  The Kinders knew we were dressing up, but the other kids did not.  We teachers stand outside our doors as the kiddos enter the building ~ the looks on the first & second graders' faces were priceless!  And, I have to say other teacher & parent volunteers were pretty amused by our oldster antics yesterday!  This will definitely be an annual event!

 Some of my Kinders got into the fun & dressed up!

 This year we made 100 fish Schools of Fish bowls.  With the help of a parent volunteer, my little sweeties made four different bowls of fish.  They counted out groups of 10 fish, and glued them to the large fish bowls.  After completing the task, the parent volunteer helped them to fill out their school information.

 The bowls are now hanging in the hallway for all to see.

The "Schools" were given a name & the student roster was filled out.  The "teachers" are the students who helped to count & assemble the fish students.

I was so fortunate to have lots of volunteers ~ two grandmas, one grandpa, two moms, and one dad ~ to help with our 100th Day activities. (And, this was after another postponement of our 100th Day!  Our original rescheduled 100th Day was supposed to be Wednesday.)  I love the fact that parents & grandparents are able to volunteer in our classroom.  Their presence adds so much to the lives of my little students, and I am so thankful for their enthusiasm and help!  These pictures are of two more of our 100 themed stations ~ creating booklets of 10 ten frames stamped with 100 stamps, and completing a variety of 100th Day themed puzzle & activity pages.

 The Kinders made necklaces of 100 Fruit Loops ~ with a pony bead between each group of 10 cereal pieces.  To make it easier for the kiddos to keep track of their cereal pieces, they first placed their Fruit Loops onto a 100 chart.  I used a stiff beading string for the necklaces ~ much more kid friendly than yarn or string with tape on the end.  It was a little more pricy than regular string, but happily our PTO allotted $200 for Kindergarten 100th Day Celebration materials!  (We have a fabulous PTO comprised of supportive and dedicated parents who really work to make our little school the best it can be!)

 100 piece snack. The Kinders created a tasty snack of ten pieces of ten different treats with the help of a volunteer grandma.  They really liked the fact that Skittles & M&Ms were a part of their choices!

 Counting 100 items.  Each child brought in a collection of 100 small items to count by ones, tens, fives, and twos.  I made the counting mats last year.  They are laminated & should last for years to come.  It was interesting to see the collections that they came up with ~ I don't think anyone brought the same items!

 No 100th Day Celebration would be complete without crowns & a little bit of writing!  

These crowns are from my daughter Sarah's TpT store.  Click HERE to purchase her 100 Days Smarter Set.  She has lots more than the crowns in her set!

 Get both the writing page & coloring page in my 100th Day freebie HERE.

We had a WONDERFUL 100th Day of Kindergarten!  I hope my little students will keep the memories of all the fun we had.  They were well behaved & happy ~ something I will always keep as a cherished memory of my 100th day with them.  I hope you all have (or had) a wonderful 100th Day of school!  If you write a post about your day, I would love to hear about it ~ leave a comment with a link to your post & I will check it out!  Here's to 80 more days (weather permitting)!

PS

If you haven't entered my giveaway, please click HERE to go to the link.  The winner will receive an AWESOME prize package!