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Tuesday, July 29, 2014

Slant Box Love!


My Slant Box came when I was working on my classroom and my girls were dying to see what Amanda from His and Her Hobbies blog.  Now I will be honest I had Amanda already as a Slant Box partner so I knew her package would be AWESOME!  Just look at all that SUNSHINE (that was the theme for the exchange this month). 

First Amanda sent a cute handmade zebra card, then a bunch of snack cups (my son devoured most), a cute mason jar cup filled with different lemonades, 2 magazines and the most adorable drawstring bag her hubby made.  My oldest daughter has her eye on the drawstring bag so I may need to hide it.  Amanda packed a bag perfect for the beach now I just have to keep my kids away from all the treats! 

So a few of you are asking yourselves what is a Slant Box Exchange?  When you sign up your are paired up with a teacher that you will receive a Slant Box from and another that you will send to.  You have a theme to pack your box with.  You are not committed every month to participated only the months you sign up for.  Hurry over to Jameson's blog Lessons with Coffee the cut off day is AUG. 5TH - so hurry up and join the Slant Box fun.

Wednesday, July 23, 2014

Wordless Wednesday Newbie

This looks like a fun linky over at Sugar and Spice with Wordless Wednesday that I had to try.  So here I go.....
 

My new classroom....I had to stop and get a few pictures so I can start to think what I want to do.  I am thinking of changing my colors from "Dots on Chocolate" to teal, black and white.  Do you do a theme or certain colors in your classroom?
Come join up and take a look around.

Monday, July 21, 2014

Monday Made It - Food, Food, and More Food!




Good morning everyone!  It is Monday and you know what day it is......Monday Made It over at Tara's house 4th Grade Frolics.  I just LOVE this linky!



Just be warned I did not make one school thing!  I think I am protesting that summer is flying by or just in denial that school will be starting in less than a month!  Boo! 

This is my favorite and it not completely done but my hubby (That counts for "my" Made It right?)made me a kitchen window herb garden.  I still need to paint it.  I love to have my window open and watch my kids play on the swings and the chickens.  Yep we have chickens!  My hubby is a city boy with a farmers heart so this is how he gets his fix!  LOL
Then I made some broccoli slaw not real fancy but I HATE to cook so this was fancy for me.  I just searched on Pinterest (my favorite place to escape to) to get the ingredients and voila!  I did stop at Trader's Joe's for the slaw that inspired the entire recipe.  The kids would not eat it but my hubby and myself enjoyed it! 


Ok this one looks gross in the pan but it was super easy and we tried something new orzo!  Orzo with Parmesan and Basil Yum!  The recipe I found on.......yep Pintrest.  You can find the recipe on Tasty Kitchen.  It was like macaroni and cheese for grown ups. 


Well sorry for all the food pictures.  It was a week of trying new things.  Maybe next week I will make something for my classroom....maybe;D 

Have a great week,

Monday, July 14, 2014

Monday Made It - School, Personal & Home




Today is Monday so I HAD to link up with Tara Fourth Grade Frolics for......

 

Made It # 1 - School
Ok I did work on some school stuff, my reading notebooks.  I started the first couple pages in the notebook.  I will spend the first week or so setting up notebooks for both my 4th grade reading classes and my 4th and 5th grade science classes.  I love using notebooks.
Ok this is upside down and I cannot get it to flip.  Grrrrrr!

Made It # 2 - School
 I also worked on a product for my TpT store.  If you want to take a look click Extinct, Endangered, Threatened Webquest. I need to look it over again to make sure my pain meds did not effect my judgment. All those Instagram, Facebook and blog post from Vegas this weekend were so inspiring.  I want to go next year! 

Made It # 3   - Personal
I had surgery to replace my ear drum that had ruptured and never closed quite a few years back.  It has really effected my hearing.  Both my ears are a mess but just one at a time please!  I could not just get hearing aids which I thought about.  The tissue from my ear canal was creeping behind the little bit of my ear drum I had threatening to make my hearing worst.  So I gave in and got the surgery.  I won't get too graphic but lets just say it feels like I have had a backwards facelift and a stick shoved in my ear.  Ouch!  Here is my lovely headgear I had to wear the first night home.  Tuesday I get the packing out and I cannot wait!  I pray my hearing will be better after all this pain. 

Made It # 4- Home
While stuck at home recuperating and starting to feel a little better I made pretzel rolls.  Yum this is my favorite recipe even though they did not get as brown as I like since I was low on baking soda.  Here is a link to the easy recipe. 

There is the empty box of baking soda for the roll bath!


The dough needs to raise for about an hour. 

Wow does these look huge & ugly. They tasted better then they looked!
I cannot wait to check out the other bloggers' Monday Made It.  I hope everyone has a great week.
 
 

Sunday, July 13, 2014

Book Clubs, Reading Workshop, CAFE 5, Textbook - SOOOO Many Decisions

Gosh summer is flying by so quickly.  I want to stick my feet outside (Like how Fred Flintstone use to stop his car.) and try to stop summer from going by so quickly!  LOL

My nerves are on edge since I will be starting at new school.  I started to plan a little especially with 4th grade reading which I have not taught in a while.  When I did teach reading my team used book clubs exclusively.  Then I have been reading around about reading workshop where the kids pick their own books, the teacher does mini lessons & conferences with the kids.  I watched a webinar on Laura Chandler's Corkboard Connection about Reading Workshop.  I actually LOVED this format.  Can this really be done?  Do any of my readers use reading workshops?  How do you do it in your classroom?



My concern is I am not a textbook type of teacher and the new school I am starting at is.  The new principal said I do not have to use the textbook.  So I should be excited right?   Not after reading, Reading in the Wild.  Boy that book makes me feel overwhelmed!  I did read the Book Whisper 
first and really felt inspired but that second book!  How can I do it all? 

I have planned out which genre I want to do each month and I thought to first start with a 2 week poetry unit to get my feet wet and to get to know my kids as readers.  That would give me some time to get Star Reading testing done and to look over scores.  I can also get the reading workshop or book clubs started which could be a combination of the two.  I also started creating a few pages for the kids' reading notebooks. 

 Ok bloggy friends....your thoughts?  Any resources would you suggest? 

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Saturday, July 5, 2014

Saturday Snapshots - Baseball, Soccer, Jumpy Thing & Snow Cones - OH MY!

I love Saturday's Snapshots .  I enjoy sharing & checking out other's pics.  So here is a few of mine from mainly this weekend.
We had a baseball tournament for my son. He is a catcher.
My daughter had a soccer tournament.  She is in the background but this team is from India. 
Then we blew the jumpy thing up for the kids to jump in.
 
 
This is my youngest who at last got her snow cone that she was whining for.  Look at that smile.  Just do not mind that lose from tooth.  I think it is going to hang on forever.  Ewww
 
Come check out the other post. 
 
Happy Saturday,

Wednesday, July 2, 2014

First Wordless Wednesday - July 2 (Already? NOOOO!)

Well this is my first Wordless Wednesday link up over at Sugar and Spice with Christina.  What an easy blog post I just could not pass this one up.


This is what I have been doing every evening this week.....soccer and baseball.  They both have tournaments this weekend and Soccer in the Sand is the following weekend.  Love watching my kids!  Go Bulldogs & NEO! 

Have a great rest of your week!

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