Monday Made It {July 14th}

Today I have I few simple Monday Made Its to share with you.

Kale Salad

Photo and Recipe from Gimme Some Oven

I had a picnic to go to this weekend and made this yummy {and healthy} kale salad. It was easy to make and super delicious so I thought I would share the recipe with you all!

Cupcakes!

Caramel Appletini Cupcakes

On Sunday I made these Angry Orchard-inspired cupcakes. You can click on the picture above to link back to the recipe. Here are how mine turned out:

(Note - not the best photo but I remembered last minute to take one!)

The frosting was VERY sweet but overall they were quite yummy and the smell of them cooking reminded me so much of fall! The hubby really liked them, so that is a success in my book!

Prefix and Suffix Freebies!

I have been back into full-blown planning mode this week. This week I focused a lot on guided reading and literacy related activities. I wanted a quick and efficient way to make sure I taught my kiddos all the prefixes and suffixes covered in our Journey's Reading Program (2011-2012 ed.). I teach 2nd and 3rd Grade, so those are the two grades covered in these freebies. Click here for the 2nd grade set and here for the 3rd grade set. 

Lastly, I've been working really hard on being more organized! So I started working on organizing my teacher binder. I created only the files I actually used last year to go in it... click the link below if you want to snag a copy of them for free!

I hope to work later this week on my Guided Reading Binder but we are going away for our {1 Year Anniversary} later this week, so it might have to wait until next week! 

Thanks to Creative Clips and I'm Lovin' Lit for the great clipart, frames, and papers to make these so adorable!

That's it for me for this week! I can't wait to stop by 4th Grade Frolics and see what everyone else has been up to! 

Mixing Things Up a Bit...

Well I decided I just wasn't loving my old blog title and have always wanted to incorporate one of my other true loves into my blog - cupcakes! This template is just temporary, I am hoping to purchase a blog design from one of the many amazing creators out there. So I am a work in progress.

I spent a little while trying my hand at cake decorating, which was fun at first but also very stressful. It was also expensive and very time consuming. Here is a picture of the last cake I created for my little nephew's 1st birthday (and most likely the last one I will be doing for a while):

It turned out ok but I realized it just isn't fun anymore. But what DO I enjoy making? Cupcakes! I love the different flavors and decorations you can add onto these little gems. So this summer I am adding cupcakes to my list of summer to-dos. First up - these yummy looking Angry Orchard Caramel Apple Cupcakes!

The hubby and I have made Angry Orchard our {unofficial} summer drink of choice, so once I found these little beauties I knew I would have to make them! Tomorrow the hubs finishes a two day golf tournament and all the wives/mothers/girlfriends always wait at the 18th hole to cheer them on when they finish {and share yummy snacks!}. It's always a lot of fun and these will be what I am bringing to share with the group!

I'll let you know how they turn out tomorrow!

Five for Friday Linky {July 11th}

Today I am linking up with Doodle Bugs for the Five for Friday Link Party! 

Eating Healthy!

I actually changed my eating habits about two years back, cutting out a lot of junk food and trying to eat healthier, count my calories, etc. I actually lost about 40 pounds between eating right and exercising. However, this year I kind of "fell off the wagon" and started back into some unhealthy eating/drinking habits (I went a whole year drinking almost no calories - just water and seltzer and cutting out all soda and alcohol). So this summer my goal is to get back on track! My healthy, low calorie meal go to sources include Cooking Light, Skinnytaste.com, Eating Healthy, and, of course, Pinterest. Here is the recipe for last nights healthy meal:

And here is how ours turned out:

It was actually quite quick and easy to make and the serving size was the perfect amount! 

I am THIS close to finishing the Beautiful Creatures series. I actually had the whole day off to spend reading at the pool. Why didn't I finish it then, you might ask. Well, I somehow misplaced the fourth book with only about 50 pages left! My goal for the evening is to figure out where it went to, so I can finish it and move on to my next read....

I cannot believe I have only just found Krista Wallden and The Creative Chalkboard. Her fonts and graphics are amazing! She has a ton of wonderful freebies she so generously offers to her fans and from the looks of it hosts a bunch of fun clipart events throughout the year as well. I purchased her Summer VIP membership and love all the clipart and tips she includes each week in it! I highly recommend you purchase a membership if you haven't and be on the lookout for her fall VIP membership later this summer! I can't wait to use these purchases

  

and all the great freebies she offers as well!

I am STILL working on my The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles whole class novel study. We did so many fun, wonderful activities together as a class using this book and I can't wait to share them here and in my TPT store. There are just a bunch of last minute details I need to pull together to make it store-ready!

Graceland - my new summer series obsession! I had never seen this show before summer vacation started but thanks to On Demand I was able to catch up on all of Season 1 and am up-to-date on Season 2. I absolutely love this show! 

Happy Friday! 

Throwback Thursday {July 10th}

Oh how I am enjoying summer! I stumbled across the image below on Pinterest and it perfectly sums up the things I love about summer, so I had to share it! 

Now, in attempt to get myself more involved with "blog life" over the summer I have decided to try and keep up with as many summertime linkys as I can. :) Hope from Shenanigans in Second is hosting a Throwback Thursday summer linky. Now, my blog doesn't have enough activity yet to really do a Throwback some justice, however, I decided to join up anyhow. This is a post back from 2012 when I first wrote about how much my kiddos LOVE to play Scoot. It explains how to play it and had a link to a freebie. Two years later and this game has lost none of its appeal within my classroom. I have created numerous new Scoot-style games for my kiddos since this post. I make my own game cards and use them as either a Scoot activity or a Classroom Hunt, where the kiddos search the room for the cards and then write the answers on their answer sheet. I'm posting a link to my Division Scoot/Classroom Hunt game that is listed on TPT and on sale right now for $1.50. This was actually one of my thirdies favorites this year and they enjoyed the different ways they were asked to think about division during this activity. Interested? Head on over to TPT and grab yourself a copy. Be the first to comment on this post and include your email and I will send it to you for free! 

SATURDAY, JUNE 2, 2012

Scoot!

One of my favorite activities to do with my students is Scoot! I didn't create this game... I found it on ProTeacher a while back and have been using it ever since! Here's how we play Scoot:

* Number students desks and put some sort of question on each desk.
(I bought some cheap little plastic traffic cones at the Dollar Store a while back and have them numbered, so when we want to play this game I just take them out and put one on each desk - so simple!)

* Print out a student worksheet with the same number of answer blocks as there are desks/questions
 (I have a generic template I created in Word and most of the time that is all I need! I just inserted a table into a Word document and numbered each box - done! Sometimes I will add to the boxes when I'm looking for something more specific in the answer, like in the example below.)

* Have each student pick a desk to start at. They solve the problem on the desk and put the answer in the corresponding number square on their worksheet. After a few moments, the teacher says "Scoot!" and the kids all move to the next desk and problem.

 (A little tip - I do make sure I put the number cones in number order as the kids go around the room - it is less confusing this way. Also, we practice simply scooting MULTIPLE times before we ever even try to play the game. I will admit the first couple times you are bound to get a child or two who will put their answer in the wrong box but if you play this a few times they catch on quick!)

That's it! We LOVE this game. I use it for reading to review different skills quite often. For example, when going over parts of speech, I will put a different word on each desk and the students must write whether it is a noun, verb, adjective, etc in the corresponding answer box. For math, the possibilities for this game are endless! I attached a copy of the Fraction of a Set Scoot we played during our fraction unit. I set it up so that there was a small pile of mixed coins on every desk. The students then scooted around the room figuring out the fraction of each coin in the set on their desk. This was a great way to review the different coins with my kiddos as well as practice fractions. At the end they used their fraction worksheets to figure out bonus problems I asked them, such as, "How much was desk #5 worth?" or "What was the quarter total for desk #9?" I know I've said it already, but I just love Scoot! The kids see it as a game, it is easy set up for the teacher, and a great way to assess kids on multiple items!

Click Here to download Fraction of a Set Scoot

(P.S. Being new to the blog world I have NO IDEA how to upload an image of my documents other than taking a picture. Any tip from fellow bloggers out there would be appreciated! Happy Bloggin'!)

Monday Made It {#1}

Today I am linking up for my 1st {Monday Made It} of the summer! Thanks Tara for creating this fun linky which I {hope} will keep me motivated to create all summer long! 

My first Monday Made It is a a gift I made for a good friend's wedding. I had seen these jute wrapped monogrammed door hangers all over Pinterest and Etsy and finally decided I would try and make my own! 

This was my inspiration via Etsy:

And here is how mine came out:

I was pretty happy with it and look forward to making one for myself! I might even make some fun letters for my classroom - I'm thinking READ or WELCOME wrapped in different colored yarn! :) A small warning though - this is very time consuming! 

My 2nd Monday Made It was a quick, easy craft I made with some of my favorite teacher buddies. It is a post-it note "holder" to keep on my desk at school. Cute, easy, and functional - works for me!

My last Monday Made It involved covering letters for the word READ that I've had on my bookshelf forever in scrapbook paper. I've had these letters for years, I got them on sale at Hobby Lobby and always wanted to make them bright and colorful. I finally got around to it. :) Here it is along with my summer reading pile - I can't wait to get through all these books! So far I have read Beautiful Chaos (from the Beautiful Creatures series) and am now in the middle of the final book in the series, Beautiful Redemption. I loved this series - they are definitely YA but that seems to be my thing all of the sudden so I'm just going to throw caution to the wind and enjoy it! 

That's it for this week! Check back next Monday to see how my current work in progress turns out! Hint - it's an adorable welcome sign for my front door. :)

Book Talk Tuesdays!

Hi Friends! I am linking up with Deanna from Mrs. Jump's Class for her Book Talk Tuesday Linky! I love the idea of sharing my favorite books with the blogging community and am even more pumped to get some new book ideas for this summer and my classroom!

I want to share with you today my favorite "find" of this school year. It is a wonderful little book called The Little Red Pen!

I came upon this book while searching for a fun read aloud to review personification right before our 3rd grade standardized test in reading. It is a funny, engaging read aloud about a little red pen who is struggling to complete all her grading and correcting on her own and asks for help from the other supplies. They all say no, and then the little red pen goes missing! The other supplies realize she has ended up in the {gasp!} wastebasket and they must work together to save her. 

My students LOVED this book. They found it hilarious and loved the different personalities of each of the office supplies. They fought over who got to check it out next at the library! And it was indeed the perfect book to review personification! I highly recommend you check it out! 

I'm now going to switch gears for a moment and share with you my most current read for pleasure novel that I just finished. It is called Reconstructing Amelia.

Here is the Amazon description of this book: 

In Reconstructing Amelia, the stunning debut novel from Kimberly McCreight, Kate's in the middle of the biggest meeting of her career when she gets the telephone call from Grace Hall, her daughter’s exclusive private school in Park Slope, Brooklyn. Amelia has been suspended, effective immediately, and Kate must come get her daughter—now. But Kate’s stress over leaving work quickly turns to panic when she arrives at the school and finds it surrounded by police officers, fire trucks, and an ambulance. By then it’s already too late for Amelia. And for Kate.

An academic overachiever despondent over getting caught cheating has jumped to her death. At least that’s the story Grace Hall tells Kate. And clouded as she is by her guilt and grief, it is the one she forces herself to believe. Until she gets an anonymous text: She didn’t jump.

Reconstructing Amelia is about secret first loves, old friendships, and an all-girls club steeped in tradition. But, most of all, it’s the story of how far a mother will go to vindicate the memory of a daughter whose life she couldn’t save.

I will say, this is not an uplifting, positive novel. It is dark, sad, and at times disturbing when you read about what happens at Amelia's private school. There is also quite a bit of offensive language throughout the book. That being said, it is an intriguing, fast paced mystery of a read that I could not put down. I was desperate to learn more about the months and days leading up to Amelia's death and what truly happened that day on the roof. And I will say, I did not see the ending coming. 

Well, those are my book shares for this week. Be sure to link up with Deanna Jump so that you can share your favorite literary treasures as well!