LIFE CHANGES AND A NEW ADVENTURE!

I know, it has been a very long time since I have posted anything.  Not out of laziness that is for sure.  We have had 2 immediate family deaths (my mother-in-law and a future son-in-law), 1 very close friend death and 1 past student of mine death all in a matter of 6 weeks.  On top of that, our 3 year old labrador was rushed to the Vet, had to stay 4 days as he was entering renal failure and has been diagnosed with Addison's disease.  All this PLUS still be a teacher and take care of all my kiddos!  Anyone want to start a HAWAII VACATION fund for me?  I NEED to bury my head feet in the beautiful sand on Maui!!! (I go there often in my mind)!

During my spring break I had to take care of some personal items and get affairs in order for the "Celebration of Life" that we will be organizing for my mother-in-law.  During this time, I began designing the decorations, celebration invitation and celebration of life theme decor at the stern jovial request of my sister-in-law.  After showing everyone what I had come up with, and after a lot few oo's and ah's, something in my brain clicked.  I LOVE to design (as I have an interior design background) and I love to change my classroom A LOT!!  I have decided to start a new business with my son (graphic designer) and came up with "Classroom Couture"  Putting a little "BLING" in every classroom.  I am SO EXCITED for the little adventure and cannot wait to get up and running.  We are currently working on a special theme and hope to have it done by this weekend.

Here is my new website:

Please visit me and tell all your friends. I hope you will like what I have to offer! Until then, many blessings.

Dr. Seuss Part 2

Here is our Lorax bulletin board.  I drew the Lorax (don't laugh!) and added tissue paper to him to make him 3 dimensional.  I saw the truffula trees on Pinterest and just had to make them.  I loved how they turned out.  My students made Horton (another pinterest inspiration).  They turned out so darn cute!  The kids love standing in the Truffula tree forest.

I also drew the Cat in the Hat (again, NO LAUGHING) and we play pinned the hat on the cat.  My students are still working on name recognition so I used this opportunity for them to be able to "read" their names and the names of their friends.  They absolutely LOVED this.  We did it over and over and over!  Glad it is time for him to come down!

Valentines, Pinterest, 100th Day and Dr. Seuss

I am so behind on getting my postings done so I am going to condense it all in to one post so that way I can get caught up.  Ok, who am I fooling?  Caught up?  That is just a great way of saying I will soon be behind again but at least I got everything I have done since the last posting done!

I have found so many great ideas on blogs, pinterest and friends so I want to thank everyone for all those fantastic ideas and give credit where credit is due.  My students loved doing all these activities as do I and it is so nice to be able to have fun in class and still incorporate many state standards!  Loving it!

Here is what we have done in class so far!

                                                                       President's Day

                                              Our Valentine bags.  They turned out so adorable!

                                I HAD to make these when I saw them on Pinterest!  LOVED them....

 ANOTHER Pinterest inspiration.  I wanted mine to be white and red and I must admit, they turned out so cute!  So cute that I had to try different colors too!

 Our 100th day celebration.  We counted out snacks, made snack trail mix once we were done then made our own special hats and "cool shades".  FUN, FUN day!

                                   YUM.... Green EGGS and HAM and toast with Green butter...

 I can't believe how my students just gobbled these down.  They LOVED it and asked for 2nd's and 3rd's!  I must admit though, I could not eat the ham.  To me it just didn't look appetizing!

                                                      And finally, our "Cat in the Hat" snack.

Forgot to take a picture of my One Fish, Two Fish and The Lorax bulletin boards.  We are still adding to them so will have to post next week.  I am off tomorrow for a Professional Development Seminar so will have to wait until Monday to finish my Seuss week!  Hope you have having a fun week and can't wait to see what everyone posts!

Winner, Winner, TPT Winner!

I am excited for the winner but disappointed that I only got 14 people to leave a comment.  This really makes me feel like a, well, you can fill in the blank.  Yes, I am having bloggy depression.  I see all these WONDERFUL blogs with hundreds of people entering and commenting and then... mine.  Well, all I can say is better chance for you ladies to win!  I did the random generator and Kara from Spedventures won.  I will send you an email to let you know in case you don't see this!

Congratulations Kara and THANK YOU to the other 13 WONDERFUL ladies that entered.  

Kara said...

I follow your blog!

Kara
swfathome @ gmail . com
Spedventures

Dr. Seuss Freebie

I absolutely love to celebrate Dr. Seuss week in my class. In fact, we usually do it for 2 weeks because I have so much that I like to do with the kiddos. I plan WAY TO MANY activities and with only 4 hours a day to "play", I can't get it all done in a week!

Here is one item I use during our celebration. After reading several books, I like to have the kids tell me what their favorite book is and the incorporate some math/reading into the graph we created. This year, with the help of KPM graphics, I have made graph markers that I will laminate and use from year to year now. I will just have the kids place them on the white board with blue painters tape. I will make a graph on the white board with black duct tape then use blue painters tape (easy to remove from the covers)on the covers. I want to share them with you if you would like to use them!

Have a "Seusstastic" Week

http://www.box.com/s/0mbajvzrlgvv6a9hqt9v

100th Follower Give-away!

Well, the results seem to be that a TPT gift card would be a great idea so..... drum rolls please....... a TPT gift card it is! The lucky winner will receive $20 to spend at TPT. Two chances to enter.

1. Just let me know you follow my blog.

2. Refer a friend to join my blog!

That's it. So spread the word and I will be picking a winner by Sunday, February 26th.

Again, thank you to all 103 followers. You made this possible!!!

Blessings abound,

WOW! I finally hit 100 followers! Give-away IDEAS!!!

I am so excited I cannot even contain myself! I am definitely doing the "happy dance". Giving hoots and hollers and raising the hands in the air like I just don't care! Ok, couldn't help but to give a visual of that! LOL....

So for my 100th follower give-away, I am going to do something a little different. I want my followers to give me a list of what they think would be a good give away! (Ok ladies and gents, I am generous but no trips to Hawaii... sorry)! Educational give away? Target card? Dollar Tree? Personal give away? Please send me your idea by Monday, February 20th. I will then randomly pick an idea and announce it then we can start the count down to the give away.

This is like Christmas for me! I get so excited about giving. A BIG SHOUT OUT to all of those who do follow my little blog and for all the wonderful support and ideas I get each and every day. You are truly amazing!

Blessings,