Who Doesn't Love Food, Shoes, & Books?

Tammy over at Klinger Cafe is having a GiVeAwAy!  There are three chances to win and the prizes are mondo FABULOUS!  First place wins a $30 Zappos gift card.  Second place wins a $15 gift card for Chili's.  And third place, but still an awesome prize, is a $15 Amazon gift card.  Are those awesome prizes or what?  Who couldn't need more shoes, food, or books?  I certainly could.  Head on over to Klinger Cafe to enter!  And good luck to you (and ME)!

Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner!

I was back in the classroom today for the first time in months as a substitute teacher and it really is just like riding a bicycle!  Though I was afraid I would not remember what to do, it came back to me.  Easy peasy!  However, I am quite tired.  It could be that I woke up at 3:45 this morning worrying that I might not remember how to teach or that I turn the big 2-7 this weekend so I am just getting old!  I hope it is the first.

Now, onto the reason you all are here, THE GIVEAWAY!  THANK YOU SO MUCH to everyone who entered my very first giveaway!  I discovered giveaways are so much fun!  I hope to win one too!  Someday!  Anyways, onto the winner of THIS giveaway.  Drum roll please...The winner is Jess from Rambling About Reading!!  Jess, send me an email with your address and I will mail out your Satin Hands on Monday.  I can't this weekend because I am leaving town for a few days to see Mrs. Blake Shelton (Miranda Lambert) in concert!!!  So excited.  Anyways, that is all for now.  I hope you all trust me.  I used random.org but couldn't figure out how to transfer it to the blog to show everyone.  Honestly, I am just too tired!  Have a great weekend y'all!

A Reminder & A Question

Hey all!  It is a whopping 85 degrees in Northern Michigan at the moment!  In March!  Just crazy, but from what I see on the news, colder weather is on the way!  Hope you all are enjoying great weather where ever you are!  Just a quick post today as I deal with a teething 8 month old who is just not a happy camper.  I wanted to remind you if you have not entered for the Golden Giveaway yet, today is your last day!  A special thanks to those who blogged about the giveaway and helped me get more followers in the process.  Also, I am looking for some tens rods and units, or tens and ones, or place value clip art.  Does anybody know where I can find such a thing?  Any help would be appreciated!  Have an awesome Wednesday!

Tippy Tuesday

I am a basket girl. I organize everything in baskets. My teaching BFF usually made fun of me for it, before she retired. But I love baskets. I buy them even when I have nothing to store in them thinking that I can come up with something. Plus, what if they run out?! I would be so sad! Anyways, I never realized that having a basket for everything can sometimes make things take longer than they should!

When I was in the classroom, my individual student white boards had a basket, along with the markers and the erasers having there own baskets. That means three students to pass them out. Pokily! Until recently when I saw a geniusly simple idea to make it SO much faster. I don't remember where I saw this idea, but if it's yours please let me know!

Instead of having all three items in separate baskets, I put them in a Ziploc bag.  The one gallon bags are a little small, but if the bags were bigger, there would be leftover space in the bag, causing air to stay in the bag and make it puffy.  So I am good with the one gallon size!  I also numbered the bags so each student would know which bag is theirs!  This will make it a lot easier when passing them out.  I could even continue with my love for baskets and sort them by table to organize further! 

And that is todays tip!  Does everyone else already do this?  Am I the last one to the party?  Are you basket crazy too?  Leave me a comment and let me know:>!

Welcome To The Dog House Freebie

Weeks ago, I was inspired by Mrs. Cooley's Rule Breakers poster, created to help students remember a few of the rule breakers that sound different then they are spelled!  Yesterday, after thinking about it for a long time, I finally created my own version of Mrs. Cooley's Rule Breakers.  It is called Welcome To The Dog House and I think it is AdOrAbLe!  My favorite creation of my own yet!  I wasn't quite sure how you would want to use it, so I thought of two ways.  You can hang it on the word wall, using the Dog House graphic as a heading for the misspelled words and placing the correctly spelled words next to those that are misspelled.  If you would rather, I also created a sorting sheet if you want to use it as a center.  If you come up with another way to use it, let me know.  Also, if you come up with words to add, let me know and I will add those too!  Feel free to leave a comment if you just love it too!

Welcome to the Doghouse

Giveaway Reminder & Soon To Come

Happy Sunday!  It was absolutely gorgeous today.  I hope you all got out to enjoy it!  Just wanted to remind everyone that my Golden Giveaway ends on Wednesday.  Hopefully I can get some more comments to make it a little more interesting and a little less sad.  Good luck!  And for your information, I am working on a freebie that I think is just adorable!  I will hopefully have it posted tomorrow!  Enjoy the rest of your weekend friends!

Golden Giveaway

Happy St. Patrick's Day to all! It is a beautiful 70 degrees in Northern Michigan. In March! Unbelievable! In case you haven't noticed, I have reached 50 followers! Hence, the Golden Giveaway! 

There are two ways to enter.  Follow my blog and leave me a comment saying so.  And for a bonus entry, blog about this giveaway on your blog and leave a comment saying you did!  I would be ThRiLlEd to get a few more followers:)!

Now onto the good stuff!  The winner of this giveaway will receive a Satin Hands set, a $34 dollar value.  In case you all don't know what it is, Satin Hands is a product from Mary Kary that leaves your hands (or feet) feeling smooth as a baby's bottom.  At this point in the school year, or really any time, teachers can use a pampering session.  That is what this set provides, and you don't even have to change out of your jammies!   Here's what it looks like.



Pretty exciting!  So follow, blog, and comment away!  The contest ends on Wednesday, March 21st, the first day of spring!  I will choose a winner using Random.org on Thursday morning.  Have a great St. Pattie's Day everyone!

So Blessed and Tippy Tuesday on Another Wednesday

I am blessed for so many reasons.  I have a great family, including a grandma, who is also my next door neighbor, that is celebrating her 80th birthday today!  She was diagnosed with Alzheimer's a few years ago so everyday with her is a blessing.  I took her to Dairy Queen to get one of her favorite things, a sweet treat.  And though she didn't remember it a few hours later, it was fun during!  HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRANDMA!  Though she would never be on the computer to see it, I am telling y'all anyways! 

Another reason I am feeling blessed today is because I received a second blog award.  Two people have now rated my blog Top 10.  Not only that, but I believe I have figured out how to post the label here.  Fingers crossed!



Ta Da!  I did it!  A special thank you to Lori over at Fun For First for giving me this award!  I am going to pass it on, hopefully tomorrow!  Tonight, it is my goal to get serious and figure out who I want to pass it on to.

Lastly, I believe it is my third week doing Tippy Tuesday on a day that is not Tuesday.  However, I know you all are busy, so it is okay.  This weeks awesome tip comes from Erica Bohrer over at Erica Bohrer's First Grade.  Earlier this year, she shared a fantastic idea on personalizing the birthday chart.  You know, the chart that every primary teacher has hanging in their classroom that has student birthdays on it?  In my classroom, it was really more a decoration and nothing else.  Not a fan!  So I love Erica's idea.  She took pictures of each of her students, grouped by birthday month, holding a piece of paper with the actual date of their birthday.  Then she labeled each photo with the month and hung them in her classroom. 



I love it!  And I feel more attention may be paid to the birthday chart (at least by me) if it has student photos on it.  So I will be doing this for sure, as soon as I am back in the classroom.  If you want to see Erica's original blog post, click on the link above.  And that is all for today!  Enjoy the rest of your Wednesday friends!

Lin-ky Parties

Do you all know that song Rumor Has It by Adele?  She is all the rage this year!  That is the way linky party sounds in my head, same tune!  Rumor has it!  Lin-ky party!  Perhaps I am the only one who understands.  Oh well:>!  Moving on to more important things, like the actual linky parties!



Over at Kreative in Kinder, Crystal is spreading the word, working hard to help teachers and students who have lost so much from the devastating tornadoes that ripped through five different states on March 2nd.  If you haven't seen her post yet, please go check it out now and consider lending a hand.  As an unemployed teacher, and with the state of the economy, I know times are tough.  However, I can't imagine how I would get through losing everything without the help of others.  This is our chance!

Onto the second linky party!  Jeannie over at Kindergarten Lifestyle is having a party too!  She is trying to compile a list of awesome kindergarten through second grade blogs that everyone should know about.  As someone newer to the blog scene, I am excited whenever I see any type of linky party.  It is a great way to get the word out about my blog.  Once the list is completed, Jeannie is going to make a board on Pinterest so all you have to do is go to that board and voila!  Awesome blogs chock-full of awesome ideas.  Fantabulous!

And that is all I have for today.  Check back tomorrow for Tippy Tuesday on a Wednesday!

You Know You Teach When...Linky Party

Today I am joining in the Linky Party awesomeness over at Fun For First.  I have seen other parties like this, however, I always found I was too late to the party.  So I am super excited to join in on the fun.

It may seem a little silly, but I have had this happen.  More than once! 

If you haven't linked up yet, head over to Fun For First now and share your You Know You Teach moment!

The Lorax & An Award!!!

Today, my mom and I went to see The Lorax.  Have you all seen this movie?  It was totally cute and I am not usually a big fan of cartoons.  I have never read the book (amazing, I know), though I will put it on my must buy list now.  Is the book close to the story told in the movie?  If so, it is perfect for spring clean up time/Earth Day.  I guess I will see as soon as I purchase it:>.

On another note, I was nominated for my very first blog award, which has me flying high!  I am so excited someone found my blog to be worthwhile.  Thanks so much to Molly from Lessons with Laughter for giving it to me.

And I definitely plan on passing this award along.  However, I would like to put more thought into it than I have the brain capacity to use at the moment.  So look forward to that later on this week!  And if you haven't checked out Molly's blog yet, Lessons with Laughter, you should!  She recently posted about a book recommendation tree that I love, as well as a great place to order t-shirts with self-portrait class photos.  I can't wait to get back in the classroom to use that idea myself!

Have a fabulous week everyone!

Tippy Tuesday & Blog Love=Trouble

Happy Thursday everybody.  I am sure all of you in a classroom are totally excited that tomorrow is Friday!  It has been a different kind of week in Northern Michigan for sure.  We were without power at my house for FOUR days due to the blizzard that dropped two feet of snow on our doorstep early Saturday morning.  Let's just say I was literally doing the happy dance on Tuesday night at 5:15 when power was restored.  My Facebook post may have read something like "Yippee skippy.  Do da day.  We got power back at 5:15 today."  Yep, I am THAT girl.

Anywho, that is why this Tippy Tuesday post is a few days late.  I had to catch up on blog and Pinterest stalking before I could post something on my own!  This week's Tippy Tuesday tip comes from Meredith at Keen on Kindergarten.  If you haven't checked out her blog, do so now, or after you finish reading this post!  This is from earlier in the year, but I know it can be useful anytime.  She used something called quiet critters to provide positive reinforcement.  Aren't they just adorable?!?!

Now, I am going to be honest and say I have not made them yet because I just discovered them and I don't have my own classroom right now.  But they look easy peasy, cost little to make, and I am sure you could add your own twist to them!  Once students fill the jar with quiet critters, they earn a reward.  I also thought it would be cute to put something like this onto desks of students who are working hard and quietly.  Does anyone else use something like this?  Too cute.

And before I go today, I want to show you what came in the mail for me from Amazon yesterday. 

Yes, even as a laid off teacher, I am still obsessed with children's books!  These are all books I found on different teacher blogs, along with cute units, writing  projects, and crafting ideas to go with them.  They are all fantastic!  Trust me, I read them all yesterday!  If you want to know more about any of the books above, go to my Books to Buy board on Pinterest and click on the book you are interested in.  That should take you to the fabulous blog with the fabulous ideas that will lead you to trouble because you will want them all as I did!  The only addition of my own is Wodney Wat's Wobot!  Hooray For Wodney Wat is one of my faves so I had to add this one to my collection too!  Happy browsing or if you are like me, shopping!

March Currently

I am linking up with Farley for her monthly currently linky.  Here are my current thoughts. 

Ok.  So I know I cheated a little, but there are not a lot of words that describe me to start with K!  So I improvised.  And in case you noticed a trend, after three days without power, I am definitely ready for it to return.  Right.  Now.  Happy March y'all.

40 Followers!

Hello all!  I hope this Sunday finds you well!  We got about two feet of snow since Friday night so it is officially winter in Northern Michigan, at least for now!  Being unemployed, I live with my parents and we have been without power since yesterday morning at about eight.  No TV, no computer, and most importantly, no heat!  This morning it was a freezing 52 degrees in our house.  BRR!  Cannot wait for power to return!

Anyways, on to the real reason for this post.  I am officially ten followers away from 50 followers.  And once I get there, I am going to have a GIVEAWAY!  However, I need some advice.  How do you normally do a giveaway?  Do you send the prize via mail?  Do you send it somehow through the computer?  What kind of giveaways do you like best?  I do know that it will be done through being a follower (I think;)), but other than that, I am absolutely clueless.  Any advice?  Tips?