11 in '11 {Take Two}

If you read my post yesterday, then you will see that I had this great list for this linky party, went to publish it, and it got erased. It's okay, I'm over it now... :) Anyway, I thought that I would take a little bit of time this morning to give it another shot since Blogger seems back to normal over here! All of this to say, thank you Kristin and Hadar for hosting this super fun Linky Party!!

11. Favorite movie you watched: 

My old stand by! I love everything about this movie, every year. "Don't you just love New York in the Fall? It makes me want to buy school supplies, I would send you a bouquet of newly sharpened pencils if I knew your name and address..." Ahh just so wonderful. :)

10. Favorite TV series:

Oh! Top Chef Texas! I actually don't watch much TV but My DVR is eagerly set for every Wednesday night. (I start getting excited Wednesday morning!!)

9. Favorite restaurant:

Tsunami, it's a sushi restarurant that you can find in a couple of cities here in SC. It's so wonderful and I went too many times this year! I swear the bank would call and think someone stole my card if I stopped going. :)

8. Favorite new thing you tried:

Being a puppy mom! Let me tell you guys, raising a puppy is no walk in the park. You lose shoes, dish rags, anything and everything. It is truly like having a toddler dropped into your house! I now think everyone should have a puppy before having a child. I don't have kids yet but this has given me a taste into what it will be like. However, I don't think that I will ever have to go stand out in the rain, at night, in the cold, for my kid to poop. I'm sure someday I'll be proved wrong? :)  However, I wouldn't trade Cooper for the world. He is a precious little guy that I don't (usually) mind standing in the rain for, he's the perfect first child.

Don't worry, I'll hang out on the new curtains.

7. Favorite gift you got:

Pre-Christmas: An Otter Box for my phone. {One of best friends gave me this, I thought it would be too bulky, but I needed to trade super cute for practical cute, it's been such a great change!}

Post-Christmas: A new Macbook Pro {I just feel incredibly blessed to have received this from my parents. If I could afford it, I would buy one for every teacher that reads this! You all deserve one of these.}

       

6. Favorite thing you pinned:

Goodness this is hard, as you all know, there is so much wonderfulness in the world of Pinterest. The one pin that has had me thinking and wondering if I'll want to implement in my classroom next year is from Kristen at Ladybug's Teacher Files! It's a pin linking to her fabulous post about removing her teacher desk from her classroom and using alternative methods. I just love this idea!

5. Favorite blog post:

I'm such a new blogger that I don't know if I have one yet! I guess I will go with my recent Summarizing Strategies Post. I feel like I was finally able to share something useful!

4. Best accomplishment:

Finishing all undergrad classes and beginning student teaching!

Also becoming a puppy mom {Hes still alive! We've made it this far! Hah!}

3. Favorite picture:

Let me describe this picture a little bit. Last January we got A. LOT. of snow in South Carolina. Usually a flurry is a lot of snow in South Carolina, but no no...this was like 5 to 6 inches. This was big deal in these parts. :) Because we don't get much snow I didn't have a sled (or even a good trash can lid) to use. Being the mature adult that I am I was determined to get some friends together and sled. The closest thing that we could find were these pool floats, made of "super heavy duty plastic" right? Wrong. This picture is me landing after the initial run, on a popped, very flat, pool float. (Note the jagged ice in the picture.) But don't worry! Some unsuspecting kids left their sleds outside right where we were sledding. We nicely asked the kids permission grabbed them as soon as they stepped foot inside and had just enough fun. Yep. Future teacher right here.

2. Favorite memory:

My brother getting married! I wasn't there, because he got married overseas in New Zealand on a 2 week leave from his overseas job.  However, I set him and his wife up, so I was super excited when they tied the knot! Long story short, the day I met her through a mutual friend I told her she needed to meet my brother, and a little over a year later they were married. Trust me, I am no match maker, this was a God thing.

I don't know how they feel about making an appearance in blog world so please enjoy this super cute picture taken on their honeymoon. :)

1. Goal for 2012:

I'm sure you all can guess!!

Finishing...

Student Teaching!! 

{Oh yeah, and finding a job, small potatoes right..?} :)

Also, to simply treat others the way I want to be treated. Mostly for me that means even the way I'm thinking about a situation or person on the inside sometimes.

Hope you all enjoy the last few days of 2011! 

Grr! A Little Venting

Well for about two hours today I was thinking of all the creative ways I could tell Blogger and Google how angry I was at them! I had my whole post written out (that took me forever because it was such a personal post) for Hadar and Kristin's 11 in 11 Linky Party. It was completely finished and then I went to publish it. Nothing. I hit publish and nothing happened. Then I hit it again and it "saved" and didn't do anything else. Except it didn't save, it just wanted me to think it did. Then I thought I could outsmart it and maybe schedule my post. Nope, nothing. I went to hit publish to publish the scheduled post and I got an error message. Well, the error message erased my post. And remember how I said it "saved" it? Nope. No where. Gone, all gone.

(No turkey sandwiches, no turkey gravy, no turkey hash, no gallons of turkey soup, gone all gone!) A Christmas Story reference for the others out there who watch the marathon on Christmas!

All of this to say, I had a fun list following the template that the two wonderful ladies provided. But, it's gone and I have to go to a dinner don't have time to type it all back up.  :( So, while my list is gone, I will leave you with my favorite picture from the list I had created. By the way I don't know why I couldn't post 2 hours ago but I can now? Thank you for letting me vent.

C'est la vie, right? :)

My sweet Cooper at 5 months old. Hes over a year now!!

Happy Tuesday Everyone! Thanks again, I feel better already!

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas, Bloggy Friends! I hope you are enjoying the holidays with your family and loving every minute of your break! I'm so thankful for this community of teachers and the joy that it brings every day!

Summarizing Strategies - Freebie!

I've been using some of my wonderful free time this week to catch up on some reading I've been wanting to do. Today I read all about quick summarizing strategies to use in the classroom such as think, pair, share, etc. I've seen most of these in action but decided to begin to shape some of them a bit for my second graders and make them work for me. I'm just getting started but I want to share what I have so far with all of you!

1. First is a "Let's Talk" Poster that includes four questions to use as summary sentence starters:

2. There are also individual cards with each of these sentences starters to use in a large/small group setting. 

3. Lastly, there are individual cards each with thumbs up/thumbs down symbols for the kiddos to circle at the end of a lesson/activity/any other creative way you can think to use them! There are four different options for this card:

{Click on each Picture to Download}

Let me know if you are able to use anything!  Hope you've been able to get all of your shopping done! :)

A Cheesy Idea {Recipe}

I'm taking a quick break from all things teaching because I want to share with you all the easiest Macaroni and Cheese Dish ever! It's really that fabulous, I promise. If you are still struggling with your holiday menu or you can't stand your usual Baked Mac and Cheese recipe (maybe because it never gets done in the center - grr!) then this recipe is for you!

I stumbled upon this recipe about 2 to 3 years ago and it has been such a great find! I've taken it to many potluck events and hardly ever come home with any leftovers. I always have people  compliment me on the dish and ask for the recipe, it really never disappoints! I'm by no means a Rachael Ray so for me to have a recipe that is so easy and so great, I just have to share it with others!

Crock Pot Macaroni and Cheese

Ingredients:

8oz of cooked macaroni
1 (12oz) can of evaporated milk
2 eggs
1 tsp salt (If you like salt, it's safe to double this!)
1/2 tsp pepper
4oz sour cream
1 cup milk 

4 cups sharp cheddar cheese 

Mix all ingredients except for 1/2 cup of cheese. Pour mixture into a greased crock pot. Put remaining 1/2 cup of cheese on top.  Cook on low for 5-6 hours. Serves 7-10.  (You can double the recipe to serve over 20 people, but you will have to increase the cooking time to 8-10 hours. ) 

Let me know if you try this! I promise you will not be disappointed, it is SO easy! :)

Currently Linky Party!

I'm excited to join in on the fun of Farley's from Oh Boy Fourth Grade's Currently Linky Party!

 

I needed another whole template to make of list of blogs I'm stalking. I don't think anyone mentioned Erika from The Honey Bunch yet, and her blog is fabulous!

I'm a definitely a stalker of Erika's, you should go check out her super cute blog!

P.S. As I mentioned above, I'm listening to Bravo on TV. Well there is commercial on Bravo that I keep hearing,  it's advertising Truvia. They're trying to get you to not eat real sugar over the holidays and eat truvia instead. Okay well the song on the commercial that they use to try to get you to eat Truvia is awful! They turn Jingle Bells in Jiggle Bells. How disheartening?! Do we really need that right now?! Has anyone else heard this?! :)

Season of Love

I am so excited and honored that ladies from three fabulous blogs awarded my newbie blog with the Liebster Blog Award. It's just so much fun to celebrate all of our blogs! A big, big, thank you to Tammy from Klinger Cafe, Stacy from 2nd Grade Paradise, and Malarie from You Can Make the Sunshine Anytime.

The goal of the award is to spotlight 5 other up-and-coming blogs with less than 200 followers! There were so many blogs I wanted to spotlight with this award. Many of them have already been awarded and blogged about it, thankfully these fabulous five haven't blogged about it yet (I'm sure they've received the award already!!) These five blogs are full of wonderful-ness! :)

Notes From Miss Dennis

Ms. Rachel's Room

Crayons & Curls

The Honey Bunch

Tales From a Traveling Teacher

AND!

Alicia from Dreamlike Magic Designs is having a G.R.E.A.T Giveaway on her blog right now to celebrate her 1,000 Facebook followers. You can enter to win a $25 gift card to her Etsy Shop! Alicia is so talented! She designed my blog and I use so many of her paper packs, clip art, etc. Her Etsy shop has premade blog templates, clip art, paper packs, invitations. It's all so great, you should hop over to her blog to enter the giveaway before December 20th at 9pm! 

Click on the Picture to go to Alicia's Giveaway!

Happy Tuesday Everybody! ~ By the way if you started singing Seasons of Love from Rent in your head when you read the title of this post, you're after my own heart! :)

Giveaway Winners!

Congratulations to Bonnie from Living a Wonderful Life for winning the $20 Amazon Gift Card!!

Congratulations to Hadar from Miss Kindergarten for winning the $10 TPT Gift Card!!

Congratulations Ladies! Be looking for your goodies to be emailed to you! 

Thank you to everyone who entered! :)

Critters in the Classroom

Meet Fizz! Fizz is my (very) fluffy teddy bear hamster. 

I am so excited to be a part of Erica's (from Erica Bohrer's First Grade) new blog, Critters in the Classroom! What could be better than getting to blog about teaching AND animals?! This is something that is close to my heart and I'm very excited to celebrate animals right along with teaching. Come on over and see my post about Fizz, the rescued Teddy Bear Hamster!

P.S. Don't forget to enter my Holiday Giveaway before Sunday at midnight! Enjoy your weekend!

Holiday Giveaway!!

I am so excited to announce the first give away on my blog! What a better time to jump into the world of giveaways than around the holidays?! I hope that my giveaway spreads a burst of joy to you today!

Two Lucky Winners Will Win One of the Following:

 Here's How to Enter!

1. Follow my blog and leave a comment telling me that you're a follower.

2. Mention my giveaway on your blog (with a link please! Thanks!) and leave me a comment with a link to your post.

3. Refer my blog to a friend and leave a comment telling me you did! 

Feel free to leave the best tip you have for me for my student teaching along with your comment! :)
(Please limit your entries to 3: one for each option. Thanks!)


The Last Time to Enter is Sunday, December 11th by Midnight.  


The Two Winners will be announced Monday, December 12th. 
(Winners will be decided using a random generator. The first winner will receive the Amazon gift card. The second winner will receive the TPT gift card. You will receive your goodies via email.)

Good luck!!

A Pig-ture Perfect Way to Add!

Happy Thursday Everybody! So, have you ever heard of the game, Pass the Pigs?

...I had not until Thanksgiving day, when my sister-in-law brought it over for us all to play! We had a lot of fun, BUT! my teacher brain snapped on and I immediately thought of all the fun ways this game could be played and used in the classroom, especially math!!!

If you've never heard of it, the game comes with cards, and little miniature plastic pigs. The pigs are shaped in a way that makes them land in different ways. To play the game you toss or roll the pigs like you would do with dice. You get a certain amount of points for the different ways your pigs land.  The cards that you have determine how many points each "way of landing" is worth. I've seen different variations of the game since I've looked around online, the cards we used awarded points by fives. (See below if you're a visual learner like me!)

My immediate thought was how much fun this could be to practice addition- especially as a center activity! You could even alter the cards to fit your current addition facts super easily if you needed too! The kiddos could write number sentences each time they roll, could be used to do addition with regrouping - just as with dice, the possibilities are endless!

Who wouldn't want to use a happy mini little pig in place of a dice sometimes?! :) This game can be found on Amazon for as low as $3.60!! Hmm...maybe Classroom Confetti's first giveaway will involve pass the pigs! (I'll file that away with my good idea thoughts!)

Hope you're having a great day, today!

A Special Ray of Sunshine

I am so honored that Kristin from A Teeny Tiny Teacher would nominate my new blog for the Sunshine Award! Thank you Kristin for taking your time to support us newbies!! I'm beyond grateful!

So to answer my sunshine questions, here are a few tidbits about what makes me, me!

Favorite color:  Pink pink, and pink! I'm so girly to the core. However, pink is followed closely by yellow. I always like things better with yellow, it's just so bright and cheery.

Favorite animal:  I could never decide between dogs and cats. One dog and two cats live in my house -- that would be like trying to pick a favorite child! (To the Right: Cooper, Harper, and Gizmo make an appearance on the blog!)

Favorite number:  24, I like even numbers, and my birthday is January 24th. 

Favorite drinks:  coffee, iced coffee, sweet tea, diet coke, wine (when needed) hah! :) and more coffee.

Facebook or Twitter:  Facebook all the way. My life is not interesting enough for Twitter! 

My passion: My faith, Loving people, Teaching, and my newly found blogging passion!

Giving or receiving:  Giving -- Not because I want to sound like I don't like getting gifts,  Oh my who doesn't?! I'm just one of those strange people that gets that "high" off of giving things to people! Maybe that's my love language!?...hmm :)

Favorite day:  Oh, Fridays all the way! 

Now, to nominate someone else for the Sunshine award....

I'm sure she has already been nominated, but she was my first follower and will always have a special place in my blogging heart! :)

Musical Addition Freebie!

I'm excited to give away my first freebie! I had to create a few math activities that integrated music. I did these activities with a group of first graders and we had a great time! There is a math number sentence that the kiddos use and fill in while making a musical shaker (out of a paper towel roll, beans and macaroni), there is a basic addition song (to the tune of If You're Happy and You Know it) that integrates the shaker the kids make, and there is a basic number sentence template! The number sentence template is also used with the shakers. -- Everybody grabs a partner and they each shake a certain number of beats with their shaker to make a number sentence that they record on the template. 

Hope someone can get some use out of these few things!!

Click on the picture for link to the freebie!

 Good Luck getting back to the grind tomorrow! (Only 3 weeks until Christmas break!!) :)

I'm Thankful!

I'm so extra thankful around this time of year.  A few of the blessings I'm thankful for in my life right now...

1. My life: thankful that I get to wake up and see the sunshine -or liquid sunshine :) - every morning.
2. Jesus: Wow, do I ever need major grace.
3. My family: the most fantastic support system out there (extra thankful for my mom, who always just understands. you know what I mean?) Also thankful for their health!
4. My iphone/macbook: these things keep me going! And bring lots of fun/entertainment along the way.
5. Starbucks: especially now that they have the cute Christmas cups! Just makes for a happy morning.
6. Faith: thankful for not worrying about where I will get my next meal or if I am going to have heat. The list goes on.  Blessed.
7. My pets: Cooper, Gizmo, and Phiz. Bringing life and excitement to my little home.
8. My Crock Pot: I just love this thing. How wonderful it is to come home to a already done dinner! (Also just makes my house smell like warm fall-ish time!)
9. My friends: the second most fantastic support system. So blessed by this wonderful group of people!
10. My car: it works and gets me where I need to be! - especially extra thankful for the heat seats. But ok that's verging on sounding spoiled... :)
11. Student Teaching: Oh my my am I thankful for this!! So close to being done! (also thankful for a great cooperating teacher and a wonderful group of precious children!)
12. Teaching Blogs: The best discovery I have ever made! I wish I could soak in all of the knowledge, wisdom, inspiration I see everyday! So excited to just keep learning.
13. The many little things I take for granted everyday: clothes, shoes, a working bathroom, internet, cute bags that make me smile, fall/Christmas scented candles...and the 1,000 other blessings that I do not deserve.

 

May we all live with a thankful spirit during this time of year and happily share our blessings with others! Happy Thanksgiving Week!

Up and Running and Some Snacking

Hooray for a blog makeover!! A big thank you to Alicia at Dream Like Magic Designs  for a new design that I love and is just what I wanted! (Hopefully y'all think its super cute too so you'll hop on over to Alicia's blog and shop around!)

Now that I feel my blog is officially cute, I'm excited to start posting on a regular basis. I am about a month away from starting full time student teaching and am starting to get nervous/excited/butterflies! I have been in the wonderful 2nd grade classroom that I will be student teaching in since August before school started --  so transitioning into full time teaching should be a smoother ride than if I had to start from scratch and get to know everybody! Hopefully once planning gets in gear for my time of full time student teaching I'll have many more fun ideas (inspired by my amazing cooperating teachers!) that I can begin to share with everyone! Until then...I'm going to share the one fun discovery I have made spending a few full time weeks in the classroom so far. -- This is totally not educational or instruction related, but it's after school snack related which is almost just as important! :) --

So, at the end of the day,  once every little smiling face gets sent in the right direction to head home, you're free from duty and you cross the threshold into your classroom and let out a big exhale... (at least that's what exhausted, trying to hang on, student teacher me does!) and the first thing on your mind (maybe after needing a bathroom break!) is, SNACK! Now if you're like my super self disciplined cooperating teacher, you bring your already prepped sliced apples. If you're like the rest of the teachers heading to meeting(s), you bring Oreos, Doritos, cookies, leftover Halloween candy, and anything else yummy found on the snack aisle. Well after a few days of this, I realized I better find a yummy afternoon snack option that would be a healthier/better way to meet this need and quick! So, in addition to everyone's beloved bag of popped popcorn I have stumbled upon two other great alternatives...

Yes, the Veggie Straws are Whole Food's brand, however they are cheaper than the Oreo's or Doritos!!

 
Pirate's Booty seems to be getting more popular, I am hearing lots of buzz about it among parents and friends so you should really give it a shot! The white cheddar tastes a lot like natural Cheetos's - just a whole lot better for you! (Best part is they also make it in chocolate for those of us with a sweet tooth!! Haven't tried it yet, but that will be the next!) Also, the bags are resealable, hello good snack to keep in the classroom! Now for the Veggie Straws, I wasn't sure at first and a friend recommended them, and they are actually pretty good! They taste a lot like potato chips and will definitely do the trick for an afternoon snack. These are at least my attempts at trying to eat semi-healthy during that afternoon dip. What do you snack on during this time??

Happy Snacking!! (And Happy Wednesday, two more days!!)

Scabby in Second :)

 

Today in second grade, we got bloody! (those with weak stomachs stop reading now if you're still with me!) In our study of the human body, we are talking BLOOD! We used the "Hollywood Movie" recipe to make our own blood. Each child was given a spoon full on their hand or arm. We then covered the blood with a piece of tissue and cocoa powder to make Scabs. Oh my! (As if the kids weren't already excited enough about Halloween being in the air!) This was a great activity for our human body unit and for discussing characteristics of the body healing itself such as blood clotting, scabbing, etc.

The recipe:

Mix Together:
• 2 TBSP Corn syrup
• 4 drops of red food coloring
• 1/2 tsp soy sauce

To make a scab, cover fake blood in onion flakes (I couldn't do the smell!) or a tissue and dab with cocoa power.

Enjoy!

Happy Friday!

Have Fun Teaching

Have Fun Teaching! A friend of mine stumbled upon this website http://www.havefunteaching.com/ in planning an integrated science unit. Many of you probably know about this great resource, but if you don't, it's really wonderful. The games, music, and videos are really modern and would be great fun to use in your classroom! They sell DVD's, CD's, and also flash drives with everything you could need pre-loaded on them! They also have super cute bags and t-shirts. :)

Here is an example of one of their Alphabet Songs. It's hard not to start singing along and dancing! Enjoy!

Joining the World of Blogging!

Hi! Thank you for stopping by! I'm so excited to share my first post with you!

I'm Molly and I love everything teaching! From playing school in my basement as a little girl through my current place of student teaching, teaching has always been my passion. I could never be convinced that there is a more rewarding or wonderful opportunity than teaching. I also have this strange love of school supplies! Maybe you can relate?! :)

Stumbling upon teaching blogs was one of the best discoveries I ever made! I am currently student teaching in a 2nd grade classroom and am overflowing with wonderful ideas from teaching blogs! While I am still learning and taking everything in, I hope to eventually become a contributing part to the teaching blog community! :)

Thank you for all of the freebies and inspiring ideas! You are influencing children's learning all over the place!!