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!