What I'm Thankful For Linky Party

 I'm linking up to What the Teacher Wants' "What I'm Thankful For" linky party!

1.  What are you thankful for in your classroom?
I am thankful for my Smartboard! I really don't know what I would do with out it. I use it for practically every lesson every day. 

2. What person are you most thankful for?
I don't think I can pick one person! I am equally thankful for every member of my family. My sister is someone who makes me laugh and who is always very understanding of my strange, quirky behaviors. My mom is very special to me and is the best mom that there is (sorry, to you all who think your mom is the best, mine is). ;) My dad is someone who I admire because he always takes chances to follow his dreams and no one makes me laugh like him!  My dad (whose age shall not be mentioned) is skydiving on Christmas Eve with my brother in law.  Yeah, he's kind of a big deal.

3. What 3 blogs are you most thankful for?
I am most thankful for Tales of Frogs and Cupcakes (who always gives me great ideas for math), Fourth Grade Frolics, and What the Teacher Wants!.  There are so many more that I love too, it was so hard to pick out just three!

4. What guilty pleasure are you most thankful for?
Lazy Sundays reading my nook, drinking coffee, in my pajamas. The house is a mess, no groceries in the house, laundry isn't done... 

5. What are you most thankful for?
I am most thankful for my friends, family, and my G this year. This year has been a little rough for me and without the help and support from these incredible people, I could never get through it! I also am so thankful for the people that I work with at my school. They are an incredible and hardworking staff and I am amazed by their grace and compassion everyday. They make me smile everyday. :-) 


What are you thankful for? Link up!

Joy Ride through the City

My friend and I took a ride into inner Phoenix on Friday morning and these are the things we saw...

• A man wearing a tutu. 'Nough said.
• A man wearing a surgeon's operating garb waiting for the bus. Little scrub cap and everything - I had so many questions to ask him...
• A man wearing reindeer antlers
• A broken bank window (I would question the ballerina, the reindeer, and the surgeon if I were the authorities)
• A pushy lady in Starbucks who insisted on squeezing herself in between two people on the small Starbucks couch. Comfy cozy! No one moved and it was sardine packed for the longest two minutes I have ever witnessed. I love awkward moments, it's my favorite spectator sport.

Have you ever had those moments when you wished someone was with you to witness something obscure? Those "Why is NO ONE here with me?!?!" moments?
I was so grateful to have my friend with me on that special special joy ride.

Randomness

Holy cow! It's been a while since I have posted. Things have been crazy at school and I feel like I am constantly swimming upstream trying to catch up. I will be doing some upcoming posts on Guided Math that I do in my classroom, but here's a little something to tie you over in the meantime.

Pinterest has given me a few new fantastic ideas as always!  This week I made a "Kiss Your Brain" jar.  I used a container from the Dollar Store and used stick on scrapbooking letters for the title.  I love rewarding kids for out of the box thinking and putting forth extra effort. (Sorry the picture is not the best quality.)

I also made a little something for my G because it was our 4 year anniversary the other day.  I thought these were cute.  They are also on Pinterest and free to download here!

Place Value Word Wall Vocabulary Cards

Whew, that was a long title, haha!

I try to make vocabulary cards for our classroom word wall for every unit. Unit A focused on place value so I am sharing the vocab cards that I made for that unit.  Feel free to use them in your classroom if you can! Click on the example to download on Google Docs.

At the end of the lesson, I have the kids fill out a Frayer Model vocabulary card for each new vocabulary word that we learn.  This is something that I started this year and I really feel like it is helping my students develop a deeper understanding of whatever concept we are working on.  If you go to Tales of Frogs and Cupcakes, Janaye has a great freebie of the Frayer Model vocabulary card. She was able to fit two on one page which helps save paper and fits nicely into math notebooks if you do those in your classroom.
I hope you will be able to try these in your classroom!  Is it too early to go to bed if it's only 8:00???

Mwahahaha

Last night, G and I went to a Halloween party.  I sported my usual costume of being a giant whoopee cushion and G was, well G, but with vision limitations due to his day old laser eye surgery so we will count that as a costume.

I made these cookies for the party.  If I were productive I would make these for my students on Monday, but lazying around in my sweatpants sounds way more appealing today.
All you need is sugar cookie dough, raspberry jam, and slivered almonds.

 Keep the dough cold and roll it into a finger like shapes as fast as you can.  Put the almonds on the tips for nails and use a knife to cut creases for knuckles.  Cook them in a 325 degree oven for 12-15 minutes. 

When they are cool, dip the ends in warmed raspberry jam a couple of times.  And VOILA, bloody severed fingers! Appetizing...

If you want to make these, this is where I got the recipe from ~ Click Here.  Happy Halloween!

My New Little Friend

I get excited about little things.  And I also spend too much money on stupid things that nobody needs.  So without further ado, let me introduce you to my new wee little purchase.

Hello there...  Just a Yoda?  Or...

A USB flash drive!!   You know you're jealous...  Have a good weekend!

Woohoo!

WoW! 

My blog has just reached 400 hits!  Hooray!

And to boot I had so many light bulbs go off in my classroom today!  I love it when I teach a lesson and literally I can just see their faces light up in this "Ah, so that's how you do it.." moment of realization. AND after all of our hard work, I finally have the kids at a point where they can help each other on their work.  I always tell the kids, there's 32 of you and 1 of me so you need to help each other out if you see someone at your table struggling with a problem.  And they are doing it!  Finally, without my prompting ~ it's amazing!

Now I am going to drink a glass of wine because I deserve it and hang out with this little sugar pie.   My little chihuahua, she's kind of a big deal.