Five For Friday- Happy Halloween!!!

Happy Halloween Everybody!

I'm linking up again with Doodle Bugs for Five for Friday

http://doodlebugsteaching.blogspot.com

It has been a completely crazy week and I mean 

Cah-RAY-ZY!

We had our field trip to the pumpkin patch, made pumpkin pie from scratch, had parent teacher conferences and had Halloween- All in one week! You can say I'm just about pooped!

Here's a little peek into our week:

Supporting the Cause!

Last week our school joined together in support of Breast Cancer Awareness. Everyone wore pink, and I have to say I was especially impressed with the guys! Most of the boys don't even own pink, but they found great ways to show their support!

This one was my absolute favorite! Everytime I looked at this guy I couldn't stop giggling. So great!

Can I say BEST FIELD TRIP EVER!!!

We visited McClelland's Dairy Farm in Petaluma and boy oh boy were we impressed!

We had the most amazing tour guide. She shared so much information with us about cows.

We had a blast petting the baby cows and letting them lick us. Seriously the cutest thing ever!

We also watched a cow being milked by a machine and then got to feel the bucket they put the milk in. It was still extremely warm.

At the end of our trip we got to go out to the pumpkin patch and pick sugar pumpkins. It was definitely a treat!

Pumpkin Pie From Scratch!

Every year I always make pumpkin pie from scratch with my kiddos so they can see the process it takes to turn a pumpkin into a pie. 

It's always a great experience and I feel like it enriches the learning process so much more!

After we cooked our pumpkin and mixed it with the other necessary ingredients, we baked our pie and then saved it for today so we could enjoy it for out halloween party.

Pumpkin Science and Centers

 

After we brought our pumpkins back from the farm, we did a little math with them before taking them home.

We measured how high they were with unifix cubes, we counted how many stripes were on our pumpkins, we guessed if they would sink or float and then we tested it out.

We also sorted all the seeds from the pumpkin we turned into pie and lined them up into groups of ten.

I also had the students estimate how many seeds they thought were in the pumpkin. 

After we estimated, we counted by tens until we got our answer- 490! Can you believe little pumpkins can have so many seeds! 

 

We also practiced measuring with pumpkin seeds.
This was a great FREEBIE I picked up on TPT
You can download yourself a copy 
HERE

Getting in the Holiday Spirit!

I decided to be Olaf for Halloween and let me tell ya, when I walked outside on the playground this morning to pick up my students, it was like the entire elementary saw a celebrity! The kids were VERY excited to recognize one of their favorite characters. This costume was definitely a hit and its all thanks to one my students' parents. 

They very sweetly offered me the hat to wear and I very eagerly and gratefully accepted! She is such  saint!

And to conclude, I thought I'd share one of my favorite things about this week. 

We just got back from celebrating Halloween in San Francisco where we went to an event called Off the Grid. Its an amazing thing let me tell ya! There are a whole slew of food trucks that park and set up shop and then you get to wander around trying all sorts of out of this world, ta die for, delicious food. I mean it's pretty much like the adult version of trick or treating! Best discovery ever!!

This was the view we enjoyed as we devoured the best doughnuts we've ever tasted. 

Check out these bad boys (I must warn you, if you click on the link, you may start craving dessert!).

http://johnnydoughnuts.com

Wishing you a very Happy Halloween!!!

Goodnight everyone :)

The ups and downs of technology :)

Well, what can I say, it has definitely been an interesting week. 

Have you ever heard the saying "necessity is the mother of invention?" well, I've just had the opportunity to test that out and I've found out there is truth in that there statement.

For the past week, (for some unknown reason) our internet at school has been spotty. Which makes teaching very interesting and let's just say, makes me extremely thankful that we have it as a teaching resource 99% of the time. 

What did teachers do before the internet? 

I wonder :)

Well as I mentioned, the lack of internet (necessity) is the mother of invention. 

So today my students had a timeline project due and I had the idea that it might be nice to have a rubric to use to write comments on as I watched each of them present. 

Then I realized, I can't just hop on over to TPT and download a freebie. So, I decided to make my own. 

Here it is: 

And so without further adoo here is my little freebie- available to all on TPT.

Check it out HERE

So to wrap up this post, I will leave you with a question before I say good night,

How would you teach differently if you didn't have access to the internet?

Sianora and Sweet Dreams!

*Liebster Award Nomination*

Guess What?? I just got nominated for the Liebster Award! Wow! What can I say?? I am so surprised and honored to be nominated for this awesome award. 

This award is for new bloggers who have less than 200 followers but who have great content and potential.

A big shout out and THANK YOU to Katie at Living the First Grade Dream and Martinique at Ms. Perry’s Peaches.

So the way it works is you answer a list of questions then nominate 11 other awesome bloggers.

Here we go:

1. Why and how long ago did you start blogging?

Well, I actually started my blog back in 2012, but to be honest I only posted a few blog posts and it wasn’t until last year that I actually started blogging regularly (It took me awhile to learn about blogging and how to do it successfully- I’m not very good with technology).

 I originally started my blog because I absolutely LOVE teaching and I wanted to share the ideas I’ve had (and been inspired by) with other teachers. I have to say I’ve fallen in love with this teaching/blogging community. Everyone is so inspiring, helpful, funny and kind. I love being apart of this larger community!

1. What one word sums up the heart of your blog and why?

I would have to say INSPIRATION. It is something that keeps me moving from one exciting project to the next. It’s one of the major reasons I am so addicted to pinterest. I love feeling inspired to create, whether its in the classroom, the kitchen, my home or elsewhere. I get so excited when I find or create an idea that works and I always have a strong desire to tell everyone I know what I just learned and why its so fun and amazing! I find so much joy in discovering a wonderful teaching tip, trick, strategy or TPT product that make learning more enjoyable and interactive in my classroom and I get just as much joy out of sharing my discoveries with others.

Is there something you learned late in your blog journey you wished you knew before?

I recently discovered the beauty of blogging link ups. I seriously can’t believe it took me so long to figure out how to do these!!!

This year I started linking up with Doodlebugs teaching for Five for Friday, Farley over at Oh Boy Fourth Grade for Currently and Miss DeCarbo over at Second Grade Sugar and Spice for Wordless Wednesday. Since I started linking up, I’ve connected with other bloggers and felt some amazing support from the blogging community. It feels good to know you aren’t alone and that other teachers appreciate your blog posts as much as you love and appreciate theirs! This mutual appreciation thing is pretty amazing!

What is your favorite past time other than blogging?

I absolutely love trying new recipes. Creating delish comfort food is one of my favorite things to do. I love finding DIY projects on Pinterest  that I can create for my little home. I love singing (on my church’s worship team)on Sundays, and although I don’t do it as much as I would like, I REALLY love going antiquing. There is something absolutely amazing about old stuff with a story. I am obsessed with old houses and old furniture. 

How many hours per week do you dedicate to your blog?

I would say 2 hours give or take. Some weeks I blog more than others. I feel like its either feast or famine. I either have to resist the urge to post every day OR I try really hard to come up with enough material to share on my Five for Friday post.

What category of blog posts do you enjoy the most?

To be honest I think my favorite thing to see on blog posts are craftivities and anchor charts. I always teach units using themes and both craftivities and anchor charts add more meaning and depth to my students learning (not to mention color and peak student interest). I love when I see other teachers posting their ideas and I always try to find ways to incorporate them into my own classroom. 

Where does your blog inspiration come from?

When I was first interested in blogging (long before I started my own blog) I was inspired by Cara Carroll at The First Grade Parade and Abby Mullens at The Inspired Apple. Their passion for teaching was evident in the projects they did with their students, the units they created and their amazing positivity and humor. After following them for a few years, I finally mustered up the courage to start my own blog and begin sharing my own ideas.

Which post that you’ve written are you the most proud of?

Well, that's hard to answer for different reasons. I like a lot of my posts mostly because they reflect where I'm at each week and I like looking back on them later, but I think if I had to pick one it would probably be 

Apple Week which I posted last month. To be honest I do not know where I found the energy to do that many baking projects, but I'm sure glad I did! The kids LOVED it!

Is there any post you’ve been planning to do but have been postponing it for awhile now?

I’m planning on posting all about zero the hero soon but want to get all of my materials together before I do. :)

What is your favorite aspect of blogging?

I think my favorite aspect of blogging is the accountability factor. 

I have discovered it is a great way to keep myself motivated to continue thinking about and creating new ways to make learning more engaging for my students as well as keep a record of all the fun things we do in the classroom. 

Which recipe, project, or idea on my blog would you be most likely to try yourself?

Ms. Perry’s Peaches: I loved the post you shared about donor’s choice. It was so precious to see the looks on your students faces when you showed them the books that were funded by donor’s choice. Such a great idea! I totally want to try that!

Living the First Grade Dream: 

I love what you shared about data folders. I haven’t heard of them but I love the idea of keeping all of the students assessment data in one place and encouraging them to take charge of their own learning and tracking their progress.

Blogs I’d like to nominate:

1. The Positive Teacher
2. Paiges of Learning
3. The Teaching Twosome
4. Carol’s Teaching Garden
5. Growing Little Learners
6. Mrs. 3rd Grade
7. Mrs. Brosseau’s Binder
8. Domikiddos
9. The Teaching Trio
10. Luv My Kinders
11. One Sharp Bunch

Thank you again Martinique and Katie for nominating me! 

Now its your turn (nominated bloggers) to participate :)

Here are the official "rules" for accepting:

1. In your post link back to the blogger who nominated you as a thank you and "shout out".

2. Answer the 11 questions given to you (the ones I answered above)

3. Nominate 11 blogs that have less than 200 followers each. Provide them with 11 questions (listed above) to have them answer.

4. Let your nominees know they've been nominated and provide them with a link back to your post so they can accept.

5. Send your nominator a link to your post so s/he can learn more about you as well. (you can just put your post link in the comments below)

Have Fun! :)

Five For Friday- A Peek Into Our Week!

It's time again for my favorite link up- Five for Friday.
I'm joining Doodle Bugs Teaching to share what's been going on in my world:

doodlebugsteaching.blogspot.com

3 Day weekend and a trip to the coast!

  Can I just say how grateful I am for 3 day weekends??? We took advantage of our extra day and took a mini-trip to Mendocino. Man was that such a well needed break! It felt incredible to sleep in and walk on the beach. What a blessing!

New Inspiring Children's Literature!

 While strolling around Mendocino, we found a really great bookstore. I don't know about you, but usually the first place I go when I'm in a bookstore is the children's section. 

I just can't stay away from fun books with great pictures.

I'm always on the look out for more great reads to share with my kiddos. These two definitely look like winners. 

The Book With No Pictures is SOOO FUNNY!!! I was actually trying not to chuckle too loudly when I was reading it. I knew my students would get a kick out of it. 

 This book is really fun and interactive. It would be a great tool in teaching color theory to kids. It actually shows what happens when you mix different colors together. It is REALLY COOL!!

So I have a confession- I didn't actually purchase either of these books (although I REALLY wanted to).

I have decided to put them on my classroom Christmas wish list. Hopefully they will make their way into my room come January. :)

We shall see.

Positively Perfect Pumpkins!

I had to include these in my post. Our school art teacher (she teaches Kindergarten-12th grade art) came up with this activity and then put these beautiful pictures up the hallway for the whole school to enjoy. Aren't they amazing! I think she used colored pencils for the pumpkins.

Zero the Hero Treat

Do you do Zero the Hero in your classroom?

We sure do! Every 10th day of school, when the students come into the classroom, there is a treat waiting for them. 

This week we celebrated the 30th day of school and this was our treat. Little cuties decorated to look like jack-o-lanterns. My students thought it was pretty great.

And to add to our crazy pumpkin theme, here are two ways I indulged in the pumpkin frenzy at my house:

 

I finally tried one of the million pinterest DIY projects I have pinned and painted a chevron pumpkin (I've seriously wanted to try this for YEARS! Finally I Did! HA)

And, this is my take on one of our favorite recipes butternut squash risotto. This time, I used sugar pumpkin instead of squash, and it turned out very well.

If you are looking for serious comfort food then I highly recommend giving this recipe a try. It's insanely delicious and not too hard to make.

Butternut Squash Rissotto

{Fun}draiser

How do you do fundraisers at your school?

This year we are launching a jumpathon to raise money for our sports fund. The kids have 1 week to collect pledges so, I tried to come up with a fun visual reminder to help them work on getting pledges every night. 

If they raise $25 they get a t-shirt.

If every student in our school raises $110 our P.E. coach will shave his hair into a mow hawk (the kids thought this was AWESOME)

AND if every student raises $160 our coach will dye his mow hawk hot pink!

We have a pretty amazing coach!!

If your school does any successful fundraisers I'd love to hear about them!

And on that note, I hope you have a fantastic weekend!