Apple Week- Its a Wrap Folks!

Thank God for teaching themes and thank God for normal routines. Last week was so much fun diving deep into our apple them, but honestly after all that excitement, I have to say I'm really looking forward to an uneventful week.
Back to our normal routine- ahhh!

So to be completely honest, I had every intention of posting on Friday and linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for the Five for Friday linky party, but if I can be real with you- at the end of the day on Friday, I had no more energy left. I was depleted. So I decided to call it a day and was in bed by 7:30pm NO JOKE!

Now that I've finally recovered, I wanted to share all the amazing highlights from our week and thought you'd want to see our highlight reel :)

~Numero Uno~ 

On a personal note, one of my very good friends had a baby (on Tuesday) and Wednesday she texted me and asked if I wanted to come over and meet him- UM YA!!!!! I didn't hesitate to jump in my car and head over to her house with a quickness, boy was that the best part of the week!

Check out this little bundle of cuteness! I melted!

 

~Numero Dos~

Apples Galore!!!

Seriously I was so happy and impressed we found so many ways to incorporate apples into our learning this week.

Tuesday we visited an apple farm in Sebastapol and my students got to pick apples right off the trees. Each student got to take home a bag of apples they picked themselves and we kept a box of apples to use in the classroom for our baking projects. 

~Numero Tres~

Apple baking! Now I have to admit at the time I felt like I may have bit off more than I could chew, but a few days later, I decided I would totally do it again next year. Call me crazy, but the kiddos had such a blast it totally felt worth it!

So to recap we: peeled and cored apples (then cut up the slices and used them to make pies, used a juicer to juice the apples from the farm and put the rest of the apples in a crockpot and made applesauce.

Okay, seriously how cute are these mini pies???? LOVE them! And they were pretty darn tasty too! 

 We also filled our marble jar and as our reward we had an apple tasting party.  Each student got to taste a pie, fresh apple juice and homemade applesauce. 

We then graphed our favorites. 

~Numero Cuatro~

A little bit of sad apple science

I absolutely LOVED the apple unit Abby Mullens from The Inspired Apple just came out with and I was one of the teachers who quickly snached it up when it was on sale and promptly put it to good use.
We kicked off our apple mini unit by comparing facts and opinions about apples. 
We then form a hypothesis about what would happen when we dropped an apple from a high distance. I thought the kiddos had some pretty smart ideas. They hypothesized it would either bruise, squirt juice, explode or nothing would happen.
We then took our little apple outside and tested our hypotheses. 
Check out what happened:

We dropped it from the top of our play structure and it only got a little scrape from the bark.
We then dropped it down the slide and it got a bruise. 
The last thing we did was throw it directly onto the cement and then it EXPLODED!
The students were excited when that happened :)

     

~Numero Cinco~

Apple Bake Sale & Tasting fun!

Friday my class had a bake sale and sold all of our goodies that we had been baking all..week..long.

It was so rewarding and a great lesson for my kids on the roles of producers and consumers. We had to create our products from scratch and then sell them to make a profit.

Our P.E. coach (seriously a school celebrity! All the kids love him so much) taste tested and LOVED all our treats and agreed to endorse our products :)

Wasn't that sweet of him?

It definitely made our pies and applesauce sell like hot cakes!

And lastly, this note was WAY too cute not to share! 

So my last name is Niehausen (knee-house-in) and I'll admit it's definitely not the easiest name to spell.

I thought this phonetic spelling was very cute and creative!

"Neghsen" and "Neghoson" hahaha! Way too funny! 

Well that's all for now folks.

Thanks for stopping by.

Happy Fall Ya'll!

 ~ Abbie ~

Wordless Wednesday! Apple Week Sneak Peak

second grade sugar and spice

Today was just about all kinds of crazy in my classroom. Every year I attempt to do all my apple baking projects on the same day and every year I wonder why I take on this level of stress?? Then my students always say its the best day ever and we totally enjoy eating all the tasty treats and somehow I go into an apple coma and get apple amnesia and the whole thing starts all over again the next year.

So this is what we did today:

1)Used my juicer to juice the apples we picked (went on a field trip to the apple farm yesterday)

2) Turned the other apples into crockpot applesauce

3) Made mini homemade apple pies! (first attempt, and I'm pretty happy with how our experiment turned out!)

Definitely more pics to follow in Friday's post.

So here is your question bloggers:

What do you do for apple week?

I look forward to reading your comments and seeing what you are doing with your kiddos!

Toodles!!

Abbie ~

September Currently link up!

Today I'm joining another link up!

I'm linking up with Farely over at Oh Boy Fourth Grade

I love the idea of checking in each month and sharing what's going on in my world at the moment.

I have loved reading several other teachers currently posts and felt like it was high time I joined in!

So here goes:

Listening

Since my hubby and I are both teachers, Sunday afternoons are usually spent lazily lounging in front of the t.v. (background noise) as we work on lesson planning, grading, and prepping for the coming week. Our new favorite show is Boardwalk Empire.

I'm loving all the historical elements of the show! It feels like you've stepped back into the 1920's and man am I feeling inspired to wear heels and red lipstick :) Just saying!

Loving

Monthly Meal Plans!!

Gotta say as a teacher this has majorly saved me time and mula $$.

If you haven't considered planning out your meals for the month, I highly recommend it. 

It did take a good chunk of time at the start to figure out how to organize everything, but after all the meals were written down all I had to do was make a shopping list and stick to the plan.  

This was the first time I was able to go the grocery store, only buy what's on the list and come home feeling like I'd just conquered the world! 

For someone who is not great at budgeting, I feel like I just discovered a huge secret--No impulse buys- NO matter WHAT. 

Here's a little peek at what's been cooking in my kitchen:

So I'm almost too embarrassed to post this, but oh well! This was my first attempt at meal planning and it was a bit rough (as you can see). This little planner was in my purse for the first 2 weeks to make sure I stuck to the plan, but BOY has it been worth it!
Freshly finished October meal plan!
Ahhhh, feels good to get organized :)

 A couple meals that were a success!
Simple and not too time consuming.

Thai Soup with Coconut, Lemongrass & Red Curry
 (I added chicken instead of shrimp)

Carne Asada Tacos
What a winner!

And my personal Fav!

Chicken Pot Pie

I honestly think if you want to tell someone you love them, just make them a chicken pot pie-It tastes like heaven!

Seriously though, the best dinner of our month was chicken pot pie. I'm not gonna underestimate the power of carbs ever again. I put an extra in the freezer and will be saving it for a hard day :) It works wonders!

Thinking

All about apple week! It is finally here! Tomorrow we embark on one of my favorite school weeks of the year (second only to pumpkin week). 

So this weekend I found out Abby Mullens The Inspired Apple had posted her apple unit and it was on SALE, so I jumped on that bandwagon and picked myself up a copy. I can't wait to try it out with my kiddos this week!

 You can pick up your copy -----> HERE

This week I will be taking my class on a field trip to an apple farm where we will be picking apples then taking them back to class where we will transform them into some tasty concoctions. Stay Tuned! :)

Wanting

A few weeks ago I posted a pic showing something I've used in my classroom to make reading more fun. 

Remember this??

Well, my students have absolutely adored reading with these "partners" everyday and we are hoping to add to our collection. 

A few items on our classroom wish list include:

    

How fun would it be to read with all our favorites???

And here are a few more things I think my kiddos would get excited about:

 LED Finger Lights

Martian Fingers 

Needing

I think every teacher out there can agree, it would be nice to have more time in the day :)

Enough said!

3 Trips

Thailand

I mean look at that water, isn't just irresistible? I've also heard a cultural custom in Thailand is smiling. Like every person you encounter will smile at you as a sign of greeting. Who wouldn't want to visit the land of smiles? I wonder. AND I don't think I could ever overdose on pad thai. It's delish!

Austrailia

I just studied Austrailia with my students last year and I was so impressed with just how incredible it is! There are the coolest animals there as well as climates and cultures, I have to go there someday!

South Africa

I have always wanted to go on a safari.

Well that about sums up my Currently for September :)

I'll be posting again soon about our upcoming apple week!

Feel free to check back in.

Happy Sunday!

~Abbie ~

Five For Friday-Hitting the Ground Running!

Well folks its that time of the week again. This week definitely flew by! There was lots of incredible learning that took place and I can't wait to share it with you!

http://doodlebugsteaching.blogspot.com

First I'll start on a personal note. Not sure if I've mentioned this previously, but the Hubs and I are die hard Green Bay Packer fans.

He is from Wisconsin, so naturally its in his blood. I didn't really care about sports until I met him, but I have to say football has grown on me and now I am a packer fan through and through. 

We were SO excited on Sunday when the Packers beat the Jets!

    GO PACK GO!!!

This was us at Lambeau a few years ago! Needless to say, our love for them is a little more than a hobby-It's more like a lifestyle. 

Okay on to the school stuff:

Have You Filled a Bucket Today?

 Okay, so I know I have already posted this picture, but come on, how cute are this little buckets???

I taught this lesson on Tuesday for our Elementary chapel 
(1st-5th grade students) and man was it a HIT!
It is always a great lesson to teach at the beginning of the year. I like to establish an atmosphere of kindness and sharing so everyone feels safe and happy to come to school.

Get your copy HERE

 All I have to say is THANK GOD for pinterest and the teacher resources that can be found on it!
I realized Tuesday morning that I was in charge of teaching the lesson for chapel to 35 little ones and I had to come up with something in a quick minute!

A big thanks to: Stephanie at 3rd grade thoughts for her amazing bucket filling inspiration. She got her idea from Cara Carroll at The First Grade Parade another one of my favorite bloggers who created a Peacemakers/Peacebreakers anchor chart. I loved their ideas so much, I decided to use both!

You can download the bucket filler labels for free right Here
And the peacemakers/breakers labels from First Grade Fanatics Here

We wrapped up our lesson by cheering this chant which I downloaded courtesy of Gradeonederful

Our Solar System Schema is Out of This World!

Check out these AMAZING solar system drawings my kiddos completed in art. I found the free project on TPT thanks to Lesson Fantastic

  This gem is an excerpt from an AMAZING solar system unit I picked up on TPT that is helping me teach my kids all the important facts. Check it out

 Solar System Interactive Notebook Unit

Okay so I know these notes are a bit sloppy, but I just had to share the amazing acronym we learned about to help us learn the order of the planets: My Very Energetic Mother Just Served Us Noodles

      Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune

We obtained all our initial info from this book! I would highly recommend it, not to much information and wonderful pictures!

Get yourself a copy HERE

Thank Heavens For Laminated Labels!!

So, I think I mentioned my husband is also a teacher and this year his job description shifted from high school Spanish/Algebra teacher to Lead teacher of our (ENTIRE) middle school department (6th-8th grades).

Needless to say, its been a big learning curve. The teacher who retired at the end of last year (after 20 years of service) was an amazing master teacher. She was so inspiring and myself and my coworkers aspire to be like her someday (she had her lesson plans finished 6 weeks ahead of time). 

One classroom procedure that was in place from last year was the assignments board. But after three weeks of students complaining about not being able to keep track of all their assignments, we thought maybe we needed a fresh approach.

I'm not gonna lie, this board looks kinda like a hot mess :( sorry babe.

Check out our new masterpiece!

I can't help but thinking laminated labels always make things better. Deep breath, ahhh! Feels good to get organized!

Gotta Love Effective Communication!

A unique part of my schedule this year is that I teach kindergarten/first grade in the morning and then I teach 1st-3rd grade in the afternoon. 

My kinders get picked up after lunch and since I am already teaching my new group, I haven't been able to touch base/communicate with parents. 

I wanted to make sure they had an effective way to pass info along to me as well as drop off forms and check if they had any outstanding items that still needed to be turned in.

The clipboard has a checklist with each child's name and a list of all the things that need to be come back to school.

The bin is designed for forms and other important things parents want passed along to me. 

I know this drawing is a little rough, but after I drew it for my kiddos, I realized I loved the idea of having a picture clue next to each day to help us remember what's coming up.

As you can see next week is gonna be JAM PACKED!!!!

So to sum it all up- We are happy, healthy and a whole lot of tired over here and I think my hubby and I will be celebrating the end of a long school week with a big glass of vino! :)

Have a fabulous weekend everyone!

~Abbie~

Terrible Tuesday/Wonderful Wednesday

Well, what can I say? I guess it has been one of those weeks. Yesterday was especially hard…. Some days are better than others :/
I knew I would need a little extra energy (and patience) this morning, so I decided to take the plunge and try out a new juicing recipe.
Friends have recommended juicing for the past 2 years but I was never brave enough to move from solid food to liquid.
What can I say?? I get hungry a lot, I mean A LOT! And I LOVE food, so its not something I have been willing to part with easily. But for now, I finally decided to break down and try this whole juicing thing purely because it is supposed to give me "more energy".

The Concensus: Not bad actually! AND I did have more energy! HA! Who knew all those crazy health nuts were right?? I will be trying more recipes.

I'll let you know how it goes :)

On a happier note, I have to say I've got some AMAZING co-workers! They knew that yesterday was a challenge and when I came into my classroom this morning (after getting coffee from the staff room) look what was waiting for me:

So the coffee cup is mine, but how sweet was it for my fellow teaching buddies to bless me with liquid love???? I was completely overwhelmed and of course it automatically turned today into an AMAZING DAY!

Gotta love it! That is usually how things work, very hard day followed by great day where friends are awesome and the students are angels! I think that's what makes the job worth it. Thank God for the balance of stress with calm. It would be much harder if every day was a struggle. I'm so thankful those days are rare. 

And just to add a little educational plug into this post, my favorite find of the day: Abby Mullens over at The Inspired Apple just posted the most AMAZING freebie.

For a Christian school teacher, this was a Godsend!

Say hello to our September memory verse! And it totally fits into our apple theme! Woohoo and Thank ya Jesus!

Well that's a wrap folks.

I hope you had a wonderful Wednesday! 

Be sure to check back in for my Five for Friday.

Toodaloo!