Five For Friday! Finally Up and Running

Hello Dear Readers!
I can't tell you how GOOD it feels to be back on my blog. It's only been a week (or two :), but Monday my laptop crashed and it's been out of commission all week long.
I just got it back and it feels nothing short of AMAZING!! I'm so relieved and most of all thankful all of my files are still intact.
Apparently computers are somewhat persnickety and they do not do well with certain cases.  (I used to have a really cute plastic turquoise case on mine) -NOTE TO SELF-  *Computers+plastic case= system failure!!! I found out that the plastic case was trapping in all the heat that my laptop was expelling and it pretty much just burnt out. Lesson Learned Oh, and I thought I'd save money by getting a replacement charger off of amazon (they are like half the price), but turns out the cheap charger completely fried the wiring in my computer. Uuuggg! So to sum it up- if you have a macbook, you have to buy the "suggested" apple approved products or you may run into much bigger problems down the road.
Okay- thanks for reading my technology rant! Needless to say I'm very happy to be back and I have lots to share with you.

doodlebugs teaching

100th Day A few weeks ago we celebrated our 100th day of school.  We all wore100 things on our clothes.  I loved how creative the kids were!

 

This was our little 100 things collection. I absolutely love the pom poms. Such a fun idea :)

We also did rotations with the whole elementary and enjoyed activities related to the 100th day.

Some of our activities included:

Building a structure with100 blocks

 Doing 100 exercises

And building a tower with 100 cups.

We also played a game where we rolled dice and raced to one hundred.

All of our 100th day centers were an amazing FREEBIE I found over at The First Grade Parade courtesy of Cara Carroll (love that woman!)

OW and OU

We've been working hard learning the sounds of 'ow' and 'ou'

Thanks to Mrs. Kilby  and Gail's Reading Rubies
I managed to use some of these fantastic freebies to help my kiddos get excited about phonemes and their special sounds.

Our Class Has Some New Members 

I told my students after Zero the Hero visited them (on the 100th day) they would also get to meet Even Steven and Odd Todd.

I think after they actually met Zero the Hero (I had a high schooler dress up and burst into my room to surprise them) they thought Even Steven and Odd Todd would be real people.

But after they "met" them, they realized it's more fun to have them around and are happy they don't have to leave (like Zero the Hero did).

 Biography Bubbles and MONSTER manners

One of our main topics this month has been the presidents.
We are doing an extensive biography study this year in 2nd/3rd grade and the students are thoroughly enjoying it.

 These are the presidents we've focused on so far.
I think Teddy Roosevelt was the class favorite.
Did you know he was a cowboy, a war hero and also won the Noble Peace Prize?
We thought that was pretty cool :)

 

Monster Manners

We've also been reviewing manners and behavioral expectations at school this week.

I thought it was time for a refresher :)

Aren't our Love monsters so cute?
We made them in art class.

If you like this unit, you can download a copy HERE

Doughnuts and Daydreams

This is one of our new favorite finds.

Seriously, these doughnuts are incredible. Usually I eat a doughnut (from the grocery store) and I feel like I could eat 10 more.

The Doughnuts from this place are unreal and they actually make you feel full and satisfied.

For real- I couldn't even finish my doughnut! It was so good and filling, I got stuffed and had to save the rest for later.

I highly recommend paying this little shop a visit and even if you don't live around here- add it to your bucket list. 

These doughnuts will CHANGE YOUR LIFE!

 Me and my little (taller) sister enjoying our sunny Sunday afternoon!

Wishing you all a beautiful and restful weekend!

Happy Valentines Day Ya'll

Well yesterday was definitely a whirlwind! We had a very busy fun fill day packed with celebrations, sugar and of course lots of lovely valentines.

 

We started gearing up for Valentines this week by thinking about all the things we love about our school. *I found this idea on Pinterest (not my original idea).

It was so fun to have the whole community (K-12 students) contributing to our bulletin board.

We kicked off our morning with Donuts with Dads a fun community event that we do every year (we celebrate muffins with moms in may for Mother's day but since Father's day isn't until June we celebrate ours in February right around Valentines)

 Look at those cuties! 

I love my kindergarten love bugs :)

 We also had a Valentine's themed bake sale to raise money for our chick hatching fund.
I am happy to report we totally exceeded our financial goal and I'm ready to start adding items to my amazon cart and getting this ball rolling. 

*Mission baby chicks has officially commenced!

It's go time people :)

Bake Sale Success  

 Here are a few tips& tricks I have learned 

(the hard way) from experience over the years to help make a bake sale successful and stress free.

Here's my advice:

1. Raise money for something specific *baby chicks, butterfly larva, new playground toys etc. (it's a lot easier for people to give when they know where the money is going)

2. Recruit lots of parent helpers

I always send out a bake sale sign up sheet a week before the sale with suggestions of items we may need (brownies, cupcakes, cookies, cake pops, toys, bubbles, playdough etc.) as well as a schedule with available time slots for parent volunteers sign up to help sell. This helps me keep track of the items being sent in and make sure there is enough variety as well as making sure I have all the busy sale times covered throughout the day.
 

3. Pick a Popular Theme

I've found that when I give the bake sale a theme (usually close to a popular holiday) it makes the items that come in look much more  appealing and therefore we sell more. 

Give your sale a little curb appeal! 

4. Make Your Bake Sale Mobile!

I've started putting all my remaining items on a cart at the end of the day and rolling it out to the carpool area so we can continue selling when parents come to pick up their kiddos. 

Works like a charm.

5. Diversify your items 

I realized a few years ago that we could sell so much more than sugary treats. The possibilities are literally endless. We've added toys, pencils, erasers, tattoos, jello, candy bags and stickers to our sale items and the best part is, if they don't sell they don't go bad so we can just save them and sell them at our next bake sale. 

The other thing I do is usually mark down the items as the day progresses. It's always better to get something instead of nothing, am I right?

And lastly, I woke up to a fun surprise

~Breakfast in bed~

I'm a spoiled woman.

Happy Valentines Everyone!

February Currently

I'm excited to link up again with Farley over at Oh' Boy 4th Grade 

to share my February currently.

Here's what I've been thinking about/loving this month:

Listening 

To the song: Meant To Be by JJ Heller

I just discovered this song yesterday and I gotta warn ya- it's very catchy but I absolutely LOVE the sweet sentiment and it really reminds me of my hubby (cue sigh-awww)
Loving My new couch! We decided to take the plunge this weekend and upgrade to a larger couch so my whole family/all our friends could come over and sit comfortably  (now no one needs to chill on the floor)
Check out the before and after shots.  ~WARNING~ the pics are super blurry (sorry) but I think you'll get the general idea.
BEFORE

AFTER

Seriously this couch is SO comfy, I want to actually spend a night sleeping on it! It's AHHMAZING!
Thinking All about our upcoming science unit. We will be hatching chicks in our classroom. I CAN NOT WAIT!!

I've always wanted to do this, but I had no idea where to start.  I finally have some help and several teacher friends who have done it before and can give me advice and support.  The other aspect to this whole chick hatching project that always felt a little daunting was the funding. It's gonna cost a pretty penny to purchase all the necessary materials. Well the exciting news is my chick fund is almost fully funded! I had some very generous parents make donations to help us out. I am so touched and grateful for their generosity. It just warms my heart! We will be starting this unit next month-  So Excited!
Wanting To eat sugar. I've been fasting from sugar and alcohol (mostly trying to cleanse) and it's finally coming to an end on Valentines!!
Needing A massage. After starting yoga 2 weeks ago, I had several muscles that were not used to being stretched and used wake up and start aching- needless to say I would definitely love a massage to work out all the knots. 
*Pagent Title* I'm going to give myself the title  Miss Bright&Bubbly
I'm just feeling so excited for our Valentines party and our 100th day of school celebration I'm bubbling over with joy and anticipation.
Wishing you a sweet Valentines week everyone!