Winter Break Updates!

How is it already Friday?! Seriously? I have to go back to work on Tuesday?! Ugh. I am missing my kiddos, but it sure is nice to be home with the hubby and the baby!

Just thought I would stop in to give an update. I have been playing around with my Blog a lot lately, updating backgrounds, layouts, fonts, etc. I just can't seem to find something that I can fall in love with. Other than that, I have been spending time with the family and looking for after-Christmas deals online. Hubby said that we could get a new Christmas Tree if I could find a good deal so that is my latest mission!! I also purchased a Chest to keep at the end of our bed...I have been wanting one for a while and finally found one on Target: Camden Storage Trunk It is on clearance right now for $52.48, but I had a day-after-Christmas coupon that took off $10.00. I also used my Target card so I got another 5% off and free shipping...straight to my house. I think that might be the best deal I've gotten all year! SCORE!!!

Ok...now school stuff. Last time I posted, we were working on finishing up our Handprint Calendars for our parent gifts...and let me just say, they turned out AWESOME. I borrowed one of my student's calendars so I could take pictures to share with you all.

It was a LOT of work, but they turned out great!! Halfway through I thought "oh, I should have made one for myself..I could have used some of all of the kiddos handprints." Maybe we will work on that for next year. :)


This certainly is the season of giving. To help remind my students of that, I decided that we were going to make something for all of the "behind-the-scenes" people in their lives. We made cookies for the office staff and the cafeteria staff. For special individuals (bus drivers, custodians, therapists, etc.), we made chocolate covered candy canes. The recipe I had called for peppermint sticks, but I couldn't find any of those. They probably would have been easier because the candy canes were hard to open without breaking. My aides ended up doing most of the candy cane un-wrapping. LOL. But, they turned out pretty good. They didn't look all that hot, but they sure tasted good!



Well, the ball just dropped in New York, so Happy New Year Everyone! Hope 2012 brings you much happiness!!

Changing Things UP!

Well, it has been over a year since I have posted. What a busy and eventful year it has been too!!

I am now in my second year of teaching as a Special Education Teacher. I absolutely love my job and my students. Of course it is a challenge, but it is one that I enjoy very much. :)

I am also now a newlywed and a new mommy. Yep...told you it has been eventful. Here is a picture of my beautiful family:

I am trying to start my blog back up in hopes that it will give me a way to remember my more creative ideas (if I ever have any...).

Speaking of creative ideas, I have fallen in love....with a website. If you are a blogger, teacher, crafter, or just an web-surfer....you need to know about the website Pinterest. I have gotten so many ideas from this website it is ridiculous.

...Like this one: I used a garment rack I bought at Target for $10 as a chart stand! Yes...a $10 chart stand! Only teachers will be as excited about this as I was. Chart Stands are EXPENSIVE. I got so excited about the idea when I saw it that I immediately started shopping online for a garment rack. But, I couldn't find the exact one I wanted so I convinced my wonderful hubby to go shopping with me the next day...AND I FOUND IT!!! When I saw it in the store, I literally almost yelled with glee. So, I got it back to my classroom and put my pocket chart on it. It was perfect. :) When I showed it to my supervisor she was like "oh my goodness...a divider!!" I hadn't even thought of that idea!! Anyway, this idea has multiple uses and I absolutely love it.




Here's another idea I got from pinterest...Ordinal Words!! I have one student who has a goal to work on directional words (first, up, behind, etc.). One of the activities I use for this is a worksheet out of our curriculum where she has to "color the third bird, draw a circle around the first tree" etc. She has SUCH a hard time with it. After introducing this list, she has done sooo much better! She now know that "first" is the 1, "third" is 3...etc. And...it just looks beautiful. :) You can download the cards here....

Ordinal Word Cards

Thank you Doodle Bug Teaching!!! :D



Have you ever heard of Borax? Ever used it? How about for making snowflakes? I have! I did this with my students a few weeks ago. It was a bit over their head and I should have tried it before doing it with my class, but the snowflakes turned out great! :) If I did it again with the kiddos, it would be easier for me to explain what we were doing and have them help, but the first time was just too crazy. Maybe we will try again next year. For now, I will just enjoy my beautiful tree and beautiful snowflakes.





The other snowflakes you see on my tree are bubble paint. You put paint and dish soap together in a container and use a straw to blow bubbles. Then, you dip the paper into the bubbles to make a cool design. We have done this twice now. The first time we did it with fall leaves. The students really enjoy this, however, I suggest not letting them do the bubble-blowing. I was just too worried about them forgetting to blow rather than suck and accidentally drinking the paint. YIKES! :/


One last thing to mention for today...I have the most wonderful aides. We help balance each other out and just work hard! My amazing and crafty classroom aide designed this beautiful snowman for our door. I originally wanted to do a present like I saw on pinterest, but decided that a snowman would be better because we could leave him up longer. I told her what I wanted and she just went to it...He even has a real scarf!!! He turned out great...check him out:



Thanks for reading! Check back soon for these upcoming posts: Handprint Calendars, Shaving Cream Snowmen, Salt Dough Ornaments, and Peppermint Sticks...lots of projects to finish this week!! Wishing you a very happy holiday season! :)