Almost Thanksgiving!

So excited for our mini break of Thursday/Friday/Saturday/Sunday :) I can't wait to spend Thanksgiving with my family.. I love going over to my parents and eating their amazing cooking (my favorite is the stuffing.. it's out of this world, and I wish I was the only one who felt this way so I could have seconds and thirds :P) Mike and I will also be venturing to his mom's house as well.. it should be a great day!

How will you be spending your Thanksgiving? I hope everyone spends their day with a nice meal, and even if you don't have family around, just spending it with people you care about - that's the most important! I will also be loving the fact that me and my BFF will be going Black Friday shopping aaaand my parents got me tickets to see Wicked! Yay, bonus!! :) I have been wanting to this for a very long time! Anyone went to see it? Loved it? Liked it? Didn't care for it?  What about Black Friday deals?! Anything good??

Here are some read alouds and a couple chapter books that my kids read by themselves and to the younger students of the school.. My great friend Tara taught me the trick to request all the books I need online at the library, and go to pick them up! It's that simple, and spreads the literacy in my classroom.  Thank you again, Mrs. Leander :)

 We had Literacy Day at our school today, and we wore the shirts that we made (the iron-on sand paper shirts!) See the post here for the cute designs the kids came up with!) Below is the design I came up with.  It was inspired by the 3am Teacher but she does waay better art than me ;)

Speaking of OWLS, check out my cute new lunch box from Thirty-one!! Love it!! I had a great time hosting my Thirty-one party, and received some free gifts for myself and for my family for Christmas, so it was very worth it.... hmm.. I think I want to host another one maybe after the holidays or towards Spring time with all my friend K-2 is Splendid and Love for Early Learners! What do you gals think? :)

Ok, back to Literacy Day!
We made Stone Soup with Heather's class.. what a lovely idea from her! The kids loved it and were really engaged with the story and making the actual soup.  We had some local celebrities come to read stories to the children as well which they loved.  It really was a good day, but I am EXHAUSTED.  We also had milk and cookies... yum and yes, I ate them too. Of course!

 

 Christmas is quickly approaching and okay yes, I am one of "those people" that just put their tree up before Thanksgiving!!  I couldn't help it.. I actually had time this weekend, and I decided I might as well get started because with lesson planning and getting things ready, I never have time for any of that fun stuff.

Christmas comes and goes so quickly as it is, and I wanted to make sure I could really enjoy it this year.  Still extremely tight on money, but I don't mind working extra hard to make a little more so I can give great presents for the holidays.  My parents are so wonderful and caring and don't want me to spend a lot of money on them, so I have also been crafting :) and coming up with amazing ideas!! I sooooo wish I could show you now, but I will have to wait until AFTER the holidays so I do not spoil any of the surprises.  But I will be most definitely putting up my craft finds on here and Pinterest as SOON as Christmas is over!

We have a beautiful new Christmas tree this year, thanks to Jocelyn and Skyler! :)

One of my wonderful parents gave me an early Christmas present... the best smelling hand sanitizer I have ever had from Bath & Body Works (Twisted Peppermint) aaaand two books on my wishlist from the Scholastic Book Fair :) Wonderful and so unexpected!

And I will leave you on the note that I won the Teacher Rock Contest.. I made an apple and a sandwich :) A few people were making fun of my rocks (that my principal named "Lunch") but I worked hard on them! ;) Here's a picture of them.. aren't they cute? I raffled them off to my kids after the contest.  One of my students won the most patriotic rock.  A cute idea for paper weights.

I love you all! Take care :) So happy I have been on this journey will my blog and my bloggy friends.. you really are amazing to me.  Thank you, thank you, thank you! And I haven't even been blogging a year! I can't imagine if I actually had time to sit down and come up with great ideas and really connect with you all, but thank you for being patient with me and for ALL YOU DO!

My Birthday

Ahh I am so excited that it is my birthday today :) (Mostly) everyone loves their birthday! I turn 27 today, which is not that old at all.. some people may think that is old that are around my age, but it's not! I feel older than I am, and really need to get back into eating better and working out but it's so hard.  Well anyways, enough of that.. I don't need to worry about that on my birthday! ;)

I haven't been able to really "blog" because I have been so busy trying to get all my work done and stay on top of things.  There is always "something", isn't there?
Well, I know Halloween has passed, but I wanted to show you all a picture of what I was for Halloween.. I was a Super Teacher! Pinterest/TPT inspired, the Kindergarten teachers were doing it and I became an honorary member since I really had no time to think about a costume.  Here is a picture of me and co-teacher Heather!! She was a cute CHEETAH and won the contest for Best Teacher Costume :)

Heather has been a wonderful person to work with this year.  We bounce off each other's ideas and do a lot of activities with our classes.  She planned a wonderful birthday party for me and a couple other students in our grades :) So much fun!
We made T shirts from an awesome Pinterest idea.. all you need is sandpaper and crayons, and then iron on your design, and it comes out AMAZING! I was owl inspired by The 3AM Teacher... I tried to draw a similar owl to her design here:

Here are a few other examples that our kiddies did! They absolutely loved it.  *If you do this activity, just make sure you press hard with the crayons so it will come out as clear and dark as it possibly can!

 

Look at these adorable cupcakes we had for a snack one day... I am sure the parent that made these found this on Pinterest, but if not, they should be on there! So cute... the only downside: the oreos get a tad bit soggy!

There are so many topics to teach in fourth grade, and it's a lot different than third grade.  I am really trying to do fun and creativity projects as well.  We did a small newsletter about current events and the students wrote about Veteran's Day, the presidential election, news from space, Kenya, and more.  The kids loved learning about it and writing a short paragraph about their topics.  For next time, I will have them include illustrations and longer paragraphs.  For this, I wanted it to go out before the election and Veteran's Day.

 

 Veteran's Day is very important to my students so at our Veteran's Day Breakfast on Tuesday, we are going to present cards and I laminated American flag hearts that they will hand out as well.  Our soldiers are such a blessing and such wonderful heroes.

Here are some pictures of my students' adaptation writing and drawings.  They did such a great job and they are continuing to edit and revise.  So important! (Also, the kids LOVE when I post their work on my blog!! It makes them even more proud)

It would mean a lot to me if you could vote for me for the Mary Kay Contest.. thanks so much!!!

And on a final note, I absolutely love my bloggy buddy Sara... she's the biggest sweetheart and so easy to talk to.  I am so happy that we have quickly bonded! I was so excited to participate in Sara's Giveaway, and I was so wonderfully surprised to find out I was a WINNER of her prize #1... I spent a great deal of time looking at the amazing prizes the teachers are giving away.  My kids are going to love the TPT products that I am going to choose!! Thank you again for this amazing giveaway, Sara!!

My boyfriend is the best; it was our 3 year anniversary a few days ago, and he gave me these beautiful diamond earrings and this beautiful lucky bamboo plant :) I love him so much!

Since it's my birthday (and I still love giving), I will give the first FIVE people that comment on my post, any TPT/TN product they want!! :) 5 is my favorite number, so please comment below with your e-mail and what product you would like!!!