things my five year old says

*"I'm not afraid of bugs anymore. I taught them all how to be nice."

*After getting a tall ice water from Starbucks, "I wish they would have

written MY name on MY drink, momma."

So we did when we got home. :)

*"Mom, it really is not that expensive to stay at Disney World. They told me that on TV!"

*Lainey- "Ummm, yeah!" {replying in a sassy when I asked her a question}
Me- "Where did you learn to talk like that?"
Lainey- "Uhhh, Camp Rock 2!"
 Annnnnnd, too much Netflix on the ipad.
Unsupervised.  
Fail.

*At the end of her prayer one night, "...and thank you for being the best Jesus ever."   :)


******************************

I've been trying to write down funny things she says so we can remember
and share these with her when she gets older.
And by "write down" I mean type them in the notes app on my iphone. :)

Memorial Day Giveaway

Happy Memorial Day!

I hope you are having a great weekend spending time

with family and friends and remembering and honoring our service men and women.

I'm having a sale today in my TpT shop AND giving away a copy

of my new 2014-2015 teacher planner OR $10 credit to my Etsy shop to

spend on printables there {in case you don't need a teacher planner!}

OR

 {this giveaway is closed}

All you need to do is leave a comment with your name and email.

Oh, and you need to be a follower of this blog, too. :)

I'll announce the winner sometime later this week!

randomness

The baby is taking a nap, so here is my short bit of

randomness this week.
{actually, from last week. That's how long it's taken me to finish this post}

*Mother's day was a good day. Baby slept well (and the night before) and

I spent the day with my family. We had a simple

meal so we didn't spend hours in the kitchen cooking or cleaning, and

as a huge bonus the weather was nice! Oh, and hubby got me these

earrings I've had my eye on for a while now...

 *I'm slowly recovering from major sleep deprivation....and I hope

it continues in that direction.
{Please Jesus.}
 It has been 5 years since our first was

a newborn and it's been a little bit of a shock going back there.

But we love her, so we'll keep her. :)

*It's weird to not be working. I'm glad to be home with my girls, but I'm also

looking forward to summer when my mom and teacher friends will not

be working either!

*Have you read, Jesus Calling, by Sarah Young? If not, get it now.
It's a wonderful, daily devotional and I love that it's written as Jesus
speaking to the reader. It's perfect for me right now as it doesn't take too
long to read, but man has it been spot on with some things I needed to hear lately.
Sort of a spiritual "spanking", if you will, as Jami Nato would say. I think that was her....

*I'm gradually adding to a blog post titled, "things my five year old says."
It's hilarious and I can't wait to share.

That's all I got for ya, folks.
It's nice to get to write a little bit, as my free time has been few and far between.
Have a great weekend. :)

New Planner and a Sale!

Well, I did it!

I finally revamped my Teacher Planner for next school year and you

can get yourself a copy here!

 

 Let's take a closer look, shall we?

I love, love, LOVE my disc-bound binder from Martha Stewart.

The color just seems to coordinate with all my planners and calendars

I've created so it works great.

You can also get the blue color in a regular 3-ring binder, too.

{the binder in the picture below is the 3-ring binder. This is my home

planner which you can buy here. I use the discbound for my teacher planner.}

 

 

I love to have a cover page to put in the front. I laminate mine but

if you were going to use a binder with a see through pocket on the front,

you could slide it in there to make it look super cute and professional on the outside.

 

 

I love to have long range planning pages.

I basically jot down the units I know I'll want to cover in each month

as well as holiday reminders. This keeps me on track to cover everything

I have to teach through the entire year.

 

 

Oh, student birthdays.

How I used to have a love/hate relationship with them.

These pages help me to only love student birthdays!
Basically, I wouldn't write down when my students' birthdays were and

they would sneak up on me until the morning of and then I would

only "remember" when that student or another student reminded me.

I would feel like a lousy teacher. :(

Now, I keep track on these pages as well as write them down on my weekly

planning pages so I always remember.

I've also included attendance/record forms that you could use for all

sorts of things and print off as many as you need.

 

 

This is what the weekly planning pages look like and are already labeled

with the correct dates for the week at the top!

 

 

Before each month's planning pages is a handy calendar for the month

so you can quickly jot down meetings, fieldtrips, etc... and then fill them

in later on the weekly planning pages. At least that's how I do it. :)

Also included is an editable {a power point file} that you can

insert text boxes to fill in the blank subject heading boxes at the top 

of the weekly planning pages.

You could also just use the blank weekly planning pages template

to type in your plans instead of hand-written plans and then print them.

It's totally up to you.

I like to print off the entire file before the school year starts and write

in my plans by hand each week.

The best part is that you can get this planner for 28% off during

the Teacher Appreciation sale going on starting tomorrow.

SO get this planner in your cart today so you don't miss out!!!

 

Click HERE to go to my TpT store.

{thank you to the 3am Teacher for this cute graphic!}

My Favorite Science Unit

I don't know about you, but one of my favorite things to teach

is science. It makes me sad that I only have a small block during

my day to teach science, but this year we adopted a new

reading series and it's filled with so many stories related to science!

It's such a great way to integrate science and social studies.

 

No reading series is perfect, and it can be a lot of work to learn a new program,

but I am really happen with the content of the literature.

{We are using Wonders now. Compared to Open Court, which was

ancient, Wonders is a lot better!}

 

Since I'm on maternity leave right now, I'm missing teaching some

of my favorite science units, which include learning about chicks {and other

oviparous animals} and plants!

 

Last year, I created some activities for my students for our plant unit

and it couldn't have gone any better!

Our favorite part of our plant unit was growing our own plants.

It was so exciting for my stuents to actually see the ENTIRE

process, even germination, and was such a powerful way for

them to learn.

 

 

 

Yep, that's an old CD case!

You can read my post last year about how we did this HERE.

I highly encourage you to go back and read it. 

I've done the whole lima bean in the baggy with a wet paper towel before,

but this was soooooo much better.

 

So, since I'm missing out on this unit this year, I'm going to do this

activity with my 5 year old.

{who we just enrolled in K last night...crazy!?!}

If you are looking for a fresh approach to teaching about plants,

you can check out plant unit in my TpT store HERE!

 

 

What are your favorite SCIENCE units to teach???

Polka Dot Bikini

I was asked to create a look around this fabulous polka dot swimsuit by Modcloth.

What a cute suit, don't you think?

 

 

I like pops of color just as much as the next person, but as I browsed the

Modcloth website for this look, I was really inpired to keep it neutral

with mainly black and white pieces with hints of metallic and leather

here and there. I love putting black and brown {leather} together!

 

I created this look using the app, Wanelo, which was new to me!

Fun little app to follow people and stores, like Modcloth, and create stories {looks}.

Not sure why they cut off the sunglasses pic though, sorry!

Check out more of Modcloth's stylish swimwear here!

Brynn's Newborn Pictures

I don't think I'll ever get bored looking at these pictures of Brynn.
My sister, Laurie, took these at 2 weeks and they turned out fabulous.
I sure am lucky to have such a talented sister...I mean she's practically
a doctor by day and my personal photographer by night. ;)

Guess who turned five yesterday???
Yep, my first baby.
Unbelievable how fast that one is growing up
and now the second is within days of being a month old already.
Going to cherish each moment. :)