Oh man oh man. I know I wrote that blog post entitled "I'm Still Alive" about 2 months ago, letting everyone know I'm still here and blogging...hmm. I guess that didn't work out to well. This time, I am really trying to get back on the blogging scene though. I swear! Christmastime just became very busy, even for me, Miss I-Only-Sub-Now. :-)
I'm feeling a little overwhelmed with where to start with this blog post, because a lot has happened in the past 2 months since I last wrote, so I thought I'd link up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for her Five For Friday linky (Sam hates that word...linky). This way it's okay to be totally random. Plus I've secretly always wanted to join this link-up!
Last week, our family celebrated Sam's 29th birthday. I can't believe he's 29! God, he's SO OLD! (I'm only saying that because I turned the same age 16 days before him). To celebrate, we went to one of my favorite restaurants, Agave, with a large group of friends and his co-workers for some Mexican. We had such a fabulous time! I also made him Funfetti cupcakes, of course, because those are our fave! This time, I tried something a bit new...
As you can see, they were stuffed with Oreos, and there was really no science behind it. Just plop them right on top of some batter, and cover them over with more! MMMmmm!
Here is the birthday boy, himself! :-)
Saturday morning we received an unexpected snowstorm! We ended up with about 7 inches. Poor Dudley has been so cooped up lately due to cold weather & icy conditions, so we decided to take a walk during the storm. We went right over to Dudley's favorite place, large fields owned by a private school, where he could run around to his little heart's content. We were SOAKED by the time we arrived home.
I came down with the flu on Monday, which doesn't make for a very interesting week to share with you. It was AWFUL, but really only for 1 day. My fever climbed throughout the day and topped off over 103. Sleeping wasn't fun at all, but luckily the next couple days I was only feeling a little off. Definitely a far cry from my 10 day fever with mono last year, and for that I am THANKFUL! Even so, just being trapped in the house for the past few days has already made me develop a case of the winter blues.
I did get a chance to book a few more hotel...okay, motels, for our cross-country road trip that is coming up very soon! Yup, we have a START date for our trip to San Diego...finally! After we received the start date, I was able to start to break down our road trip day by day, and then start the motel reservation process. Right now I only have one more to book for the way out there. We still aren't sure where we will be living once we arrive, but it could possibly be in La Jolla. More exciting news on this subject- Mom is coming to visit us in March, and G & L, our family/friends, will be house-sitting and STAYING at our house while we are gone! Hoooray!
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| www.roadtripusa.com |
We'll be taking # 6 to Atlanta and then heading to San Diego via #10. Can't wait!
I recently uploaded a couple new products to TpT. One has a Valentine's Day theme, which I will share later, and the other is very chilly...
The Blustery Blizzard focuses on nouns, verbs, and adjectives, but since many find grammar to be a bit dull, it is very HANDS-ON. There's only so many grammar worksheets and workbook pages a child can take!
Partner up your kiddos and provide them each their own mat and
set of WINTERY-themed word cards! Next, your students will take turns rolling a
6-sided die and use the key on the activity's instructions to understand
the meaning of each number they roll. Some numbers will prompt them to
choose a word card with a certain part of speech (NOUN, VERB, or
ADJECTIVE), which they must place on the correct section of their
sorting mat. Other numbers will prompt students to remove a word card from their mat
or skip a turn. If they roll a 5, WILD, they're able to choose any word card to add to their sorting mat! The object of the game is to be the first student to
have all of his/her cards sorted correctly.
I would love for you to take a look at my grammar activity at my TpT store here, and I hope some of you will find it useful in your classroom!
Well friends, that just about finishes up my "Five For Friday"! Cheers to the weekend!
XO <3, C
Hey everyone!
Happy-Almost-Friday! I'm excited for my long weekend plans ahead, and can't wait to share them with you soon!
Tonight I'd like to share a product with you I originally created one year ago, last October, waaaaaay before I ever thought of TpT. I was visiting Sam one weekend while he was working in Groton, and I had plenty of time on my hands since he had to head into work for a bit on Saturday morning. I used my spare time to plan for school, and because I was oh so inspired by all of the beautiful lessons and activities I was constantly seeing on Pinterest, I decided to get creative. Although I didn't know it at the time, I was creating my first TpT product, "Gone Fishin' For a Compound Sentence".
Now, after a bit of experience with the whole TpT thing, I decided to give my creation a face lift...and, well...I think it looks quite cute! I used it with my 3rd graders last fall, and it was a very big hit! It encouraged a lot of participation, even from a certain someone who normally refused to involve himself in learning. Students were engaged, excited, and remembered how to "hook" two sentences together.
Here is a little peak...
In this activity, students are given 10 sets of green sentence cards and many pink conjunction cards. They must first find sentence cards that make sense together, and then use a pink conjunction card to "hook" them into a compound sentence. A fishing hook is used as a metaphor for a comma in this activity, helping students to remember how to write a compound sentence correctly. This hands-on activity is perfect for introducing the concept of compound sentences or for review/assessment.
It includes a goal (objectives) poster as well as a poster on compound sentences and conjunctions.
This activity also includes a double sided sheet, so students can record the compound sentences they create with the cards, as well as complete a more challenging illustration assignment on the back.
I hope your students will find it as exciting as mine did! You can find it here if you're interested. :-)
See you soon!
XO <3,
Colleen
