July SLANTbox!

Hey y'all!! This month I participated in Lessons With Coffee's wonderful SLANTboxes. 

What a great experience!! During this I had the chance to get to know two new educators, who are amazing! They are: Melanie from A Trendy Teacher and Tami from Blessed in First. Go check them out! :)

I posted this sneak peek on Instagram this morning...

(You can follow me on IG here.

I have to admit that I was totally watching the tracking of the box once Tami gave it to me. I was so excited to get it! It actually showed up yesterday, but they delivered it to my complexes front office. Since they closed before I got home I was knocking down the door when they opened this morning. 

When I asked for the package the property manager went back to get it. She was taking a really long time. I have to tell you that I've been in the office a lot lately because of maintenance issues. So they all know me by name, which apartment I live in, and that I'm a teacher. When she came back with this package she was laughing. She then told me this...

"I couldn't find the box anywhere. Then I saw this box that was covered in stickers and looked so cute. I should have known it was yours."

Good or bad? I hope good!

When I opened it up this is what I saw...

GREEN! Seriously I love anything and everything green and/or zebra. I'm actually using the same tissue paper as pom poms in my classroom. Great minds think alike! It's hard to see but there was also glitter confetti on top. Umm..LOVE!! I opened it up and....

Ta-da!!! The theme this month was sunshine/summer and it was spot on! My morning was instantly brightened with all the love in this box!

I'm very excited about my new pencil bag! I'm actually going to use it in my purse. I'm always losing my pens in there! The verse on this journal is one of my favorites and I can't wait to start using it! Plus it's green! :)

I absolutely adore smelly markers. They are the only ones I use! I've never tried these from Crayola but I'm excited about trying them out!  I love that you can get them in singles instead of a whole box.

Washi tape, notepad, and notecards??!! I am always writing quick notes to fellow teachers and parents and I've recently started covering everything in washi tape. These will get some great use!

I am so excited about the August match up. It's all about hometown pride. I've already come up with some Texas things to send out to my match. If you want to know more or see when you can sign up head over to Lessons With Coffee's blog and check it out! 

A special THANK YOU!!! to Jameson for getting all this set up for everyone. It's such a great experience!

Be sure to check back Monday for some "made its" and more fun!

Live, love, learn

Rachel :)

Monday Made It - Games and activities!

Hey y'all! I'm linking up again today with Tara from 4th Grade Frolics for Monday Made It. This week I focused on activities for my kids. Making these can be very time consuming so I figured summer was a great time to get a few made! 

Enjoy! :)

My first made it is one of my favorite games to play with my kids. They love, love, love it and even ask to play it! It is called Wiggle Worms.

These are just a few letters. I made a whole set of lowercase, uppercase, and 10 wiggle worms. I added the ribbon so they are easier for the kids to grab. Here's how it works:

-Put the letters (not all at once..I usually do about 10 letters and 5 worms) in a small gift bag or box.

-Pass it around the circle.

-Each student reaches in (without looking!) and grabs one. If it's a letter they have to say what it is..after we learn them I make the kids also say the letter sound. If it's a worm everyone gets to stand up and wiggle like a worm!

Seriously, it's so much fun! It's a great time filler as well!

Some tips I have are:

-Add the ribbon or something for the kids to grab. I had the problem last year of kids having trouble grabbing one.

-Don't use a big bag..it's easier for the kids to take a peek and only pull out the worms.

-You could easily make this with numbers, pictures, or names as well. 

Hope your kids enjoy it as much as mine do!

One thing I learned last year is that my kids loved to "fish" for anything they could find. I put magnetic letters and a magnetic fishing pole out and they went to town. Because of that I made these...

Fish shapes! I will be adding small paper clips to the fish so they kids can easily grab them with the pole. 

My next made it piggy backs off the previous one.

Fish shapes with uppercase letters. I am in the process of making lowercase as well. These can be used in centers, a small group, or even the sensory table! The kids love them!

Once I get a class list I plan to make these with the kids names as well.

Compound word cards

Last year my kids really grasped compound words but had trouble breaking them apart. For example, I would ask them to  say "doghouse" and then say "doghouse" without the word "dog." I'm hoping these visual cards will help them. 

Our curriculum has about 10 compound word cards already made but I thought the kids needed more to practice with.

The ones I made are: sunflower, butterfly, rainbow, cowboy, toothbrush, cupcake, snowman, firetruck

cup+cake=

cupcake! :)

If you can think of any that I need to add please let me know!

Last week I showed you one half of my curtains for my classroom. If you don't follow me on Instagram or didn't see the completed project here it is...

Ignore the mess in my classroom! 

I absolutely love them! I've got to adjust some of the fabric on the far right set, but they still turned out great!

If you don't follow me on IG you can do so HERE. 

Have a great week everyone!!

Live, love, learn

Rachel :)

Monday Made It - Alphabet, curtains, organization, and Frog Street!

Hey y'all! It's Monday again so that means....it's time to link up for Monday Made it. Unfortunately I didn't get much done this week. My wonderful mom came to visit for a few days and then I was off to San Antonio for the Frog Street Splash conference. I still hope you enjoy it! :)

I did it. I finally made "curtains." These will not hang as curtains, though. I have cabinets at the back of my classroom that just needed something to spruce it up a little. 

I think these will do the trick! Once I get them up in my room I will share a picture on here and Instagram. If you don't follow me yet and want to, you can do so HERE. :)

Last week I showed you how I organized my construction paper. This week I'm showing you how I organized my long sheets of construction paper...

That's it! I grouped the colors and put them in a clear bucket. This bucket, for example, will hold blue, green, and purple paper. It's going to help a lot!

I saw this next made it at the conference last week. I knew that I had to make it!

In Frog Street there is a "friend" for each letter of the alphabet. Apple Annie (picture) is the "friend" for  the letter a. There is a song about each letter and also a book. So by the end of the year the students are calling each picture by their name.

How this strip works:

Where the letter is capital the student will say the letter.

Where the letter is lowercase the student will say the letter sound.

Where the picture is the student will say the name. For example in the above picture they will say "Apple Annie, Apple Annie."

 Last week I got to attend Frog Street Splash in San Antonio. What an amazing experience! I got to hear so many great educators present and received so many new ideas. I also won some door prizes! Here were a few of my favorite moments from the conference...

Vanessa Levin from Pre-K Pages. I loved getting to meet her and hear her present. She has great ideas and they have all been so helpful in my room. If you've never checked out her website you should. You can find it HERE.

Shawn Brown!! How this picture came about is pretty funny. We were taking a break during one of our sessions and I saw him walking around. I itold 2 of the girls "That's Shawn Brown!" Then we weren't so sure because he looked so different without the above hat on. Also no one was talking to him or anything. We googled him and looked at about 10 pictures of him. When we finally decided it was him I had to meet him. He was so nice and just beyond hilarious! I love his music and so do the kids! I was lucky enough to attend one of his sessions and loved it! I learned about some of his new music and I can't wait to use it! If you've never heard his music go check it out HERE.

We had such a great time at the conference and in San Antonio! I'm so glad I got to know these girls better and learn new things.

I hope y'all enjoyed all the fun from the week! Don't forget to head over and see what everyone else has been up to. Have a great week everyone! :)

Live, love, learn

Rachel :)

Monday Made It - Getting organized!

Hey y'all! It's Monday again so that means it's time to link up for Monday Made It at 4th Grade Frolics.

This week it's all about organization, fun crafts, and a new recipe! Check it out! :)

I'm starting off with one of my favorite recipes! I love pizza and could seriously eat it at least once a week. A few years ago I came across "zucchini pizza." Ummm...amazing!! 

It's so easy to make, too! I tried following a recipe at first but eventually I came up with what I liked. 

-Preheat oven to 350

-Slice a zucchini in half and put on foil lined baking sheet.

-Drizzle with olive oil, salt, peper, oregano

-Place zucchini in over for about 15 minutes

-Apply sauce, cheese, and ANY other ingredients you want

-Put back in over for about 15-20 minutes.

-Enjoy!

If you make it let me know how it turns out!! :)

One thing we focus on in Pre-K is writing. Writing your name, letters, numbers, vocab words, etc. Who wants to write with a boring yellow pencil though? Not me! That was definitely a challenge I had last year..getting my kids to just pick up the pencil. Then one day I put "fun" pencils out and they were so eager to go to Writing Center! This led into my next project. I got some washi tape, pencils from my never ending supply at school, and pom-poms.

So far the only pencils that have pom-poms are the glitter ones. I haven't decided if I want to put them on all of them or not. Now, I know you can buy pencils with designs and fun things. I didn't want to buy more pencils when I have a ton left over at school. (About 5 freezer bags full!) The pencils I have so far are...purple polka dots, football, hot pink, mustaches, glitter, and robot (not sure why it's not in the picture). I didn't take the tape all the way down since it's just going to be sharpened anyways.

I think my kids are going to love them and will definitely want to write with them! 

With summer here I do a lot more shopping than I should. I know I'm not the only one! :)

I was at Hobby Lobby one day and found the cutest sign for $2! It's lime green and has a zebra ribbon...I couldn't pass it up!

I finally decided that I would make it as a name sign to hang on my door. I got some glitter stickers from Michael's and here's how it turned out..

Cute, right?! Unfortunately the letters didn't stick well on their own but I added some hot glue. I can't wait to get this hung up!

One major thing I'm doing this summer is completely reorganizing my classroom. So far I have taken everything out of every single cabinet and drawer and it's all found a new home. Last year I only got the week before school started to do anything in my room. On top of that I was making an hour and a half commute from Austin. So yeah, my room wasn't exactly how I wanted it.

I finally got to my cabinet, drawer, and shelf FULL of construction paper. I hated the fact that when we needed a certain color we would dig through these piles. Now this problem is fixed!

All of our construction paper is sorted! I will be getting more paper from the kids during the first week of school. It's going to be so easy to just grab a pack, sort it, and be done! I'm currently working on a way to organize my long sheets of construction paper. Stay tuned for that!

This last picture isn't something I made but I have to share it. This past weekend my mom, brother, and sister in law came into town. We had such a good time! Friday night we went to dinner at Poppa Rollo's (amazing!!) and after we took a "selfie." Well after one picture my brother kept hitting the button so the pictures kept coming. This is what we ended up with...

Then we thought it was so funny we stood out in the parking lot and continued to do this for a good 5 minutes. I'm sure people thought we were crazy but we had fun!

I hope you enjoyed all the fun stuff that has happened over the last week! Be sure to head over and see what everyone else has been up to!

Also, check back here next week for a post all about the adventures we have at SPLASH in San Antonio!!

Live, love, learn

Rachel :)

Monday Made It - Classroom things and new recipes!

Hey y'all!! It was a crazy busy week for me. I got back into my classroom and started working. One of my main goals this summer was to take everything out of every cabinet, go through it, and organize everything by theme. Plus if I do it now I can breathe (hopefully) the week before school starts. I was very surprised that I got so much done in one week. I will share pictures of the before and after when it's all done.

It's Monday again so it's time to link up with Tara from 4th Grade Frolics. I love getting to see what everyone has been up to. Enjoy! :)

My first made it is in honor of July 4th! I went to a cookout at a friend's house and I was in charge of bringing a dessert. I love getting to cook and bake for people! I decided to do red, white, and blue Rice Krispie treats.

They turned out so good and they loved them! The only bad part about it is that they turn your mouth blue. They were so worth it, though! :)

My mom gave me a corkboard years ago and it has just been sitting in my apartment. I really had no idea what to do with it. One day I was sitting in my office nook, saw the corkboard, and it hit me! I decided to spray paint the board. I'm pretty excited with how it turned out.

Spray painting this bad boy became a hassle. I did it teal at first and added what was supposed to be transparent glitter. Well, it wasn't transparent and ruined the whole thing. So that's where I decided to do the blue and green stripes. I plan to use it in my Safe Place to put all of our School Family pictures on. I think the kids are going to love it!

I know I'm really behind the curve in getting this made, but I've never had any time until now. Unfortunately in my classroom I don't have a "teacher desk", much less a teacher area. It's very challenging and frustrating at times. So I think that the toolbox will help keep my things more organized and accessible.

I'm not sure if I will keep it black, but I love the labels!! They will match all the other zebra print I have everywhere in my room. I got them from Miss Coulombe's Coordinated TPT store.

My next craft was something fun that I sat down to do while watching the Rangers play. They are also being used as a homemade gift to someone. :)

Supplies: paper clips (I used the really big ones), ribbon (found the scraps package at Hobby Lobby)

I love these big paperclips! I use them all the time in my room and at home. I decided to use the ribbon to fancy the paperclips up. Super easy and they turned out super cute!!

I think they make wonderful bookmarks or will make that stack of paper look even better!

I set a lot of goals for myself this summer. I've actually gotten a lot accomplished! One goal I had was to get back to my clean and much healthier eating. We all know it's so easy to fall off the train during the school year. During this time I have been trying out some new recipes and they have mostly been a success. One of my favorites from this week was.....

....pancakes!! These aren't ordinary pancakes, either. They are made from oatmeal, vanilla, banana, and egg whites. They tasted just like banana pancakes! I'm also not the best at making pancakes...ever, so I was pretty stoked when these turned out. I found the recipe on Pinterest, but you can find the recipe HERE. 

(Sorry for the paper plate picture, but I hate doing dishes. Ha!)

There's all my goodies from the week! Don't forget to head over and check out everyone's fun stuff! 

Have a great week!

Live, love, learn

Rachel :)