Pencils and Paisley

Sunday, January 26, 2014

Homework Hotspot

Over winter break, I spent a lot of time on Pinterest and reading different teaching blogs. Since it's my first full year, I am definitely trying to improve and form my teaching and management style. One thing that I found that I loved was this great idea from Young Teacher Love for turning in homework. She calls it the Homework Hotspot. Instead of checking homework each morning, or having students turn in their homework to an inbox (what I was previously doing), they each have their own slot to turn in their homework each morning. It is so easy to just look over and see who doesn't have their homework, rather than have to go around to each student or check each paper individually. I've only been using it for a week, but I am already loving it.

Check out the blog post from Young Teacher Love here.

Here are the exact pocket charts that are ordered from Amazon.

Tuesday 1-21-14

Dress: Old Navy

Boots: Calvin Klein

Wednesday 1-22-14

Blouse: Merona at Target (and it's paisley!)

Jeans: Citizens of Humanity

Shoes: Old Navy

Earrings: Forever 21

Thursday 1-23-14

Jeans: Gap

Tank: Target

Cardigan: Old Navy

Boots: Franco Sarto

Necklace: Forever 21

On a non-teaching note. My sister just gave birth to my newest niece, Aubree Kate. She is absolutely perfect. My boyfriend and I got to meet her this past weekend. Here he is holding her for the first time. He acted as if he was scared out of his mind, but I think he looks like a natural. (:

"I can't look up. I have to watch the baby."

Monday, January 20, 2014

MLK Jr. Legacy of Service

“Everybody can be great...because anybody can serve. You don't have to have a college degree to serve. You don't have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love.” - Martin Luther King, Jr.

For those of you who want to help your students understand that MLK Jr. Day is not just a day off, but a day of service, Scholastic has some great resources for that. I especially like this first video, which explains how MLK Jr. Day came to be a national holiday. Click the video to go to the site.

While you're there, check out the Student Art Contest. It's a great way to combine art and the message of service to others.

Sunday, January 19, 2014

New Year

My sister-in-law sent me this ecard today and I thought it was hilarious! I could definitely use some Starbucks in my life this week. I feel like I've been going and going and going. I know we just had Winter Break, but I am seriously in need of another. Luckily, it's a three day weekend and I have one more day off tomorrow for MLK Jr. Day.

Speaking of which... I wanted to do something a little different to teach my 5th graders about MLK Jr. this year. Instead of talking about his life and listening to his speech (as they've done so many times already), I focused on his legacy. We started off by talking about the Civil Rights movement and different forms of peaceful protests on Day 1. We also shared with them the importance of song during the marches and I played this amazing video of the Morehouse College Glee Club performing "We Shall Overcome."

On Day 2 I had them do a quickwrite about the question: "How did MLK Jr. change America?" We talked about how life is different today than in the 60s and how their lives are directly affected by the Civil Rights movement. We then discussed what a legacy is and then I had them discuss and share what they thought was MLK Jr.'s legacy.

By discussing MLK Jr. and the fact that one man was able to create so much change, I wanted the kids to begin thinking about their own impacts and how they can influence others. Since they are going to middle school next year, I had them think about what their elementary school legacy would be when they graduated. I had them list their accomplishments, service, and characteristics on a graphic organizer. You can get it here:

My intent is to make this into a writing assignment and then have the kids create a picture board of their legacy to show to parents at Back to School night or graduation. I was thinking of using Glogster, but I haven't decided just yet. Hopefully the project will help the kids see just how accomplished and important they really are!

Here are some random outfit pics from my phone. I'm not sure of the dates.

Dress: Mossimo

Boots: Franco Sarto

Necklace: From my mom :)

Long-sleeve: Old Navy

Jeans: Old Navy

Boots: Frano Sarto

Vest: Charter Club at Macy's. Similar one here.

Pants: Merona at Target

Top: Old Navy

Cardigan: Mossimo at Target

Close up of my monogram necklace from Personalize Me Jewelry on Etsy.

Top: Marshall's

Leggings: HUE 'Ultra' Wide Waistband Leggings

Boots: Calvin Klein

Shirt: Teacherwear

I got it at the CTA Good Teaching Conference last weekend. I love that it matches my favorite cheetah scarf!

Here's something new that I created over Winter Break: new Hall passes!! I previously had just a normal pass that the kids carried with them to the restroom or office. However, they were really cheap and the kids broke them in half. They were also just really yucky looking. I found these cute lanyards at our local school supply store. I printed and laminated the labels, attached them to the lanyard, and that's it. I told the kids that they have to wear them around their necks (no excuses) so they don't have to set them down in the restroom (let's hope).

Monday, December 23, 2013

Catching Up

The last couple of weeks have been insane. Now that I'm on vacation (wahoo!) I finally have time to post.

Tunic: Target

Leggings: Hue 'Ultra' Wide Waistband via Nordstrom

Boots: b.o.c via Macys

Dress: Old Navy

Boots: b.o.c via Macys

Scarf: from my mom

Sweater: Old Navy

Pants: Old Navy

Boots: Calvin Klein

Skirt: Forever 21

Tank: Target

Cardigan: Target

Sweater: Kohls

Pants: Old Navy

Boots: Calvin Klein

Dress: Kohls

Leggings: Mossimo at Target

Boots: b.o.c via Macys

Close-up of my necklace. My mom bought it at the International Gift Show in SF. I love the colors!

Vest:Charter Club at Macys

Blouse: Forever 21

Pants: Old Navy

Boots: Calvin Klein

Superhero day at school!

Cardigan: Old Navy

Dress: Forever 21

Leggings: Kohls

Boots: Calvin Klein

I think the belt is from a dress

We've been studying the solar system in science. I found some planet coloring pages here and had the kids color with crayon and then put the planets in order on a piece of blue construction paper. I would have preferred black paper, but I didn't have any at the time. Also... I didn't cut the blue paper long enough for the kids to fit the planets, so they are a little squished.

We did two projects for Christmas. One was to make "elfies" and use them to make Christmas Cards for the parents. For the picture, I used the stickers that I get of their school portraits. For the elf body, I used this template. I had to resize the image until it was small enough to fit with the head. Here is how mine turned out:

We also made reindeer ornaments. I bought an assortment of colored ornaments from Michael's at 70% off! Score! Note: lighter colors work better for this. You have to do this one over two days. Day one: use your thumb and brown paint to make the reindeer heads. I let them do as many as they wanted. Let this dry. Day two: we used black Sharpie to draw the antlers and the eyes and nose and a red sharpie for Rudolph's nose. I would have preferred using puff paint for this step, but I just didn't have the time to get it together. Regardless, they turned out really cute. We wrapped them in tissue paper and tied that with red ribbon when they were complete.

Here is one of the completed ornaments:

Have a safe and Merry Christmas everyone. I am looking forward to two weeks of relaxation! :)

Monday, December 2, 2013

Giveaway!

If you've never been to the Pinterest Told Me To blog, you need to check it out pronto. The premise is that she (Sheaffer aka the most adorable blogger ever!) recreates outfits that she has seen on Pinterest, and they are fabulous! She is also a fantastic shopper and is always posting tons of great deals and discounts for her readers. Right now, she and Shay from the Mix and Match Family blog are giving away a $500 gift card to Nordstrom to one lucky reader! What a wonderful Christmas that would be! Click on the picture below to learn more from Shay. Be sure to follow her and like her on Facebook as well!

Monday, November 25, 2013

Gobble, gobble

Monday 11-18-13

Cardigan: H&M. Similar here.

Skirt: Target (reeeaally old)

Boots: Calvin Klein

Necklace: Forever 21. Similar here.

Tuesday 11-19-13

Sweater: Old Navy. Similar here.

Pants: Gap. Similar here.

Boots: Franco Sarto

Wednesday 11-20-13

Top: LC Lauren Conrad at Kohl's

Jeans: Old Navy

Boots: Old Navy

Necklace: Target

Thursday 11-21-13

Dress: Mossimo at Target

Cardigan: Old Navy. Similar here.

Boots: Old Navy

Tights: Target

Friday 11-22-13

Jeans: Old Navy

Tank: Target

Sweater: Target

Boots: Franco Sarto

Boot socks: Target

I am officially on Thanksgiving break for an entire week. I have never been so ready for a break. With report cards and parent conferences done, I finally have time to breathe!

We've been working on fractions (dun dun dun) in math. I found this great turkey activity for factoring on TPT. I really liked it a lot, but I wanted my kiddos to get more practice with fractions. So, I modified it slightly. I had them write a simple fraction on the body of the turkey, and then they had to write an equivalent fraction on each of the 5 leaves. I really love how they look up on the cabinets (I'm out of wall space) and the colors are so fun!