~February Currently~

Happy February wonderful friends! I hope you have had an amazing start to the second half of your school year. Can you believe that the countdown is on to the end of the year?!?!?! Time really does fly when you are having fun! I'm joining Farley at Oh, Boy...it's Farley for her monthly linky.

This is the time of the year, where I feel like I have to kick it into overdrive to get ready for testing. We are making it a little more fun with the integration of technology, I'm loving being able to use Google Docs right now with my class. However, I'm also needing an entire day to just play around with all the technology possibilities out there. I will learn in time, I have to remind my self constantly that I can't get it all done in one day! I also have to sometimes sit back and remind myself that everything I need to teach can't be done in one day either, I am starting to feel the testing crunch. FSA writes will be here in less than a month! oh, boy!

On a personal note, why I'm trying to take all this teacher fun in stride is to (a) keep my self from overly stressing and (b) keep baby healthy. I'm loving all of the little baby stuff we are finding for our little man! And am desperately needing to upgrade my 9-year old Scion TC that has over 200,000 miles. A new four door car is a must. There is a definite mom mobile in my future!

Anywho that's all of my randomness, I'm wishing you all a wonderful February filled with lots of love, an overload of kindness, and many happy memories!

Five for Friday: January 22nd

Hey y'all! We survived a four day week...Woohoo! Why do they always feel like the longest weeks of them all? I hope everyone is having a great start to their 2016 year! We are rocking and rolling in Portable 37 as those big state tests are looming over us. I'm joining Kacey at Doodle Bugs Teaching for her weekly linky to give you a peek into the craziness...

We have discovered Google Docs since the beginning of the year and we are loving it! I'm fortunate to be a 1:1 classroom and we have all just recently gotten our Google accounts. Boy, do these accounts make life easier. I love being able to use them anytime, anywhere, and even more that I can give immediate feedback! This week as we have wrapped up our FIRST DBQ project, we went back to look at an exemplar essay and highlight certain sections. We went through to highlight the main reasons and evidence. It's so important for them to look at good writing to become good writers. It's also a bonus that they love to add color to their documents. What's even better? Our Media Specialist joining in the fun and giving them a Google slides project on Generals of the American Revolution!

We covered in depth before our holiday break Opinion writing, so now we are diving into Expository writing. Sometimes it is a struggle getting the kiddos to write those five paragraphs with 3-5 sentences. I'm still working on finding the magic to make this writing thing a breeze for them! Our first expository task will be to pick a topic to research, so hopefully with them getting to choose their topic they will be more interested!

We dove into the topic of Martin Luther King, Jr by creating these mini-lapbooks below. Students had to research using the Google kid search engine, kidrex.org to fill in the information about Mr. King. I love how they turned out! You can find this item in my TPT Store!

I HAVE to share one of my favorite new places in my room...

When students have finished reading a book, they add a book review to our "Some Books are Worth Melting For" Olaf bulletin board. It's been a big hit!

Leaving you guys on a little personal update...

This little bump of mine is growing each and every day. I'm at 25 weeks and counting. Time is flying by amazingly fast and I'm definitely coming home double teacher tired, but I wouldn't have it any other way! Wishing you all a wonderful, warm weekend!

~January Currently~

Happy New Year! I'm joining Farley from Oh' Boy 4th Grade for her monthly currently linky...

I'm listening to one last holiday movie, Elf and am trying not to get sad about Christmas being over. I took my tree down today and it was a little depressing. I can't be the only one that gets sad...
I'm loving my shiny new engagement RING! You all know when you first got that ring you would randomly stare too!
I'm thinking I'm beyond blessed to live this amazing life I have and am thankful for each new day I'm given...
I'm wanting to have a clean house, but I'm also not wanting to be the one to clean it! The struggle is real...
I'm definitely needing to give the dog a bath, but again not wanting to be the one to do it. Cleaning and washing the dog is not how I want to spend my last few days of break, but I should probably change my thinking as I have spent the last week resting and relaxing and avoiding ALL of these little household duties...
My one little word for this year is consistent. To be consistent with creating, blogging, and my classroom routines.
Wishing you all a wonderful start to the new year!

*New Year Resolutions*

I'm joining Jayme at Teach.Talk.Inspire and Diana from My Day in K for their New Year's Resolutions linky party. What better way to hold yourself accountable for you resolutions than making them public for others to see? I'm at least thinking I will start out strong, but hopefully with continual goal setting at the beginning of each month I can achieve these resolutions!

I set five goals, three personal and two professional.

1.) To Forgive: To forgive myself when I don't accomplish everything on my list. I think this is most important for me because I know I put the most pressure on myself and I have to learn that sometimes I just can't do it all. This is also something I will learn quickly once I have a newborn to take care of too!

2.) Read 52 books: Okay, so this is one that I set every year and it is always achieved. This year I fully expect for that tradition to continue, but we never know what life has in store for us! Writing the resolution down makes it more real.

3.) Cook at home, eat out less: I'm always a busy bee and fast food is my go to. I want to change that this year, not only with the idea of being healthier, but also helping out my bank account. Eating out so much puts a hurting on my poor wallet!

4.) Welcome my students at the door: This is what happy classrooms do. I always start out so strong at the beginning of the year and then it tinkers off as I get bogged down with the day to day paperwork of teaching. The paperwork is not what is important, my students are and I want them to feel that even more in this last half of the year!

5.) Blog 3 Times a Month: This is a struggle. I started my blog over the summer and once again started strong, but as life got busy I struggled to blog. This year I'd like to make it a priority!

I hope these resolutions have given you some ideas or inspired you in some way! Cheers to a wonderful 2016!

My Top 9 Books of 2015

Happy New Year's Eve friends! I hope you are getting ready for lots of fun festivities later today. I'm ready for our annual bonfire to ring in the New Year, but first I wanted to take a look back at 2015. It has been a whirlwind of a year with many ups and downs, but the constant I have always had throughout my year is my reading habit. I wanted to cap off the year by sharing the ones I thought were the best...

My Young Adult Favorites:
To All the Boys I've Loved Before by Jenny Han
The Heir by Kiera Cass
Just One Day by Gayle Forman
The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin

I've got to say I became so wrapped up in these four stories above that I finished them all in a day or two! Also, might I dare say that I loved Just One Day more than If I Stay, but that's just my thoughts!

Children's Literature Favorites:
Echo by Pam Munoz Ryan
Fish in a Tree by Lynda Mullaly Hunt
The Land of Stories: The Wishing Well by Chris Colfer

As a teacher I've always felt that reading what my kiddos read is important and sometimes I find myself lost in these stories just as much! I've always heard amazing things about Echo and Fish in a Tree, but The Land of Stories as a complete surprise. Of course, being a Disney fan it was a meant for me book and I'm excited to dig into the rest of the series!

Randoms that I Loved:
Teach Like a Pirate by Dave Burgess
November 9 by Colleen Hoover

I always read a professional development book or two throughout the summer months to refresh my teacher batteries and Teach Like a Pirate does not disappoint! I'm always a sucker for a good Colleen Hoover book, she's my go to favorite adult author and she never lets me down!

I hope you can pick up a book or two throughout the upcoming year and escape from reality for just a little while! Happy New Year's Eve friends!

~Holiday Favorites~

Kicking off my last week before the Holiday break with a fun Holiday favorites linky party from Southern Fried Teaching!

Check out my list below of my Holiday favorites and then join in the fun too!

1. Favorite Holiday Song: Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, it's a classic!

2. Favorite Holiday Guilty Pleasure Food: Recently it has been a drink, the Starbucks Caramel Brulee Latte- I can't get enough.

3. Favorite Holiday Tradition: Decorating the Christmas tree, even if I did have a tree fall on me one year when I was nine. What did my mom do? Yell- "Timbbbbber"- It's a great Christmas memory, now!

4. Favorite Holiday Book: When Santa Fell to Earth by Cornelia Funke

5. Favorite Act of Kindness: Buying toys for students in need at my school.

6. Favorite Holiday Memory: This past year my Granny passed away, it has been our family tradition to enjoy a Christmas breakfast together. One of those years, I stayed the night before with my grandparents and thinking of my Granny in the kitchen is a memory I will always treasure, but this Christmas morning together was more special than most. What made that morning even better? My Papa joined us in the Christmas breakfast making. I even have a picture of him sporting an apron!

7. Favorite Holiday Christmas Gift: Tiffany Heart Bracelet- it has stood the test of time. However, this year's gift could always top it!

8. Favorite Holiday Craft: I've only done this one once. I am hoping to get to do this again with my kiddos this year and that is creating snow globes with the writing prompt, "If I were stuck in a snow globe..."

9. Favorite Holiday Movie: The Santa Clause with Tim Allen

10. Favorite Place to Shop for Holiday Gifts: Etsy, I love finding unique gifts for people!

11. What I Want Santa to Bring Me: A healthy baby boy in May!

12. Favorite Product: My Homework Reading Response Sheets, I use them every week with my kiddos. The sheets allow me to check up on their reading and I get to see how they are doing with their understanding of their book!

Wishing everyone a Happy Holiday break!

December Currently

Hey y'all! Can y'all believe we are already in December? Whew, time flies when you are having fun! Such a true saying. I'm joining Farley from Oh Boy 4th Grade for her Currently December linky pary! Here is what is going on in my neck of the woods.

The morning news is my daily jam, on school mornings at least. I'm loving all the Christmas Decorations I'm seeing around Instagram and Pinterest, it truly is the most wonderful time of the year! I know I'm probably not the only teacher experiencing this, but I left everything at school over the Thanksgiving break and am now feeling overwhelmed with all the grading I need to catch up on! Leaving it behind was absolutely worth it, but I'm needing more time to get everything accomplished! I'm wanting cold weather to arrive here in sunny Florida, I'm ready for sweaters and boots! Wishing everyone a December to Remember!