Liebster Award

WOW! What a surprise! Thank you to Mrs. Young at Young Daze in 5th Grade for nominating my blog. This award is given by bloggers to up and coming bloggers who have less than 200 followers. It is to show new bloggers that they are appreciated and to help spread the word about new blogs. I hope it also encourages them to keep blogging. 

The Rules:

- You must post 11 random things about yourself..

- Answer the questions that the nominator set for you.

- Create 11 questions for the people you nominate.

- Choose 11 blogs you love (with less than 200 followers) and link them in your post.

- No tag back (but please leave me a comment on this post with the URL to your Liebster post so I can learn more about you)!

Random things about me...

1. I grew up in the suburbs of Kansas City.

2. My first major was political science and international business.

3. I’ve never ridden a roller coaster or visited Disney World.

4. I hate the smell of canned tuna fish and would leave the house when my mom opened a can.

5. My gag reflex is so bad that the doctors can’t even use a tongue depressor on me.

6. I collected Hall & Oates cassette tapes growing up.

7. I am the shortest member of my family @ 5’ 8”.

8. All of my pets’ names begin with “Sk”.

9. I am addicted to Diet Mountain Dew and Crystal Light Fruit Punch.

10. I love snowmen.

11. My favorite color is green (lime or kelly).

Answers to Mrs. Young's Questions:

1. Where is your favorite place you’ve ever visited?

Cancun, Mexico – I loved the tropical breezes in December and having black beans for breakfast.

2. Where is your favorite place to shop for teacher clothes?

Kohl’s or Macy’s – I like to get in and get out.

3. Favorite holiday tradition?

We go to church on Christmas eve, drive around and look at lights until we run low on gas (has happened more than once), and then home for dinner, usually chili.

4. Favorite book to read with your students?

The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles by Julie Andrews Edwards – I love reading it using voices for all of the characters, especially the Splinter Cat.

5. Why do you blog?

I love to share my ideas, because I love getting new ideas from others. I once beat out another candidate for a job, because when asked about sharing I offered up several ideas and the candidate before me refused to go out to her car to get a file. Her loss. I was at that school for 12 years.

6. Favorite song?

My favorite old school song, “Kiss On My List” by Hall & Oates.

Current favorite songs, “Want U Back” by Cher Lloyd or “Everybody Talks” by Neon Trees

7. Has it snowed yet where you live?

No and it better not. I live in southeastern Texas. It has only snowed 3 times in the 20 years that I’ve lived here.

8. Favorite quote? Inspirational from song or movie.

“Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it. “ ~ Ferris Bueller

What can I say, I’m a child of the 80’s.

9. Can’t live without teacher item?

My calendar. I don’t wait until they give us a new one. I buy my own, usually the first week they are on sale at Wal-Mart.

10. Who is your childhood superhero?

Wonderwoman – I loved her gold bracelets and lasso of truth.

11. Favorite TV show?

“The Big Bang Theory” – I love Sheldon!!!

Questions I'm Asking My Nominees:

1. How did you end up in your grade level and/or subject area?
2. How many teammates do you have?
3. Do you plan alone or as part of a team?
4. What is your favorite read aloud?
5. What games/activities do you do at your student holiday party?
6. Why did you start blogging?
7. What “makes” your holidays?
8. What is your favorite pizza topping?
9. What book are you currently reading?
10. What is your favorite holiday carol/song?
11. If you weren’t a teacher/educator, what would you be doing?

Blogs I'm Nominating:

Fifth Grade Fancy

4^th Grade Racers

Haps and Hacks

Hootin’ Around Room 27

Miss Milton’s Memoirs

Miss Radka’s Rhapsody

My Tales of a Fourth Grade Teacher

 Rock and Teach

 Sixth Grade Scribbles

Teaching Fourth

 Teaching Star Students

Teaching, Stitching, and Parenting

Theme

Theme is a difficult concept to teach. I'm sure I am not alone in this feeling. I've been searching all over Pinterest and teacher blogs to find a way to teach it. I ended up combining several ideas into one anchor chart.

My inspiration...

          

and...

 

My final product...a theme umbrella!

November Currently

It's that time again. Time to link up to Farley at Oh Boy Fourth Grade!

I didn't know it was supposed to rain today, but very grateful. Now, if only I could take a nap. It would be the perfect Saturday afternoon.

Loving my new blog design! It is so me! It was like Megan was reading my mind and knew I love polka dots. My school colors are navy and tan, but we have two different teal accent colors. The lime represents my addiction to Diet Mountain Dew. So, like I said, it is perfect!

What's for dinner? I went shopping this morning, but I still don't know.

Anyone know a fairy godmother that could swoop in, wave her magic wand, and clean my house? I don't like doing it and I am a procrastinator. Messy combination!

I've taken a couple days off since September, but I still need a break. I NEED a week off, not just a day. I need to start shopping. I need to get off this computer. : )

This morning I woke up singing both. Why? We watched the recording of the CMA's last night, so the rest of the night I was "....mmmmm...motorboating....". The other is my fault. Teachers at my school are going to do the "Sid Shuffle" as a reward to our students for collecting pledges from all 50 states (twice) during our Boosterthon Fun Run fundraiser. (I should read all of the directions before I post. So, the second one is for school.)

Thanks for checking out what I am "Currently" up to. Now, go see what everyone else is doing!

Monday Made It - November

Oops! I didn't take a picture of mine, so I am going to have to use the original pin. For Halloween I made my teammates some pretzel pumpkins and added an owl tag. It's probably better that I didn't take a picture of mine, because they weren't this orange. It took me 3 tries to get 45 pretzels. I wasted an entire bag of white chocolate chips, 1/2 a bag of almond bark, and almost an entire squeeze bottle of red and yellow food coloring.

I use the Comprehension Tool Kit (see a previous post). I made this anchor chart with my students. I was pretty impressed that they had so many strategies for answering questions. 

This week our word study focused on the suffix -sion. My students made a graffiti wall chart.

It's funny how many more words they will search for and find if 

they can use a marker,  write their name on it, and make it public. Now, I just have to teach them to read it first and make sure they are not duplicating words. Oh! ...and spell them correctly on the assessment on Friday.

Although, I purchased this awesome station from Tara at 4th Grade Frolics, I just now got around to laminating and cutting it out. My kids will be so excited that the magnetic letters are coming back out Monday.