Spring Break Vacation in Pictures

I’m from the South. I’m used to a warm, sunny Spring Break. This one was the exact opposite! It was cold and snowy!

We originally thought we would spend Spring Break at the beach. Our middle child woke up sick Saturday morning, so we didn’t go. By late afternoon, she was feeling better. My hubby decided at 4:30 that he wanted to go to the mountains. So…..we dressed, packed, and left by 5:30 without reservations. I think that was record packing time for us.

We packed so much into our three days there. Here are some pictures.

Ripley’s Aquarium.

Ripley’s Moving Theater

Ripley’s Believe It or Not (Yes, my husband is 6’5” and my 13 year old son is taller than me!)

Nascar Speedpark—It was snowing, so we didn’t get to ride the go karts. We only played in the arcade.

 

Mining Gems

Since a little bit of snow actually stuck on Tuesday morning, we had a snowball fight. This is my husband’s truck before the snowball fight and after the snowball fight. Cold but fun! We need to work on his parking skills.

My husband was determined we weren’t leaving the mountains until we rode go karts. That was the whole purpose of the visit to Nascar Speedpark. It was an absolute must since my son races go karts in real life. Can you believe he won on the track? I say it’s only because there was less weight on his kart. haha By the time this ride was over, I thought my hands would never move again. I was f-r-e-e-z-i-n-g!!!

Snow Pretty :)

Now, I need to get back to my mountains of laundry since none of it got washed on vacation. I’m a wash-laundry-every-day kind of gal because I don’t like it to pile up. It piles up quickly with five people.

While I was away, a great giveaway started. Kimberly Ann from Live, Laugh, I LOVE Kindergarten is celebrating 300 followers with THREE Giveaways. Click on the pictures to go check them out and enter. It's great!!

Brittany from Lovely Literacy and More is celebrating her 200 followers with great giveaways as well. Click the picture to check it out and enter!

Have a happy day!

Spring Break and Giveaway Winner(s)

Happy Saturday and Happy Spring Break to me! Yes! Kinda in sadsville though. We wanted to go to the beach for the weekend since my hubby doesn't have to work, but the weather is supposed to be rainy. It has also been cold. This is not the spring like weather I was hoping for. 

It's a good thing we didn't book a room since my middle child woke up getting sick. Bless her sweet little heart. Hopefully, it won't last long. I will spend my day cleaning and disinfecting in hopes that no one else gets sick. Nonetheless, we are going to enjoy the time off.

On to great news. My first giveaway has ended. Thank you to all who took the time to enter. Thank you to all the amazing blogging ladies who participated to make it a success. I appreciate each and every one of you!!!

 I'm happy to announce that Gay Eskew is the lucky winner to all of the fabulous prizes. 

Hold up-wait a minute!

I'm so excited that Spring Break is here that I'm in a giving mood. I decided to pick three more winners to give a product from my TpT store. 

Check your emails. Let me know what item you'd like, and I will send it your way ladies.

 Thank you again to all who entered and participated!!

Giveaways

There is still time to enter my 100 follower giveaway.

My bloggy friend, Irene, from Learning with Mrs. Leeby is having her 400 follower giveaway. It is one you definitely don’t want to miss out on entering.

Inspiration Monday

Oh yeah! This is how my day started! One of my little kiddos brought me a bag of chocolate. So sweet! :)

There are only four days until Spring Break. I'm really going to make it. We had a pretty good Monday. I think I'm mostly excited because I had an idea. I'm sure most of you already thought about this, but it's just coming to me. I think my brain processes all of the difficult ways before coming up with the easiest way to work things smoothly in our classroom. 

Click the picture to check it out.

Spring Syllables, a new activity I made, inspired me to figure out a better way to set up the activities I have for my kiddos to do during Word Work. After taking the time to create, laminate, and cut out an activity, I really want my kids to enjoy it and take care of it. 

I have been storing activities in the large envelopes. I don't know why, but I just don't like them. I don't like file folders either.

This is what I came up with. It's a two pocket folder. I glued the directions to the front cover. 

The left pocket holds all of the cut-out pieces in a Ziploc bag. 

The right pocket holds the half page recording sheets. 

Now, I don't know about y'all, but I don't like having to look for the master copy when all of the recording sheets run out if it's an activity my kids really like and use a lot. My solution for that is to leave a master copy in the folder with the activity. I drew a yellow line on it with a highlighter since yellow highlighter doesn't show up when it's copied. 

If you want the activity to be a self-checking one, you can glue the answer key on the back. I just put it there as an example since I correct their papers. 

This is what the activity looks like in action. There are 8 words for each syllable. 

Yes, that makes me excited. I really think I'm going to like the way it works. I hope so anyway. 

Each Monday, you can link up your inspirations with Fun in 1st Grade.

Spring is in the air, and the pollen proves it!

Spring is in the air around here, and the pollen proves it. That stuff is EVERYWHERE! My red car looks more like a yellowish-greenish color. The warm weather has put me in a spring mood. I love everything about spring (except the pollen). The kids and I went outside today and played a little basketball. I won a game and lost a game, so I guess I can live with that. Then, we went for a walk just because it was so pretty outside. I didn't care that nobody had on matching clothes. I do think it's about time to get the girls' bigger bikes though. My babies have grown so much since last year.  

 While we were out yesterday, we saw a celebrity in our local Wal-Mart. Too bad it was the card board version. We love Duck Dynasty! 

Last week, we were working on tons of stuff as always. I snagged a few pictures in math of my kiddos measuring all sorts of things in the room with nonstandard units. On this particular day, they were using blocks. Other days, we used paperclips and color tiles. They absolutely loved it! When they love it, I love it!

  

Because I've felt so springy this weekend (I know it's not a real word), I made an activity for my kiddos to use next week to practice syllables. I've printed and laminated it. Now, I just need to cut it out.

  

 Click on the picture to check it out on TpT. 

Don't forget to enter my little giveaway! Click on the picture to take you to the post to enter. 

One more week until Spring Break. Yippee!

100 Fabulous Followers Giveaway

I've made it to 100 followers. I'm having a giveaway with the help of some super fabulous bloggers. These bloggers are donating great items. For many of them, you get to pick out what you like or what you can use from their Teachers pay Teachers stores. They all have SO many great products. Am I allowed to win my own giveaway??!! I know I can't, but it sounded good! :)

Wow! I am completely amazed at these ladies. They are too kind!


I used graphics from Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah, and My Cute Graphics. The font is from Kevin and Amanda.  

a Rafflecopter giveaway

St. Patrick's Day Sale

I'm linking up with a sweet blogger, Amy, from Albuquerque Amy's First Graders for her first Linky party. We are offering 20% off at our TpT stores on Sunday, March 17. 

Click on the picture if you'd like to link up, too!

Thank you to the ladies who are participating in my giveaway. All of those who commented on my post should have gotten an email. If you didn't, please let me know. I'm waiting to hear back from a couple of gals, and I will be all set. 

Ta-Ta for now!

I really made it to 100 followers!

Hi folks! I've made it to 100 followers!! Wow! I would like to do a little giveaway. I need a few of you great bloggers to help me out. If you would like to be part of my giveaway, I would be happy to have your contributions. Please email me, and I will get it together this weekend. Thank you all in advance!
Update:
I have enough people to donate now. Thank you!

:)

Yayy!

Inspiration Monday

It's time to link up with Dana at Fun in 1st Grade for her Inspiration Monday Linky. 

There are so many new things coming down the pipes, especially with Common Core. Some of the skills are quite tough for my first grade babies (and for myself to make sure I'm teaching the standard to the best of my ability). It's all overwhelming at times. I  want to teach my kiddos, and I want them to enjoy learning at the same time. Common Core is new, so it will take a lot of time, practice, and commitment to learn it to it's full extent. 

I'm not a baseball fan, but they saying is great! 

I will keep calm and teach on!! :)

Go by Dana's blog and link up your inspiration!

Inspiration Monday Linky

I'm linking up with Dana over at Fun in 1st Grade again for her Inspiration Monday. Click on the button if you'd like to link up and find some inspiration. 

This is what I posted last week because I truly love my students. 

This is my inspiration for this week. :)

Dear Mrs. Key

You are sweet. You are nice. 

You have a heart that shines. 

(She drew a picture of us.)

That is a note from a first grader. Does it get any sweeter than that? I get notes and pictures on a daily basis from my kiddos. They just make me smile. However, there is something extra special about a sincere note. It inspires me to continue doing what I'm doing. I may not have every lesson perfectly planned. I may mess up from time to time but in their eyes, I'm doing it just right. 

March Currently

Okay, so I finally got to watch Breaking Dawn Part 2 last night. Oh man! It was so good. I'm kinda sad that it's over though. I didn't jump on that bandwagon until all four books were out. It was bad. I read all four books in a week. I skipped sleep and meals, and that's something I just don't do. haha

A new month means a new currently from Farley over at Oh' Boy Fourth Grade. 

Listening

My girls are in the bathtub playing with their barbies. They were arguing earlier, so it's nice to hear the giggles. 

Loving

There is so much progress to be made in every grade, but my little first grade babies are working so hard. Sometimes their progress doesn't come when I want it to. This has been a 'Ruby in Her Own Time' (A Scott Foresman reading story) kind of year. They are all learning in their own time, and that's A-OK!

Thinking

We were told that there will be walk-throughs starting in our schools next week. It's not just our principal. I can handle that with only getting small butterflies. It's the big guys coming. That makes me get those extra big butterflies. 

Wanting

There are some things that have been weighing on my mind. I have issues with making small decisions now (like where to eat). I used to make on-the-spot decisions about big things (like buying a car). Some of my decisions didn't turn out to be the smartest thing I did. When I bought my last car, it took me months to make the final decision.  

Needing

I am a worry-wart. I worry about everything. I know I ultimately don't have control, but I can't help it.

Like, Love, Hate

My first name is Dawn.

I like Donuts.

I love Dew (Mountain). It is my drink of choice. Do the Dew!

I hate driving. I drive 48 miles to school and 48 miles home. Our home is for sale. That's one of those decisions I'm struggling to make. 

Go link up with Farley, and remember the rule of three.