Real Live Tadpoles

On Easter weekend, I talked about our trip to the pond after the egg hunt. My girls were scooping tadpoles out of the pond. See that post {here}. Well, I had a bright idea to bring them to school. It's a win-win at school. My school kids and my own kids get to watch them grow. My kids even took them to their classrooms to show. They were so excited to share them. So far, they are all still alive, so we have 10 little tadpoles. Every time we leave and reenter the classroom, my kiddos are checking them out. Real Science people! We are all loving it. :)

Along with working on insects, this is what we started this week. It's our KWL for frogs. My kiddos had great questions about frogs. Those babies can ask good questions even if they forget to put a question mark on the end! They know they are asking a question, but most of them put a period anyway. Is there a magical way to get them to break that habit??!!

I created a Frog Life Cycle pack to help us learn. Of course, I haven't gotten it "TpT ready" yet. Maybe one day. 

Have you seen the FAN-TAB-U-LOUS giveaway from the amazing Khrys at Keepin' It Kool In Kinderland? If you haven't, you definitely want to click the picture and go enter. I'm so proud to be part of her giveaway. 

There is still time to enter the fabulous giveaway from Sara at Polka Dot Kinders. I love that I get to be part of this giveaway, too! Hurry before the time is up.

April Currently and April Fools’ Day

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

Listening

My hubby is home, so he is watching one of his favorite shows, Fast and Loud. We are waiting on Lizard Lick to come on. I actually like that show. I only watch it when he’s home though.

Loving

It’s simple. I love my little family (even on the days they drive me crazy)! :)

Thinking

The Color Run is this weekend. I don’t like to run or jog, so I don’t know how my sweet friend talked me into it! For me, it will be The Color Walk instead of The Color Run.

Wanting

I’m ready to lay on the beach and relax.

Needing

I have a very bad habit of starting units that I’m using in my classroom, but I don’t put the TpT touches on them and get them posted. I love creating, but making the preview and putting it on TpT seems to be a task I don’t get around to with many items.

 Advice

Just do your best!!!!!!!! This is advice I have to remind myself of daily! Teachers are required to do so much. Many people just don’t realize what we do on a daily basis. On top of all the teacher things we do, we take on the task of blogging and creating. I think blogging and creating makes me a better, more inspired teacher. I just do the best I can! That’s all we can expect of each other. 

A friend on my personal Facebook page posted this, and I thought it was perfect!

April Fools’ Day

Today is actually my moma’s birthday. She gets to spend her birthday in Heaven. I miss her!

I didn’t do any major “fooling” of my kiddos. I waited until the end of the day to play a little trick on them. I read a blog post from Sunny Days in Second Grade about the Lirpaloof. It’s a very rare bird that comes around in April and hides in tall trees. It likes carrots, and it’s scared of loud noises. It’s what I decided to trick them with. Just look how serious they are about finding the Lirpaloof. I wish you could hear them singing. There were other kids outside who were being loud, and one of my little fellas said. “Mrs. Key, they are being too loud. They are going to scare the Lirpaloof away.” Too funny!

They are looking in the tall trees and singing “Lirpaloof”. 

We didn’t find him in the first two trees. They were on a serious mission going to the third tree.

When I told them it was an April Fools’ trick, they couldn’t believe it because I had a paper I was reading to them. They believe anything we tell them! I love those kids!

Click on the button to link up with Farley.

Remember the rule of 3. Comment on the 2 blog posts before yours and on the one after yours.

I picked all of you and some animals :)

Happy Easter Peeps!

If you left a blog comment, then I've emailed you what you asked for. I hope it makes your Easter just a little bit brighter. 

I just blogged the other day about how I don't love animals. They are just way more responsibility than we need right now. Well guess what....we went from having 0 animals to having 2 fish, a minnow, a beta fish (that I bought to take to school), and 10 tadpoles. Yep, I got suckered right in. haha When my daughter said "You're the best mom ever!", it made it all worth it. I just melted inside because I'm always the one who has to tell them no all of the time. 

When I walked in the pet store, I thought, ok, I can spend $10 on a couple of little fish, some food, and a bowl. WRONG! By the time it was all said and done, we ended up spending almost $50 on everything. What?? If those fish die, I'm going to be sad. $50 was actually a bargain because everything was on sale at the pet store. 
Meet our new friends. 

This is the girls after the egg hunt yesterday. They caught the minnow and the tadpoles. We thought it would be cool to watch them grow. 

I'm off to color eggs, hide eggs, hunt eggs, work on lesson plans, and help my middle baby work on her timeline project for 3rd grade. Whoo! I'm already tired just thinking about it all!

Have a very Blessed and Happy Easter!

"Ouch" said the cow and a Giveaway

My TpT store hit 100 followers. That's pretty exciting news for little 'ole me! In honor of that, I would like to give something away. Leave me a blog comment with an item you would like from my store and your email address, and I will randomly choose a winner on Sunday. :)

Ahhhhh! Spring Break is almost over. I’m really going to miss staying up late, sleeping late, and lounging around in my pajamas with my kids all day. I guess it’s okay though. I’m ready to see what my school kiddos have been up to. I wonder what they have done over the break.

This is something I worked on. I think it’s too cute, and I know my kiddos are going to love it! I really want to make another one using  /oi/ and /oy/. That would mean another late night for me. I rented a Redbox movie for us to watch tonight and we have an Easter Egg Hunt to go to tomorrow, so it probably won't happen this weekend.

“Ouch” said the cow-Literacy activities using /ow/ and /ou/.
Can you see the band-aid on the cow's head? Yep, I love it!

 

You can check it out on Teachers pay Teachers and Teachers Notebook.

I will also let them continue using Spring Syllables. 

Of course they will also get to use the freebie Spring ABC Order I made. All the spring colors make me happy! 

I'm so excited for some of my blogging friends!!! 
Sara from Polka Dot Kinders has 100 followers, and I get to be part of her giveaway. It's just too cool!

Another great blogger, Kimberly Ann, from Live, Laugh, I LOVE Kindergarten is celebrating her 300 followers with a giveaway. 

Cindy from Granny Goes to school will be having her 500 follower giveaway soon. I can't wait for that one! 
While blog stalking, I came across Cindy's I have Who Has Place Value Freebie. Click the blog button to snag it up. I did!

A Spring Freebie and Let's Get Acquainted

I have a bad case of stripes spring fever! I want warm weather. I'm ready to wear my capris and flip flops. 

For our last week of school before Spring Break, I made a Spring Syllable activity for my kiddos to use. They loved it, and they all did a great job reading the words and listening for the number of syllables in each word. 

Click to check it out
Teachers pay Teachers          
Teachers Notebook

I decided to make a Spring ABC Order for my kiddos to use when we go back next week. I put it on TpT and TN as a freebie. 

Click to download it for free if you can use it. 
Teachers pay Teachers          
Teachers Notebook

It seems like all the cool cats are linking up with Latoya Reed from Flying into First Grade for her Let's Get Acquainted Linky Party. I've been reading and guessing on some of the lies that were told last week. I just can't pass up on joining in on the fun this week.

The Noun Game: Name your favorite person, place, thing, and animal.
Person

I have four favorite people. My husband and our three children. Life is full of ups and downs, but these four are always there for me at the end of the day. 

Place

My favorite place would probably be the beach. I can lay on a beach chair for hours!

Thing

My favorite thing would definitely be my cellular! 

 My pink zebra case makes me smile. I found it on Amazon for less than $5 because I'm cheap like that!

Animal

To be truthful, I don't really like animals. They're cute and all, but they require more attention than I'm willing to give right now. My kids want a dog, but we simply are not home enough to take care of an animal. I do love the looks of the zebra though. 

I guess since spring break will be over soon, I need to get some things cleaned and organized. 

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!!