Christmas Crafts

We are officially on winter break and it feels SO NICE to relax and sleep in! I wanted to share some of the fun activities we worked into the last week of school. We had a lot of testing the last two weeks of school, so after reviewing, and testing, we let the kids relax and have fun! Here are some of the crafts I did in my class:

One day we made these snowman I found on TPT (for free!) and put on Frosty the Snowman (which I found on YouTube). Granted, it's intended for K-2, but it kept them busy, was simple enough to do without a lot of instructions, and was something fun while watching a movie. Here's how some turned out!

Too cute, right?

Love the creative eyes

This student added eyes

The next day, we did another craft. This time we made Reindeer Food in little white paper bags. I found this freebie label on TPT as well and printed enough copies for every student to have one. They glued them onto the bags and then decorated the bags with colored pencils. Then I worked with one table at a time to scoop sunflower seeds, oatmeal, and glitter into their bags. My only regret is not having more "ingredients" in the reindeer food and not taking advantage of the learning opportunity to use fractions with measuring cups. Oh well! Still turned out cute. I told the kids to sprinkle it on their lawn on Christmas Eve so the reindeer can have a snack while Santa delivers presents!

Finally, the little treat I made for the kids this year was something I found on Pinterest. It was simple and cheap, which, as a first year teacher, is a must! Just bought a GIANT bag of Jolly Ranchers, little baggies, ribbons, and printed out the tags. I put about 5 jolly ranchers in each bag, tied them up with ribbon, added the tag and voila! Done.

So pretty! And so simple!

So those are a handful of crafts I used this season. I love that teaching gives me the chance to really enjoy holidays all day everyday! You better believe the Christmas Pandora station was playing everyday the three weeks between Thanksgiving break and winter break! Overall, I'm just so relieved to be halfway through my first year. Time for a break and some sunshine =]

Summer School's in Session

As my title suggests, we're back in school! Honestly though, after spending a year in a big, crazy, school, this feels more like camp. There aren't many kids (about one class per grade) and we do an hour of community building, almost 3 hours of instruction, lunch, then almost 2 hours of instruction. It's a lot for the little ones, but it's only 4 weeks and you know they're bored after hanging outside in the heat for a couple of days of summer break!

Preach

So this week we are just observing other teachers, getting together our vision of our classroom and a classroom management plan, and having courses at the school about a variety of things. Monday, we officially start teaching with pre-made lesson plans. We're using these for a week and a half or so before we start writing our owns. They also give us a unit overview so our lessons aren't completely random!

After 11 days at Institute, I'm feeling tired, but not overwhelmed...yet. I had a heck of a day though. Our dorm fire alarm went off at 5:45, which coincides exactly when I was going to get up and get ready. I sat outside in our pajamas for a bit, but they pushed back our bus departure time, so that was good! Then after being at school for 7 hours, we had 3 hours of class. In the last hour, the power went out and we had to go to a different dining hall for dinner. Mixed blessing because the walk was further but the food was great ;)

Me this morning, BEFORE the fire alarm

NOW I'm trying to figure out this whole "finish my masters degree and actually graduate and get certified" thing. I have a little over a week left of my online class and then I. AM. DONE. FOREVER. (or at least until I get the notion that I want a PhD hah!) It's just a pain trying to navigate how to apply for a Florida license and then transfer it to Tennessee by the time I start on August 5. Time is creeping up on me! Well, wish me luck for Monday. That's when my collaborative group of 3 starts teaching a small group of first graders and we hit the ground running. But first: the weekend. Hooray!

High Five for Friday

High five for Friday you guys! We made it through FCAT week, which is glorious! I wanted to try an idea I saw on this blog here. Here are 5 of my favorite pictures from this week. It pretty much captures what went down:

1) Sabre woke me up every morning last weekend because I was home alone and he was being a good guard dog. What a sweet boy =]

2) I started quilting my mom's Mother's Day quilt. No spoiler here- she picked out the fabric and has been watching me waiting for it to be finished! 

3) My mom ordered Toms that were too small so I get them! Granted, I had to buy her new ones online, but still, aren't they cute?!

4) I found out I'm going to teach the last FIVE weeks of my internship instead of the last FOUR. Cue frantic lesson planning!!! Ahhhhhh!!!

5) I made Slutty Brownies for the bachelorette party I'm headed to this weekend. That would be a layer of cookie dough, a layer of oreos, and then a layer of brownie. OH MY GOSH. Can you handle it?

So I'm taking my slutty brownies and my giant bottle of wine and headed to Tampa for mani/pedis, laying out by the pool, girl talk, and the Taylor Swift concert! Perfect cap to FCAT week =]

Chicken Gyro Recipe

Last night was one of those perfect nights with friends- complete with bonfire, acoustic guitar, nostalgic story telling, crazy dancing, and burgers at 2am. It was also a little celebration for taking my final FTCE (Florida Teacher Certification Exam). I'm SO glad to be done with those exams. They aren't too hard, but pretty pricey and way too long. Bad news is I have to take two Tennessee ones now [sigh]. Hopefully these won't be too hard, either! Certification is a tricky thing, y'all.

So after (hopefully) acing my FTCE and staying up late last night, I was so happy to sleep in today and decided to make chicken gyros for dinner! I spent the summer of 2010 in Paris with Cru at UF doing outreach on college campuses and we absolutely fell in love with gyros, or kababs, as they called them. You have to eat them with fries stuffed inside and you have to have a banana/Nutella crepe for dessert. Sorry. Those are the rules.

See- House of Gyros, what more could you ask for?!

My first Parisian crepe. Oh baby. 

So tonight I had a little taste of Paris again. Awwww. Before I tell you about the food, let me introduce you to my IPad stand I use in the kitchen. It is magical.

I use online recipes A LOT (and listen to music) so it comes in handy.
You can find it here by Belkin. 

Anyway, important things: I used the gyro recipe from Hungry Girl and doubled it so we would have 4 servings :

Ingredients (original amounts for 2 servings): 
Sauce
1/4 cup plain fat-free Greek yogurt
3 tbsp. peeled and finely chopped seedless cucumber
1 1/2 tsp. chopped fresh dill
1 tsp. lemon juice
1/4 tsp. chopped garlic
1/8 tsp. salt
Marinade and Chicken
1/3 cup lemon juice
1 1/4 tsp. dried oregano
1 tsp. chopped garlic
1/8 tsp. salt
8 oz. raw boneless skinless chicken breast, cut into 1-inch cubes
Gyros
2 high-fiber pitas
1/4 cup chopped seedless cucumber
1/4 cup halved grape or cherry tomatoes
2 tbsp. crumbled reduced-fat feta cheese

All of the above. And fries. Duh. 

Mix your sauce ingredients, cover it, and put it in the fridge.

Mix your marinade. 

Chop up your chicken and put it all in a giant ziploc bag for at least 20 minutes in the fridge.

Dance to music in the kitchen until your 20 minutes is up [optional].

Then you saute the chicken on the stove, put the fries in the oven, and mix together the chopped cucumber, halved grape tomatoes, and feta cheese.

When you are ready to assemble, you can warm the pita up in the microwave, then put some sauce, chicken, and cucumber mixture in your pita. Fries go last ;) Also, I put everything INSIDE the pita because it was easier, but the website originally said to put it on top. To each his own.

Mmmmm so yummy. 

Afterwards, homemade crepes from Skinnytaste! With bananas and Nutella, of course.

C'est bon. C'est tres tres bon.

Hey, let's just run away to Paris and eat like this every night. Who's with me??

Election Day 2012

Happy Monday everyone! Hope you enjoyed your extra hour of sleep this weekend- I know I did! It really threw me off this morning, though, because I kept thinking I was late with the sun being up already. No complaints here, though!

So for all of you who have been living under a rock, tomorrow is Election Day 2012. It's such a great opportunity to teach our students about democracy and how an election works and we have been doing some fun things building up to tomorrow. One really great website we've been using is actually a website made by a school. Check it out! They have a lot of really great resources and we used the quiz as a fill in the blank for the kids to do while we went through the powerpoint of how a president is elected.

Pop quiz: who are these men?

I also liked the link they had to the Scholastic website about the election. They have so many activities and lots of information! This would be a great thing for the kids to explore.

Can you SEE the potential?!

We talked a lot about the electoral college. This website is EXCELLENT to look back at previous elections. You can see all the way back to 1789- ha! It's neat though to see how close each election was. We also gave each student a couple of electoral college maps to color in for what the polls are saying now and one to color in Tuesday night as the votes roll in! I'm going to join in the fun ;)

This website is too much fun to play with!

It's so demanding: COLOR ME IN!!

Finally, a great activity to integrate reading has been doing research on the candidates. We gave each student a one page biography on President Obama and a one page biography on Governor Romney. The kids had to read each and highlight examples of the 7 Habits (being proactive, thinking win-win, putting first things first, etc) that show leadership. Don't you just love integrating subjects?!

We will be wearing red, white, and blue and anxiously awaiting the results tomorrow! I will also be showing off my "I Voted" sticker (hooray for early voting) and hope you'll do the same!! Happy Election Day, friends =]

Immune System Failure

Ok so who predicted that after a mere 9 days of exposure to the kiddies I would come down with a head cold? We should really have made bets on this because it is so inevitable. I love those kids but they're like walking bacteria and I can feel my immune system screaming at me to just run away and never look back. But alas, I did not listen. I wasn't always so quick to fail, though, and I didn't miss a single day of my pre-internship last semester. Not a single day. Here's how and what I need to remember to do now:

1) Eat right and take a daily vitamin
You know the whole "apple a day" thing? It's real. Maybe that's why you're supposed to give teacher's apples? IT'S ALL COMING TOGETHER. That and a daily multi-vitamin. I started taking these this year and I swear it boosts my immune system. Do it. They're cheap and can only help.

So excited for those apples!

2) Hand sanitize so much your hands crack and bleed
Kidding about making your hands crack and bleed, but I am not kidding about hand sanitizer. I never kid about hand sanitizer. I am so careful about using it after I touch anything and definitely before I eat or touch my face at all. We have a giant hand sanitizer pump and I use it pretty much anytime I walk by it. Kill those germs.

Don't do this though. Seriously. Don't.

3) SLEEP
According to my mother, lack of sleep is responsible for all the evil in the world. Like, if only the terrorists got more sleep, they'd be more level headed, and if all the politicians slept better, we would have a nice, clean campaign. So obviously, whenever I'm feeling run down, sleep is to blame. The most annoying part of this is how right she is. If I don't get a solid 8 hours each night, my immune system gets all sassy and defiant and is all "Whatever, I told you to run. You're on your own. Peace."

That middle picture? See it? It's important.

That's what happened this weekend. Long weekend = hanging out without a bedtime = feeling like death on labor day. At least I had some yoga pants, hot tea, and the entire first season of Gossip Girl. Stay well everybody! And get some sleep!