Fun Saturday Snapshots

Just stopping in REALLY quickly to link up with Miss Nelson for Saturday Snapshots! 

FYI- This is super random and not school related at all!- It's summertime- what can I say!?!?! 

We had some birthday fun this week for hubby's birthday! 

Me and my sis :) 

And I made THIS cake!!!

Everyone LOVED it!

AND it was super easy to make! 

It's a layer of ice cream sandwiches, a layer of Cool Whip, a layer of caramel, and a layer of Reese's! Repeat, and you've got yourself one amazingly delicious cake! 

I got a new phone case from EmbellishCases on Etsy which I'm in love with!!! 

And I got an awesome thrift store chair for school that I'm so excited to reupholster and make awesome...

And HERE'S what we told my sister about the chair ;-) 

(I think she actually believed us....) Bahahahaha!!!

Now we're headed to the airport and are off for our Alaskan cruise! I promise when we get back I'll have some school stuff goin' on- but for now, not so much ;-)

Have a great weekend (and week!) 

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Monday Made It- Cute Clothespins & An Easy, Delicious Recipe!

Happy Monday Made It! 

I've started {a little tiny bit} to think about school... Just a little, though!!!

I got this great idea from Corinna at Surfin' Through Second (she's AMAZING!) to use Washi tape (oh boy is this stuff fun!) to create cute clothespins. Last summer I did the whole glitter clothespins (which I loved and turned out so cute) but this year I wanted a little change :)

Look how cute those turned out!!! (Not to mention they were SUPER easy to make!!!) Just stick the Washi tape on the clothespin, and trim the edges off with a razor- or just fold it over! 

I'm going to use them to display student work on top of that polka dot paper!!! 

Speaking of Washi tape- have you seen this app???

Maskingtape app

It allows you to add virtual Washi tape (and text) to pictures on your iDevice! :) Fun! 

AND speaking of easy to make- here's an insanely easy summer recipe for you! And I am by NO means a chef or cook AT ALL, so if I can make this, you can too! 

Prep time takes less than 10 minutes!

You'll need:

About a pound of chicken tenders (or chicken breasts work too!)

Italian dressing

Louisianna hot sauce 

That's it! 

Throw the chicken in a gallon size ziplock bag, and add about 4(ish) ounces of Italian dressing and 3(ish) ounces of Louisiana hot sauce (the more hot sauce you add, the hotter the chicken will be).

Let it marinate in the fridge for however long you want! ;-) I usually let it sit all day; you could also prep it the night before and have it ready to go! 

Throw it on the grill for about 10-15 minutes- 

Make sure you've got a Grill Supervisor just IN CASE any chicken FALLS off the grill!!! ;-) 

And you've got yourself a yummy summer meal! 

Goes great with corn and fruit! Yum! :) AND it's good as leftovers too- I take it for lunch all the time! 

Make sure to head over to Tara's for Monday Made It!

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Learning Rotations | Center Management Made Easy

A while back, I did a post on my "Daily 5ish." I called it Daily 5ish because it's definitely a modified version of the Daily 5- I tweaked it to fit the needs of my kids, as well as what was working best for us in our classroom, and our time frame. You can read more about my Daily 5ish and see some pictures {HERE}!

I basically rotate the kids through stations, in flexible groups based on their needs and levels. The groups are always changing, so I needed a quick and easy way to manage this. I also needed a visual way to let the kids know where they were supposed to be and what they were supposed to be doing. Here’s what I came up with:

Here are some things I should tell you about our Daily 5:

-The green stars have music transitions linked to them. When you click them, a song plays letting the kids know it’s time to clean up that station, or it’s time to move to the next station.

-The kids’ names are either red or blue. On even days, red kids get to sit in the classroom library, and on odd days blue kids get to sit in the classroom library. This is to keep it real fair.

-The iPad pictures let the kids know they are (or are not) supposed to bring their iPad with them to that station (We are lucky enough to have 1:1 iPads!) 

-We usually only get to 3 stations in one day- 4 on a great day. We just pick up where we left off the next day.

-We rotate between listening and word work because there just isn’t enough time (story of my teaching life!!!) Once every group listens, then every group does a specific word work activity, and we switch continuously.

-There is no writing rotation because I do an hour writing block in the morning with my students.

-The boxes with the kids’ names are movable- after we’re done with a station, I have a helper rotate the boxes clockwise.

After the original Daily 5ish post, I got LOTS of emails asking to share the SMART file. And I’m happy to do that!

Here’s a SMART board version for you (Click HERE or on the pic below). This is very basic- there's no clipart included or music transitions in this file because it is copyrighted, so I’m not able to share that with you. {So sorry!} You could always add your own, though!!! (I got the clipart in the original file from Scrappin’ Doodles.) All you need to do is add your student’s names and you’re good to go!

***You MUST have SMART Notebook software in order to open and view this file. If you don’t, it won’t work!

If you need help adding music to the SMART Board file for transitions, you can watch a tutorial I did {HERE}.

Here’s a PowerPoint version for you to edit as well (click HERE or on the picture below)- this one does have the cute clipart (no music), but it does not have the timer in the middle (since that’s a SMART Notebook software thing…) Again, you’ll need to add your student’s names and you’re golden.

***You MUST have PowerPoint in order to open and view this file. If you don’t, it won’t work!

If you download, please leave me some love- I’d love to hear how you plan on using it in your classroom! Also, if you have a blog post or advice on how Daily 5 works in your classroom, please leave a link in the comments!!! 

Update August, 2017

I am so excited to have gotten so many emails from so many people asking about these rotation management systems! 

I also know that many people don't have either SMART Notebook file software or PowerPoint to download the files. 

And with lots of people and school districts moving towards Google Classroom, I decided to create an easy-to-use Learning Rotations Center Management System compatible with Google Slides! You just add all of your info and you're good to go! You can even add any length of timer from YouTube! 

You can check them out in my Teachers Pay Teachers store if you'd like! 

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4th of July Fun: Saturday Snapshots

Happy weekend!!!

Once again, this post has NOTHING to do with school! :) Summertime is my favorite holiday besides Christmas ;) so I haven't thought much about school these past two weeks. 

I'm linking up with Run! Miss Nelson's Got the Camera for Saturday Snapshots to share some 4th of July fun I had this week! 

 Fun with awesome friends!!! Love these girls!!! 

Patriotic decorations from the Dollar Tree! 

Yummy red, (yellow), and blue food! 

Chalkboard art! 

Nails! 

(New app called Curved Text to write on top of that picture. You can draw a line and it'll put the text on top of the line you draw! Fun!) 

DIY t-shirts!!!

We made these DIY shirts and turned plain old white t-shirts into fun flag shirts! Inspiration from THIS pin! 

And the 4th of July wouldn't be complete without sparklers, right!?!?

(A Beautiful Mess app used to write on top of this picture! :)

Hope you had a safe and fun 4th of July!!!

Make sure to head over to link up your Saturday Snapshots! 

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Monday Made It- EW!

So I’m just not ready to start thinking about school quite yet, so…… 
My Monday Made It has nothing to do with school!!!

Maybe you’re really glamorous like me, and over the summer you…

CLEAN and ORGANIZE!!!! (Jazz hands!!!)

For me, during the school year, “cleaning” my kitchen consists of Clorox wipes. 

And {sadly} that’s about it.

Needless to say, the kitchen grout needed a good cleaning. (I would show you a before picture but I’m kinda embarrassed- I say as I hang my head down in shame…)

Enter… PINTEREST!!!!

All you need is:

(The Borax is in the laundry detergent section at the store…. I had to call my mom and ask her because I had no idea. Whatsoever.)

Mix one part water and one part borax with two parts baking soda. I did 3 tablespoons of water, 3 tablespoons of borax, and 6 tablespoons of baking soda. (Although I did have to make quite a few batches since the grout was so icky :( 

Spread the paste over the grout:

(Not sure why I put my watermark on that picture- I'm pretty sure that grout is disgusting and I don't really want my name on it, or the picture below...Oh well) 

And scrub clean!!!!!!!!!! (And while you're scrubbing try not to get too down on yourself for not doing this sooner…know what I mean!?!?)

Here’s half of the grout sparkling clean (the other half- not so much) 

Ew. Speaking of ew- have you seen 'Ew' on Jimmy Falon-

 Hilarious!

So for Monday Made It- I made my kitchen grout clean! Whooo hooooo! ;-) 
LOVE summertime!!!!! 

And now nobody is allowed to touch or use or come near my kitchen counters!!!

Do you have any handy house tips!?!?!? Please share!!!

Also- I have a Handy House Tips Pinterest board here- feel free to hop over and see some other useful tips from people much smarter than me! 
But hopefully you're outside, enjoying your summer instead of cleaning! ;-) 

Now I'm off to take this little guy to the vet to get ACL surgery. :( Have you had any experience with this...? He tore it playing frisbee at the beach, and now he'll have to be off of it for two months. It's so sad because he really LIVES to play ball!!! Keep a good thought for him :)

  

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